After the Immortal Disappeared

With so many clues linked together, if Hee Lingchuan still couldn’t understand, he would have truly wasted all that time he’d spent by Hee Chunhua’s side.

Tracing back even further, Wen Daolun’s son was gone, killed at the hands of the Jindu Cub.

Zhong Shengguang’s only, beloved daughter was also gone, sent to the Divine Descent Pillar by his own hand.

Granny Ji’s two sons, Sunx Fuling’s brother, and the children of so many common folk in Panlong City had all died on the battlefield.

Beneath the veneer of ideals, legends, and fairness lay a core of bloodshed, cruelty, and compromise.

Hu Min had said the first mission for promotion into the Great Wind Army was always difficult. Hee Lingchuan could tell that Willow and Door Panel were unwilling to kill defenseless people who couldn’t fight back.

So, he did it.

It was a mission, and someone had to carry it out.

’But why did the Dream Realm assign me a mission like this?’

The three returned to Panlong City, each lost in their own thoughts. Door Panel and Willow departed, and Hee Lingchuan, as the team captain, went to the Pengcheng Bureau to report the mission’s completion.

Because it was a secret execution, Registrar Liu didn’t know the mission’s content. He simply took out his ledger, marked the task as ”Completed,” and smiled at Hee Lingchuan. ”You finished your first promotion mission for the Great Wind Army in just half a day. That’s quite impressive.”

”We got lucky,” Hee Lingchuan replied with a smile. ”It wasn’t difficult.”

Next, he headed home to bathe and change his clothes.

But just as he stepped through the door, he saw a note tucked into the seam. He unfolded it and was surprised to see it was from Aluo:

”If you want the formula, find me at the Pill Bureau.”

’That guy finally bothered to drag himself out of bed and go to the Pill Bureau?’

Hee Lingchuan quickly took a cold shower, SPLASHING water all over the small courtyard floor.

He had just thrown on his clothes when he heard a noise from next door. Someone called out to him, ”Hey, Hee Lingchuan.”

He looked up to see Sunx Fuling leaning over the top of the wall, smiling at him.

Her smile was bright and warm. It had been a while, and he had missed it dearly.

’But how long has she been waiting there?’

He couldn’t shake the feeling that her smile looked rather satisfied.

”Miss Sunx?” Hee Lingchuan wasn’t one to be reserved. ”I haven’t seen you in ages. You weren’t hiding from me, were you?”

”What’s so scary about you?” Sunx Fuling arched a delicate eyebrow, a hint of a challenge in her voice. ”Why would I need to hide from you?”

”I beat Meng Shan. Shouldn’t you make good on your promise?” Hee Lingchuan tapped his own cheek. ”If you keep stalling, I’ll have to start charging interest.”

Sunx Fuling dropped the pretense. Planting one hand on the low wall, she vaulted over. Hee Lingchuan’s vision blurred and a warmth spread across his cheek, like the soft, light brush of a butterfly’s wing.

He subconsciously reached out to grab her, but Sunx Fuling had already retreated five feet, saying with a grin, ”Promise fulfilled!”

”That’s it?” Sunx Fuling’s speed was as graceful as a fleeting shadow, startling even him, a Great Wind Soldier.

”I got beaten half to death by Meng Shan for *this*?!” he cried out in feigned outrage, though his heart skipped a beat. Sunx Fuling’s movements had been so fast he hadn’t even had time to react.

He had been through a series of vicious battles in both Panlong City and the real world, and his reflexes were far superior to those of an ordinary person.

And still, it wasn’t enough.

At her speed, if she had been trying to stab him instead of kiss him, he never would have been able to dodge.

’This was not a girl an ordinary person could afford to cross.’

Sunx Fuling laughed. ”You were the one who beat Meng Shan half to death... Fine, I’ll treat you to a meal, too.”

”Today?” Her poise and forthrightness—neither coy nor shy—greatly diminished his sense of accomplishment.

’Sigh.’

”Yes, today.” Sunx Fuling glanced down at her clothes. ”But I need to change. Wait for me.”

With that, she vaulted back over the wall.

’Do people just stop using doors once they get to know each other?’ Hee Lingchuan discreetly rolled his eyes. It seemed theirs was truly a wall-hopping kind of friendship.

Fortunately, Sunx Fuling changed much faster than most women. At least she wasn’t like Madam Ying, who would spend a whole hour just to pin up her hair, pencil her eyebrows, set her makeup, change her robes, and apply perfume.

In just the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, her voice came from next door. ”All right, let’s go.”

Hee Lingchuan pushed open his door and saw that his companion for the day had changed into a lake-green spring dress. The collar and sleeves were embroidered with a faint, crushed-gold pattern, a departure from her usual simple attire. Her beautiful hair was pinned up with that candy-snail ornament and a long, slender seashell hairpin.

It was like seeing another side of Sunx Fuling—vibrant and elegantly charming.

Seeing him staring at her intently, she subconsciously smoothed the hair at her temples. ”What? Does it look bad?”

”It’s beautiful.” Hee Lingchuan grinned, revealing a set of white teeth. ”You look like you just crawled out of a lake.”

”...”

”Ahem, I meant to say, like a fairy from the lake,” Hee Lingchuan said, quickly changing the subject as they started to walk. ”Where have you been the last few days?”

The two of them hailed a cart—a donkey cart—and headed straight for Wenxuan Pavilion.

”A female teacher at Shumin Academy Palace took a week’s leave, so I went to substitute for her. Unfortunately, my own schedule has been packed lately, and the four-hour round trip every day was too much of a hassle, so I just ended up staying at the Academy Palace.” Sunx Fuling sighed. ”The teacher’s surname is Wen. Her youngest brother passed away recently.”

”Wen?” Hee Lingchuan’s heart skipped. ”Could it be...?”

”Yes, she’s the daughter of Mr. Wen Daolun,” Sunx Fuling said as they walked side-by-side. ”The Wen Family matriarch was so grief-stricken over the loss of her beloved grandson that she fell ill. It’s said her pillow hasn’t been dry for days. Mrs. Wen asked for leave to go home and care for her.”

Hee Lingchuan, of course, remembered Wen Xing. Such a vibrant young man with a fire in his eyes, gone so suddenly before he even had a chance to serve Panlong City. It was a terrible shame.

In this unreasonable world, it really was true that the good die young.

”What about Mr. Wen? Is he all right?”

”Not very. Mrs. Wen said he looks haggard and has also taken a few days of leave. He claims he’s resting quietly at home, but he’s locked himself in his study and refuses to see visitors.”

Hee Lingchuan fell silent.

Perhaps only he understood that Wen Daolun’s pain was even greater than the matriarch’s. He also had to endure the torment of his own conscience, the agony of choosing against his own blood.

The decision not to save his own son was most likely one Wen Daolun had made himself.

Hee Lingchuan gazed at a distant pagoda spire. The pagoda stood beside the Mitian Temple and was known as the Seven-Story Pagoda. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Beneath the blue sky and white clouds, this city held a monumental secret—one that Wen Daolun would rather sacrifice his beloved son and endure endless days of torment to protect.

”It must be hard on him.”

Sunx Fuling had promised to treat him to a meal, but Hee Lingchuan first wanted to stop by Wenxuan Pavilion to look something up.

Sunx Fuling asked him, ”What are you looking for?”

’Right,’ he remembered, ’the person next to me is a history teacher.’ ”I want to look into the history of the Pu Kingdom. I heard its Grand General, Youu Shanming, was a valiant warrior and a descendant of an Immortal Family. He supposedly fought some brilliant campaigns.”

”Youu Shanming?” Sunx Fuling mused. ”As I recall, there have been two Pu Kingdoms. But since you mentioned Youu Shanming, you must be referring to the first one, the Former Pu.”

”So the two Pu Kingdoms are just called ’Former’ and ’Latter’?”

”That’s right.”

’How arbitrary.’

”It makes things perfectly clear. The most important thing is convenience for future generations,” Sunx Fuling said with a smile. ”The Former Pu was an ancient kingdom from twenty-six hundred years ago. Its dynasty lasted for a little over a hundred years—not too long, not too short. But it was one of the first nations to ever emerge, and it pioneered many systems for later ages. For example, the military system used in Panlong City was originally based on that of the Pu Kingdom.”

”Right. In the Ancient Times, there were clans but no nations, only Immortal Sects and the Demon Race, each occupying their own territory.” Hee Lingchuan had spent no small amount of time in Wenxuan Pavilion; he’d read enough scrolls to have pieced together a basic impression of the Ancient and Middle Ages. ”So-called ’nations’ only appeared during the Middle Ages.”

”That’s right. During the Middle Ages, people discovered the existence of Primordial Power, which gave the establishment of nations a solid foundation,” Sunx Fuling nodded. ”Several hundred years after the great catastrophe, humanity was finally able to contend with Immortals and Demon Beasts by relying on the power of nations. At that time, certain far-sighted Immortal Sects made an effort to shed their arrogance and began sending talented individuals into the Mortal Courts and the secular world.”

Hee Lingchuan chuckled. ”They called a kingdom a ’Mortal Court’ and you say they weren’t arrogant?”

”That depends on who you compare them to,” Sunx Fuling said slowly. ”Compared to an old-guard Immortal Sect like the Great Returning Sect, the Celestial Derivation Sect was already considered quite enlightened. Youu Shanming was sent to the Pu Kingdom under this policy, and his later success as a pillar of the state and a grand general served as proof that the Celestial Derivation Sect’s strategy was correct.”

”In an age where the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was growing thinner by the day, the distance between the Immortal Sects and the Mortal World was bound to shrink.”

’Keeping up with the times, huh?’

”Hmm?” Sunx Fuling noticed him instructing the cart driver to take a different road. This wasn’t the way to Wenxuan Pavilion. ”Aren’t you going to Wenxuan Pavilion?”

”Not anymore. Having a living dictionary like you is more than enough.” He had a habit of taking the easy way out. ”I’m going to the Pill Bureau to find Aluo. He promised to do something for me.”

”Then how did Youu Shanming die?” ’Back then, the Soul-Catching Mirror was just a Heart-Protecting Mirror he wore.’

”As I recall, the human kingdoms and Immortal Sects were on fairly good terms back then, but their enmity with the Demon Race was growing deeper. In the end, both Youu Shanming and the Former Pu were destroyed by the Demon Race. However, the Demon Immortal who led the invasion of the Pu Kingdom—um, what was it called again?—was also gravely wounded.”

Hee Lingchuan noticed that she unconsciously pursed her lips slightly whenever she was deep in thought.

”Red Phoenix?”

”Yes, that’s it, Red Phoenix! I heard it died not long after that great battle.” Sunx Fuling looked at him in surprise. ”How did you know?”

”I just... read it in some unofficial history.”

”Which book?”

”Uh, I don’t remember.” ’No wonder the Soul-Catching Mirror showed me that illusion,’ he thought. ’It was Youu Shanming’s final battle.’

”Youu Shanming and the Pu Kingdom must have been strong to mortally wound a Demon Immortal.” To the people of the present day, the very word ”Immortal” was an ethereal concept.

”By the time of the war with the Pu Kingdom, even that Demon Immortal was no longer at its peak,” Sunx Fuling said, shaking her head. ”In the centuries after the great catastrophe, the tides of Spiritual Qi rose and fell, but the overall trend was one of decline. The Human Immortals and Demon Immortals still active in the world were all living off their old reserves. With only output and no input, they just grew weaker and weaker. Calling them ’Immortals’ at that point is actually a bit of a stretch.”

Hee Lingchuan immediately thought of Second Madam Zhu. She had also said her true form couldn’t adapt to the thinning Spiritual Qi, forcing her to devolve in order to survive. He frowned and asked, ”If they were all getting weaker, why did they still launch full-scale attacks on the Human Kingdoms?”

Sunx Fuling shrugged. ”With less and less Spiritual Qi, there were too many wolves and not enough meat. Wouldn’t they fight to the death over the last few scraps?”

”Hey, wait a minute. You mean the Spiritual Qi never recovered?”