After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 406: Chapter 405: Fushan Yue’s Goal

The more devout ones knelt on the spot.

No one needed to explain; the residents of Fufeng City understood instinctively:

The King of Treasure Tree was furious.

The supreme ruler of the Treasure Tree Kingdom usually had a good temper. He spent eleven months of the year in secluded slumber, so for most residents, this was the first time they had ever felt his wrath.

Prime Minister Tang had just left White Cloud Mountain half an hour ago. He ordered his carriage to turn around and immediately rushed back for an audience.

”My King, what happened?”

”The Spirit Seed!” The lake on White Cloud Mountain was no longer calm. The wind whipped up fierce waves that crashed against the shore, one after another. The King of Treasure Tree’s magnificent crown swayed in the gale. ”My connection to the Spirit Seed was suddenly severed! How is this possible?”

Prime Minister Tang said cautiously, ”Could the Guard Team have met with a mishap?”

”By now, they should have reached the Gale Tundra.” The King of Treasure Tree’s voice was still brimming with fury. ”Even if the Spirit Seed were stolen, I should still be able to sense its general location!”

How could he remain calm when the Spirit Seed he had spent thirty-six years of energy nurturing had vanished?

”Could the Spirit Seed be...” *Gone?* Prime Minister Tang couldn’t bring himself to say the word.

”No, it’s still alive.” The King of Treasure Tree sounded somewhat puzzled. ”But I just can’t perceive its location.”

How could this be?

He could sense the status of every Tree Guard within his kingdom.

”Send men at once! I want to know what happened!”

...

「Inside Wind Demon Mountain.」

With the miscellaneous tasks done, Fushan Yue leaped down into the Earth Crevice to interrogate his captive. ”Where is the item the fatuous King of Shanyu used to bribe Chiyan?”

The Chiyan Envoy clenched his teeth and said nothing.

Fushan Yue had no patience to wait for a reply. He had just finished collecting all the fragments inside the mountain, only to realize the Spirit Seed was gone and that he had been played by the kid on the goat.

Annoyed, he took it out on the Envoy, yanking off the man’s ring finger and, amid the screams, pulling the Ring from the severed digit.

Hmm? Not this one. This is just an ordinary Ruby ring.

Fushan Yue tore off another finger and tried again.

This time, he got it.

He upended the blood-stained Storage Ring, and a small mountain of miscellaneous items tumbled out, including a great many bottles and jars.

The Chiyan Envoy had fainted from the pain, only to be slapped awake. ”Which one is it?”

The Chiyan Envoy hadn’t even caught his breath before he cursed, ”My king treated you with generosity! Why did you—AH!”

Fushan Yue broke another of his fingers and sneered, ”I don’t want to hear your nonsense. Next, it’ll be your neck. As for the medicine, I can take my time finding it.”

The Chiyan Envoy couldn’t bear the pain and finally pointed to a small Wooden Bottle. ”This one! It’s this one!”

The bottle was only the length of a middle finger, hand-carved from wood, with a branch of wintersweet engraved on it. It still looked rather inconspicuous.

But it had a gold-lacquered seal.

’Is the packaging really this plain?’ Fushan Yue was skeptical. ”Really?”

”It’s real, it’s real!” The Chiyan Envoy gasped for air. ”This is what the Shanyu Kingdom’s envoy gave me at the Liuu’s House Post House!”

Fushan Yue’s eyes shifted. ”If the gift was delivered, there must be a letter, right?”

”Yes, yes.” The Chiyan Envoy struggled to pull a piece of golden paper from a pile of Documents. The Fire Lacquer Seal at the letter’s opening was perfectly intact. ”It’s a letter from the King of Shanyu to my king.”

Fushan Yue snatched it, ripped it open, and took out the letter. He first confirmed the signature and seal, then glanced at the contents and murmured, ”So it is...”

He turned the small bottle in his hand, uncorked it, and sniffed.

Inside was a pale red liquid. A wondrous fragrance wafted out, filling Fushan Yue with the urge to drink it all in one gulp.

The feeling was intense, nearly on par with Emperor’s Liquid.

’Looks like this is the real deal.’ He’d gone to so much trouble, and the plan had gone awry from the moment it started at Three-Heart Plateau. Fortunately, everything was finally back on track, and he had what he came for.

Fushan Yue relaxed and asked the Chiyan Envoy, ”Do you know what’s in this?”

The Chiyan Envoy shook his head blankly. ”I don’t know. I was only ordered to bring it back.”

”Then you’re useless to me.”

With a SNAP, Fushan Yue twisted the Envoy’s neck.

At almost the same instant, his left hand felt light. The bottle had been snatched away!

Fushan Yue was utterly astonished. His left hand curled into a claw and instinctively swiped backward.

The movement was so fast it even made the sound of tearing silk, though it wasn’t very loud amid the howling gales in the belly of Wind Demon Rock.

But the petty thief retreated even faster. A blurry figure shot backward, and with a WHOOSH, landed at the very edge of the stone cave. One more step and he would be leaping into the mountain’s core.

”It’s you.” It was the goat-riding fellow from before.

Fushan Yue was furious. ”You already stole the Spirit Seed, and now you’ve come to rob me, too?”

This was intolerable!

”This is yours? Not Chiyan’s?” Hee Lingchuan copied his earlier action, holding the Wooden Bottle under his nose and sniffing.

’Fushan Yue caused such a huge stir—from killing the Waling Kingdom’s envoy at Three-Heart Plateau to unleashing the Wind Demon to attack the Treasure Tree Kingdom’s Guard Team on the Gale Tundra. All that ruthless work, and it was all just to get this little bottle?’

As they say, it’s rude not to return a favor. Hee Lingchuan was also the type of person who would never let an opportunity slip by.

Just now, he had used Lord Boshan’s snakeskin to turn invisible nearby. He’d also activated the Divine Technique, Stubborn, to hide his aura. Combined with the interference from the howling gales outside, he had managed to fool Fushan Yue’s eyes, ears, and nose.

But this scent from the bottle, this unique and sweet fragrance... Hee Lingchuan found it faintly familiar. Where had he smelled it before?

He frowned.

However, unlike Fushan Yue, he didn’t feel the urge to drink it all in one go.

Fushan Yue rose abruptly, pointed at the corpse of the Chiyan Envoy, and said, word by word, ”Give the bottle back. Otherwise, your end will be far more miserable than his.”

He advanced step by step, like a panther poised to strike. Anyone who had seen him in action would not doubt the weight of his words.

But Hee Lingchuan waved a hand. ”Wait!”

A strange expression appeared on his face, for he had finally remembered where the scent came from.

”What does a Ba like you want with this?”

Indeed. For the past few days, he had entered dreams to search for books in Wenxuan Pavilion and sought answers from the masters at Wenxian Hall, wanting to find out just what kind of Demon Fushan Yue was.

He looked exactly like a human, yet possessed immense Demon Power and enjoyed absorbing the Essence Blood of Demons or humans.

There was indeed such a monster that fit the description, but strictly speaking, it’s not classified as a Demon, but a monster.

This was the Ba.

A person who, by a fluke of chance after death, transforms into a Fierce Corpse that can walk the world without fear of sunlight.

The conditions for forming a Ba are harsh, making them rare even in Ancient Times. In the present day... well, they probably belonged in a museum.

Hee Lingchuan never thought he’d be so ”lucky” as to make an enemy of a rare Ba.

Seeing Fushan Yue start to advance again, Hee Lingchuan tilted the bottle outward. ”One more step and I’ll pour it out.”

Below them was the crevice. No matter how capable Fushan Yue was, he wouldn’t be able to save the liquid in the bottle.

He had no choice but to halt. ”This is useless to you, but it’s the key to my breakthrough.”

”The key to your breakthrough?” Hee Lingchuan found this even stranger. ”You’re a Ba. Even if you use external aids, isn’t the key to your breakthroughs supposed to be drinking blood?”

”Of course.”

Hee Lingchuan frowned. ”Do you know what this is?”

Fushan Yue didn’t answer.

Hee Lingchuan immediately tilted the bottle.

Fushan Yue was forced to speak. ”Legend says a few True Dragon eggs still exist in the world. This is the fetal blood and bone marrow extracted from one of those eggs.”

”You’re saying this is Dragon Marrow?” Hee Lingchuan’s tone became odd. ”The ’Dragon Marrow’ from ’Dragon Marrow and Phoenix Liver’?”

”Yes.”

”And you want to drink this to advance your Cultivation?”

”Is there a problem?”

Hee Lingchuan rubbed his nose, finding it hard to keep from laughing.

Fushan Yue’s sharp eyebrows rose. ’How should I kill this bastard later?’ he thought. Unexpectedly, Hee Lingchuan suddenly asked him, ”I heard the King of Chiyan is also a Ba. Are you related to him?”

The Chiyan Kingdom was the youngest of Beiga’s Vassal Demon Kingdoms. It had only been founded about one hundred and fifty years ago, which also fixed the number of Beiga’s vassal states at thirteen.

The number had varied throughout history, but for the last two hundred years, it had remained at thirteen.

Fushan Yue didn’t answer.

The next second, Hee Lingchuan pulled the bottle back, even recorking it before tossing it back to Fushan Yue.

This action completely baffled Fushan Yue. ”What are you...?”

’Is there really a fool in this world who would toss Dragon Marrow to someone else?’

”Good luck.” Hee Lingchuan leaped backward, plunging into the mountain’s core.

Fushan Yue rushed over to look. The scoundrel was using a Hooked Rope to swing to the edge of a high cliff, planning to ride his goat and quickly descend the mountain.

But before Hee Lingchuan could reach his goat, a shadow rose from the terraced fields and shot directly toward him.

An incredibly powerful gust of wind.

Hee Lingchuan was just passing the outside of a stone hollow when the powerful gale blew him right inside, nearly making him smash face-first into the wall.

But his reflexes were lightning-fast. He instantly pulled a Wind Lion Lord stone carving from his Storage Ring and slammed it firmly onto the ground.

The surrounding wind weakened at once.

When he turned back, he was stunned to see the Wind Demon.

The creature had shrunk again and was now only just over a person’s height. It looked from the Wind Lion Lord to Hee Lingchuan and roared twice, clearly displeased with him.

It was intelligent. It knew that Fushan Yue had been coerced by Hee Lingchuan and that the item had been in his hands. Therefore, it had waited until after Hee Lingchuan returned the Wooden Bottle to seek revenge.

Hee Lingchuan patted the Wind Lion Lord twice. ”Thinking of breaking the rules? You’d better think it over. I’m not some rookie from the Guard Team. It’s best we mind our own business.”

The Wind Demon hesitated again, circling the Wind Lion Lord twice. Its apprehension was almost palpable.

This was a far cry from its murderous intent the last two times.

But Hee Lingchuan didn’t lower his guard. ’Faced with the Wind Demon’s true form, will this stone carving still be effective?’

The Wind Demon circled twice more, as if it had made up its mind.

’How could it be stopped by a mere stone pedestal?’

’These pedestals left the places they were supposed to guard long ago. Clinging to convention... what’s the use of clinging to some broken-down rule from thousands of years ago!’

It suddenly let out an earth-shattering roar and charged forward.

The Wind Lion Lord suddenly began to shake and tremble violently, as if someone were beating it with a club.

With a loud CRACK, the Wind Lion Lord shattered.

Fushan Yue, who was watching the fight from a distance, shook his head.

The Wind Lion Lord did indeed have the power to ward off wind and suppress evil. However, the effects of any divine power had their limits, their boundaries. It was fine for suppressing ordinary Gang Winds, but against the Wind Demon itself—