After the Immortal Disappeared

But the grass was growing wildly, and it was clear it hadn’t been trimmed in some time.

After the Panlong Army occupied Xiji, this garden had been left to fall into ruin. With countless things needing to be done in the Capital City, no one had the time to tend to it.

General Nanke frowned. “This grass is far too long.”

The Wolf Tail Grass beside him was nearly six feet tall. ‘Even if no one has tended to it for two months, can it really grow this high? Another month or so and this place will become a paradise for weeds.’

Eunuch Chang said, “The West Garden has always been like this. All the plants grow like crazy. If you don’t trim them every few days, they get out of control.”

General Nanke asked in surprise, “Didn’t you try to find the cause?”

“The former king sent men to dig three feet deep, but they found nothing,” Eunuch Chang said. “The Royal Palace also invited a Mage to inspect it. He only said that the life force here was rich, which could stimulate the growth of plants and was also very beneficial to the human body. The Queen was of frail constitution, so she often came here to sit in the pavilion and admire the flowers.”

“This place can indeed stimulate plant growth, but it’s not beneficial to the human body. In fact, it’s harmful,” the Red General said coolly. “The Queen died young, didn’t she?”

“Ah, yes. In her third year of living here, she…”

The Red General said to the soldiers behind her, “Spread out and find where the snakes, insects, rats, and ants are most concentrated and largest in size!”

The men immediately fanned out.

The garden was vast. Thirty or forty men disappeared into it, vanishing from sight in an instant.

These men had no time to appreciate the flowers and leaves; they stabbed their weapons into the ground. The dense clumps of grass were naturally home to small creatures. Rats and ants scurried to escape, and Willow even poked a snake’s nest.

‘If she weren’t on a mission, she’d be tempted to roast these seven or eight snakes into spicy jerky.’

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Hee Lingchuan caught a glimpse of a figure flashing past and darting into the grass.

Although its speed was fast, Hee Lingchuan’s eyesight was better. He immediately recognized it as a weasel, but it was as large as a wild dog.

‘A creature of this size must be a Demon, right?’

He took two steps to follow it. There was a RUSTLING sound ahead, but it quickly faded.

Hee Lingchuan pushed through the grass in the direction the sound had disappeared, and soon found a large tree at the edge of the tall grass.

It was an old Dragon Claw Locust Tree that would take six people to encircle. Its branches and leaves were lush, and in the sunlight, the leaves actually reflected a metallic sheen.

He walked a circle around the tree but found no opening.

‘How did that shadow just disappear?’

Hee Lingchuan widened his search area, circling outwards.

Finally, under a small mound about twenty feet from the tree’s roots, he discovered a hole. The opening was hidden by dense shrubs and covered with a few broken tiles, the kind that were scattered all over the garden.

Hee Lingchuan carefully examined the traces around the hole and had a good idea of the situation. Based on his Demon Hunting experience on the Chipa Plateau, there were at least four or five weasels living inside—probably an entire family, all neatly gathered.

The West Garden was lush with plants, teeming with snakes and rats—a paradise for a Weasel Demon.

Hee Lingchuan took a bundle of herbs from his robes, lit it, and threw it into the hole, keeping a close watch on his surroundings.

Soon, smoke began to emerge not only from the hole but also from the trunk of the old locust tree.

‘It seems the burrow and the base of the tree are connected.’

He shouted, “There’s a nest of Weasel Demons over here!”

The grass rustled, and before Hee Lingchuan could even blink a few times, the Red General was at his side.

‘That’s… too fast.’

The Red General looked at the old locust tree, then bent down to examine the hole. She offered a word of praise: “Well done.”

With a couple of SQUEAKS, a Weasel Demon shot out of the hole and lunged at the Red General.

Hee Lingchuan covered his face, unable to bear watching.

As expected, the next second, the Red General had it by the scruff of its neck, dangling from her hand.

She didn’t grab it by its big tail because weasels possess a certain… biochemical weapon.

Ignoring its bared teeth and snarling, the Red General shook the weasel in her hand. “I know you can understand me. Cooperate, and your family won’t be harmed.”

These small animals are extremely sensitive to auras. The intimidating pressure emanating from her was so frightening that the Weasel Demon struggled twice before giving up, letting out a few soft chirps.

Held in the Red General’s hand, it couldn’t curl into a ball, but its tail trembled nonstop, as if it had seen its natural predator. Hee Lingchuan was genuinely afraid it wouldn’t be able to stop itself from letting out a fart.

Fortunately, the Red General immediately said, “I keep my word. What is underneath this old locust tree?”

The Weasel Demon chirped a few more times. The Red General seemed to understand, for she immediately said to Hee Lingchuan, “Call everyone over. Have them bring digging tools.”

Hee Lingchuan nodded and went to carry out her order.

About a quarter of an hour later, the Great Wind Army and the craftsmen arrived with their tools.

The Red General had already released the Weasel Demon. She pointed at the old locust tree. “Dig down from the direction of the weasel’s burrow until you find something.”

The ground here hadn’t been touched in who knows how many years and was as hard as iron. But it couldn’t withstand the combined assault of shovels and hoes, and a large pit was quickly dug out.

The deeper they dug, the deeper red the soil became.

Below four feet, the soil was a crimson red. Mixed with groundwater seeping up from below, it felt wet and viscous to the touch, almost like blood…

The Red General took one look and said, “The yin energy is even richer than the life force, and there’s a Wood Ghost planted here. What good could possibly come to a frail person who stays here for long?”

Eunuch Chang also craned his neck to look into the pit. “That Mage was spouting nonsense.”

Willow snorted. “Or maybe that Mage knew exactly what was going on.”

As the men were digging, the old locust tree suddenly began to move without any wind, its branches and leaves rustling loudly.

The craftsmen were alarmed and hesitant, not daring to continue. Only the soldiers of the Great Wind Army ignored it and kept swinging their hoes.

“This tree has absorbed the nourishment from underground and become a demon. It’s worried we’re going to dig up its roots,” the Red General said, placing a hand on the locust tree’s trunk. “Don’t cause trouble, and I will spare your life.”

But her warning had no effect this time. The old locust tree rustled violently, and the ground beneath everyone’s feet began to move.

Door Panel was standing at the bottom of the pit. Suddenly, two roots shot out from the earth. One wrapped around his calf and yanked hard, while the other coiled around his waist and squeezed tight.

Caught off guard, Door Panel fell to the ground with a grunt of pain. Willow, who was nearby, saw his waist being squeezed thin. With the old tree’s strength, snapping a man in two seemed like no problem at all.

‘The strangest thing was, why would a locust tree have aerial roots as developed as a banyan tree?’

Willow drew her saber with a backhand grip and slashed at the root.

With her strength, she could chop off a bear’s head, yet the root remained completely unscathed, showing only a white mark.

Everyone also heard a crisp “CLANG.” The wood seemed more like metal than wood.

The next instant, Hee Lingchuan leaped into the deep pit. With a flash of his saber, he sliced the root in two.

Door Panel immediately clutched his waist and took a long, deep breath. That was close; he had almost been squeezed in half.

“Everyone, get out!” Hee Lingchuan shouted as he grabbed two nearby craftsmen and tossed them out of the pit. The other soldiers of the Great Wind Army needed no orders and leaped out on their own.

Thanks to his foresight, more roots shot out from the ground, snaking toward anyone they could find, as agile as pythons.

Hee Lingchuan’s saber moved like a torrential downpour, cutting down the attacking roots one after another.

The severed ends of the roots even oozed a red liquid that looked even more like fresh blood.

A craftsman at the edge of the pit tried to strike a root with a pickaxe, but the root didn’t break. Instead, the pickaxe head was sent flying.

Everyone was dumbfounded, finally realizing just how hard the roots were.

They were almost as tough as the Palace City walls outside.

“So you refuse the easy way.” The Red General produced her Long Spear from nowhere. Its tip blazed with a pale flame as she thrust it into the thick tree trunk.

When the flames met the locust wood, they spread out with a WHOOSH, as if someone had doused the tree in oil.

The bark burned with sharp, piercing CRACKLES, like a drawn-out scream.

The Red General pulled out her Long Spear, walked a circle around the Dragon Claw Locust Tree, and casually broke off a piece of root to examine it closely.

“Not bad, not bad at all!”

Hee Lingchuan could hear the surprise in her voice, but also her delight. Then the Red General tapped the trunk lightly, and the pale flames miraculously vanished.

If not for the lingering scent of char and the blackened section of the trunk, the raging fire would have seemed like an illusion.

The Red General tapped the trunk again with the tip of her spear. “If you dare to resist again, I’ll wipe you from existence, root and stem.”

This time, the Dragon Claw Locust Tree gave no reaction.

Only then did she say to the men, “Continue digging.”

The craftsmen and the Great Wind Army soldiers jumped back down and resumed digging the pit.

No matter how they dug, the roots no longer emerged to cause trouble.

In truth, the digging was quite difficult now, because the locust tree’s root system at this depth was a tangled, interwoven mass, like a net woven to firmly protect whatever lay beneath.

At this point, however, the Red General instructed everyone to try their best not to damage the roots.

However, they began unearthing various animal skeletons from the pit—cats, dogs, and even three human skeletons!

Two of them belonged to an adult man and woman, while the last one was very small, that of an infant.

General Nanke asked in astonishment, “This locust tree was catching and eating people, and the Royal Palace didn’t know?”

Eunuch Chang, who was standing nearby, cleared his throat and explained, “These people weren’t caught by the Locust Demon. They were buried here.”

Aluo turned the skeletons over. The back of the male’s skull was caved in with a large hole, which was clearly the fatal wound.

Willow spat on the ground. “All the Royal Palaces in the world are the same.”

They continued to dig.

About a quarter of an hour later, Door Panel’s shovel struck something hard.

He reached down, pushed some dirt aside, and shouted, “Found something!”

A piece of jade-white bone was exposed in the Red Earth.

More Divine Remains!

The Red General didn’t get excited. She simply ordered someone to spread a massive tarp in front of the pit, blocking the sunlight from reaching the bottom.

The sun would set in another half hour, yet the Red General insisted on blocking even its weak light.

Having found something in the ground, the men’s motivation surged, and they dug with renewed vigor—

They were mainly curious to see what the Deities actually looked like. They hadn’t been able to get a clear look at the Divine Remains embedded in the Palace City walls earlier.

Soon, the topmost Divine Remains were cleared of dirt.

Perhaps due to geological reasons, a dozen or so Divine Remains were stacked on top of each other. The bones were jagged and white, but mostly intact.

Everyone clicked their tongues in amazement.

These dead “Celestial Gods” were estimated to be over ten feet tall, significantly larger than humans. Their heads, necks, and upper bodies resembled humans, but their skulls were elongated. The number of fingers varied; some had six fingers on one hand, while others had only four.

Below the waist, the differences were even greater. One set of Divine Remains had a tail, while another had no legs at all.

Hee Lingchuan asked curiously, “Aren’t Deities all one race?”

The Red General replied coolly, “Are Demons all one race?”

Hee Lingchuan rubbed his nose, instantly understanding the Red General’s meaning. “Celestial God” was just a general term, not a reference to a single race. Just as Flying Birds and beasts could cultivate themselves into Demons, the forms of Demons were bizarre and varied.