Where Immortals Once Walked

The dead man’s body was laid on a straw mat, and a few patches of dried skin still clung to his skull, making him look particularly appalling.

“His skeleton seems pretty much intact.”

Nian Songyu hopped down for a closer look, but suddenly his face changed. “It’s intact, but not all the bones are where they should be.” He pointed at the areas around the hands and feet, still buried under dirt. “Dig there.”

At this point, He Lingchuan could only do as he was told.

When he dug deeper, everyone let out a surprised sound.

“He was eaten too?!”

Several bones clearly bore burn marks and knife scars.

“So they ate him and then buried him?” Now it was Nian Songyu’s turn to be baffled. “What made this person so special?”

“I found something!” Mao Tao was digging on the other side of the grave and found something clutched in the dead man’s hand.

He pulled it out. It was a small bundle wrapped in sheepskin.

Even Sun Fuping, with all his experience, felt his heartbeat quicken at this moment.

They were finally one step closer to the truth.

He personally unwrapped the sheepskin, revealing a handwritten journal.

Everyone watched anxiously as he flipped it open. The pages were packed with writing. Toward the end of the journal, the handwriting grew more and more scrawled. Thanks to the sheepskin, the journal was well-preserved, although the paper had yellowed and become brittle with age.

Still, the three could not understand anything from the writing.

They had no choice but to wait for the State Preceptor to translate. Yet Sun Fuping read painstakingly slowly, afraid to miss a single useful detail, pondering over each sentence as he went.

He Lingchuan finally could not hold it anymore and went outside for a much-needed piss. When he came back, Sun Fuping was just tipping his head back for a drink of water.

“State Preceptor, what did the journal say?” he asked, pointing at the grave. “Was it written by the dead man?”

“No, it was written by the one who buried him, the last survivor of the Baling expedition,” Sun Fuping replied slowly. “The journal was written by Tao Bo, Ancestor Zhu Gen’s grand disciple.”

“This journal records how he accepted the mission from Ancestor Zhu Gen, all the way up to the near-total destruction of his team. They found the entrance to the illusion in front of the actual Panlong City’s Temple of Mitian, and they managed to trigger the season of mad sand ahead of schedule. But soon after, they were attacked by the wrathful souls. The Gale Army in particular was so fierce that the team suffered heavy losses, and only five managed to escape into this place. After that, the wrathful souls did not pursue them further. What happened before that isn’t worth repeating. After all, we’ve all experienced it ourselves. What matters is what came after. Once they were inside the illusion, they failed to achieve their goal. They couldn’t find the Generous Pot, nor could they find an exit. Their supplies of food and water ran out, until finally, they had nothing left.” Sun Fuping spoke slowly and carefully, though not just for the others’ sake, but because he needed time to digest the information himself.

Sun Fuping paused, then flipped several pages of the journal before continuing, “This place may look peaceful, but in reality, it’s no different from the desert outside. The only thing missing is the extreme heat and cold, but it’s just as inhospitable to life. Anyone who can’t escape will die here in the end. These people from Baling eventually ran out of food and water and had no choice but to eat their companions, choosing their victims by drawing lots. We already saw their remains in the Chen Residence’s cellar.”

Nian Songyu asked, “Then what’s the story with this grave?”

“The third person to draw the death lot refused to be eaten and tried to fight back, but was killed by Tao Bo and Yu Qingyuan together. That one wasn’t easy to handle, at least Tao Bo alone couldn’t have managed it. Some time later, it came down to just two of them. Yu Qingyuan chose to end his own life, giving Tao Bo the last chance at survival.”

The three of them fell silent. To live through dozens of days of despair and fear, and then hand over your last hope of survival to someone else, that was something none of them could imagine doing.

“Tao Bo, moved by his sacrifice, built this grave for him and left his own journal behind for those who might come after.”

Mao Tao gave a bitter smile. “So these unfortunate souls were just like us.”

“Watch your tongue,” Nian Songyu snapped. He did not think of himself as unfortunate. “Surely the journal contains something useful?”

“Surviving on rations, water, and his last companion, he lasted more than sixty days in this illusion, searching every inch of Panlong City inside and out, and even making several trips onto the wasteland beyond. However, the boundary is only thirty li from the city. He could go no further than that.” Tao Bo’s journal was essentially a diary, recording his daily experiences and thoughts, often in minute detail. State Preceptor Sun picked out the most important points. “Ancestor Zhu Gen had a lot of theories about Panlong City and the Generous Pot. As his grand disciple, Tao Bo tried his best to test all those theories out here, but none of them panned out. In the end, he gave up looking for the Generous Pot, hoping only to find a way to escape. Of course, he understood in the end that the two were one and the same.”

“The biggest problem with living in this illusory city was that there was simply nowhere to start. They tried all sorts of things, yet everything ended in failure. When Yu Qingyuan died and Tao Bo was left as the only living soul in the entire city, he muddled through several days in a fog, until a sudden thought struck him: what if the reason that he couldn’t find the Generous Pot was because it wasn’t here at all?”

The three of them were stunned. “What do you mean?”

If there’s no Generous Pot, how could this illusion even exist?

Nian Songyu’s expression darkened. “Are you saying... we’ve been looking in the wrong place?”

“The wheat fields outside the city, the buildings inside—it’s clear that Panlong City, in this era, was at peace, untouched by war,” Sun Fuping explained slowly. “Without war, there would be no rite of divine recompense, and the god Mitian would have no reason to bestow the Generous Pot for the sake of battle!”

War was the beginning of all the tragedies that followed.

Without war, naturally, there would be no Generous Pot.

This is crazy! Did we risk our lives for nothing then? Mao Tao wanted to protest, but nothing came out of his mouth. He Lingchuan murmured, “That... really does make sense.”

So what’s there for us to even do here then? “If we can’t find a way out, then this illusion is a dead end! It’s no different from a death trap!” Nian Songyu’s eyes flashed. “There can’t be such an array or secret realm in the world. It goes against the natural order!”

Even in the deadliest man-made traps, there was always a hidden path to survival, however slim the chance. Otherwise, such a trap could not exist to begin with. This was a basic law of their world, like water flowing downhill or the sun rising the next day. Nian Songyu had studied divine techniques and understood this well.

“So why does this Panlong City World exist at all?” Sun Fuping shook the journal in his hand. “As Ancestor Zhu Gen’s grand disciple, Tao Bo put forth a theory. Tell me, who do you think would like this version of Panlong City?”

Like it?

The three of them looked at each other. He Lingchuan ventured, “Everyone?”

A peaceful, prosperous, idyllic land on the frontier, untouched by war... Who wouldn’t want such a place?

“Exactly, everyone! Everyone who ever lived on this land, both the living and the dead, would find their ideal home to look just like this. So, the Generous Pot, following the wishes of the wrathful souls in life, created this very world for them!” Sun Fuping continued, “Tao Bo even suspected that this illusion was beautified and refined, far better than Panlong City ever was in reality, and it was made such so that the wrathful souls could finally find peace here.”