Where Immortals Once Walked

With Nian Songyu’s tremendous natural strength, he smashed the bed frame apart midair, sending splinters flying in every direction.

However, before he could catch his breath, something else loomed rapidly into view.

Bang!

He barely managed to raise his shield before he was struck and sent flying ten meters away.

Scrambling to his feet, he finally saw the attacker. It was a black demon ape. Despite it being hunched, it was still over two meters tall, and its body exhibited grotesque muscles that really looked like they were going to burst out of its skin at any moment.

Its beady eyes glowed red. It had no fur, thereby fully revealing its black, volcanic rock-like skin, which was covered with uneven cracks oozing dark red fluid like magma.

Unfortunately for Nian Songyu, the demon ape clearly was not done attacking him. It charged on all fours straight toward Nian Songyu, then swung both of its arms down in a devastating blow.

Nian Songyu crouched low and set his large shield upright in front of him.

Clang!

The ape’s fists crashed down, successfully flattening the shield, but no one was behind it.

Having learned from experience, Nian Songyu had already sidestepped at the last instant, slipped behind the ape, and slashed at its neck!

It was a swift, efficient killing move. The move was a result of his experiences on the battlefield, leaving no wasted movements.

No matter what something was, whether it was man-made or naturally born, the head was usually the weak spot.

However, the beheaded demon ape only staggered two steps, then bent down, picked up its own head, and stuck it right back on its neck.

The magma-like fluid then flowed up and down the seam, and after two or three breaths, its head was firmly reattached, the red glow reigniting in its beady eyes.

Is this thing... unkillable?

Just then, Nian Songyu heard Sun Fuping call out, “Careful, fall back!”

One after another, more demon apes burst out from the ruins and charged forward.

Nian Songyu cut down two more. This time, his blade flashed with a faint azure light, signifying that he was channeling his own mandate token. As a military officer who has commanded his own set of troops, his fate was enough to suppress demons and ghosts and break through most divine techniques and spells.

After beheading or slicing these demon apes in two, he noticed that they took considerably longer to recover. Their movements became sluggish after losing their heads, but they still inevitably found their heads, reattached them, and charged back into the fight.

Even the mighty mandate token is being suppressed. Nian Songyu finally started feeling a bit anxious. “State Preceptor, this isn’t working!”

He had gotten injured as well. There was a really deep gash on his left arm that even exposed some bone, and the flesh around the wound had already been charred black. The demon apes’ claws were not only razor-sharp, but hot as branding irons.

While the first demon ape was pummeling him, Sun Fuping had already scattered several beans on the ground. By the time the other demon apes attacked, the beans had grown into towering golden-armored warriors, each about three meters tall. These giants matched the demon apes in brute strength, forming a protective ring around Nian Songyu and buying Sun Fuping some precious time.

But as Nian Songyu said, if the demon apes could revive endlessly, they would undoubtedly wear their enemies down to death. In other words, there was no way that Nian Songyu and Sun Fuping would win by attrition.

And all the while, the boss, namely the black flood dragon, was still sitting atop the city gate, watching the show.

Sun Fuping conjured a droplet of water in his hand. After chanting a lengthy incantation, the droplet swelled to the size of a duck egg.

He hurled the water sphere at a demon ape’s foot and explained calmly, “The rules of this world aren’t the same as reality. Your fate and my divine techniques are both suppressed here!”

In the real world, he could conjure a water sphere twice the size of an ostrich egg, but here it was drastically reduced.

Yet casting the spell here consumed twice as much true energy, and that was only possible because this place borrowed rainwater from the upper world’s pool. Otherwise, he would likely have failed to even conjure anything at all.

Fortunately, as soon as the water sphere struck the ground, it burst apart, releasing over a dozen dark red water snakes, each of which shot toward a demon ape.

These were actual water snakes, formed entirely from liquid. The demon apes roared and struggled, but could not tear the snakes off; instead, the snakes slithered up to their heads and burrowed into their seven orifices.

Nian Songyu could then hear a series of sizzles inside their bodies. As clouds of white steam billowed out, the magma flowing over their rocky skin dulled and then solidified.

Within a dozen heartbeats, the demon apes could no longer maintain their forms and collapsed to the ground, shattering into a pile of scorched charcoal.

Only now did Nian Songyu have a moment to pull out a jade-green medicinal pill, which he crushed and packed into his wound.

The injury immediately frothed with pale green bubbles, and Nian Songyu let out a long breath. The medicine that he had just used could draw out fire poison. Otherwise, if he had merely used some common antidote or recovery medicine, the fire poison would have likely eventually managed to flow to his heart, and that would have spelled real trouble.

The pill also staunched the bleeding. Testing his arm, he found the tendons unharmed. As long as the medicine did its work, he would fully heal in about ten hours.

That was assuming, of course, that they survived that long.

With a state preceptor at his side, he felt more at ease. At the moment, he could not help but think of the two deserters.

That little bastard from the He Family is probably hiding in some corner, watching everything unfold.

When we get back to the real world, I’ll break every bone in that brat’s body, then slice off his fingers one by one and make him cook and eat them himself!

Just those thoughts alone dulled the pain in his wound.

With the demon apes down, Sun Fuping turned to the black flood dragon atop the city gate and called out, “My king is determined to claim the Generous Pot! You’ve languished in the desert for years! You’re already a masterless divine artifact, so why not leave with me, devour blood and flesh, and return to glory?”

A divine artifact, after all, was a magical artifact. It needed regular, careful upkeep. After Panlong City’s fall, Zhong Shengguang hid the Generous Pot in the desert. This meant that no one had tended to it for years, and its divine nature was thus bound to fade bit by bit. A hundred years might be nothing for an artifact, but after thousands, even it would rust away to scrap.

Divine artifacts possessed spirits, and out of instinct, such spirits would seek to escape such a fate.

“You’re not wrong.” The black flood dragon laughed, its rough voice echoing in everyone’s mind. “But after we get out, what would you do with me?”

“I’ll use you to crush bandits, pacify the borders, and restore royal might to Great Yuan!” Sun Fuping declared. “You and the Three Corpses Worms will both serve your purpose.”

The flood dragon tilted its head and stared at him for a long while before responding with an eerie edge, “I don’t believe you.”

Sun Fuping frowned. “Why not?”

“You’re not worthy.” The black flood-dragon’s voice was filled with scorn. “You refer to yourself as a state preceptor and speak of saving the state, yet I sense not a shred of fate bound to you.”

Before Sun Fuping could reply, He Lingchuan’s expression had already changed.

Huh, what does the flood dragon mean?

Sun Fuping is one of the three great State Preceptors, responsible for managing the fate for Great Yuan. Other than the king, no official should have more than him, so why is the black flood dragon claiming that he doesn’t have any fate bound to him?

The black flood-dragon glanced at Nian Songyu, then back at Sun Fuping and said, “Fate cannot be hidden from me. I can clearly see that he has some, but you don’t.”

Nian Songyu took this in stride. He was not nearly as shocked as He Lingchuan. In response to the black flood dragon’s words, Sun Fuping sighed and said, “I keep my promises. My loyalties have simply shifted. You may be an artifact spirit, but I wield the power of the gods. Since you’re doomed to lose, isn’t it better for me to save you some pain and get straight to the end?”