Where Immortals Once Walked

Boss Lu hauled himself out of the water. Then, with water still streaming down his body, he grinned at He Chunhua and said, “Truce, then?”

He Chunhua slowly inclined his head. “Truce.”

Since the masks had already been torn off, there was no need for further pretense. The two sides agreed on a central boundary drawn along the line from the dock to the village chief’s house. The eastern half was given to the soldiers, the western half to the brigands. Even the drying yards and grain stores were split down the middle.

Within a quarter-hour, everyone was to withdraw to their own side of the boundary.

From that moment until dawn, as long as neither side crossed the boundary, the fragile truce would hold.

The brigands waded back into the lake to hoist the massive fish. Boss Lu ordered them to carry it into the eastern zone and turned to He Chunhua with a broad smile. “This beast is fresh and fierce. It’s an utter delicacy. It might even be the best fish you’ll ever taste. Consider it a gift to settle your nerves, Lord He.” Then, with a shout to his men, he led them away.

In moments, the eastern zone was cleared of brigands.

He Chunhua watched their retreating backs, his expression grave. “These are no ordinary brigands.”

He Yue lowered his head in shame. “It was my recklessness. I pressed Deputy General Zeng into action.”

“Tsk, young and hotheaded! You dared strike without even probing this Lu fellow’s background?” He Chunhua’s eyes flashed with disappointment. “Now the snake has been startled. He’ll be on guard from here on out. If this so-called truce is real, all is well. If not, tonight will be a night of slaughter.”

He Yue bit his lower lip and lowered his head.

The boy’s sleeve was torn, his robe missing half a hem from the melee. Madame Ying raised a trembling hand to wipe the blood slowly exuding from one of his eyebrows, her heart aching. “Dear, Yue’er only wanted to help...” Her husband so rarely spoke to their son with such severity.

“Enough!” He Chunhua cut her off with a raised hand. “Let’s return. We have to make new plans.”

* * *

He Lingchuan pointed at Mrs. Zhu and said to the fat man sprawled on the floor, “You two are husband and wife, yet you don’t share the least bit of understanding. She says the Water Spirit Tablet was broken, and you don’t so much as bat an eye.”

For villagers whose lives depended on the lake, the breaking of the Water Spirit Tablet should have been earthshaking news. Even if Mrs. Zhu had not already tipped him off, just that unnatural indifference was enough for He Lingchuan to see that Fatty Wang was hiding something.

He turned back to Mrs. Zhu and beckoned. “Speak. What’s going on here?”

Mrs. Zhu lowered her voice, speaking quickly. “At dusk today, these brigands stormed the village. Then, you arrived unexpectedly. They left some people behind to pose as villagers and took all the children as hostages to force our obedience.”

He Lingchuan let out a long breath.

To be honest, before seeing Mrs. Zhu’s bloody message, he had only suspected that he had stumbled into a black village. There were black inns[1] that preyed on travelers, so why not black villages as well? It would basically be the exact same business model. They would appear very hospitable on the surface, but actually be steeped in the ways of murder and robbery. Most such places were small, isolated hamlets in barren hills, places where, as the saying went, “bad water breeds bad folk.”

Immortal Spirit Village was nestled deep among the mountains, far from trade routes, just the sort of place where such crimes might flourish.

However, never had he expected that the culprits here were actually brigands.

And that was what made it all the stranger for him.

He had dealt with sand bandits along the Hongya Trade Route for years. He knew their ways. Against merchants and commoners, they were brutal and merciless, but in the face of official troops, they cowered like lambs. They knew all too well of the old saying: the common people must never fight the government.

Yet these brigands had massacred a village, and when they heard soldiers were coming, they did not flee. Instead, they even stayed behind and acted as though they were villagers.

“What in the world are they planning?” This was why he had risked sneaking off to question Mrs. Zhu.

But she only shook her head. “They haven’t said anything.”

“Have the brigands always been this rampant in these parts?”

Mrs. Zhu nodded and answered, “In the past three years, they’ve raided us at least nine times, but each time the brigands only plundered valuables and left. The worst they ever did was injure two people. It was never like today, where they slaughtered over a hundred villagers, even the man of this very house.”

He Lingchuan was slightly stunned. “Your husband, too?”

Her composure was unsettling. She hardly looked like a woman who had just lost the pillar of her household. For most farm wives, a husband’s death meant the sky itself had collapsed.

“Yes. He tried to steal a skiff and row into the lake. But he had barely gone thirty meters when the skiff capsized. It seemed as if something dragged him straight down to the bottom.” Mrs. Zhu’s tone was flat, as though recounting someone else’s misfortune rather than that of her own husband.

“My condolences.” Since she felt little grief, there was no point in offering her comfort. “Do you know where they’re hiding the children?”

Mrs. Zhu shook her head. “The children aren’t in the village, which means that they should actually be safe. You’d best spend your time thinking about how to fight back. These brigands are no easy prey.”

He Lingchuan studied her closely. At last, he asked, unable to resist, “Why are you telling me all this? Aren’t you afraid they’ll kill your children?”

The woman grew stranger the more he looked at her.

Mrs. Zhu’s eyelids did not even twitch at his words. “These killers won’t spare us once they’ve finished with the soldiers. If I keep silent, everyone dies. At least if I speak, there might be a sliver of hope.”

That was sound reasoning, but what was rare was her calm in the brigands’ grip.

Most people clung to hope, however slim. Once taken captive, they would grasp at the brigands’ promises like drowning men clutching reeds, fooling themselves that a path to survival remained.

For many, the harshness of reality was harder to bear than self-deception. And when children were involved, a mother’s clarity was even rarer.

He Lingchuan slowly sat back down, his right hand unconsciously settling on the hilt of his broken saber.

He could smell danger in the air, and the broken saber’s cool touch steadied him, sharpening his thoughts.

After all, last time, when he had fought through two relentless hours in his dream, he had awoken to find the bond with the weapon closer than ever. It seemed the two of them were meshing more and more.

Currently, the only course of action was to gather more information about the enemy.

After a moment’s thought, He Lingchuan rolled the fat man over onto his back and pressed a dagger to his throat. “I’m going to ask you questions. If you so much as shout, you die. Understand?”

The fat man bobbed his head frantically.

He Lingchuan pulled out the flatbread gagging his mouth and asked, “How many of you are there?”

“O... Over two hundred.” The fat man’s voice was low, careful.

“Be precise.”

“Two hundred...” He seemed to take a moment to count in his head. “And thirty-five!”

He added hastily, “We bear no malice toward the soldiers. We only want peace tonight. At first light tomorrow, each side goes its own way, no entanglements!”

He Lingchuan cocked his head. “Is that your word or your Boss Lu’s?”

“Boss Lu’s!” the fat man said quickly. “I heard him say it with my own ears. I’m speaking the truth!”

Mrs. Zhu suddenly interjected. “Are you sure you counted right?”

Fatty Wang shot her a look. “Our group hasn’t changed much these past years, so how could I possibly be wrong?”

Mrs. Zhu gave a cold laugh. “Yet when I was locked inside the Water Spirit Shrine, I overheard your companions talking outside. It sounded to me like you’d already taken the nearby towns for yourselves.”

They’ve even taken towns?

He Lingchuan’s expression hardened.

When ordinary brigands came down from their bases or hideouts to raid villages, they usually just looted homes, maybe seize a woman or two, and they rarely ever killed anyone. Even the dullest bandits and brigands knew the logic of cutting leeks: as long as they did not completely uproot them today, then they would have some to harvest every so often. If they were to slaughter all the villagers or townsfolk, then who would there be left to plunder the next time?

1. This is basically referring to murder inns, robbers’ dens, or whatever else those places might be called. To be honest, I don’t really know if there’s an exact term for it, but those are the ones that came off the top of my head. ☜