Where Immortals Once Walked

There were many in those defending the rear who had not drawn any of the Water Spirit’s lots, yet He Lingchuan knew that tonight they were doomed to die.

Would it not then be better for them to simply focus on escaping as well?

He exhaled slowly, then called out to Zeng Feixiong as the latter hurried past once more, “Keep your eyes on the front. I’ll cover the rear.”

Drenched in sweat, Zeng Feixiong froze mid-step. “Young Master?” You? Can you handle it?

They had fought side by side in the desert, but rear-guard duty was a specialist’s task. Should it not be left to those with experience? Then again, in this sudden crisis, he could think of no one else more suitable.

“Don’t worry.” He Lingchuan could have kept hiding in the column, letting others bleed and sweat for his sake. But he remembered the fleeing refugees in the Panlong Dreamscape, remembered Liu Sanjiu’s guilty glance as he abandoned others to save his own skin.

Everyone had families. Everyone had stakes in the future. Liu Sanjiu had not been wrong, but He Lingchuan did not want to be that sort of man.

So he smiled at Zeng Feixiong and said, “I have experience.”

He did have solid fighting strength, and wasting it would be a shame. Still, Zeng Feixiong hardly believed him, especially this boast of “experience.” What experience? The young master has never set foot on a battlefield. Maybe in his dreams, perhaps?

Just then, He Chunhua’s voice carried from up ahead, “No matter. Let him do it!”

He had been watching all along.

Since the lord himself had spoken, Zeng Feixiong at once detailed two men to stay behind: Zhao Qinghe, who was He Chunhua’s own pick, and Mao Tao.

“Protect the Young Master!” he whispered, giving them a look that said they need not follow the young master’s orders to the letter and that they could use their own judgment.

Both nodded fervently.

Mao Tao still worried aloud, “Young Master, you’re really staying? But those two lots you drew were the worst...” He had been there at the time.

“Those are nothing but useless scraps of wood,” He Lingchuan cut him off, before turning back to Zeng Feixiong. “Guard my family well!”

“It’s my sworn duty!” Zeng Feixiong barked, then raced forward again and was soon lost from sight.

The column of four hundred guards and two hundred villagers, totaling nearly seven hundred souls, sped along the mountain road. Suddenly, a heart-rending scream ripped through the air as someone fell off the cliff.

He Lingchuan craned his neck and saw the poor wretch who had missed a step and ended up plummeting far down.

This served as a real and bloody warning. No one dared jostle for place anymore. The crowd surged on in grim silence.

The scream roused Mrs. Zhu from her unconsciousness inside a carriage. She blinked blankly for a few seconds, then covered her face and broke into sobs.

Madame Ying rubbed her back. “Cry, cry, let it out, sigh!” After all, it was on this very stretch of road that Mrs. Zhu’s child had been cast away.

“Fortune and misfortune often come hand in hand. Though you lost your children, if we make it through alive, you’ll soon reunite with your kin. Take that as some small comfort.”

She spoke gently for a long while, until Mrs. Zhu’s sobbing quieted into hiccupping whimpers.

Her eyes were swollen like walnuts, yet her gaze was firm. “Your family has given me new life. Once I return to the capital, the Zhu Family will surely repay you in full!”

“To save a life is to earn virtue. What talk of repayment? Too worldly.” Madame Ying poured her a cup of water herself. It was no empty courtesy.

In her eyes, Zhu Xiyan, the Minister Coachman of the Court of the Imperial Stud, still held his post and still enjoyed imperial favor. Yet the grandfather and granddaughter pair had not seen each other for seven years, and kinship inevitably dulled with time.

And most importantly, Zhu Xiyan had more than one granddaughter.

Would the Zhu Family truly repay their kindness like a gushing spring, or merely offer a token trickle? Madame Ying held no great expectations.

Of course, all of it depended on whether they survived the rebels’ pursuit in the first place.

She sighed, lifted the curtain, and looked outside. The wagons and carriages hugged the inside edge of the trail, while the outer half was packed tight with people. The cliff lay perilously close, less than a meter farther.

She had overheard every word of her eldest son’s exchange with Zeng Feixiong earlier, and the thought left her a little wistful.

That scoundrel of a boy... perhaps he’s finally grown a little.

The mountain road wound about, and it was rugged. Everyone carried torches for light, which meant the two teams of brigands in the village soon spotted the heavy concentration of fire along the western mountain road, obvious proof that the crowd was fleeing that way.

He Lingchuan and his two adjutants drew their blades, taking thirty-odd men and a dozen horses to form the rearguard.

The faces of those thirty soldiers were dark. A few secretly cursed their poor luck, regretting that they had never cultivated better ties with their superiors; now, in this critical moment, they were being thrown out as cannon fodder.

Other than this foolish young master who had volunteered, who would willingly stay behind to cover the retreat? To stay now was to risk staying forever.

Fleeing with the main column, there was still a chance of survival. Guarding the rear meant death was almost certain.

He Lingchuan would have liked more men, but the mountain road was simply too narrow and steep. More bodies would only get in the way.

Still, this single-file terrain, though unfriendly for escapees, was even worse for pursuers. The few stragglers who tried their luck from behind were blocked by his team.

At first, it was easy enough. But once the all-out melee in the village spread, more and more brigands poured onto the western road. After all, in sheer numbers, Lu Yao’s forces were outmatched five to one.

When over twenty of his men were felled, Lu Yao’s team collapsed. At least half of them bolted westward on instinct. In their eyes, so long as they outpaced most of the refugees ahead, they would be safe.

By contrast, the east led toward the rest of Wu Shaoyi’s force charging in, while the village entrance remained a killing field of arrows. Anyone wandering there was as good as dead.

Thus, the pressure on He Lingchuan’s rearguard abruptly spiked.

And the column had not yet fully made it onto the western road. There were simply too many people, too many carts, and too narrow a path!

If the brigands managed to mix into the panicked crowd, the consequences would be disastrous.

He Lingchuan made a snap decision, pointing at six or seven wagons that were still delaying the line. “These won’t make it. Unhitch them, strip the oxen and horses!”

Nanny Qian, who happened to be nearby, gasped. “Young Master, those belong to the Madame!”

At that, He Lingchuan actually sighed in relief. “That’s fine, then!”

Nanny Qian: “...”

“Take only the most valuable jewelry, don’t take any more than a small box,” he said quickly. “As for the rest, leave it. I have use for them!” What good were possessions if everyone died here?

She dared not disobey. Gathering up the jewel box, she hurried off to inform her mistress.

Madame Ying frowned deeply when she heard. “Is the eldest young master injured?”

“Ah...” Nanny Qian thought back carefully. “No, not at all. He looked quite valiant.”

Madame Ying leaned out the window, glancing back twice. Her feelings were difficult to name.

By then, her baggage wagons had already been stripped of oxen and horses, left as a blockade across the mountain road.

Of course, He Lingchuan left a gap for their own people to pass through.

Soldiers hurried to tighten the passage, snapping at villagers, “Move it, move it! Stop dawdling!”

One panting villager came running, head ducked under a thick leather cap. Without so much as a glance upward, he darted straight for the opening in the line of wagons.