Where Immortals Once Walked

Chapter 137: Water Spirit’s Final Alms

After Zhao Qinghe and the other guards had ridden several more kilometers, they suddenly came upon corpses strewn across the road. Blood stained the ground in broad patches, and the sight made their hearts jolt.

They leapt from their horses to inspect, only to find the dead were all strangers, and they recognized none of their faces. They also caught sight of weapons scattered across the ground, though whose they had been was impossible to say.

“Mount up! Quickly!” Zhao Qinghe barked, his chest tight with dread.

The riders lashed their horses into a gallop, whips cracking through the air, and pressed on with all haste. At last, the column came into view ahead.

Commoners still trudged along beside the wagons and carriages. From a distance, everything seemed... normal?

Zhao Qinghe and Mao Tao exchanged a doubtful glance, their tightly clenched hearts easing ever so slightly.

The column looked completely intact. Official wagons rolled forward in order, commoners carried children on their backs, and Madame Ying, soft-hearted as ever, had allowed the elderly too feeble to walk to ride on the carriages so they would not slow the group down.

The sound of hoofbeats from behind tensed every back and shoulder until they saw that it was their own men returning. Relief rippled through the ranks.

He Chunhua and his younger son, He Yue, rode out to greet them, joy on their faces until they counted how many had returned. The joy on their faces then instantly drained away, replaced by grim heaviness.

Over thirty had stayed behind to cover the retreat, yet only this handful had come back. And He Lingchuan was not among them.

He Chunhua’s voice rasped with strain, “Where is Chuan’er?”

At the same moment, He Yue demanded, “Where’s my brother?”

Zhao Qinghe’s face twisted. He cast a look at Mao Tao before speaking in a low, pained voice, “It’s all my fault. When we withdrew, the young master was struck by a hidden arrow. He and his horse fell over the cliff together.”

Father and son froze.

A mountain wind cut through the gorge, cold enough to sting their limbs to ice.

“This isn’t right... This isn’t possible...” He Chunhua muttered, as if his mind could not grasp the words.

He Yue snapped out of his daze and shouted, “Nonsense!” He dug in his heels, ready to wheel his horse back the way they had come.

However, Mao Tao seized his reins. “Second Young Master, you mustn’t! There are still pursuers behind us!”

He Yue roared, “Let go!”

Mao Tao refused to release him. He Yue lashed his whip across the man’s hand.

Just then, Zeng Feixiong rushed up, snatching the whip from He Yue’s grip. He Yue’s eyes were fierce as he demanded of Zhao Qinghe, “Alive or dead, we must see him. Did you, did you see his body at the foot of the cliff?”

“No.” Mao Tao shook his head. “I climbed down on a rope. I found only the horse’s corpse. The young master was nowhere to be seen.”

Zeng Feixiong let out a long breath. “Then there’s still hope. If no body was found, he may yet live. The cliff below drops straight into Immortal Spirit Lake!”

Hearing that, a spark lit in He Yue’s eyes once more.

Mao Tao explained, “But the base of the cliff was filled with jagged stones. Even the horse was smashed to death...” At this point, Zhao Qinghe jabbed Mao Tao with an elbow. The latter quickly changed his tune. “But the young master is lighter. Perhaps a gust of wind carried him outward and dropped him into the lake instead! It’s definitely not impossible!”

“Then that must be it!” He Yue declared with fierce certainty. “There must be a side path down. I’ll go search for him!”

He Chunhua clamped a hand on his shoulder. “The greater cause comes first. Your brother will be fine!”

“Father?” He Yue stared at him, stunned.

He Chunhua’s face was ghastly, green one moment, pale the next. Cold sweat poured down his temples, his breath uneven, yet he forced the words out through clenched teeth, “Your big brother was born with heaven’s favor. He will definitely be able to turn misfortune into fortune. There is no need to panic. Don’t run off. This column needs you here.”

“Just because that Grand Shaman Zhaomandu said his fate was blessed, does that mean we don’t lift a finger to help him? Father—” He Yue broke off, alarmed, for he saw the sweat glistening at his father’s brow, the tremor in his breath.

His brother had fallen into an abyss. His father could not falter now as well.

He Chunhua seized his arm, eyes blazing. “He is alive! Do you hear me?”

The muscles of the commandery administrator’s face contorted as he all but roared, “He will survive calamity! Do you understand?!”

The last three words were shouted with such force that He Yue shrank back, nodding instinctively. Never before had he seen his father so unhinged.

He Chunhua jabbed a finger toward the carriages, his voice a hiss forced through his teeth, “Head back!”

He Yue had no choice but to turn his horse, though he looked over his shoulder again and again, each step dragging with unwillingness.

He Chunhua still faced the road, his son seeing only his father’s rigid back.

Meanwhile, Zhao Qinghe gulped down mouthfuls of water, his throat raw from a night of killing without a drop to soothe it. When Zeng Feixiong came over, Zhao Qinghe hurried to ask, “Why were there corpses on the road behind us?”

“Those were brigands under Lu Yao,” Zeng Feixiong replied in a low voice. “The lord feared Pei Xinyong’s ambush at Whistle Rock might not be airtight, so he sent us to block any who slipped through. That way, they wouldn’t double back east and cause trouble for you.”

At that time, Young Master He had been leading men to intercept the western mountain road. If a pack of brigands had suddenly emerged in the rear, the whole operation might well have unraveled. Zhao Qinghe sighed and said, “Lord He foresaw it perfectly.”

“I took over a hundred brothers, looped behind Whistle Rock, and sure enough, we caught thirty of the bastards hiding in the forest. We slaughtered the last of them on the mountain road. Cowards all of them; they were nothing but easy prey,” Zeng Feixiong spat, but then his expression soured. “Shame about the young master... sigh!”

Back among the convoy, Madame Ying drew He Yue aside. “What happened behind us? Was it Chuan’er and Zhao Qinghe who returned?”

“Mother...” He Yue felt as though a weight of a thousand catties pressed upon his chest, so heavy he could barely shape the words.

* * *

Not far away, Wu Shaoyi stirred, slowly opening his eyes, just in time to see He Lingchuan crawling out of the turtle’s belly, drenched head to toe in gore.

The young man staggered upright, chest heaving as he drew ragged breaths. Inside that shell, it had been stifling, fetid, unfit for any living creature; he had nearly choked to death in there.

When He Lingchuan came over, Wu Shaoyi asked, “Did you get it?”

“Yes.” In that foul cavity, his groping hands had found eight perfectly smooth spheres. By candlelight, they gleamed faintly white through the blood. If these were the pearls the crocodile spoke of, there ought to have been only two, but eight? Even so, he was almost certain these were the prize.

Besides the pearls, he had hacked free several slabs of flesh. The turtle monster had lain in this lake for countless years, steeped in sun and moon, in heaven and earth. Surely its body was a treasure in itself. He did not yet know what use the meat might have, but why should he leave it for crabs and water rats?

The crocodile ate it, vermin ate it, so why could he not do the same? All creatures are equal; he ought not to be excluded.

With silent thanks to the Water Spirit’s generosity, he offered a brief prayer of gratitude to the Water Spirit for its final alms. Then, thinking further, he circled to the massive tail and carved away again.

Some people swore by the adage “you are what you eat,” and this was the rarest tonic imaginable. Its value on the market would be astronomical. He was already scheming to one day haul away the shell as well. Nothing of this behemoth should go to waste.

“The turtle’s head held a core, but the crocodile monster devoured it,” Wu Shaoyi said faintly. “Still, pearls form in the bodies of the scaled. Your luck is good.”

The “scaled” he referred to were turtles, serpents, lizards, and crocodiles. In other words, he spoke of reptiles. People always spoke of carp leaping into dragons, but in truth, these scaled clans, too, could transform into flood dragons or even ascend to dragonhood if fate allowed it. Within their bodies, like dragons, pearls could condense.

These pearls were not the same as a monster core. Every monster that had cultivated for a thousand years could form a core, but pearls belonged only to the scaled and shell-bearing creatures, such as clams and mussels.

He Lingchuan crouched to check Wu Shaoyi’s wounds. “The bleeding’s stopped. Your face looks a shade better.”

Indeed, Wu Shaoyi’s cheeks held a faint flush. Taken one way, it was the medicine doing its work; taken another, it was the flush of a candle guttering before it goes out.

“I need to recover more strength. Only then can I follow you to the surface.”