Where Immortals Once Walked

Early the next morning, He Chunhua dispatched grain to the northern front.

General Zhao Pan’s troops were short on clothes and rations. Even if the Zhan Family’s three hundred and fifty thousand kilograms of grain[1] was not much; they would keep the army going another ten days.

Supplies were morale. With this shipment, Zhao Pan could finally breathe, if just for a moment.

This then left He Chunhua staring down three immediate problems: raising money and grain for the front, recruiting soldiers as the new Governor-General of Xia Province, and helping Zhao Pan drive Xun Province’s forces out of Xia Province.

And right then of all times, He Lingchuan went into seclusion for four straight days.

He had not planned it. He had simply felt that he was on the verge of a breakthrough, though it also felt as though he were forever just short by a hair. That day, he had lost himself in practice. True energy circulated endlessly through his body until finally, he broke through!

At first, everyone was worried. Even He Chunhua, swamped as he was, still made time to check in on him three times. Fortunately, Ling Guang examined him and declared that He Lingchuan showed no signs of qi deviation. With that reassurance, the household could only let him be.

Only He Chunhua found it strange. “No one who’s practiced our family’s Guiding Art has ever shown these symptoms.”

Ling Guang explained, “Cultivation differs from person to person. Master’s innate talent is excellent. Naturally, his process will be unique.”

The Thousand-Heart Flow medicine ape upheld professional ethics, and it specifically worked for He Lingchuan. On matters like He Lingchuan privately buying precious herbs to aid his training, it naturally had to keep its mouth shut

Even He Lingchuan felt this session of training had been unusually long. Its most important result was that the yin-yang twin serpents he had painstakingly raised finally met triumphantly in his dantian. After four days of testing and tangling, they went from mutual disgust to lovers sharing the same pair of pants. In other words, they had finally undergone deep fusion.

The process went surprisingly smoothly. Master Man from Panlong City’s Bureau of Invigoration had warned him that the Meridian Art was picky. Yes, it progressed fast, packed heavy power, and needed less time, but it demanded the right constitution. Go step by step and you would be fine; but if, like He Lingchuan, you shoveled down exorbitant pills like water to force speed, when the twin serpents met above the sea of qi, the clash could blow that sea wide open.

That instant of fusion was the key. Cross the threshold and everything turned to honey; fail it, and you became half a cripple, needing years of slow polishing to mend your sea of qi.

Beyond talent, his greatest advantage was his untouched body. In the octopus monster’s words, his “vigorous blood and qi, abundant essence[2]”—able to hold the gates shut while yin and yang thrashed about, yielding twice the result for half the effort.

The twin serpents meeting in the sea of qi meant they had already opened the Twelve Primary Meridians. Once fused, they would loop through several major cycles, then attempt to batter open the Eight Extraordinary Vessels[3].

The primary meridians and extraordinary vessels were not on the same difficulty scale. Opening the primary meridians was like brushing leaves off a river’s surface from a small boat. On the other hand, battering the extraordinary vessels was like hitting a river so silted up that even the boat could not pass—you had to dig and claw to dredge it by hand.

So those novels had not lied. Opening the Conception and Governing vessels was no easy feat. He scraped away for two or three days and still failed to open the first node.

After a few rounds of dredging—no, battering—the fused flow would split back into yin and yang, each serpent returning to its own territory to gather dual energies anew, saving strength for the next charge.

Left to themselves, they advanced too slowly. If finances allowed, the master should help by providing items of extreme yin or extreme yang to catalyze the process. The true fire of the sun in the sky was out of the question for now. His body could not bear it yet; even a thread invited would rupture his meridians or cause him to spontaneously combust.

He could only proceed step by step. As his own strength grew, he would need ever-stronger external sources of yin and yang energies.

When would he reach the point where sunbathing alone would fully charge him? He could only yearn for that day.

With this first-stage breakthrough in the Meridian Art, his true energy flowed to a new level. If before it had trickled like a rill, now it ran like a little river. His six senses were also far clearer than they were four days ago.

He Lingchuan stood up, loosened his limbs, and called for hot water to bathe.

He had barely reached halfway when the window creaked open and a gust of cold air blew in.

Ling Guang grinned at him from the windowsill. “Congratulations, Master!”

“Close that, I’m freezing.” He squinted at the ape’s square little smile and the hand tucked behind its back. “What are you hiding? Don’t tell me it’s what I asked you to fetch...”

Ling Guang shook its head quickly, then produced a grappling hook from behind and tossed it over. “Li Fubo came by yesterday and told me to pass this on. He’s gone with the Marquis of Songyang to set up the storefront. He won’t be back for a couple of days.”

“Storefront?” He Lingchuan blinked. “She sealed the deal that fast?” As expected of the Marquis of Songyang, she truly is formidable in a negotiation.

Ling Guang only shrugged. It was just the messenger.

He Lingchuan unrolled the hook rope in his hands.

Before shutting himself in and entering seclusion, he had asked Li Fubo to forge this new weapon. Li Fubo had agreed at once, saying he had a set ready that only needed a few tweaks.

The weapon was basically a rope braided from three kinds of spider silk, tipped with a five-pronged, tiger-headed golden claw. Like a hand, it could open and grasp.

Though simple to look at, it was in fact a magical artifact. He pricked his finger and let a drop of blood fall onto the grip; the grappling hook acknowledged him as its master. From then on, he could throw it and swing or climb just like a spider. The tiger-headed claw would open and close at his will.

He could finally live out his Spider-Man fantasy.

Ling Guang asked, watching him play with it, “Is it useful?”

He Lingchuan flicked his wrist. The claw shot out and crushed a crystal peach on the tray, causing sweet juice to spray everywhere.

“...”

Ling Guang stared, aggrieved. Fresh peaches in winter were not easy to come by!

“Ah, my hand slipped.” He laughed dryly. He had meant to pluck the fruit and pass it to the ape. Clearly, there was no shortcut to mastery—only reps, reps, and more reps.

In the Panlong Dreamscape, two of his squadmates, including Willow, carried such grappling hooks. In action, they moved like gibbons, far more mobile than others.

Though underused in field battles, the tool was nevertheless incredibly practical. Exchanging for one at the Bureau of Bright Prospects would have cost a chunk of military merit. He had watched with envy, and his squadmates had shared their skills freely, holding nothing back.

The stronger each member was, the safer the whole team.

If he had had a grappling hook when he fell into the spider den, he might have been able to swing up casually instead of using the risky substitution techniques. If his ghost-shadow cicada shell had missed its mark, he would have been minced on the spot.

When he had had his fill of playing around, he got dressed. The medicine ape came over to press his pulse and test his qi. It nodded repeatedly. “Indeed, a stage higher. Your blood and qi are growing so rich that ten ordinary men of the Coordinating Army together would be no match for you.”

He Lingchuan could not help recalling the sand leopard from the day he transmigrated. It had killed his body’s original owner at the base of a cliff. If he met it now, he could probably kill it with ease. “By the way, did you manage to buy any ghost-shadow cicada shells?”

From somewhere, Ling Guang produced a small cloth pouch. Inside lay three brittle, amber shells. “This stuff is quite rare. I had to visit seven pharmacies to find them. What are you refining?”

He held one up to the light. Yes, this is it. I’ve finally acquired some in the real world. “They’re for a spell.”

“They were thirty taels each.”

The cicada shells burned hot in his palm. He grimaced and paid. Anything tied to divine techniques defied normal pricing. They looked like nothing but three unremarkable shells, yet there went half a month’s allowance.

He needed money, and badly at that.

The medicine ape added, “While you were in seclusion, Sun Hongye came by twice.”

“What else happened these four days?”

“Plenty.” Ling Guang blinked. “But I wouldn’t know.” It only kept track of matters within its purview.

He Lingchuan patted its head and turned to check on his broken saber.

The mountain of blades, made of gold paste, seemed brighter now, its hue slowly revealing a pure gold undertone. The mix included Wu Metal and other ingredients. He remembered that Wu Metal was pitch-black, which meant the metals in the paste were slowly being drawn into the blade.

So far, the repair was going smoothly.

Pleased, he stepped out and had fruit sent to reward Ling Guang for its watch these past days. He then paid respects to Madame Ying and exchanged a few words before returning to the courtyard to practice with his new toy, the grappling hook.

It was one of those tools that looked easy to use in someone else’s hands. You watched it once and felt like you knew it. But then, when you actually tried to learn using it yourself, you would find yourself facing failure after failure.

Fortunately, he had been practicing his throws day and night for nearly a month. A throw was a throw, so some principles carried over. By sunset, he had found a bit of rhythm.

Tonight, He Chunhua and He Yue would not be returning home. After a full day of supervising renovations, Madame Ying was spent as well. She told the kitchen to deliver dinners to everyone’s courtyards so they could bathe and sleep after eating.

He had barely finished shoveling food down when a servant arrived, reporting that Sun Hongye had come.

“Have you eaten?” After days apart, He Lingchuan went out to meet him personally. “I’ll have the kitchen fix you something.”

“No need. I just had mutton buns in the evening.” Sun Hongye gave him a once-over and smiled. “Master, you’re glowing. It looks like your cultivation has advanced again.”

“Yeah. I had a breakthrough by accident,” He Lingchuan said matter-of-factly.

Sun Hongye congratulated him on the spot.

He Lingchuan did not bother with small talk. “You came by twice before. Is there something urgent?”

“You chose a bad stretch to enter seclusion, Master.” The smile faded from Sun Hongye’s face. He raised one finger. “First, Li Rong is in the jail. Lord He didn’t grant him even a single extra day.”

“They should’ve known where they stood when I returned Li Shuang’s gifts,” said He Lingchuan, unsurprised. “Father means to make an example of him.”

1. Note that this was the five thousand shi from one of the previous chapters, I’ll go back to translating it to their metric equivalent. ☜

2. Chapter 171. ☜

3. Note that this is also sometimes translated as Eight Extraordinary Meridians. The Conception and Governing vessels, also known as the Ren and Du vessels, are a part of these Eight Extraordinary Vessels. ☜