Where Immortals Once Walked

“That was before,” Hong Chenglue said bluntly. “Now that He Chunhua is Governor-General of Xia Province, he’s been shoveling grain to the front nonstop. From the looks of it, he can keep doing it and keep it coming. If Zhao Pan’s no longer short on supplies, how exactly does Lord Nian plan to fight him?”

Nian Zanli swallowed a flicker of irritation and kept his tone pleasant. “Then might I know what brilliant plan General Hong has in mind?”

If Wu Qing had not sent word that Hong Chenglue had some special way to break the enemy, there was no way that he would sit here swallowing this tone.

Of course, there was another delicate reason, one they both understood and both could not name aloud.

Hong Chenglue was a legitimate Beijia general with real merit to his name, while Nian Zanli was a turncoat, a recent defector.

Who owed whom deference did not require spelling out.

Hong Chenglue glanced toward the tent flap, where rain drummed down in relentless sheets. “Rain, not snow. In weather this foul, it’s actually the best time to launch an attack.” The noise of it, the darkness—it all buried the sounds and signs of preparation.

Nian Zanli waited for his next words. Any commander with a shred of sense would never try to force a river crossing in conditions like this. Otherwise, the only thing he would be crossing was the line into mutiny.

Sure enough, Hong Chenglue continued, “But what if I told you I can get your army safely across the river and onto the southern bank?”

There it is. Nian Zanli’s expression grew sober. “Go on.”

“Twelve years ago, one of the State Preceptor Qing Yang’s disciples, Juan Bao, betrayed Beijia. He was a foreign spy who had infiltrated our ranks. Fortunately, he was caught quickly. Even so, several items he stole were never recovered. The most important of them was a sacred vessel offered in the Azure Palace[1]—the imitation Cloudwater Treasured Vase, also called the Verdancy Vase[2].”

Beijia had four palaces—Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter—each with its own designated state preceptor. Their status and privileges surpassed almost everyone else’s. The other three palaces were easy enough to name, but putting the character “spring” before “palace” carries some rather indecent connotations. So instead, they used “azure” in its place. The Azure Palace belonged to the State Preceptor Qingyang.

“An imitation?” Nian Zanli asked. “Then where is the original?”

“In the hands of some immortal from the distant past. And after so many ages, it’s probably long since vanished.” Hong Chenglue said, “The true Cloudwater Treasured Vase could take in the waters of three rivers and five lakes. Legend has it that an immortal once used it to end a great drought in an entire province. The Azure Palace’s imitation was forged near the end of the Ancient Era, when the world’s spirit qi was still far richer than it is today, but true immortals were already fading away. It was created by sheer accident. It can take in only half a river’s water, far inferior to the original, and because of that, it consumes far less spirit qi than the true vase. Later generations poured tremendous effort into preserving it, and only thus did it survive until now.”

Nian Zanli’s gaze sharpened. Hong Chenglue would never bring up such an artifact for no reason.

Does this mean that...

Sure enough, Hong Chenglue drew a bundle wrapped in soft cloth from his robe and opened it right there before him.

Inside lay a gray bottle. It was hard to tell if it was made of stone or jade. You could have called it an ash-colored stone ewer—round belly, narrow neck, wide mouth.

It did not look like something that deserved such a poetic name as Cloudwater Treasured Vase.

The stopper at the mouth was carved into a lizard, its tail draped down along the body, its front claws gripping the lid tight. Yet a pair of horns jutted from its brow and nose.

Four words had been engraved on the bottle’s body: moisten mountains, enrich fields.

Delight flashed across Nian Zanli’s face. “My thanks, General Hong! If we use this to take down Zhao Pan, you’ll be first in line for the merit!”

“No need. I’m only lending you the vase.”

Nian Zanli handled it as delicately as if it were a newborn, turning it carefully in his hands. “Wasn’t this treasure supposed to be lost?” How had it ended up with Hong Chenglue?

“After I resigned my post, I passed through Xiling Town. The next county over is where Qingyang’s disciple was captured. I took my wife into town for a meal and, by chance, spotted the Verdancy Vase on a shelf in a sundry shop, tucked behind the door.” Hong Chenglue shook his head. “It was gathering dust and draped in cobwebs, completely unremarkable. If I hadn’t seen it at the Azure Palace years ago, I’d have missed it. In the end, I spent fifteen copper coins to buy it. The shopkeeper looked at me like I was the biggest fool alive.”

Nian Zanli let out a low whistle. “A treasure like this, and no one noticed what it was?”

“Not every great artifact can be used by just anyone, or at any time. Now that Lord Nian holds it, have you felt any trace of magical energy from it at all?”

Nian Zanli shook his head.

Held in one’s hand, it felt no different from any ordinary piece of stone or jade.

“Try infusing it with a bit of origin energy.”

Nian Zanli did as instructed. The instant a thread of origin energy flowed into it, the lizard stopper stretched its body and opened its mouth.

As the lizard’s mouth opened, so did the bottle.

Hong Chenglue picked up the teacup at his elbow and poured a little water into the vase.

The bottle immediately shed its dull, ashen surface, revealing a luminous white base like fine suet white jade. “It responds to spiritual energy as well. But even if you and I poured in every last drop of spiritual energy in our bodies, it wouldn’t be enough to awaken it fully.”

When Nian Zanli withdrew his origin energy, the vessel reverted to its gray, ordinary form within three breaths.

“If it can swallow half a river, how do we use it?”

“There are only two kinds of power that can activate this artifact at full strength.” Hong Chenglue’s expression turned solemn. “Either a vast sea of spiritual energy, or a vast sea of origin energy.”

Otherwise, back when he had been scraping by in the northern region of Yuan, he would have sold the thing already just to buy food.

Since resigning, he no longer had origin energy himself. He could not make the vase change at all. In his hands, it looked like a cheap, low-grade trinket.

As for spiritual energy, well, who in the world still possessed a vast sea of that?

“Let me say this up front. This artifact originally could only be driven by a state preceptor. Even with our ranks and positions, we still fall short of what it asks. If you want to set it into full motion, Lord Nian will have to marshal the origin energy of your entire army and pour it into the vase.” Hong Chenglue already had it all thought through. “Even then, how long the Verdancy Vase can keep swallowing the river will depend entirely on how long that origin energy lasts. The Han River’s water volume is now several times its ordinary flow.”

Right now, the Han was in full flood. The discharge it carried was a terrifying number.

Nian Zanli did not flinch. As the entire army’s supreme commander, he already had an endless list of headaches to deal with even in peacetime. One more lice-bite would not matter.

“What’s General Hong’s estimate? If we use this vase, how long can we hold the Han back?” If the army was only halfway across when the vase failed and the waters came crashing down, this operation would become the joke of the decade. Zhao Pan would laugh himself sick for many years to come.

“I can see at a glance that your troops are well-drilled and disciplined. Lord Nian clearly has their hearts.” Hong Chenglue had led troops himself. Some things, one learned to judge in an instant.

“Most of them have followed me for over ten years.” Nian Zanli had spent years on the frontier, sharing hardship with his men. “They trust me. It makes leading them easier.”

“There are fifty thousand here?”

“Forty-six thousand.”

“In that case, the origin energy your men can muster should be able to sustain... perhaps a little over a quarter of an hour?” Hong Chenglue could not pin down a precise figure. “You and I both know that at their core, magical artifacts are tools to pit human strength against heaven and earth. In the face of a flood like this, I can’t guarantee how long your army can hold.”

The Verdancy Vase was wondrous indeed, but in truth, it was merely a conduit. It allowed the Xun Province army to use their origin energy to resist the floodwaters.

How long they could endure would not be decided by the vase, but by the strength, morale, will, and resolve of Nian Zanli’s troops.

“Only a quarter of an hour? That’s too tight.” Nian Zanli frowned. “And this is a one-way strike. Once we cross, there’s no going back. I assume we can’t use the Verdancy Vase twice in quick succession?”

“Pour out the water, and it can swallow again,” Hong Chenglue pointed out. “The problem is, by then you’ll have no origin energy left to feed it. And during the crossing, the vase will be constantly drawing all origin energy from the army. Every man will feel his mood sink. Some might even feel an urge to throw down their weapons.”

In other words, this surprise crossing had to succeed. There would be no safe retreat. And because the Verdancy Vase would devour all their origin energy, once they landed on the south bank, the Xun troops would have no protective origin energy left on their bodies.

If Zhao Pan moves quickly to counterattack...

Nian Zanli fell silent, fingers tapping lightly on the table as he thought. At last, he said, “It’s not necessarily a bad thing. When the road back is cut, they’ll have no choice but to charge forward.”

If they advanced, they still had a chance at leaving alive, but should they retreat, then it was certain death. In such a situation, the soldiers would hurl themselves ahead with everything they had, fighting for even a sliver of life.

Otherwise, with morale low and a path of escape open, an army might scatter at the first sign of trouble.

For a commander, managing origin energy in war was truly a deadly, delicate art.

“But a single quarter-hour is still nowhere near enough.”

Hong Chenglue had anticipated that as well. He took out a sweet gum leaf[3] and passed it over. “This is something State Preceptor Shuang Ye gave me. If you’re going to use the Verdancy Vase, you’d do well to ask State Preceptor Shuang Ye to temporarily divert some origin energy to you.”

On closer inspection, it was not a real leaf at all, but a talisman sheet made from gold foil. As Hong Chenglue explained, if Nian Zanli wrote on it, pressed his bloody palmprint over the words, and then burned it, the writing would be carried straight to State Preceptor Shuang Ye.

It was a single-use transmission tool.

Nian Zanli’s spirits soared.

Even he could only guess at how deep Beijia’s reserves of origin energy truly ran. Now that he, too, commanded Beijia’s troops, if State Preceptor Shuang Ye were willing to allocate a portion of those reserves to him, what need would he have to worry about the time limit on crossing the river?

“But I should warn you, General Nian. The Verdancy Vase hasn’t been used in a very, very long time. It’s an artifact with a bad temper. Sometimes, it won’t behave. To use it is to accept a significant drain on your own energy and vigor.”

“Such is the way of ancient treasures.” Victory always had its price. “It’s not going to drain my blood or cut my lifespan, is it?”

Plenty of sinister artifacts did exactly that. Nian Zanli had no interest in stepping into that trap.

“That, it will not,” Hong Chenglue said as he rose to his feet. “You can take your time deciding whether to employ it. And if you do, choose a day when the wind’s at your back.”

Nian Zanli’s mood was buoyant. He clapped his hands and called for an attendant to lead Hong Chenglue to a dry, clean tent to rest.

* * *

Three days passed. The rain grew heavier with each one.

Even in northern Xia Province, a downpour of this intensity and duration was rare. This was a once-in-a-century flood.

He Lingchuan woke and found the sky still black. He had only slept two hours at most.

But this was probably because the rock wolf beside him was grinding its teeth on a cow bone loud enough to drown out the rain.

Short as his sleep had been, he had still managed to defend his arena twice in the Panlong Dreamscape, beating back two challengers.

The Martial Review Hall might have granted him forty days of rest, but every time he stepped into the dreamscape, he was in perfect fighting shape. Who needed a vacation like that? He went straight onto the arena and fought.

Skinny had been right. Anyone bold enough to challenge an arena master had real skill. The last challenger He Lingchuan faced had specialized in agility, and the other party’s movements were so quick that they were almost impossible to track.

1. Note that the Qing (青) in Qing Yang’s name is the same as the Azure in Azure Palace. ☜

2. Note that the original word for verdancy here carries the connotation of the beginning of spring, and Qing Yang’s name can actually also mean spring. ☜

3. This is referring to the Chinese sweet gum tree. ☜