Where Immortals Once Walked

Helian Chen’s medical skill stood at the very peak in Panlong City. He had cured more than a few “impossible” illnesses that others had long since given up on. Wen Daolun valued him for another reason as well. He was an expert in witchcraft and gu techniques.

And a single look was enough to tell pretty much anyone that the ambush Wen Xing had suffered was not a simple poison case.

Helian Chen fell silent in thought. After a while, he produced a small jade bottle from his robes and released several leech-like creatures into Wen Xing’s wounds.

They were unlike ordinary leeches. Their bodies were pitch-black, with a single vivid red stripe running down their backs.

But when these creatures touched Wen Xing’s wounds, they seemed to be at a loss.

They only drank blood, and the green pus oozing from Wen Xing’s injuries held no interest for them at all.

Left with no choice, Helian Chen cut a fresh wound elsewhere on Wen Xing’s body and let the leeches burrow into that instead.

Not long after, they wriggled back out.

But the instant they emerged, their bodies began to stiffen. In fewer than ten breaths, they had gone rigid as sticks.

Helian Chen picked one up and examined it closely, then his expression changed.

The leech had turned into a tiny sliver of wood. He tapped it against the bedframe, and it even made a crisp sound.

Wen Daolun, frantic at his side, blurted, “Is it poison? Or a divine technique?”

“I’m afraid... that it’s neither.” Helian Chen gave a bitter smile. “Wen Xing’s pulse is fairly even. Aside from excessive blood loss, there isn’t the slightest sign of poison, and there’s no trace of a curse or gu taking effect, either.”

“What are you saying?”

“If I didn’t see the wounds, I’d think he’d only suffered superficial injuries.” Helian Chen looked straight at him. “And you haven’t been able to identify any divine technique on him either... have you?”

Wen Daolun’s face turned grave, but he nodded.

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside. It sounded like over a dozen people were arriving at a run, and a shouted announcement followed the sound of their footsteps, “Commander Zhong has arrived!”

He Lingchuan’s gaze sharpened.

Zhong Shengguang, the very highest helmsman of this legendary city, as well as owner of the Generous Pot, was finally about to appear!

He had entered the dreamscape more than twenty times and still had not seen Zhong Shengguang once. Yet Wen Daolun being attacked and Wen Xing being injured had actually drawn him out.

The wooden door creaked open. Someone entered, dressed in plain everyday clothes.

Only one person came in, and he shut the door behind him with his own hand.

He Lingchuan studied him carefully. Zhong Shengguang did not have three heads and six arms. He was only slightly taller than an average man, with handsome eyebrows and eyes and a bright, vigorous spirit in his gaze. His face looked more weathered than He Chunhua’s, and there was already white at his temples. However, He Lingchuan knew that Zhong Shengguang was only thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old and was a man with cultivation. Clearly, ruling Panlong City and fending off enemies was the kind of work that ground a man down.

Zhong Shengguang ignored everyone else in the room and strode straight to the bedside. “How is he?”

Wen Daolun stared only at his son. “That creature’s target was me. Xing’er took the calamity in my place.”

Helian Chen lowered his head, ashamed. “He isn’t poisoned, it isn’t a divine technique, and it isn’t gu or a curse. I can’t find any symptoms.”

No symptoms meant no way to treat it. Facing Zhong Shengguang, Helian Chen could only speak plainly. It was better to be honest than to waste precious time.

Zhong Shengguang examined Wen Xing’s wounds closely as he spoke, “On my way here, I was ambushed too. This time, three ferry-crossing spawn attacked together.”

Everyone’s expressions shifted, but Zhong Shengguang stood here unharmed, which told them exactly who had come out on top.

Helian Chen scanned him from head to toe, searching for injury. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Hearing Wen Xing was injured, I came prepared.” Zhong Shengguang’s brow furrowed. “I didn’t expect their real target to be you.” He paused, then added, “Two of the three creatures are dead, and one is wounded. I had them brought here for you.”

In the dozen-plus years he had held Panlong City, Zhong Shengguang had likely survived more assassination attempts than most men had meals. He was experienced.

Helian Chen looked at Wen Xing’s unconscious face, hesitated, then finally said, “I suspect... this is a deific technique[1].”

Zhong Shengguang snapped his head around. “Wen Xing was wounded by the Ferry-Crossing Mother’s ninth child?”

There’s no way, right?

He Lingchuan could not help looking toward the tray. Is that unimpressive cricket-looking creature really the strongest of the Ferry-Crossing Mother’s brood?

The one He Lingchuan had faced at Red Peak had turned an entire mine into its nest, claiming the terrain as its own. If not for the Red General, the patrol guards would likely have died there on the spot.

“Only the last-born can cast deific techniques,” Wen Daolun said, eyes fixed on his son. “The big one that squatted under the bridge to ambush us was only a decoy.”

He pressed his hand to his forehead. “We were careless. We thought the Red Peak battle had wiped out the remnants, so we relaxed our guard. Who would’ve thought a second nest of ferry-crossing spawn had slipped into the city?”

A Ferry-Crossing Mother birthed at most nine at a time. They had already killed nine before, so they had lifted the tightened restrictions, no longer sending the Three Corpses Worms to patrol the streets at night.

After all, the Three Corpses Worms were not anything good themselves. Using them too often could easily invite new trouble.

But now new aberrant creatures had appeared, and there was only one explanation.

The ferry-crossing spawn stirring up chaos were not from just one brood!

The Ferry-Crossing Ghost Mother’s ninth child was the strongest of the nine, but “ninth child” did not necessarily mean ravenous devourer.

In fact, the odds of a ravenous devourer being born were vanishingly small. Even if the Ferry-Crossing Ghost Mother gave birth a hundred times, she might not produce a single one.

And under current conditions, childbirth itself was not so easy for the Ferry-Crossing Ghost Mother.

Still, whether or not it was a ravenous devourer, these youngest spawn each had their own terrifying special qualities.

Zhong Shengguang gave a short nod. “We’ll search the entire city. Results will come quickly.” Then he asked Helian Chen, “Can you be sure it’s a deific technique?”

“I’m about seventy percent sure,” Helian Chen replied. “When we wield water or fire techniques, we injure from the outside in. But these three spikes were more like three seeds that were planted in Wen Xing’s body, transforming him from within, turning flesh and blood into wood. That’s completely unlike ordinary divine techniques; only a deific technique would be able to explain such behavior.”

He then glanced at Wen Daolun and lowered his voice as he said, “Injuries to the hands and feet would be one thing. But this injury to the abdomen is troublesome. If his internal organs start turning to wood, his life will be in danger.”

If a person’s organs stopped functioning, how far were they truly from death?

A twitch ran through Wen Daolun’s cheek.

Zhong Shengguang asked, “How much time does he have?”

“Judging by the speed at which the woodening spread... At most fourteen hours.”

Zhong Shengguang nodded once and tossed a crescent-shaped whistle to He Lingchuan. “Use the sparrowhawk to send an order: have the Red General return to the city at once.”

He Lingchuan jolted. The front lines are locked in bitter fighting, and Zhong Shengguang wants to recall his leading general?

Wen Daolun also snapped his head up, voice urgent as he said, “No! Absolutely not! If we lose White Crane Ridge, even Wei City will be in danger—”

“Lose it, and we can take it back,” Zhong Shengguang said lightly. “Besides, the front has other commanding officers. It’s not as if only the Red General is useful.” He shot He Lingchuan a hard look. “Why are you still standing there? Send the order!”

With time bleeding away, there was no room to argue. He Lingchuan broke into a run and went to do it.

He slipped behind the Martial Review Hall, away from the crowd, and blew the whistle.

The sound was not shrill like most people might imagine. Instead, it was low and hoarse, like a horn made from some unknown beast’s antler.

Before long, a tiny black dot appeared in the sky. Even as it descended, it did not grow much larger.

It landed in front of He Lingchuan, cocked its head, and said, “Why are you the one blowing the whistle?”

It was his old acquaintance.

This sparrowhawk had been injured by ferry-crossing spawn before and had recovered in He Lingchuan’s house. He had fed it good meat and wine, treating it like a king. But after it flew off that day, it had not shown its face again.

He Lingchuan forced a smile that did not reach his eyes. “If I don’t blow the whistle, you never show up, do you?” This shameless sparrowhawk. You eat well, drink well, then flap your wings and leave without so much as a goodbye. “Commander Zhong’s order: the Red General is to return to the city at once!”

“Understood!” The sparrowhawk beat its wings and shot westward.

* * *

Because Wen Daolun had been attacked, all gatherings, including the Hall of Inquiry lecture, were immediately canceled. The entire city went into lockdown. Zhong Shengguang dispatched dozens of teams to search every household, door to door.

In other places, this would have sparked widespread resentment or panic. But Panlong City’s people had a high level of awareness, and the officials’ announcements were swift and thorough. Everyone was mentally prepared. When patrol guards knocked, most residents cooperated.

Patrol guards and the city garrison focused their search on empty houses, livestock sheds, riverbanks, ponds—places where something could hide. Sure enough, they found another ferry-crossing spawn. After a fierce fight, it was killed on the spot.

What made the skin crawl was that this ferry-crossing spawn’s hiding place was disturbingly close to the residences of Panlong City’s highest officials and key figures.

And there was more.

When Helian Chen, A’Luo, and the other physicians dissected the ferry-crossing spawn corpses, they all found ash inside the stomachs.

These monsters had been born at least two or three days ago. Yet compared to the earlier batch that had terrorized Panlong City, these had not eaten a single bite of human flesh. At most, in two of the stomachs, they found chicken feathers and dog bones.

In other words, they stole chickens and snatched dogs, but they did not eat people.

Eating was instinct. If they were suppressing even instinct, it certainly was not because they had suddenly grown kindhearted.

Naturally, the physicians and apothecaries studied the fine gray ash. The conclusion came quickly.

It was powdered nether pearls.

When a cultivated spellcaster or a greater monster died, cremation could sometimes produce a nether pearl, which was something that contained spirit qi.

And what they had here seemed to be the ash of some monster’s remains. It had likely been large in life and probably lived in lakes or seas, because mixed into the ash was a tiny amount of partially burned algae.

By feeding on nether pearls, ferry-crossing spawn could survive for a short time without consuming living flesh, thereby dramatically reducing the chance of exposure.

Once the enemy’s plan was revealed this far, it left people shivering.

Clearly, the batch of ferry-crossing spawn born from Yun Gu had been the ones in the open, drawing everyone’s attention. This batch, fed on nether pearls and not eating ordinary people, had stayed hidden, waiting for chances to assassinate Panlong City’s important figures.

Just then, Xiao Maoliang returned with his unit. Besides the ferry-crossing spawn that had fled, which was now a corpse, they also brought back an old woman.

The moment He Lingchuan saw her, he sucked in a sharp breath.

“So it really was her!”

Skinny was right beside him. “Who’s that? You know her?”

“You remember how I have a shop on Panlong’s main street, Wanglin Avenue?”

“Of course, why?” A single shop that could feed three generations, Skinny coveted it so much that envy practically dripped from his eyes.

“When I took over the shop and was clearing it out, an old woman came by. That was her.” He Lingchuan pointed at Xiao Maoliang’s captive. “She asked for a jar from my shop, said she wanted it to pickle vegetables. I didn’t need the jar, so I gave it to her. I remember people calling her Sister Ji, and they said that she was only in her early forties.”

Skinny stared at her messy hair, her deeply lined face, her dried-out frame, and nearly jumped. “Forties? She looks sixty!”

“Both her children died on the battlefield,” He Lingchuan said, remembering the scene clearly. “A’Luo took her pulse by accident and said that she was four or five months pregnant, and with more than one child.”

1. I have to translate this as such since I’ve already used divine technique for another term. Just know that this seems to be of a higher level than divine techniques. ☜