Where Immortals Once Walked

When people first heard the news, they thought Sister Ji had simply found a second spring in her life and had finally opened her heart again. Who would have guessed that even back then, she had already been carrying ferry-crossing ghostspawn?

Sister Ji was brought in on a stretcher, carried by others. She looked like she did not even have the strength to walk anymore, her eyes dull and unfocused.

Though she was the human mother of the ferry-crossing spawn, she was still just an ordinary mortal. The Gale Army did not really guard against her.

But once more and more civilians crowded in to watch, no one knew where she suddenly found the strength. She abruptly sat upright and screamed, “Give me back my sons! Both my sons died for Panlong City! I went through endless suffering to give birth to these few, and you still want to kill them! Are you even human? Give me back my sons! Give them back!”

She screamed until her voice tore and cracked, rolling and thrashing on the stretcher. Her face twisted into something savage and hateful, like a vengeful ghost. Even the crows in the treetops were startled and flew off.

The crowd fell dead silent. Her shriek seemed to hang in the sky, echoing.

Xiao Maoliang lifted his chin coldly. Soldiers surged forward, gagged her, bound her hands, and pinned her fast to the stretcher, then hurriedly carried her inside.

Only then did Officer Xiao cup his fists and bow in a circle to the surrounding civilians. In a loud, steady voice, he announced, “Fathers and elders, this woman was deluded by an evil god. She gave birth to ghostspawn and harmed our people. She has now been captured and will be dealt with. You need not keep this in your hearts!”

Hearing that, the crowd slowly dispersed.

Watching it all, He Lingchuan could not quite name what he felt. For some reason, something sour and heavy seemed to get stuck in his chest. Skinny, who was right beside him, let out a long sigh as well.

The tragedies of Yun Gu and Sister Ji, who was truly to blame?

* * *

Wen Daolun carried his son back home, and the entire Wen household exploded into chaos.

The women of the family came in waves to cry over Wen Xing, one after another. Wen Daolun was frantic, scorched by panic, his insides burning as though he had swallowed coals.

Only a few hours later, when Zhong Shengguang saw him again, Wen Daolun seemed to have aged several years all at once.

And this time, Zhong Shengguang was not alone. With him came the Red General, travel-worn and dust-streaked.

She had received the sparrowhawk’s urgent message and had truly ridden hard back from the front lines.

Panlong City’s two great pillars had finally appeared together.

Because He Lingchuan had previously had dealings with Sister Ji, Wen Daolun had summoned him to the residence and questioned him again and again about every detail. He was present now as well.

Wen Daolun had been pacing like an ant on a hot pan. The moment he saw the Red General, he bowed deeply. “I beg the Red General, please save my youngest son’s life!”

Before his waist could even bend fully, the Red General caught his forearm and held him up.

Her eyes were still hidden in shadow, and her voice remained hollow and cold. But at this moment, she was Wen Daolun’s only hope. “Let me take a look first.”

He Lingchuan paid close attention. The room was brightly lit, yet the lamplight still could not illuminate the Red General’s mask.

This time, her mask was different from the one at Red Peak Mountain. It was an exquisite wolf-head mask. The wolf’s eyes lined up with where a human’s eyes would be, and the whole thing was a rich red-gold.

Wearing a battle mask was not unusual; it was practical protection against arrows and blades. Many Gale Army soldiers wore masks in combat as well, perhaps influenced by her.

Once they entered the inner room, that mask disappeared, and He Lingchuan saw her breathtakingly beautiful face once again.

Wen Xing’s sleeves and pant legs had been cut open. The Red General stepped to the bedside, glanced over him, then pressed two fingers against the wound on his arm, as if testing the texture beneath the skin.

She did not reach a conclusion immediately. Instead, she examined the remains of the ghostspawn on the tray, then had someone bring a needle. From the creature’s head, she picked out a tiny seed pit-looking thing.

This seed pit was then split in two.

He Lingchuan was just thinking it looked familiar when the Red General asked, “Who killed it?”

He could only answer awkwardly, “Me.”

“Again.” The Red General’s voice held no discernible emotion. “Both last-born ghostspawn were killed by you.”

He Lingchuan was certain now that what he had cut apart was the ghostspawn’s brain core.

“Since it was the last-born ferry-crossing spawn who shot the spikes, then what Wen Xing is suffering from should be the Lignifying Spell,” the Red General said with certainty. “That is True Monarch Tongming’s specialty, far beyond the Ferry-Crossing Mother’s divine power.”

Hearing the name True Monarch Tongming made something in He Lingchuan’s chest tighten.

Back then, when the He Family had been framed for the rite of divine recompense, the accusation had been that they performed a living sacrifice for this very “True Monarch Tongming.”

He had never expected to hear that name, at this moment, from the Red General’s lips.

“Can he be saved?” Wen Daolun cared only about that. “Or, can the injury be transferred?”

He Lingchuan remembered that Wu Shaoyi had used a secret spell to transfer the grievous injury he was suffering onto another brigand. The backlash had been nasty, but Wu Shaoyi had bought himself years.

Panlong City was full of capable people. It seemed others here knew similar methods.

“It can’t,” the Red General said flatly. “You want to fool a god’s eyes with a mere secret injury-transferring spell?”

Wen Daolun looked as if the last thread in him had snapped.

The Red General seemed to weigh her words, then said, “If my true body descended, unraveling this deific technique would take no effort at all. But right now...”

At the words true body, He Lingchuan finally realized that the one speaking now was not truly the Red General. Instead, it was Lady Mitian.

She paused, then continued, “True Monarch Tongming lent a bit of power to the Ferry-Crossing Mother. But this spawn could not have managed it on its own. It must have devoured other spawn and burned through its own life to fire those spikes. Even if you hadn’t killed it, it would have died soon anyway.”

Wen Xing was in critical condition. These words were not idle commentary—they were leading somewhere. “You must understand that from the moment the Lignifying Spell is cast until it takes effect, it consumes an enormous amount of life force. Conversely, only by flooding Wen Xing’s body with an overwhelming quantity of blood-and-flesh essence can you resist or even counter the Lignifying Spell!”

In other words, the lignifying process could be reversed.

Wen Daolun murmured, dazed, “An overwhelming quantity of blood-and-flesh essence... an overwhelming quantity... Can you do it?”

The Red General’s tone stayed cool as she said, “Even if you slaughtered every surrendered captive and condemned prisoner in Panlong City, it still wouldn’t be enough.”

Then she turned to Zhong Shengguang. “No human can possess life force that vast.”

She stressed the words no human, and the room fell silent. The atmosphere turned strange, becoming subtly, sharply tense.

If humans couldn’t...

Then what?

Wen Daolun did not miss the implication. His thoughts whirled. He froze in place. “Could it be...?”

The Red General went on, explaining further. “In this age, only deific technique can contend with deific technique. If there is no deific technique, then you can only rely on a divine—”[1]

Before she could finish what she was saying, Zhong Shengguang suddenly cut in, speaking quickly to everyone else, “Everyone out.”

“Everyone” included He Lingchuan and the other guards, the servants waiting nearby, and Helian Chen and A’Luo with the rest of the physicians.

They all withdrew as ordered. Only Zhong Shengguang, the Red General, Wen Daolun, and Wen Xing, who was still unconscious, remained inside.

He Lingchuan was the last to leave. As he pulled the door shut behind him, he faintly caught Wen Daolun’s mutter, “How could it come to this?”

The despair in his voice was so deep that even after the door closed, He Lingchuan could not understand it.

The last words that the Red General had been cut off from saying, were they “divine artifact”?

As someone who was visiting Panlong City via dreamscape from more than a hundred years later, He Lingchuan knew perfectly well that Panlong City was hiding a divine artifact, namely the Generous Pot.

Does Wen Daolun not know that Zhong Shengguang holds such a supreme treasure? Why did he sound so utterly hopeless?

Outside, the Wen Family’s women were watching everyone come out. When they spotted Helian Chen, their eyes lit up. They swarmed him at once, chattering over each other.

“Master Helian, how is our Xing’er?”

“Has he woken up? How long until he’s cured?”

“Is what he has contagious?”

“Why did the Red General come? Has something happened?”

* * *

Helian Chen’s head started to throb. A’Luo hurried forward to shield him, waving people back. “Not now! You can’t ask, none of us can speak! Lord Zhong and the Red General are in urgent consultation!”

The women grew even more alarmed.

“What does Xing’er’s injury have to do with the Red General?”

“They’re not physicians. Why do we have to wait for them to decide anything?”

“Why can’t Master Helian speak?”

Helian Chen was trying to retreat into a side room when the Wen Family’s old matriarch stepped out and scolded the younger women for lacking manners.

The physicians finally breathed a little easier, that was until the matriarch herself walked over, calm and authoritative as she said, “Physicians, let’s talk inside.”

“...”

Strangely, the very center of the storm—Wen Xing’s sickroom—was quiet as death. It had likely been sealed with a barrier to prevent any sound from leaking out.

About a quarter of an hour later, the door suddenly opened. Zhong Shengguang emerged personally and invited the matriarch inside, announcing that Wen Xing had already awakened.

The old woman was overjoyed and went in at once. The other women, however, were still kept outside.

He Lingchuan stood quietly among the crowd, watching Zhong Shengguang. The man’s face was still dark and heavy, showing no sign of relief. That alone told He Lingchuan the situation was not good.

Before long, the Red General came out again, masked once more. She pulled the door shut behind her and asked Zhong Shengguang, “How is it?”

“Brother Wen has made his decision. He won’t change it.” Zhong Shengguang glanced at the closed door. “Go back to the front.”

The Red General nodded and strode away, her subordinates flowing after her.

But after only two steps, she suddenly turned back and beckoned to He Lingchuan, “Broken Blade.”

She’s calling me? He Lingchuan blinked, then hurried after her.

The Red General tossed him a small transparent glass bottle. Inside was the broken ghostspawn brain core. “Your spoils.”

He Lingchuan killed the creature, so the drop belonged to him.

Then she added, “You’ve done well lately. What reward do you want?”

He Lingchuan had not had time to think. He could only say, “I have a few questions. I’d like the general to answer them.”

The Red General was straightforward. “Ask.”

“General, can Wen Xing not be saved?”

“You heard it yourself. He was wounded by a deific technique. It’s beyond my current capability to deal with,” answered the Red General. “Deific techniques can change the nature of our bodies at the most fundamental level. The spells of this era can no longer accomplish that.”

In this era? Does that mean that in the past, it had been possible?

Then she said, “All I can do is wake Wen Xing long enough for him to bid farewell to his family before he dies.”

But if Wen Xing truly could not be cured, they could have announced that immediately. Everyone inside and outside would have resigned themselves. Why, then, had the three of them shut the door and held a private discussion?

The oddness of it had to revolve around the divine artifact—the Generous Pot.

From the perspective of someone who came later, it was not hard for He Lingchuan to infer that what the Red General had been about to say was that the divine artifact could save Wen Xing’s life.

And yet, in the end... they had decided not to use the Generous Pot to save him.

Why?

He Lingchuan had seen Wen Daolun’s affection for Wen Xing—father and son clearly close, far more than the bond between his own father and himself back in the He Family. How could Wen Daolun sit by and watch his son die? Was it Zhong Shengguang or the Red General who refused?

As if hearing the questions churning in his heart, the Red General suddenly said, “A year ago, Wen Daolun divined his son’s fate and already foresaw great calamity in his life. That’s why the entire family opposed Wen Xing joining the military. Now that it has happened, Wen Daolun can instead face it calmly.”

1. Note that the “divine” part may also be translated as god or god’s. I’m just not sure as of the moment, and I’ve decided to translate it as such for now because of what follows a few paragraphs later. ☜