Where Immortals Once Walked

“That’s right. This wasn’t an ordinary monster. According to legend, it was formed from the mountain’s North-South Divine Wind. The Ethereal Sect relied on that monster to dominate half of the Gale Tundra.” The old man sighed. “Our ancestors passed down the story that the foothills of Mount Fengmo used to be rich in yellow jade ginseng. People didn’t need to risk their lives climbing the mountain at all. But once the Wind Demon began stirring trouble, the ginseng gradually vanished. In the end, you could only find the occasional plant high up in the mountains.”

“And then?”

“That was all more than four hundred years ago. Later, when Beijia incorporated this land into its territory, the Ethereal Sect naturally refused to accept it. They unleashed the Wind Demon to wreak havoc, and people say that the entire Gale Tundra was nearly left without a single living soul! In the end, the King of Baoshu couldn’t stand it anymore and personally intervened, dispersing the Wind Demon. From then on, the Gale Tundra slowly became what it is today.”

He Lingchuan asked, “If the Gale Tundra isn’t suitable for living, why didn’t the Ethereal Sect move elsewhere? Why insist on keeping their mountain gate here?”

“Generations upon generations were rooted here, I suppose. They didn’t want to leave,” the old man said with another sigh. “And honestly, aren’t we the same?”

After the meal, word came in, and as expected, the escort unit would indeed divert toward Mount Fengmo.

The Soul-Stealing Mirror was delighted. “This might be our chance.”

He Lingchuan nodded slightly. If an opportunity presented itself, he would not mind playing the role of the lurking oriole.

After dinner, Second Boss Shi looked up at the sky. “Plenty of stars tonight. Probably no clouds tomorrow morning, perfect conditions for sightseeing.”

He Lingchuan, however, said to him, “Starting tomorrow, keep your distance from the escort unit, especially once we enter Mount Fengmo’s territory. At that time, stay at least five kilometers behind them.”

Second Boss Shi was taken aback. “Brother He thinks something will happen at Mount Fengmo?” He immediately laughed. “Mount Ping collapses or sheds rocks from time to time. When that happens, caravans always detour through Mount Fengmo from Heiyan Stockade. It’s standard practice, and nothing ever goes wrong.”

He Lingchuan shrugged. “I’ve said my piece. Whether you listen is up to you.” In the end, the caravan was not his; he was only offering the courtesy of warning a fellow traveler.

Second Boss Shi’s smile faded.

This trade route had been peaceful for many years. Countless caravans had come and gone without incident. Could something really go wrong on this one trip? Besides, the King of Baoshu’s escort troops were clearing the way up front, and they were not idle ornaments. Yet this man before him was someone even Zhu Erniang, who had devoured countless people in the Demon Nest Swamp, treated with caution. Second Boss Shi believed that the other party’s words could not be entirely groundless.

That night, everyone turned in early.

He Lingchuan simply did not sleep. He took a Hundred Virtues Pill and focused on regulating his breath and cultivating.

He could feel that the spirit qi between heaven and earth had been growing denser lately. His cultivation was remarkably efficient.

* * *

Before the fourth watch[1] had arrived, the caravan set out for Mount Fengmo.

This time, the Stone Gate Merchant Caravan no longer hurried to the front, instead lagging at least seven kilometers behind the escort troops. It was clear that Second Boss Shi had taken He Lingchuan’s words to heart.

Naturally, other merchants filled the gap in between.

After all, the closer one stayed to the escort unit, the safer one felt.

The mountain road climbed ever higher. The peaks grew steeper, and the official road narrowed into something little better than a goat track.

He Lingchuan’s breath crystallized as he exhaled. Turning his head, he saw a layer of white frost clinging to Second Boss Shi’s beard.

“Before the Heiyan Stockade route opened, everyone had to pass through here,” Second Boss Shi said, wrapping his head tightly in thick felt. “Otherwise you’d have to detour another hundred kilometers, and the road would be even worse than this.”

“Back when the Ethereal Sect occupied this place, did travelers have to pay tolls to pass?”

Second Boss Shi gave a dry laugh. “That I can’t say. That was hundreds of years ago.”

As they ascended, he pointed out several spots to He Lingchuan, saying they were once sites of the Ethereal Sect.

The sect had enjoyed a period of great splendor, with buildings scattered across the mountains. Sadly, after four centuries of wind and snow, not a single tile remained.

He Lingchuan saw nothing at all.

Second Boss Shi was an old hand at reading the road and the sky. He had said the night before that there would be no clouds in the morning, and sure enough, the sky was a flawless blue.

Suddenly, cheers erupted from ahead.

“The sun’s up. Look, look!”

He Lingchuan raised his head and looked to the side. Sure enough, a shaft of golden light struck a perilous peak opposite them, dyeing the pristine snow a crimson gold.

Majesty and splendor, austerity and warmth, on nature’s vast palette, the sunlight and snow fused into perfect harmony.

Even the escort unit halted, facing the golden peak with hands clasped, standing in silent prayer.

Legend said that those fortunate enough to witness the sunlit golden peak would be blessed with good fortune if they prayed at once.

He Lingchuan pressed his palms together, yet had no idea whom he should pray to.

His faith had never been given to the gods.

Still, in this moment, before the grandeur of the snow-capped mountains, he felt the overwhelming power of creation, as well as his own insignificance.

How must one refine one’s path to possess the power to split heaven and cleave earth?

And today, would the heavens still offer an answer?

They traveled on for another four hours. The peak still loomed ahead, just as aloof and untouchable.

They had merely circled more than half of it.

This winding mountain road of endless turns seemed to have no end.

He Lingchuan was already calculating that if someone truly intended to force the escort troops along this route, it was about time for them to make their move. Another few dozen kilometers, and the most treacherous stretch would be behind them.

Aside from him, no one seemed worried. After all, this was within the State of Baoshu, a secure trade route, with escort troops ahead, so what could possibly go wrong?

By now, the distance between the official road and the sheer peak had shrunk considerably. In several places, natural stone bridges hidden among dense brush nearly touched the road. Second Boss Shi pointed to a narrow side path. “From here, you can climb Mount Fengmo. I went up ten years ago and saw remnants of the Ethereal Sect. If you move fast, you can come down the other side and rejoin the official road.”

“Was the Ethereal Sect’s predecessor also an ancient immortal sect?”

“From what I saw up there, it should have been,” Second Boss Shi said with feeling. “That place looked like the Moon Palace itself. It was hardly somewhere humans could live! The immortals of antiquity were truly something else.”

He Lingchuan immediately said, “Care to go up with me?”

It was the ruins of an immortal sect. Naturally, he should go pay his respects, take a look, and see whether the divine bone amulet had any reaction.

Besides, Mount Fengmo was the highest point within fifteen kilometers. From there, they could overlook the entire progress of the escort unit with perfect clarity.

If someone were plotting in secret, they would not miss such a vantage point.

He Lingchuan had been quietly observing the snowy mountain terrain all along.

Truth be told, as an outsider, he was unfamiliar with the landforms here, and that was actually a major disadvantage.

Whether it be timing, terrain, or allies, he honestly had none of the three.

If he wanted to profit from any chaos that might arise, he would have to observe more closely and think more carefully.

“Uh, sure,” Second Boss Shi said, tightening his cloak. “But my horse isn’t going.”

The path up was not an official road, and the slope often even reached forty-five degrees.

He Lingchuan patted the rock ram’s massive horns. “Look at what I’m riding.”

He pointed at the snowy mountain and asked the ram, “Can you carry the two of us up there?”

The ram bleated twice and nodded enthusiastically.

“Easy,” He Lingchuan said, giving Second Boss Shi a hand up onto the ram’s back.

It was surprisingly stable. Second Boss Shi told his attendants to meet them ahead, then took a careful breath. “Alright. Let’s go.”

“Let’s move!” He Lingchuan snapped the reins, and the cliff ram leaped high, bounding onto the narrow path in two or three hops.

Second Boss Shi was jostled so badly his backside went numb. He looked down and found himself over an abyss of sheer cliffs. Terrified, he clutched He Lingchuan’s shoulder. “Slow down, slow down! We’re not in a hurry!”

Cliff rams were born for foraging on cliffs. Climbing was far easier for them than for other animals. After becoming a monster, its strength had only increased, so carrying two people was no problem at all.

More importantly, it possessed innate lightness and shock-absorbing talents. It traversed sheer cliffs as if on level ground, scarcely slower than running on flat land.

On a ledge no bigger than a palm, it could wedge all four hooves securely.

The mountain wind howled, leaving Second Boss Shi swaying and full of regret.

This ram doesn’t even stick to the path! It loves taking shortcuts!

Several times, the ram leaped straight through the air. The ram might have enjoyed itself, but Second Boss Shi, who happened to glance down, saw only bottomless depths.

The wind was fierce. If the ram slipped even once, the three of them would be finished.

Before long, the main caravan was left far below, completely out of sight.

“Th-th-there! Here! We can get down here!” Second Boss Shi pointed at a stone hollow, his face numb from the cold wind, his mouth barely able to move.

With a light hop, the ram jumped into the hollow, returning them to the planned route.

From there, continuing to climb would lead straight to the summit.

This stretch of mountain path was fairly wide, with reasonably sized steps, so it was quite comfortable to walk. For two thousand years, disciples of the Ethereal Sect had ascended and descended the peak along paths like these.

Second Boss Shi could not help but sigh. “Going up and down like this every day must’ve been exhausting.”

The mirror spoke up again, dripping with sarcasm, “You don’t seriously think the ancient immortal disciples walked in and out of their sect?”

Of course, Second Boss Shi could not hear it.

He Lingchuan patted the mirror. “Then how did they travel? Sword flight?”

“Of course!” the mirror replied matter-of-factly. “Look at those side paths on the mountain, do they look like routes people used all the time?”

If a path were essential, it would be built wide, flat, and straight. But the paths He Lingchuan saw were uneven and haphazardly carved, clearly more like “good enough to have a path at all.”

Now the two of them were following natural fissures, slipping deeper into the mountain’s belly[2].

By legend, this Mount Fengmo had been the immortal sect’s main peak.

Of course, at its height, the sect had too many disciples for all of them to live here.

The path grew wider and wider, and soon they stepped onto a vast natural platform. Above it rose a mountain formed from a single colossal stone, awe-inspiring in its grandeur. The rock face was cut smooth as if by a blade, so slick that even the cliff ram could not climb it.

The celebrated spectacle of the sunlit golden peak was sunlight striking the tip of that immense stone.

The platform below was enormous, at least three football fields side by side.

From here, not only could they gaze across the mountain ranges, they could even clearly see the escort unit moving far below!

The wind here was ferocious beyond belief, so ferocious, in fact, that the two men and the goat were nearly blown off the platform.

“Quick, quick, get inside there!” Second Boss Shi shouted against the wind, pointing ahead. Only then did He Lingchuan notice a narrow path leading inward.

1. This is 1:00 to 3:00 AM. ☜

2. Typically, at least in Chinese, 山腹, which literally translates to mountain belly or mountain’s belly, actually refers to the area that’s about halfway up a mountain or hill, or it could also simply refer to the mountainside. However, it seems that the author is literally referring to the inside of the mountain here, hence I’ve refrained from translating it as what it usually means, and instead opted for the more literal translation. ☜