Where Immortals Once Walked

Chapter 408: The Divine Bone’s Second Meal

The Wind Demon was an existence that had once forced the Baoshu King to intervene personally; how could it truly be cowed by nothing more than a little stone statue?

Back in the Ancient and Middle Eras, the Wind Lion Lords were essentially boundary markers, telling the Wind Demon where it was supposed to tread lightly. After all, on the Ethereal Sect’s main peak, the spirit herb fields that sat right beside the great fissure were even more fragile than humans. The immortal sect had to lay down rules for the Wind Demon.

When the Wind Demon bumped into a Wind Lion Lord’s barrier, it would feel a kind of discomfort. That was why it disliked coming close. The barriers were somewhat like the electrified fences in protected reserves. The fences would not kill the lion, but it would hurt, and that pain was enough to keep it to its own territory.

However, “supposed to” was definitely not “must,” and in the same vein, “dislike” did not mean “could not.”

Now that the Ethereal Sect had vanished into history, it was far easier for the Wind Demon to force its way past a Wind Lion Lord’s restrictions than it had been in the past.

He Lingchuan crooked a finger at the Wind Demon.

The meaning of that gesture was unmistakable: come on, then.

So the Wind Demon charged.

Faced with the cramped space where He Lingchuan currently stood, it actually managed to compress all its wind energy into a wind ring less than two meters wide. Up in the higher cave, Fushan Yue’s robes did not even flutter.

Nevertheless, the wind ring gave off sharp swooshing sounds inside it, every blade of wind was akin to a steel blade. Anything it touched would be completely shredded.

It came straight for He Lingchuan.

The savage airflow it carried was enough to pin him to the wall, leaving him unable to move as the wind blades carved him up a thousand times over.

Under that kind of pressure, it was already an immense struggle for He Lingchuan to so much as raise his saber toward it, let alone fight back.

How does a person even fight the wind?

Fushan Yue, running in from behind, watched without blinking, terrified he might miss a single detail.

This ram rider had caused him far too much trouble to be an idiot. He believed that the other party must have some trick hidden up his sleeve. At this moment, an ominous feeling even crawled up Fushan Yue’s spine.

Just as the Wind Demon’s compressed ring was about to crash onto He Lingchuan, he suddenly disappeared.

He neither shredded nor crushed into fine powder, nor was he even blown apart. He simply disappeared, as though he had blinked out of existence.

All of the Wind Demon’s power slammed into the stone wall instead, and that hard rock face, which had weathered by countless gales, was gouged open with a tooth-grinding buzzing sound, a crater about a third of a meter deep and roughly a meter across being carved out instantly.

If that power had hit flesh and blood, that flesh and blood would have burst into a cloud of red mist in an instant.

At the same time, He Lingchuan reappeared behind the Wind Demon, right where the Wind Lion Lord statue had cracked apart.

Fushan Yue’s eyes narrowed. “Teleportation?”

That was something he knew only to be possible through a divine technique, not a martial technique.

Of course, He Lingchuan did not know any kind of teleportation technique. When he had placed the Wind Lion Lord statue earlier, he had also quietly tucked several ghost-shadow cicada shells beneath its base. The moment he activated the substitution divine technique, he simply swapped positions with the shells.

About fifteen minutes earlier, this Wind Demon had slaughtered thousands; that alone was proof enough of its might. Facing its true body head-on in its own domain was not something a normal human could survive.

And yet after completing the swap, He Lingchuan did not immediately run.

Instead, he pushed off the ground and lunged straight at the Wind Demon!

They were less than three meters apart, and He Lingchuan was fast. The gap vanished in a heartbeat.

Fushan Yue, who had been sprinting toward them, actually stumbled to a stop. He could not understand what the He Lingchuan was doing. After all, he had just escaped by the skin of his teeth, so why turn around and head back to his death?

The Wind Demon struck empty air and began to turn around.

Interestingly, despite it being a simple manifestation of wind, it could not pivot and reposition as fluidly as He Lingchuan.

Before it could finish turning, the enemy had already closed in from behind.

He Lingchuan’s changdao flashed from his waist. In the blink of an eye, he unleashed four consecutive cuts!

Back at Zhao Pan’s frontline camp, He Lingchuan had once sliced through seven raindrops with a single stroke. Four linked slashes now were mere child’s play to him.

A faint saber light sparked in the cramped stone chamber. All four cuts landed on the Wind Demon’s back.

Fushan Yue’s brow furrowed tightly.

A human shouldn’t be able to cut wind. This brat can’t possibly be unaware of such a basic principle. There isn’t even any origin energy clinging to his blade, so what—

The Wind Demon let out a howl that shook the stone chamber.

Fushan Yue, who knew its sounds well, jolted; he knew that the howl which came from the Wind Demon was a result of it experiencing immense pain!

On the Wind Demon’s body, the sections struck by He Lingchuan’s saber actually peeled away like solid matter!

They dissipated almost instantly, but Fushan Yue was certain he had not imagined it.

The Wind Demon’s body had been cut, and repeatedly at that.

This brat can actually cut the wind?

He Lingchuan gripped Fleeting Life, and the saber felt almost fused to his body. He could sense the weapon’s dual nature—lithe and agile, yet coldly lethal.

Facing the Wind Demon, a sudden clarity rose in his mind: Fleeting Life’s “Void-Breaker” ability worked on the Wind Demon.

It could harm those with no shape or form. If ghosts belonged to the category of the “shapeless,” then the Wind Demon clearly belonged to the category of the “formless.”

The Wind Demon’s size had already been reduced to half. Furious and in pain, it sent a blade of wind at He Lingchuan.

Although this wind blade was shapeless and invisible, it was fully capable of slicing flesh and grinding bone.

However, He Lingchuan had anticipated it. The moment his four slashes landed, he did not even wait for the Wind Demon to turn. He planted one hand on the ground, kicked off the stone wall with his right leg, spun his whole body in a swift arc, moving like a swallow darting through the air, and slipped to the Wind Demon’s flank.

You throw a punch, you guard against the kick.

The wind blade missed cleanly.

The Wind Demon still had not recovered its form. He Lingchuan dreaded that crushing wind pressure and refused to let it return to its full strength. He came down with two more brutal chops, cutting it into pieces again, splitting it into multiple parts.

The Wind Demon howled in pain once more. Its body suddenly collapsed into dispersing currents, transforming into a whole roomful of raging wind!

It had realized that its most powerful humanoid form was actually a disadvantage against this man.

Fine, then. Back to my true form.

Its power would be weaker, yes, but it believed that it would then be able to carve the bastard before it into countless pieces.

True energy surged through He Lingchuan’s dantian as he unleashed a barrier of vigorous qi around his body.

He could feel that aura being shaved away at a terrifying speed. In a breath or two, he had no idea how many wind blades had struck him.

Fortunately, the Wind Demon’s scattered whirlwind form was far less lethal than its compressed ring, and He Lingchuan had recently advanced in cultivation on Three-Heart Plain. Otherwise, he might not have been able to withstand such rapid depletion.

Additionally, the heart-protecting mirror was helping too.

In the midst of the chamber’s howling storm, the divine bone amulet suddenly flashed a pinpoint of red light.

The next instant, the wind skimming past He Lingchuan was sucked straight into it.

What is that damned thing? The Wind Demon refused to believe it and forced more wind into the chamber.

However, it did not matter.

No matter how much it summoned, the divine bone amulet simply swallowed with no questions asked.

In barely two breaths, the divine bone seemed to turn into a massive black hole, about to devour the entire whirlwind.

It was only then that the Wind Demon even tried to flee.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

It struggled desperately to surge outward, but the pull behind it was irresistible. With sharp whooshing sounds, it was dragged backward and swallowed.

Fushan Yue arrived at the stone chamber in a violent blur. With his arrival came his twin water piercers[1], aimed straight for He Lingchuan. “Stop!”

The strike filled with fury was unleashed with his full power. It was an attack that left no margin for delay. At that moment, He Lingchuan snapped his saber up to block.

Clang!

Metal rang against metal. The two men each staggered back two steps.

At last, the divine bone amulet stopped its ravenous feeding and fell quiet.

He Lingchuan’s eyes were sharp enough to catch what Fushan Yue still held in his left hand.

Hm, something half the size of his palm? Wait, a Wind Lion Lord?

At a moment like this, Fushan Yue would not reveal something meaningless.

Fushan Yue said hurriedly, “It’s the last Wind Demon in the world, killing it would be a waste.”

This Wind Demon had followed him for a long time. Right now, the pain in his voice was unmistakable.

He Lingchuan’s reply was cold. “What does that have to do with me? If you can’t control your pet, don’t blame someone else for disciplining it.”

Fushan Yue assumed an attacking stance with his piercers and said, “Give it back. Otherwise, this will be your grave.”

He Lingchuan crooked a finger at him again. “Come take it.”

Anything the divine bone amulet swallowed was not coming back up, not even if you begged.

The air in the stone chamber turned as sharp as a newly-honed blade.

Two breaths later, the sound of rocks tumbling echoed from outside.

Whether the mountain wind had dislodged them, or someone was approaching, it was hard to say.

Fushan Yue’s expression shifted. He suddenly lowered the tip of his piercer. “Fine, I’ll spare you.”

He Lingchuan almost laughed, but he did not bother getting into a long-winded argument with the other party. He pulled up his face covering and sprinted out of the chamber. Two bounding jumps later, he was at the cliff ram, and he swung up onto its back and rode off.

The divine bone amulet no longer glowed or burned. Clearly, that earlier feast had left it fully satisfied.

Today, it had devoured two fine treasures in a row.

Fushan Yue stepped out of the chamber to check. There was no one outside, only the ceaseless sigh of the wind.

He dropped down the terraced slopes and hurried to the fissure. Only then did he look down at the small Wind Lion Lord in his left palm. Its carving was noticeably more refined than the others in the mountain’s belly.

“Come out.”

Several strands of mountain wind tangled together, forming a miniature Wind Demon that was barely ten centimeters tall.

It turned out that the divine bone amulet had not absorbed it completely.

However, the Wind Demon was now only the size of a spinning top, constantly gathering and dispersing, barely able to maintain its form. It was pitiful.

With it as small as it currently was, it did not look nearly as monstrous. Who would have believed that it had devoured countless living people just a short while ago?

Fushan Yue stared at it grimly. “What kind of magical treasure did that brat use to screw you up like this?”

The Wind Demon wailed and complained in a thin, wheezing voice.

Fushan Yue listened for a while but could not make much sense of it. All he understood was that the brat had unleashed a terrifying suction force, strong enough to tear away more than half of the Wind Demon’s origin.

If Fushan Yue had not arrived in time, the Wind Demon would have been consumed completely.

“Forget it. Rest while you can.” He pointed toward the fissure. “You didn’t finish the escort unit off. They’ll come back to investigate. In a few days, this whole place will be crawling with Baoshu people.”

The Wind Demon immediately drilled into the fissure and vanished.

From now on, it would enter hibernation, using the underground wind energy to replenish itself. As long as it managed to gorge on the North-South Divine Wind once or twice, it would recover its strength.

Fushan Yue took out the wooden vial again, turning it in his fingers, deep in thought.

Why did that brat toss me back the dragon marrow just like that? And why did he smile so strangely back then? Did he throw it back because he believed it had no value? In other words, is he certain he knows exactly what it is?

Fushan Yue quietly put the vial away and found a stone chamber on the opposite side of the mountain road. There, he sat down and entered meditation.

This way, if anyone entered Mount Fengmo’s belly, he would see it immediately.

He had to guard the Wind Demon while it recovered.

A fierce bird suddenly swooped through the sky. Fushan Yue immediately retreated deeper into the stone chamber’s shadows.

* * *

When He Lingchuan caught up with the merchant caravan, Second Boss Shi was directing his people to gather up the wreckage the escort unit had left behind.

He Lingchuan nodded and said, “Second Boss Shi, how righteous of you.”

Second Boss Shi still looked uneasy. “Brother He, are you sure that the Wind Demon won’t come back out?”

This stretch of road had no cover at all. Even the escort unit could not withstand the Wind Demon’s assaults. If that thing returned, their little caravan would be blown away in the first exchange.

He Lingchuan did not mention what had happened inside the immortal sect ruins. He only reassured him, “It only attacks its enemies. It’s also badly injured. It shouldn’t come out again for a while.”

1. Note that this is a name I’ve decided to give this weapon. The 分水刺, which literally translates to water-splitting thorns/spikes, are also known as 峨嵋刺 or Emei piercers, which is how I named them in Tome of Troubled Times. These are small, traditional Chinese martial arts weapons that come in the form of a pair of metal spikes with sharp, double-pointed ends on finger rings, named after Mount Emei where they originated. ☜