Where Immortals Once Walked

Second Boss Shi patted He Lingchuan’s shoulder. “Once we get to Tongluo County, go have fun. Anything you spend, I’ll reimburse.”

He owed He Lingchuan for saving his life on Mount Fengmo. That kind of debt had to be repaid slowly and properly.

But as they walked out onto the plains, He Lingchuan finally understood why this place was called the Twilight Plains. It turned out to be a euphemistic embellishment of the location.

It was already the middle of the fifth month. From Yuan to Beijia, everywhere else was alive with spring, with grass growing, birds singing, bees and butterflies swirling. Even at Mount Fengmo, where gales raged year-round, there was still a patch of wildflowers blooming riotously at the foot of the mountain.

However, the Twilight Plains truly felt like twilight made land.

Everything here looked worn out. Grass and trees grew weak and listless, neither properly green nor fully yellow. There was water, yes, yet reeds that would reach over three meters elsewhere barely managed about a meter and a half here. After walking about one and a half kilometers, the caravan had passed so few trees that you could count them on two hands.

It did not even compare to the high-altitude Gale Tundra, which in this season was full of flower meadows and lush grasslands.

The farmland by the roadside was even scarcer. The crops looked as if they had been hit by autumn frost. They were half-dead, limp, and struggling to stand.

He Lingchuan saw no one working. No rhubarb growing along field ridges, no cooking smoke rising from farmhouses, nothing at all.

“What’s wrong with this place? Does nothing grow here?”

“This is Heaven-forsaken land, land that suffers the wrath of Heaven,” Second Boss Shi said around a piece of chewing tobacco. “Nearly two hundred years ago, wasn’t there a war of extermination here? That war. They say the monster emperor issued an order to slaughter a city, specifically the State of Yuān’s capital, Qianxing City. Not even chickens or dogs were left alive. After that, this became a place abandoned by the gods. You can’t grow crops or raise livestock. Some people say it’s because too many died here, the deaths causing so much resentment and grievance to rise into the sky that it ruined the land’s fate and fengshui.”

“Why blame Heaven? This should be called a land cursed by the gods. Also, Beijia has so many capable people. Can’t they unravel this resentment?”

There are four state preceptors alone, and that’s not even counting all the other terrifying experts they have.

And besides, back in Zhao Pan’s camp, the captive I took carried a Dragon Punishment Pillar and claimed that a state preceptor wanted to collect resentment and grievances in the form of nightmare qi from the battlefield to be delivered and purified. If so, why haven’t they managed to cleanse this place?

“How would I know? It’s just a legend. Something from almost two hundred years ago. Who’s going to argue it to the end?” Second Boss Shi gave a dry chuckle. Then he paused, suddenly remembering something. “But I have heard of similar places elsewhere.”

“Where?”

“Yuan’s Panlong Desert. Supposedly, there used to be cities and people there. Later, they offended the gods, and it became a desert where people can’t even enter. I’ve heard that place is much worse than here.” Second Boss Shi squinted at him. “Hey, aren’t you from Yuan? You know about it?”

He Lingchuan nodded. “I know it better than anyone.”

But the main reason that the Panlong Wasteland had become swallowed by mad sand was actually simple: the Three Corpses Worms released by the Generous Pot had ravaged it.

Whereas here, on the Twilight Plains, the sun was bright and clear, yet it gave no warmth. If he walked on bare ground, he could even feel a cold, ghostly chill seeping up through the soles of his feet.

This kind of place had another term applied to it, too: abandoned by gods, loathed by ghosts.

He Lingchuan asked, “In the last five to six hundred years, plenty of monster kings rebelled. Did their territories all end up like this?”

Second Boss Shi chuckled again. “How would I know?”

“Honestly, the strangest part to me is that Tongluo County was built here?”

“There’s nothing strange about that at all. The Twilight Plains are huge. Merchants need somewhere to rest.” Second Boss Shi did not really care too much about the long history of the place. After all, he came through here as a traveler and nothing more. “And besides, those pariahs can’t leave the Twilight Plains. They need a place to live.”

He Lingchuan’s brow slightly furrowed.

Second Boss Shi had a merchant’s quick instincts. One look at He Lingchuan’s expression, and he waved his hands quickly. “When I say pariah, I’m not insulting them. That’s the official term.”

“Official term?” He Lingchuan blinked. “So this is a place of exile?”

Back where He Lingchuan had lived as the He Family’s young master, there were pariahs or outcasts too. Heishui City was a frontier land. Yuan liked sending convicts to the borders. As criminals, they were not entered into local household registers; they were only recorded on separate rosters. They were the lowest class, forced to sell labor or their bodies just to survive.

“Yeah, you could say that.” Second Boss Shi nodded. “These unfortunate bastards are descendants of Yuān’s people. One hundred and ninety-some years ago, Qianxing City was massacred, Yuān was destroyed, and the survivors became slaves of a fallen state. Because the Yuān King offended the gods, the monster emperor punished their descendants: men, slaves for generations; women, prostitutes for generations. They are given no chance at redemption, no chance to rise in status, and no chance to even buy their way out. Afterward, whenever Lingxu City needed somewhere to send criminals, they would exile them here, too.”

He Lingchuan clicked his tongue. “Nearly two hundred years, and the punishment still hasn’t ‘expired’?”

“The monster emperor is long-lived. For us, it’s ten or more generations. For the monster emperor, it’s only half a lifetime.” Second Boss Shi spoke like he was merely discussing the weather. The previous monster emperor’s reign had been the longest at 380 years. Who knew if the current one would break the record? “Maybe the monster emperor just never got over it?”

“This punishment is far too heavy. It’s clear that it’s meant as a warning. As they say, kill the chicken to scare the monkeys. It’s a punishment meant for others to see, to remember, and to cut off any thought of ever defying them.”

The monster emperor allows monster states to fight over thrones among themselves, but he clearly doesn’t permit them to defy the gods. If they did, the punishment would come casually in the form of the annihilation of the state, plus an eternal curse of slavery for their descendants.

The gods’ grip on this state is terrifyingly tight.

Soon, the caravan entered the “money-burning paradise” Second Boss Shi had described.

Tongluo County was built beside a river bend, convenient for water access. The scenery on shore was nothing special, but the water was crystal clear, so a number of painted pleasure boats were moored at the docks. The largest were three stories tall, and, when they moved, they looked like houses floating on the water.

The county was full of inns and taverns, theater gardens, gambling dens, bathhouses, red-light districts, bewitching arrays, and many more. Every kind of entertainment you could find elsewhere existed here too, and here they had made it bigger, louder, and more relentless.

This was because there was simply no other industry here.

Of course, pleasure came in tiers. On the main street that He Lingchuan had just walked down, the shop signs were bigger than the next, flashier than the next, and lit bright until morning. Inside, cups clinked and music rose, and laughter rolled like waves.

The men and women in those establishments smiled until their cheeks ached.

If you had money, you could eat the freshest live seafood, drink the richest wine, and find a fallen courtesan who understood your words, someone you could hold close in the covers and “talk ideals” with all night.

If you had only two copper coins jingling in your pocket, then you were fit only to hunt for a back-alley door at some cheap eatery.

He Lingchuan watched one man standing by the roadside, haggling with an “unlisted” girl.

Those shadow businesses usually operated out of private homes. The women’s husbands were pariah slave-men, and they were forced to serve customers too, pouring tea, offering wine, handing over towels, and even clearing spit bowls.

Once the caravan settled into the county city, the men scattered in a roar, and even the driver was nowhere to be seen in just a few moments. He Lingchuan had just been about to tell the one tending his cliff ram to feed it more bean cake and old wine, but unfortunately, there was nobody left.

After the scare on Mount Fengmo, Second Boss Shi had handed out a little shock money. The coins had not even warmed their pockets before they rushed to spend them.

Second Boss Shi gave He Lingchuan a warning, “You can play on the main street, and you can even play the next two rows of streets behind it. But don’t go any further than that. It’s dangerous.”

“There’s danger here?”

“The stuff up front all belongs to Lingxu City’s officials and nobles. There are people paid to watch over it. As long as you go in and spend money, you’re guaranteed safety.” They were on the second floor of their inn. Second Boss Shi pointed down at the cityscape from above. “See the places behind, all pitch-black with no lights? That’s almost certainly where the pariah live. All sorts of riffraff, all kinds of filth. Two years ago, one of my caravan men got drunk and wandered in. I still haven’t found him.”

He watched He Lingchuan turn to leave and asked, “So? Where are you going to have fun?”

“Nowhere. Second Boss, you go enjoy yourself.”

Second Boss Shi stared at him. “Huh? You’re seventeen or eighteen. You’re at the prime age to be hot-blooded. How can you not like this kind of thing?”

He stroked his chin, looking He Lingchuan up and down. Then it finally occurred to him that throughout the entire trip, He Lingchuan had not once sought out a woman.

Could it be... some hidden ailment?

What a waste. He’s even got such a handsome face.

He Lingchuan could tell by his eyes exactly what direction his thoughts had taken. “Family cultivation technique. Before turning eighteen, it’s forbidden.”

“Ohhh.” Second Boss Shi decided to believe it and did not push the matter. “Whenever you change your mind, come down whenever you like. And across the street, that Golden Spring Elegant Baths is a proper place. If you don’t nod, no girl will throw herself at you.”

With that, he strolled downstairs, utterly content.

He Lingchuan shook his head.

The main street was a riot of bright lights and temptation. He did not want the pleasure houses, but people still needed to eat. Two days on the wasteland had left him gritty and hungry, and now that he had seen the sign for the Golden Spring Elegant Baths that Second Boss Shi had mentioned earlier, his skin suddenly started to itch.

So a quarter-hour later, he was soaking in a large wooden tub at Golden Spring.

Tongluo County offered the full eat-drink-play package, except it did not have an actual hot spring. If customers wanted a soak, it was just hot water. At most, they would toss in a bit of medicinal powder to pretend it was an herbal bath.

But other than the fake hot spring, everything else was real.

The service was exceptionally thorough. They could cut your hair, shave your face, trim your nails, and loosen your joints with a massage. Wine, tea, and tobacco were unlimited. The kitchen had chefs on duty around the clock. Anytime you wanted, you could order a steaming bowl of fresh liver congee, or two or three baskets of pan-fried buns.

The place was divided into elegant baths and mixed baths. Elegant baths were private single-person rooms with a table, chairs, a bed, and a tub. On the other hand, mixed baths were communal and fun for everyone.

He Lingchuan naturally chose the elegant bath.

But even private rooms had only so-so soundproofing. And his tub was set right by the window. He only had to look out to see the back-hall shows at a red-light establishment across the street.

The room opposite had its lamps lit. With the window closed, it was shadow play, though extremely intense shadow play. With the window open, it was an action play, accompanied by a woman’s voice so exaggerated it sounded warped, drifting through the steaming haze and into his room, unreal as a dream.

It seemed that earning a meal here was far from easy work. After all, performing for one was hard work, too.

After soaking for an hour, He Lingchuan was hungry again. He changed into his clothes and was about to head out to the front hall to order food when the private room door suddenly slammed open with a bang. Three men rushed in, faces murderous, and demanded, “Where’d you hide him?”

An owl flapped in after them, landing on a beam and swiveling its head to scan everywhere.

He Lingchuan blinked, completely lost. “Who?”

The three men were panting like they had been running hard. They checked behind the screen, up at the rafters, under the bed. One of them even flipped open the chamber pot lid to look inside, as if someone might be hiding there.

One went to peer out the window and got hooked by the action play across the street, staring without blinking.

He Lingchuan leaned over and took a look too.

Sure enough, it really is hard work.

The other two walked over and smacked the distracted man on the head hard. “The hell are you watching for? Keep searching!”