Where Immortals Once Walked

At first, the cliff ram was still somewhat wary. After eating enough sweet red grass, however, it grew careless. Even when it caught sight of the two men’s figures, it did not flee. Instead, lured by the grass, it took long strides up the slope.

At the top of the slope was a sheer cliff that was over thirty meters high.

The two men scattered sweet red grass all the way up here, and the cliff ram followed, climbing higher and higher.

One of the two men turned sideways, clutching the grass and guiding the ram to the edge of the cliff. The other circled behind it and suddenly shoved!

The cliff ram accordingly went over the cliff.

“Easiest one yet.” The man wiped the sweat from his brow. “These goat and deer types are always the dumbest, easiest to catch.”

But when he leaned over to look down, he froze.

The cliff ram had not plunged to the bottom at all. Instead, it was standing on a tiny jutting rock about three meters below. The outcrop was no bigger than a pomelo, yet the ram stood on it without the slightest wobble, standing on it steadier than the two men standing on level ground.

It was still chewing sweet red grass, looking utterly relaxed.

“Uh, what now?” his companion stared blankly.

The ram was stuck in an awkward position, neither high nor low. They, on the other hand, had no way of getting down there.

After a moment’s thought, the first man untied a coil of rope. “Lasso it and drag it out!”

They finished tying the knot and were just about to swing the rope when, unexpectedly, a voice sounded behind them, “What are you doing?”

When you are doing something shady out in the wilderness, and someone suddenly speaks up behind you, the fright hits hard.

Both men reacted instantly, drawing their weapons as they spun around.

There was now a small girl standing on the cliff behind them, who had not been there a moment ago. She looked six or seven years old, with a very pale face and very large eyes.

“Is this one a monster too?”

“No, she’s human!” One of them quickly plastered on a smile. “Little girl, where did you come from?”

The girl turned and pointed back toward the town.

“Go back quickly. This isn’t a place for you.”

She shook her head. “I can’t go back.”

“Why not?”

“I’m hungry!” When she said the word hungry, she grinned widely, revealing two thin, sharp fangs. “I can’t stay in town!”

The town was full of sleeping people, all giving off the fragrance of food, but she could not touch a single one of them, or she would bring trouble to her young master.

“Why waste words with her?” His companion kept one eye on the cliff ram below. The effects of sweet red grass were limited, so the higher the ram monster’s cultivation, the faster it would regain its senses. The longer they delayed, the bigger their trouble. “Push her down. Now!”

This spot was too close to town. It was easy to attract unwanted attention.

The moment she heard that the other party was going to try to push her down, she suddenly let out a piercing scream.

In the dead of night, her shriek was like an amplified mind-piercing demon howl, rattling their skulls.

The shrill shriek echoed through the valley, startling every night bird nearby into flight, filling the air with frantic chirping.

Damn it, this is bad!

Both men reached out at the same time to grab her. Just as their hands were about to reach her, the little girl actually vanished from where she stood.

“A ghost?”

The thought had barely crossed their minds when one of them felt a small weight on his back.

The little girl was clinging to him.

He grabbed at her hair, trying to rip her off. But she opened her mouth and bit straight into his carotid artery!

Glug, glug. He could actually hear the sound inside his own blood vessels.

Blood was forcibly drawn from his limbs and organs, surging through the ruptured artery and into her mouth.

This little girl’s definitely a monster!

Worse still, as she drank his blood, her fangs injected an icy, yin qi into his body. He felt as though he had plunged into a frozen abyss, unable to lift even a finger.

Seeing that he was about to be sucked dry into a human husk, his companion panicked and swung his blade, aiming to chop the girl’s head off.

No matter what kind of monster it was, without a head, it should not be able to keep causing trouble.

At that moment, a rush of wind stirred behind him. A tremendous force slammed into his lower back, hurling him over three meters away!

As he flew headfirst through the air, he caught sight of the cliff ram.

It’s already up?

The sweet red grass wore off that quickly?

In fact, he should already count himself lucky that the ram’s horns did not grow straight forward. Otherwise, there would now be two bloody holes in his waist.

Even so, he was not in good shape. The slightest movement sent searing pain through his spine.

A single horn charge from a cliff ram could shatter solid rock and could easily send tigers and leopards flying, so knocking a human into partial paralysis was nothing at all.

He struggled to his feet, his back hurting so badly he nearly lost consciousness.

Then he looked at his companion. What had been a perfectly healthy, burly man now looked like a collapsed sack of rice, completely deflated, with only his eyes bulging grotesquely. The little girl was still latched on, biting hard, her eyes glowing blood red.

Damn it, now there are two monsters on the other side. How did it suddenly become two against one in their favor?

Just then, another voice sounded from up the slope. “What’s going on?”

The man turned his head, and his heart sank. Two more uninvited guests had arrived.

One of them beckoned to the girl. “Peach, come here.”

The little girl dropped the man she was biting and sprinted back in a single bound, hiding behind him, looking every bit like a frightened child.

The man cursed inwardly. Who the hell is the one who should be frightened here?!

The newcomers were, of course, Fushan Yue and He Lingchuan.

They had heard the scream and rushed over at once. Both were adept at movement techniques, and this low slope was only a little over two hundred meters from the town. They arrived in no time at all.

Peach spoke up immediately, cutting straight to the point, “Young Master, this man wanted to steal the ram!”

He Lingchuan narrowed his eyes.

The man hurriedly said, “We didn’t know the ram belonged to anyone. Sorry! We just wanted to hunt a wild ram for meat!”

Peach pointed at the cliff. “They wanted to push me down!”

Fushan Yue cracked his knuckles. “So, are you going to jump down yourself, or do you want us to help you?”

Now it’s a one versus four! How am I supposed to fight? The man’s face fell. Step by step, he walked to the edge of the cliff.

Everyone thought he would struggle a bit more. Instead, he kicked off with his legs and jumped cleanly and decisively!

“Huh?” He Lingchuan dashed to the cliff edge and looked down. “He actually just went for it?”

It was the first time he had seen someone forced to jump off a cliff do it so cleanly. Even he could not help but feel some admiration for the man.

The rain had stopped, but the moon was still hidden behind thick clouds. The surroundings were pitch-dark, especially the bottom of the cliff.

With He Lingchuan’s eyesight, however, he could still see that after the man fell, something in the darkness below seemed to flash past.

Fushan Yue came over as well and lifted a leg, about to jump down.

He Lingchuan grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back, uttering just two words, “A trap!”

At the same time, he was not idle. He drew Fleeting Life and hurled it into the darkness where the ram thief had disappeared.

A scream immediately rang out from below.

Fleeting Life never missed. The thief had been hit somewhere, though it was not clear where.

However, He Lingchuan also heard a dull thud, as if the blade had struck something else, something hard and blunt, not like metal.

The thief had jumped, but there was no sound of a body hitting the ground.

Instead, something in the darkness seemed to move.

“There’s something down there,” He Lingchuan said at once. “Someone was there to catch him.” No wonder he jumped so decisively.

“After them!” Fushan Yue did not waste words. He slipped down along a mountain crevice.

Accustomed as He Lingchuan was to his relentless pursuit style, he simply mounted the ram and flipped down the cliff from the other side.

The two executed a pincer maneuver, cutting off any escape except straight north.

The terrain to the north was flat, making it ideal for pursuit.

Peach lay flat at the edge of the cliff, eyes wide as she watched.

No humans or monsters emerged from below.

The two men descended extremely quickly, no slower than a straight jump, and reached the bottom in moments.

He Lingchuan grabbed some glowgrass from his storage ring and flung it down.

A soft light spread out, illuminating the base of the cliff.

There was nothing. There were just a few bare boulders with grass growing from their cracks.

The two exchanged glances, both sensing something was wrong.

Where’s the ram thief?

Where’s the one who caught him?

The trap?

How could there be no trace of anything?

Fushan Yue stepped forward and pressed his hands against the large rocks, making sure there was no illusion at work.

With origin energy coursing through him, ordinary illusions should not be able to fool him, but putting his hands on it himself was safer. After all, the world was vast, and strange things were endless.

“There’s nothing.”

“There was something huge down here just now,” He Lingchuan said with certainty. “Either a living creature or some vehicle.”

“They probably used an escape technique or spell.” Fushan Yue hissed. “It’s rare to see someone who’s proficient in the earth-burrowing escape spell at this point in time.” As he spoke, he took out the violet-gold hammer and slammed it against the ground twice.

This artifact specialized in breaking illusions.

The ground trembled, but nothing unusual was shaken loose.

Fushan Yue looked up toward the girl on the cliff. “Peach, did you see anything?”

Peach shook her head. “No!”

Standing at a higher vantage point, she had been scanning the area for movement.

“An earth-burrowing escape spell only carries you a few meters. You can’t get far with it,” said Fushan Yue. He had used the spell himself and knew it well. “They must’ve layered it with an illusion.”

“They’re fast,” said He Lingchuan as he studied the boulders below. “But the grass in the cracks has been flattened.”

So his earlier observation had been correct; the thing had been large.

Fushan Yue sniffed and pointed casually. “Blood.”

Blood had splattered onto the blades of grass.

Judging by the amount, the ram thief’s injury was severe.

He Lingchuan picked up a twig and lifted something from the ground. “Hey, what’s this?” Transparent, sticky, stretchable...

“It looks like snot,” Fushan Yue said with a grimace. “Or some kind of slime.”

He Lingchuan carefully stored both the twig smeared with slime and the blood-splattered grass in his storage ring.

The two climbed back up the cliff to inspect the other ram thief’s body.

Yes, this unfortunate fellow had already been drained dry by Peach. He had lost all signs of life on the spot.

Fushan Yue examined the wound on his neck and exclaimed in surprise, “Peach, how long did you drink?”

“From when I screamed until you arrived, Young Master,” Peach said timidly, afraid of being scolded. “I don’t know why, but I was really hungry!”

That wasn’t even ten breaths’ time. A newly-born blightful child, and she’d already drained a full-grown man dry?

He Lingchuan asked quietly, “Do blightful children drink blood too?”

“They do, but not like this.” Fushan Yue pulled Peach into his arms and examined her eyes and teeth, even checking her pulse.

His expression was strange, a mix of astonishment and satisfaction.

“Y-Young Master, am I not okay anymore?”