Where Immortals Once Walked

Chapter 559: Therefore, There Must Be War

Still, those men who had come to seize him had also said they needed to act before Fushan Yue returned to the post station.

The Crown Prince of Chiyan’s status was still enough to make those above them wary. Relations between the State of Chiyan and Lingxu City had grown tense of late, and the trail leading to the real mastermind behind the slaughter of monsterfolk from various states pointed toward Lingxu City’s upper echelon. The Monster Emperor likely had no wish to pour oil on the flames.

But how long would that caution last? Or rather, how much patience did they really have left? That was hard to say.

He Lingchuan knew he had to dispel Bai Ziqi’s suspicions as quickly as possible, even if only for the time being.

At the very least, though, he could sleep soundly tonight.

* * *

Panlong Soul Land, Chipa Highland.

He Lingchuan turned his head and sneezed.

Is someone talking about me behind my back, or is there too much pepper on this roast lamb?

“Let me.” Shao Jian took the spice bottle from his hand, then made a few extra cuts into the leg of lamb with his knife. “When it comes to roasting lamb, if I rank myself second, no one would dare claim first.”

For over a decade now, he had been driven by exile and unrest, spending more time outdoors than anywhere else.

He Lingchuan drew his hand back and sat down again on the round log, only then noticing the red signet ring on Shao Jian’s ring finger.

Unlike the rings worn by other merchants, it was not set with a gemstone or jade. Instead, the face was engraved with a design and characters.

“That ring of yours is rather unusual.”

“This?” Shao Jian turned his hand over for a look. “I once went west on business and saw that the wealthy and powerful there all wore signet rings like this. When they needed to stamp a seal, they only had to clench a fist and press it down. Very convenient. So I had one made in the same style.”

He extended a finger for He Lingchuan to inspect. The latter said, “That pattern is a sea snail?”

“Yes. The first merchant guild I ever founded was called the Red Snail Merchant Guild,” Shao Jian said with a smile. “We handled transport out of the coastal ports.” Then he looked at He Lingchuan and added, “Now that Panlong City has taken the West Ji Plain as well, you ought to head south sometime if you get the chance. Life by the sea is completely different from what we have inland.”

He Lingchuan deliberately pointed to the dried seafood Shao Jian had purchased. “When the time comes, we’ll stew mountain delicacies and seafood together.”

“Sure.” Shao Jian laughed aloud.

He had made this special trip to the Chipa Highland just to buy dried red mushrooms from a particular farm family, insisting that theirs were far better than what the city shops sold. His exact description was: authentic.

His beloved daughter especially loved red mushroom soup and had specifically told him to bring plenty back. For that one sentence alone, this doting father had gone another twenty-five kilometers out of his way, and He Lingchuan, as his guard, naturally had no choice but to accompany him.

The road was long, and darkness fell early, so the two simply lodged for the night in the farmer’s granary. They also bought a black mountain goat from the household for dinner. The meat went on the grill, while the bones were simmered into soup.

The little girl had excellent taste. Red mushrooms paired beautifully with goat broth. Once the dried mushrooms had been soaked and then stewed with the meat, the soup came out clear and bright, tinged a rich red that looked wonderfully warming. A little oil floated on the surface, but the broth itself was fresh and clean rather than greasy, carrying that distinctive fragrance only mountain fare possessed.

He Lingchuan ladled out a bowl for Shao Jian. “How old is your daughter?”

“She’s seven already.” The moment Shao Jian spoke of his daughter, his eyebrows and eyes softened with delight. “Wild as can be. Not the least bit demure like a proper girl. She still climbs trees and jumps onto horses.”

Once he started, he could not stop talking.

Ten years ago, he had passed through a small city and fallen mutually in love with a woman there. Before long, they were married, and two years later, they had a daughter.

Shao Jian carried the hatred of a lost nation and a ruined family on his back, half a lifetime spent wandering in exile, sighing through his days and nights. Yet after his daughter was born, color returned to his world.

He even showed He Lingchuan the amulet hanging at his waist.

It was braided from red cord, a little crude and a little clumsy, yet his beloved daughter had made it with her own hands. He traveled north and south all year long, and there was not a single day he did not wear it.

He Lingchuan smiled. “What’s her name?”

“Shao Yingying. Her pet name is Swallow. Ah, let me tell you, there is no joy in this world truer than the happiness of family.” Shao Jian turned the lamb on the spit again. “That’s why I truly admire Brother Zhong. He was able to do what others could not.”

If it were him, he could never bear to offer up his own daughter in sacrifice. He would sooner take her place himself.

At that, he let out a long, heartfelt sigh.

He Lingchuan smiled faintly. There were all kinds of fathers in this world.

Still, he followed Shao Jian’s line of thought and said, “You’re remarkable too, Mister Shao. From here on out, you’ll be standing alone against the gods.”

Shao Jian burst into laughter. “Last year, I took Little Yingying to the West Street Temple Fair in Linhe City. She loves the soft rice cakes there the most, so every time I go home, I bring some back for her. There was a fortune teller there who read my face and my fate, then stuffed a fourteen-word oracle into a gourd: ‘Singing wildly, drinking freely, body feels light; never asking wind or rain for peace.’ He said I was destined to drift rootlessly all my life and unlikely to meet a good end. Once Yingying understood what it meant, she cried for several nights.” He shook his head. “That is my fate, and I accept it. But I hope Yingying can live her whole life in peace and safety, and never follow in my footsteps.”

He Lingchuan said softly, “Then you’ll have to stay farther away from her.”

Shao Jian gave him a look and said bitterly, “Yes. Exactly.”

He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. Then he changed the subject, “I can tell that both Brother Zhong and the Red General mean to cultivate you. Work hard. You’ve got a promising future ahead of you, young man.”

After spending these past few days together, he and He Lingchuan had gradually grown more familiar with each other.

“Me?” He Lingchuan smiled awkwardly. “I’m nothing more than a common soldier.”

“A common soldier who can enter the Hall of War and listen to us discuss the Dragon Punishment Pillar is no ordinary common soldier.” Shao Jian sliced off a piece of lamb for him. “From what I’ve seen, you’re good-natured and measured in how you conduct yourself. Those are all excellent qualities.”

“Being good-natured counts too?” Only here in the soul land did anyone praise him that way. In the real world, friend and foe alike called him scheming.

He Lingchuan took a bite of the roast lamb. The outer layer was crisp and crackling; one bite into it, and the meat inside was tender and bursting with juice.

Shao Jian’s skill really did leave him in the dust.

“Of course it does. Be kind to others, make more friends and fewer enemies, and the road ahead only gets wider.” Shao Jian set the lamb back over the fire and lifted his bowl for a sip of hot soup. “Those who achieve great things do not necessarily need to be sharp-edged and imposing. If the goal can be reached, what does it matter if one’s manner is softer and more flexible?”

“Back then, Brother Zhong and I traveled and studied together in Lingxu City. I once saw him at the Imperial Academy debating the erudite scholars there from every angle, arguing them into speechlessness. At the time, I deeply admired both his learning and his temperament. I thought him a man of towering spirit, clear-eyed and above the world. But...” Shao Jian paused. “After all these years of storms and upheaval, looking back now, a temperament as rigid and outspoken as Brother Zhong’s was always destined to suffer in court. Otherwise, why would he later have been dispatched to the Panlong Wasteland?”

“You mustn’t imitate him in that.” By then, both he and He Lingchuan had finished half a bowl of goat broth. “So long as you harbor great ambition and refuse to give in through every setback, what does it matter if you must sometimes be humble, yielding, even endure injustice and compromise? They are only methods. In the end, what matters is the final result, is it not?”

Ever since having a daughter, Shao Jian’s heart had softened considerably. Seeing a promising junior like He Lingchuan, he could not help but feel a desire to nurture talent, and so he gave his advice earnestly.

By remaining at Shao Jian’s side, He Lingchuan also came to understand Beijia better.

This knowledge came from someone who had lived through it all, and that was the sort of understanding no book could easily provide.

Yet Shao Jian refused outright to speak of the State of Yuān. He Lingchuan tried several times, directly and indirectly, to steer the topic there, but each attempt was neatly deflected. The very name seemed to be a curse, a taboo to Shao Jian. It was as if it were something no one was permitted even to touch.

So He Lingchuan could only pick relatively safe subjects instead. For instance:

“Mr. Shao, what kind of temperament does the Monster Emperor actually have? Does he truly take orders from the gods?”

“The current monster emperor is a ruler of great talent and grand strategy. In the two hundred years of his reign, Beijia has not fallen.”

He Lingchuan prodded the fire. “Merely keeping Beijia from falling counts as great talent and grand strategy?”

It was now the seventeenth year of the Panlong Calendar. Beijia’s second monster emperor was still on the throne. By the era He Lingchuan came from, this ruler was already referred to by Beijia’s people as the late emperor.

“With territory so vast, a national situation so complex, and layers of entrenched corruption and old maladies accumulated over centuries...” Shao Jian cut another piece of lamb and chewed it slowly. “To govern a state is harder than ascending to heaven. To preserve something that large without letting it collapse is already a feat achieved through endless hardship. Just look at the human states around it. Some last a little over a century, some a mere seven or eight years before dynasties change and one swallows another.” But he had never intended to praise the butcher of his own family, so his tone abruptly changed. “However, these so-called monster emperors, monster kings, and so-called state preceptors, they’re all murderers. They are traitors to the mortal realm!”

He Lingchuan’s gaze shifted. “Traitors?”

“The ancestors of the Monster Emperor were mighty monster immortals. They stood firm and fearless against the invasion of the heavenly gods, pressing forward even if it meant martyring themselves for the Dao.” Shao Jian’s voice turned icy. “Who could have imagined that their descendants, more than two thousand years later, would turn traitor and defect to the enemy, willingly debasing themselves into lackeys at the gods’ stirrup, helping them butcher the common people? If that is not treachery, then what is? They have disgraced their ancestors entirely!” By the end, he could not keep from speaking with harsh, cutting force.

For a moment, He Lingchuan had no answer.

Two thousand years was an immense span of time. Seas could become mulberry fields in that time; how much more could human affairs change?

Besides, over six hundred years ago, the founding Monster Emperor of Beijia had also faced a situation in which monserkind had grown weak and had been squeezed by humanity until it no longer had room to survive. In desperation, he had sought outside aid.

By then, the principal contradiction lay between humans and monsterkind. How could the Monster Emperor of that era possibly have stood shoulder to shoulder with immortals against the gods, as his distant ancestors once had?

He Lingchuan asked another question, “Lady Mitian said that the gods have been feeding on this world’s nightmare qi all along. I also heard in the Hall of Inquiry that the mortal realm and the divine realm exist in a give-and-take relationship: the more nightmare qi they draw away, the more spirit qi in our world dries up. Do the Monster Emperor of Beijia and the monster kings know about this?”

Shao Jian was startled. “They teach that in the Hall of Inquiry?”

He had attended lectures there himself and knew those were all open classes. Is Panlong City really willing to tell its citizens a secret like that?

“Yes, they taught it. They taught it.” He Lingchuan lied without batting an eye, even adding a sincere smile for good measure.

“Of course Beijia’s upper ranks know.” Firelight flickered in Shao Jian’s eyes. “Resources in the divine realm have already run dry. The gods must draw the energy they need to survive from the mortal realm. The refined essence within the bodies of all living things, once it spills outward, becomes nightmare qi. Monsters and humans both contain abundant nightmare qi, but humans are the best source of all, particularly because our numbers are so great.”

“However, as people age naturally, their nightmare qi also steadily dissipates and returns to the world. So—”

So Tian Shengzi’s deduction really had been correct after all. He Lingchuan said quietly, “So there must be war?”

“Only war can swiftly harvest the lives of young adults in their prime, like cutting the tenderest chives.”