Where Immortals Once Walked

“I’m not alone either.”

He had never been alone.

Lingxu City and the heavenly gods were powerful enough to make any individual feel ashamed of their own smallness and insignificance. If he did not have Panlong City behind him, he would never have dared act as he did now.

Panlong City was one of his pillars. Even if he could not see or touch it, it still let him move forward with a steady heart, free of fear and hesitation.

Was that not exactly how faith was?

Still, the mirror sounded dissatisfied as it said, “That sounds a little forced.”

“Then think about this, of all the places Fang Canran could have made a living, why did he insist on coming to Lingxu City?” He Lingchuan smiled. “Everyone under heaven yearns for Lingxu City, but he should be one of the exceptions. For Shao Jian’s descendants, the risks here are far greater than the opportunities. Just look at me. If I had nothing to gain here, I’d stay as far from Lingxu City and the heavenly gods as possible.”

That was a spiritual distance, an instinctive choice.

“You mean the organization behind him stationed him in Lingxu City?”

“Is there any identity more convenient for gathering intelligence and carrying out operations than the chief steward of a powerful noble clan’s business?” He Lingchuan lifted his chin toward the distance. “A giant capital of seven million people. Who knows how many outside forces are hiding here? Probably too many to count.”

The lights below the mountain glittered more brilliantly than the stars.

“And when he caught me with the earth immortal rope, his first question was which organization I belonged to.” He Lingchuan smiled. “In other words, his subconscious assumption was that I, too, was working for some organization.”

This is Lingxu City, the very heart of the Beijia. Who would be insane enough to come here alone and make trouble?

Heh.

The mirror gave a small sound. “That does make sense.”

“I may look like I’m handling Lingxu City with ease, but in truth, I’m badly outnumbered. I have to do too many things personally, and it’s difficult.” The Tongxin Guard was always watching him too, leaving him constrained at every turn. If he had reliable accomplices to divide the work with him, the difficulty of his plan should decrease significantly.

The mirror reminded him, “Even if Fang Canran really does belong to another faction, that doesn’t mean he’ll help you.”

“The enemy of my enemy is worth approaching.” No matter how difficult the matter, he had to take it one step at a time.

Just then, a dark figure swept across the sky and flew toward the pagoda, following the light.

He Lingchuan whistled. The figure folded its wings and landed on his arm.

The goshawk had finally returned.

The timing was almost too perfect. He Lingchuan’s face brightened.

After completing such a long journey, the goshawk panted with its beak open.

He Lingchuan took a wine bowl from his robes and poured some clean water from his waterskin. The goshawk immediately lowered its head and drank.

Only when its movements slowed did He Lingchuan ask, “How did it go?”

“You were right. That fellow is indeed still alive.” The goshawk took a sealed document from the storage ring on its claw and handed it to him. “This is the account from Yangshui County.”

“You’ve worked hard. Go rest.” He Lingchuan stroked its back feathers. “You’ve made a major contribution. Tomorrow, I’ll ask His Highness to reward you.”

He turned the sealed document over and over in his hands, examining it again and again, then fell into thought.

The mirror grew worried. “Is something wrong with the document?”

“The document is fine, but this matter isn’t.”

“Huh?” It really did not want to ask why anymore.

“Since Xi Yunhe dared let me verify it, this man should indeed be alive.” He Lingchuan murmured, “But the fact that he is alive is what’s wrong.”

The mirror was still baffled. “Is that bad for us?”

He Lingchuan smiled. “It has nothing to do with us.”

* * *

The next day, He Lingchuan once again slipped out of Fleeting Thoughts Manor.

The donkey cart sent by the gibbon Old Ge was already waiting at the rear mountain. Once He Lingchuan got in, it headed straight for Dun Garden.

Fang Canran had clearly prepared in advance. Not long after the servant went in to report, he hurried out personally and handed two storage bracelets to He Lingchuan. “The 180 kilograms of spirit-surging ore are all inside. The purity is very high. The recipient should like them. There are also five Soul-Shocking Bombs. The Heart-Piercing Mirror hasn’t been repaired yet. I’ll give it to you in a few days.”

He Lingchuan swept it with his spiritual sense and confirmed there was no issue. He cupped his hands and said, “Many thanks, Brother Fang.”

He did not know much about ore, but this batch of spirit-surging ore was bright and lustrous, clearly of good quality. He had paid over seven thousand taels for crude ore, not refined ore, but Fang Canran had upgraded the quality without raising the price.

Fang Canran smiled. “Be careful on the road.”

He Lingchuan thanked him and left, but instead of going north directly, he rode the donkey cart aimlessly around the Main City District.

The little spider told him there were eyes following from behind.

He had already shaken off the Tongxin Guard, and he had just visited Dun Garden. Hm, they’re most likely men Fang Canran sent to trail me to see if I immediately head up Mount Xu.

The two of them had a contract and could not harm each other. However, tailing someone was, to Fang Canran, merely a way of deepening his understanding. It was not covered by the terms.

He Lingchuan was in no hurry. He got out and entered a perfume house.

Everywhere inside were naked men. Before entering, one also had to take a numbered plaque. It was highly inconvenient, so the watchers could only wait at the front and rear doors.

Who knew that wait would last four full hours.

They sensed something was wrong and went in to search. Sure enough, He Lingchuan had vanished.

The men could only return gloomily to report to Fang Canran.

After hearing it, Fang Canran showed no anger. He simply waved them away.

By then, of course, He Lingchuan had already reached his destination.

This was his third time ascending Mount Xu. The scenery along the way had not changed. Tourists bustled everywhere, and at a rough estimate, there were at least tens of thousands of them.

For a tourist destination like this, there was only peak season and even more peak season.

He Lingchuan did not stop along the way and headed straight for his destination: Tianji Peak.

As before, the path up the peak was packed shoulder to shoulder. The long queue advanced only seven meters in fifteen minutes, and the enormous cavern was even more crowded. The tree roots and deep pool were surrounded so densely that not even water could get through.

Two guards stood on either side of the pool, their faces expressionless, stopping all uncivilized behavior.

Queuing was slow and boring, so the tourists all chatted. He Lingchuan’s hearing was too good, forcing him to listen to a whole pile of family gossip. On one side, someone said that their useless man at home had snuck out to gamble again. On the other, someone laughed quietly that the young woman next door had run off with someone two days ago.

But what he had not expected was that most of what he heard was actually gossip about State Preceptor Qing Yang.

Behind him seemed to be a tour group of twenty or thirty people. He Lingchuan heard several guests muttering that State Preceptor Qing Yang had improper relations with more than one of her favored disciples.

“Think about it. Over the past hundred years, how many talented young men has the Spring Palace taken in? State Preceptor Qing Yang can turn over whichever card she likes. Any one of them would serve her.”

“She’s almost two hundred and still maintains her looks. Maybe she’s skilled in dual cultivation.”

The group started snickering.

Someone nearby could not stand it and cut in. “Watch your tongue. You didn’t see any of it with your own eyes!”

“Didn’t State Preceptor Qing Yang admit it herself? She said that expelled disciple, the one in the elixir of youth case, who hunted monsters and took their beads—what was his name, Mai something?—had improper thoughts about her back then!”

“That’s right. That Mai fellow couldn’t get what he wanted from her, so he betrayed them.” Another guest laughed. “I mean, you can just imagine what the Spring Palace is like inside.”

The earlier speaker had no reply.

“Which wealthy house in Lingxu City doesn’t have scandals or strange habits? I heard that Attendant Liu inside the port specifically hired a hive of bee monsters. When his concubines serve him or his guests, he has the bee monsters sting them.”

Everyone was shocked and immediately began asking for details. The topic veered off from there.

He Lingchuan scratched his head. No wonder the Spring Palace hasn’t been able to shift the people’s attention away despite having used so many methods. It turns out that State Preceptor Qing Yang’s romantic scandals and wild rumors are spreading everywhere.

This kind of celebrity gossip spread fast and lasted long. After passing through countless rounds of exaggeration, it came out attacking the most vulgar places.

He Lingchuan had not expected State Preceptor Shuang Ye to resort to such methods.

The two grand state preceptors had fought for over a hundred years. Now that State Preceptor Shuang Ye had finally seized a chance at victory, he was using every means available.

When it was a struggle to the death, lofty character and concern for status could all be tossed aside.

After finally squeezing into the cavern, He Lingchuan did not go touch the tree roots. Instead, he squeezed to the front of the pool, stood still, turned back toward the cave entrance, and pointed.

In this packed cavern, no one paid attention to such a gesture.

But He Lingchuan remembered clearly that before Venerable Muling’s passing, he had sat in this very position, pointed forward like this, and said one sentence:

I will wait for him here.

Who was this “him”? Perfected Dongli, or me?

And where exactly is “here”?

This was why He Lingchuan had to come to the peak himself and verify it with his own eyes.

He followed the direction of his own finger. Hm, outside the cave and to the front right? What’s there?

He Lingchuan lifted his feet and headed out of the cave.

He was moving against the crowd, and the squeezing was extremely difficult. But once he left the cave, everything opened up, because there was almost no path to the front right. Instead, there was only a narrow stone ridge half-hidden in the grass, about sixteen meters long.

Below it was an abyss.

This little path had never been repaired. Commonly called a carp’s back, it rose and dipped unevenly, narrow and difficult to cross. The harsh mountain wind could even blow a person straight into the valley. Normal tourists would not risk their safety.

Seeing him stand before the carp’s back, someone kindly called out, “Hey, you there! Don’t stand over there, it’s too dangerous—”

Before the man finished speaking, He Lingchuan took two steps onto the stone ridge and nimbly hopped across this natural hazard.

Winding farther inward, tall jagged boulders blocked the view for the tourists on Tianji Peak.

After just a few dozen steps, the surroundings suddenly fell quiet. Only the mountain wind howled.

A single natural “carp’s back” had completely separated him from the noisy scenic spot and the dense crowd of tourists.

There was no path behind the huge rocks either. Frost and snow covered the stones, and each step sank unevenly. A person could sprain an ankle with the slightest carelessness.

He Lingchuan jumped onto a boulder and checked the direction.

Seen from farther away, the Dao-Seeking Tree looked even more magnificent.

And from where he stood now, looking downward, he discovered that the Dao-Seeking Tree’s thick roots actually extended all the way down, winding through the rocks of the entire peak. They even appeared faintly at the base of the stone ridge he had just crossed.

It appeared that he had still underestimated this tree. The Dao-Seeking Tree on Tianji Peak was far more than the wonder of a “tree wrapping a cavern.” With its absurdly developed roots, it had actually wrapped the entire mountain peak from top to bottom.

Even where he stood now was still within Tianji Peak’s range, and the Dao-Seeking Tree’s roots had extended all the way here!