Where Immortals Once Walked

It was not that the ambusher had exposed himself. In truth, he had hidden his killing intent very well.

Rather, He Lingchuan had already grown used to preparing for every possibility.

Before taking down the nothing beast, he had set down ghost-shadow cicada shells in the surroundings in advance.

He leaped over to the captive and asked, “Who sent you?”

When he saw that face, he was not at all surprised, because the ambusher was none other than Hu Bin.

This bastard had cut off the nothing beast’s head one step ahead of him back at the beast den and offered the outrageous price of forty rinsing beads. His reason had sounded dignified enough, but unfortunately, He Lingchuan had not believed a word of it.

He could still tell the difference between someone who sincerely wanted to sell and someone who was only putting on airs.

Now, Hu Bin had actually tracked him all the way into the mountains. That meant taking an enormous risk. After all, the absence of even a single rinsing bead was enough to suffocate even the greatest hero. His Chiyan companions had not been willing to risk following He Lingchuan, yet Hu Bin had come.

This fellow was a mercenary, and He Lingchuan had plenty of enemies. It was not hard to guess that he had taken money to do a job.

Hu Bin had chosen his timing with precision, striking right when He Lingchuan had killed the nothing beast and lowered his guard. Unfortunately for him, his luck was just a little poor.

By sheer coincidence, Hu Bin had walked straight into a counter-trap.

Hu Bin looked up at him and said coldly, “Someone who wants you dead.”

“Oh? Which one?” Only after the stink dumpling’s stench dispersed did He Lingchuan dare move closer. He placed Fleeting Life’s edge right against Hu Bin’s neck. “Come on, surprise me.”

Hu Bin struggled again. A cracking sound came from his body, like walnuts being crushed. At the same time, he answered He Lingchuan.

“Fine.”

What did this bastard just do? Suspicious, He Lingchuan cautiously stepped back twice, but the mirror shouted, “Behind you!”

Before the mirror even finished saying the word “behind,” the hairs on the back of He Lingchuan’s neck stood on end. That was the instinct he had honed through repeated brushes with death in the Panlong Soul Land. A powerful enemy was closing in from behind. Danger!

This rock crevice was very narrow, leaving no room to maneuver. He Lingchuan could either run forward or leap upward.

No, wait, Hu Bin’s blocking the front.

In that instant, he had actually been forced into a dead corner by his opponent.

And the opponent had already predicted the two directions he could flee. One vertical slash drove forward, while one horizontal slash swept upward, forming a ferocious cross slash.

Within twenty meters, there was saber qi everywhere!

The rock crevice was only so large. He Lingchuan had nowhere to dodge. No matter how fast he ran, he could not outrun the enemy’s blade.

The attack came with full strength and left no room for escape. The attacker’s determination to cut He Lingchuan down was terrifyingly firm.

And yet, He Lingchuan neither fled nor dodged.

At that moment, he actually chose to turn back and crouch. Right under the opponent’s eyes, he produced a large shield, bracing it in front of himself and blocking the strike with a loud bang!

The rectangular shield surface was smooth and reflective, and it was over half a man tall.

This was the Soul-Stealing Mirror’s second form. After consuming imperial nectar and evolving several times, it had been polishing its new traits all along. In He Lingchuan’s words, the thing had finally become somewhat useful.

The moment he crouched down, the shield covered him completely.

The cross slash struck the shield with a thunderous boom. It looked like a single blow, but in truth, it was seven consecutive strikes. They came so quickly, with gaps so brief, that they sounded like one long impact.

Even with He Lingchuan’s current cultivation, he felt as if a giant elephant had smashed into him head-on without mercy.

The mirror screamed even louder. “Aaaaah, it hurts! This kid is strong!”

But in the end, it held.

The deadliest main cross slash struck the shield and was mostly dispersed. However, the remaining saber qi surged back and forth inside the rock crevice like flying blades.

The stone walls on both sides were shaved clean. The saber qi reflected between them like sound waves. Although He Lingchuan had the shield in front of him, his left side, right side, and back were empty of armor. In that moment, he was slashed countless times.

Though it was only a little residual saber qi, the frequency and force were enough to carve out a thousand cuts. The opponent clearly wished he would suffer that exact punishment.

Unfortunately, the faint glow on the shield’s surface extended all the way over He Lingchuan. The mirror-shield itself also possessed the properties of a heart-protecting mirror and could shield his whole body, though its strength was limited.

Two popping sounds came from his body as two protective magical artifacts also shattered. Any hunter entering the Fu Realm would make preparations beforehand, and he had specifically added some gear to his arsenal.

In any case, he had successfully blocked the opponent’s most sinister and vicious strike and successfully entered the rhythm of counterattack.

The two sides were close enough to make contact. He Lingchuan immediately raised his hand and slammed the shield forward, the blow heavy and forceful.

The opponent’s center line had opened. Fleeting Life, which had been hidden behind the shield all along, suddenly appeared and stabbed toward the enemy’s abdomen like a venomous snake.

He Lingchuan had already seen clearly that the ambusher behind him was still Hu Bin!

Twice. The other party had ambushed him twice now.

The “Hu Bin” bound by spider silk behind He Lingchuan only then began to fade slowly, until at last, only two strands of spider silk were left swaying in the air.

Hu Bin saw through his follow-up and did not take it head-on. Instead, he leaped backward and avoided Fleeting Life.

That blade gave him a very dangerous feeling.

In addition, the cross slash just now was repelled by the shield. He knew his own strength best. Even if only ten or twenty percent of the force rebounded, Hu Bin himself was still left with unsettled blood and qi, a sharp pain in the web of his hand, and a serious impact on his shoulder.

Having finally pulled back a little initiative, how could He Lingchuan let it go so easily? This was a dangerous mountain path to begin with. Judging by the terrain, Hu Bin was below while he stood above. Therefore, once his offense unfolded, it became like a fierce tiger descending the mountain, violent and unstoppable.

Attacking from above carried an advantage, both in reality and in the mind.

Unlike his opponent’s sweeping, forceful advances, He Lingchuan’s shield strikes were unusually fierce, bold, and forceful. Yet Fleeting Life in his right hand was elusive, appearing and vanishing unpredictably, focusing only on vital points without the slightest regard for martial virtue.

Two weapons, two completely opposite methods, left the enemy struggling to adapt.

This was one of the fighting methods he had learned in the Gale Army, called the “clam sting.” In the salt lake north of Panlong City lived a kind of tiny clam, only the length of a little finger, yet adept at catching fish. Its foot carried a venomous stinger, which could suddenly shoot out from beneath the protection of its shell and stab nearby small fish.

The Gale Army had imitated that method in battle, emphasizing the combination of solid defense and strange, treacherous offense to disrupt the enemy’s rhythm.

Whenever he found an opening, he pressed forward a little, advancing step by step.

Both men had survived hundreds of battles. Both had calm hearts and firm wills. Sparks bursting from the edges of their blades lit the dim mountain wilderness and also reflected the equally ruthless gazes in their eyes.

When two warriors meet on a narrow path, victory belongs to the one with greater courage; neither of them had any way out of this!

This battle had been a fight to the death from the very beginning.

Fan Sheng? Meng Shan? Neither of them could be mentioned in the same breath as Hu Bin. Yet the more He Lingchuan fought, the smoother his movements became. The more he fought, the freer he felt and the more excited he grew.

Ever since obtaining the Meridian Art in Panlong City, he had trained diligently, never daring to slack off for a single day.

Ever since taking his first mouthful of imperial nectar, his progress had never stopped.

Ever since the first time blood had stained the yellow sand, he had known that only courageous, relentless advancement remained on his path.

But after entering Beijia, he had kept his secrets at every turn, stayed low-key to protect himself, acted with caution, and maneuvered between many sides.

Even though he was a rational person, the pressure, fury, and resentment that had accumulated in him over so long would eventually find a gap and surge out.

For example, now.

For example, under these exhausting conditions of crushing gravity.

The more Hu Bin fought, the more alarmed he became.

He could keenly sense that his opponent was growing more and more integrated as he fought. Whether it was his saber technique or fighting spirit, both were gradually climbing toward their peak.

His opponent was like a coiled dragon rising with the tide, utterly unstoppable.

When it came to hand-to-hand slaughter and close-range entanglement, it had been a very long time since anyone could fight Hu Bin evenly. Yet this young man was actually treating him as a whetstone, using real combat to hone himself.

Only a few months ago, the young man had barely begun to show himself and could just about exchange one move with him.

Such progress was truly absurd!

His premonition had been right after all. Back then, he should have cut this young man down from horseback and removed today’s future threat.

The two of them had already fought all the way from the rock crevice back to the stone hollow. The surroundings abruptly opened up, and their fighting methods naturally shifted with the terrain.

His opponent fought with growing enthusiasm, but Hu Bin was not worried. Though the other party’s momentum was strong, the true energy he consumed was also pouring out like floodgates thrown open. One had to remember that the Fu Realm had nearly four times normal gravity. Every full-strength attack carried a cost.

He believed that by the time this young man before him realized how much he was expending, his dantian would probably be nearly empty. Under such circumstances, Hu Bin only had to wait at leisure for the chance to turn defense into offense.

Hu Bin had tempered himself on battlefields for many years and defeated countless powerful enemies. He knew deeply that victory and defeat were not decided in a single moment, only by the final outcome.

He still had follow-up moves. He still had hidden methods up his sleeve. Once He Lingchuan’s strength stalled even slightly, the moment to repay his great grudge would arrive!

He only had to wait until—

Suddenly, a booming explosion rang out. Two meters away from the two of them, a stone was crushed underfoot.

At least, it looked like a stone on the surface.

This was a marker He Lingchuan had buried earlier in the ground around the stone hollow. It looked and felt like stone, but the inside was actually hollow, with a muffled thunder charge hidden within and a fire talisman buried inside. Once the talisman was pressed, it would ignite, triggering the muffled thunder to explode.

The blast wave rushed out, and neither of them could avoid it.

The shockwave from the explosion sent both men flying. Light flickered over both their bodies as their protective magical artifacts activated automatically.

Fortunately, both were highly skilled. They flipped once in midair and landed steadily on the ground.

Hu Bin cursed inwardly. No wonder He Lingchuan had forced him back into the stone hollow. So the boy had wanted to use the buried muffled thunder to blow his face open.

He had nearly fallen for the brat’s trick.

However, he did not feel the least bit happy, because muffled thunder would not explode unless someone stepped on it.

An uninvited guest had come into the stone hollow, sneaking silently to within less than two meters of them.

Now that it had been blasted dead-on, it stopped pretending and revealed itself outright.

A body over six meters tall, a massive mouth like a saltwater crocodile’s, powerful muscles, sharp claws...

The nothing beast leader had appeared!

The muffled thunder had caught it completely off guard, sending it crashing onto a nearby boulder with a heavy thunk.

Rocks rolled down to the bottom of the cliff.

However, the nothing beast leader immediately climbed back up and shook itself. The muffled thunder had not injured its body, but it had certainly blasted out its temper.

He Lingchuan hissed softly. Li Qingge had clearly assured him that although this kind of muffled thunder had a small blast range, its power was especially concentrated, enough to blow apart a several-thousand-kilo duonao beast.

If even thick-skinned, tough-fleshed duonao beasts were like that, would Hu Bin come out well after stepping on one?

He had not expected that before Hu Bin could be properly entertained, the nothing beast leader would accidentally step on it first. Even more unexpectedly, that full-powered muffled thunder had not caused it the slightest injury.

Isn’t that thing far too tough? No wonder it dares contend against lord-level creatures like the Giant Thunderclap Beast.

Even if this creature isn’t at the lord level yet, it’s probably only a step away at most.