Where Immortals Once Walked

Like nesting dolls.

But Zhu Erniang only has a single true body. How’s she able to command the other five molts to move in coordination?

Wait, no, didn’t she only have four molts left in the Demon Nest? Where did the fifth one come from?

With that question in mind, he looked at Zhu Erniang again and suddenly realized that compared to when she had been in the Demon Nest... she had slimmed down.

She had shrunk by an entire size.

Before He Lingchuan could ask, Zhu Erniang had already charged over.

Her target was unquestionably Zhu Daniang.

He Lingchuan and Dong Rui instinctively stepped aside. Zhu Daniang restored herself to her original size and planted her two front claws against the ground.

“Stop.”

The motion made the earth tremble hard, and Zhu Erniang indeed stopped in front of her.

The immortal molt was larger than all the other molts, so even Zhu Erniang had to look up at it.

“I took a tremendous risk to bring the immortal molt back to you,” Zhu Daniang said slowly. “You must honor your promise as well.”

Dong Rui, listening from the side, assumed she was referring to the dangers of fighting the gods on Mount Xu. In truth, from the moment Zhu Daniang’s soul had left her sister and temporarily lodged—or sealed itself—inside the ancient xun, she had already taken an enormous risk.

Whether He Lingchuan would go to Beijia, when he would reach Lingxu City, whether he could ultimately find the immortal molt and blow the ancient xun, all of that was filled with uncertainty.

At the time, even He Lingchuan himself, newly departed from the Demon Nest, had no answers to those questions. How could Zhu Daniang have any?

For an ancient monster immortal like her, uncertainty itself was the greatest risk.

Even so, she had accepted the conditions Zhu Erniang offered and followed He Lingchuan away, despite the exceedingly slim chance that the trip would succeed.

Put another way, high risk demanded high reward. Now, she was asking for what she was owed.

The world of monster immortals was simply that practical.

Zhu Erniang turned her head and waved a claw at the smallest molt. “This is the shell I just molted. It’s yours.”

He Lingchuan understood as soon as he heard that. No wonder Zhu Erniang herself looked smaller. So she had molted again recently and left the freshest shell for her elder sister.

Zhu Daniang was dissatisfied. “It’s so small!”

“The small one will be better for you.”

That made sense. After all, given the current state of spirit qi, even Zhu Erniang’s former molts were difficult to control.

Zhu Daniang said nothing more. Looking at her sister, she called out, “Scatter!”

A slit immediately opened in the forehead of that molt. Then, with a rushing sound, countless burrow spiders poured out from within!

The scene looked exactly like boiling water overflowing from a pot, except what spilled out was Zhu Erniang’s countless descendants.

He Lingchuan and Dong Rui were both men who had seen the world, and they had even witnessed the great eruption of Mount Xu. Yet seeing this with their own eyes still made their scalps prickle, and they could not help but retreat two steps.

He Lingchuan finally understood how the molts moved.

Zhu Erniang had stuffed all her descendants into the molts. Still, who knew what method she used to control them so they moved in perfect unison?

Although this approach was impossible for humans to understand, it actually killed two birds with one stone. It let her move the shed molts while also taking her descendants with her during relocation, without having spiders pour over mountains and plains wherever she went.

Her descendants numbered in the thousands upon thousands. Once they migrated, the sight would be extraordinarily conspicuous, and a long-distance trek would easily alarm the local powers.

In that case, the other molts were probably using the same method. He Lingchuan had just been wondering where all her many descendants had gone.

Did Zhu Erniang do this for each of her major migrations, like from the Panlong Wasteland to Beijia, and from Beijia to the Demon Nest?

Well, I guess that those huge molts would be difficult even to transport otherwise.

Only after the burrow spiders inside the smallest molt had all scattered did Zhu Erniang push out an especially large white cocoon from beneath her abdomen. It was nearly half as tall as a person. Then she carefully placed it into the empty molt.

He Lingchuan noticed that the cocoon wriggled the entire time, as though something inside were growing or trying to come out.

“The blood-and-flesh filling begins now. It will take at least seventy days, and at most ninety, before it is complete.” Zhu Erniang walked over and gently touched heads with Zhu Daniang. “Come back. Your soul and spirit must be exhausted too.”

The moment she finished speaking, a wisp of white smoke emerged from Zhu Daniang’s eyes and mouth, drifting unsteadily into Zhu Erniang’s mouth.

These sisters had lived together ever since the Ancient Era, sharing one body between them. For Zhu Daniang, returning home was all too familiar.

It seemed Zhu Erniang did keep her word. Once she promised something, she would not go back on it. Zhu Daniang also trusted her enough to return the immortal molt to her. As her younger sister had said, she had spent more than twenty days traveling in the immortal molt. Though she had slept in between, her soul and spirit were in truth already severely exhausted and urgently needed a long, deep period of recovery, and three months might be just right.

He Lingchuan pointed at the molt and asked, “So this is blood-and-flesh regeneration?”

“Yes. This is a secret technique unique to our race. It can transform a specific egg sac into flesh, blood, and organs, slowly filling the entire molt.” Zhu Erniang pointed at the immortal molt. “This is different from the forced growth of flesh before we escaped Mount Xu. There will be no lingering harm.”

When He Lingchuan blew the ancient xun, the situation had been extremely urgent, so Zhu Daniang had directly stimulated the spider eggs remaining inside the immortal molt, generating blood and flesh to fill it. But that emergency method could not last. Once the time limit passed, the flesh and nerves would wither.

Zhu Erniang’s current method was stable and solid.

“My elder sister helped me recover the immortal molt, so according to our agreement, I must give her one of my shed molts. Three months from now, the flesh, nerves, and organs inside this molt will all be fully grown. It will become a normal body of blood and flesh. She will be able to use it without any hindrance, and she will also be able to continue cultivating.”

Dong Rui could not help but ask, “If that’s the case, why didn’t you give her one before?”

Zhu Erniang snorted and could not be bothered with him.

It seemed there were still some unknown secrets between these sisters.

He Lingchuan had once tried persuading Zhu Daniang to travel with him after completing the mission.

Having an old hand from the Ancient Era with him would bring benefits that went without saying.

He had thought this persuasion would be very difficult. After all, old antiques were always stubborn. Who would have guessed that Zhu Daniang would agree readily, saying that she had nowhere good to go anyway. Once she had her own body, it would no longer be convenient for her to live together with her younger sister. After all, one mountain could not hold two tigers, and one nest could not hold two ancestors.

Zhu Erniang was likewise unwilling to let her divide control over the burrow. Thus, Zhu Daniang’s departure had already become inevitable.

Only Zhu Daniang would so straightforwardly lay out the causes and consequences without hiding anything from him.

Starting now, it would take three months for the molt’s blood and flesh to finish reforming. Only then could Zhu Daniang leave with them.

“Come on. Let’s go tidy up the houses.” He Lingchuan stretched and said to Dong Rui, “While Zhu Erniang is reshaping the molt, we can go somewhere else first. Mm, didn’t you once say you know Xunyang Sandbar[1] like the back of your hand, as if it were your own kitchen?”

“Of course, though my house doesn’t have a kitchen.” Dong Rui had no objection. He simply dragged his heavy steps toward the abandoned village.

After driving the snail toad for so long, both mind and body had been worn down. He had even slimmed down by an entire size, and right now, the one who needed rest most was him.

1. This location was mentioned back in Chapter 687: Shinan. ☜