Where Immortals Once Walked

“It’s good that you’re back. It’s good that you’re back!” Even someone as socially adept and politically seasoned as He Chunhua found himself too overwhelmed to speak properly for a moment. A thousand different emotions surged through him at once. It took him quite a while to settle himself before he finally asked, “Have you eaten breakfast?”

He Lingchuan shook his head.

“Perfect. Then eat with us.”

Madame Ying wiped away her tears and turned to instruct Steward Wu, “Add more dishes!”

Her eldest son had an enormous appetite. The breakfast the kitchen had prepared in advance would never be enough for all four members of the family.

“I heard the red toon shoots[1] delivered this morning were especially tender. Tell the cooks to make six buns—no, no, steaming buns will take too long. Make pan-fried buns instead! Slice up the braised beef we were saving for lunch and bring it out now. Also, make three bowls of hot-and-sour rice noodles...”

He Lingchuan leaned over with a smile. “Are the cooks still the ones we brought from Heishui City? Then I want hawthorn cake!”

“Look at you. You haven’t even eaten yet, and you’re already thinking about sweets?” Madame Ying scolded him, then immediately turned to Steward Wu. “Go bring the hawthorn cake.”

He Lingchuan hurriedly added, “I also brought more than a dozen people back with me. Old Wu, see to their food and lodging for me!”

Half a year has passed, yet he’s still exactly the same! Madame Ying rolled her eyes inwardly but did not criticize him aloud.

He Chunhua heard it as well, and his gaze flickered. He wondered where his eldest son found people.

Steward Wu agreed repeatedly and hurried off to make the arrangements.

The family of four headed toward the dining hall. For the first time in far too long, the courtyard rang with laughter and cheerful voices.

His mother and younger brother’s emotions were genuine, and He Lingchuan felt truly happy as well.

Neither he nor the original owner of this body had ever particularly liked this family. Yet after enduring the violent storms and treacherous waves that came later, he had finally realized just how carefree and comfortable his old life in Heishui City had been.

Unfortunately, there was no going back.

Neither his state of mind nor his experience could ever return to what they had once been.

He could also feel He Chunhua’s gaze fixed firmly on him the entire time.

His father’s joy was equally obvious.

After eight months apart, the entire family finally sat together for a meal again.

On the surface, it was a picture of perfect familial happiness.

The moment He Chunhua’s fish congee arrived, he pushed it directly toward his eldest son. “Eat more! You look thinner.”

He Lingchuan did not stand on ceremony. He noisily slurped down the congee. “Food at home really is the best.”

That was no empty compliment.

He had eaten every imaginable delicacy in Lingxu City, yet in the end, he had discovered that the dishes made at home still suited his palate best.

Madame Ying smiled warmly. “Hurry and tell us where you’ve been for the past half year! Why didn’t you come home or even send a letter to let us know you were safe?”

By the last few words, she was practically grinding her teeth.

This heartless little bastard. Does he have no idea how much his family has suffered?

“Ah.” He Lingchuan scratched his head.

In truth, not long after entering the monster state of Chiyan, he had encountered Li Qingge. She had originally offered to send word back to Yuan on his behalf, but later took it upon herself to abandon the idea.

Sect Leader Li was an intelligent woman who understood where to draw the line.

Whenever the He Family was involved, He Lingchuan’s feelings became extremely complicated.

“Last summer, I fell into the Han River. I have no idea where so many broken trees, logs, and boulders came from, but I was battered around in the water. Eventually, something struck me on the head, and I lost consciousness.” He began spinning his tale. “By the time I woke up, I was already in a harbor called Shabutou in the State of Xuluo. Apparently, the flood had washed me into a shallow bay. Some local fishermen pulled me out and originally intended to bury me, only to discover that I was still breathing.”

Madame Ying and He Yue listened with bated breath.

Only He Chunhua had personally experienced the Battle of the Han River. He had seen with his own eyes how his eldest son fell into the water, and how the endless mass of timber from upstream came roaring down with the current, crushing every living thing in its path.

The fact that He Lingchuan had survived was nothing short of a miracle.

“How long did you drift downstream?” He Chunhua vaguely recalled that there really was a river bend in the State of Xuluo called Shabutou, and that it lay downstream along the Han River. He knew this because he had once studied military sand tables with General Zhao Pan of the northern front.

“I’m not sure. Two or three days, perhaps?”

He Yue looked puzzled. “Brother, I’m not trying to argue, but after drifting in the river for two or three days, you were still breathing?”

He Lingchuan pulled a pearl from his robes and waved it in front of him. “Well, take a look at what I’ve got right here! It’s a turtle pearl, heh! This thing lets a person breathe underwater. I put it in my mouth the moment I fell into the river.”

“Oh, I remember now. You got that near Immortal Spirit Lake, didn’t you?” He Yue still remembered the fierce battle outside Immortal Spirit Village.

“Good memory,” He Lingchuan praised.

Madame Ying urged him on. “What happened afterward?”

“Then I forgot who I was.”

“Huh?” What kind of absurd turn is that?

He Lingchuan rubbed the back of his head. “When I woke up, I had no idea who I was or where I came from. The physician said I’d suffered a heavy blow to the head, and that pooled blood was blocking my memories. I didn’t know how to fish, and I had no interest in farming. I had no idea what to do with myself there and couldn’t even afford my medicine.” At this point, he ground his teeth angrily. “And I don’t know which shameless bastard searched me while I was unconscious and stole everything of value! When I woke up, I had nothing but the clothes on my back!”

The storage ring on his finger had long since been replaced. He had obtained the current one in Lingxu City, so there was no risk of He Chunhua recognizing it.

“Fortunately, a passing merchant caravan noticed that I was strong and skilled in martial arts, so they hired me as one of their guards.”

A platter of steaming pan-fried buns was brought over. Their bottoms were still sizzling. When a pair of chopsticks scraped across them, they revealed an entire layer of crisp, golden crust.

He Lingchuan picked one up and took a bite. A jet of scalding juice shot nearly two-thirds of a meter through the air, almost splattering He Yue in the face.

His younger brother nimbly dodged aside. “And then?”

“I wandered with the merchant caravan for a long time. Occasionally, fragments of memory would rise to the surface. I could remember your faces, as well as scattered scenes from Heishui City and Shihuan City. Sometimes, images from the Battle of the Han River would even flash through my mind. But...” He looked deeply wounded and aggrieved. “None of it connected properly. I simply couldn’t remember who any of you actually were!”

He could hardly tell them the truth: I beat up the monster puppet master Dong Rui, then drifted into the lair of the ancient greater monster Zhu Erniang. Afterward, she entrusted me with traveling to Beijia to retrieve her immortal molt. Then I became close friends with the Crown Prince of Chiyan and helped investigate a missing-messenger case, which somehow escalated into the elixir of youth case that shook all of Lingxu City. Finally, after offending countless powerful figures in the city, I blew the Heavenly Palace’s Star-Plucking Tower into the sky, and Lingxu City suffered a catastrophic disaster.

Madame Ying would undoubtedly respond: Have you lost your mind? It seems you need therapy.

Compared to telling them that, it was much easier to invent a story in which his brain had been damaged, and he had wandered aimlessly from place to place.

To Madame Ying and He Yue, the tale sounded strange and extraordinary.

To He Lingchuan, it was nothing more than shamelessly copying the most melodramatic plot imaginable.

Between the utterly outrageous and the merely bizarre, he preferred the latter.

At the very least, it barely fit within an ordinary person’s understanding of the world, did it not?

He Yue patted his elder brother on the shoulder in consolation. “Brother, you made it back in the end!”

“Exactly. Later, the merchant caravan reached Rongshan territory, where they happened to be suffering from a cicada plague...”

The moment his eldest son uttered the word “Rongshan,” He Chunhua’s gaze sharpened slightly.

He had heard that name twice in the span of a single day.

What a coincidence.

1. Also known as Chinese toon shoot. I just don’t want to use Chinese here since China doesn’t exist in their world. ☜