Where Immortals Once Walked

The sudden end of the season of mad sand had already struck the locals as extremely strange. A few bold souls risked venturing around the desert’s outskirts and soon discovered that the once-aggressive native creatures were no longer attacking people much. Even ordinary humans could now set foot in the desert without immediately being eaten.

At night, distorted red light appeared across the clear desert sky. It looked somewhat like an aurora, yet also resembled cracks smashed into the very canopy of the world. No one could tell whether the red glow was shining upward from the ground or seeping in from somewhere beyond the sky.

After some time, the red light began forming vague shapes. These shapes were beautiful but highly abstract.

Later, those shapes gradually sharpened. There seemed to be mountains, buildings, rivers... It was like a mirage.

No one knew what was happening. From a place as close as Heishui City, people could stand atop the city gatehouse, or even climb a nearby hill, and admire the strange spectacle.

Thus, the second part of Liu Baobao’s letter concerned Heishui City’s new visitors.

Heishui City was the settlement closest to the Panlong Desert. For anyone curious about the desert’s changes, it was naturally the first stop.

As the Panlong Desert continued behaving abnormally, Heishui City slowly began welcoming unfamiliar faces as well.

Those who came alone called themselves traveling merchants. Groups of a dozen or several dozen claimed to be merchant caravans.

Liu Baobao thought they were all talking nonsense.

They just did not look like merchants. Liu Baobao ran caravans himself, so he could recognize the bearing of genuine caravan folk at a glance.

The identities of these newcomers to Heishui City were highly questionable.

Liu Baobao occasionally saw several groups cursing and shouting at one another. Judging from their accents, at least one side seemed to be from Baling.

As the number of outsiders in Heishui City increased, so did the accidents.

More and more adventurers were entering the Panlong Desert every day. They replenished their food and water in Heishui City, exchanged or purchased mounts, then headed north.

Some returned quickly, while others never came back.

As a native of Heishui City, Liu Baobao had naturally grown up hearing the legends of Panlong Ancient City. He also knew that most of these people were probably heading into the desert in search of the Panlong Ruins.

However, very few adventurers actually managed to find them.

Most lost their way in the desert. The lucky ones eventually staggered back in dejection. The unlucky ones lost their lives.

One expedition had set out with ten members and returned with only five. Those five survivors got drunk in a tavern in Heishui City and swore that they really had found Panlong Ancient City.

By day, the place had been nothing but ruins.

Yet once night fell, it transformed into a sleepless city filled with people. Vendors hawked goods through the streets, children ran back and forth, and the entire place bustled with life.

Two of the adventurers had been curious and bold enough to enter a restaurant in Panlong City and order food.

What they had not expected was that the dishes, though steaming hot and seemingly perfect in color, aroma, and presentation, tasted utterly bland once placed in the mouth. Worse, they carried an indescribable bitterness.

The adventurers could not stomach the food and turned to leave.

That was when the waiter came to collect payment.

Four dishes and a soup, yet he demanded an astronomical price.

Naturally, the adventurers refused to pay.

The waiter immediately shouted, “Someone’s trying to dine and dash!”

More than a dozen constables came charging over from outside and moved viciously to seize them. The adventurers resisted, and the two sides ended up in an armed fight.

At least, “armed fight” was how the survivors described it.

The reality was probably closer to them being surrounded, beaten to the ground, and pounded unconscious.

During the struggle, whether they offered copper coins or silver, the other side refused to accept any of it.

Later, the survivors were awakened by the scorching daytime sun. When they opened their eyes, they found themselves lying amid ruins, lips cracked and bodies nearly dehydrated.

But their companions, specifically the five who had eaten the tavern’s food, appeared to have died for quite some time.

After Liu Baobao heard the story, he went to consult the grand shaman.

Grand Shaman Zhaomandu said that the living and the dead belonged to different realms. Those people’s mistake had been that living men had eaten something they should never have eaten.

Still, most of them had been lucky enough, as at least they returned alive.

Another group had been far less fortunate. Not a single one of them survived.

Other travelers had seen them deep within the desert. At the time, every member had been in excellent spirits, claiming that they had seen the lights of Panlong City from afar during the night.

Yet more than ten days later, their bodies appeared at the edge of the desert.

Their causes of death included beatings, impalement, violent trampling, and other such injuries.

From the desert’s interior to its outskirts was at least a hundred kilometers. No one knew how their corpses had ended up there.

Yet none of these tragedies stopped later adventurers from coming.

Instead, Heishui City received more outsiders with every passing day.

After finishing Liu Baobao’s letter, He Lingchuan had a good understanding of the situation.

After resting for a night and collecting its payment in silverfish, the demoiselle crane set out around noon the next day, flying westward on its return journey.

Two days later, Yuan finished evaluating another batch of collateral assets.

Perhaps because they had already experienced how strict and demanding Hu Qin and the others could be, the accounts for this batch of assets were exceptionally clear, with basically no major problems.

He Lingchuan readily signed off on the second—and final—installment of the loan, consisting of money, grain, and supplies worth a total of 3.74 million taels of silver.

By then, news of the General of Lasting Peace’s victory in the south had already spread. With Yuan having also obtained another loan worth more than three million taels, the ruler ordered a full day of celebration throughout the capital, and the city became as lively as if it were a major festival.

Carriages jammed the streets outside the He Residence, all belonging to people who had come bearing gifts.

Anyone could see that this long-awaited victory would send the He Family soaring into a bright future!

No household in Yuan was more sought-after than the He Family.

And yet, under these circumstances, the He Residence kept its gates tightly shut and refused every gift.

That had been He Chunhua’s instruction before leaving.

Even Madame Ying remained at home and refused invitations from noblewomen.

“The moment they see me, they can barely get three sentences out before trying to push their daughters at me.” She looked toward her eldest son. “Chuan’er, would you like to...”

“No.” He Lingchuan rejected the idea immediately. “I have no interest in ordinary beauties.”

Pretty skin-sacks all looked the same.

In the blink of an eye, his affairs in the capital were finished. He Lingchuan left five Rongshan disciples behind to continue supervising expenditures, then prepared to head west with Qiu Hu and the others.

Shan Youjun came forward of his own accord and asked to remain at He Lingchuan’s side for the journey.

He Lingchuan sat in the courtyard looking at him, then suddenly let out a long sigh. “That fifty taels of silver you borrowed from Sun Hongye, did you ever pay it back?”

Shan Youjun’s expression changed.

He had never imagined Eldest Young Master He would suddenly bring this up.

“You really aren’t cut out to be a spy.” Understanding was the only thing in He Lingchuan’s eyes. “My old man ordered you to watch me. Everything I do, you report back to him, don’t you?”

Shan Youjun opened his mouth to argue, but the sharp gleam in He Lingchuan’s eyes seemed capable of piercing straight into his heart.

At that instant, he understood that there was no point denying it.

He Lingchuan had already seen through him and made up his mind.

Qiu Hu slowly walked over from the side, his gaze fixed firmly on Shan Youjun.

That stare made Shan Youjun feel needles prickling down his back.

He Lingchuan said calmly, “A wise man knows when to adapt to circumstances. I don’t blame you.”

During the battle at the Han River, floodwaters swept He Lingchuan away, and he vanished for more than a year. Shan Youjun had originally been one of his personal soldiers, but under those circumstances, he could only transfer into He Chunhua’s service.

If a man took someone’s pay, he had to serve them loyally.

Then He Lingchuan suddenly returned, leaving Shan Youjun with an awkward choice.

Should he serve He Lingchuan from then on, or continue obeying He Chunhua?