After the Immortal Disappeared

"So you’re saying, as long as I get rid of this Hong Chenglu problem?"

Zhao Pan nodded. "That would be a great help to me!"

As he said this, the Hornbill on his shoulder suddenly took flight, landing over a hundred zhang away behind them.

The army horses were grazing in the woods. The riverbanks, in late spring, were beginning to sprout fresh green shoots, which were much to their liking. After a whole winter of chewing on lichen, it was time for a change of flavor.

However, Hee Lingchuan thought he saw some other large creatures mixed in with them in the woods, also with their heads bowed, grazing.

They were much larger and more robust than the army’s horses.

A herd of black Wild Bulls.

Their shoulders stood at least six feet high, and each one was glossy and sleek, its body a mass of knotted muscle.

The Hornbill landed on the head of the largest and strongest Wild Bull among them.

Its pair of thick, forward-curving horns were a glossy black. If straightened, they would span at least seven feet. Anyone who took a blow from it would probably have half their life knocked out of them.

The Hornbill perched on its horn and chirped twice. The Wild Bull lifted its head, glanced at the group, twitched its ears, and paid them no mind.

Gathered together, they formed an impenetrable wall, occupying the lushest spot for water and grass. Even the army horses had to swallow their pride and make way.

A few of the behemoths stood out in particular.

Hee Chunhua gazed at them and drew a sharp breath. "This is the Wild Bull Demon Group?"

"Yes, this is our Charging Army. Once armored up, they are invincible on the plains." Zhao Pan smiled. "These Wild Bulls are a special breed, but only those few big ones are Demons. They lead the entire herd."

"And that Hornbill is?"

"A Messenger," Zhao Pan explained. "Otherwise, no one could get near these big guys once they start running."

"The Wild Bull Array." Hee Chunhua clapped his hands. "I think I’ve heard of this tactic somewhere before."

Zhao Pan smiled. "From General Nanke’s half-written book of military strategy."

"Right, right, General Nanke."

"General Nanke? The General Nanke from Panlong City?" Hee Lingchuan never expected to hear that name here and now. He blurted out, "He wrote a book on military strategy?"

Zhao Pan replied matter-of-factly, "Yes. His tactics are very practical. It’s a shame he died young and only managed to finish half the book."

A thought struck Hee Lingchuan. "How did he die?"

Zhao Pan was taken aback by the question. He thought for a moment before replying, "I believe he was escorting a merchant caravan and fell into an ambush. It happened in the Panlong Desert. Mr. Hee should know more about it than I do."

Hee Chunhua nodded. "Yes. The place is called Ghost Needle Stone Forest. The Baling People used the Spider Demon in the Stone Forest to deal a heavy blow to Panlong City’s army. General Nanke was killed in action on the spot. However, they also tied down the enemy’s main force, allowing the Great Wind Army to seize Wei City in the north."

"So that’s how it was," Hee Lingchuan murmured, but inside, his mind was in turmoil.

In the Panlong Dream Realm he had experienced, there was also a battle at Ghost Needle Stone Forest. But because he had successfully bombed Second Madam Zhu’s lair, causing the Great Demon to rush back to her burrow, the Panlong Army’s strength was largely preserved. They weren’t picked off by the enemy forces waiting outside the Stone Forest.

And of course, General Nanke had returned to Panlong City alive, and had even wanted to recruit Hee Lingchuan afterward.

The same battle, but because of his involvement, its course diverged completely from historical reality.

Hee Lingchuan had considered that his presence would surely affect the Dream Realm.

But only now did he clearly realize that he had changed the outcome of that local battle in the Panlong Dream Realm, and in doing so, changed the fates of many people.

’In this world, I can actually make a difference.’

’So, if I become stronger, more influential, could I change Panlong City’s final fate?’

The moment this thought appeared, Hee Lingchuan’s heart began to race.

"Chuan’Er, what’s wrong?" Hee Chunhua asked, seeing his son staring blankly.

"It’s nothing, nothing!" Hee Lingchuan said quickly. "These bulls are really well-raised."

’I wonder what the meat is like.’

"These creatures’ fierceness is fueled by their appetite. The fodder you escorted must be given to them first. Fortunately, the hardest part of winter is over, and there’s fresh grass to eat on the riverbanks now. Plus, they’re not picky eaters; if there’s no fodder, they’ll eat meat too. Otherwise, we really couldn’t afford to keep them."

Zhao Pan finished showing them the front line, and the Hee father and son now had a clear picture of the situation.

By the time they returned to camp, the moon was already beginning to set in the west. The Rock Wolf said to Hee Lingchuan, "The Monkey is looking for you."

...

Hee Lingchuan returned to his tent, and Medicine Ape Ling Guang immediately scurried over. "That medicine is so interesting!"

"What thing?" Hee Lingchuan’s mind was still full of the battle at Ghost Needle Stone Forest.

"The medicine you gave me a few days ago, Master," Lingguang said, holding up a Glazed Bottle, half-filled with a red liquid. "The one you got from Dong Rui."

’How could I have forgotten about that?’ "Figured anything out?"

"There are at least ten ingredients in here, but after several days of experiments, I can’t identify the main one. It doesn’t belong to any category of medicine I know," Lingguang said. "Just one drop is enough to kill all the flowers and grass within a one-mu area."

Hee Lingchuan stared. "No way, it’s a deadly poison?"

He had seen clearly that Dong Rui had taken out this Glazed Bottle intending to save the Ghost Ape.

’Could it be that he saw its injuries were too severe and was planning to euthanize it?’

’No, that’s impossible.’

"Later, I divided one drop into ten parts and tested it on pigs and horses. Without exception, they twitched a couple of times after ingesting it, collapsed, and died. It was very decisive."

Hee Lingchuan yawned, unable to hide his disappointment. "So it’s just a straight-up deadly poison. Is it a contact poison or an ingestible one? Can it be applied to weapons?"

"Hey, let me finish." As a future top-tier Pill Master, Lingguang wouldn’t give up as easily as he did. "I tried diluting it bit by bit, and finally discovered that when diluted a hundredfold—"

He gestured for Hee Lingchuan to pick up a large bucket of water from the corner, then followed him out of the tent, out of the main camp, and stopped at the edge of a thicket.

The Monkey squatted down, poked a hole in the dirt, placed a round seed inside, and covered it back up with soil.

The seed was brown, slightly larger than a soybean.

"What plant is this?"

"Phoenix Tree Seeds, the seeds of the Parasol Tree," Lingguang said, pointing at the small mound of dirt. "Water it."

’This short, stout monkey is ordering me around? Who’s the Master here?’

Hee Lingchuan rolled his eyes, but he evenly poured the water from the bucket onto the freshly planted Phoenix Tree Seed.

Just a few breaths later, the ground stirred.

Lingguang quickly grabbed him and pulled him back, retreating more than thirty feet away.

A bright green thing suddenly burst from the soil and began to grow rapidly.

Just as Hee Lingchuan made out that it was a tender shoot, it had already shot up two feet, five feet, ten feet...

Branches and leaves also sprouted forth, scrambling over each other.

Hee Lingchuan’s perspective of it shifted from looking down, to looking straight ahead, and then immediately to looking up—

In the time it takes to burn half an incense stick, it had already grown into a great tree over fifty feet tall (16 meters)!

Hee Lingchuan stared, captivated, as he asked the Monkey, "You call this a Parasol Tree?"

He recognized Parasol Trees. The shape of this tree’s trunk, branches, and leaves did indeed look no different from a Parasol Tree, but there was one thing that was not at all alike:

There was too much of it.

His old home in Black Water City also had a large Parasol Tree. Its trunk was straight, its bark green, and its top formed an elegant canopy.

But the tree before them had branches growing from its trunk, and the ends of those branches swelled up to become like trunks themselves, which then sprouted more branches...

And its leaves grew in the same way.

Growing sequentially like this, the entire tree had forcibly turned into an irregular thicket, and its volume was still continuously expanding horizontally.

Even more terrifying, the color of its trunk and branches changed from the initial green to a light blue, and the outermost layer even turned brownish-red.

The leaves, meanwhile, were a mix of green, golden-yellow, and pure black.

He had never seen pure black leaves in his life, except for those struck by lightning or scorched by fire.

A tree like this had no aesthetic appeal whatsoever.

Hee Lingchuan looked up at it, feeling it was like seventeen or eighteen Parasol Trees grafted together and then kneaded into a ball—grotesque and twisted.

No wonder Lingguang had wanted to plant it outside the camp. Otherwise, Hee Lingchuan’s tent would have been destroyed in the space of two breaths.

Of course, the commotion here also attracted the soldiers in the camp. They all gathered closer to look, pointing and muttering.

Hee Lingchuan had to order them back, because although the bizarre tree-ball had slowed down, it was actually still growing, from fifty feet to seventy, and then to a hundred feet...

As it grew taller, it also grew wider, crossing the edge of the woods and crushing five or six tents.

The entire canopy was writhing, as if some monster were hidden inside.

In reality, this was just because the branches and leaves were growing too quickly.

The soldiers in the tents all crawled out to watch the spectacle.

Hee Chunhua and the generals of all ranks, including Wu Shaoyi and others, were also alerted and rushed over.

Even the Xunzhou Military Camp across the Hanhe River noticed the strange activity. The number of torches in their camp suddenly increased; they probably thought the Yuan Army was up to some trick.

Hee Chunhua pushed through the crowd, saw his eldest son at a glance, and thought to himself, ’Just as I expected.’

’Who else but my son could cause such a huge scene on the very first night at the front?’

"Chuan’Er, what’s going on here?"

"Lingguang and I were testing a new medicine." Hee Lingchuan scratched his head. "It’s the potion from Dong Rui."

’Dong Rui’s potion?’ Hee Chunhua understood. ’What good could possibly come from something concocted by that Demon Puppet Master?’

"How are you going to clean this up?"

Hee Lingchuan looked at Lingguang, who spread his paws and squeaked, "Squeak?"

’Playing dumb now?’ Hee Lingchuan said irritably, "We can only wait. I think the effect is about to wear off."

Just then, Zhao Pan also arrived, having heard the news. He looked up at the giant Parasol Tree. "What is that thing! Could it be the work of the Xun People?"

As a commander, his first instinct was to connect the strange occurrence in his camp with the enemy across the river. He quickly ordered his troops to be on alert.

Hee Chunhua had just begun to explain when Zhao Pan saw a dark figure move to the edge of the tree and stick its head out to chew on the leaves.

It was a Wild Bull.

It too had been drawn by the giant Parasol Tree, and couldn’t control its mouth at the sight of green leaves.

"Oh no, don’t eat that!" Zhao Pan, forgetting his status, dashed forward in a single bound and shoved its head away.

But it was too late. The Wild Bull had already chomped down several leaves and was chewing incessantly.