After the Immortal Disappeared

The two monsters worked in perfect concert, unleashing astonishing force. Amid the crowd’s gasps, Hee Lingchuan was buried in the ground up to his waist.

The youngest Jindu Ghost Child’s back was instantly savaged by seven or eight weapons, turning it into a bloody mess. Xuu Chun produced a short spear from somewhere and ran it straight through the demon.

Liuu, Skinny, and Duan Xinyu frantically tried to pull Hee Lingchuan up, trying to yank him out of the ground like a radish.

The Jindu Ghost Child ignored the pain, plucked the Sleeve Arrow’s head from its chest, and backhanded Xuu Chun, sending him flying ten feet into a stone wall before letting out a heavenward roar.

As if summoned, the distant Bone Puppets suddenly sped up by thirty percent!

Its injuries seemed to have unleashed the Jindo Ghost Child’s ferocity. It erupted with astonishing might, fighting off the Patrol Guards without falling.

Its blows were heavy and powerful. It even sent a man flying four feet, Door Panel shield and all. Skinny was also caught by a careless blow. With a CRACK, his left arm broke, and he was sent flying into a wall, nearly cracking his skull open.

Fortunately, this violent strike inadvertently "plucked" Hee Lingchuan from the ground, even exposing the head of the second Ghost Child buried underneath.

’Was Hee Lingchuan going to be polite with it?’ He seized the opportunity, his blade hugging the ground as it lopped off the demon’s head.

The demonic head rolled twice on the ground.

"Pick it up! Quick!" The green fluid streamed into his eye, but he had no time to wipe it. He rolled and grabbed the Ghost Child’s head, not daring to let it touch the ground again.

This bizarre Underground Palace would absorb the power of a dead Ghost Child and pass it to the strongest one.

The youngest was already powerful enough. He couldn’t let it gain the ability to pull people into the ground at will.

But then, Hee Lingchuan felt a sharp pain in his eye. He couldn’t help but clamp his hand over it and cry out.

"Medicinal Powder! The Medicinal Powder!" Liuu fumbled frantically, sprinkling the powder into his eye, but it seemed too late.

Hee Lingchuan fought through the agonizing pain and forced his eye open. His left eye could only see red and white; it couldn’t form a proper image.

’The green fluid got in. This left eye... is probably blind now.’

Looking over, he saw that Duan Xinyu had also grabbed the Ghost Child’s corpse and pinned it to the wall with a Long Spear.

There was a gap between the corpse and the wall, so they weren’t touching. This would prevent the cave from absorbing this Ghost Child’s power.

Hee Lingchuan impaled the head on the spear as well.

Just then, the army of Bone Puppets finally arrived.

The youngest Jindu Ghost Child took a great leap and landed among the Bone Puppets. Dozens of them converged on it, quickly forming a suit of Bone Armor that shone with a grayish-white light.

The Bone Armor offered comprehensive protection and even had sharp spikes at its joints.

In the blink of an eye, the blood-soaked Jindu Ghost Child had transformed into an imposing, murderous White Bone General.

It broke off a rib from some unknown Bone Puppet and, after a few quick scrapes, sharpened it into a Bone Sword.

It raised the sword, and the army of Bone Puppets surged toward their prey like a tide.

The Jindu Ghost Child’s patience had run out. Besides, something bad seemed to be happening outside the Underground Palace. It had to end this quickly.

Everyone unleashed their Divine Techniques.

Wiping the blood and sweat from his face, Hee Lingchuan pushed himself up against the wall and swung his blade at the first Bone Puppet that charged him!

...

「Red Peak Town.」

The sun was setting in the west, and the landslide blocking the road was almost cleared. Only the last few dozen feet remained.

The Marsh Warden on the sharp rock hadn’t been slacking off either. He had used Spells to reinforce the large, weathered, and precariously-balanced boulders higher up, at least ensuring they wouldn’t fall for a day or two.

Hu Village Chief came to check on the progress for the fourth time, craning his neck to peer down the mountain road.

The other end of the road was, of course, silent. Not a human sound could be heard.

The Patrol Guards who had entered the Mine Cave still hadn’t come out.

Just then, the urgent sound of hooves echoed from the distance. There were probably seven or eight riders.

Hu Village Chief’s expression changed slightly. He turned around, torch in hand, and soon spotted dark red armor.

’The Great Wind Army!’

’The incident here actually alerted the Great Wind Army?’

Seeing this, the Leopard Demon on the high ground also leaped off the sharp rock and trotted over.

The riders galloped up to Hu Village Chief before stopping. The leader yanked his reins, and his fine steed reared up before landing perfectly still.

A rider from the back galloped forward. It was Hu Min.

He dismounted and immediately asked, "Hu Village Chief?"

"Ah, yes!" Hu Village Chief lost his composure. "Sirs, what’s... what’s going on?"

He suddenly got a clear look at the leading general and his eyes widened in terror.

"How long have those three Patrol Teams been inside?"

Hu Village Chief’s tongue was tied. "It’s... it’s been almost two double-hours, right?"

Hu Min nodded, then suddenly asked him, "Do you know your crime?"

"Huh?" Hu Village Chief was shocked. "My... my crime? Sir, you can’t..."

Just then, the mount of the man behind Hu Min let out a loud SNORT.

Hu Village Chief trembled with fear, and a warm stream trickled down his legs.

A cold voice spoke up. "Quartz, have the Patrol Guards not returned?"

So the Leopard Demon was named Quartz. Despite being the local Marsh Warden and Zhong Shengguang’s Spirit Pet, it now flattened its ears and replied:

"They have not returned."

"Why didn’t you go with them at the time?"

Quartz’s tail tip twitched. It didn’t dare make a sound, much less give its excuse about supervising the work.

All it had wanted was to slack off.

At the time, it hadn’t known the monster in the Mine Cave had already eaten over a hundred people.

"Hu Min, you get the details." Even his cloak was red. "The rest of you, with me."

Everyone answered in unison, "Yes, General!"

Hu Village Chief managed to choke out a loud shout, "Red General, spare my life!"

But no one answered him.

As he watched them turn toward the mountain pass, Hu Village Chief lay prone in the snow, sweat pouring down like rain.

"There were thirty-seven miners in the accident. Subtracting the two who escaped, that’s thirty-five dead," Hu Min’s voice echoed above him. "Hah. An incident at the Mine Cave, and you waited two days to report it! During that time, you privately contacted outsiders to enter—at least forty or fifty people. And not a single one came out, did they? That’s not even counting today’s Patrol Guards. The total is almost ninety people."

Hu Village Chief’s face went pale, his lips trembling. He suddenly dropped to his knees and kowtowed seven or eight times, shouting as he did:

"Spare me, Sir! I was only following orders! Spare me!"

"Don’t you know that by concealing the death toll, you’ve caused a catastrophe!" Hu Min wanted to kick him in the head but restrained himself because of the man behind him. "In the last two days, that monster in the cave went north and ate an entire village—another seventy or eighty people!"

A BUZZ went through Hu Village Chief’s head. He went numb.

"In just three days, this monster found the time to eat one hundred and sixty or seventy people, and that’s not even counting the local Mountain Demons and Wild Beasts!"

Hu Village Chief subconsciously argued, "Sir, that village has nothing to do with me! I didn’t know the monster went out to eat people!"

"Interesting. Why didn’t it eat you?" Hu Min stroked his chin. "It’s clearly closer to you. Why would it go for something far away to the north instead?"

Hu Village Chief’s voice was faint. "I... I don’t know either. We’re just a mining town!"

They did nothing but mine and smelt ore.

"Start talking. Why did you delay reporting for two days, and who did you contact to get those forty to fifty extra hands?" Hu Min said coldly. "If you give up who’s behind this, your sentence might be reduced."

The harshness of Panlong City’s punishments flashed through Hu Village Chief’s mind.

He nearly buried his head in the ground.

...

「The road to the mine was still blocked, so the Red General and his men also proceeded on foot.」

After about ten minutes, the Red Peak Mine Cave came into view.

The cave mouth, half-hidden by a large tree, looked no different from when Hee Lingchuan and the others had seen it. The nearby low-roofed buildings were also concealed in the mountain’s shadow.

The Mine Cave was located on the shaded side of the mountain. It looked rather sinister now, like a demon with its mouth wide open, waiting for people to jump in.

The Red General asked the Sand Leopard, Quartz, "How many Mountain Demons and Wild Beasts have disappeared around here?"

"Over thirty."

In other words, within three days, the monster inside had devoured nearly two hundred living creatures.

Even the most deranged Demon couldn’t have done something like this unless it was acting as part of a swarm.

"That’s no small number," the Red General said, as if to himself. "But it also means that the most powerful Jindu Cub has only been born for three or four days."

An elite from the Great Wind Army behind him asked, "General, are we going into the cave?"

"Not yet." To others, this stretch of mountain forest looked peaceful and quiet. But in the Red General’s eyes, the place was surging with yin energy. The resentful spirits of the newly dead seemed to be pushing upward, even against the Taiyang True Flame.

The moment he neared the mine, he could sense the presence of the so-called "Divine Son."

This newborn Jindu Cub was too arrogant; it hadn’t concealed its aura at all.

’Such arrogance, and such an appetite... that makes things easier.’

The Red General produced a wide-mouthed golden alms bowl from somewhere. It was a bit smaller than a washbasin, and its three feet were carved with hornless dragons.

He ordered the Marsh Warden, Quartz, to lead the others and collect the snow from the branches of an old locust tree—and it had to be an old one—and place it in the bowl.

The mountainside was covered in all sorts of trees, and locust trees over two hundred years old were everywhere.

As soon as the snow entered the alms bowl, it melted into water. From the Red General’s perspective, the bottom of the bowl wasn’t flat, but had rises and falls.

As he rubbed the body of the alms bowl, it rapidly changed shape. It slowly took on the appearance of mountains and rivers, gradually forming high peaks and low valleys. Even low-roofed buildings and a cave mouth appeared...

Wasn’t this a miniature map of the Red Peak mining area where they stood? Even the gnarled postures of the two trees outside the cave mouth were identical.

It was just scaled down almost perfectly to fit the bottom of the bowl.

Now, everything was submerged under the shimmering clear water.

At this point, the Red General dipped his finger in and stirred clockwise. No one knew if he was chanting a Mantra, but the air around him suddenly began to flow. The wind grew stronger and stronger, forcing even the Guards to take several steps back.

Meanwhile, mist began to form in the golden alms bowl. It went from faint to dense, and soon it covered the entire bowl.

Interestingly, the mist only billowed up to the rim of the bowl, as if blocked by an invisible lid, and could only churn and roil within.

In a short while, the entire alms bowl was filled with nothing but thick, watery mist.

Seeing this, the Red General withdrew his hand, but the mist continued to churn restlessly, as if something was moving around underneath.

In the blink of an eye, a dorsal fin emerged from the mist’s surface—a long, long row of them. It seemed to be attached to a tail, winding and circling on the sea of mist like a snake or a crocodile, already radiating an intimidating aura.

Immediately after, it revealed its true form on the sea of mist:

A super-miniature Flood Dragon.

Although the Flood Dragon’s body was also made of mist, its sharp horns, Scale Armor, and whiskered jaw were all perfectly formed, with no corners cut.