After the Immortal Disappeared

It swam faster and faster inside the alms bowl, eager to make its move.

The Red General waited quietly. Only when the alms bowl could barely contain it did he tap the vessel and point to the sky.

"Go!"

The Foggy Flood Dragon, unable to hold back any longer, soared into the sky on clouds and mist!

After leaving the alms bowl, its body swelled in the wind. By the time it reached the sky, it was at least fifteen zhang long.

But even more astonishing were the clouds and mist that rose with it. They swelled in size, and what had been a bright, partly sunny day suddenly became overcast and gloomy.

The giant Flood Dragon thrashed about within the clouds, which sank lower and grew darker, nearly touching the mountain peaks.

The Red General had everyone retreat another ten zhang before he dipped his finger into the bowl, tapping the surface several times as lightly as a dragonfly skimming water.

With each tap, a thunderbolt erupted from the clouds, followed by a deafening BOOM!

With a wave of his hand, he summoned clouds and rain; with a flick of his finger, he conjured thunder.

The flashes of lightning illuminated the clouds, revealing the silhouette of the giant Flood Dragon hidden within.

Then came a torrential downpour.

At the sight, the Sand Leopard immediately leaped back several zhang, terrified of being touched by the rain.

In truth, everyone was standing outside the band of rain. The cloud looked menacing, but the downpour was confined to a small area over the mountaintop.

Only the Red General stood in the downpour; not a single drop of water touched anyone else.

The rain was actually red. The Guards looked down to see the white snow on the ground melt on contact. The lichen and grass roots underneath turned from yellow to gray, then quickly rotted away.

They then looked at the two pine trees at the entrance of the Mine Cave. After being touched by the rain, they began to shed their needles, and soon even their branches had withered.

A brief, red shower accomplished with ease what the harshest winters and most scorching summers could not.

But the rainwater seeped into the earth quickly, absorbed by the mountain.

The Red General seemed to take a deep breath, his head tilted toward the sky.

...

「Inside the Mine Cave.」

The Patrol Guards had retreated to a dead-end tunnel.

This was not out of desperation, but a strategic choice made by Hee Lingchuan and Xuu Chun. There was no point in looking for an exit; they would never escape the maze until the master of the Underground Palace was eliminated.

Therefore, their only hope for survival was to find an opportunity to kill the Jindu Cub!

By retreating to a dead end, they only had to face the horde from one direction, allowing them to conserve their strength.

Hee Lingchuan split everyone into two groups, front and back. The front group consisted of Xuu Chun, his companion, Door Panel, and himself. They had to withstand the pressure from the army of Bone Puppets, so the passage couldn’t be too wide. The back group was Skinny, Willow, and the others, responsible for ranged attacks and covering the frontliners’ backs. For them, the passage couldn’t be too narrow, lest the Jindu Cub pop out from somewhere and they wouldn’t have room to fight back.

This bottleneck-shaped passage—wide in the back and narrow at the front—was perfect.

There was no point in smashing the Bone Puppets that brandished their weapons and shrieked madly; they would just reassemble and reform. The priority was to contain them.

Xuu Chun’s Slowdown Technique was still proving very useful, but the other key item was produced by Duan Xinyu.

It was a bottle of seeds that looked a lot like coffee beans.

He didn’t just throw the seeds to activate them like others might. Instead, he instructed everyone to guard him, then pressed the bottle to his chest, turned to the east, and began chanting a prayer.

During the chant, he had to keep his eyes closed and remain perfectly still.

The Jindu Cub saw this as an opportunity and tried to attack him twice, but both times it was driven back by the group’s combined efforts.

Luckily, it didn’t have the ability to pull people into the earth like its kin; otherwise, Duan Xinyu would have been dragged underground long ago.

Furthermore, after fighting these creatures for so long, they had noticed some telltale signs before one emerged from the Underground Palace. For some unknown reason, the ground or a rock wall would bulge slightly, accompanied by a faint, rippling vibration.

This further supported the theory that the cub’s movement through the Underground Palace consumed its mother’s energy.

The only problem was that the Underground Palace was too dark. Even with everyone holding torches, the shifting shadows easily obscured such subtle anomalies on the ground.

Thus, guarding against the Jindu Cub’s subterranean ambushes was no easy task.

Besides, this youngest cub was incredibly durable. Its thick White Bone Helmet could only be split by Hee Lingchuan’s Treasure Saber or cracked by Door Panel’s Hard Axe. The others’ weapons posed almost no threat.

What was even more unfair was that even if it was injured, it could retreat into the rock walls and recover quickly. When it reemerged, it would be full of vigor, ready to fight them for another three hundred rounds.

If this kept up, it would surely toy with them until they were all dead.

Moreover, its agility and combat skills were constantly improving. Apparently, Hee Lingchuan wasn’t the only one who learned from real combat; this thing’s ability to accumulate experience was also astonishing.

Even the Bone Armor it manifested was constantly being modified. In just half an hour, it had already revised the design twice, narrowing the waistline and reinforcing the sternum, making Door Panel feel like his axe was striking a turtle’s shell.

Despite the others’ protection, the Jindu Cub’s Bone Spear found an opening and stabbed Duan Xinyu in the back.

Although the wound wasn’t deep, his whole body shuddered in pain.

But even so, Duan Xinyu’s chanting was not interrupted. Hee Lingchuan was close enough to hear him mention "Lady Mitian" several times. ’This Spell must be related to the Celestial God who protects Panlong City,’ he thought.

Fortunately, the chant wasn’t long. Duan Xinyu finally finished and tossed the seeds from the bottle, scattering them across the path the Bone Puppets were forced to take.

The seeds came to life the moment they hit the ground. They rapidly took root, sprouted, grew stems, and sprouted leaves... The entire growth process was accelerated a hundredfold. In just a dozen breaths, a thicket of vines had formed.

The vines looked familiar to Hee Lingchuan. It wasn’t until thorns grew on their tips that he realized what they were.

’Aren’t these the same plants that cling to the outer walls of the Panlong City Gate?’

He’d originally thought the "landscaping" on the walls was an eyesore, but apparently, it wasn’t just for decoration.

Willow exclaimed, "Cannibal Vines! Where did you get the seeds?"

That stuff wasn’t allowed to be sold openly; it was against Panlong City regulations.

Duan Xinyu gave a wry smile. "Don’t ask."

Which was another way of saying they were illegal.

Each Cannibal Vine had six long tendrils. The fine thorns on their surface could both probe for prey and drain blood. As soon as a living creature came near, the tendrils would wrap around it like a Giant Python, injecting poison and draining its blood through the thorns.

That was why Panlong City planted them on its walls—to teach a lesson to any enemy who tried to climb them. Moreover, the vines were resistant to fire and acid, and their Life Force was astonishingly strong.

Panlong City had to expend considerable effort each year just to stop them from spreading to ground level.

The Bone Puppets had no blood for the vines to suck, of course, but the Cannibal Vines’ constricting grip was still effective. It trapped them in place, unable to advance an inch.

This was exactly the outcome they had hoped for.

Duan Xinyu was drenched in sweat, as if he had just fought a grueling battle for a full double-hour. Clearly, the short Mantra had nearly drained him completely. When his squad was ambushed earlier, they were caught completely off guard, and he’d had no time to chant the prayer to grow the vines.

"The Cannibal Vines will last for half a double-hour," he said, panting as he popped a Pill into his mouth. "Everyone, let’s make it count."

These Cannibal Vines were force-grown, burning through the seeds’ own Life Force and violating the natural cycle. They were destined to be short-lived.

Now, they just had to focus on the boss.

Xuu Chun glanced at him and suddenly asked, "How did you survive earlier?"

It wasn’t a good look for the captain to be the only one to survive when all his teammates had died.

Duan Xinyu pursed his lips, pinning a Bone Puppet to the wall before answering. "I smeared myself with the blood that was seeping from the rock walls and hid on the ceiling of the tunnel. The Bone Puppets couldn’t see me. When the Jindu Cub went after you, I slipped away."

The Jindu Cub’s movements grew faster, but thankfully, its attacks were erratic and unfocused. Before it could inflict any serious damage, it would be hit by the group’s concentrated fire.

Even so, time was on its side. Whenever it was in danger, it could simply retreat into the rock wall, and each time it re-emerged, it was fully healed.

The humans, on the other hand, would only grow more exhausted. The prolonged battle left everyone gasping for breath.

This time, Hee Lingchuan was still able to use his Treasure Saber’s sharpness to slice off its pauldron, but Door Panel’s Heavy Axe failed to break its hip bone, leaving only a gash.

His old strength was spent before his new strength could be mustered. Even he was growing tired.

At that moment, the Jindu Cub’s offensive rhythm suddenly quickened. It turned out it hadn’t been using its full strength before, merely employing stalling tactics to wear down their stamina.

Even Xuu Chun’s Slowdown Technique now had little effect on it.

Despite Hee Lingchuan and the others’ desperate attempts to stop it, the Jindu Cub exploited an opening. One man from his team and one from Xuu Chun’s fell in quick succession. One was disemboweled, the other had his head bitten clean off. They were beyond saving.

Hee Lingchuan himself was blind in one eye, and with his field of vision narrowed, his saber strikes were no longer as precise as before.

Sweat trickled down, making the wounds on his face sting.

The Jindu Cub’s speed increased, until it was almost leaving afterimages in the air. It was a mystery how it could move so fast while clad in such heavy armor.

Hee Lingchuan swung his saber again, parrying a claw that was aimed at Willow’s back.

This time, he had entered the Dream Realm already somewhat fatigued, not in the peak spiritual condition he was used to. ’It’s probably because the battle at the Hanhe River just ended in the real world,’ he guessed, ’leaving my Divine Soul weakened.’

’It seems that while battles in the dream don’t affect reality, my condition in the real world can carry over into the Dream Realm and affect my performance here.’

He felt as if he were back on that night of battle in the Yan River Valley—trapped in a tide of enemies, isolated and helpless, fighting with all his might with no dawn in sight.

Everyone was gritting their teeth, holding on for dear life. No one dared utter a word of despair, no one dared to speak of death. ’If these men weren’t Panlong Soldiers,’ he thought, ’they probably would have broken down long ago.’

’But in this fight, where was the hope of victory?’

’Will there be reinforcements?’

Skinny, panting behind him, suddenly spoke up. "Hey, can you guys pass a message to my family for me? Tell them I hid my money in..."

His left arm was broken and his right leg was injured, making it hard for him to turn. On top of that, he’d just been stabbed in the rear by the Jindu Cub’s spear.

He was growing dizzy from the blood loss.

’It looks like I’m not going to make it through this one.’

Willow cut him off impatiently. "If you have something to say, go back and say it yourself!"

Hee Lingchuan shot them a sideways glance. "Why stop him? Let him talk. We’ll go dig up the money and split it. He’s got more stashed away than any of us."

Skinny grumbled, "I worked my ass off to save that!" But he didn’t bring up his last words again.