Where Immortals Once Walked

State Preceptor Qing Yang frowned. “You let yourself be captured just to ask me this?” This other party’s behavior was becoming increasingly strange to her.

“I know that it’s a relic of Panlong City, but I’d really appreciate it if you could enlighten me on it more.”

The words “Panlong City” made the corner of State Preceptor Qing Yang’s eye twitch slightly. But by now, both she and the Heavenly Palace understood that someone capable of infiltrating Star-Plucking Tower and stealing the divine object was naturally connected to the Generous Pot, and to Panlong City!

This was already a topic neither side needed to avoid.

“Is it that you find it hard to say, or that you do not dare say it?” The other party even tried to provoke her.

“How do I find your accomplice?” State Preceptor Qing Yang stared at him. “You are the prisoner. I ask, you answer!”

“When you found that flute, was its original owner dead or alive?”

State Preceptor Qing Yang pressed the tip of her staff against his throat. “What force do you people belong to? Speak!”

The prisoner treated her threat as though it were nothing. “This is an old matter from more than a century ago. Panlong City is gone. What do you still not dare say?”

State Preceptor Qing Yang smiled. She took out the heavenly centipede bone flute and waved it in her hand. “What is there that cannot be said? When I obtained this flute back then, I personally saw its owner die a wretched death! You have committed monstrous crimes on Mount Xu. Your end will not be any better than hers!”

He pressed her, “Who was the owner of the flute? The name! Tell me the name, and I’ll confess the invader’s whereabouts!”

State Preceptor Qing Yang said mildly, “You first.”

“After the deed is done, gather on the back mountain behind Mount Xiang Station outside the city’s south gate!” The man answered quickly. “Your turn.”

State Preceptor Qing Yang threw out a flying rope, binding him tightly. “Once I catch him, I will tell you.”

The man did not become frantic and continued asking, “Then did you kill someone to seize the flute? You can at least answer that, can’t you?”

This boy was rather stubborn. State Preceptor Qing Yang glanced at him, always feeling that his dull expression was oddly strange. “More or less.”

The man immediately let out a long breath. State Preceptor Qing Yang could not tell whether it was anger or relief.

“That is enough. What I wanted to know was really only this much,” he murmured. “We will meet again. State Preceptor Qing Yang, there are old accounts between us yet to be settled!”

After the prisoner finished speaking, his head suddenly drooped.

Did he take some poison?

State Preceptor Qing Yang’s pupils shrank. She grabbed his chin and lifted it, but saw no signs of poison taking effect. When the man opened his eyes again and saw the State Preceptor so close, he first started violently, then looked completely lost. “S-State Preceptor? What happened?”

Huh? What’s with his reaction? State Preceptor Qing Yang’s brows furrowed slightly. “State your name and affiliation.”

“Tongxin Guard, Third Battalion, Seventh Squad, Wang Lijie.” The man answered fluently. “I’ve been on duty at the Grass Sea since the seventh month.”

“Who is your accomplice in causing chaos on Mount Xu?” This was becoming increasingly ominous.

“Accomplice? Chaos on M-Mount Xu?!” Wang Lijie was shocked. “State Preceptor, please judge clearly! I don’t have any accomplices. I haven’t been to Mount Xu in two years!”

“Why did you swim here?”

Wang Lijie looked left and right, both frightened and bewildered. “Earlier, I jumped into the water to avoid the duonao beasts. I had only swum a few meters before I passed out. Then... then I was here, and I saw you!”

Was this fellow under control just now? He doesn’t remember anything that happened?

State Preceptor Qing Yang linked this to his earlier stiff expression and behavior and believed him somewhat.

The person behind the scenes had told her that there were accounts to settle between them.

Could it be... Xi Yunhe?!

Xi Yunhe knew about the heavenly centipede bone flute and had some vague knowledge of its origins.

Hm, no, that does not quite fit. She had worn this flute in public no fewer than dozens of times, and there were plenty of people who had seen it.

What relationship did this person have with the flute’s owner?

The Generous Pot, Panlong City, and those earth-shaking battles—these were all past events that an old warrior like her could not bear to look back on.

Now, the lid of the Generous Pot had actually been stolen. Did that mean those old matters were about to come sweeping back again?

This was probably what the Lord Emperor and the heavenly gods wanted desperately to avoid. No wonder the Heavenly Palace had reacted so violently. She seemed to smell anger and fear in the air.

She lifted the dripping-wet mask. “Before you lost consciousness, did you see this mask?”

Wang Lijie nodded like pounding garlic. “Yes, yes! I was swimming when someone came out from under the water. He was less than two feet away from me! He was wearing that mask and gave me a fright.”

State Preceptor Qing Yang thought of a little-known secret technique that could control others for one’s own use.

But there was a distance limit between the caster and the controlled person.

In other words, the target had still been nearby just now.

Yet she had already circled the sandbar and had not seen so much as half a person. The other party had not used an illusion, because ordinary illusions could not fool her.

They must have been hiding underwater.

After Wang Lijie was brought back, the Heavenly Palace naturally had ways to determine whether he was telling the truth. But State Preceptor Qing Yang understood in her heart that this man was very likely innocent.

The water rippled faintly all around.

The invader had escaped right under her nose.

The location he had given through the controlled prisoner was naturally nonsense.

This capture attempt had ultimately failed. Her plan to offset her crimes with merit had also fallen through. State Preceptor Qing Yang took a deep breath, her heart empty and cold.

* * *

Four legs usually ran faster than two, and as for eight legs...

In any case, Zhu Erniang’s enormous figure swept ahead so quickly that she left afterimages behind. Aside from God Baizhantian, no one else could even hope to catch her dust.

One pursued while the other fled, and very soon they were far from the lakeshore.

Rolling hills stretched ahead, and the vegetation grew denser and denser.

When Baizhantian chased after her, the entire hill suddenly moved, lifting up and sweeping toward it head-on.

Swirling sand nearly blinded the eye. Baizhantian waved a palm, and a fierce wind swept all the sand and gravel away. Unexpectedly, the ground behind its feet suddenly collapsed. The giant spider shot out from beneath, extended both of her claws, and hugged it tightly from behind!

Two small trees were caught in the hug as well, and Baizhantian immediately heard crackling sounds as trunks snapped and branches broke.[1]

Although Zhu Erniang’s front claws could not open and close freely like those of a sea crab, when she suddenly pulled someone into her body, that tremendous force could squeeze the bile out of them.

Even with divine energy protecting its body, Baizhantian’s vision still went black from the pressure.

If this had been Lu Shishi herself, she would already have been crushed into a meat patty.

At the same time, Baizhantian inhaled and drew in its abdomen. The force around its body became incomparably slippery. When Zhu Erniang squeezed it, it was like squeezing a wet bar of soap. With a slick pop, Baizhantian slipped free from the desperate situation.

Zhu Erniang’s venomous fangs had already extended, ready to add another dose of poison to its skin-sack, but this time they bit only empty air.

She shook her front claw uncomfortably.

A wound the size of a bowl on the claw was expanding. In the blink of an eye, it had grown to the size of a millstone, the flesh and blood turning into black ash and scattering in the wind.

At the instant Baizhantian escaped, it had counterattacked as well, punching Zhu Erniang’s front claw.

The power of annihilation clung like a maggot in the bone. Even the spider immortal found it somewhat unbearable.

The two sides exchanged several moves in rapid succession. The result was that the entire surface of the ground had been shaved away in two layers. The surroundings looked as though a violent storm had passed through, leaving nothing behind.

Together, this person and this spider could write the word “extinction.”

The two opponents circled each other for several steps, each sizing up the other. Baizhantian spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the ground and changed its approach. “Come back with me now, and we will let bygones be bygones. From now on, you will be an honored guest of Lingxu City, supplied endlessly with spirit qi and origin energy. How does that sound?”

“Like Juju?” Zhu Erniang was, after all, an old greater monster who had lived for countless years. How could she be moved by a few words? “Or like the owner of the turtle shell?”

How powerful was Juju? It was also the natural guardian spirit of Mount Xu, yet had Lingxu City and the Heavenly Palace not done everything possible to suppress and domesticate it?

After the stunt Zhu Erniang had pulled today, she and the Heavenly Palace were irreconcilable from now on. There was almost no room for turning back.

“As long as you hand over the invader and bring back the divine object.” Baizhantian lightly tapped its own chest. “We can enfeoff you as Marquis of Mount Bi. From Bi Mountain to Blue Bay, all of it will be your territory. You and your descendants can flourish generation after generation, and no one will dare disturb you!” It continued softly, “Back then, you left Beijia in anger because the Lingxu Imperial Court did not give you enough respect and territory, wasn’t it? We are old acquaintances. I can fight for this on your behalf.”

“Fight for it on my behalf?” Zhu Erniang chuckled. “From what I see, you haven’t been doing too well in the divine realm either. You have actually become Lingxu’s hound. Whoever it points at, you bark at. You finally descend to the mortal realm once, and Lingxu City prepares you a broken shell. You cannot even use a tenth of your power. Heh, are you still the arrogant, unruly Baizhantian of old?”

There had been many reasons she left Beijia, not only the one Baizhantian mentioned. But now was not the time to argue. She understood the nature of gods perfectly.

Baizhantian said coldly, “You think you can still escape?”

It had maintained contact with the Heavenly Palace the entire time and knew that in at most the time it took to drink half a cup of tea, at least several dozen greater monsters and two thousand soldiers would arrive here!

At that point, this giant spider would not escape even if she grew wings.

Zhu Erniang, however, said, “Your eyes are still as blind as they were three thousand years ago!”

What does she mean? Baizhantian did not understand.

“You suddenly tried to move me with benefits because you wanted to stall for time, didn’t you?” The giant spider had long since seen through everything and scratched her belly. “Actually, so did I!”

As soon as she finished speaking, her left front claw fell off.

A giant spider more than thirteen meters tall had a large claw weighing at least six hundred kilograms. It struck the ground with a heavy boom.

This was a powerful fighting weapon, yet Zhu Erniang seemed utterly unconcerned. Like a crab, a giant spider could deliberately sever a limb and regenerate it later.

Baizhantian frowned, then suddenly heard a rumbling from behind.

That was the sound made by countless hard soles trampling the ground.

Had reinforcements arrived so quickly?

It found a moment to glance back and was shocked.

The ones coming were not Lingxu reinforcements, but the Giant Thunderclap Beast, which should clearly have run far away!

Of course, it did not lack underlings behind it either.

Worse still, there was no one else on this slope now. It had only been Baizhantian and Zhu Erniang facing each other. Clearly, the Giant Thunderclap Beast had come for them.

“They’re here for you, so I won’t get involved.” Zhu Erniang lifted her right claw. “Until we meet again!”

How could Baizhantian allow her to escape? But the moment it moved, Zhu Erniang’s eight claws—no, seven claws—moved together, and she scuttled straight toward the Giant Thunderclap Beast.

As soon as Baizhantian moved, the giant beast moved with it, and the herd of duonao beasts behind the beast shifted direction in unison.

Hundreds of eyes were all fixed on Baizhantian, not blinking for an instant.

Baizhantian was startled. Only then did it understand that they had indeed come for it!

Moreover, more than four hundred large duonao beasts had gathered behind the Giant Thunderclap Beast. When they charged, they shook the earth and mountains, carrying a momentum that seemed capable of killing even a god if one stood in their way!

No matter how arrogant Baizhantian was, at this moment, it had no desire to approach the Giant Thunderclap Beast.

After all, it had only descended into a skin-sack; it had not descended in its true body.

1. Note that spiders do have claws, but they’re typically very small. In my opinion, the author may be referring to the forelegs rather than just the claws, since I don’t think the claws alone would be able to grab that big of an area. Still, I’ve decided to just translate it as claws due to the following paragraph. ☜