Where Immortals Once Walked

This coffin home had originally belonged to the Li Family. It had included communal housing, farmland, granaries, a schoolhouse, and other properties, rather than being a place specifically used to store coffins. Later, the Li Family declined, and after their descendants sold off the land and moved away from Heishui City, the estate was left vacant.

After several more years of exposure to wind and rain, the two characters for “Li Family” fell off the plaque, leaving only the words “Coffin Home.” When He Chunhua saw that, he decided it must be Heaven’s will. So the place became Heishui City’s public coffin home, a place to temporarily house coffins.

Places where the dead were kept tended to have the heaviest yin qi. People had suggested long ago that the morgue be moved outside the city, but during He Chunhua’s tenure as commandery administrator, Heishui City had never gotten around to the project.

Later, Commandery Administrator Hu took over, and he never moved it either.

Thus, the coffin home remained in the western part of the city, less than two hundred meters from the southwestern corner of the walls.

A place like this was usually deserted, with hardly anyone ever visiting. Even so, to be safe, He Lingchuan and the others first swept their surroundings with their eyes, made sure no one was nearby, then quietly slipped inside.

The estate was enormous, still retaining the layout from the Li Family’s prosperous days. He Lingchuan led Qiu Hu and the others through turn after turn before ducking into an inconspicuous narrow alley behind the old granary.

Because sunlight never quite reached this place year-round, the brick walls were covered in moss.

Fortunately, he had often come here to play as a child. Otherwise, he never would have known where the place He Chunhua had described was hidden.

The seventy men following him included Rongshan disciples such as Qiu Hu, as well as elite personal guards He Chunhua had brought with him.

For this important battle, He Chunhua ultimately chose to trust his son and assigned his finest men to him.

He Lingchuan could not help but wonder exactly what his father trusted more: his eldest son’s luck, or his eldest son’s ability?

At the end of the alley stood a dilapidated woodshed. It looked no larger than six or seven square meters, and both its doors and windows had been nailed shut.

He Lingchuan gave the wooden door a casual tug.

Crack!

The whole thing came loose.

Inside, pieces of lumber were piled haphazardly everywhere. Some were covered in green mold, others had sprouted mushrooms, and spiderwebs filled the entire room. No one knew how long it had been since anyone had entered.

Young Master He was certainly not going to do the dirty work himself. He simply pointed inside and said, “Move it!”

Seven men went in and began carrying the lumber out.

Every one of them was young and strong. In little more than a dozen breaths, they had emptied the entire room without a single man breathing heavily.

Suddenly, a hunting falcon descended from the sky and landed in front of He Lingchuan. It opened its beak and said in a human voice, “There’s no one over there.”

Only then did He Lingchuan enter the woodshed. He moved along the two walls, knocking here and there and listening for hollow echoes.

Before he had even finished, Qiu Hu pointed at two wooden boards. “There’s air leaking out from behind these. I can also smell damp mold.”

He Lingchuan glanced at him.

Is there anywhere in this place that doesn’t smell moldy?

How is anyone supposed to tell one moldy smell from another?

Aside from Fushan Yue, he had never met anyone with such a sensitive nose.

“Why stand on ceremony? Tear it down!”

A few more cracks sounded as the wooden boards were ripped away.

Sure enough, a dark opening appeared behind them.

The tunnel entrance stood a little over two meters high and was about one and a half people wide, enough for everyone to file inside one after another.

“Impressive.” The moment Qiu Hu saw the tunnel, he understood why He Chunhua had rejected his earlier suggestion of sending a small team outside the city in advance—

Heishui City had a secret passage leading beyond the walls!

Whenever Governor-General He wanted to send men outside, he could.

That evening, when He Chunhua told his eldest son to leave the city through a hidden tunnel, He Lingchuan also slapped the table in admiration.

It was unexpected, yet perfectly logical.

Heishui City had changed hands several times over the years, and it had also been the place where He Chunhua first established himself. Even a cunning rabbit had three burrows. Given He Chunhua’s personality, how could he possibly have failed to leave himself an escape route?

Now, that escape route had become a path for a surprise force.

He Chunhua had told his eldest son that the other end of the passage opened into an old riverbed about one kilometer west of the city.

The river had changed course long ago. No water remained in the old channel, only dense weeds.

The hunting falcon had already flown out to scout the area. The tunnel exit lay beyond the Andong encirclement, with no one nearby.

He Lingchuan looked up. Night had already fallen. Thick clouds covered the sky, leaving neither stars nor moon. “What perfect conditions for killing.” He tilted his head toward the others. “Alright, move out!”

* * *

The Andong forces always attacked during the day and stopped after nightfall.

Yet halfway through that night, war drums suddenly thundered from Heishui City. The gates flew open, and more than three hundred men charged out.

The Andong troops were immediately alerted and quickly raised their banners to meet the attack.

The two sides maneuvered back and forth several times across the open ground east of the city, each moving with great caution.

Watching from atop the wall, He Chunhua found himself agreeing even more with what his eldest son had said.

When the Andong troops faced the Heishui City army, the two sides really were evenly matched. Andong had clearly not committed its main force. It was still wary of Heishui City.

About fifteen minutes later, Heishui City’s north gate quietly opened, and another three hundred troops rushed out.

Both the east gate and north gate forces contained large numbers of newly recruited soldiers.

The Andong troops had already deployed men to those areas. Seeing Heishui's sudden deployment, they immediately advanced to engage.

Once the fighting at the east and north gates had grown fierce, Heishui City’s south gate also quietly opened. More than five hundred men slipped out and circled southward, intending to strike the Andong camp at Mount Hulu from behind.

Among them were the dozens of outside reinforcements, including Zhang Lianhai.

If they wanted to reach the Panlong Desert, they had to travel north. Yet the northern route was already blocked by the armies of both sides. Unless they took Mount Hulu, there was no other way around.

Although all of them possessed cultivation, while they were in Yuan, they received almost no support from origin energy. On a battlefield involving four or five thousand men, it was difficult even for them to stroll casually through the fighting and come and go as they pleased.

He Lingchuan had sharp eyes. He had already seen that their cultivation was not weak, but they were not soldiers and had little actual battlefield experience.

The difference in combat effectiveness between a battlefield novice and a veteran was enormous.

At first, everything went smoothly. The south gate force swiftly annihilated the Andong unit stationed in front of the gate. The enemy only had time to fire off two signal arrows.

The south gate force then continued eastward. After traveling two kilometers, however, they encountered enemy troops guarding the main camp!

The Andong camp was by no means lightly defended.

Judging from the methods the Andong commander, Liao Shan, had employed in the past, he was clearly a man who understood tactics. He had assassinated Commandery Administrator Hu and nearly seized Heishui City’s gates through deception.

Naturally, he understood the importance of his logistical camp.

Before going out to meet the enemy, he had left his most loyal confidants and elite troops behind to defend it to the death.

Liao Shan knew perfectly well that Heishui City’s forces were far fewer than his own. As long as his logistics held and his army did not fall into disorder, victory would eventually be his.

Since a surprise raid had turned into a direct encounter, what else was there to say?

Fight!

The south gate force clashed violently with the roughly 1,200 elite soldiers under Liao Shan!

At this point, it became obvious that although Zhang Lianhai and the others lacked battlefield experience, their individual strength was genuinely formidable.

Even Zhang Lianhai’s attendant could fight five men at once. The Jianyang Sect disciples were fiercer still, their blades flashing like the wind as they rapidly claimed lives.

Most vicious of all was Zhang Lianhai’s lamp spirit. It shifted forms unpredictably and had no physical body. Other than being wary of origin energy, it had nothing to fear from swords, spears, staffs, or clubs.

Everyone understood the principle that when two forces met on a narrow road, victory went to the braver side. Now that things had reached this point, they could only swallow broken teeth with blood and fight to the bitter end.

Even though the south gate force was outnumbered, its battle line actually pushed steadily eastward.

In less than the time it took to drink half a cup of tea, the Andong forces had already suffered more than 140 casualties.