Where Immortals Once Walked

Each egg was the size of a bucket. Of course, compared to the body of the Giant Thunderclap Beast, that was downright tiny. The shells were covered in blue-green snowflake-like patterns, but unfortunately, they were now smeared with sand and ash, hiding their dazzling beauty.

So that’s the prize the nothing beasts are going through so much trouble for!

Somehow, they had learned that the Giant Thunderclap Beast had laid eggs and had come rushing over to rob the nest.

The nothing beast that had died in the belly of the young thunderclap beast had probably disguised itself as one of the thunderclap beasts, slipped into the nest, and stolen one of the eggs, only to be caught red-handed and executed on the spot.

Unfortunately, the egg it had stolen had shattered then and there.

The remaining two eggs were the reason both sides were still fighting to the death.

He Lingchuan keenly sensed that both parties were already exhausted.

The nothing beasts were far fewer in number than the thunderclap beasts, and in terms of individual combat power, none of them was a match for the thunderclap beast lord either. That was why they had driven the beast tide forward and used the sandstorm to wear down and weaken the thunderclap beast clan, planning to drag their opponents down to their own level before defeating them with their wealth of experience.

No, that was not quite right. The nothing beasts’ goal was not to defeat the Giant Thunderclap Beast. They only wanted to steal the eggs.

However, the thunderclap beasts’ tenacity and resilience still exceeded all expectations. The beast tide had already crashed through the stone formation, yet they still had not been broken.

The beast tide and the sandstorm, the nothing beasts’ two great tactical cards, had both already been played. Now, all that remained was a battle of sheer strength.

However, the thunderclap beasts still guarded the nest with extreme care. The nothing beasts circled several times and tested the defenses repeatedly, only to be beaten back each time.

Just then, two gusts of whirlwind swept past, announcing another change in the wind.

The Giant Thunderclap Beast, which had been roaring at the nothing beasts, suddenly swung its head around.

He Lingchuan followed its gaze and saw the Jin Family’s team.

The Giant Thunderclap Beast’s tiny eyes had gone bloodshot. It let out a furious roar.

Seven or eight thunderclap beasts behind it received the order. With a twist of their heads, they charged straight toward those men.

The Jin Family’s team had been gleefully harvesting beast corpses, utterly absorbed in their work. When they heard the roars around them, they froze in shock. Most of the hunters, however, reacted quickly and turned to run.

The Soul-Stealing Mirror clicked its metaphorical tongue and said, “Well, well, what’s going on here?”

It was taking obvious pleasure in their misfortune, while He Lingchuan’s mind worked rapidly.

What did the Jin Family’s people do to make the Giant Thunderclap Beast suddenly hate them?

The hunters scattered in every direction, naturally, but the thunderclap beasts locked onto just one man.

No matter how he changed direction or scrambled upward, it was useless.

Those thunderclap beasts chased only him, with remarkable single-mindedness.

He Lingchuan recognized the man at a glance. Isn’t that the hunter who had been cutting up the nothing beast corpse?

What did he do just now to offend both heaven and beast?

However, with this little interruption in the middle of the battle, the thunderclap beasts encircling the nest suddenly lost seven or eight defenders, and a gap opened in the protective ring.

The nothing beasts seized the chance at once. Their leader gave a shrill roar, and two of its subordinates immediately attacked the gap.

The thunderclap beasts rushed to intercept them, but they were forced to patch one leak after another. Block one side, and a hole opened elsewhere.

Two other nothing beasts specifically attacked the young thunderclap beast, drawing the attention of the other adult beasts.

From time to time, they spat frost to slow the thunderclap beasts down, though the effect was not especially good.

Then the nothing beast leader made its move.

It personally led two subordinates in an assault from the east.

All the thunderclap beasts, including the beast lord, shifted their defensive focus to the east, leaving an opening at the rear.

At that very moment, the fastest of the nothing beasts suddenly darted out from behind the pile of corpses. With a whoosh, it shot into the beast nest, grabbed a beast egg, and ran!

This sudden move was performed especially nimbly. Before the thunderclap ebasts could react, one egg was already gone, and the thief had fled more than thirty meters away, its feet barely touching the ground.

He Lingchuan almost applauded it.

The Giant Thunderclap Beast also realized it had been tricked. It turned and unleashed an enraged roar.

A lightning bolt immediately split the air, striking the egg thief with perfect precision!

This bolt of lightning was huge and thick, its diameter wider than the nothing beast’s entire body. When it hit the unlucky creature, He Lingchuan saw blue-white sparks crackling all over it. A moment later, it was charred black.

The beast lord’s wrath was not so easy to endure.

However, the nothing beast leader seized the chance to bite down hard on the Giant Thunderclap Beast’s leg.

It used tremendous force, tearing away a large chunk of flesh along with the hide.

The Giant Thunderclap Beast ultimately had to turn right back around and deal with it. The nothing beast leader flicked its head and tossed the piece of hide and flesh aside.

That was not what it wanted to eat most.

By sheer coincidence, however, that piece of thunderclap beast hide flew nearly a hundred meters and landed just over two meters in front of He Lingchuan.

A strange treasure had dropped from the heavens. He Lingchuan accepted the gift without hesitation.

The giant beast’s hide was hard and stiff, like stone to the touch, except with the faintest hint of elasticity.

He immediately swept it into his storage ring.

The egg thief fell to the ground and twitched several times, but it was still clutching the egg tightly in its arms. Seeing several thunderclap beasts charging after it, it climbed back up and kept running.

Huh? It actually managed to avoid getting shocked senseless?

Even the onlookers were a little surprised. That lightning bolt had clearly been terrifyingly powerful.

However, He Lingchuan noticed that the surface of the beast egg was still flickering with electricity. Could the round egg have absorbed most of the lightning strike’s power?

As expected of the Giant Thunderclap Beast’s offspring.

The egg thief fled like a streak of smoke, but every few steps, it convulsed, clearly not yet free of the lightning’s effects.

He Lingchuan was not far from it. At that moment, he waved a hand and tossed a tiny object over. It struck the creature with perfect accuracy, shattering it.

However, it caused no damage whatsoever.

One of the egg thief’s companions turned and followed to escort it, while the remaining nothing beasts continued surrounding and attacking the thunderclap beast den.

Their division of labor was extremely clear, and their minds were still very much calm.

If they retreated, the Giant Thunderclap Beast would certainly chase after them. But if the nothing beast leader stayed behind, then the Giant Thunderclap Beast would have to protect the last egg in the nest and would be unable to split itself in two.

He Lingchuan even saw a trace of greed in the eyes of the nothing beast leader.

It wanted to steal the last egg as well!

In He Lingchuan’s opinion, that was not a good idea.

The Giant Thunderclap Beast seemed to realize this too. After flying into a rage, it instead grew smarter and roared behind it. A female beast immediately obeyed and slipped back into the nest, lowering herself over the last round egg.

This was the standard posture for incubating an egg.

However, hunters familiar with thunderclap beasts knew that the females did not brood over eggs like old hens. The incubation of their eggs mainly depended on the adults breathing lightning over them once every twelve hours. After doing so continuously for half a month, the young beasts would break out of their shells.

Still, in the current situation, this brooding posture was undoubtedly the best defensive stance. If the other nothing beasts wanted to steal the egg now, they would first have to drag away the several-thousand-kilo female beast, then dig the egg out from beneath her belly.

He Lingchuan glanced over the battlefield and confirmed that there would be no opportunity there for the time being. He then shrank backward, using the cover of the rocks and the mountains of corpses to chase after the two fleeing nothing beasts.

He had not forgotten his goal of gathering frost pellets.

He hoped that the nothing beasts could produce such things as well.

The biggest problem was that the two nothing beasts were fleeing southwest, which was also the direction in which the sandstorm and beast tide had advanced.

Thus, He Lingchuan had only taken two steps when he heard a teammate cry out from behind him, “Lord He, you can’t go that way!”

Heading southwest, the chances of finding rinsing beads were almost nonexistent. How was that any different from courting death?

“The nothing beasts may have something I need.” He Lingchuan took out a rinsing bead and placed it in his mouth, then said to him, “Keep harvesting for another quarter of an hour, then leave. You don’t need to wait for me.”

“Ah...” His teammate hesitated for a moment, then took a pouch from his chest and poured out three rinsing beads for him. “Lord He, take these. They might save your life at a critical moment!”

Three beads meant another three-quarters of an hour of life. He Lingchuan felt moved, accepted them, and said solemnly, “Thank you. Your name is Di Len, right?”

His teammate nodded. “Good luck to you. I’m leaving now. May we meet again in the southern camp, or in the mortal realm!”

“Take care!” He Lingchuan clasped palms with him, then they went their separate ways.

* * *

Advancing southwest meant leaving the plain behind and entering the mountains.

The terrain rose gradually. He Lingchuan darted through the clustered mountains, never forgetting to regulate his breathing and conserve his strength.

He also tucked a pill beneath his tongue, letting its medicinal force slowly disperse.

In the Fu Realm, rinsing beads, medicinal pills, and water formed the three-piece survival kit that visitors from the mortal realm depended on.

After running less than a kilometer, He Lingchuan seemed to think of something, and he paused.

The mirror asked curiously, “What is it?” Aren’t we in a hurry? Why did he suddenly stop?

He Lingchuan started running again, and as he did, he took off the leather armor he wore, holding it in his hands and examining it again and again. He even brought it close to his nose and sniffed it several times.

He asked the mirror, “Do you remember that man surnamed Hu touching me?”

“Touching you?” It was a mirror with an excellent memory. How could it possibly forget? “Ah, yeah, earlier, when we left camp! Mm-hm, I remember, he patted you on the shoulder.”

“My shoulder?” He Lingchuan brought the shoulder area of the leather armor close and sniffed twice, but he did not smell anything unusual. Alas, human noses had their limits. If only Fushan Yue were here.

At the very least, Jiao Yu would do too.

Seeing his actions, the mirror also caught on. “You suspect he did something to you?”

“Otherwise, why did that nothing beast leader charge straight at me earlier?” He Lingchuan had been thinking about this all along. “There’s most likely something on me that can attract it. Fortunately, it was clever enough not to be completely misled by smell.”

“Maybe he also used some tracking method at the same time. Otherwise, how does he keep appearing near me?” He put the leather armor into his storage ring and continued forward. “These duonao beasts have excellent noses. I think the thunderclap beasts suddenly chased the unlucky fellow from the Jin Family’s group because he stepped in egg fluid. He really should have taken off his shoes before running.”

Leaving a trail of scent like that all the way along, there was no chance the thunderclap beasts would let him go.

“That man won’t have a good end.”

Ordinarily, he would find a nearby place to hide and see whether Hu Bin would conveniently follow after him.

But right now, time was the most precious thing he had. He could not waste it on an experiment like that.

The limited number of rinsing beads was a sword hanging over everyone’s head—a Sword of Damocles, if you will.

Those two nothing beasts were extremely cunning. They kept choosing the hardest routes, presumably to shake off the Thunderclap Beasts. The massive, cumbersome bodies of those giant creatures were not suited for climbing high peaks.

He Lingchuan followed behind them, and the distance between the two sides continued to shrink.

The nothing beasts were light and nimble, but he was not slow either, especially after he had more or less adapted to the Fu Realm’s gravity.

Many cultivators from Beijia entered the Fu Realm not solely for floating stones but also to temper their bodies in this harsh environment.

This counted as passive training for him too.

He needed suitable terrain for an ambush. The open plain was not a good place to fight.

After tracking them for more than half an hour, the distance between him and the nothing beasts had shrunk to only a little over three hundred meters.

Earlier, he had smashed a tracking bee pupa against the nothing beast’s body. Ever since then, he had been using his compass to search for his prey, saving time and effort and avoiding unnecessary detours.