Where Immortals Once Walked

The Heavenly Palace had its own means of relaying messages to the Lord Emperor in real time. Juju was wreaking havoc on Mount Xu, and though the Monster Emperor had not yet arrived in person, the edict could be prepared first.

Every sentence Bai Ziqi spoke carried a great deal of information. State Preceptor Qing Yang considered it carefully, and instead of worry, she felt a surge of joy.

Though this was the territory of the Heavenly Palace, some methods could only be employed by a State Preceptor.

This was an excellent opportunity for her to redeem herself through merit and fight for a reduced sentence.

As they passed through the exit of the Molten Palace, Bai Ziqi handed her a short scepter. “I only found your staff. Your other magical artifacts are all stored away in the treasury.”

State Preceptor Qing Yang took the short scepter and gave it a gentle shake. It immediately lengthened into a staff nearly two meters long, its surface wreathed in a soft azure glow.

She had once possessed countless powerful magical artifacts. Yet when she had been imprisoned, she had surrendered them all, and the Heavenly Palace had categorized and stored them in its treasury. Bai Ziqi had come in too much of a hurry to retrieve anything beyond her staff.

“How could the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array have failed?” State Preceptor Qing Yang asked. “The array eye was personally designed by the gods. Before it was put into operation, it underwent countless tests. Even we could not break it.”

“Do you remember the star map within the array eye?” Bai Ziqi asked as they raced onward. “No one knows what method the invaders used, but the spider immortal’s molt emerged on its own.”

“...” The molt had come out by itself? State Preceptor Qing Yang was one of the few people who knew the array eye’s secret. After a brief moment of thought, she said, “The invaders activated it as the spider immortal’s avatar?”

“That is what I believe as well.”

“Then it cannot move for long.” State Preceptor Qing Yang immediately found the weakness in their plan. “Without the spider monster’s true body being present, the divine soul controlling that immortal husk cannot be powerful enough.”

The compatibility of body and soul was one of the fundamental laws of cultivation. Zhu Erniang was controlling her immortal husk through a divided soul, and that could not be sustained for long.

“They cannot afford to drag this out.”

After rounding a wild, unnamed peak, State Preceptor Qing Yang finally saw Juju in its rampage.

“It is up to you now.” Bai Ziqi tossed her a bow and a set of arrows.

State Preceptor Qing Yang came to a stop and took a deep breath. Only then did she draw the longbow. Yet she did not aim at Juju in the distance; instead, she aimed at the sky, where dark clouds churned overhead.

She murmured two lines of prayer, and a faint green glow appeared on the arrowhead.

It was weak at first, then steadily grew brighter.

A pale green mist also emerged around the shaft of the arrow, hazy and indistinct. It resembled a bird circling the arrow in flight, though the bird had only one leg.

Bai Ziqi, watching from the side, recognized the shape. It was the form of the Shangyang[1] bird, a creature associated with prayers for rain.

When the green light shone as brightly as a star, she finally released the string.

The arrow was loosed into the clouds like a meteor, bursting into a patch of emerald-green light the instant it entered.

State Preceptor Qing Yang lowered her bow and exhaled slowly. Even the healthy flush in her cheeks had faded somewhat.

She had not used this move in a very long time.

It’s been... hm, sixty years.

Several bolts of lightning suddenly lit up the night sky in succession. Within the dense clouds, a gigantic bird seemed to be dancing gracefully.

Only three or five breaths later, torrential rain began pouring down across Mount Xu!

This was the ability of a Beijia State Preceptor: drawing upon origin energy to command rain from the heavens.

Naturally, ordinary rainfall did not require State Preceptor Qing Yang to spend such effort. Every raindrop falling here carried a bone-piercing chill. The instant it struck stone, it condensed into hard ice.

Yet the rain did no harm to plants, insects, beasts, or other living things.

Clearly, State Preceptor Qing Yang had considered that this was the heavenly gods’ residence and a place where pilgrims had come to worship for generations. If she froze the plants to death and slaughtered every living thing in the area, the aftermath would look terrible indeed.

In other words, the rain’s sole target was Juju, who was rampaging across Mount Xu.

At the same time, State Preceptor Qing Yang recited in a clear voice, “Bless the Heavenly Palace; let the rain favor the heavenly gods’ servants!”

As spirit rain fell from the sky, every Heavenly Palace disciple and guard who came into contact with it felt their minds clear and their strength rise. Their fatigue and pain were swept away.

By using the heavenly rain, State Preceptor Qing Yang temporarily allocated more origin energy to the Heavenly Palace’s divine servants, increasing their combat strength and lifting their morale so that they could better endure the coming battle.

This battle was difficult, but as long as it continued, one side would weaken while the other grew stronger. Once the reinforcements arrived, ultimate victory would surely belong to the Heavenly Palace!

* * *

The rain poured over Juju, making its body hiss and crackle as huge clouds of white steam rose from it. It could not help but let out a long howl.

That hurts!

The steam swiftly spread into thick mist, blanketing the entire valley.

The rain that was harmless to others was like incredibly corrosive acid to Juju. Every single droplet brought it searing pain.

No one could withstand being relentlessly doused in acid. That was exactly how Juju felt now.

After State Preceptor Qing Yang’s adjustments, the rain had become ice rain laden with abundant origin energy. For a rock-fire aberrant creature that had been stripped of its position as guardian spirit, it was devastatingly harmful, slipping through every possible gap in its defenses.

As long as it remained within Mount Xu’s territory, it could not resist the ice rain’s corrosion unless it retreated underground.

Juju endured the torture as it dug out the shrine, only to hear He Lingchuan’s voice transmitted through the little fire man, “Throw it into the magma pool! Hurry!”

He Lingchuan was beside himself with excitement. They had finally gotten the thing out.

No matter how powerful the barrier over the shrine was, how long could it hold up beneath the repeated grinding of earthfire?

However, just as Juju was about to comply, the mountainside of Zhimi Peak suddenly split open. The giant beast Chenyuan rushed out and slammed headlong into Juju’s chest!

The dull boom could be heard across all seven peaks.

The collision carried tremendous force. Juju staggered backward, and the shrine flew from its grasp. It bounced several times between the peaks before becoming wedged against a trident-shaped rock.

The next instant, Chenyuan opened its huge maw and lunged for Juju’s throat.

As the thick mist scattered, almost no one noticed that a “rock” on Juju’s back suddenly moved, then sprang away in an instant.

It was Zhu Erniang.

She could camouflage herself. When she drew in her claws and curled up, she could blend herself into the surrounding environment. Clinging to Juju’s back, she had looked exactly like a piece of fire-scorched rock.

The divine servants of Star-Plucking Tower had all been facing the rock-fire aberrant creature. Not many had been able to see Juju’s back in the first place. Thus, despite Zhu Erniang’s considerable size, none of them had noticed her.

But the moment Chenyuan moved, she sensed trouble and leaped away immediately.

“Another ghost beast?” Zhu Erniang said gravely. “We cannot stay here long!”

As a monster that had survived since the Ancient Era, she had dealt with ghost beasts in the past.

Though she had briefly regained her monster immortal body, she could not fight for long. Besides, spirit qi was thin in the current era. Every bit of power she used was gone for good, with no way to replenish it. Thus, Zhu Erniang was even more cautious now than before. Unless she had no choice, she would not make a move.

“When Juju ran wild more than ten years ago, it did not encounter these aberrant creatures. It seems the Heavenly Palace learned from that lesson and prepared some contingencies.” That made He Lingchuan’s operation far more difficult. They had to adapt to circumstances at every turn. “Push the shrine into the magma pool, quickly.”

Juju was desperately tangled up with Chenyuan and could not spare a hand. That task could only fall to Zhu Erniang.

Zhu Erniang bounded across the peak rocks on eight long legs, more agile than any ape. At the same time, she had to watch in every direction to avoid being crushed beneath the two giant beasts fighting nearby.

The two aberrant creatures clashed violently, their roars shaking the heavens. Several sharp peaks were struck down on the spot, and shattered rocks flew everywhere.

All the living creatures in the nearby forests had long since fled. Only the Heavenly Palace guards were unfortunate enough to remain behind. Dozens were crushed or smashed to death.

Up close, Chenyuan’s body was extraordinarily thick and powerful. Its forelimbs were longer than its hind limbs, its chest broad and its back low. It looked like a fusion of a violent ape and a qilin. Accordingly, it fought by grabbing, slapping, clawing, biting, and even wrestling with Juju.

Of all the ghost beasts and monster puppets He Lingchuan had seen, this one had the most well-proportioned appearance and the most balanced physique. Its abilities were evidently also the greatest. Otherwise, the Heavenly Palace would not have concealed it as their trump card against Juju.

Compared to the size of its body, the teeth in its mouth were strangely fine and dense, arranged in rows. Every bite it took out of Juju tore away a mouthful of flaming rock.

Magma flowed from Juju’s wounds, and it clearly appeared to be in great pain.

Before absolute strength, divine techniques became less useful.

Chenyuan was far smaller than Juju, but the vivid azure glow around its body was unmistakable. It was dense origin energy.

With the enhancement of origin energy, it was just barely able to fight Juju evenly.

He Lingchuan suddenly remembered what Fang Canran had said. Mount Xu’s monthly accounts showed an unexplained increase of more than 5,000 kilograms of raw meat. Either someone had been cooking the books, or they were feeding something with an enormous appetite.

It seemed the gluttons had been these ghost beasts.

Zhu Erniang had keen enough eyes to judge the battle after only a few glances. “This ghost beast fights too stiffly. The fire creature will win.”

A fight to the death at this scale tested strength, intelligence, and technique. Chenyuan was powerful, but its mind was clouded, and it could not properly judge openings in battle. He Lingchuan had personally watched it miss several chances to counterattack Juju.

Raw ferocity alone could not defeat the giant rock-fire creature before it.

Moreover, a living creature’s stamina was ultimately limited. The more violently it fought, the faster it exhausted itself. Juju, by contrast, was bound to excel in endurance.

And Juju was battle-hardened. It was gradually learning Chenyuan’s patterns. With a rear throw, it pinned the beast against the mountainside, then twisted hard with both hands and tore off its entire arm!

The ghost beast let out a long, agonized shriek.

The Chief Cloud Envoy had been observing the battle closely from inside Star-Plucking Tower. The two giant beasts were fighting more and more fiercely. All four of Chenyuan’s eyes had turned blood-red, and the mist pouring from its mouth and nostrils was purple-red as well, so vivid that even the thick fog could not conceal it.

If this continued, the ghost beast the Heavenly Palace had painstakingly raised would be finished.

They had never expected Chenyuan to fight Juju alone. It had been raised to delay Juju or to coordinate attacks alongside gods and great monsters.

Making it deal with Juju on its own was simply too difficult.

The Chief Cloud Envoy therefore sat down cross-legged, took a deep breath, and picked up an eternal lamp. Then he blew heavily toward the two beasts—

Whoosh!

The flame transformed into a streak of golden light. It pierced through the rain of falling rocks, carefully avoided the flames around Juju, and precisely slipped into Chenyuan’s ears and nostrils.

At the same time, the Chief Cloud Envoy closed his eyes and entered meditation.

Chenyuan had just been pinned by Juju and beaten brutally with its neck pressed down. Suddenly, intelligence gleamed in its eyes. It drove its elbow sharply backward.

At the same time, a hard spike nearly seventeen meters long erupted from the tip of its elbow and plunged straight into Juju’s chest. Juju recoiled in pain, and Chenyuan spun around in a tiger pounce, launching its counterattack.

Its movements, speed, and reactions were visibly different from before. It was as though the giant beast had suddenly awakened, gained a soul, and no longer fought on instinct alone.

By then, Zhu Erniang had reached the shrine and was just about to extend one of her legs when azure light flashed from the mountain rock opposite her. Two arrows suddenly flew over.

How long could arrows possibly be? Compared to the spider monster’s body, they were insignificant.

Yet Zhu Erniang sensed the danger and swiftly ducked behind a rock. One arrow struck the mountainside, while the other still pierced the tip of one of her claws.

With a whoosh, azure fire immediately ignited around the point of impact and spread across the entire rock face.

1. The Shangyang (商羊) in Chinese mythology was a rainbird. Also, as mentioned here, it’s one-legged. ☜