Where Immortals Once Walked

He Lingchuan immediately pointed out the direction to Zhu Erniang. The great spider swung and drifted through the mountains, its enormous body seemingly weightless, and it moved no slower than a bird in flight.

As for how spider silk was truly meant to be used, she gave He Lingchuan a vivid lesson.

In truth, however, Zhu Erniang was more than a pace slower than she had been at her peak.

On one hand, she was only borrowing the residual power left within the spider molt and had not come close to recovering her full strength.

On the other, the spirit rain summoned by State Preceptor Qing Yang greatly enhanced the Heavenly Palace guards, while slowing and hindering other monsters. Even a monster immortal like Zhu Erniang could not escape its effects.

The spirit rain falling on the ground was like birdlime. It clung firmly to her feet, greatly slowing her movement.

That was the wonder of origin energy: strengthening one’s own side while suppressing the enemy.

State Preceptor Qing Yang had judged that they would sooner or later retreat, so she had first laid down a technique to slow the enemy, buying time for her own side.

He Lingchuan could hear the great spider muttering curses under her breath, “These damn humans and their cursed origin energy.”

Juju was fond of cursing those same two things as well.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the lava pool, the shrine’s stone base had already melted away. Only the restriction still protected the shrine itself.

But surrounded by boundless earthfire, its energy was being consumed at a rapid pace.

After all, it had been designed merely to prevent outsiders from breaking into the shrine, not to withstand the relentless assault of true fire from the earth’s core!

While fighting at the bottom of the lava pool, Chenyuan also had to divide its attention to search for the shrine.

If that thing were lost, how would the Heavenly Palace search for the Generous Pot in the future?

But this was Juju’s home ground. Everywhere was dazzling, eye-searing crimson lava, and visibility was extremely poor. Go any deeper, and the surroundings became pitch-black.

The moment Chenyuan’s attention split, Juju pinned it down and gave it a brutal beating.

Chenyuan finally caught sight of the shrine and was about to pounce when Juju kicked it flying far away.

The battle beneath the lava pool was intense. Inside Star-Plucking Tower, the Chief Cloud Envoy’s body trembled, and his eyelids kept twitching. Everyone watching him was deeply worried.

Chenyuan’s mind was crazed. It was extremely difficult for the Chief Cloud Envoy to control it. The more fiercely Chenyuan threw itself into battle, the stronger its instinctive resistance became.

Had anyone else tried, their consciousness would likely have been torn to pieces on the spot within Chenyuan’s sea of consciousness.

Blood began flowing beneath Chief Cloud Envoy’s nose, and a lamp guardian carefully wiped it away.

At that moment, Bai Ziqi rushed to the scene and asked urgently, “Where's the invader and the spider immortal?”

“We are searching for them,” one of his subordinates answered.

The Heavenly Palace guards had scattered in every direction, while bird monsters circled overhead, searching everywhere.

State Preceptor Qing Yang summoned a great wind, dispersing the thick fog from the valley in an instant. Juju had already submerged underground and was no longer producing fresh mist, so the area around Tianshu Peak quickly became clear again.

Broken tiles and shattered walls lay everywhere. Forests had been destroyed, and peaks had collapsed.

It was a complete mess.

The once-majestic Star-Plucking Tower now had only its side hall left intact. Everything else had been reduced to charred rubble.

Yet the surrounding mountains and forests were silent. There was no trace of the invader.

One lamp guardian said quietly, “The Splendid Mountains and Rivers Diagram is inside the shrine too. Without it, we... we cannot track the invader.”

The Splendid Mountains and Rivers Diagram could display the entirety of Mount Xu, allowing Star-Plucking Tower to monitor the invader’s location.

Now that the diagram had sunk to the bottom of the lava pool, who could determine where the invader had gone?

Suddenly, two night owls swooped down from the sky and landed on a piece of ruined timber to report, “Traces of the spider immortal have been found three and a half kilometers east of here! It is headed toward either Tianji Peak or Tianquan Peak!”

This could be their last chance to pursue the spider immortal.

Bai Ziqi was just about to speak when a voice came from behind him, “I’ll go.”

A figure stepped out from behind them. With an indifferent expression, he said to State Preceptor Qing Yang, “Allocate origin energy to me. I will go meet Juju and the spider monster.”

Everyone, including Bai Ziqi, dropped to their knees together, their faces incomparably devout.

“Welcome, God Baizhantian!”

At last, one of the heavenly gods had descended into the mortal realm.

* * *

At the bottom of the lava pool, the restriction surrounding the shrine finally broke.

Within Star-Plucking Tower, it could perhaps have withstood the full-force strikes of all manner of great experts. Yet before the endless assault of earthfire, it could only fade away in frustration.

No matter how good the wood used to make the shrine had been, it could not endure being roasted by earthfire. In less than two or three breaths, it was reduced entirely to nothing.

The two objects originally inside the shrine were now exposed amid the lava. And these two objects were none other than the Splendid Mountains and Rivers Diagram and the divine object He Lingchuan had long been yearning for—

The lid of the Generous Pot.

A rock-fire lizard crawled out from somewhere and clamped the divine object in its jaws.

Chenyuan reached out to grab it, but the thing was too small. With a flick of its tail, it darted into a gap in the rocks and vanished in an instant.

Why would there be a lizard in the depths of earthfire?

Naturally, it was only one of Juju’s avatars.

Even if Chenyuan possessed the ability to ward off fire, and even if it was exceedingly fierce, it had no way to produce countless avatars as Juju could.

Watching the divine object disappear before its eyes, Chenyuan punched the rocky ground in fury.

Damn it!

Then the gleam of intelligence vanished from its eyes.

Inside the side hall of Star-Plucking Tower, the Chief Cloud Envoy suddenly opened his eyes.

That meant he had given up control of Chenyuan. From this point onward, the aberrant creature would once again have to fight on its own instincts.

The Chief Cloud Envoy took a deep breath and concealed the exhaustion covering his face.

He was the foremost figure of the Heavenly Palace. No matter the circumstances, he could not reveal incompetence before so many eyes.

Bai Ziqi stepped forward, asking with concern, “Chief Cloud Envoy, the shrine...?”

Chief Cloud Envoy shook his head. “The bottom of the lava pool is still Juju’s territory. It has already seized the divine object. Our most urgent task is to locate the invader. The divine object is useless to Juju. In the end, it will most likely hand it over to its accomplices.”

Thus, once they found the invader, there was a good chance they could reclaim the divine object. That was the present priority.

Juju was hateful, and the spider immortal's molt was important as well, but capturing the invader was the ultimate solution to ending this chaos.

State Preceptor Qing Yang said from the side, “God Baizhantian has already gone to pursue the invader.”

Baizhantian had finally succeeded in descending?

The Chief Cloud Envoy was overjoyed, and a long breath of relief escaped him.

Earlier, remotely controlling Chenyuan’s mind to battle Juju had left him mentally and spiritually exhausted. The gods had always wished to control ghost beasts, but since they could not act personally, they had to leave the attempts to Beijia.

The method for “perfectly controlling” ghost beasts had only been developed in recent decades. Without question, the more powerful the ghost beast, the harder it was to control.

This Chenyuan had been created by the gods more than two thousand years ago, modified from a monster immortal capable of controlling fire. Later, several immortals defeated it and sealed it away in the far north.

Under the heavenly gods’ guidance, Lingxu City had spent immense effort transporting it back from the far north, then raising it within Zhimi Peak.

The creature was not difficult to feed, as it spent most of its time asleep and only awakened once or twice each month to eat. The Chief Cloud Envoy also had to contact it regularly to establish a connection. After dozens of failures, he had finally achieved sensory communion with it.

Even for someone with a soul and spirit as powerful as the Chief Cloud Envoy’s, controlling Chenyuan in battle was an extremely heavy burden.

To hear that a heavenly god had descended when he was mentally and physically drained could not have been better news.

Bai Ziqi watched him, his gaze flickering slightly.

Logically speaking, the Chief Cloud Envoy’s strength should not have been limited to this. Yet his performance today had been weaker than expected. Was it because the injuries from last time had not healed, or because age had finally caught up with him?

At that moment, another piece of good news arrived.

“Chief Cloud Envoy, the Lord Emperor has sent word: Chenyuan has been appointed the guardian spirit of Mount Xu!”

The Chief Cloud Envoy’s spirits rose. “Good. Excellent!”

Juju could travel freely through Mount Xu because it had been born from Mount Xu’s earthfire. In a certain sense, it represented Mount Xu itself. An outside beast like Chenyuan, however, needed the title of guardian spirit to move dozens of kilometers at a step as Juju could.

This appointment had come at exactly the right time. Otherwise, Juju could have sent the invader out of Mount Xu in two steps, and the Heavenly Palace would have had no means of stopping them.

The Chief Cloud Envoy immediately said, “I will control Chenyuan and go intercept them. Find one or two powerful people to accompany Chenyuan.”

After all, Chenyuan was not truly a native beast of Mount Xu. Its ability to carry people through the earth was limited, and two passengers were its absolute limit.

Bai Ziqi was about to speak when State Preceptor Qing Yang beat him to it.

“I’ll go.”

The Chief Cloud Envoy frowned slightly. “You?”

Qing Yang was still technically a prisoner awaiting punishment.

“If I had wanted to flee, I would not have come up Mount Xu on my own a few days ago.” State Preceptor Qing Yang spoke calmly. “This matter is of great importance. Can you find anyone more suitable than me?”

Lingxu City had many greater monsters, but none of them were currently on Mount Xu.

In terms of cultivation and ability, no one present was indeed more outstanding than her.

Furthermore, she was Lingxu’s longest-serving state preceptor. No one could rival her ability to command and allocate origin energy, not even the gods.

At such a critical moment, the Chief Cloud Envoy did not need to think long before nodding. “Good. You will go.” Then he turned to Bai Ziqi and instructed, “Deputy Cloud Envoy Bai, I leave this place to you.”

Bai Ziqi sighed inwardly. Chief Cloud Envoy would rather use State Preceptor Qing Yang than me. This truly is... Still, he maintained a respectful expression. “Yes! I will not fail your trust.”

The Chief Cloud Envoy then took a deep breath, calmed his mind, entered meditation, and attempted to take control of Chenyuan again.

After he had withdrawn his spiritual sense earlier, the creature had fought Juju for less than a dozen breaths before surfacing from the lava pool. Juju had clearly already fled, while Chenyuan, covered in wounds, lay beneath Star-Plucking Tower and panted heavily.

That fierce battle had drained it severely.

Its opponent had been Juju, the giant rock-fire creature that had survived from the Ancient Era to the present day. Even with the Chief Cloud Envoy personally controlling it, and even with the abundant origin energy of Beijia strengthening it, Chenyuan’s displayed combat strength had still been more than a level below Juju’s.

Yet its purpose had never been to defeat Juju. It existed to restrain and delay it.

Though the Chief Cloud Envoy was familiar with Chenyuan, he had never controlled it twice in succession. Moreover, the aberrant creature was furious, exhausted, and covered in injuries. Its resistance was stronger than ever, making it extremely difficult for him to take control again.

Not long after he entered meditation, blood began flowing from beneath the Chief Cloud Envoy’s nose once more. This was a sign that his soul and spirit were being excessively depleted.

He was trying to suppress Chenyuan’s soul and spirit and seize control of the ghost beast’s body.

More than a dozen breaths passed before Chenyuan slowly moved its heavy body and rose to its feet. It approached the side hall of Star-Plucking Tower, opened its enormous mouth, and remained still.

This movement showed that the Chief Cloud Envoy had successfully taken control.

To a human, that was a bottomless maw.

Yet State Preceptor Qing Yang showed no fear whatsoever. She leaped directly inside.

The aberrant creature immediately closed its mouth, then plunged headfirst into the lava pool.

* * *

In the darkness of night, Tianji Peak’s outline was faintly visible ahead.

They were close now—only a few dozen meters remained.

Just then, Zhu Erniang said to He Lingchuan, “The pursuers are here. A powerful enemy! I’ll hold them back. You go first.”