Where Immortals Once Walked

He had never expected a beast herd riot like this to occur anywhere other than a battlefield, and especially not in Lingxu City!

Fortunately, although this foremost city under heaven had no city walls, there were two enormous natural stone walls outside its north gate. Any creature approaching the north gate—whether a merchant caravan, mounted travelers, or thunderclap beasts—had to pass through the corridor between the natural stone walls.

This corridor was about forty meters wide, unusually flat, and convenient for carts and horses. Of course, it could not stop the thunderclap beast herd.

However, the earlier mire spell had still bought Lingxu City a little time. Several greater monsters rushed over and joined forces to cast spells. At the end of the corridor, in front of Lingxu City, they combined multiple divine techniques, such as clay modeling and petrification, to forcibly create a thick wall!

In this post-immortal era, cultivators no longer could move mountains and overturn seas, but jointly casting spells to raise the ground temporarily was still within their capabilities.

The wall was twenty-six meters tall and sixteen meters thick. Clearly, the greater monsters had already considered the thunderclap beasts’ powerful impact.

Although its surface was uneven and had nothing whatsoever to do with beauty, the fact that it could be built within just a few minutes still displayed Lingxu City’s deep foundation.

An expert saw the deeper skill. He Lingchuan gave it a thumbs-up as well.

The city behind them had already fallen into turmoil, yet Lingxu City could still mobilize these greater monsters to come here. Its response could not be called untimely.

Furthermore, this wall had not been built carelessly. At the very least, it used the proportions of sanhetu[1], and several spellcasters were rapidly inscribing talismans onto the wall, preparing to add several reinforcing talisman arrays.

Before the beast herd arrived, He Lingchuan even saw faint light rippling over the wall.

That was the glow of origin energy.

Beijia’s origin energy had already taken effect on the rock wall.

Although it was a tall wall thrown together temporarily, it should have no problem withstanding repeated fire from heavy artillery.

Rather than calling it a wall, it would be better to call it a dam.

He Lingchuan remembered the first time he had entered the Panlong Ruins and seen the land bridge outside the south gate. That too had been constructed with divine techniques. At the time, he had hoped that one day he could personally witness the entire construction process.

Here and now, he had actually been fortunate enough to see that wish fulfilled.

Inside and outside the city, above and below the mountain, all living beings held their breath, waiting to see whether the efforts of Lingxu’s many monsters could stop a torrent of maddened thunderclap beasts.

The beast herd rushed up to the wall and was forced to stop.

After all, the rock wall was taller than the giant beast leading them. It was impossible for them to sprout wings and fly over.

The giant beast also used the broken bone plate on its forehead to push against the wall, as though testing its thickness.

The rock wall stood firm and unmoving.

The beast herd grew restless. A few giant beasts refused to believe it and went up to ram it a few times.

Despite their efforts, they failed even to make the wall budge.

Everyone who saw this let out a breath, thinking the crisis had been temporarily resolved.

Only the Giant Thunderclap Beast leading them tilted its head and kept sniffing at the wall, its ears twitching as well.

He Lingchuan was not certain. “Is that big fellow... thinking?”

It stood in front of the land bridge, continuously snorting.

Others did not know what it was doing, but Fan Long and the others closest to it could see clearly. Every time it exhaled, it sprayed tiny clusters of deep-violet crystals onto the rock wall.

The rock wall raised by divine techniques appeared solid, but in truth, it had many bubbles and cracks inside.

It had been built in haste and could not possibly have been crafted with the precision of artisans, with careful attention paid to every mechanical structure.

These tiny crystal clusters sank into the stone on contact, as though conscious, burrowing into the rock wall’s interior. The moment they found suitable positions, they settled down and expanded wildly.

Before long, the entire surface of the rock wall had turned deep violet, with crystal clusters emerging everywhere.

By He Lingchuan’s aesthetic standards, he actually thought the rock wall looked rather pretty. The crystal clusters resembled amethyst and looked valuable at first glance.

But Fan Long was in no mood to appreciate it. He had been organizing the army to loose arrows into the duonao beast herd.

Lingxu City had several centuries of tradition in hunting duonao beasts. Its hunters had specifically developed poisons targeting duonao beasts. Through their pursuit and volleys of arrows along the way, more than a hundred duonao beasts had already fallen dead, creating a grisly scene.

However, the Giant Thunderclap Beast’s outer defenses were far too sturdy. Usually, only large siege ballistae could pierce its outer armor. Several of Lingxu City’s greater monsters attacked and barely managed to break through its defenses.

One yellow badger’s spell was especially strange. It could actually swap the Giant Thunderclap Beast’s hard outer armor with the relatively soft inner skin. Though it only lasted four or five breaths, that was enough for others to shoot several more poisoned arrows into it.

Standing on Mount Xing and watching the battle below, He Lingchuan also sucked in a cold breath.

Good thing his surprise attack on Mount Xu tonight had emphasized speed above all else. Before the Heavenly Palace’s reinforcements could arrive, the entire battle had already ended. Otherwise, if he had faced these greater monsters with their varied and bizarre methods, how much chance would his plan have had at success?

The Giant Thunderclap Beast’s actions were giving him a rehearsal, letting him understand what price had to be paid to confront Lingxu City head-on.

Of course, at this point, the Giant Thunderclap Beast had also lost patience. It roared several times, suddenly ran back over three hundred meters, then turned around and aimed its huge forehead plate at the rock wall...

The other thunderclap beasts all made way for it.

On Mount Xing, Dong Rui watched without blinking. “This thing can’t really be that reckless, can it?”

That was a solid wall sixteen meters thick. Even the vassal monster king of the State of Baixiang would not want to ram it with its head.

“It can.” The Giant Thunderclap Beast dared to face the Fu Realm’s sandstorms head-on. Its head was very hard indeed. What was one wall in the mortal realm?

Sure enough, the moment He Lingchuan finished speaking, the Giant Thunderclap Beast accelerated forward and slammed headfirst into the rock wall.

The muffled boom traveled all the way to Mount Xing.

No one knew exactly which force had caused the shock, but the crystal clusters inside the rock wall exploded all at once.

The scene was spectacular, almost beyond words.

Thousands upon thousands of crystals exploded outward at the same time. Even the army a hundred meters away was caught in the aftermath, and men and horses toppled everywhere.

In an instant, the rock wall was leveled flat and collapsed with a thunderous crash!

This was a force that had erupted from inside the rock wall. The reinforcing arrays and origin energy had no room to play any role.

He Lingchuan truly had not expected this lord-level duonao beast to be so versatile. Not only could it levitate, but it could also handle demolition blasting.

The beast herd broke through successfully once again.

In truth, during the dozens of breaths while they had stopped, the assembled monsters had joined forces and killed several dozen more duonao beasts. Their spellcasting efficiency could be called textbook-level.

However, the remaining three hundred or so giant beasts had already escaped the trap and continued forward under their leader’s command.

This time, they finally charged into Lingxu City, the defenseless Lingxu City!

The army stationed behind the rock wall did not actually have any particularly good way to deal with them. Standing on the high ridge, He Lingchuan personally witnessed the chaos caused by the beast herd.

The northwest corner of Lingxu City, invaded by duonao beasts, instantly erupted into total panic.

He Lingchuan could almost hear the screams coming from there.

He also saw many buildings catch fire. Once the crimson lightning around the Giant Thunderclap Beast touched wood, paper, oil, or similar materials, there would be a whoosh as fire climbed straight up the beams.

Dong Rui pointed into the city. “Whoa, that beast runs fast.”

Wherever the fire burned also showed where the beast herd had charged.

In this short span of time, they had already charged three to four kilometers into the city, moving in a serpentine route with no warning at all.

Wherever they passed, houses collapsed, people died, and flames shot into the sky.

The beast herd was like a sharp knife, stabbing straight into Lingxu City’s soft belly.

The imperial capital had been at peace for six hundred years. What living person had ever seen such a sight? Many residents were so frightened that they simply froze, not even knowing to dodge, ultimately being crushed into meat paste beneath the beast herd.

This kind of indiscriminate attack caused the greatest destruction. He Lingchuan breathed out coldly. “Fang Canran really is ruthless.”

As long as he could heavily damage Lingxu City, Fang Canran seemed not to care how many casualties it caused.

Dong Rui shrugged. “Who told Lingxu City not to have walls?” They’re simply reaping the consequences of their arrogance.

Zhu Erniang, however, gave a hissing cold laugh and said, “Excellent, excellent! Lingxu City hasn’t been this lively in a long time, has it?”

A scene of duonao beasts rampaging through Lingxu City like this was a once-in-a-century sight. To witness it was the fortune of three lifetimes.

She had no good impression of Beijia. Lingxu City had even shamelessly stolen her immortal molt. As long as Lingxu City was uncomfortable, she was comfortable.

“Don’t be fooled by the Giant Thunderclap Beast’s imposing momentum. It can only show off for a while.” He Lingchuan was very clear-headed. “Against Lingxu City, it has no chance of victory.”

An aberrant creature on the Giant Thunderclap Beast’s level, leading several hundred duonao beasts, could easily destroy a small city.

However, this was Lingxu City.

These duonao beasts looked awe-inspiring now only because Lingxu City had been caught off guard and because many elite troops and great monsters had already rushed to Mount Xu.

Once Lingxu City could truly free its hands, the fate awaiting these duonao beasts would be miserable.

Of course, the three people on Mount Xing did not know that Fang Canran’s earlier operation had specifically targeted Lingxu City’s grassroots government offices, material warehouses, and the dependents of important figures on the floating islands. Once chaos arrived, whether putting out fires, providing rescue, or setting up roadblocks, the lower levels fell into the terrible state of having no one to organize manpower and nowhere to transport supplies from. Orders from above were issued layer by layer, only to clog up once they reached this level, with no one to execute them.

Dong Rui sighed repeatedly. “If only I could get a few of them for research.”

Three sentences from him never strayed from his profession. He Lingchuan admired that. “They aren’t monsters from this world. Are you really still able to make them into monster puppets?”

“I can try. There’s no harm in trying. Maybe I can create a new species?” Dong Rui shrugged. “Monster puppets have the blood of the gods flowing through them too, don’t they?”

Speaking this way was practically blasphemy. But He Lingchuan knew this was only typical of Dong Rui.

“Duonao beasts have no way to survive long in the mortal realm.” The mortal realm did not have their food.

“I’m just speculating.” Surely, I’m allowed to speculate, right?

Just then, the Giant Thunderclap Beast’s speed seemed to slow. It even led the beast herd back the way they had come, continuously circling in large loops.

It seemed several greater monsters had arrived and jointly cast a phantom-barrier spell along the route it had to pass.

To put it plainly, it was a ghost wall.

These hulking creatures had astonishing destructive power once they started running, but their intelligence was low. If they could be trapped in a maze and made to run around in circles, the damage they caused to Lingxu City would greatly decrease.

Once their stamina ran out, they would be easier to wipe out.

It had to be said that whoever had thought of this method in such haste was a talent.

At that moment, however, an azure figure swooped down from midair, circling while letting out a clear cry.

It was a large bird resembling both a stork and a crane, with a wingspan of at least sixty-six meters. Its tail feathers were long, and there was a crest on its head.

Even in the dark night sky, its figure was clearly visible.

Wherever it passed, tornado after tornado rose from the ground.

1. Sanhetu (三合土) is a traditional Chinese composite building material made from a mixture of lime, sand, and clay. Used as an early form of concrete or mortar, it was widely utilized in ancient China—dating back to the Han Dynasty—for constructing sturdy foundations, city walls (such as sections of the Ming Great Wall), tombs, and traditional rammed-earth buildings. ☜