Where Immortals Once Walked

God Baizhantian’s descent had originally been meant specifically to deal with Juju, but there was nothing wrong with changing targets at the last moment.

The burrow spider broodmother and Juju were both ancient greater monsters, but Mount Xu was Juju’s home ground. That fellow could also draw power from the earthfire, making it the most difficult one to deal with. Now that Juju had been suppressed again, the pressure on the Heavenly Palace had been reduced by at least seventy percent. As for the spider monster, she could only be fierce for a short while. In the end, without spirit qi to replenish her, the more she fought, the weaker she would become.

Heh, in the current environment, the more spiritual energy she uses and the more powerful the divine techniques she unleashes, the more severely she exhausts herself!

Their side only needed to use more origin energy to wear her down through a series of attacks.

Letting her escape would be the true disaster for Mount Xu.

The lamp guardians sang out in unison, “Our Chief Envoy is wise! Our lord is sagely!”

The Chief Cloud Envoy’s expression eased slightly, and inwardly, he also let out a breath of relief.

This enemy attack had been extremely well concealed. It had even made the heavenly gods sense danger. Fortunately, he had handled it properly and resolved each issue one by one. Otherwise, how could he maintain his dignity before the gods and before his fellow officials?

Someone immediately responded, “The divine disciple for Venerable Baizhantian will be ready soon!”

The so-called divine disciples of the Heavenly Palace were the skin-sacks used by gods when descending to the mortal realm. They were usually kept on Mount Xu in case the gods needed them.

Divine descent was by no means easy or simple—the more thorough and meticulous the preparations, the more power a god could exert through a skin-sack.

Back when Nian Songyu invited a god to the Panlong Ruins, he had actually planned it for a long time. But his body was not a qualified skin-sack, so the god’s avatar he summoned could not even exert five percent of its power.

Naturally, the Heavenly Palace did not have that concern. Even so, the divine disciple still had to calm the mind, purge distracting thoughts, and wholeheartedly embrace the god’s descent. Only then could the skin-sack’s power be maximized.

No matter how urgent the situation was, the preparatory work could not be skipped.

“Why has Chenyuan still not been deployed?” The Chief Cloud Envoy’s expression did not relax. “Fortunately, Juju has already been restrained.”

The ghost beast Xiaori had already infiltrated the backup array eye and was locked in battle with the spider immortal, yet Chenyuan still had not appeared.

Tonight, Mount Xu had been attacked without warning. Although the overall risk had ultimately remained controllable, the commotion was enormous. Not only had the Lord Emperor been alarmed, sending several divine technique inquiries, but the whole of Lingxu City had also been shaken into wakefulness.

Tomorrow, “the eruption of Tianshu Peak” would once again become the hot topic throughout Lingxu City, and all kinds of suspicions and conspiracy theories would emerge anew.

Most vexing of all, some of those suspicions would clearly be correct.

The Chief Cloud Envoy disliked sudden accidents most of all as they placed the Heavenly Palace in a very passive position.

Several people beside him were drenched in sweat and dropped to their knees at once. “This subordinate is incompetent. Chenyuan remains asleep and refuses to obey orders!”

More than ten years ago, Juju had gone berserk and caused an earthquake in Lingxu City, even forcing His Divine Majesty Lingxu to take action before it could be defeated. Lingxu City had learned from that lesson and specially prepared several backup measures. One of them was the ghost beast Chenyuan.

But that fellow ate when it wanted to eat and slept when it wanted to sleep. It was terribly willful. Now, when it was needed on the field, they could not even wake it.

The Chief Cloud Envoy also knew that the more powerful a ghost beast was, the more deranged its nature, and the harder it was to control. Now was not the time to assign blame. He thrust his staff into the Mountains and Rivers Diagram once more and shouted, “Juju, show yourself at once!”

Several breaths later, the rock-fire giant emerged from the lava pool, unwillingness written all over its body.

Freedom was already within reach, but that boy surnamed He ruined everything!

It hated him so much!

The Chief Cloud Envoy’s face was frosty as he shouted in a low voice, “Arrest the intruder, and you can still atone for your crime! Otherwise, for the next hundred years, you will only be allowed to squat in this lava pool!”

Juju moved, but did not obey his order.

The Chief Cloud Envoy stirred the Mountains and Rivers Diagram with his staff while asking it, “Do you want to lose a few more years of cultivation?”

Juju roared in pain again and again, but it still refused to pursue and capture the intruder.

The Chief Cloud Envoy, Bai Ziqi, and the others exchanged glances, all finding this strange. Everyone who knew the inside story understood that this guardian spirit of Mount Xu was selfish and self-serving. It had never been a good ally. It had betrayed the Grand Return Sect in the past and betrayed the Heavenly Palace tonight, but now, why would it rather suffer than go capture the intruder?

“I can’t go!” Juju finally spoke. “I made a contract with him. We absolutely cannot harm each other!”

Bai Ziqi asked in surprise, “What contract?”

“I-I can’t say!” Juju was also full of grievances. When it and He Lingchuan had discussed the terms of the contract, they had tried their best to cover every angle, yet they had forgotten one thing:

If the plan failed, should the contract become invalid?

If there was no detailed stipulation, then that meant it could not. So now, the moment it opened its mouth to answer, it could clearly feel the contract’s binding force.

Aiya, it had been clever all its life. How had it become muddled for this one moment?

Just then, the belly of Tianshu Peak suddenly split open, and an aberrant creature charged out, slamming straight into Juju.

Powerful as Juju was, it had been utterly unprepared and was struck flat onto its back, falling into the lava.

Ten thousand streams of lava erupted, creating a scene that was no different from another volcanic eruption.

Everyone: “...”

The Chief Cloud Envoy could not help but want to press a hand to his forehead. Why is Chenyuan only running out now? It’s way too slow.

Juju plunged into the lava pool, having no mind to fight. It simply escaped directly. The other giant beast kept circling along the rock wall, watching Star-Plucking Tower with ill intent.

It even tried ramming into it twice, failing to do any damage, though the protective barrier trembled violently.

Every time the barrier blocked an attack, it consumed a lot of energy. The Chief Cloud Envoy said unhappily, “Recall it.”

The subordinate looked miserable. “We tried, but... but...”

But this big fellow would not listen either.

During the Middle Era, both immortal sects and the monster race had tried to tame ghost beasts, but very few had succeeded. These cursed things were insane, and disobedience was the norm.

The Chief Cloud Envoy sighed, personally took the eternal lamp from the main hall, and said softly, “Your Divine Majesty Lingxu, please lend us your aid! Go!”

He aimed the eternal lamp at Chenyuan outside the tower and gently blew. The lamp spirit transformed into a streak of white light and rushed into Chenyuan’s mind.

Afterward, the Chief Cloud Envoy began to recite silently.

The aberrant creature clearly froze, then shook its head hard. After that, it seemed somewhat agitated, as if something were restraining it.

The Chief Cloud Envoy’s body swayed slightly, his face flushing red as beads of cold sweat seeped from his forehead.

Clearly, the two sides were wrestling for control.

Fortunately, after more than ten breaths, Chenyuan gradually calmed down. It even raised its head and glanced at Star-Plucking Tower before walking step by step toward the mountain’s belly and burrowing back inside.

The Chief Cloud Envoy opened his eyes and exhaled, personally returning the eternal lamp to its original place.

Someone immediately offered a damp cloth and wiped his sweat away.

A ghost beast’s soul and spirit were chaotic. If one were to compare it to a human, it was somewhere between madness and idiocy. When the eternal lamp spirit burrowed into its mind, it could illuminate a thread of clarity for it.

Thankfully, this large fellow had been successfully persuaded back by the Chief Cloud Envoy. Otherwise, if it had gone mad and caused havoc in the Heavenly Palace, then...

* * *

Meanwhile, Bai Ziqi had at some point returned to the shrine and was carefully observing the Splendid Mountains and Rivers Diagram.

“Where did that intruder go?”

Earlier, the intruder had still been on the spider monster’s head. But just now, everyone inside Star-Plucking Tower had been focused on Juju and Chenyuan. By the time Bai Ziqi came to, that man had disappeared from the Mountains and Rivers Diagram!

Everyone came over to look and found it strange as well.

The spider monster was still being held inside the array eye by the ghost beast Xiaori. Where could the intruder have slipped away to? The defensive lightning array outside the array eye was clearly still there.

A living man would not vanish without reason. That meant he was still inside the array eye!

Bai Ziqi stared at the absurdly large fissure in the glass star ring, and his heart suddenly began pounding with alarm.

If the intruder had slipped in through there, what would happen?

He pointed at the Mountains and Rivers Diagram and said in a grave voice, “Lord Chief Envoy, please send someone to the array eye immediately. The intruder may be about to—”

Before he could finish speaking, the array eye shown in the diagram dropped straight down.

Just like that, it fell from above Kaiyang Peak into the valley below, without the slightest warning!

Immediately afterward, the Mountains and Rivers Diagram also dimmed and stopped glowing.

The scenery in the diagram slowly disappeared, becoming a dead painting.

Star-Plucking Tower fell into a deathly silence.

Th-that can’t be possible... It can’t have...

“No!” The Chief Cloud Envoy was both shocked and furious. He slammed his palm hard on the table. At that moment, he no longer cared about maintaining an immortal’s bearing. “How was the array eye broken?”

“The intruder probably crawled down through the fissure...” Bai Ziqi swallowed. “And damaged the Suspended Dipper Stone?”

The turtle shell was protected by a concealment array, making it very difficult for enemies to find. But the reason the array eye could hover in midair for years, like the floating islands, was because of the Suspended Dipper Stone.

Beijia had many enemies, but no one had ever tried to make the floating islands fall. The islands were simply far too massive, and the Suspended Dipper Stones matched to them were not something human power could damage.

But the array eye of the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array was different. Its diameter was only about a hundred meters, and the Suspended Dipper Stone installed inside it was only about seven cubic meters.

If the intruder possessed certain methods, it was possible for them to damage it.

There were two major requirements for the array eye to function: first, the star map had to align; second, its own position had to align.

It had to correspond positionally with the Tianluo Star in the night sky.

Because the nine peaks on the ground were fixed in place and could not move, the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array depended entirely on the array eye shifting position in order to function. Now that the intruder had caused the array eye to fall, it could no longer be in its proper place, and the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array naturally collapsed.

But that fellow’s ability to adapt to the situation is seriously a little too good. Bai Ziqi did not believe he had intended from the beginning to dig out the Suspended Dipper Stone.

If he could not dig out the turtle shell, he dug out the Suspended Dipper Stone instead. That kind of quick thinking—settling for second best in an emergency—was genuinely rare.

Several explosive booms rang out. Juju had gone and returned, its majestic form filling the entire lava pool. Firelight illuminated every fine detail inside Star-Plucking Tower.

Once the shackles were gone, it sensed it immediately.

But only after personally seeing the Mountains and Rivers Diagram dim and lose its light did Juju truly relax.

“I’m back!” the rock-fire aberrant creature’s wild laughter once more rang between heaven and earth.

Everyone was numb.

The Chief Cloud Envoy ordered coldly, “Release Chenyuan again. Immediately!”

* * *

Time turned back to half a cup of tea earlier.

With the spider immortal and the ghost beast Xiaori beating each other bloody, there truly was not much for He Lingchuan to do. Taking advantage of Xiaori’s speed being slowed by the spider silk, He Lingchuan seized the opportunity and leaped from the spider monster’s forehead, jumping straight into the fissure in the star ring.

Juju’s repeated launching of fireballs had done their job, blowing two chunks off the bottom of the array eye, and the fissure extended all the way from the base to the platform. Only then did He Lingchuan have an opening to exploit.

Fortunately, the glass floor of this array eye could not melt into liquid. Otherwise, his plan would have collapsed as well.

A backup was a backup. Compared to the genuine article, there was still a large gap.

He Lingchuan inferred that it was not that the Heavenly Palace did not want to build the backup array eye better, but that there were likely objective reasons preventing it from doing so—for example, insufficient materials.