Where Immortals Once Walked

The spectators beneath the platform froze for a moment before bursting into cheers and applause.

They had thought the day’s matches were over. Now that an arena master had suddenly stepped onto the stage, did that not mean that there was still more excitement to partake in?

Skinny let out a long “Ehhh!” If he was going to get on the arena, why didn’t he tell me beforehand?! I could have opened the betting pool!

The wagers involving Broken Blade were no longer as simple as betting on victory or defeat. Everyone bet on Broken Blade to win, so where was the profit in that?

The derivative bets were all about how many moves he would need to defeat his opponent, whether he would use a certain move or divine technique, how many people would challenge him this time, and so on.

The Red General suddenly raised a hand and slowly clapped three times.

Each clap seemed to strike against the hearts of everyone present.

In just three breaths, the area around the arena fell silent.

Only then did the Red General announce in a clear voice, “This month’s field lesson begins now!”

The Martial Review Hall held a field lesson once a month, usually taught by a fierce general serving as guest instructor. Occasionally, the Red General would personally take the stage as well.

However, she was simply too busy. He Lingchuan had entered Panlong City so many times, yet he had never once managed to catch one of her field lessons.

The Red General continued, “The main content of the lesson today is to observe Broken Blade defend a life-and-death arena. Real blades and real weapons are permitted. Sequential challenges are allowed.”

A wave of noise exploded through the entire arena with a crash, nearly blowing the place apart.

Panlong City’s arena matches usually allowed only the wooden weapons provided by the Martial Review Hall to avoid accidental deaths. However, there was another kind of arena fight meant to resolve grudges, known as the life-and-death arena. During such a match, no restrictions applied. The more ruthless, vicious, and underhanded, the better. But both sides had to sign a written pledge beforehand accepting responsibility for life or death, and after the fight ended, no matter how great the hatred, all grievances had to be written off.

A life-and-death arena could not be opened casually. Special approval was required, and sometimes half a year would pass without a single one.

Now the Red General had actually ordered Broken Blade to defend a life-and-death arena, and had even allowed sequential challenges. Everyone who understood just how brutal this could get was struck dumb.

They all wondered what Broken Blade had done to deserve a lesson like this.

He Lingchuan smiled wryly. “General, this...”

“Fight until death, and you won’t be nervous anymore.” Whether the Red General’s words counted as comfort was hard to say.

Was it not that he was afraid of dying? Then once he was dead, he would no longer be nervous.

Seeing no one step onto the arena, the Red General simply called out a name.

“Meng Shan, step forward!”

The crowd parted. A massive figure hesitated for a long while before finally dragging his feet out.

“General...” Meng Shan did not want to go up. He had fought Broken Blade more than a dozen times already, and he had long since had his fill of it.

The Red General lifted her chin toward the arena. “Up.”

Meng Shan had no choice but to go to the weapon rack and pull out a heavy staff.

The Red General did not let him off. “Where is your wolf’s fang mace?”

Meng Shan had no choice but to take out his true weapon of choice and leap onto the stage.

This refined-steel wolf’s fang mace was almost half a man tall. Its head was mottled with dark stains that could no longer be washed away. Who knew how much flesh and blood had clung to it?

Ever since Meng Shan surrendered, He Lingchuan had never fought him with real blades and weapons again, but he still remembered that mace vividly.

Since there was no avoiding this fight, those few short breaths were enough for him to steady his state of mind. With a solemn expression, he said to Meng Shan, “Please!”

Since he was already in this situation, then he would fight.

As he and Meng Shan fought onstage, the Red General stood below, analyzing and explaining the match for the spectators.

Not only could they observe real combat, but they also had the Red General explaining it from the side. Such an opportunity was priceless, and every pair of eyes remained fixed on the platform.

Of course, neither He Lingchuan nor Meng Shan had any attention to spare for what she was saying.

After twenty exchanges, He Lingchuan kicked Meng Shan off the platform.

Three breaths later, the wolf’s fang mace that had almost been sent flying into the sky finally fell back down with a clang, landing upright beside one of the wooden stakes around the arena.

“First round, Broken Blade wins.” The Red General glanced up at the stage. He Lingchuan’s chest rose and fell, but there was no sweat at his temples. “You look to be in decent condition. One incense stick of rest will be enough. Lao Chunsheng, step forward and prepare to enter the arena!”

A lean, sturdy man walked out from the crowd and answered loudly.

His weapon of choice was a pair of broad axes.

The crowd also let out a murmur of surprise. This man was likewise a battle hero of the Gale Army. The pair of broad axes in his hands had already cut down more than a hundred men. No one had expected him to be named Broken Blade’s opponent today.

At the same time, the list of later challengers was also released.

Skinny below the stage was suddenly swamped with work. There had been little suspense in He Lingchuan’s fight against Meng Shan. What everyone really wanted to bet on was how many rounds Broken Blade could last.

Since this was a series of challenges, it was certain that Broken Blade would eventually fall.

Everyone believed that the Red General would not truly let him be beaten to death. Only He Lingchuan himself understood that today’s arena match would not end cleanly.

One incense stick later.

Lao Chunsheng leaped onto the platform and said in a deep voice, “I have no grudge against you, and I respect you. But today, I will not hold back.”

He Lingchuan had already steadied his breathing. After a quick stretch, he pressed a hand against the hilt of Fleeting Life, preventing its cold gleam from leaking out. “That is exactly how it should be!”

The sky gradually darkened.

After Lao Chunsheng, several more people stepped onto the arena. How many exactly? He Lingchuan had already begun to lose track.

He had just knocked one opponent flat on his back, leaving the man unable to move, but he himself was leaning against a corner of the arena, unable to climb up for quite a while.

Two of his ribs were broken. Half of his face was swollen like a pig’s head. Once blood and sweat ran down, he could no longer open his eyes.

There was also a gash about ten centimeters long on the left side of his waist, and blood flowed out heavily through it.

During the intermission, A’Luo hurried over to treat his wounds and whispered as he worked, “I think you’ve fought enough. Ask the Red General to stop it!”

The Red General happened to pass by He Lingchuan, hands clasped behind her back as she looked down at him. “Do you want to keep fighting, or do you want to stop?”

He Lingchuan gave a wry smile. “Can I stop if I want to?”

He was no longer nervous.

“How will you know if you don’t try?”

So He Lingchuan said sincerely, “Reporting to the General, I would like to cease fighting.”

“Rejected,” the Red General said without hesitation. “The match will only end when you truly can’t move anymore.”

“...” Giving him a bit of hope only to crush it was worse than giving him none at all.

A’Luo was shocked. “W-why?”

“No battle will stop simply because you ask it to.” The Red General walked to the edge of the platform and personally struck the bronze bell. “The lesson continues!”

* * *

The first ray of morning sunlight had just shone in when He Lingchuan woke.

He blinked, his awareness still lingering on the final fight inside Panlong City. It seemed to have been the tenth or maybe the eleventh opponent. Both of them had been panting like oxen, their lungs feeling like torn bellows, wheezing with every breath.

His consciousness had already grown sluggish. He could not even remember who he was.

His opponent’s weapon had been knocked away, but the man had ripped up one of the arena stakes and whipped it violently against He Lingchuan’s temple.

During the earlier battles, the stakes around the arena had already been loosened, and two nails still remained in that one.

He Lingchuan even remembered the sensation of those nails punching through flesh and stabbing straight into his temple...

It hurt. It hurt so much.

However, it was only for that one instant.

He must have been knocked out, because he woke immediately afterward.

In that instant, he seemed to hear some bastard beneath the stage shouting, “I won, I won!”

Who knew who had made a fortune off his pain by correctly betting on the number of rounds he would last in the sequential challenge?

He Lingchuan muttered a couple of curses, then suddenly realized that after waking, his state of mind had changed.

After a whole night of unimaginably brutal sequential fights, he had instead grown calm. It was as if that stake had knocked his soul right out of his body, allowing him to look at himself, at others, and at everything that would happen next from the perspective of an onlooker.

He did not know whether this state counted as numbness. In any case, he had entered a condition without sorrow or joy, his heart as still as stagnant water.

The Red General’s method was brutal and extreme, but it worked. At the very least, he really was no longer nervous.

Not in the slightest.

After he had fought with everything he had, struggled with everything he had, and finally accepted death in helplessness yet serenity, death could no longer threaten him.

He Lingchuan let out a long breath.

Last night, when he entered Panlong City, he had originally wanted to find Teacher Sun. Whether to reminisce or to say farewell, at least he could have done either. In the end, he had not even seen the beauty once.

Clearly, the Generous Pot believed he did not need romantic affection right now.

It really was an artifact with a personality. It had no intention of taking its owner’s feelings into account.

He Lingchuan packed his luggage, changed his clothes, and strolled out of his residence.

After a night of wind and rain, a rainbow arced across the morning sky, one end seeming to rest upon the lake of Fleeting Thoughts Manor.

The morning air was cold and fresh.

He Lingchuan boarded the pleasure boat and drifted out onto the lake. Amid the rippling azure water, he closed his eyes and seized the moment to reflect on last night's battles.

Every life-and-death struggle.

Every time he had fought with all his strength.

That state of mind in which he knew the battle would not end, knew there would be no rest until he collapsed from exhaustion, yet still firmly faced the next opponent.

Panlong City was trying to teach him how to face despair.

Who knew how much time passed before someone on the shore suddenly called out to him.

“He Xiao, it’s time to go!”

By then, the sun was high. Fushan Yue had always handled matters with lightning efficiency and had already returned from the Heaven-Reaching Palace.

This time, he had gone to bid farewell to the Monster Emperor.

The Lord Emperor was currently overwhelmed by the elixir of youth case and State Preceptor Qing Yang. He could not wait for Fushan Yue to leave. During their meeting, he did not try to keep him, only speaking a few polite words for Fushan Yue to carry back to the Chiyan Monster King.

That afternoon, the Chiyan delegation exited through the main southern gate and left Lingxu City.

Many nobles and distinguished figures came to see them off. The air was filled with a cheerful atmosphere. They also personally witnessed He Xiao accompanying the Chiyan Crown Prince as the two withdrew together from Lingxu City’s dazzling grand stage.

However, it did not really matter. Whether the Chiyan people left or not, all the excitement in the city would continue.

He Lingchuan traveled with Fushan Yue for three days, basically hurrying on day and night, until they were already far from Lingxu City’s territory.

During these three days, Panlong City did not open to He Lingchuan again.

If they continued south at a forced pace for another three or four days, they would reach the northern border of the State of Chiyan.

Fushan Yue’s heart had already flown home, and he urged the horses onward the whole way.

But just after passing Tianshui Post Station, He Lingchuan said his farewells.

Fushan Yue knew he had made up his mind and did not try to keep him. He only asked, “Will we meet again?”

“Of course.” He Lingchuan smiled faintly. “I think we’ll see each other again very soon.”

“That’s good.” Fushan Yue meant those words from the heart. “Write often when you have time.”

The two cupped their fists to each other, and for a moment, both felt the chill of parting.

The fierce tiger Jiao Yu pounced over, its fan-sized paws wrapping around He Lingchuan’s shoulders. It rubbed its huge head against his forehead while making low, mooing sounds like a cow.

With its strength, an ordinary person would have been knocked flat long ago.

He Lingchuan heard the sadness in its voice. He wrapped his arms around its enormous head and rubbed it hard several times, his own heart full of reluctance. “All partings come eventually. I’ll come see you again later, alright?”

Unfortunately, he still had proper business to handle.

Fushan Yue pressed his lips together, then jumped onto his horse and said, “If you don’t come back to Chiyan with me, you’ll regret it sooner or later. Hah!”

With that, he cracked his whip and rode off, not once looking back.