Where Immortals Once Walked

The hunters knew very well that they had to gather beads, but they also had to keep moving.

Thus, these dozens of people scattered across the wilderness, gathering beads as they moved southwest.

In the Fu Realm, their speed could not compare to the sandstorm’s at all.

Fortunately, after two hours, they finally caught up to the beast tide before the sandstorm overtook them.

Captain Zhou shot several signal arrows into the sky, calling for everyone to gather.

This time, he had found a highland. Beside it stood a craggy stone mountain, riddled with holes by the Fu Realm’s piercing winds. The moment one approached, one could hear a sound like ghosts wailing and wolves howling.

The terrain here rose and fell in staggered layers. For the larger duonao beasts, it was too narrow, and there was no good place to set their feet. So it was only natural for the hunters to take over the place.

Once they climbed to the top of the highland, their view suddenly opened wide, allowing them to look out over the beast tide ahead.

Every team began counting its members, and He Lingchuan finally regrouped with his own teammates. One look, and things were clearly bad.

Two people reported that all their rinsing beads had been stolen.

“What happened?”

Both said that they had been collecting beads from between rocks when someone attacked them from behind, knocked them unconscious, and stole their storage pouches.

The two lowered their heads in shame. “Our supplies and rinsing beads were all taken.”

“Who did it? Did you see their faces?”

The two shook their heads and answered, “No.”

“How many were they?”

“N-not sure.”

He Lingchuan exhaled and had everyone count up the rinsing beads they still had on hand.

Altogether, there were 302.

There were 9 people in their team. Over the next 10–12 hours, each person would likely need more than 40 beads, meaning they would need at least 400 in total to keep everyone alive.

In other words, they were short by over 90 beads.

Aside from the two who had been robbed, the others had not gathered a full amount either. There were too few beads out in the wilderness, and the beast tide had trampled most.

The situation was far from good.

As the hunters gathered, arguments broke out at once.

Several teams were quarreling in pairs, all because someone had struck from behind and stolen another’s beads just now, only to be caught in the act.

Collecting beads on one’s own was difficult. In comparison, stealing from others was faster and much easier.

Some had succeeded, while some had failed.

Now that the teams had regrouped and the victims had complained, people shoved one another back and forth, almost ready to draw weapons.

This was not the time to talk about manners. A shortage of rinsing beads could kill people.

Captain Zhou stopped them in time. “Stop arguing. The beast tide is charging the barrier!”

The great bear beside him also let out a roar.

Everyone looked ahead and saw the wild mountains that began several kilometers away. At the foot of those mountains was a field of scattered stones, within which lightning flashed and thunder roared.

“That’s the Giant Thunderclap Beast’s lair!” someone cried. “Those aberrant creatures really did drive the duonao beast tide here with the intention to attack the thunderclap beast lord’s nest!”

By now, the beast tide had gathered speed. It surged forward like a mad flood, shaking the ground with rolling booms.

Even the word soul-stirring was far from enough to describe a scene like this.

The momentum of a thousand charging soldiers and horses was far inferior to the spectacle before them.

With that being the case, how could the thunderclap beasts possibly fail to notice the coming tide?

This was He Lingchuan’s first time seeing this kind of duonao beast. Its body was like a rhinoceros enlarged three or four times. It had six legs, and on its forehead, a massive bone plate shaped like a jade tablet thrust toward the sky.

At least two hundred thunderclap beasts had gathered before the den, launching attacks against the beast tide in an attempt to force them to stop.

These aberrant creatures were blessed by nature. Lightning crackled all over their bodies, and with their enormous size, their charges were like runaway locomotives.

They could plow back and forth through the beast herd with ferocious momentum, especially when a dozen or more coordinated their attacks together.

Seeing their formation, He Lingchuan understood why hunters of the mortal realm were unwilling to provoke them.

These things had thick hides, tough flesh, and immense vitality. They were like agile tanks. They were exhausting to fight, and they even moved in groups.

One should not be fooled by their heavy bodies. When they ran, they were not slow at all.

The smaller duonao beasts were either trampled into meat patties on the spot or blasted into charcoal by the surrounding lightning, dying before they even hit the ground.

However, Captain Zhou and the others muttered among themselves, “It’s no use. The thunderclap beasts won’t be able to hold the line.”

Their eyes were sharp, and they saw the direction of the battle at once.

Although the thunderclap beasts’ attacks were terrifying, they were simply far too outnumbered. The beast tide’s forces stood against them at almost a hundred to one, like a vast ocean against a mere pond.

The duonao beasts in front feared them and wanted to retreat, but the ones behind shoved them forward.

If they did not move forward, they would be trampled to death by those behind.

Many violent-tempered duonao beasts, seeing there was no hope of retreat, simply launched a charge.

Slowly, the two hundred-plus thunderclap beasts began to lose the strength to keep charging.

At last, one collapsed. It had exhausted its lightning, and then the nearby duonao beasts swarmed over and tore it apart.

Then two, three... six, seven more were drowned by the beast tide.

In truth, there were also duonao beasts gathering and watching from the outer edges of the beast tide, but they arrived only in scattered groups, unable to form any real scale or impact.

Captain Zhou pointed to them and said, “Those may be subjects of the giant beast lord. They came under its command to assist, but right now, they can’t get involved.”

The aberrant beasts were driving them away too.

“Now that this vast beast tide is already on the giant beast’s territory, if the lord here can survive this, they may accept its rule in the future and obey its commands.”

At this moment, the “kang, kang, kang” calls resounded across the plain from behind the beast tide.

Someone pointed and shouted, “The big one has appeared!”

The oversized aberrant creature that He Lingchuan had seen earlier showed itself and immediately spat out two large fireballs, blasting them straight into the rear of the beast tide.

Several duonao beasts lingering at the back and slacking off were directly turned into roast meat.

Those two fireballs were as large as meteors falling from the sky and carried a ghastly green glow. The instant they touched the ground, they exploded into hundreds of smaller fireballs, scattering everywhere.

At the center of the explosion, the pitch-black ground immediately turned bright and glassy.

Any duonao beast touched by that flame wailed in agony. They rolled across the ground, but still could not extinguish the fire on their bodies.

The green flames clung like maggots to flesh.

“That’s the fire of a netherflame beast.” Captain Zhou looked baffled. “How is that aberrant creature able to use the signature ability of netherflame beasts too?”

He Lingchuan had heard of netherflame beasts. They were duonao beasts that lived in the great canyon to the south and were skilled at breathing fire.

Of course, these names had all been given by visitors from the mortal realm. The flames of the netherflame beast lord were said to be even fiercer than cultivators’ true fire, burning almost anything. Even the hard rocks of the great canyon, tempered by wind blades and frost for ages, could be reduced to ash by it.

Thus, the hunters had named it “netherflame.”

The aberrant creature opened its mouth and spat out several more huge fireballs. A series of booming explosions followed, their sound, light, and force all spectacular.

Frightened by it, the beast tide surged forward even more madly.

“Compared to the Giant Thunderclap Beast, these duonao beasts are even more afraid of it,” Hu Bin added from the side. “How strange.”

By now, this strange beast had displayed camouflage and fire-breathing abilities. But according to the information He Lingchuan had obtained, duonao beasts were only proficient in one innate ability.

Is this aberrant creature an exception?

A hunter suddenly said, “Could this be a nothing beast?”

“What thing?”

“Oh, now that you say it, that might be it!” Captain Zhou had been silently staring at it, and only now did he speak. “Five or six decades ago, someone saw a kind of aberrant creature in the Fu Realm. It wasn’t large, could stand upright, and used tricks to kill duonao beasts stronger than itself. It also had one special ability: it could steal the innate abilities of other duonao beasts!”

“Huh?” Everyone was so astonished that they cursed. “Why have we never heard of a beast like that?”

Isn’t that special ability too heaven-defying?

“So they can gain the innate ability of a beast they eat? Then who or what in the Fu Realm can even stand against them?”

“Wouldn’t that make it a king? But this aberrant creature doesn’t look like a lord to me.”

Everyone spoke at once, and Captain Zhou’s head buzzed from the noise. He waved a hand. “I don’t know the specifics either, so don’t ask me! I mean, the reason it was even named the nothing beast was because no one had seen it before then. In any case, after all my years in the Fu Realm, today is the first time I’ve seen one.”

Now, the question was: why would such a powerful and intelligent aberrant creature attack the Giant Thunderclap Beast?

He Lingchuan pointed downward. “The beast lord has appeared!”

A thunderclap rang out from the stone formation, shaking the nine heavens and overpowering even the howling wind and roaring beasts.

He Lingchuan and the others were so far away, yet their ears still rang from it.

Then, a true colossus charged out of the stone formation.

Compared with it, the other thunderclap beasts were like babies to an adult.

Perhaps it had seen its kin dying too quickly, so it could no longer just sit back.

That thunderous sound just now had been its furious roar.

A lord-level aberrant creature was extraordinary the moment it struck. As soon as it appeared, two bolts of lightning descended from the sky and struck the bone plate on the giant beast’s forehead.

In that instant, its might was unparalleled.

The giant beast lowered its head to the ground at just the right time. Two waves of lightning traveled forward along the ground, spreading in arcs.

Everywhere they passed, the ground turned into scorched gravel, while living duonao beasts died without even being able to scream, charred into blackened husks.

Everyone on the highland sucked in a cold breath.

As expected of a beast lord.

Those two lightning waves traveled more than 130 meters, directly killing more than 200 duonao beasts.

The remaining duonao beasts were terrified and turned to run back.

However, their companions behind them had become a wall of beasts, a moving wall of flesh and blood that forced them forward.

The aberrant beast at the rear of the beast tide also launched attacks to push them on.

The Giant Thunderclap Beast unleashed two more lightning waves, reaping more lives.

However, the empty ground it cleared would be filled again by new duonao beasts in the blink of an eye.

He Lingchuan saw it raise its head and roar into the distance, as though it knew exactly who had started all this.

But the two sides were separated by a vast beast tide. The Giant Thunderclap Beast could not squeeze its way out at all.

Just then, someone pointed north and shouted, “The sandstorm is here!”

The sandstorm had followed close behind the beast tide.

By now, it was less than two and a half kilometers from everyone. Viewed up close, it was a gigantic, multicolored wall of sand rising more than fifty kilometers[1] from ground to sky, its thickness impossible to judge.

This was the might of nature.

Any living being, including the Giant Thunderclap Beast ahead, looked as tiny as a single grain of sand compared to the approaching wall of sand.

That wall of sand also contained countless explosions of lightning. One exploding sphere of light after another was hidden behind the dust, full of menace.

To He Lingchuan, it looked like an enormous, absurd, and ferocious oil painting with the title: Death Has Come.

A thought emerged in He Lingchuan’s mind.

Could those nothing beasts have sensed the sandstorm coming and deliberately chosen this moment to attack the Giant Thunderclap Beast?

In this scenario, in addition to the massive beast tide, the terrifying natural disaster may also help them against the thunderclap beasts.

If they can even take weather and celestial phenomena into account and make use of them, then their intelligence is already no lower than that of monsters from the mortal realm.

1. Maybe a hyperbole. ☜