Where Immortals Once Walked

Chapter 613: Discussion

He Lingchuan liked to change meeting places pretty much every time. This time, the two of them were not meeting at Sister Chen’s Fish Soup Shop, but at Vast Stream Tavern a kilometer away.

Behind the tavern ran a drainage canal. The autumn wind stirred the reed flowers apart, somehow making that shallow, narrow trickle of water sway with the feeling of mountains and fields stretching into the distance.

That was how the tavern had gotten its name. Its signature dishes were reed-flower fish and shrimp, smoked duck, and soy-braised meats.

The shop was small, able to fit only five or six tables. Yet when Dong Rui walked in, he actually did not see He Lingchuan.

His heart gave a thud.

A trap?

Just as he was about to back out, the squirrel said, “Keep going, keep going. Hey, what are you scared of?”

To think he had been looked down on by a squirrel. Dong Rui laughed coldly in his heart and took two more steps forward. Sure enough, there was a side passage by the wall. The shop was dimly lit, and he had not seen it at first glance.

Past that was a small private nook.

In truth, it was just a corner partitioned off by boards beside the kitchen. Its advantage was that it was small, large enough for only one table.

He Lingchuan raised a hand to him from beside the table. “Come quickly. I’ve already ordered us some food.”

Dong Rui sat down and saw that He Lingchuan’s hair was damp. He could not help but frown and ask, “Did you jump into the canal out back?”

“What are you talking about?” He Lingchuan casually set up a barrier, then warmly poured him wine. “I played around in a lake for a while.” The mist up on the mountain had been too heavy today. After rowing a boat for a bit, even the hair on the back of his head had gotten wet.

“...” Dong Rui thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if you couldn’t float?”

Then he discovered he had accidentally said it aloud.

“How could that happen?” He Lingchuan slapped him on the shoulder. Smack! “Back then, we fell into the water together. You know perfectly well how good I am in water.”

The slap was so heavy that Dong Rui’s shoulder slanted.

The little squirrel took the opportunity to jump onto He Lingchuan’s shoulder and complained, “This person is stupid to death! He can’t even walk properly.”

“Your directions are terrible. I’d already passed the alley before you told me to turn right!” The dishes on the table had arrived, and Dong Rui had his back to the passage, so he removed his veiled hat.

The moment that face appeared, the little squirrel squeaked in fright and burrowed straight into He Lingchuan’s clothes.

A vein jumped at Dong Rui’s temple. “Where did you pick up this little thing? Let me refine it into a monster puppet.”

“You want to refine my little agent?” He Lingchuan lifted his chopsticks. “Stop messing around. Eat.”

The fish from the canal had a strong earthy smell, so it had to be fried first, then braised, using rich flavors to mask the muddiness.

Vast Stream Tavern went one step further. A big, plump crucian carp was first roasted over charcoal, then braised in sweet-and-sour sauce. When served, it gleamed red-orange and oily, instantly whetting people’s appetites.

He Lingchuan tasted a chopstickful of fish and nodded.

No wonder locals often came here. The place had some skill. frёeωebɳovel.com

“Did you get out smoothly today?”

“How could I not?” Dong Rui clicked his tongue. “I walked straight out. They didn’t dare say anything.”

He Lingchuan chewed fried peanuts. “Then how long did it take you to shake off the tails behind you?”

“...About fifteen minutes.”

“Are you sure that no one’s following you anymore?”

“Nonsense.” Dong Rui gave him a sideways look. “I have more experience shaking people off than you do.”

He was always on the road of escape.

“Has the snail toad’s injury healed?”

“Almost. In a few more days, it’ll be able to hop around everywhere.” The moment Dong Rui remembered how the snail toad had been injured, his chest clogged with resentment. “Thankfully, the Mud Palace on its back really is an extremely rare treasure. Most of the explosion’s force was blocked by it.” Without that treasure protecting its master, the snail toad would have been blown to pieces and died long ago. “You called me out again. What is it this time?”

“To pass along some information. Zhu Erniang’s molted shell is indeed inside Mount Xu.”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Dong Rui glared at him. “Didn’t I already say that last time?”

He had gone to Mount Xu to search as well. It was not as if he had done nothing.

“I found the official who supervised the construction of Mount Xu’s Grand Spirit-Gathering Array back then. He said the array was built according to the Big Dipper stars, and the array eye uses the ancient spider immortal’s molted shell to suppress it.”

Dong Rui’s gaze sharpened. “Zhu Erniang’s molted shell was used to plug the array eye?”

He Lingchuan picked up a piece of smoked duck and slowly chewed. “The key to an array lies in resonance between Heaven and man. Only then can spirit qi be gathered from all directions. During the Great Catastrophe of Heaven and Earth three thousand years ago, even the stars changed. Only the star map on Zhu Erniang’s molted shell remains synchronized with the heavens, constantly changing without pause. Using it as the array eye is the only way the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array could keep operating.”

“Then if we find the array eye, we find the molted shell?”

“In theory.” He Lingchuan spoke slowly. “But the array eye is usually hidden.”

“What?” That’s a little dishonorable, isn’t it?

“The spirit-gathering array benefits all of Lingxu City, greatly increasing the efficiency with which all cultivators here absorb spirit qi. It is one of the most important arrays in the entire city. So its array eye is not fixed. Instead, it changes according to the position of the Tianluo Star.”

“You mean, however that Tianluo Star moves in the sky, the array eye on Mount Xu moves the same way?” Dong Rui was dumbfounded. “Aren’t we finished, then? Tianluo Star is a dark star. It normally doesn’t shine. How are we supposed to observe it?”

“The array eye operates according to that principle.” He Lingchuan drank a mouthful of wine. “There’s no need to panic. The Tianluo Star begins shining from autumn and winter, and does not hide itself again until the second or third month of the next year. My guess is that it will soon remain constantly bright.”

At this point, he looked slightly dazed.

The period when the Tianluo Star remains bright, did it not overlap with a specific season he was familiar with?

“So during this stretch of time, the array eye will appear, which also makes inspections and repairs easier.”

“Inspections?”

“Even houses need regular maintenance. For an array this important, shouldn’t it be inspected regularly?” He Lingchuan said. “Every year, there is one autumn inspection and one spring inspection. After that, they wait until the next autumn.”

Dong Rui’s eyes brightened. “When does the next inspection begin? Can we sneak in?”

“By convention, the autumn inspection happens within the first seven days after Tianluo Star lights up. We can’t get an accurate timetable.” He Lingchuan shook his head. “Even if we got it, sneaking in wouldn’t be easy. Lingxu treats anything involving arrays with extreme caution. The inspectors are all assigned from above, specific posts and specific people. Once anyone is replaced, it has to be reported through layer after layer.”

“Also, there really is a greater monster inside Mount Xu. It is a naturally born rock-fire aberrant creature, and also the guardian spirit of Mount Xu.”

“Right?” Dong Rui clearly had a deep impression of it too. “I saw it on Tianshu Peak. A naturally born elemental aberrant creature. There’s no way to turn it into a monster puppet. Sigh, what a pity.”

“That aberrant creature formed in the late Ancient Era. It has very high intelligence. It was once the Grand Return Sect’s mountain-guarding spirit beast, then later changed sides and defected.”

Dong Rui nodded. “Then its intelligence really is high.”

After all, how could a dull-witted creature have an advanced idea like betrayal?

He Lingchuan picked up some crispy-fried stream fish. “For the several centuries after it joined the northern monster state, its days were quite good. Lingxu City did indeed supply it in full. But that fellow’s appetite is too great. Over the past century, Lingxu City’s profound crystal mines have steadily declined in output, and the cost of feeding this rock-fire creature has kept rising. I think Lingxu City may have grown unable to bear it, so this grand array also has a suppressive effect on it.”

“What’s funny is that the rock-fire aberrant creature also contributed greatly to the construction of the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array, shifting peaks around, only to end up suppressed by it in turn. After that, it could no longer fly into rages whenever it pleased like before. So the support Lingxu City gave it visibly decreased.” He Lingchuan smiled then added, “Of course, it only discovered it had lost out after the array was built.”

The rock-fire aberrant creature had a history of changing sides, so it was only normal for Lingxu City to guard against it.

The best way to keep a fierce beast from biting people was not to keep feeding it in hopes of pleasing it, but to tie it up or trick it into a cage, then lock the door.

“Right, do you remember the great earthquake that happened in Lingxu City over ten years ago?”

“Mm-hm.”

“According to the official, at the time, the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array was basically complete. Only the final step remained, which was moving the array eye onto Mount Xu and activating it.”

“Moving?” Dong Rui was greatly surprised. “The array eye was moved up there at the end? It wasn’t built directly on Mount Xu?”

“They didn’t dare.” He Lingchuan smiled. “The construction process couldn’t possibly be silent, and the guardian spirit would hear everyone’s discussions. If it discovered the truth, then there would be no way for the project to continue.”

“But an accident still happened?” Otherwise, how could there have been a volcanic eruption and earthquake that day?

“On the day the array eye was installed, the Lord Emperor ordered someone to soothe the rock-fire aberrant creature and make it fall asleep.” Once the local master was asleep, the construction team could quietly enter and rush the work. The one who had accepted this assignment was the Ke Family, but He Lingchuan did not mention them by name. “Who would have known that halfway through the work, the aberrant creature woke up, saw through the trick on the spot, and flew into a towering rage.”

“Then the volcano erupted?”

“Mm-hm.” He Lingchuan spat out a fishbone. “The gods did not want all the work on the array to be wasted, so they personally acted to suppress it. At the time, the previous Monster Emperor was already old and decrepit. It was the current Lord Emperor who personally acted to assist the gods, forcibly suppressing the rock-fire aberrant creature. Immediately afterward, the array eye was completed, the grand array began operating, and the fire creature was finally controlled.”

To be honest, when he learned this secret sequence of events from Zaifu Kua’s dream last night, he felt that the current Monster Emperor’s rise to power was probably connected to his proper handling of this crisis and the gods’ praise for it.

Mount Xu’s eruption and the new emperor’s ascension had happened one after the other, not far apart.

Dong Rui chuckled. “Hearing it like this, Lingxu City’s legends weren’t wrong. That great earthquake really was caused by the aberrant creature inside Mount Xu.”

“Where there’s wind from an empty cave, there may still be a reason.” As for many rumors, the more they were refuted, the truer they became.

“But whether this guardian spirit is willing or not, it is clearly the grand array’s most powerful guardian,” He Lingchuan said in a low voice. “We have to get around it and find the array eye. Is there any way to slow its movements?”

When Juju flew into rage, it had forced the gods to descend. So he had never even considered directly fighting this rock-fire aberrant creature.

Dong Rui shook his head. “It represents Mount Xu’s anger. Once an aberrant creature like that becomes enraged, do you think conventional methods will work?”

“Then think of a method.”

“Isn’t it intelligent? Very clever, at that.” Dong Rui shrugged. “Young Master He, why don’t you use your silver tongue to persuade it?”

“What terms would we offer it?” He Lingchuan stroked his chin. He had also thought of this point. “Are we supposed to tell it that we’ll help undo the grand array’s suppression?”

“Exactly,” Dong Rui said as though it were obvious.