Where Immortals Once Walked

“Can you see the fate of gods clearly?”

Bilu replied coolly, “What does that have to do with you?”

He Lingchuan smiled. “I’ve always been curious. Can a fortune teller know their own fate?”

Bilu’s face remained expressionless. “That is not an answer you ought to know.”

What, then, determines the fate of gods?

The question lingered in He Lingchuan’s mind, but he understood that Bilu would never tell him the answer.

Bilu stretched out a hand toward him. “The item.”

“Those questions were too simple. They’re not worth a treasure like this.” He Lingchuan waved the Dragon Punishment Pillar at it. “I have one last question. If your own fate were suddenly changed, would you be able to foresee it in advance?”

My own fate?

Bilu felt that this question had some depth.

It had only just discovered that this young man had a connection to itself, and now he had asked something like this.

What is this boy trying to do? Does he intend to change my fate?

Bilu found the idea somewhat amusing.

“That depends on what level of power is changing fate,” it answered. “It’s too complicated. I can’t explain it clearly to you.”

“In other words, even the fate of a ‘god of fate’ could undergo a turn you cannot control, correct?”

Bilu burst into loud laughter. “You know nothing of the power of fate, yet you dare make wild guesses?”

He Lingchuan noticed that it did not answer directly.

“Are there many levels and many kinds of power that can change fate?”

“Power is power.” Bilu reached its hand toward him. “The questions have been answered. If you don’t give me the item, the consequences will be severe.”

He Lingchuan had no desire to test what those consequences might be, so he tossed the Dragon Punishment Pillar to it. “Until we meet again!”

Bilu studied him carefully a couple more times, then chuckled and said, “Yes, until we meet again.”

Peng Fang closed his eyes, and before long, his snores rose once more.

Bilu had left.

He Lingchuan walked out of the cell. Almost by instinct, he looked up at the night sky again and let out a long sigh.

Was the power to change fate not exactly what he had been striving for all along, both in the Panlong World and the real world?

* * *

Heishui City, Western Yuan.

At dusk, the merchant Liu Baobao was escorting a guest to an inn. The guest was a plump, dark man with thick hair and a powerful body odor bad enough to make anyone want to flee upwind. Yet, of all things, he happened to deal in spices.

Liu Baobao had serious doubts about the quality of his goods.

Sigh, it really is a pity. Business on the Hongya Trade Route was booming back when He Chunhua, the former commandery administrator, was still in office. Still, ever since the new administrator took over, it's become twice as hard to keep a business running in Heishui City. To think that so much could change in just less than two years...

If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have to put up this damn obsequious smile for this stinking fat bastard!

In the past, the Liu Family would not have spared even a second glance for a shabby merchant like this.

Liu Baobao was silently cursing when a figure suddenly flashed through the market across the street. A cloak covered half of the person’s face.

The weather was cold, so dressing that way was perfectly normal. Nothing was striking about the man’s clothes either.

Yet Liu Baobao stopped abruptly.

He knew that face too well!

How could it be? He should be a thousand li away!

“Brother Liu? Brother Liu?” the plump, dark man called to him. “What’s wrong?”

Liu Baobao steadied himself. He had only caught a hurried glimpse, and then the man turned into an alley and disappeared.

That was the direction of the northern gate.

I, I must have been seeing things!

“It’s nothing. I mistook someone for an old acquaintance. Come, come. I’ll see you to the inn.”

The plump, dark man rubbed his hands together and grinned. “My stay at Fortune Inn is covered by the Liu Family Merchant Guild as well, yes?”

Liu Baobao forced out a smile. “Of course.”

This damn fatty! Must he grab even this tiny bit of advantage?!

The plump, dark man entered Fortune Inn and immediately said to the attendant, “Give me an upper room, and bring plenty of long-lasting charcoal. I want the room warm!” Then he turned back to Liu Baobao and said with a smile, “Many thanks for your hospitality, Brother Liu!”

“Don’t mention it.” Liu Baobao was not at all willing to stand near him. “I seemed to spot an old friend just now, so I’ll go and see if I can find him. Brother Bao has traveled far. Go wash up and rest first.”

He did not wait for the fat man’s reply before turning and leaving the inn.

In this season, Heishui City had very few visitors from outside.

Although it had only been an excuse to get away from the fatty, after Liu Baobao walked out, he truly did start thinking about that “old acquaintance.”

However, he went all the way toward the northern gate and did not see that person again.

Was I really just seeing things?

Just then, a guard happened to be coming down from above the city gate, covering his mouth as he yawned.

It was not that he cared about appearing refined. The wind and sand were heavy these days, and if he did not cover his mouth, he would end up eating sand.

Liu Baobao happened to know this guard.

“Boss Chen!” He went forward with a smile and greeted him. “Busy today?”

“Nope.” The guard sounded lazy. “What’s there to be busy with during the season of mad sand?”

It was currently the season of mad sand. People from the north could not come south, and those in the south were even less likely to travel north. For Heishui City, it was the quietest and safest time of the year.

“Boss Chen, you were up high just now. Did you see a tall man in a cloak come toward the northern gate?”

He was only asking casually, but the guard immediately replied, “A grayish-yellow cloak?”

“Ah, yes, yes! Grayish-yellow.”

“He left the city.”

“Ah?” That answer was completely beyond Liu Baobao’s expectations. “Left the city?!”

North of Heishui City was the famous Hongya Route.

During the season of mad sand, everyone knew the Hongya Route was a road to one’s death. Why would anyone head that way?

The guard added, “I saw him from the gate tower walking north, so I called out to him several times. But he didn’t even turn his head. He only raised his hand and waved a few times.”

That wave proved he had heard the guard’s shouts.

“He’s the one who’s tired of living. How am I supposed to stop him?”

To be honest, the guard had not been eager to stop him either.

Who in Heishui City did not know that this season was no time to enter the desert? What, you said you didn’t know? Then you deserved it.

Besides, people disappeared every year during the season of mad sand. Some had simply lost the will to live, or had reached the end of the road. They would walk into the cutting wind, stand there, and then they were gone. Their death seemed painless, with no lingering side effects.

Liu Baobao could only nod. “Right, right.”

He instinctively glanced outside the city gate. Was it really suicide?

Although the deadly sands of the Panlong Desert would not blow directly into the city, visibility began to fail just over half a kilometer north of the gate. Everything there was dim and yellow.

If that man was the person in his memory, why would he choose this time to go north?

Liu Baobao could only walk back with a stomach full of questions.

* * *

He Lingchuan wrapped his cloak more tightly around himself and strode out of the city.

North of Heishui City, there was not a single person on the long Honya Route.

Heaven and earth were the same murky yellow.

He heard the sentry atop Heishui City’s gate shouting after him, but he did not turn back. As expected, after calling out twice, the man gave up and muttered something about a “short-lived ghost.” After that, no one came after He Lingchuan.

This was the edge of the Panlong Desert. There were not that many kind souls eager to save strangers from death or persuade them to keep living.

His figure soon vanished into the world of yellow sand.

To outsiders, this was an act of suicide.

Only He Lingchuan himself knew that when the violent wind and sand rushed toward him, they automatically parted around his body.

Not even a single grain of sand landed on his cloak. It remained perfectly clean.

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