Chapter 49: A World Without People

Aside from bubbles, there was nothing in the water.

No impurities, no silt, no aquatic plants.

Interestingly, he could breathe perfectly fine, as if a fish in water, without a hint of suffocation.

But he was incredibly irritated. He would never normally undertake such a dangerous task of scouting for others; he had only been knocked in here because he was caught by the residual force of the Great Wind Army Commander.

To put it bluntly, his cultivation was too low.

He hadn't felt it when he was acting high and mighty in Blackwater City, but after encountering Nian Songyu and Grandmaster Sun, and later venturing into Panlong City, he saw the crises closing in step by step, and his meager cultivation felt increasingly inadequate.

If only he were a bit stronger.

His body sank rapidly; directly below him was a pitch-black void, like a bottomless pit.

Just a moment before he plunged into the boundless darkness, He Lingchuan seemed to catch sight of a dark red figure.

The thing seemed massive, flickering in and out of existence around him. The part of its body that was visible appeared to be cylindrical.

Well, it was shaped like a water bucket, but magnified countless times.

Most importantly, the thing was moving!

Unfortunately, He Lingchuan didn't have time to look closely before everything went black.

...

When he opened his eyes again, the scene had changed.

He was standing by a small stream. The water, which had just reached his insteps, was very clear, and the pebbles were clean. A small river shrimp was currently launching an attack against his boot.

The water hyacinths and wild radishes by the stream were a delightful, vibrant green. Not far away, a few farmhouses stood with wisps of cooking smoke curling into the air.

He Lingchuan felt his body and found his clothes were dry, not at all soaked by the bloody water in the well. It seemed that was merely a passage.

He climbed up a low slope from the stream valley, and as he looked up, he froze.

Before him lay a vast, vibrant plain. Large fields of wheat were sprouting green, and while the trees along the fields were somewhat sparse, the tallest reached three to five zhang.

Farmhouses were scattered sparsely, and He Lingchuan even spotted a waterskin hanging from a nearby tree branch.

In the distance, a great river surged, dividing two plains.

On the other side of the river, the terrain was much higher than here; from a distance, it looked like a giant crocodile lying by the riverbank.

Most importantly, the shape of the edge of the plain was very unique and very familiar.

Could that be... the Chipa Plateau?

He Lingchuan leaped down the slope and walked toward the Chipa Plateau.

The sky was blue, the clouds were white, and the air was a mixture of the scent of soil and fresh grass. Walking through this pastoral landscape was truly refreshing.

Especially for someone who had just emerged from a desolate desert city.

However, the more peaceful it seemed, the more eerie it felt.

He Lingchuan walked straight for several hundred zhang, passing through a village along the way. It had about a hundred households, yet he didn't encounter a single person.

This village was quite large.

The fields, the farmhouses—everything was silent. He even went door to door to check; they were all empty. Yet, in one kitchen, coarse flour buns had already been steamed, emitting plumes of hot steam.

He didn't dare eat them, but he took one out and squeezed it; it was soft and hot to the touch.

Where had everyone gone?

After passing through another wheat field, a pink butterfly happened to fly toward him.

He Lingchuan reached out to touch it, but his fingertip passed right through the butterfly.

Nothingness.

A fake?

He then found a green grasshopper in the wheat field and poked it with his finger; it was also just air.

These living things were illusions.

But the texture of the wheat seedlings was very real. He snapped off a bit of the core and chewed it; it was slightly astringent and bitter, exactly the taste a grass sprout should have.

Just then, there was a rustling sound in the wheat field, and a living creature darted out.

He Lingchuan was startled, drawing his blade halfway before realizing the newcomer was actually a sand bandit.

This man was the second cousin of Situ Han's brother-in-law, named Mao Tao. He had earned the nickname only because he was thin, small, and had a full beard.

He was also startled to see He Lingchuan, but then he rejoiced: "Young Master, you're alright!"

"Where are the others?" He Lingchuan looked around, realizing only this one teammate had made it. "Also, why is there one less Life Flame on your shoulder?"

"The Grandmaster took it and put it on a candle," Mao Tao said with a bitter face. "Then he pushed me down. Where is this? Panlong... Wasteland?"

Anyone with eyes could see how eerie this place was. "This is fake, isn't it? An illusion?"

"Yes." He Lingchuan immediately guessed Grandmaster Sun's intention. "They used you to scout the way, which means they will be coming down soon as well."

The two walked forward together. He Lingchuan asked him, "When you were transitioning... no, after you fell into the pool, did you see anything?"

"Just the pale red bloody water, and it didn't make me choke. Then, in the blink of an eye, I was here."

"Nothing else?"

Mao Tao thought carefully. "No. What did you see?"

He Lingchuan shook his head.

Had he been hallucinating that massive unknown object in the pale red pool?

After walking for another half an hour, the two finally approached the Chipa Plateau.

The river before them was calm, about three zhang wide, with a steady, unhurried flow. He Lingchuan knew this should be the moat of Panlong City, but it was far from being as deep or as wide as what he had seen before.

Walking west along the riverbank for another fifteen minutes, Panlong City finally appeared in their sight.

"Th-that!" Mao Tao exhaled. "Is that Panlong City?"

Panlong City was still in the exact same location, at the lower pass of the Chipa Plateau. But it looked nothing like the magnificent fortress in the desert.

The city walls were not as high or thick, and there weren't even crocodile-tooth battlements on the ramparts.

As the two approached the Natural Bridge, they found the bridge surface was paved with bluestone, much of which was cracked, with moss and grime filling the crevices.

After crossing the bridge, the city gate was still there, but the doors were not made of hemlock, but of ordinary iron-clad thick wood.

The defensive strength of this pass was not much different from Blackwater City.

However, two people were standing under the city gate, waving at them.

Nian Songyu and Sun Fuping.

He Lingchuan frowned inwardly upon seeing them, but as he stepped forward, he put on a face of surprise: "How come it's only you two? Where are the others?"

"The Great Wind Army Soul went to find reinforcements, and Governor He took men to stay behind to defend against the enemy outside the well," Sun Fuping said. "This is the territory of the Great Wind Army; we cannot engage them here."

Otherwise, it would be a death trap.

It sounded quite reasonable, but He Lingchuan's heart skipped a beat, knowing he had to be exceptionally careful. However, he acted dissatisfied: "Old man is really unfair, leaving me here all by myself."

He Chunhua and the main force hadn't come down, leaving him alone to face Sun and Nian. Wouldn't they be able to mold him into whatever shape they wanted?

The situation was against him; it was better to be pragmatic!

Sun Fuping didn't even bother to respond, only asking, "By the way, how long have you two been down here?"

"About... two hours?" He Lingchuan's attitude improved as he turned and pointed. "I landed in that village over there and climbed up from the river."

Sun Fuping's expression changed slightly. Nian Songyu pointed at Mao Tao and said, "How can that be? I followed this fellow down immediately. He arrived only a few dozen breaths after you."

The Grandmaster mused, "The four of us came down one after another, but we appeared here at different times. That means it's a matter of flow rate. This place is indeed more than just an illusion."

Indeed, anyone who came down would first define this place as an illusion.