After the Immortal Disappeared

Blood splattered as the bear’s maw was knocked askew.

Skinny landed just then, slamming onto the Giant Bear’s back. He slid down its smooth fur and grabbed hold of the Long Spear with one hand.

The spear was already embedded in the bear’s hindquarters, making it bleed profusely. The added weight of a full-grown man made it yowl in pain and claw back at the source.

Fortunately, the brief delay allowed Skinny to regain his balance. He scrambled down the tree with all fours.

He had just found his footing when the Giant Bear fell from the sky, hitting the ground with a THUD that splattered his face with mud and dust.

"Pfft! Pfft! Ptooey!" Skinny quickly took a few steps back. He saw the Giant Bear lying prone and motionless, unsure if it was dead or just unconscious.

Six or seven people emerged from the trees, the forest, and the sorghum field, gathering around the Giant Bear.

Skinny was gasping for air, his words choppy. "The poison... Didn’t you say... if I just held on for twenty breaths... it would... it would be poisoned to death?"

He’d been chased for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, and he felt like he was about to cough up his own gallbladder. That bear was ridiculously stubborn, chasing only him and no one else!

"The bear’s too big; the dose wasn’t enough," said the squad’s only female soldier, a bow slung over her back. "Didn’t I put two more arrows in it?"

She had delicate brows and eyes, but her face was tanned a reddish-brown by the Chipa Plateau sun, lending a tough look to her features.

Skinny was still angry. "Your aim is terrible! It was Broken Blade who saved me." Otherwise, the bear would have popped him like a grape. "Huh? Where’s Broken Blade?"

"Here."

Another person stepped out from behind a tree, having just retrieved the blade that had split the bear’s cheek.

It was Hee Lingchuan.

In this nine-person squad, the nickname he had chosen for himself was "Broken Blade."

The basic unit of the Panlong Patrol Army was a "fire," also commonly called a squad. Each fire consisted of ten members and was led by a Fire Chief. This team had lost two members not long ago and gained Hee Lingchuan as a replacement, so for now, they only had nine people.

Fire Chief Liu Tong pulled his Long Spear from the bear’s body. "Stop chattering and get to work! Liuu, you chop off the bear’s head."

Liuu was the female archer from before. Her slender and graceful figure did indeed resemble a willow branch.

At the Fire Chief’s order, Skinny pursed his lips, feeling indignant. According to the Patrol Guard Army’s unwritten rules, the one who beheads the kill or cuts off its ears gets the most merit. He had contributed the most and paid the highest price in taking down the bear; logically, he should be the one to sever its head.

However, Liuu had the most seniority in the squad after the Fire Chief, and she was a primary attacker.

She took a heavy axe from a teammate.

Even lying down, the Bear Demon was like a small hill. She had no choice but to plant one foot on its head, grip the axe with both hands, and swing it down with all her might.

Before the axe blade could reach its neck, the unconscious Giant Bear suddenly sprang up.

Liuu lost her footing. With no time to retreat, the Giant Bear’s claw sank into her calf, and she screamed in pain.

The Giant Bear pinned her down, about to tear her apart alive.

Tigers and leopards will throttle their prey, waiting until it stops breathing before eating. Bears, however, often enjoy disemboweling their victims and eating them alive.

This Giant Bear knew it didn’t have long to live. It just wanted to rip open her chest, tear out her guts, and vent all its hatred on its foe.

Just as its fangs were about to pierce Liuu’s stomach, a cold light flashed from above.

The bear’s head suddenly fell off, drenching Liuu’s head and face in hot blood from its neck.

It was Skinny, who was closest. He had picked up the axe and swung it down in one swift motion.

The bear’s head rolled twice on the ground. Its steel-like teeth snapped shut with a loud CLACK, its small, crimson eyes still wide with fury.

Seeing this, Liuu, pinned beneath the massive bear carcass, couldn’t help but shiver.

If he had been even a single breath later, she would have had a gaping hole in her belly.

This time, the Bear Demon was truly dead. Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Help me..." Liuu pleaded weakly.

The team members struggled to push the bear’s corpse away. Liuu cried out in pain as the bear’s claws were still hooked in her calf, leaving behind a mangled mess of flesh and blood.

Another large man, "Door Panel," took out some wound medicine and helped Liuu treat her injury. Liu Tong said to the others, "Go dig graves. We need to bury the villagers."

The team members returned to the village to look for picks and hoes.

The place was a total wreck. The wooden houses had huge holes smashed through them, overturned furniture was everywhere, and trails of blood led to the bodies.

The Bear Demon had killed eight people but had only eaten the young children and teenagers. It had a particular fondness for chewing on their eyeballs, and the remains were too gruesome to look at.

One team member, who had enlisted three months ago, was no stranger to dead bodies. But as soon as he entered a house, he saw a victim with its mouth wide open, two bloody, eyeless sockets staring straight at him.

He couldn’t hold it in and threw up with a cry of "BLEGH!"

The scene was so horrific it even affected Hee Lingchuan. He turned his head away, silently chanting, ’This is a dream.’

The team silently collected the bodies and took them to an open space behind the village for a proper burial.

The Bear Demon had charged out of the mountains. The Military Merits Bureau had received a distress call from the village and dispatched Hee Lingchuan’s squad to eliminate the Demon.

As they dug the graves, they talked, all agreeing that the Demons they had eliminated recently were much more powerful than those from a few months ago.

In the world of Panlong City, it had been two months since the appearance of the Emperor’s Liquid. The after-effects of the event were now undeniable: New Demons enlightened by it were springing up like mushrooms after rain all across the Panlong Wasteland, and the older Demons were growing ever stronger.

These newly enlightened Demons were like teenagers, fourteen or fifteen years old. Their power had surged, their confidence had exploded, and they shared the delusion that they were the baddest in the world. Their intelligence was just awakening, leaving them a bit muddled, but their tempers had become exceptionally angsty and violent. It would take several months for them to mellow out.

During this phase, they posed a massive threat to humans. Reports of Demon attacks on people were endless, from the Panlong Wasteland to the Chipa Plateau. The population was one of Panlong City’s most precious resources, and the authorities would not allow man-eating Demons to roam free.

Since joining the Patrol Team, Hee Lingchuan had already been on seven missions to exterminate Demons. The veteran members said that before the Emperor’s Liquid, the Chipa Plateau had been peaceful; they might not have seen this many cases in over half a year.

Before the burial, Hee Lingchuan reached out and closed the deceased’s eyes.

’This is a trial I must endure.’

’Combat and killing are the best ways to sharpen my blade and my will.’

’But human life is so fragile, whether in Panlong City or the real world.’

Door Panel found a few sticks of incense, lit them at the head of the graves, and recited a eulogy, wishing them rebirth in the Divine Kingdom.

Hee Lingchuan had heard it many times and knew they were praying to "Lady Mitian"—the deity who had bestowed the Grand Square Pot and the Red General, and who had always protected Panlong City.

After seeing to the villagers’ final rites, the squad found a hay cart to transport the bear’s corpse, hitched a horse to it, and headed for Panlong City.

This was the squad’s spoil of war. The bear’s head had to be taken to the Military Merits Bureau as proof of the kill, while the rest would be distributed among the team members by the Fire Chief. Those with more merit would get more; those with less would get less.

They had just finished loading the corpse when a massive sika deer suddenly strode out of the woods. Moss and even a couple of small flowers grew on its magnificent antlers. Unafraid of people, it walked over and spoke in a human voice: "The Thousand Ridge Marsh Warden asked me to inform you that many unfamiliar Demons, both Flying Birds and beasts, have appeared near White Head Mountain."

Fire Chief Liu Tong took a step forward. "They aren’t newly born Demons?"

"No," the sika deer said. "They appeared along with the new wave of Demons after the Emperor’s Liquid, attempting to blend in. But the Marsh Warden has determined they are outsiders."

"Thank you for the information. We will report it as soon as possible."

Ever since the Emperor’s Liquid appeared, there had been no end to the troubles—some from fate, some from man.

The sika deer nodded and slowly ambled back into the woods.

As the overlord of the Wilderness, Panlong City held firm control over the entire Chipa Plateau behind it. The Marsh Wardens and Water Spirits here were all enfeoffed by it, serving as co-administrators of the land.

Otherwise, on a plateau so vast and empty, enemy spies and scouts could always slip in. How could Panlong City possibly drive them all out with its manpower alone?

At this time of year, the forests on the distant slopes of the Chipa Plateau were a riot of color, showcasing the majestic grandeur of the mountains. Rivers as clear as jade belts meandered through fields of gold.

The vast, magnificent landscape was enough to sweep away all the misery and anger the group had just experienced.

Hee Lingchuan took a deep breath. The air here even seemed sweet.

But he had indeed seen the Chipa Plateau two hundred years in the future.

What kind of power could turn such vibrant and beautiful mountains and rivers into a desolate and monotonous Desert Sea?

And now, he might be walking in a world constructed by that very power.

’It’s kind of exciting, when you think about it.’

「A short time later」

The team returned to Panlong City and headed straight for the Military Merits Bureau.

They needed to turn in the mission before they could divide the spoils.

Panlong City was a bustling place with a fine division of labor. There were even professional hunting workshops that processed the spoils Patrol Guards brought back from the field. Bear Demons were one of the most sought-after catches. Their claws and fangs could be forged into weapons, their pelts made into Soft Armor or cloaks, and their gallbladders, eyeballs, and Inner Cores could be refined into Pills. Every part of it was a treasure.

Hee Lingchuan was also calculating in his head. After receiving the merit for this mission, his accumulated military contributions should be enough to exchange for another Divine Technique.

He had his eye on one for a while: the Substitution Skill.

The description for this Divine Technique was very simple: It allows the user to instantly swap places with a specific "Cicada Shell," provided both are in the same space and no more than five zhang apart. It can only be used once every three double-hours.

That one sentence alone was enough to spark the imagination with its potential uses. Needless to say, the Substitution Skill would not only make Hee Lingchuan’s combat style more flexible but also give him another life-saving ability.

As for the spoils, Hee Lingchuan received half a bear paw and a bear kidney. Skinny also handed him an eyeball.

This was another unwritten rule: if a teammate saves your life, you must show your gratitude with a tangible reward. Therefore, Hee Lingchuan did not refuse and happily accepted it.

Few people would eat such a potent tonic directly. Hee Lingchuan could ask Aluo to make it into a Pill, turn it in to the Military Merits Bureau for merit, or sell it outright. There were many uses for it.

Meanwhile, Skinny was looking dejected.

He had acted as the bait today, leading the bear on a wild chase, only to be slapped into a tree and lose an Amulet in the process.

Without the protection of that Talisman, the Bear Demon’s slap would have likely punched a hole straight through his back.

That kind of life-saving item wasn’t cheap, and his heart ached just thinking about it. Besides, his back was still throbbing with a dull pain.

Just then, Liuu walked over and straightforwardly gave him the most valuable item, the bear’s gallbladder, to thank him for saving her life. His resentment instantly vanished, replaced by a grin so wide his eyes disappeared.