[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-after-the-immortals-disappeared":3,"chapter-after-the-immortals-disappeared-after-the-immortals-disappeared-chapter-25":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","After the Immortals Disappeared",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2283909,4468,"Chapter 25: A Cup of Fresh Water for Twenty Wen","after-the-immortals-disappeared-chapter-25",25,"\u003Cp>The scene just now frightened the white dog into yelping, and it turned and ran. The monster chased straight after it, and both soon disappeared behind the sand dunes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A caravan guard in the rear party cursed fiercely. With one less guest to escort, the wages he would receive were also reduced by a bit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the greeting the Panlong Desert gave to everyone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For all the teams that witnessed this, the original relaxed atmosphere vanished at once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zeng Feixiong withdrew his gaze and muttered, \"It's his own fault. On Red Cliff Road, children and dogs must be kept on a leash.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This is my first time seeing such a large Yellow Flounder.\" He Lingchuan clicked his tongue. His original self often hunted and knew that the Yellow Flounder was not a fish, but a monster lurking in the desert and Gobi, specializing in ambushing passing small animals.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It could dive and surface freely in the desert, running faster than four-legged creatures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this thing should be at most a little larger than a dog; even if it became a demon, it shouldn't have been that size just now! \"This is the Panlong Desert.\" Zeng Feixiong had escorted merchant caravans many times and was no longer surprised, \"Resentful spirits affect everything here; even demons that originally had intelligence will be alienated after staying in the desert for a long time.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That makes sense; that is why although Sand Leopards also enter the Panlong Desert to hunt, they must usually stay in the Western Mountains to reside and breed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The magnificent desert, unchanging after looking at it for too long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The journey was calm and boring; as long as you didn't take a single step off Red Cliff Road, you only had to deal with the trouble of hot winds, the scorching sun, and sandstorms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For teams that were prepared and experienced, these were all bearable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After walking for three days, the team finally arrived at Baiyuan Station.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was a relay station on Red Cliff Road, used for passing merchants and travelers to rest their feet; its predecessor was an ancient city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were over a dozen ancient cities on the Panlong Wasteland, but few remained in the world after a hundred years. Baiyuan City had long been swallowed by yellow sand; it was later arrivals who excavated its old foundation and added a few rows of houses to stand by the side of Red Cliff Road.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Within the scope of the ancient city, just like on Red Cliff Road, one would not be attacked by resentful spirits and monsters, thus it became a good place for merchants and travelers to stop midway.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The team moved into Baiyuan Station, and He Chunhua hurried over to negotiate with the station official.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes, Heishuicheng had set up a relay station here and sent specialized personnel to manage it. However, the regulations here were very loose, not as strict as those in the Great Yuan Kingdom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At times like this, in places like this, the power of money was manifested.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Baiyuan Station allowed passing merchants and travelers to set up tents, and it also sold food and water; if people wanted to splurge, they could also rent a small room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, the Panlong Desert itself had no water source; all ingredients, fresh water, and building materials had to be transported from within Heishuicheng.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Where there is demand, there is business. Those who wanted to do this trade first had to establish connections with the station official, and then go to great lengths to transport things to this barren land. With all kinds of costs stacked on top of each other, a basic set meal of a steamed bun plus a bottle of fresh water sold for thirty wen—not expensive, right?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A bowl of mutton pita bread, the kind with only oil and fat but no diced meat, sold for two qian of silver—not expensive, right? A small room for an overnight stay, with a rent of five taels of silver—you feel like you're getting a bargain once you move in, right?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you also want to take a hot bath in the desert to wash away the dust and fatigue of the road—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>National Master Sun, Commandant Nian, and Young Master He all had this thought, so the Prefect He could only spend the money.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This expense alone could buy five mu of prime farmland near Heishuicheng, a permanent real estate asset.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After taking a bath and eating a few luxury set meals to get half-full, He Lingchuan finally regained his strength.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With his strong physique, he had been exhausted walking these three days; he did not know how many hardships lay ahead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Conversely, He Chunhua still appeared to have plenty of energy, clearly not as weak as he looked on the surface.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Lingchuan also bought a few set meals for Zeng Feixiong, otherwise, this man, being short of money, would have had to gnaw on cold steamed buns with the soldiers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zeng Feixiong felt bad and declined several times, but unfortunately, he was no match for the determination of Young Master He, so in the end, he could only accept it with shame and thanked him repeatedly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Lingchuan, however, knew that this man was straightforward but not reckless, and since he was leading the troops into the desert this time, he patted his shoulder and said, \"Only by eating and drinking well will you have the strength to work. The safety of my father and me is entrusted to you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Lord He, you treat this subordinate with great kindness and have also resolved my worries; this subordinate will exert his utmost efforts to repay you!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Exerting one's utmost efforts is too heavy a word.\" He Lingchuan laughed, \"By the way, I heard that your father was the only living person to return from the Panlong ruins?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zeng Feixiong's expression dimmed slightly: \"Yes, twenty years ago, someone offered a large sum of money to find him to be a guide, and he was the only one who survived. But he lost his sanity from then on, and even the Great Shaman could not cure him. No one knows what happened to them; he only mumbles one word all day long—water.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Water?\" The desert was indeed short of water; what kind of great suffering had Zeng Feixiong's father endured to still be obsessed with water after going mad?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this time, Sun Fuping came to call people, wanting to gather several leaders in his small room for a meeting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The guards went outdoors to get a lot of yellow sand for him and poured it onto the tabletop.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A simple sand table was ready.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Red Cliff Road, we are almost finished walking it.\" Zeng Feixiong gestured on the sand table, \"The day after tomorrow, we will leave the main road and enter the desert; the real test begins from that moment.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Red Cliff Road originally connected to Panlong City.\" It was a troop transport road, after all; it only counted if it could transport troops and grain to the edge of the city, \"Not long after the Panlong Wasteland turned into a desert, the nearby mountain peaks collapsed and smashed this road away.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He drew a circle on the sand table: \"If you want to go to Panlong City, you have to take a detour and enter from the gap in Ying Mountain.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This long detour was not on Red Cliff Road, and the danger they were about to face directly would increase greatly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By comparison, the journey of the past three days was as easy as a vacation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Next, everyone discussed various countermeasures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the He father and son had rifts with Sun and Nian, when it concerned their own lives, they discussed it with extra focus.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Lingchuan had been listening silently, and only when the discussion was almost over did he ask a long-standing confusion:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"As an isolated enclave city, Panlong City held out for thirty-two years while under attack from all sides, which can be called god-like. Then what was the final reason it was breached?\" This was also a mystery of the Panlong Desert; neither history books nor local legends left any conclusive discourse. Only among storytellers was there a bit of far-fetched explanation left, \"Could it be as the locals of Heishuicheng say, because Zhong Shengguang died of illness and Panlong City lost its backbone?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>People tend to find a reasonable explanation for unsolved mysteries. Zhong Shengguang held Panlong City for more than thirty years, forcing himself from a young man into an old man, and years of warfare would cause huge damage to both body and mind. This explanation was still the most reliable one among the many legends He Lingchuan had heard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was very curious about the truth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"From the clues I have grasped, this legend actually has some truth to it; Panlong City did indeed lose its backbone.\" Sun Fuping poured himself a glass of water, a glass of fresh water that cost twenty wen, \"But it wasn't Zhong Shengguang, it was General Red!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1518,"2026-06-20T02:23:30.219Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","00c4b42e92e5ada3a83bf0759bd541e5219622d8832e59c5ce883eca73e13157","after-the-immortals-disappeared-chapter-26","after-the-immortals-disappeared-chapter-24",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fafter-the-immortals-disappeared-cover.jpg"]