[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-after-the-immortals-disappeared":3,"chapter-after-the-immortals-disappeared-after-the-immortals-disappeared-chapter-31":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},2283915,4468,"Chapter 31: The Heart-Bewitching Insect","after-the-immortals-disappeared-chapter-31",31,"\u003Cp>Three walnut boats cruised the sea of sand, their speed about half that of a galloping horse, but they had the advantage of being steady, enduring, and relatively safe—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The walnut boats occasionally encountered strange and bizarre creatures; initially, the creatures would be eager to try their luck, but the stench of the salted meat was too overbearing, and after following for a while, they would be scared off, fleeing as if they regretted not having been born with two fewer legs, let alone caring about the humans on the walnut boats.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although most people here grew up on the edge of the desert, they had never enjoyed such a panoramic view of the sand sea from this angle, and they all stared with wide eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Lingchuan muttered, \"You can actually play it like this?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sailing on a sea of sand—the first time in two lifetimes; it could be considered a broadening of horizons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only fly in the ointment was the stench drifting from ahead, which lingered and made breathing difficult.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The helmsmen of the three walnut boats were all cautious, trying their best to avoid the tall sand dunes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The more magnificent the sand dune, the larger its shadow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And every person from Heishuicheng understood that one must never enter the shadows in the Panlong Desert. The scorching sun, hot winds, thirst, sand bandits, and attacks by exotic beasts—none of these combined were as terrifying as the shadows in the Panlong Desert.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, no matter how skilled the helmsmen were, after more than an hour, buildings began to emerge bit by bit on the distant horizon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A little closer, and one could clearly see the dilapidated high walls and city gates.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was clearly an auxiliary city located in the southwest of Panlongcheng, which originally stood in a mutually supportive position with the main city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, it had been abandoned for a hundred years, and only the wind and sand were regular visitors here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet the city walls remained high, and the city gate was shrouded in thick shadow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If one were to peer inside from the gate, one would find several ruined buildings, unwilling to be completely swallowed by the yellow sand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were backlit, and shadows were everywhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having reached this point, there was no avoiding it; the only path was to pass through the city gate and traverse this ruined city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nian Songyu stood on the foremost walnut boat and turned his head to blow three long whistles toward the rear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the secret signal they had agreed upon at the desert post station.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was time to initiate the next step of the strategy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The He father and son stood at the bow, shouting to their subordinates: \"Ignite the life fire!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While it was called \"igniting,\" in reality, everyone pulled a small red pill from their bosom and swallowed it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Immediately, a sour and spicy sensation surged up from their bellies, churning like a stormy sea.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this belch had to be suppressed; it could not be let out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone felt their eyes heat up and their noses swell, with sour water rising in their mouths, yet their bodies felt waves of cold. Even though the sun above was so venomous, many soldiers began to shiver.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, these symptoms only lasted for a dozen breaths before subsiding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone looked at one another and noticed that a ghostly fire had ignited above each other's heads and on both shoulders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The flames were mostly based in pale green; some were darker, some brighter, some more yellow, and some more blue, but they were all small flames the size of a little finger, trembling and floating in the air, as if they would be extinguished by a gust of wind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet the desert wind was strong enough to make one's face sting with every slap, but it could not extinguish these three ghostly fires.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the three fires ignited, everyone felt the temperature around them drop by several degrees, and the heat waves hitting their faces were no longer so scorching.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the life fire, also known as the life lamp, usually hidden within the human spiritual furnace—what is commonly called the fire of life. If the fire exists, the person lives; if the fire is extinguished, the person dies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"When a person dies, the lamp goes out\"—that is where the saying comes from.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the life fire was ignited, the squad leaders all turned their backs and roared at their team members: \"Do not look back!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the three walnut boats came the soldiers' uniform shouts: \"Do not look back!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was repeated three times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was a repeated warning to others, and also to themselves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Remember, remember, remember!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Chunhua stood to the front-right of He Lingchuan, and the latter asked the former: \"Dad, do you know that your life fire is yellowish?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Prefect He was about to shake his head, but suddenly remembered that this movement was extremely dangerous, so he quickly steadied his head and gave his eldest son a glare: \"You brat!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Lingchuan grinned: \"Better to practice now than to encounter danger later.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Actually, what he said made a lot of sense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Your life fire is yellow tinged with red,\" He Chunhua smiled. \"It's good to be young.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The life fire intuitively reflected the owner's health. The stronger the body and the more vigorous the qi and blood, the deeper the color of the life fire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Young people, after all, have a fiery nature.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, one could no longer turn their head left or right, otherwise, He Lingchuan would have really liked to see what color Nian Songyu's and State Preceptor Sun's life fires were.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the boat reached the city, He Chunhua took a deep breath and roared: \"Don't move, nobody move!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The same warning came from the other two boats.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The three helmsmen cast their poles one last time, guiding the earth dragons toward the city gate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The smoke and fire of past wars, combined with the erosion of wind and sand, had caused the originally vertical city walls to lean further forward, making them look precarious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet it had stood here for a hundred years—tenacious, silent, and unyielding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Closer and closer they came; the massive gate opening was like the blood-red maw of a monster opening silently. He Lingchuan could even see faint stains on both sides of the gate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps those were layers upon layers of bloodstains splashed repeatedly—first bright red, then turning black and purple, and after years of scouring by wind and sand, they had lost their ferocious color, leaving only a glimmer of their former state.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All clamor and excitement must eventually return to plainness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The world darkened before everyone's eyes as the walnut boats finally sailed into the shadow beneath the city gate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yin energy rushed toward them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only now, with their life fires ignited, could the soldiers see streaks of light smoke emerging from the shadows, pouncing toward the walnut boats.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only up close could one see that these wisps of smoke resembled human phantoms, with torsos and limbs, but no faces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They ignored the earth dragons pulling the boats, but were very curious about everything on the walnut boats, including every human and every piece of wood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the blink of an eye, everyone was surrounded by four or five wisps of smoke. They drifted in front of and behind the humans, peering with ill intent. Although they had no eyes, everyone felt they were being stared at intently, and goosebumps rose on their skin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These things were the Three-Corpse Insects!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the legends of the Panlong Desert, they were vengeful spirits hidden beneath any shadow; even if passersby avoided the creatures in the desert, once they stepped into the shadow of a sand dune, they would be attacked by them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, humans without a bright life fire could not see these things with the naked eye and thus had no way to defend against them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Panlongcheng disappeared and its most beloved humans left, the Three-Corpse Insects could only turn to invade various creatures; although not a perfect match, it sufficed. Every living thing in the desert was affected by them, gradually undergoing strange mutations, such as the earth dragons pulling the boats ahead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sun Fu and Nian Songyu were not worried but happy. The existence of these things indirectly confirmed the existence of the Great Square Pot; their trip had not been in vain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In every soldier's ear, faint, whispering voices sounded, as if someone were speaking to them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1431,"2026-06-20T02:23:30.219Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","a9a7633209a3ea46b2b706b11cfd2f64388e8f44388de609ca25b875f07cb2fd","after-the-immortals-disappeared-chapter-32","after-the-immortals-disappeared-chapter-30",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fafter-the-immortals-disappeared-cover.jpg"]