[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-after-the-immortals-disappeared":3,"chapter-after-the-immortals-disappeared-after-the-immortals-disappeared-chapter-49":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},2283933,4468,"Chapter 49: The Unpeopled World","after-the-immortals-disappeared-chapter-49",49,"\u003Cp>No impurities, no grit, no water weeds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Interestingly, he found his breathing smooth and easy, like a fish in water, without the slightest sense of suffocation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet he was inwardly furious; he would never normally take on such a dangerous job as scouting for others, but he had just been swept up by the lingering force of the Great Wind Army commander’s strike and knocked in here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To put it bluntly, his cultivation base was too low.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He hadn't felt it much when he was throwing his weight around in Heishuicheng, but later, after encountering Nian Songyu and State Preceptor Sun, and then going to explore Panlongcheng, he saw crises closing in step by step, and this bit of cultivation felt increasingly powerless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If only he were a little stronger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His body sank rapidly; directly below was a pitch-black void, like a bottomless pit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just a breath before he sank into the boundless darkness, He Lingchuan seemed to catch a glimpse of a dark red figure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That thing seemed massive, flickering in and out of sight around him, and the part of its body that was exposed appeared to be cylindrical.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hmm, it looked like the shape of a water vat, but magnified countless times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most importantly, this thing could move!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unfortunately, He Lingchuan had no time to look closely before everything went black before his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he opened his eyes again, the scene had changed once more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was standing by a small stream; the water, which barely covered his instep, was crystal clear, the sand and stones were clean, and a small river shrimp was launching an attack on his boot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The water peanuts and wild radishes by the stream were a delightful green, and in the distance, a few farmsteads had smoke curling from their chimneys.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Lingchuan felt his body and found his clothes dry; they hadn't been soaked by the bloody water in the well at all. It seemed that was merely a passageway.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He climbed from the valley onto a low slope and froze the moment he looked up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before him lay a vibrant plain; large patches of wheat were turning green, and the trees along the fields were somewhat sparse, though the tallest were three to five zhang high.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Small huts for guarding the fields were scattered about, and He Lingchuan even saw a water skin hanging from a nearby tree branch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the distance, a great river flowed mightily, dividing the two plains.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the other side of the river, the terrain was much higher than here, looking from afar like a giant crocodile lying by the riverbank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most importantly, the shape of the plain's edge was very unique and very familiar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Could that be... the Chipa Plateau? He Lingchuan leaped down the slope and walked toward the direction of the Chipa Plateau.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sky was very blue, the clouds were very white, and the air was filled with the damp scent of soil and grass. Walking through this pastoral idyll, one felt refreshed and relaxed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially for someone who had just walked out of a desolate desert city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet, the more serene it was, the more eerie it felt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Lingchuan walked straight for several hundred zhang, passing through a village of a hundred households along the way, yet he didn't encounter a single person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This village was quite large in scale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fields, the farmsteads, and the houses were all deathly quiet; he even checked house by house, but they were empty. However, in one kitchen, coarse flour buns were already steamed and emitting hot steam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn't dare eat them, but he took one out and squeezed it; it was soft and hot to the touch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Where had the people gone? Passing another wheat field, a cabbage butterfly happened to fly toward him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Lingchuan reached out and tapped, his fingertip passing right through the butterfly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was nothing there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fake?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He found a green grasshopper in the wheat field and poked it with his finger; it was also just air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These living things were all illusions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the texture of the wheat seedlings was very real. He snapped off a bit of the sprout and chewed it; it was slightly astringent and bitter, exactly the taste a grass sprout should have.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just then, there was a rustle in the wheat field, and a living creature darted out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Lingchuan was startled and had his blade half-drawn before he realized the newcomer was actually a sand bandit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This man was the second cousin of Situ Han’s brother-in-law, nicknamed \"Fuzzy Peach,\" a name he earned because he was thin, small, and had a face full of whiskers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was also taken aback when he saw He Lingchuan, then immediately overjoyed: \"Young Master, you're alright!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Where are the others?\" He Lingchuan looked left and right, discovering that only this one teammate had arrived. \"Also, why is one of the life-flames on your shoulder missing?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The State Preceptor took it and placed it on a candle,\" Fuzzy Peach said with a bitter expression. \"Then he pushed me down. Where is this? Panlong... Wasteland?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyone with eyes could see the eeriness of this place. \"This place is fake, isn't it? An illusion?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes.\" He Lingchuan guessed State Preceptor Sun’s goal immediately. \"They used you to scout the path, so they will be coming down soon too.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two walked forward together, and He Lingchuan asked him: \"When you passed through the scene... no, after you fell into the pool, did you see anything?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Just light red bloody water; it didn't choke me. Then, in the blink of an eye, I was here.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Nothing else?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fuzzy Peach thought carefully: \"No. Did you see something?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Lingchuan shook his head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was it his eyes playing tricks on him when he saw that massive unknown object in the light red pool water? After walking for another half-hour, the two finally neared the Chipa Plateau.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The river before them was gentle, about three zhang wide, with a steady, unhurried current. He Lingchuan knew this must be the moat of Panlongcheng, but it was nowhere near as deep or wide as he had seen before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Continuing west along the riverbank for another two quarters of an hour, Panlongcheng finally appeared in his field of vision.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"There, there!\" Fuzzy Peach let out a breath. \"Is that Panlongcheng?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Panlongcheng was in the exact same location, at the lower pass of the Chipa Plateau. But it looked nothing like the magnificent structure in the desert.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The city walls were not that high or thick, and there were not even crocodile-tooth spikes on the battlements.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the two approached the natural bridge, they found it paved with bluestone, much of which was already shattered, the cracks filled with moss and grime.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After crossing the bridge, the city gate was still there, but the gate panels were not iron-fir, but ordinary thick wooden doors wrapped in iron.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The defensive strength of this city pass was no different from Heishuicheng.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, two people were still standing under the city gate, waving at them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nian Songyu and Sun Fuping.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Lingchuan frowned inwardly when he saw them, but as he walked up, he put on a look of surprise: \"Why are there only the two of you? Where are the others?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The Great Wind Army spirits brought reinforcements, and Prefect He stayed behind with his men to hold the enemy outside the well,\" Sun Fuping said. \"This is the Great Wind Army's territory; we cannot fight them here.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Otherwise, it would be a dead end.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It sounded very reasonable, but He Lingchuan’s heart skipped a beat; he knew he had to be extra careful, yet he appeared very dissatisfied on the surface: \"Father is truly heartless, leaving me behind all by myself.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Chunhua and the main force hadn't come down, and with him left alone to face Sun and Nian, couldn't they mold him however they pleased? The situation was stronger than the man; he had better be sensible!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sun Fuping couldn't even be bothered to respond, only asking: \"By the way, how long have you been down here?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"About... two hours?\" He Lingchuan softened his tone and pointed back. \"I landed in the village over there and climbed up from the river.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sun Fuping’s expression changed slightly, and Nian Songyu pointed at Fuzzy Peach and said: \"How can that be? I followed this fellow down closely. He was only a few dozen breaths behind you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The State Preceptor pondered: \"The four of us came down one after another, but our arrival times here are all different; that means it is a matter of flow rate. This place is truly more than just an illusion.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes, anyone who came down would first define this place as an illusion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1468,"2026-06-20T02:23:30.219Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","c32939edb12e17e400fbbfdde7b146e95d24b7af7d46fe785307e47cd9119a90","after-the-immortals-disappeared-chapter-50","after-the-immortals-disappeared-chapter-48",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fafter-the-immortals-disappeared-cover.jpg"]