# 371
Chapter 371
The Immortal Girl
“The Han-dynasty wall?” Baili Pangpang wandered once around the demon-god’s bedchamber; hearing this, he sidled up to An Qingyu. “Let this young master see which ancient had so much free time.”
An Qingyu: …
“Tell us.” Cao Yuan and Li Deyang also walked over.
An Qingyu adjusted his glasses and began slowly:
“If I’m right, this Heavenly Palace annex was used to store files on strange happenings in the mortal world. The scroll in my hand records one such event from the Han dynasty.
“At that time a mysterious girl suddenly appeared among the common folk. Anything she touched gained the trait of immortality: no outside force could affect it.
Her clothes could not be cut or burned; a wooden axe she handled could cleave metal and stone; arrows she loosed pierced heavy armor with ease.
“She herself was invulnerable—blades and spears left no mark, fire left no blister, even aqua regia could not scar her skin. Time itself had no hold on her; across the years her face never aged.
“The drawback: she could endow only one object at a time. While an arrow held her immortality, she lost it herself and became as fragile as any mortal. Yet even then she did not age, as though her personal time were frozen forever.
“Worshipped as a divine envoy, she was offered sacrifices day and night by people craving the same longevity.
When the emperor heard, he summoned her to court, treated her as an honored guest, and asked for the secret of eternal life. He even gave her three hundred bronze-armored death-sworn guards.
“Then, one day, monsters poured from the void and besieged her. Shockingly, they could shatter her immortality and wound her. The three hundred guards fought to the last man, and the monsters vanished as mysteriously as they had come.
“Believing her a harbinger of blood calamity, the emperor had artisans craft a coffin of Yin-obscuring wood that sealed all aura, locked her inside, and sent the casket to Fengdu.
Still uneasy, he secretly ordered a wall built nearby: should the monsters return, the barrier would keep them from re-entering the world of the living and endangering the realm.”
An Qingyu closed the scroll; the others fell silent.
“Immortality…” Li Deyang frowned. “A power like that really existed? And the description sounds exactly like—”
“Forbidden Ruins,” Cao Yuan finished.
“Right. But I don’t know any sequence with this ability.”
“Yet Forbidden Ruins only appeared after the fog came,” Baili Pangpang objected. “This was two millennia earlier.”
Cao Yuan nodded. “Night Watch has confirmed they post-date the fog. Either her power wasn’t a Forbidden Ruin… or she was the first possessor in history.”
“Impressive,” Li Deyang admitted, “but it has nothing to do with us.”
Baili Pangpang stood and grinned. “Not necessarily. She’s immortal—maybe she’s still alive in some coffin right now.”
“Uncle Li’s right,” Cao Yuan said. “Our priority is finding a way out.” He swept his flashlight across the sealed bedchamber. “No exits except the door we entered.”
Baili Pangpang pondered. “Let me try something.”
The other three looked at him in surprise.
“I have a space-piercing… er, forbidden artifact. No idea if it works inside the Heavenly Palace.” He shrugged.
“Why didn’t you bring it out earlier?” Li Deyang muttered.
“One-time use—gone forever.” Baili Pangpang produced a stub of chalk with a pained expression.
He crouched at a corner, drew a large circle on the wall; the instant the ends met, the stone within rippled and vanished.
“It works!” He brightened. “Ten seconds—move!”
They scrambled through. As An Qingyu stepped out, the circle disappeared.
Cao Yuan’s beam revealed they were now behind the main hall. A twisting path led to a colossal vermilion palace suspended in mid-air—far larger than the six black structures below and the first building here that wasn’t black. Red walls, black gates: the reverse of every other. The dark doorway hung like an abyss.
“That should be the Emperor of Fengdu’s palace,” An Qingyu said.
“Likely,” Cao Yuan agreed.
Baili Pangpang clicked his tongue. “Shall we pay a visit?”
“No. We’re here for Qiye, not sightseeing.”
“…Fine.”
Suddenly a tide of white paper figures swept across the sky. The four pressed themselves to the wall, hiding. The paper swarm passed overhead and flew on.
Cao Yuan peered after them—and froze.
At the forefront of the paper tide, a gigantic white ant raced along floating black stone slabs, charging straight into the suspended palace.