A World Without People

There was nothing in the water but bubbles.

No impurities, no sand or soil, no water plants.

Strangely enough, he could breathe freely, as if he were a fish in water, without the slightest feeling of suffocation.

But he was furious. He would never normally take on the dangerous job of scouting the way for someone else. It was just that he'd been struck by the lingering force of the Great Wind Army commander's attack and sent tumbling in here.

To put it plainly, his cultivation was too weak.

He hadn't thought much of it when he'd thrown his weight around in Blackwater City. But then he'd encountered Nian Songyu and State Preceptor Sun, and later gone exploring in Coiling Dragon City. With danger closing in at every step, his meager cultivation had only become more and more inadequate.

If only he were stronger.

His body sank rapidly. Beneath him was a pitch-black void, like a bottomless pit.

Just before he sank into the boundless darkness, He Lingchuan thought he glimpsed a dark red shape.

It seemed enormous, appearing and disappearing around him. The part of its body he could see looked cylindrical.

Well, like a barrel, only magnified countless times.

Most importantly, the thing was moving!

Unfortunately, He Lingchuan didn't have time to take a closer look. Everything went black.

When he opened his eyes again, the scene had changed.

He was standing by a little stream. The clear water barely reached over his insteps, and the gravel was clean. A tiny river shrimp was attacking his boot.

The water peanuts and wild carrots growing along the bank were a pleasing green. A few farmsteads stood in the distance, their chimneys sending up wisps of smoke.

He Lingchuan felt his clothes and found them dry. The bloody water in the pool well hadn't soaked him at all. It seemed that had just been a passageway.

He climbed out of the stream valley and up a low slope. The moment he raised his eyes, he froze.

A lush, fertile plain stretched out before him. Broad wheat fields were turning green, and the trees along the field edges were a little sparse, but even the tallest stood three to five zhang high.

Little huts for watching over the fields were scattered here and there. He Lingchuan even spotted a waterskin hanging from a tree branch nearby.

Farther away, a great river surged along, dividing the two plains.

On the other side of the river, the terrain rose much higher than here. From a distance, it looked like a giant crocodile lying beside the river.

Most importantly, the edge of the plain had a distinctive, familiar shape.

Could that be... the Chipa Plateau?

He Lingchuan leaped down the slope and headed toward the Chipa Plateau.

The sky was blue, the clouds were white, and the air was redolent with the damp scents of soil and grass. Walking through this pastoral scene filled him with a sense of peace and delight.

Especially after coming straight from a desolate city in the great desert.

But the more peaceful it seemed, the stranger it felt.

He Lingchuan walked straight ahead for several hundred zhang, passing through a village along the way. It had a hundred households, yet he didn't encounter a single person.

It was quite a sizable village.

The fields and farmhouses were all silent. He even went from house to house to check. They were empty. But in one kitchen, coarse-flour steamed buns had just finished cooking, still sending up billows of steam.

He didn't dare eat one, but he picked up a bun and squeezed it. It was soft and hot to the touch.

Where had everyone gone?

After passing another wheat field, a pink butterfly fluttered straight toward him.

He reached out and tapped it with his fingertip, which passed right through the butterfly.

There was nothing there.

Was it fake?

He spotted a green grasshopper in the wheat field and poked it with a finger. It, too, was just air.

These living things were all illusions.

But the wheat shoots felt real. He pinched off a bit of one, put it in his mouth, and chewed. It was slightly astringent and bitter, just as grass shoots ought to taste.

Just then, something rustled in the wheat field, and a living creature darted out.

He Lingchuan jumped, drawing half his blade before he realized the newcomer was a sand bandit.

The man was the second cousin of Situ Han's brother-in-law. His nickname was Mao Tao. He was so short and skinny, yet had a full beard, that he'd earned the name.

Mao Tao was just as startled to see He Lingchuan, but then his face lit up. "Young Master, you're all right!"

"Where's everyone else?" He Lingchuan glanced around and saw that this was the only teammate who'd made it. "And why is there one less Life Fire on your shoulder?"

"The State Preceptor took one and put it on a candle." Mao Tao's face fell. "Then he pushed me down here. Where is this place? The Coiling Dragon... Wastes?"

Anyone with eyes could see how strange this place was. "This place is fake, right? An illusion?"

"Mm." He Lingchuan guessed State Preceptor Sun's purpose at once. "They used you to scout the way, so they'll be coming down soon, too."

The two set off together, and He Lingchuan asked, "When you passed through the scene... no, after you fell into the pool, did you see anything?"

"Just pale red bloodwater. It didn't choke me, either. Then I blinked and found myself here."

"Nothing else?"

Mao Tao thought carefully. "No. What did you see?"

He Lingchuan shook his head.

Had he imagined the enormous, unknown thing in the pale red pool water?

After walking for another half hour, the two finally neared the Chipa Plateau.

The river ahead flowed smoothly, about three zhang wide, its current neither fast nor slow. He Lingchuan knew this must be Coiling Dragon City's moat, but it was nowhere near as deep or wide as the one he'd seen earlier.

They followed the riverbank west. After another quarter of an hour, Coiling Dragon City finally came into view.

"Th-there!" Mao Tao let out a breath. "That's Coiling Dragon City?"

Coiling Dragon City stood in exactly the same place, at the lower pass of the Chipa Plateau. But it looked nothing like the imposing city in the great desert.

The walls weren't as high or as thick, and there weren't even any Crocodile Tooth Spikes on the battlements.

When they approached Natural Bridge, they found that its surface was paved with bluestone. Many of the stones had cracked, and moss and grime filled the gaps.

Beyond the bridge, the city gate was still there, but its doors weren't made of iron fir. They were ordinary, thick, iron-plated wooden doors.

The defenses of a pass like this were no better than Blackwater City's.

But two people were standing beneath the gate, waving them over.

Nian Songyu and Sun Fuping.

He Lingchuan frowned when he saw them, but when he walked up, he put on a surprised expression. "Why is it just you two? Where's everyone else?"

"The Great Wind Army's ghost found reinforcements. Governor He stayed behind with his people to hold off the enemy outside the pool well," Sun Fuping said. "This is the Great Wind Army's territory. We can't fight them here."

Otherwise, they'd be walking straight into certain death.

It sounded perfectly reasonable, but He Lingchuan's heart gave a thump. He knew he'd have to be especially careful. Still, he looked quite displeased. "My old man's got no sense of loyalty, leaving me here by myself."

Governor He and the main force hadn't come down, leaving him alone to face Sun and Nian. They could do whatever they wanted to him, couldn't they?

The odds were stacked against him, so he'd be wise to read the room!

Sun Fuping couldn't even be bothered to answer. He only asked, "By the way, how long have you been down here?"

"About... two hours?" He Lingchuan's attitude improved. He turned and pointed. "I landed in that village over there. I climbed out of the river."

Sun Fuping's expression changed slightly. Nian Songyu pointed at Mao Tao. "How could that be? I followed right behind this man when he came down. He was only a few dozen breaths behind you."

The State Preceptor fell into thought. "The four of us came down one after another, but we all appeared here at different times. That means it's a matter of differing flow rates. This place really is more than just an illusion."

Indeed, anyone who came down here would first assume it was an illusion.