We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real?-Chapter 379: Is That Position Really That Important?
Huai Mountain Pass. Black Beast Forest.
Rather than calling it a forest, it was more like an ocean of trees.
This sea of forest stretched for dozens of miles, and even contained terrain such as mountain valleys.
It was said that this place had been the battlefield of an ancient war, when human cultivators fought the Poison God.
After the Poison God died, the spiritual power left behind contaminated this place, even changing the rules of the land. A natural no-flight grand array formed—anything with a physical form could not fly.
Legend said that at the beginning, the poison miasma of Black Beast Forest was so fierce that even cultivators of the upper five realms could not pass through.
Even though time had washed over it and the poison miasma had grown thinner and thinner, cultivators below the Dragon Gate Realm still could not pass—and the no-flight rule had remained the whole time, regardless of realm.
Yan Liuyun led seven hundred thousand troops to Black Beast Forest.
After taking the pills, the poison miasma in Black Beast Forest caused almost no harm to Yan Liuyun’s army.
Jin’s army advanced extremely smoothly—so smoothly that even Yan Liuyun felt something was a little strange.
At their current pace, they would not need even three hours to cross a Black Beast Forest so vast it was like the sea.
“Could it be... I was overthinking it? Could it really be that there’s nothing strange at all?” Yan Liuyun thought.
“General, at this rate, we’ll pass through this Black Beast sea of forest in less than an hour.”
A deputy general stepped forward and reported to Yan Liuyun.
“Mhm.” Yan Liuyun nodded. “Tell the brothers not to relax their vigilance. Have the scouts continue to watch the surroundings.”
“Yes, General!” The deputy general nodded and immediately passed the order down.
The whole army continued forward. Though they encountered attacks from demonic beasts unique to Black Beast Forest, all of them were dealt with cleanly.
Not long after, Jin’s army crossed the flattest region and moved into the mountain valley.
This valley was enormous—more than enough to accommodate seven hundred thousand troops passing through.
As long as they passed through this valley, they could loop behind Huai Mountain City. Breaking Huai Mountain City would be only a matter of time.
Most of the soldiers were also faintly excited.
Because once Huai Mountain City fell, Qin would be half broken.
If they truly marched into Qin’s imperial capital, that would be an achievement unmatched in an age!
“General, this terrain... may not be good.”
A deputy general named Yan Li came again to Yan Liuyun’s side.
“Military strategists often say marching through a valley is a great taboo. If we run into an ambush... our losses would be beyond estimation.”
Compared to the others, Yan Li—being Yan Liuyun’s nephew—kept more caution and calm.
“You’re not wrong,” Yan Liuyun said. “But Yan Li—if you don’t enter the tiger’s lair, how will you seize the tiger cub? Things have come to this. We’re already here—how could we talk about retreat?
“If everything must be steady and safe, then we don’t need to fight this war at all.”
Yan Liuyun waved his hand broadly.
“The whole army—speed up!”
“Yes, General...”
Though Yan Li’s heart still felt unsettled, since his general had said it, he could only obey.
Very quickly, Jin’s army entered the valley.
Hoofbeats, the clatter of armor, and the rumble of wheels echoed ceaselessly through the valley.
They even felt that if not for the two high mountains on either side, they would not have realized they were walking through a valley at all.
And just as Jin’s army reached the midpoint, a Jin soldier seemed to sense something. He lifted his head and saw a cold-glinting object drawing closer and closer.
When he saw it clearly, shock seized him.
It was an arrow carved with an explosive formation array!
“ENEMY ATTACK!!!”
The Jin soldier shouted.
“BOOM!”
Before his voice even fell, the arrow struck the ground with a tremendous blast.
Immediately after, tens of thousands of arrows poured down on Jin’s army like a torrential rain.
Explosion after explosion rang out without end—like New Year’s firecrackers, stretching on and on.
Only these blasts were several times louder than firecrackers, and mixed with the blood and flesh of Jin’s army.
Not long after, massive boulders began rolling down from the mountaintops.
All of these boulders had been modified by Mohist cultivators. The instant a boulder smashed down—or the instant it was intercepted—it would burst apart completely. The flying swords hidden inside would shoot in all directions, and every single sword had been coated in deadly poison.
“The whole army—break out to the rear!”
How could Yan Liuyun not understand now that he had fallen into Qin’s trap?
But it was already too late.
“KILL!”
At the front of the valley, the First Prince, Qin Jingsu, and several of Qin’s great generals led Qin’s army in a charge against the Jin forces.
At the rear of the valley, Qin’s army also cut off the retreat.
“QIN JINGYUAN!!! I WILL KILL YOU!!!”
Yan Liuyun was furious beyond measure. He wished he could tear Qin Jingyuan into pieces at this very moment.
But right now, he had to command the army to break out of the encirclement.
Fortunately, because Qin’s forces needed to remain concealed, it was not suitable to station too much strength at the rear of the valley—so that part of the encirclement was relatively weak.
Half a stick of incense later, Yan Liuyun led the army in a breakout from the valley and retreated along the original route.
But after that ambush, of the original seven hundred thousand Jin troops, fewer than five hundred thousand remained. Their vitality had been severely damaged!
Even so, Yan Liuyun felt he had not lost yet!
As long as he fought his way back and regrouped, even if he could not take Huai Mountain Pass, he could still hold Jinzhou and Luzhou—two great prefectures!
But the premise was that Yan Liuyun could actually leave alive.
Outside Black Beast Forest, Qin Jingyuan glanced at the sky. His hand unconsciously touched the long sword at his waist.
“If nothing unexpected happens, the general has likely already crossed Black Beast Forest by now,” the Jin commander left behind to monitor Qin Jingyuan said with a cold laugh. “At this moment, he’s probably about to strike into Huai Mountain City.
“Once Huai Mountain City falls, Qin’s imperial capital is right in front of us. I’ve long heard of Third Princess Qin Siyao’s beauty. I’m really looking forward to it.”
As he spoke, the Jin commander licked his lips, his contemptuous, disgusting gaze sweeping over Qin Jingyuan.
But Qin Jingyuan did not even spare him a glance. He only murmured to himself.
“It’s time.”
“Time for what?” the Jin commander asked, puzzled.
“Time for you to die.”
The instant Qin Jingyuan’s words fell, a streak of sword-light flashed before the Jin commander’s eyes.
His pupils slowly scattered. At last, he felt the world spin—and his head fell to the ground.
“Qin Jingyuan, what are you doing?!” Deputy General Wang You shouted. His mind went blank for an instant. Everything had happened too fast!
“KILL THE JIN ARMY!”
Qin Jingyuan’s voice, carried by spiritual power, spread through the entire army.
At first, Qin Jingyuan’s one hundred and fifty thousand troops were still bewildered. But very quickly, when they saw their companions slash at Jin soldiers, they reacted at once.
The contempt and humiliation Qin’s soldiers had endured these days erupted all at once. Every soldier, like a wolf and tiger, threw himself at Jin’s forces.
In an instant, the two armies were locked in a chaotic slaughter!
“Your Highness! Yan Liuyun and the others broke back along the original route—his vanguard is less than ten miles from us!”
Not long after, a Dragon Gate Realm scout came to report.
After hearing it, Qin Jingyuan fell silent for a moment. Then he lifted his head, spiritual power spreading through the whole army.
“Those who aren’t afraid to die—follow me into Black Beast Forest!”
At the prince’s order, more and more soldiers forced open space around them, driving Jin troops back. Fighting as they withdrew, they surged into Black Beast Forest!
Although Qin Jingyuan’s one hundred and fifty thousand troops had no antidote pills, and once they entered Black Beast Forest, the poison would flare and kill them within half a stick of incense—
they did not care.
What Qin Jingyuan wanted was this: at any cost, turn Black Beast Forest into Yan Liuyun’s army’s graveyard!
“CHARGE IN! KILL THEM! CHARGE IN!”
At the edge of Black Beast Forest, a Jin commander shouted again and again, but no one dared charge into Black Beast Forest the way Qin’s army did.
Because they knew: without taking the antidote pills, they would die!
“I SAID CHARGE! DIDN’T YOU HEAR ME?!”
Wang You led troops in pursuit of Qin Jingyuan, but the army stopped at the forest edge. No one dared take a single step forward.
On the other side—just as Yan Liuyun led the army in a retreating rush—
he saw Qin Jingyuan leading more than ten thousand armored cavalry, with tens of thousands more troops behind him, charging straight at him!
“QIN JINGYUAN! YOU BEAST! GIVE ME YOUR LIFE!”
Yan Liuyun was furious. He gripped his great halberd and spurred his horse forward!
“If you have the skill, then come take it!”
Qin Jingyuan showed no fear at all. His long spear thrust forward.
The two armies crashed together.
Hundreds of thousands of Qin soldiers caught up to Jin’s army. Behind the Jin formation, blades were already turned against one another.
But precisely because they were struck from both sides—and because breaking out of Black Beast Forest had become their only road to life—Jin’s army erupted with desperate survival. The full pressure of their assault poured onto Qin Jingyuan.
Yet the army Qin Jingyuan led was like a wall—meeting death without flinching, blocking Jin’s army in place.
“Qin Jingyuan—if you withdraw now, you can still keep your life. If you keep staying here, then wait to die here with me!”
After exchanging dozens of bouts with Qin Jingyuan, Yan Liuyun said coldly.
Qin Jingyuan’s mouth curved.
“Dying here isn’t bad.”
“Do you truly not want your life anymore?” A sharp light flared in Yan Liuyun’s eyes.
Qin Jingyuan did not answer.
His long spear answered for him.
Cold light stabbed toward Yan Liuyun’s brow, and the two clashed again—life for life.
Qin Jingyuan was at early Golden Core Realm. Yan Liuyun was at mid Golden Core Realm.
Though Qin Jingyuan’s realm foundation was not weak and he carried many treasures, Yan Liuyun was not someone ordinary either.
With a difference of a single minor realm, Qin Jingyuan fell into a disadvantage.
And the one hundred and fifty thousand troops Qin Jingyuan led—under the ferocious charge of the enemy’s tens of thousands—were already beginning to fail. It felt as if collapse would come in the next instant.
“DIE!”
Seizing an opening, Yan Liuyun took out a scroll and touched one drop of his essence blood to it.
Yan Liuyun unleashed his life-bound treasure—the Four Symbols Illusion Diagram.
The instant the scroll opened, the Four Symbols Illusion Diagram peeled free from the paper and shrouded Qin Jingyuan.
Yan Liuyun formed seals. A massive suction pulled Qin Jingyuan into the scroll.
“Damn it! I wasted fifty years of lifespan on this!”
Yan Liuyun coughed once, stowing the diagram.
“You’ll rot into pus and blood inside that formation diagram!”
Then he continued forward, killing his way on.
Inside the formation diagram, Qin Jingyuan floated in a void.
His eyes were shut. He had fallen into sleep, while the emptiness around him slowly devoured his body.
A moment later, Qin Jingyuan’s brow furrowed—then slowly relaxed, as if he had dreamed of something...
“She’s delivered! She’s delivered! Your Majesty—Her Majesty the Empress has delivered! It’s a little imperial princess!”
A palace maid ran out of the room, shouting happily.
“Good, good, good!” Qin’s ruler said three “good”s in a row, hurrying into the bedchamber.
“Little Brother, let’s go see little sister too.”
Qin Jingyuan’s wrist was grabbed by his elder brother—three years older than him—who pulled him into Mother’s bedchamber in delight.
Qin Jingyuan looked at the infant in swaddling clothes, wailing loudly, and could not help extending a finger to gently poke the baby’s cheek.
The baby grabbed her second brother’s finger, crying even louder.
“This is your little sister,” Empress Shi said with a smile as she looked at her two sons and her newborn daughter. “From now on, you two as elder brothers must protect your little sister well. Do you understand?”
“Mhm, we understand, Mother,” Qin Jingsu and Qin Jingyuan answered in unison. “No matter what happens, we’ll protect little sister!”
“Second Brother, charge!”
“Eldest Brother, get up!”
“Don’t be scared—Second Brother, hurry and go~”
A little girl not yet three, wearing a small dress, sat on a rock watching her eldest brother and second brother compete with their spears.
Qin Jingyuan fought hard, trying to defeat his eldest brother.
But after seventy exchanges, Qin Jingsu’s spear flicked and swept, knocking Qin Jingyuan’s spear away and planting it in the ground.
“I lost.” Qin Jingyuan sighed, unwillingness filling his eyes. “But next time, I’ll definitely beat Eldest Brother!”
Qin Jingsu stepped forward and ruffled his younger brother’s hair.
“Eldest Brother also believes you’ll definitely beat me one day.
“And in fact—Jingyuan, you’re actually stronger than I am.
“I’m only three years older than you. I’ve only studied martial arts three years longer.
“If I were your age, I really couldn’t beat you.”
“Losing is losing. Qin men don’t make excuses.” Qin Jingyuan shoved his brother’s hand away.
“That’s right, that’s right—Second Brother lost. Hurry, hurry—Siyao wants to ride horsey!”
The three-year-old girl toddled over on short legs, happily grabbing the cuff of her second brother’s pants.
“The one who loses has to let Siyao ride horsey~”
Qin Jingyuan looked awkward, but in the end, he hoisted his three-year-old sister onto his shoulders.
“Giddyup, giddyup~ Riding horsey~ Giddyup~”
Qin Siyao hugged her second brother’s head in delight.
Qin Jingsu walked beside them, worried his little sister would fall.
Even Qin Jingyuan—being used as the “horse”—smiled, as if the three siblings could stay this happy forever.
“Your son greets Father!”
When Qin Jingyuan was sixteen and Qin Jingsu was nineteen, the two of them were summoned together by Qin’s ruler to the Imperial Study.
“Mhm.” Qin’s ruler nodded, looking at his two sons.
“Since Qin was founded, imperial princes have never been pampered, idle trash. Jingyuan—your age is no longer small.
“From today on, the two of you may build your own teams. I will also hand some state affairs to you to manage, to see how capable you are.”
Qin’s ruler pointed at his second son and smiled.
“Jingyuan—don’t you like competing with your eldest brother the most on ordinary days? Let me see whether you can beat your eldest brother.”
“Eldest Brother—do you want to be emperor?”
One day, after Qin Jingyuan and his eldest brother finished practicing sword, they lay together on the grass looking at the sky.
Eleven-year-old Qin Siyao was happily running around not far away.
Qin Jingsu glanced at his little sister chasing butterflies, then looked at the younger brother beside him. After thinking, he nodded.
“I do.”
“So that’s how it is...” Qin Jingyuan answered thoughtfully.
“And you, Second Brother?” Qin Jingsu asked Qin Jingyuan.
“I... I want to as well!” Qin Jingyuan sat up, looking at his eldest brother seriously. “I won’t lose to Eldest Brother!”
“HAHAHA—very good.” Qin Jingsu laughed, ruffling his younger brother’s hair. “Then Jingyuan has to work hard.”
“I will work hard,” Qin Jingyuan said, sitting off to the side. “But Eldest Brother—stop touching my head. I’ve grown up!”
“Grown up?” Qin Jingsu froze for a moment. Then he looked at his younger brother—already almost as tall as himself—and smiled as he nodded.
“Yes... Jingyuan has grown up.”
That day, both the elder brother and the younger brother wanted to be emperor.
The elder brother wanted to be emperor because being emperor was too tiring, because the burden on the shoulders was too heavy—he did not want his younger brother to be so tired.
The younger brother wanted to be emperor because the elder brother wanted to be emperor. He only wanted to surpass his elder brother, to prove himself to him.
But at some point—
the younger brother discovered that more and more people came to attach themselves to him, to curry favor with him.
Gradually, those people were called “the Second Prince faction.”
Gradually, Qin Jingyuan discovered he could not stop on this road. The moment he opened his eyes, he faced the expectations of those ministers. They only wanted him to sit in that position—so that when the time came, they would be meritorious followers of the dragon.
Gradually, Qin Jingyuan slowly forgot why he wanted to sit in that position in the first place.
But Qin Jingyuan discovered that he still seemed unable to surpass his eldest brother.
His eldest brother handled affairs better than him, and dealt with people more smoothly than him.
More and more people went to rely on his eldest brother.
And although he refused to accept defeat, he could do nothing. He even began to grow a little possessed—so far that he wanted to use his younger sister’s relationship with Xiao Mo to draw that spear-immortal disciple with potential to his side.
“In Second Brother’s heart... is that position truly so important?”
On the day Qin Jingyuan invited Xiao Mo to a banquet, his eldest brother—who arrived uninvited—said that one sentence as he left.
“Yes...”
Qin Jingyuan drank again and again.
“Is that position... really so important?”
As the days passed—
although whether at court or among the people, most believed the First Prince and Second Prince were still competing—
Qin Jingyuan knew: Father was valuing his eldest brother more and more, handing more and more important matters to him.
He had, in fact, already lost.
As Qin Jingyuan gradually accepted reality, he realized that from childhood until now, he seemed never to have beaten his eldest brother.
His eldest brother’s martial talent was higher than his—only when sparring with him, his eldest brother would deliberately hold back, letting him win a few rounds.
Even in the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting, his eldest brother outshone him by quite a bit.
Later, even when his own realm exceeded his eldest brother’s, it was only because his eldest brother was burdened with state affairs and did not have as much time to cultivate.
As always, in this contest for the crown prince position, he lost again.
It seemed he would lose like this for a lifetime.
Until one day, a scholar from Jin came to his residence.
“Second Prince—will you really hand that position over to someone else?”
“If Second Prince is willing, Jin can help Second Prince sit in that position!”
That scholar said this to Qin Jingyuan.
In the end, Qin Jingyuan agreed to the pact with Jin.
Because he wanted to win.
“You’re saying... Jin came to find you, wanting to use marriage as a pretext to make me lower my guard, then trade—so that you manage the two border prefectures, while Jin gives half of Yue State’s land as dowry for Jin’s Eldest Imperial Princess?”
In the Imperial Study, Qin’s ruler frowned as he listened to his son. He seemed not to have expected Jin to dare play such a hand.
“Yes,” Qin Jingyuan nodded.
“How bold!” Qin’s ruler slammed his palm heavily onto the desk and shouted, “That Ji piece of trash—he’s turned his schemes onto my son’s head!”
“Father—this matter is, in fact, a very good opportunity,” Qin Jingyuan said, giving his view.
“Oh? How so?” Qin’s ruler looked at his second son.
“If Your Majesty trusts your son, your son has a method that can heavily damage Jin’s vitality—and even swallow Jin’s lands in one stroke, achieving Qin’s hegemonic enterprise!”
Qin Jingyuan met his father’s gaze directly.
“But this matter—I ask Father not to tell Mother and Third Sister.
“As for Eldest Brother—please wait until your son is about to act before informing him.”
Qin’s ruler stared at his son seriously.
“Speak it, then.”
“Before, your son saved a physician-cultivator. This pill formula is what he offered to your son. It can solve Black Beast Forest’s poison for Huai ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) Mountain City. And my plan is...”
Inside the Four Symbols Illusion Diagram, Qin Jingyuan slowly opened his eyes.
The corner of his mouth lifted faintly. In his eyes there was not the slightest fear or panic at approaching death.
Qin Jingyuan calmly took out a sheet of golden talisman paper from within his robe.
This talisman paper was a Qin royal secret treasure. Only the essence blood of Qin’s royal clan could activate it.
As for the cost—depending on the degree of activation, light use would reduce lifespan; heavy use meant death and extinguished lamps.
Whenever Qin’s clan members went out, they would carry one such sheet. It was a trump card, and also a dissolution escape method to avoid disgracing the royal house.
Qin Jingyuan drew out essence blood from between his brows without end, tracing the runes on the golden talisman.
How many runes he traced—that was how much of the talisman he activated.
When the final drop of essence blood completed the final stroke—
the golden talisman paper ignited completely.
Inside Black Beast Forest, Yan Liuyun—just about to break out of the encirclement—felt a scorching heat flare in his robes.
“Not good!”
Yan Liuyun realized something was wrong with the Four Symbols Illusion Diagram scroll. He immediately took it out and, without thinking, threw it far away.
But the instant the Four Symbols Illusion Diagram left his hand, it turned to ash in an instant.
“ROOOOOAR!”
A gigantic fire dragon tore free from the Four Symbols Illusion Diagram and lunged straight at Yan Liuyun.
Yan Liuyun did not even have time to scream. Together with the warhorse beneath him, he turned into ash.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince, look!”
The lord of Huai Mountain City pointed into the sky.
The First Prince lifted his head and saw a massive dragon condensed from flame—three hundred zhang long—soaring through the air.
Qin Jingsu clenched the reins tightly. His face was white, without the slightest trace of blood.
“ROOOOOAR!”
The fire dragon shot upward—then dove straight down, blocking before Jin’s ten thousand ranks!
