A Pawn's Passage

There were three prisoners waiting to be executed.

The first prisoner was escorted to the execution platform with his hands tied behind his back. The executioner took a gulp of wine and sprayed it on the ghosthead machete, the droplets making the blade glisten in an eerie blue glow.

The executioner reached out to remove the vertical wooden sign from the prisoner’s back. It had the prisoner’s name and “decapitation” written on it.

After throwing the sign to the ground, the executioner raised the ghosthead machete over his head and slashed down hard.

The prisoner’s head tumbled to the ground and finally landed a few meters away from the body. Since the beginning, this prisoner had not made a sound.

What ensued was a burst of cheers from the crowd. The atmosphere was lively even though the air was frigid.

Then came the second prisoner. The executioner did the same old routine, but this prisoner began to sing.

? The woods painted red,

? From the bloody tears of parting lovers,

? Loathing the delay in their meeting,

? Resenting the speed of their lover’s departure.

? Long willow vines,

? But not enough to tie him back—

Before the second prisoner finished singing, a ghost soldier on the side held the prisoner’s head down. The executioner raised the ghosthead machete high once again. The moment he brought down the machete, blood splashed everywhere.

Another burst of cheers erupted from the crowd, and the atmosphere became more and more lively.

Qi Xuansu shuddered.

The third and last prisoner staggered onto the execution platform, escorted by two ghost soldiers.

This time, a piece of white paper was blocking the prisoner’s face.

For some reason, Qi Xuansu felt a sense of familiarity even though he could not see the prisoner’s features.

At this moment, a ghost soldier ripped off the white paper, revealing the prisoner’s true appearance.

Qi Xuansu was shocked to see his own face on the execution platform.

The crowd did not notice Qi Xuansu’s presence at first. However, in his moment of astonishment, everyone suddenly turned their attention to him, as if they had just discovered that Qi Xuansu was not one of them.

The noise and cheers from before vanished in an instant; only a deadly silence remained.

The next moment, the crowd rushed toward Qi Xuansu, grabbing him and trying to pull him off his horse.

Qi Xuansu knew that his astonishment had extinguished one of his Three Yang Lights, making him weaker against ghosts.

He wanted to escape, but to his dismay, all his cultivation had disappeared. He could not break away from their grip and was easily pulled off his horse. He felt like the world was spinning.

By the time Qi Xuansu came to his senses, he found himself pressed on the execution platform. A cold brush of wind made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

Not far away was the white paper used to cover the third prisoner’s face from before. However, this time, Qi Xuansu noticed a little portrait of him drawn on it.

Qi Xuansu knew that he was in trouble and wanted to resist, but he found that his strength was only that of an ordinary young man without cultivation. He could barely lift his head, let alone fight back.

The executioner took another gulp of wine, spraying it on the ghosthead machete in his hand for the third time.

Qi Xuansu knew that he would be decapitated in seconds if he did nothing.

The crowd became lively again, their cheers overwhelming his eardrums.

That was when Qi Xuansu roared with all his might until his eyes turned red. He tried his best to break free from the shackles of the ghost soldiers. At this critical moment of life and death, he somehow regained some strength. He managed to raise his head and even overturn the ghost soldier who was pressing his body onto the platform.

To his surprise, these ghost soldiers also had the strength of ordinary people. The ghost soldier let go of Qi Xuansu when he was shoved.

Although Qi Xuansu lost his strength and cultivation, he still had martial arts skills. He took advantage of the situation to bump into another ghost soldier. Since these ghost soldiers were not stronger than Qi Xuansu, they were immediately knocked off their feet.

At this moment, the crowd watching the fun below decided to intervene. They immediately rushed over and stretched out their withered palms to capture Qi Xuansu.

Qi Xuansu was clearly outnumbered. Since he did not have the mystical abilities of a Martial Arts Practitioner and only had the strength of an ordinary person at this time, he dared not fight against this crowd and turned to flee.

Fortunately, Qi Xuansu’s grade horse was intelligent. It did not run away and even came to rescue Qi Xuansu.

Qi Xuansu jumped on the horse’s back from the execution platform, and the horse galloped away as fast as it could.

Although the crowd looked ferocious, they were afraid of being run over by the horse, just like living people.

That was how Qi Xuansu managed to escape from the frenzied crowd.

After a while, Qi Xuansu breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that no one was chasing him.

At this moment, a wedding procession approached. The groom’s face was covered with snow-white powder, with two patches of blush on the cheeks. His lips were smeared with lipstick as red as blood, and he was riding a chestnut horse.

Behind the horse was a porter carrying the bride’s dowry, and in front was someone holding a box of the bride’s adornments. Ahead of them was a palanquin, beautifully decorated with various flowers and greenery, known as a flower palanquin. Following the palanquin was another porter carrying a load of fish and meat, symbolizing the good wishes of wealth and abundance from the bride’s family to the groom’s family.

Upon closer look, Qi Xuansu noticed that the groom, chestnut horse, palanquin, porters, dowry, and the accompanying band were all made of paper.

Qi Xuansu met the groom’s eyes, which were entirely black with no whites. He felt uneasy and looked away to the building next to him, which happened to be a brothel. Through the window pane, he could see a woman inside, sitting in front of a mirror.

The woman was putting on makeup, but after a while, she seemed dissatisfied, so she tore off the upper layer of her face to reveal her true appearance—a green face with pointed teeth. She spread the face mask on the table, picked up a colored brush, and painted a few strokes on it. Later, she threw the brush aside and used both hands to put the face mask back on, instantly transforming into a beautiful woman again.

This is what they call painted skin in fantasy novels! Qi Xuansu thought to himself as goosebumps rose all over his arm.

He got off his horse, parked it at the roadside, and entered the building so as to avoid the group of paper figurines approaching.

The moment he walked into the brothel, he could hear women’s laughter echoing all around, making it impossible to tell which direction it was coming from.

A woman with beautifully arched eyebrows and intricately styled hair appeared in front of Qi Xuansu, staring at him as if she were looking at a piece of delicious meat.

Qi Xuansu felt goosebumps rising once again. This feeling was different from what he was used to in a critical moment of life and death. If he died in the hands of others in a fight, he could only blame himself for being inferior to his opponent. In that case, he would still understand how he had died. But this was another feeling altogether. This was such a strange place, and nothing made sense to him.

The female ghost charged at him with her long nails and fangs. Her tongue was hanging out, touching her chest.

Qi Xuansu gritted his teeth and punched the female ghost in the head.

To his surprise, the female ghost staggered back from this punch. She seemed stunned.

When she returned to her senses, she covered her face and started sobbing.

Qi Xuansu was startled for a moment. That was when he realized that everyone here was the same as him, with no cultivation or magical powers. They were just “ordinary,” like him.

However, he had the strength of an ordinary young man who could overthrow the ghost soldiers earlier. After all, he had practiced martial arts, so he was not afraid of this female ghost. She was just a weak woman who skinned people’s faces to use as masks.

Qi Xuansu was emboldened by this thought.

Several servants in green turbans around him were too timid to step forward. Thus, Qi Xuansu took this opportunity to jump over and punch them, knocking them all down to the ground.

Seeing how terrifying Qi Xuansu was, the female ghost immediately stopped crying and fled quickly.

“Hmph! Trying to escape?” Qi Xuansu chased after the female ghost and tried to grab her face mask.

At this moment, a machete slashed out diagonally. Qi Xuansu was stunned and stopped in his tracks.

The blade almost grazed Qi Xuansu’s fingertips. If he had not stopped in time, half of his arm would have been cut off.

Since there were no magical powers or cultivation in this place, his arm would not be able to heal itself.

Qi Xuansu raised his eyes and saw the executioner from before, attacking him with the blue ghosthead machete.

He was shocked to see the executioner because he did not notice anyone following him earlier. That was why he had let down his guard. The executioner then took advantage of Qi Xuansu’s ignorance to ambush him.

However, Qi Xuansu was no longer afraid of the executioner. None of them had cultivation, so it would be equivalent to hand-to-hand combat.

Qi Xuansu looked around and grabbed an iron candlestick nearby that he could use as a weapon.

The executioner did not say a word. He raised the ghosthead machete and struck down on Qi Xuansu’s head.

Qi Xuansu did not dodge. He held the candlestick horizontally in front of him to block the attack and test the executioner’s strength. If the executioner was strong, Qi Xuansu would fight back and flee as soon as he could.

However, to Qi Xuansu’s surprise, he did not feel any resistance from the ghosthead machete. That was because the executioner’s ghosthead machete seemed to be an illusion, passing through the horizontal candlestick in Qi Xuansu’s hand and slashing toward Qi Xuansu’s neck.

Qi Xuansu only had one thought at this time. This sneaky bastard! How is he using magical powers?