A Pawn's Passage

Zhang Yuelu’s main mission when she left Jade Capital this time was to eradicate secret societies. Sage Cihang gave her great autonomy without specifying any targets or regions. In other words, Zhang Yuelu could decide on her own where she wanted to go and what secret societies to attack. She would also have the support of the local Daoist mansions because she was representing Tiangang Hall.

Now that Zhang Yuelu was invited to Wuxu Palace, she did not forget her responsibilities and began to assign work to her Superintendents.

Before the death of Shangguan Jing, Zhang Yuelu only had two Superintendents under her.

The rule that each Deputy Hall Master could have two Superintendents under them was set during the Holy Xuan Era. At that time, the Daoist Order was much leaner than the current system, so two Superintendents were enough to handle various tasks.

However, with the continuous development of the Daoist Order, this allowance gradually stretched. That was because they did not want to change the structure by adding another level between the Deputy Hall Master and the Superintendent. Thus, the compromise was to increase the number of Superintendents under the Deputy Hall Master’s command.

Generally speaking, newly promoted Deputy Hall Masters would only have two Superintendents, while the Chief Deputy Hall Master would have as many as nine Superintendents.

After Zhang Yuelu took over the remainder of Shangguan Jing’s division, she had five Superintendents under her command, including Sun Yongfeng and Lingquanzi. Since Xu Kou had advanced to the Guizhen stage not long ago, Zhang Yuelu promoted him. Thus, she had six Superintendents, comparable to the other Deputy Hall Masters.

In fact, the appointment of Superintendents required the permission of the Hall Master. It was not something that Deputy Hall Masters had the authority to do. However, Sage Cihang gave Zhang Yuelu great autonomy in this regard. Zhang Yuelu just had to report her decision to Sage Cihang as a formality. It was no wonder her nickname was Junior Tiangang Hall Master.

Sage Cihang was afraid that the veteran Superintendents originally under Shangguan Jing would not listen to Zhang Yuelu’s command. After all, Shangguan Jing was a second-rank Taiyi Daoist priest, and Zhang Yuelu was only at the fourth rank. Therefore, Sage Cihang gave Zhang Yuelu full dominion over the Yaoguang Division. As such, Zhang Yuelu had the authority to dismiss anyone who was insubordinate.

This move also showed Sage Cihang’s unconditional support toward Zhang Yuelu in Tiangang Hall. Anyone who was unconvinced could file a complaint at the Golden Tower Council.

This time, Zhang Yuelu sent out all six of her Superintendents and ordered them to lead their respective teams to wipe out small groups of secret society members. In the meantime, she only allowed a few deacons to continue investigating Wan Xiuwu’s case with her.

Pan Cuiqing had no objection to this. After all, Wan Xiuwu was only a fifth-rank Daoist priest. It was unrealistic to expect the entire Yaoguang Division to stop their task and investigate this murder. Even when the flying ship crashed, Tiangang Hall only dispatched one division.

After dispatching the Superintendents, Zhang Yuelu left the Wuxu Palace in Xijing Prefecture and came to the Ghost Pass to visit the Spirit Guards stationed there.

This Spirit Guard was of the first rank, equal in status to an Omniscient Sage, so Zhang Yuelu could not talk to him on an equal footing. However, since Zhang Yuelu was the Tiangang Hall Master, the Spirit Guard did not turn her away. But he still kept a distance from her.

In fact, Daoist priests were regarded as superior to Spirit Guards, who were only supposed to follow orders and were not allowed to interfere in politics. That was because Daoist priests had their own cultivation, while the power of Spirit Guards came from their armor. Thus, if a Spirit Guard left the Daoist Order, they would lose all of their power.

Zhang Yuelu only wanted to ask this Spirit Guard if there was anything unusual in the Ghost Kingdom, since a secret society member lingered in the Ghost Pass for two days.

She could not figure out Wei Wugui’s purpose, so she guessed that it could be related to the Ghost Kingdom. After all, True Lord Siming had been coveting the Ghost Kingdom for a long time.

The Spirit Guard was startled to hear Zhang Yuelu’s question because, not long ago, there were indeed some abnormalities in the Ghost Kingdom. He even met with Yin Jiuyin to confirm what happened.

He did not expect the Jade Capital to get news of this so quickly and wondered who leaked the news. He also speculated if Jade Capital had spies in the Ghost Past. Did this mean that Jade Capital no longer trusted him?

For a while, this first-rank Spirit Guard had begun to speculate whether Zhang Yuelu had a special mission and if the so-called suppression of secret societies was just a cover.

As such, the Spirit Guard explained that there were some abnormalities in the Ghost Kingdom recently. The formation showed that the overlap between the Ghost Kingdom and the mortal realm had deepened. However, this overlap usually only occurred on July 15th, the Zhongyuan Festival, which was also commonly known as the Ghost Festival. Even so, the impact was not big and was most likely a normal change in the Ghost Kingdom.

As a precautionary measure, the Ghost Pass had stepped up its security, but they had not found any suspicious people.

The time when the abnormality occurred in the Ghost Kingdom coincided with the time when Wei Wugui passed by the Ghost Pass, but Zhang Yuelu did not comment on the statement that they had not found any suspicious people.

To her, this answer was good enough to prove that her speculation was right and that all the clues pointed to Wei Wugui.

There was indeed something deeper going on, and it no longer just concerned Wan Xiuwu’s death.

After Zhang Yuelu left the Ghost Pass, she went to the summer palace of the Zhongzhou Daoist Mansion.

The summer palace could be regarded as a large Daoist temple, which functioned as a rest stop for Daoists. However, only Daoist priests above a certain rank were able to stay here.

Once she got to her room, Zhang Yuelu listed all the clues she had obtained in the past few days. Without enough evidence, she began to make bold assumptions and carefully verified them.

What was Wei Wugui’s purpose in entering the Ghost Kingdom?

There were Three Yin Beings in the Ghost Kingdom that existed as early as the Holy Xuan Era. They were the creations left behind by the previous owner of the Ghost Kingdom.

The Three Yin Beings did not take the initiative to report the abnormality that occurred in the Ghost Kingdom. Instead, they waited until the Spirit Guard inquired about it to say that it was just the Ghost Kingdom’s normal changes.

Since the formations in the Ghost Pass had already detected the anomalies within the Ghost Kingdom, it was almost impossible for the Three Yin Beings to not notice any anomalies.

If so, why did the Three Yin Beings choose to hide this anomaly from the Daoist Order?

This led to another question: Was Wei Wugui’s entry into the Ghost Kingdom related to the Three Yin Beings? Or did he enter the Ghost Kingdom to see the Three Yin Beings?

If that was the case, then it would make sense for the Three Yin Beings to conceal the abnormality, wanting to cover up the fact that they had met Wei Wugui.

If this speculation was true, then what happened after Wei Wugui met the Three Yin Beings?

Were the Three Yin Beings trying to collude with outsiders to take down the Daoist Order? Or was Wei Wugui offering the Three Yin Beings certain conditions on behalf of a certain Ancient Immortal?

All these were possible.

Zhang Yuelu did not expect that a simple murder case would involve such complex dealings.

Qin Wubing was the Deputy Protector of Xizhou, Pei Xiaolou was a second-rank Taiyi Daoist master in the Daoist Order, and the Three Yin Beings from the Ghost Kingdom were not menial characters.

Feng Bo, the Heavenly Court’s God of Wind, was also involved somehow. Secret societies were not loyal to each other and often fought among themselves. It was strange that Feng Bo decided to sneak into Xijing Prefecture to hunt down Wei Wugui, disregarding the risks.

These people were like beads, while Wei Wugui was like a string connecting these beads.

In front of these characters, Wan Xiuwu’s death became irrelevant.

This made Zhang Yuelu doubt some of her speculations.

Was Wan Xiuwu’s murder just an accident?

In fact, Wei Wugui and Wan Xiuwu had no grudge. Perhaps Wan Xiuwu accidentally discovered Wei Wugui’s true identity and was then killed and silenced by him. Perhaps the two men simply had a conflict, just like how Sub-Tiangang Hall bullied Wei Wugui.

If that was the case, then Wei Wugui had nothing to do with Qi Xuansu.

But who wanted to connect Wei Wugui and Qi Xuansu?

Thinking of this, Zhang Yuelu had a sudden epiphany—Yue Liuli.