A Pawn's Passage

Yao Pei did not offer a direct explanation. Instead, she recited, “There are no calendars in these high mountains; the winter ends with no clear signs of how many years have passed.”

The dragon lady was an extremely intelligent being. Otherwise, she would not have been able to infiltrate the Wanxiang Daoist Palace to learn the art of longevity. She also understood the doctrines of the Three Religions and immediately grasped the implied meaning behind these words.

She asked with a frown, “You’re not sent to kill me? Are you here to set me free?”

Yao Pei replied, “We are neither here to kill you nor to set you free. We are only here to retrieve something.”

The faint glimmer of joy that had just flashed across the dragon lady’s eyes instantly vanished, replaced by an icy gloom. “Where is your Grand Master?”

“The Grand Master has no time to come here,” Yao Pei replied in an even colder tone. “That’s why we’ve come to retrieve what was left here.”

Qi Xuansu remained silent, mentally noting that the current Yao Pei bore some resemblance to Madam Qi. However, due to her cultivation of the Taishang Emotionless Sutra, her emotions were rigid and lacked the stirring and convincing quality that Madam Qi possessed.

The dragon lady grew furious. “What exactly does he intend to do? If he wants to kill me or take my Dragon Pearl, I’ll admit defeat. But does he plan to imprison me for eternity? Humans live for less than 100 years, but dragons live for over a thousand years!”

Yao Pei replied, “The Grand Master’s intentions are not something we are privy to.”

The dragon lady let out another roar.

The sound waves and surging air currents were almost visible to the naked eye. However, this time, Qi Xuansu was prepared. He sealed his hearing, held his breath, and focused his mind, managing to stand firm.

Due to the seal, not a single sound could escape beyond the third-floor barrier no matter how much the dragon lady roared.

Yao Pei’s tone grew heavier as she stated, “The voices of opposition to the slaughter of flood dragons are growing strong within the Daoist Order. Over the past century, the Daoist Order has rarely hunted dragons. As long as you don’t cause trouble, the Grand Master likely will not kill you. He may even incorporate you into the Daoist Order, grant you an official title, and use you as a model example of inclusivity.”

“Who cares for that?” The dragon lady sneered.

Yao Pei countered, “The Ancient Immortals and the Qingqiu Mountain’s fox clan certainly care for it. With this status, they are not only able to step foot into Jade Capital openly, but they can also hold official positions. Being a government official is far better than being a thief, isn’t it?”

The dragon lady fell silent. If it had been her past self, she would have immediately refuted such words and mocked them without hesitation. However, after being imprisoned for so long, much of her fiery temper and sharp edges had already been worn down.

Furthermore, flood dragons were simply too powerful. Each flood dragon lived in isolation until death, with no real sense of a clan or tribe. To them, the Daoist Order’s slaughter of their kind was more of an incidental tragedy rather than an eternal blood feud.

If she truly had the chance to be freed, she would agree to their conditions, even if it meant serving the Daoists. Anything was better than being trapped in this place, where time seemed to be at a standstill.

The absolute silence, lack of communication, and inability to perceive the passage of time could drive a dragon mad. Moreover, she was not an ancient dragon capable of sleeping for decades at a time.

If Yao Pei had been an Omniscient Sage with a Zaohua-stage level of cultivation like her master, Sage Donghua, she might have entertained the idea of taking this flood dragon under her command as a helper.

However, Yao Pei had recently stepped into the Xiaoyao stage of Heavenly Beings. Without the aid of an immortal object, controlling this dragon would be nearly impossible. If she were to act recklessly, it would be like a child trying to leash a massive hound. If the hound was loyal, it would not be a problem. But if it turned on its master, the child would lose control and might end up being devoured.

Thus, Yao Pei’s words were merely meant to pacify the flood dragon and prevent unnecessary trouble. Her true objective remained on retrieving the semi-immortal object.

Seeing that the flood dragon had fallen silent, Yao Pei turned her gaze toward the pillar.

Qi Xuansu followed Yao Pei’s gaze and looked at the pillar as well.

He immediately noticed something off. This pillar appeared somewhat out of place, lacking symmetry.

Yao Pei walked up to the pillar and once again took out the Jianxiu Mountain Master’s seal, aligning the engraved side with the pillar.

The flood dragon watched Yao Pei coldly, remaining silent until surprise gradually surfaced in her expression.

Wherever Yao Pei’s seal passed, the pillar’s surface crumbled away, revealing what lay beneath.

A thick, black staff, seemingly entwined from countless vines, emerged. Its material was neither metal nor wood. The staff’s head was crafted into a grinning white skull, its mouth lined with sharp, gleaming white teeth, giving it a fearsome and eerie appearance. Stranger still, two long serpents coiled along the staff’s length, slithering up and down continuously as if they were alive.

“What is this?” Qi Xuansu asked in a low voice.

Yao Pei stowed away the seal. Instead of answering his question, she recited, “When thunder descends from the Eternal Heaven, the sky turns to chaos. Within the roaring storm lies boundless power. When light and darkness converge, the fire of the heavens transforms a thousandfold. The arrival of the herald who wields the power to command all beings will cause thunder to reverberate through the heavens, fire to engulf the land, and scorching winds to reduce living beings to mere bones. The people sing praises, for the one who wields such power must hold dominion over both life and death.”

Qi Xuansu grew even more perplexed.

Yao Pei revealed a barely perceptible expression of disdain, as if mocking Qi Xuansu’s lack of knowledge.

She then explained, “What I just recited comes from the Fundamental Law of the Eternal Heaven. This staff was originally a semi-immortal object belonging to the Golden Horde’s Shamanistic Sect, known as the Staff of Eternal Heaven.

“Back then, the leader of the Western Daoist Sect, Tantai Yun, clashed with the Grand Shaman. The Grand Shaman was forced to destroy one of the serpents on this staff. After this staff fell into the hands of the Daoist Order, the destroyed serpent was restored, and it was renamed the Staff of Merit.”

Qi Xuansu was no fool. He immediately sensed Yao Pei’s disdain.

After all, he had embarrassed himself earlier by misreading “Master of Jianxiu Mountain” as “Jianxiu Mountain Master Grain Person.”

There was nothing he could do about it. The Wanxiang Daoist Lower Palace was not a place that trained scholars. As long as the orphans could read and write, it was considered sufficient. At most, they would study a few Daoist classics. Epigraphy and seal inscriptions were considered refined arts, so these were not a part of his education. Later on, Qi Xuansu roamed Jianghu under Madam Qi’s tutelage.

On the other hand, Yao Pei had remained at home all of her life, studying behind closed doors.

There were advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. Qi Xuansu’s real-world experience far exceeded Yao Pei’s, but he had to admit that she was more learned than he was. There was no shame in that.

This time, before Qi Xuansu could even ask, Yao Pei took the initiative to explain, “The heavens are vast, and the cosmos is boundless. The torch of merit illuminates the cosmos, and virtue shines in the heavens. This staff played a significant role in the Holy Xuan’s revival of the Daoist Order, so it was renamed the Staff of Merit, also derived from the torch of merit.”

Qi Xuansu sincerely responded, “Thank you for clarifying that.”

As the two conversed, the Staff of Merit fully revealed itself. It stood not far from the dragon lady. A faint glow emanated from it, forming two entwined serpentine shadows, their heads meeting at their tails to create a closed loop.

As the Staff of Merit fully emerged, a strange aura instantly filled the space, making it feel as though they had stepped into a vast, murky swamp. Every movement was sluggish and weighed down.

Yao Pei murmured, seemingly to herself, yet also explaining to Qi Xuansu, “Even among semi-immortal objects, the Staff of Merit is exceptional, only a step away from becoming an immortal object.

“One of its profound abilities is the creation of a Cosmos Loop. Within this closed loop, time can either come to a complete halt or endlessly repeat itself. It’s akin to a person walking in circles along a closed path, never able to escape. If one cannot break free from the loop, they will be trapped forever, repeating the same actions over and over again.”

Qi Xuansu got straight to the point. “What do you need me to do?”

Yao Pei replied, “Since this staff’s original master is not here, it will not exert its full power. With my current cultivation level, I will barely be able to subdue it, so I will need your assistance.”

In terms of cultivation level, Qi Xuansu was not necessarily the only choice for a helper. In fact, his cultivation was slightly lacking. A Heavenly Being would have been ideal. However, within the vast Wanxiang Daoist Palace, only Qi Xuansu was trustworthy enough.

Qi Xuansu understood that the original owner of this staff was most likely the sixth-generation Grand Master, who was not merely absent but had already ascended from the mortal world. However, in front of the dragon lady, Yao Pei could not directly state that the sixth-generation Grand Master had ascended, so she simply said that the staff’s owner was not present.

“Do as I do,” Yao Pei instructed, extending her palm toward the left serpent on the Staff of Merit. However, the moment her hand entered the illusory twin-serpent shadow that was encircling the staff, her movements slowed drastically. Fine wrinkles emerged on the back of her hand, like that of an aging woman.

Yao Pei seemed to have anticipated this, as she remained unfazed. She continued to reach forward. More wrinkles crept up her fingers, the back of her hand, her wrist, and even her forearm. The closer she got to the serpent’s head, the older her skin appeared.

By the time Yao Pei grasped the serpent’s head, her entire hand had become gaunt, with yellowed nails and skin covered in dark spots, resembling the withered hand of a dying elder.

Yao Pei remained expressionless as she spoke. “It’s a pity that I’m not a Martial Arts Practitioner. Otherwise, the blood qi could slow my body’s aging. If I wasn’t a Heavenly Being, I would’ve turned into dust the moment I touched the serpent’s head. But since you have the Xuan Jade Madam Qi gave you, you should be able to handle it.”

Qi Xuansu inwardly lamented that acquiring a treasure was never easy. However, after taking such a great risk to come this far, there was no turning back now. Gritting his teeth, he extended his hand as well, fully channeling his blood qi.

As Qi Xuansu’s palm entered the twin-serpent’s shadow, he immediately felt his blood qi draining away at an alarming rate. This was not a forced extraction but rather the natural erosion of life over time because as one aged, their vitality waned.

Normally, this gradual loss of vitality was spread across decades, barely perceptible, hence the common sentiment that people grew old before realizing it. However, the entwined twin-serpent shadow accelerated this process, condensing decades of aging into the span of a few minutes. The effects were visible to the naked eye.

Though Qi Xuansu’s cultivation was inferior to Yao Pei’s, his Martial Arts Practitioner’s blood qi compensated significantly for the gap. At last, just as his skin cracked and withered like aged tree bark, he managed to grasp the right serpent’s head.