A Pawn's Passage

Upon entering the room, Qi Xuansu saw a ceiling so high it was impossible to make out—if it even had one. Below were dense, layered clouds. Likewise, the floor was invisible.

At the very center of the hall stood a seven-tiered square platform. Each tier was about the height of a regular step, with the base measuring roughly 23 meters wide and each subsequent layer narrowing until the topmost platform was only about 3 meters wide.

Surrounding the three sides of the platforms were 17 meditation cushions arranged at varying levels. One more cushion was placed atop the platform’s highest tier, bringing the total number to 18.

Behind the platform stood a massive statue of the Primordial Daoist Ancestor.

Qi Xuansu felt a sense of familiarity. That was when it dawned on him. This layout resembled the common Daoist assembly halls, which in turn were modeled after the Golden Tower.

Madam Qi whispered, “Listen carefully.”

Qi Xuansu concentrated and began to hear murmurs around him.

Unlike the unsettling whispers he had heard in his eerie recurring dreams, these voices were calm and orderly. It was more like a structured debate or a formal discussion.

It turned out to be a council meeting.

Soon after, translucent figures began to appear one by one on the cushions, sitting cross-legged.

There were both men and women, but none of their faces could be seen clearly.

Qi Xuansu looked up toward the highest tier of the platform. In the Golden Tower, such a position would belong to the Grand Master, though the actual Golden Tower had no such platform.

Tiny points of light began to appear atop the cushions that connected into lines. Gradually, they outlined human figures.

No matter how hard he tried, Qi Xuansu could not make out any faces. He turned to Madam Qi and asked, “Who are these people?”

Madam Qi replied, “The person seated at the top is from the Li family. It’s been many years since anyone called him by name, so I won’t break the custom. This man is who everyone refers to as the Holy Xuan.”

Qi Xuansu was dumbstruck.

Although he had suspected as much, hearing this confirmation from Madam Qi left him deeply shaken.

Madam Qi continued, “But back in those days, he was not yet known as the Holy Xuan. Most people simply called him Master Qingping.”

Qi Xuansu exclaimed, “The Qingping Society was founded by the Holy Xuan?!”

Madam Qi did not respond. Instead, she turned to introduce the other figures.

These names were all too familiar to Qi Xuansu. That was because these were the founding elders of the revitalized Daoist Order. For instance, Zhang Luanshan and Yan Feiqing were martial brothers who had both served as Great Sages of the Zhengyi Sect.

Su Yunxuan was the founding elder of the Cihang lineage. Shangguan Wan was the first Great Sage of the Quanzhen Sect. Ning Yi was the first Wanxiang Daoist Palace Master. Then there were others like Shi Wuyue, Li Rushi, and Li Feiyan. From their last names alone, one could tell they were the founding ancestors of prestigious noble families. Shi Wuyue was the ancestor of Shi Bingyun, Qi Xuansu’s immediate superior.

Not to mention, Qin Su was the first Great Sage of the Taiping Sect, the first Grand Master Consort, and the eldest daughter of the Great Xuan Dynasty’s founding emperor.

The rest were among the first batch of the 36 Omniscient Sages. Later, they were enshrined as venerated elders in Daoist ancestral halls and given the title of Great Sage.

Even those unfamiliar with Daoist history would recognize their names if they had ever played the Holy Xuan Cards.

Be it Qi Xuansu or Li Qingnu, neither could speak for a moment.

Madam Qi said softly, “These were the very first members of the Qingping Society. Back then, there was no classification of A, B, C, or D ranks. There were only two categories: regular members and one Head of Society, who was also called the Convenor. The Qingping Society back then was much smaller. Those listed above were its only members. Its sole mission at the time was to unite the Daoist sects, end the Confucian monopoly on governance, and overthrow the Wei Dynasty. The Holy Xuan wanted to cleanse the world and return peace to the realm, hence the name Qingping, which meant clear and peaceful.”

Qi Xuansu remained silent for a long time.

Back then, the Qingping Society could well have been called the Golden Tower Council. It was basically the Holy Xuan’s inner circle and the prototype of what would become the current Golden Tower Council.

Qi Xuansu also noticed that even these earliest members used aliases, just like him.

In other words, the Qingping Society had always been a secret organization.

Qi Xuansu could not help but marvel that all these legendary names also had to operate in secrecy back then. It went to show just how dominant the Confucians once were, ruling the world just as the Daoists did now.

Stories of palace burnings and drowned emperors began to seem all the more plausible.

However, Qi Xuansu soon had another question.

The Qingping Society under the Holy Xuan clearly succeeded in its mission, having unified the Daoist sects, supplanted the Confucians, overthrown the Wei Dynasty, and founded the Great Xuan Dynasty. So by all logic, the Qingping Society should have disbanded. So who kept the Qingping Society alive? Who passed it down through the generations?

Given the Qingping Society’s ties with the Quanzhen Sect, Qi Xuansu guessed that a Quanzhen Sect elder who had once been a member must have revived it. It was perhaps someone like Shangguan Wan or Lan Xuanshuang.

Madam Qi seemed to sense his doubts and took the initiative to explain, “During the Holy Xuan’s lifetime, the Qingping Society had indeed disbanded. The Qingping Society was nothing more than a relic of history, with no real substance. It wasn’t until after the Holy Xuan ascended that someone revived the Qingping Society. It was mainly because The Inn broke the rules first.”

“The Inn?” Qi Xuansu asked, puzzled.

Madam Qi continued, “The original name of The Inn was the Taiping Inn—the same popular Daoist establishment which served as a cover for intelligence gathering. The Taiping Inn was also founded by the Holy Xuan. Its upper ranks bore titles like Owner, Innkeeper, Runner, Cook, Server, and Accountant, each with their own role. In the beginning, all of the upper ranks were held by members of the Qingping Society. So essentially, the Taiping Inn was an affiliate of the Qingping Society.”

Qi Xuansu was even more shocked. He suddenly recalled something.

Once, while chatting with Zhang Yuelu about a novel titled the Legend of the Taiping Inn, they somehow talked about The Inn as well. From there, Zhang Yuelu mentioned that her master, Sage Cihang, was fond of studying unsourced folk history—the more bizarre, the more fascinating she found it to be. Sage Cihang would use such tales to make bold historical conjectures, so much so that the Heavenly Preceptor often joked that she was making up history.

According to Sage Cihang’s theory, once the Holy Xuan became the Grand Master, most of the upper ranks of the Taiping Inn were promoted to Great Sages or Sages. Thus, the Holy Xuan likely disbanded the Taiping Inn and redistributed its members into Tiangang Hall and Beichen Hall.

However, some members were unwilling to accept this change. Back then, the Holy Xuan had recruited the original Taiping Inn’s members from Jianghu—free-spirited wanderers who were not used to institutional constraints. Thus, the disbanded members left the Daoist Order and returned to Jianghu.

Meanwhile, the Wandu Sect was also disbanded by Emperor Gaozu and reformed into the new Green Phoenix Guard. Similarly, some members refused this change and returned to Jianghu.

These two groups eventually merged and formed The Inn that Qi Xuansu was familiar with, which explained why it had many ties to the Green Phoenix Guard. After all, the two had once worked side by side and were originally one family.

In hindsight, Sage Cihang’s speculation was not far off. It was quite close to the truth.

Qi Xuansu even suspected that Sage Cihang was not completely ignorant about the history of the Qingping Society because an elder of the Cihang lineage had been a Society member. As such, Sage Cihang probably knew the truth and simply chose not to tell Zhang Yuelu due to certain considerations. Thus, Sage Cihang disguised it as a hypothesis. After all, Zhang Yuelu had not yet been confirmed as her successor at that time and was just one disciple among many.

Madam Qi continued, “The Taiping Inn has four ranks—Heaven, Earth, Xuan, and Huang. Later, the Qingping Society was revived and no longer had the Taiping Inn as its affiliate, so it began recruiting on its own. That was how the new system of A, B, C, and D ranks, as well as the creation of the Privy Council, came about.”

Qi Xuansu gradually pieced the story together.

The Taiping Inn and Qingping Society had once been one entity, with Qingping Society as the core and the Taiping Inn as an affiliate. Both were founded by the Holy Xuan and disbanded by him.

Even before the Holy Xuan left the mortal realm, someone had already revived the Taiping Inn. To avoid incurring his disapproval, they dropped the word “Taiping” and simply called it The Inn, removing any overt links to the Qingping Society, though their ties to the Green Phoenix Guard remained.

After the Holy Xuan ascended, someone inspired by The Inn reestablished the Qingping Society. But by then, both The Inn and the Qingping Society were no longer what they used to be.

Qi Xuansu could not help but ask, “Everyone says it was the Holy Xuan who revitalized the Daoist Order. Then who revived the Qingping Society?”

Madam Qi answered, “The third-generation Earthly Preceptor.”