A Pawn's Passage

Qi Xuansu began explaining his recurring dream. “There was a pitch-black mountain. I didn’t recognize this place, but when I regained awareness, I found myself standing at the foot of the mountain. In front of me was a rugged, winding path. On either side, colorful flowers bloomed amid the grass, and the trees were adorned with equally vibrant ribbons. It looked as if there was some kind of celebration underway. The path twisted upward into the darkness and disappeared, its end nowhere in sight.

“I walked toward the mountaintop in a daze, as if I were in a dream. The wind howled past my ears, carrying the soft murmurs of a woman’s voice. The ribbons on the trees fluttered in the breeze, and flower petals covered the path, emitting a strange and captivating fragrance.

“I didn’t know how long I walked, but the woman’s voice by my ear gradually became clearer. It was a language I had never heard before—jarring and obscure, hard to comprehend. I felt as if I had lost control of my body. Suddenly, a woman appeared before me and started walking toward me. Half of her face was covered by long hair, but the half that was visible was strikingly beautiful, indescribably so.”

At this point, Zhang Yuelu cleared her throat and said, “Get to the point.”

Qi Xuansu continued, “The woman seemed to be a guide, leading me onward. I followed her up the long path until I arrived at the mountaintop, which was a vast open area. In the center was a large bonfire. At that moment, the woman vanished, but a tall, shadowy figure emerged in her stead. Though I couldn’t see the figure’s face clearly, I could vaguely make out long white hair, a robe with patterns of a starry night sky, and a pair of crimson eyes.”

That was Qi Xuansu’s first dream. But he altered it slightly and stitched together all his recurring dreams, skipping over the part where he saw eleven shadowy figures.

He continued, “That shadowy figure soon vanished, so I began to wander around. Without those eerie voices or the guide, my mind became much clearer. That was when I noticed many palaces dotting the area by the mountain road. The architectural style was very different from what we are used to. It was much more primitive, wild, and in complete ruins. The statues scattered about were broken, leaving only shattered fragments all around.

“I also discovered a battlefield of immense carnage that was covered in snow. Countless human-like ice sculptures stood there, still frozen in their final moments before their deaths. There were also many illusory human-like figures standing along the mountain path. Other than their slightly blurry outlines, they looked no different from real people. There were hundreds of them, but they seemed to have lost all consciousness, resembling clay or wooden dolls. It was as if their souls had been forcibly extracted by some powerful spell, while their physical bodies had already been reduced to ashes.

“I tried to walk toward the surrounding palaces and the battlefield below, but I found myself blocked by invisible walls, confined only to a small area. The only option was to ascend the path toward the bonfire. Whether it was the battlefield or the towering palaces hidden in the shadows, they remained nothing more than unreachable backdrops.”

Zhang Yuelu and Yao Pei both had strange expressions, seemingly recalling something.

Yao Pei even began to return to her sober state. This surprised Qi Xuansu because Yao Pei was always expressionless like a wooden doll. She was like a blade that was usually sheathed, but once drawn, it was terrifyingly sharp. If she were in this sharp state, it meant that she had shed the influence of the Taishang Emotionless Sutra and returned to her true self.

Since remaining sober consumed a great deal of her mental energy, Yao Pei usually remained in her low-consumption “lifeless” state and only regained clarity under special circumstances.

Qi Xuansu thought, Does Yao Pei recognize this place? Is that why she seems deeply shaken?

Neither Zhang Yuelu nor Yao Pei interrupted him, so Qi Xuansu had no choice but to continue his description.

“Although I couldn’t leave those boundaries, I could see part of the mountain’s true form through these invisible barriers. This mountain was on the verge of collapse. From the path itself, everything looked calm and breezy, but outside this mountain, massive tornadoes and pillars of thunderbolts connected the sky to the earth, relentlessly ravaging the mountainside. Some parts of the mountain had already cracked, but due to some strange force, they hadn’t broken off completely and remained roughly in place. I say ‘roughly’ because there were huge gaps between these segments. From afar, they were barely noticeable, but up close, one would see impassable chasms that were several meters wide. A Heavenly Being could fly across, but considering the storm raging outside with lightning pillars capable of tearing apart the mountain, it would be an extremely dangerous feat.

“Then I noticed countless fragments of all sizes suspended in midair, frozen in a moment of explosion, neither falling nor moving, as if time had stopped. It was as if the mountain had begun to collapse, but someone used immense power to freeze it in the moment as it shattered. Only the path beneath my feet and the bonfire at the mountaintop were exceptions, as they were the only fluid and ever-changing things within this mountain. The areas I couldn’t step into were locked in absolute stillness.

“It was very strange because the tornadoes and lightning outside the mountain were very much in motion, while the mountain itself, including its crumbling pieces, was dead and still. But because of my limited vantage point from the mountain path, I couldn’t see the full picture and could only observe so much.

“When I returned to the mountaintop through the same path, that towering figure reappeared. But this time, the figure didn’t look at me. Instead, it turned to face another direction, so I followed its gaze, only to see two people locked in fierce combat. These two people didn’t seem to be afraid of the massive storm as they danced between the tornadoes and bolts of lightning. The countless frozen fragments were shattered by the shockwaves of their battle. Ripples visible to the naked eye radiated outward, breaking the mountain’s frozen state and causing parts of it to collapse in thunderous avalanches.”

“One of them unleashed waves of sword qi that rained down like a storm, managing to sever some pillars of lightning. The other summoned waves upon waves of flames that blotted out the sky. When the sword qi clashed with fire, nothing else could be seen. At that moment, the bonfire suddenly extinguished, plunging everything into darkness. The ground beneath me vanished, and I fell uncontrollably into a crimson pool that resembled blood. When I awoke again, I had already left that strange realm, with the Longevity Stone Heart embedded within my chest. At the time, I didn’t even know of its existence, nor did I understand its purpose until Sage Cihang later revealed the truth to me.”

Qi Xuansu could no longer remember how many times he had had this recurring dream. Almost every time he slept, this dream would inevitably haunt him.

To Qi Xuansu, the mountain in his dreams was like his own backyard. He remembered every plant and stone clearly and could describe every detail vividly.

But after hearing him out, both Zhang Yuelu and Yao Pei fell into silence. The two women exchanged a glance, as if finding it difficult to believe.

Noticing their expressions, Qi Xuansu could not help but ask, “Qing Xiao, Su Yi, do you two know this place?”

Zhang Yuelu hesitated and said, “I’ve heard of something like it. What do you think, Su Yi?”

“If you’re referring to that place, then I must say that it does sound very similar,” Yao Pei replied, wearing a solemn expression. At some point, she had stopped writing.

Clearly, the two prodigies of the Daoist Order knew certain secrets that Qi Xuansu was not privy to.

Qi Xuansu grew annoyed at their cryptic exchange and asked, “What place is this? Have you actually been there?”

“We haven’t been there, but we’ve heard of it,” Zhang Yuelu replied, gesturing for him to be patient. “Tian Yuan, do you remember the story I told you about the Founding Heavenly Preceptor?”

“I remember,” Qi Xuansu replied. “It’s basically the tale of how the Zhang family rose to prominence.”

Zhang Yuelu asked, “Then, what would you say is the Founding Heavenly Preceptor’s greatest achievement—one worthy of being remembered through the ages?”

Qi Xuansu answered without hesitation, “Of course, it was defeating Ancient Wuism, which marked the formal rise of the Daoist Order, just like how the Holy Xuan defeated the Confucians to signify the revival of the Daoist Order. The Primordial Daoist Ancestor was the founder of the Daoist Order, along with the Founding Heavenly Preceptor, while the Holy Xuan was the restorer of the Daoist Order. That’s how they teach it back at the Wanxiang Daoist Palace—”

At this point, Qi Xuansu suddenly stopped. He asked hesitantly, “The Daoist Order’s sacred ground is Kunlun, and Ancient Wuism’s sacred ground was Lingshan. Don’t tell me...”

Zhang Yuelu nodded. “That’s right. Since defeating Ancient Wuism was the Heavenly Preceptor’s greatest feat, the Zhang family’s records on it are very detailed. I’ve seen some of them. Based on your description, the place you saw in your dreams is very likely Lingshan, the sacred land of Ancient Wuism.”

Yao Pei added, “The Longevity Stone Heart was originally just the Longevity Stone. It was a death-defying elixir crafted by the collective power of Lingshan’s Eleven Great Witches. The Longevity Stone was not only capable of resurrecting the dead, but it could also elevate mere mortals to Immortals. The Daoist creation projects merely replicated the Longevity Stone Heart but didn’t invent it.”

Qi Xuansu had also heard such classified secrets from Madam Qi, like the fact that there were three different generations of the Longevity Stone.

Now, he could begin to connect the dots. That meant the eleven shadowy figures in his dream must represent the Eleven Great Witches of Lingshan.

Zhang Yuelu continued, “Since the Longevity Stone Heart is deeply tied to Ancient Wuism, your repeated dreams of Lingshan make sense. Reframing your account from dreamwalking into Lingshan to accidentally entering it is certainly reasonable.”

Yao Pei nodded. “Since the Lingshan Paradise is already on the verge of collapse, and its entrance has crumbled, it’s nearly impossible to verify your account. But if you hadn’t experienced it yourself, you wouldn’t be able to describe it in such detail. This is impossible to fabricate and difficult to describe in detail. So ironically, that makes your account more credible. Therefore, in my opinion, we can close the case and submit this report to the Golden Tower Council.”