A Pawn's Passage

Elsewhere, just as Madam Qi revealed her Spiritual Body and restrained the Owner, her Spiritual Statue was already striding away, carrying the ship.

Seeing this, Qi Xuansu and the others immediately understood this was no place to linger.

Ceremony Prelude flicked her finger and opened a Yin-Yang Gate. She looked toward Qi Xuansu and asked, “Can you pass through the Yin-Yang Gate with your Martial Arts Practitioner physique?”

Qi Xuansu carefully suppressed his blood qi, using both his Shaman Golden Body and Green Netherworld Armor to contain it so as to avoid damaging the Yin-Yang Gate.

Divine power and magical power were inherently illusory, so they were suppressed by real blood qi. In return, it could also be used to counter blood qi.

Moreover, since Ceremony Prelude’s cultivation was above him, Qi Xuansu could still pass through the Yin-Yang Gate even as a fully realized Heavenly-Being Martials Arts Practitioner.

The three of them stepped through the Yin-Yang Gate and emerged 50 kilometers away.

This was not a random teleportation but a location Madam Qi and Dreaming Cloud had prearranged because this section of the canal was much wider and far less crowded.

Not long after, a massive ship descended from the sky and crashed into the river with a splash, like the Daoist flying ship. Waves surged like a torrential storm, and the entire ship looked as if it had just been dredged from a sea of blood, covered in gore, with blood still dripping from its hull.

In truth, the ship had indeed been soaked for a while in Madam Qi’s skull goblet. This was her method to erase the special markings on the Taiping coins, quite literally laundering them. That way, The Inn could not trace the coins afterward.

Since the ship was reinforced by special formations, the main hull remained solid and intact despite the fierce battle earlier. Only some superstructures were damaged.

Dreaming Cloud raised his hand in a calming gesture. A surge of innate qi swept forth, flattening the waves and steadying the ship to prevent it from capsizing.

Then Dreaming Cloud put a whistle-like object to his mouth, which let out a sharp, piercing shriek. At once, a swarm of small boats rushed over to surround the large vessel, like hyenas scenting carrion. Countless men from the smaller boats tossed grappling hooks and climbed aboard in droves.

The Green Phoenix Guards aboard had long since fled, allowing the Canal Gang’s seasoned sailors to swiftly take control of the ship and resume its course, heading south. There, more gang members were stationed to unload the Taiping coins in batches and distribute them to various warehouses. Once the heat had died down, the Taiping coins would be gradually dealt with.

With the Owner’s arrival, killing another Heaven-Rank attendant had become unrealistic. Since revenge was not feasible, the focus shifted to safeguarding the loot. After all, it was better than leaving empty-handed.

At that moment, Dreaming Cloud suddenly asked, “Of our three revenge operations, only the first caught The Inn off guard. The other two failed to succeed fully. I wonder why that is.”

Ceremony Prelude paused in thought and mused, “Since this involves two Pseudo-Immortals—Madam Qi and the Owner—even I and The Inn’s Accountant can’t claim to foresee everything accurately. Aside from the second operation, which was clearly an ambush set by The Inn, the first and third were alike. We can only say The Inn reacted swiftly by providing quick support, not that they had prior knowledge.

“If The Inn had known beforehand and wanted to ambush us, the Owner would not have come alone. They would have deployed their elite forces. As for how they always manage to respond quickly, it’s simple. This is their home turf. The Inn’s headquarters are in the Imperial Capital, so they hold the geographical advantage.”

Dreaming Cloud, who was more accustomed to fighting than thinking, asked again, “This caught us completely off guard because we assumed beforehand that the Owner would be occupied in Wuxing Mountain, yet he suddenly showed up here. What’s going on there?”

Qi Xuansu interjected, “Maybe The Innkeeper was covering for him? Last time, we only saw The Innkeeper, not the Owner. This time, it’s the reverse. They could be taking shifts in Wuxing Mountain.”

Dreaming Cloud stayed silent for a while, then muttered, “That’s possible.”

Veterans of Jianghu often lacked any concept of shifts, duty rotations, or roll calls. But spending time in the Daoist Order made one sensitive to such notions. Every time Qi Xuansu traveled or meditated in seclusion, he had to make arrangements in advance, often having Wang Chongnian cover for him. That was what an assistant was for. Normally, even if nothing was happening, he still had to check in at the office daily. Of course, once one became a Sage, things would get much more relaxed, especially as a Deputy Mansion Master.

In terms of organizational discipline, the Qingping Society could not match the Inn, and understandably so. Its members all had dual identities, making it hard to balance both. By contrast, The Inn was full-time and naturally enforced stricter discipline. Their six top leaders also led by example.

As they watched the large ship slowly fade into the distance, the three of them also took their leave.

As long as they and the Taiping coins got away safely, Madam Qi should have no trouble extracting herself.

In truth, Qi Xuansu had also noticed all the strange phenomena surrounding Madam Qi’s manifestation. Aside from employing the same techniques as Yao Pei, there were also vague figures of the Ten Great Witches of Lingshan. Others might not recognize them, but Qi Xuansu knew them too well because he saw them in his dreams so often.

Still, Qi Xuansu did not find it odd. The Longevity Stone Heart and Xuan Jade had been gifts from Madam Qi, which led to his visions of the Ten Great Witches. Thus, it made perfect sense that Madam Qi had a connection with them. After all, the Yao family’s ancestor was a Great Witch. It all seemed to fit.

Qi Xuansu saw two possibilities. One possibility was that Madam Qi was the descendant of another member of the Ten Great Witches of Lingshan. That would explain why the Yao family, descended from a Great Witch, adopted her. Supporting this was the fact that Madam Qi was the only adopted daughter the Yao family had for years. So Yao Pei’s claim that her family was just imitating the Li family did not hold up.

Another possibility was that the Great Witch left behind not only her bloodline, but also a special lineage or techniques. As it was a remnant of Ancient Wuism, it did not get fully integrated with the Daoist Order and thus was not included in the Five Lineages that were compiled by the Holy Xuan. These techniques became a closely guarded secret of the Yao family. Since Madam Qi was a Banished Immortal and did not have any restrictions on what she could practice, she could learn these techniques.

Regardless of the case, it was clear that Madam Qi was deeply tied to Ancient Wuism. This was likely one of the reasons she never joined the Daoist Order.

Meanwhile, the battle between the Owner and Madam Qi raged on.

Relying on his immense blood qi that was comparable to that of ancient wild beasts, the Owner forcibly broke through Madam Qi’s bindings and unleashed another punch.

This punch tore through layers of black mist and struck Madam Qi’s Spiritual Body, forcibly reverting her from a towering deity over 30 meters tall back into her original form.

The shadowy mountain and the ten towering figures behind Madam Qi also disappeared, turning into black mist.

Madam Qi then summoned back her female Spiritual Statue. Enveloped in the mist, the Spiritual Statue became a colossal black shadow that seemed to support the heavens, yet still bore four extended arms.

This was the Ancestral Witch Spiritual Statue.

Without any visible movement from Madam Qi, the massive black shadow stretched out one arm to grab at the Owner.

In that moment, the Owner felt his soul about to be forcibly pulled from his body. Fortunately, as a Pseudo-Immortal Martial Arts Practitioner, his soul and body were fused as one and could not be separated. Even so, he barely resisted this force.

Though it spared his life, it did not spare his suffering. The Owner felt stabbing pain in his mind, as if his head were about to split open. Since his soul and body were one, any attack on the soul directly affected the body. The most obvious symptom was an intense headache. Madam Qi’s technique of soul-hooking, when used on a Martial Arts Practitioner, was akin to digging out their brain.

The Owner was shocked. He had not expected Madam Qi’s methods to be so strange and unpredictable.

The colossal black shadow extended another arm. Its palm grew larger and larger until it soon blotted out the sky. The Owner could not see anything but a mass of black, as if a black leaf of paper was obscuring his view, forcibly capturing his attention, and leaving him with no way to dodge.

Then the five fingers closed around him, clutching the Owner in its palm.

In that instant, the space inside the palm became a world separate from the one outside. Madam Qi forcibly peeled the Owner away from this realm and trapped him within a spherical small world she had conjured on the spot.

This technique was not Madam Qi’s invention. Back in the day, the second-generation Earthly Preceptor had used this exact method to defeat True Lord Tantai Yun. As descendants of the Earthly Preceptor, the Yao family had passed this tale down through the generations. Madam Qi had heard it so many times growing up that her ears probably developed calluses, so she used this technique instinctively without a second thought.

It had to be said that the ancestors’ method was truly effective.

Madam Qi extended her hand from afar and gently pushed the spherical small world.

The small world vanished instantly, leaving behind only ripples in its wake.

Through the rift of the Yin-Yang Gate, Madam Qi exiled the small world somewhere over Donghai, thousands of kilometers away. That way, by the time the Owner forcibly broke through and returned, several hours would have passed.

That was the tradeoff of pursuing the Manly Immortal path. While the fusion of the soul and body allowed him to resist her soul-hooking technique, the cost was the inability to use spells. He could only travel physically. Though a Pseudo-Immortal Martial Arts Practitioner was fast, they could not outrun a Diviner’s Yin-Yang Gate.

After banishing the Owner, Madam Qi raised her fourth arm and pointed downward.

Countless faint gray mists emerged, spreading across dozens of kilometers.

This was a wide-range Bewitching Technique.

In an instant, everyone fell into a deep slumber. Even Heavenly Beings could only resist the spell briefly. These mists did more than induce sleep. They also erased a segment of one’s memory. When these people awoke, no one would recall what had just happened.

With all that done, Madam Qi withdrew the Ancestral Witch Spiritual Statue and made a swift exit, well before the Owner could return.