A Pawn's Passage

The Innkeeper and the Runner stood side by side on the summit of Wuxing Mountain. Hearing the booming sounds from the mountain’s base, the Innkeeper murmured, “They’ve made their move. They chose New Year’s Eve, too. What a good day.”

The Runner nodded. “Mansion Master Li has gone to the palace, and that Great Sage is personally overseeing the capital. Right now, the Imperial Capital Daoist Mansion is in Zhou Jiaoxian’s hands.”

The Innkeeper added, “They’ve painstakingly armed the Imperial Capital Daoist Mansion, cut a large number of posts, and transferred elite forces from across the realm, laying out plans more than half a year ahead, all for today. The alliance of two Daoist sects truly cannot be underestimated. These Spirit Guards mostly come from the Western Region. They are either tied to the Quanzhen Sect or the Tiangang Hall, but none are linked to the Taiping Sect. Even if Mansion Master Li hadn’t gone into the palace, she likely still couldn’t control the situation.”

The Runner scoffed. “This is nothing more than an appetizer. The real main course hasn’t even come on stage yet.”

“They’re here!” The Innkeeper turned his gaze toward the night sky in the distance.

From that direction came a strange sound, easily masked by the thunder. Then, two slits slowly tore open the night sky, one horizontal and one vertical like a cross. The slit grew wider until it transformed into a peculiar portal.

Two figures wearing bronze masks stepped out, the masks bearing the style of Ancient Wuism. One of them was even adorned with white fur.

One figure was empty-handed, while the other held a strange, exotic weapon.

Enemies were destined to cross paths.

The Innkeeper sighed. “Qingping Society’s Saintly Peace and Dreaming Cloud. They’re like lingering ghosts that keep haunting us.”

With that, he leapt first, gliding down the mountain.

Saintly Peace also descended.

They were not bound by fair dueling. Rather, at their cultivation level, playing petty tricks for terrain advantage was of little use. It was better to maintain one’s grace. After all, these were long-established figures. If one could win with a few dirty tactics, then no one would care about the petty details. But if one lost, it would only show poor form and invite ridicule.

Neither of them planned to die here. No matter the outcome of success or failure, or who won or lost, they both needed to survive to maintain their standing in Jianghu.

The Runner also glided down the mountain. But midway, Dreaming Cloud intercepted him. “I’m your opponent!”

They were old rivals.

Since the elite of the Qingping Society’s Privy Council had already arrived, Madam Qi would not be far behind.

Madam Qi strolled along on a narrow mountain path, with a small tobacco pipe about the length of an index finger clenched between her teeth. She did not seem to mind the rumbling winter thunder or the sounds of battle raging below the mountain.

The Face Wrecker was tucked at her waist, accompanied by a small abacus.

Madam Qi did not like using brute force too much. Rather than plunging into the fray herself, she much preferred firing from afar, just like when she shot True Lord Siming at the Ascension Platform.

At that moment, another deafening boom shook many pine needles loose from the trees all around, sending them drifting down onto Madam Qi’s head.

Madam Qi did not like to show off her power and deliberately restrained her aura, keeping to the state of an ordinary person. Thus, the pine needles had not been repelled by her protective qi shield. She had to reach up to brush them away.

After all, radiating an Immortal aura was something that fit Mogul Yao’s persona, not Madam Qi’s.

As she brushed the pine needles from her head, she turned toward the source of the noise.

It was Saintly Peace and the Innkeeper finally clashing head-on.

The Innkeeper did not immediately unleash his true form in the Heaven-Earth Manifesting Realm. Instead, he faced off against Saintly Peace using only his Jade Emperor Golden Body, appearing like a towering golden statue. With every move, the earth quaked.

The Innkeeper pushed one palm outward. It looked effortless, but the surging divine power tore up massive chunks of earth, raising a tidal wave of soil and stone that crashed down like a mudslide, enough to engulf an entire village. All this was aimed squarely at Saintly Peace.

With just one finger, Saintly Peace split the mudslide cleanly in two.

The Innkeeper was not the Owner and did not excel in hand-to-hand combat. So once again, he sent forth an ordinary-looking palm strike.

Saintly Peace abruptly accelerated, slipping past the blow. Behind him, the mountainside collapsed into an enormous palm-shaped depression. The fingerprint lines were clearly visible. Compared to that handprint, an ordinary person would seem no bigger than an ant.

Not to be outdone, Saintly Peace spread his five fingers and made a grasping motion in the air.

A massive vortex formed in the sky, twisting into a tornado that crashed toward the Innkeeper.

The Innkeeper’s figure was instantly swallowed by the enormous column of wind and force. Apart from faint glimpses of golden light, his silhouette vanished from sight.

Moments later, a giant Spiritual Body rose with a thunderous roar, forcibly lifting the tornado pillar as if trying to hurl it back into the heavens.

Another moment passed, and the wind column dissipated like smoke, unable to overcome this giant Spiritual Body.

The Innkeeper surged forward with a thunderous force. His feet did not move. Instead, his body glided smoothly like a boat sailing across solid land.

It was not the Innkeeper’s body that moved, but rather the earth beneath his feet shifting. Such was the art of shrinking land.

The Innkeeper clenched his fist, which was as large as a hill. With a roaring whistle through the air, the fist smashed down hard toward Saintly Peace. Even before the fist reached him, the sheer force of the blow made Saintly Peace’s robes flutter violently. It seemed capable of uprooting mountains and splitting peaks.

Saintly Peace did not take the strike head-on and instantly dodged to the side. The fist crashed to the ground, the massive force causing the earth to quake and split, tearing open a vast web of cracks.

Seizing the moment, Saintly Peace channeled all his innate qi into a single point, condensing it into his lower Dantian. From within, a dazzling golden glow emerged, transforming into golden liquid that surged upward until his entire being became one with the surroundings. He reached into the void and drew a formless, shapeless sword. If not for his hand’s distinct gripping motion, one could hardly tell he held a blade. This was the Daozi Sword.

This time, the Innkeeper did not recklessly pit his fists against the Daozi Sword. Last time, it had cost him an arm and a thousand marks of divine power to recover. Instead, he condensed his divine power into a colossal two-handed sword that was about 90 meters long. He then swept it horizontally toward Saintly Peace.

Saintly Peace raised his sword horizontally before him. As the Daozi Sword clashed with the massive two-handed sword, the overwhelmingly large golden sword fractured open, scattering countless golden sparks from the break.

Refiners were called the second of the Five Lineages and the backbone of the Daoist Order for good reason. Their reputation was not just an empty boast.

Saintly Peace swung his sword, launching a counterattack at the Innkeeper.

Last time, it was the Cook who had ambushed him from the shadows. This time, in a one-on-one match, even if he was still recovering from serious wounds, he would not necessarily fall behind.

The Innkeeper dared not be careless. He stomped the ground. From his position, countless beams of golden light radiated outward in all directions. Wherever the golden light passed, everything was coated in a layer of gold.

A 15-kilometer radius transformed into an independent realm, cutting off even moonlight and starlight.

This was the Fruition Realm of Shamans at the Zaohua stage.

To put it simply, it was a divine kingdom.

The great cosmos was like a giant tree. Each paradise was a fruit upon its branches. Earthly Immortals were the insects on the tree that were extremely powerful, capable of boring into the trunk, gnawing at leaves and fruits, and crawling across its length. But they could not leave the tree. Even those insects with wings could only flutter briefly before falling back on the branch, unless they turned into a butterfly.

Heavenly Immortals were butterflies. While they were no match for some of the more aggressive insects, they could fly. Thus, they were not only able to leave the tree but could also pollinate and help the tree bear fruits, which were new paradises. Kunlun Paradise was the greatest and largest fruit on the tree, created by the Primordial Daoist Ancestor.

The progression from Earthly Immortals to Heavenly Immortals was essentially a metamorphosis. When Earthly Immortals reached their limit, they could form a cocoon, transform into a butterfly, and leave this world, which was called ascension.

Other Earthly Immortals remained as insects on the tree, continuously growing stronger to the point where they could even slay Heavenly and Godly Immortals, let alone Manly or Ghostly Immortals. But the price was steep. They must endure a heavenly tribulation every hundred years, each one fiercer than the last, until they were eventually reduced to ashes.

Godly Immortals fell between Heavenly and Earthly Immortals. Like Heavenly Immortals, Godly Immortals could pollinate, but like Earthly Immortals, they could not leave the tree. So they used this power to hasten the ripening of fruits. But unlike Heavenly Immortals who let go afterward, they diligently tend to it, creating their own divine kingdom. Within these divine kingdoms, bolstered by home-ground advantage, Godly Immortals could even contend with Earthly and Heavenly Immortals.

Simply put, Heavenly Immortals’ fruits were paradises, and Godly Immortals’ fruits were divine kingdoms. The former, barring the end of the era, seldom decayed, claiming self-sufficiency. The latter, however, only consumed and did not replenish, so without the infusion of incense power, they quickly withered.

At present, the three great Ancient Immortals sought to ripen their fruits further until they were ready to detach from the branch and fall to the earth. This was the only way they could ascend, and why they so frantically harvested incense power.

The Daoist Order’s means of appeasement was to persuade the Ancient Immortals to change paths by abandoning their divine kingdoms and pursuing bodily ascension instead. This was why True Lord Taiyin’s divine kingdom remained in the mortal realm.

This was the fundamental reason the three Ancient Immortals could not reconcile with the Daoist Order. For the Godly Immortals, having or lacking a divine kingdom was a monumental difference, and the risks of changing paths were simply too great.

The Fruition Realm was also tied to the Spiritual Statue one condensed. For example, the Taiyin Spiritual Statue’s Fruition Realm would be the Palace of Cold Light, also known as the Cold Light Immortal Realm.

The Innkeeper possessed an incomplete Heavenly Emperor Spiritual Statue, so his Fruition Realm was the Lingxiao Heavenly Palace, also known as the Lingxiao Marvelous Realm.

Clouds gathered behind the Innkeeper, and the faint, towering silhouette of a 33-meter-tall palace gradually emerged.