A Pawn's Passage

It was a blade hidden within a blade.

The shattered blade was not truly a blade but rather a sheath. Only when it broke did it reveal its true nature. At the spot where the blade should have been, there was nothing at all.

The Daoist Order simply could not mass-produce semi-immortal objects, but that did not mean they could not replicate them. Generally, to imitate a semi-immortal object, an immortal object was needed as a reference.

Yao Pei’s dagger was a semi-immortal object modeled after the immortal weapon, Moral Sovereign.

Moral Sovereign was once an honorific for the most revered Sages. It later became a title for the leaders of the Confucian School, and also the name of their sacred sword. After the Confucian School was defeated, they no longer had a leader named Moral Sovereign, and the sacred sword with the same name fell into the hands of the Daoist Order, becoming the exclusive weapon of the Grand Master. Having the Holy Xuan wield the Moral Sovereign symbolized the subjugation of the Confucian School to the Daoist Order.

This dagger, modeled after Moral Sovereign, was named Yield Sovereignty.

Its secret lay not in the blade, but in the hilt.

The hilt absorbed earth qi on its own and formed the blade from it. Thus, the blade had no fixed shape. Its length and size changed at will, entirely subject to the wielder’s intent.

Of all the earth qi in the mortal realm, the Northern Dragon’s was the strongest. Wuxing Mountain was not only one of its six key nodes, but also the place where the earth qi was most volatile.

By standing here, Yao Pei could unleash the full power of this semi-immortal blade. That was why the Heavenly Beings she faced earlier were wounded on contact and killed upon touch.

Now, Yao Pei released the final restraint on Yield Sovereignty, amplifying its power even further. This time, she did not aim just to injure but to kill with a single strike.

It was not surprising for Yao Pei to possess two semi-immortal objects. Yield Sovereignty was bestowed through official channels. With the Yao family’s influence, granting a younger member such a weapon was easily done. Any excuse would suffice. There was no need for her to earn it through merit like Zhang Yuelu had.

As for the Staff of Merit, that had been gained unexpectedly. The Earthly Preceptor had merely given her a clue, and Yao Pei risked danger to retrieve it from the Tianshui Core Tower. It was more of a fateful opportunity than a planned acquisition.

That was why Star Keeper Xuanji was considered Zhang Yuelu’s first true stroke of luck. Before that, Zhang Yuelu’s had not encountered many fateful opportunities. She relied either on talent or sheer effort. After encountering the extremely lucky Qi Xuansu, her luck seemed to turn. In that sense, Qi Xuansu could be considered a bringer of fortune to his partner.

But at its core, the problem lay in the Zhang family’s lack of support for Zhang Yuelu.

Li Changge was not surprised. He spread the fingers of his right hand, revealing a seed resting in his palm.

The seed emanated the aura of life, laced faintly with sword qi.

Just as the Zhang family held the Heavenly Preceptor’s Twin Swords, the Li family also possessed two ancestral swords. One was the immortal sword Heaven Striker, wielded by successive Imperial Preceptors. The other was the semi-immortal object, Mortal Vitality, borne by the Li family’s second-in-command. Both had once been the Holy Xuan’s swords.

If one were to divide the Holy Xuan’s sword path into three stages, it would begin with Mortal Vitality, progressing to Heaven Striker, and finally culminating in Moral Sovereign.

This seed was none other than Mortal Vitality.

By all logic, Mortal Vitality should have been in the hands of Sage Qingwei, yet unexpectedly, it was in Li Changge’s possession.

Most likely, given Sage Qingwei’s level of cultivation, he could now fully wield an immortal object and no longer needed a semi-immortal one. Thus, it had been passed on early to Li Changge.

Li Changge clenched his five fingers, and the seed began to grow on its own, transforming into a meter-long wooden sword.

“Ladies first.” Li Changge assumed the opening stance of the Beidou 36 Swords.

Yao Pei said nothing. Her figure blurred and vanished. In the blink of an eye, she was already behind Li Changge.

With a backhand, Li Changge thrust out a sword strike without turning around, as if he had eyes on his back.

Mortal Vitality and Yield Sovereignty clashed.

The sharpness of Yield Sovereignty instantly carved a 2-centimeter-deep groove into the body of Mortal Vitality.

Yet Mortal Vitality was never known for its sharpness or durability. Its defining trait was its endless vitality.

In the blink of an eye, the groove on Mortal Vitality healed as if it had never been carved out, much like how a Martial Arts Practitioner’s flesh could regenerate.

Yao Pei vanished again.

Although Li Changge had begun with the opening of the Li family’s signature Beidou 36 Swords, he was in fact using the same Heavenly Blade technique.

The Taiping Qingling Sutra mimicked all paths.

Since the imitation Heavenly Blade could never rival the authentic one, Yao Pei naturally held the upper hand. Li Changge was well aware of this, so he only defended and did not attack. Moreover, while mimicking the Heavenly Blade, he also employed the mystical abilities granted by the Xuan Jade.

Unlike Qi Xuansu, who leaned toward the Martial Arts Practitioner lineage, Li Changge emphasized the Diviner lineage.

Qi Xuansu’s Diviner lineage was incomplete. He had only one foundational Thought and had never developed more. As a result, he possessed only a single yin spirit.

In theory, a fully realized Heavenly-Being Diviner could divide themself into 365 yin spirits. However, deploying them was akin to multitasking—the more divisions, the more scattered the focus. It was impossible for anyone to truly command 365 spirits simultaneously. Most could only issue simple commands to the yin spirits. The more splits, the more diluted their power, making them more vulnerable to being picked off one by one. Hence, apart from fleeing, few Diviners would deploy such a large number of yin spirits.

Li Changge’s Diviner lineage was complete. At best, he could manage four streams of Thoughts at once.

He separated two yin spirits and employed three streams of Thought. His true self wielded a sword, while the two yin spirits each operated a treasure. One yin spirit held a sacred mirror, aiming it at Yao Pei. Wherever the mirror’s light fell, it seized the soul and shook the spirit.

The other yin spirit wielded a blank Holy Xuan Card, clearly a product of the last few decades. It lacked the antiquity of traditional relics and instead bore traces of Western influence, contrasting sharply with heirloom treasures passed down through the generations. Still, the world was changing, and this too was a sign of the times.

If Yao Pei were accidentally caught by the Fallen Soul Mirror, Li Changge could seize the chance to seal her soul within the blank Holy Xuan Card, thus placing her life and death entirely in his hands.

Such tactics were useless against Martial Arts Practitioners who had achieved the unity of body and spirit. However, Yao Pei was not a Martial Arts Practitioner. She was a Banished Immortal, so she had to tread cautiously.

Fortunately, Yao Pei’s Heavenly Calculation helped her evade the mirror’s beams repeatedly with ease. She had also tried to destroy the two yin spirits, but Li Changge’s own Heavenly Calculation heavily neutralized and weakened hers. Though she still held the upper hand, she no longer predicted with perfect accuracy. With Li Changge’s true self interfering, her efforts were continually thwarted at the final moment.

The two yin spirits acted as distractions and prevented Yao Pei from focusing her assault on Li Changge himself.

After another fruitless attempt, Yao Pei still gripped Yield Sovereignty in her right hand. Without warning, a pitch-black serpent staff taller than her appeared in her left hand.

It was none other than the Staff of Merit.

Yao Pei slammed the staff into the ground beneath her. From the point of impact, a ripple expanded outward. All color drained away, leaving only black and white. Time itself froze. The two yin spirits were caught mid-motion, frozen in midair.

Li Changge’s true body was similarly frozen in place, completely immobile.

The effect lasted only a moment, but in a clash between masters, a moment was more than enough.

For most Heavenly Beings, encountering such a situation would mean certain death, save for the most resilient Martial Arts Practitioners.

In that fleeting instant, Yao Pei opted for a direct strike, attempting to kill Li Changge’s true body in one decisive blow.

A flash of cold light swept through, and Li Changge’s entire figure shattered, turning into countless tiny beads of blood that floated midair.

Though the figure looked and felt identical to Li Changge in every way, it was not his real body. This was not the Rogue Cultivator’s Cicada Molting Technique either.

The Cicada Molting Technique was still relatively easy to see through, certainly not enough to fool Yao Pei with her activated Heavenly Calculation. What Li Changge had used was a Tribulation Substitute from the Banished Immortal’s Illusory Body Technique. It was a substitute forged from the heart’s blood into flesh and bone, indistinguishable from the original body in both form and aura. This clone could absorb all kinds of curses, soul-targeting spells using hair or blood, and more. It was said that with enough refinement, rare materials, and fragments of one’s own cultivation, it could even deceive the heavens to take on a heavenly tribulation in the original body’s place. Hence, its name, the Tribulation Substitute.

If it could fool the heavens, then naturally, it could deceive Heavenly Calculation.

The greatest difference between Li Changge and Qi Xuansu was that the latter lacked the complete inheritance of Qi Refiners. Thus, his status as a manmade Banished Immortal was still incomplete. But Li Changge had assembled all lineages and already possessed the mystical abilities of a Banished Immortal.

As for how Li Changge had managed to deploy the Tribulation Substitute at the critical moment, it was not because he had predicted Yao Pei’s strike with his Heavenly Calculation. Rather, he had mimicked the Demonic Blade, reducing his reaction time to mere instinct. That was how he responded nearly simultaneously.

It was no coincidence that Li Changge had once defeated Qin Lingge, even when the latter possessed a true immortal object.

The Staff of Merit’s effects faded rapidly, and color returned to the surroundings.

Li Changge reappeared behind Yao Pei, slashing down with Mortal Vitality.

Yao Pei’s entire body exploded into a mist of blood.

As an innate Banished Immortal, she too had a Tribulation Substitute.

With both activating their Heavenly Calculation, every clash became a series of reversals upon reversals.

Yao Pei reappeared before the yin spirit holding the Fallen Soul Mirror, slashing downward with Yield Sovereignty.

Thanks to the deadly sharpness of Yield Sovereignty, the Fallen Soul Mirror was cleaved cleanly in two. However, the yin spirit gained a brief reprieve, long enough to abandon a Destiny Puppet and slip away like a cicada shedding its shell.

The so-called Destiny Puppet was a Diviner’s life-preserving technique. It had to be crafted in advance from lightning-struck yin wood, soaked in blood, and refined over three months, consuming considerable cultivation.

The other yin spirit seized the opportunity to capture one fragment of Yao Pei’s soul, sealing it within the Holy Xuan Card it held. A slightly blurred image of Yao Pei now appeared on the previously blank card.

Ordinary Heavenly Beings, even those at the Wuliang stage, would be hard-pressed to face Yao Pei’s series of attacks without injury. Yet Li Changge emerged unscathed and even managed to capture a fragment of her soul in turn. Such was the strength of the leading figure among the three Daoist prodigies.