A Pawn's Passage

Qi Xuansu again looked at the shrine before him but did not speak for a long time.

Little Yin asked curiously, “Why aren’t you saying anything? Cat got your tongue?”

Qi Xuansu replied, “I don’t know why, but I have a feeling like we’ve been here before. Behind this shrine is a cave, and if we go through the cave, we’ll see a village exactly like this one, but not in ruins.”

Little Yin was skeptical. “So you’ve been to Mount Suzuka before? Then all that surprised acting earlier was just for show?”

Qi Xuansu smiled bitterly. “That’s not what I meant. I’ve never been to Mount Suzuka. It’s just that this place feels so familiar, as if I’ve seen it in a dream.”

Little Yin said, “Oh? Do you know the Psychic Method? Well, just rip off all these talismans and open the door to see.”

Without hesitation, Qi Xuansu pulled open the door, revealing the cave behind it.

Little Yin was astonished.

Qi Xuansu took the lead and stepped inside.

The cave was pitch black, so much so that even a Heavenly Being could not see through the darkness. It was also eerily quiet, save for the dripping sound of water.

The steady drip sounded like the ticking of a clock.

“Aren’t you afraid of hitting a wall?” Little Yin asked as she followed behind Qi Xuansu.

Qi Xuansu answered, “It’s a straight path.”

When the two exited the cave into the light, Little Yin was left speechless.

That was because Qi Xuansu had already told her what they would see beforehand. She immediately recognized that this village was identical to the one in ruins outside.

Little Yin looked at Qi Xuansu in awe. “You do know the Psychic Method! That’s an incredible divine power! It often lets you foresee the future in dreams, way better than the Telepathic Technique.”

Qi Xuansu shook his head. “I often dream, but I only see Lingshan, not Mount Suzuka.”

“The legendary Ancestral Court of Ancient Wuism?” Little Yin scrutinized Qi Xuansu again. “No wonder Grandpa and them think so highly of you. You really do have a lot of secrets.”

Qi Xuansu continued, “There’s an Onmyoji in the village named Tsuchimikado Tadataka.”

Little Yin took the lead and quickly located the wandering Onmyoji.

Up to this point, all of Qi Xuansu’s “predictions” had come true.

Little Yin was at a loss for words.

Qi Xuansu stepped forward and questioned the man, “Tsuchimikado Tadataka, you came to Mount Suzuka on the Chancellor’s Office’s orders to meet Suzuka Gozen. Why have you remained here instead of returning?”

Tsuchimikado Tadataka froze on the spot.

After a long pause, Tsuchimikado Tadataka finally replied, “I cannot leave this place.”

Qi Xuansu pressed on, “Why can’t you leave?”

Tsuchimikado Tadataka answered, “Because we encountered people from the Jingu.”

Qi Xuansu’s heart stirred. This answer finally broke through the restrictions of the “dream” and did not drive Tsuchimikado Tadataka mad.

He pressed on, “Did you run into them on the way to Mount Suzuka or when leaving the mountain? This is important.”

Tsuchimikado Tadataka replied honestly, “We were ambushed by the Jingu on the way to Mount Suzuka. The one leading them was a guji at the jokai rank. But when the Jingu found us, we were already close to Mount Suzuka. We eventually fled into the mountain and sought protection from Suzuka Gozen.”

Qi Xuansu’s suspicions were finally confirmed.

The Tsuchimikado Onmyoji were not just incompetent, they were outright liabilities. They were not discovered by the Jingu on their way back, but rather before they even arrived at Mount Suzuka. They even led their pursuers straight to the mountain, completely exposing their intentions.

This was not just alerting the enemy. This was inviting a wolf into the house.

That explained the ruins outside. They were most likely the Jingu’s doing.

Under these circumstances, why would Suzuka Gozen meet with them? If Qi Xuansu were in her place, he would want to kill the lot of them too.

It was no wonder the Tsuchimikado Onmyoji, who made it back to the field camp, dared not reveal the truth. They wanted to save face and escape punishment.

It also explained why Sage Qingwei gave them the damning assessment of being utterly useless.

Qi Xuansu pondered for a moment before finally asking, “What exactly happened here?”

Tsuchimikado Tadataka once again clutched his head in both hands, and Qi Xuansu instinctively tightened his grip on Green Cloud.

However, this time, Tsuchimikado Tadataka did not transform into a ghost. Instead, he revealed an expression of fear. “The Jingu summoned a deity.”

“A deity?” Qi Xuansu repeated softly. “A divine descent...”

Qi Xuansu asked, “Which deity?”

Fenglin had Three Great Kami, who were Himiko-no-Mikoto, Susanoo-no-Mikoto, and Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto.

Since the Tenmon Sect was still in a very primitive phase of nature worship, its three main deities each symbolized concrete things.

Himiko-no-Mikoto symbolized the sun. It was said that when she concealed herself, a solar eclipse would occur and plunge the world into darkness. She was the eldest sibling and foremost of the Three Great Kami, ruling over daylight, the heavens, and the realm of Takamagahara.

Next was Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto. He symbolized the moon and ruled over the night and the underworld. He had taken over the rulership of Yomi-no-Kuni from their mother. He was the middle brother.

Lastly, Susanoo-no-Mikoto symbolized the sea, ruling the oceans, the human world, and Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni. He once tried to open the gates of Yomi to retrieve his mother, for which he was exiled. After wreaking havoc in Takamagahara and being exiled again, he eventually made his name by slaying the Yamata-no-Orochi. He was the youngest sibling among the three.

During the previous assassination attempt on Toyotomi Hidemochi, the one who descended was Himiko-no-Mikoto’s human incarnation.

Tsuchimikado Tadataka was silent for a long while before he finally said in a whisper, “It was Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto.”

Since Tsuchimikado Tadataka always needed a long time to recall, time passed, and the sky had already filled with rippling multicolored radiance.

Qi Xuansu instinctively looked up, just in time to see a round moon quietly peeking out from behind clouds of eerie hue.

The bright moon was reflected in Qi Xuansu’s eyes, like the moon in a well.

At that moment, it was as if something had been triggered. Qi Xuansu’s Longevity Stone Heart allowed him to recall the previous scenes—the shrine, the cave, the village, Tsuchimikado Tadataka, the mountain peak hidden in mist, the shimmering sky, and the moon lurking behind the clouds.

Those hazy memories that felt like dreams suddenly became vivid and real.

It turned out that these were not dreams at all. They were his actual experiences, merely repeated three times. Though the details differed slightly each time, each cycle ended with the moon’s appearance and began with his approach to the shrine, as if trapped in an endlessly looping circle.

The reason Qi Xuansu could retain part of his memory at the end of each cycle, while Little Yin could not, was that he possessed the Longevity Stone Heart.

This extraordinary construct that had changed Qi Xuansu’s fate not only extended his vitality but also preserved his soul. When True Lord Ziguang used him as a vessel for her divine descent, Qi Xuansu remained unaffected due to the Longevity Stone Heart. Thus, it made sense that it would help him retain memory now.

Without the Longevity Stone Heart, Qi Xuansu would have been lost in the endlessly repeating cycle, unaware of it all, until his Three Corpses took hold and he perished of exhaustion, sitting in meditation unto death.

Just as Qi Xuansu recovered his memory, the moon above grew ever brighter, its infinite light devouring everything.

The third cycle ended.

Qi Xuansu stood before the shrine for the fourth time.

This time, he retained all his memories and understood everything that had occurred during the previous three rounds.

The key now was to figure out how to escape this endless loop.

Qi Xuansu carefully recalled his three previous experiences. Each restart was linked to the appearance of the moon, and its timing seemed fixed. In other words, regardless of what Qi Xuansu did—whether he killed Tsuchimikado Tadataka or spared him—once that fixed time arrived, the cycle would automatically restart and repeat endlessly.

With his current cultivation level, Qi Xuansu was unable to reach that moon.

Put differently, Qi Xuansu had to break the cycle within the limited time available.

But where exactly was that breakthrough point?

Qi Xuansu first attempted to retreat and leave this place. But he encountered the same situation as in the first cycle. When he and Little Yin tried to fly to the peak of Mount Suzuka, they found themselves trapped in a never-ending illusion. Though the peak seemed just ahead, it remained forever out of reach. Eventually, time ran out, and the rewind began again. This time was no different. The ruins stretched endlessly, and no matter how far he walked, he could not escape this place. He had to wait until the moon appeared, triggering the next rewind.

During the fifth cycle, Qi Xuansu dismantled the shrine and destroyed the talismans affixed to it.

However, nothing changed.

Qi Xuansu had no choice but to enter the cave once more.

Little Yin was completely dumbfounded.

That was because she had no memory of the previous loops. From her point of view, the always-cautious Qi Xuansu had suddenly changed his temperament. He did not care about danger or strangeness anymore. Without saying a word, he dismantled the shrine and walked straight into the cave.

Little Yin froze for a moment, then quickly followed after him.

The cave still echoed with that repetitive dripping sound, which made Qi Xuansu increasingly irritable.

He quickened his pace and rushed out of the cave, wasting not a second. Gone was the sentiment of reminiscing about The Peach Blossom Spring. He quickly entered the village and found Tsuchimikado Tadataka.

Qi Xuansu asked directly, “Tsuchimikado Tadataka, what exactly did Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto do here?”

Since too many steps had been skipped this time, Tsuchimikado Tadataka fell into a long silence before finally replying, “Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto’s divine power descended here.”

Qi Xuansu continued, “Then what’s the deal with the talismans on the shrine outside?”

Tsuchimikado Tadataka countered with a question, “What talismans?”

Qi Xuansu had kept one of the talismans when he destroyed the shrine. He now held it up in front of Tsuchimikado Tadataka.

Tsuchimikado Tadataka’s eyes momentarily glazed over. “This...this is a talisman of the Tsuchimikado School.”

Qi Xuansu looked again at the talisman in his hand and saw a subtle pentagram mark, which was the emblem of the Tsuchimikado School.

That meant the Tsuchimikado Onmyoji had sealed the shrine when they left. No wonder Tsuchimikado Tadataka said he was abandoned by his companions.

But how did the Tsuchimikado Onmyoji manage to escape this place? And why would they leave Tsuchimikado Tadataka behind?