A Pawn's Passage

The Daoists had a saying that when the senses and the mind were properly aligned, then even spirits would come to dwell. Later, when Buddhism spread eastward, it borrowed Daoist terminology and created the Buddhist Six Supernormal Powers: Psychic Powers, Divine Sight, Divine Hearing, Telepathy, Recollection of Past Lives, and Eradication of Defilements.

Qi Xuansu had studied the beginner form of the Telepathic Technique.

The Eye of Destiny was based on the Taishang Emotionless Sutra, merging Recollection of Past Lives with the Divine Sight.

Divine Sight allowed one to perceive the flow of qi, true essence, and divine power within another’s body, seeing through every acupoint. Recollection of Past Lives opened the hidden storehouse of karmic wisdom and refined the soul, not only greatly enhancing comprehension but also enabling glimpses of the future in dreams.

If it were merely Recollection of Past Lives alone, one might know what would happen but not why. It was vague and inexplicable, like waking from a fragmented dream. But when combined with Heavenly Calculation and Divine Sight, these predictions became controllable. This fusion was called Eye of Destiny.

In Yao Pei’s vision, countless thin lines appeared across the oguji’s body, each glowing a different color, representing a possible future. Choosing one line would lead to one outcome, and another to a different fate. They were called causal lines.

Compared to the purely mathematical deductions of Heavenly Calculation, the Eye of Destiny went further, using Divine Sight to see and Recollection of Past Lives to foresee. Every causal line intertwined and formed points—dead knots, or vital points—where innate qi and true essence converged.

Those who wielded the Demonic Blade could not actually see these points. They could only sense them instinctively and strike. But with the Eye of Destiny, Yao Pei could clearly see them.

Although these points shifted constantly, their positions changed with dizzying speed. Thankfully, to Yao Pei, who had excellent calculating ability, this was not at all daunting.

Under normal circumstances, Yao Pei’s cultivation level made it difficult to discern the oguji’s dead knots. Even the causal lines would flicker faintly, indistinct and blurred. But with Li Changge’s help, the oguji had been forced into the raging state of the Five Aggregates. As a result, the causal lines representing countless possible futures suddenly became sharply visible. One dead knot appeared, constantly shifting its position.

This shifting followed a pattern. The flow of innate qi and divine power was never truly chaotic. Yao Pei swiftly calculated and predicted the trajectory of the dead knot, then hurled a flying dagger that was as swift as lightning.

A streak of light split the air, faster even than a flying sword.

This was no ordinary blade, but the semi-immortal object, Yield Sovereignty.

The blade was modeled after the immortal sword, Moral Sovereign. Its true secret lay not in the blade itself, but in its hilt.

The hilt absorbed earth qi on its own, then shaped it into a blade. Thus, the blade had no fixed form. It could lengthen or shorten, grow massive or shrink small, shifting entirely according to the wielder’s will.

At this moment, deep within the belly of Mount Omikami, there was no shortage of earth qi. Yao Pei condensed the blade of Yield Sovereignty into the length of a dagger. This strike’s penetrating power reached its peak, piercing straight through the oguji’s fractured golden body and hitting the dead knot squarely.

The oguji never expected Yao Pei to strike so accurately at the critical node of divine power within his body. It was like slamming a floodgate into a raging river, forcibly suppressing its flow. Since Yield Sovereignty was a semi-immortal object infused with immense earth qi, it was not something he could simply destroy.

If given just a little more time, he could have relied on his Pseudo-Immortal cultivation to expel the embedded blade from his body.

Unfortunately, he did not have the luxury of time.

While Li Changge and Yao Pei employed every method at their disposal to restrain the oguji, Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu had already prepared their second twin sword strike.

Neither of them spared the cost. Zhang Yuelu swallowed a Six Qi Pill worth 10,000 Taiping coins, while Qi Xuansu burned through divine power of nearly equal value. Counting his previous expenditures, he now had barely 5,000 marks of divine power left.

The vast sword light descended once more, engulfing the oguji.

When the radiance finally dissipated, the oguji’s figure emerged again. His golden body was shattered beyond recognition, his body bloodied and gory.

Fortunately for the Daoist prodigies, the oguji was a Shaman with a frail body, not a Martial Arts Practitioner. Had he been a Pseudo-Immortal Martial Arts Practitioner, killing him would have been far more difficult even if he were to stand still and allow them to strike.

In Yao Pei’s vision, the causal lines upon the oguji’s body grew ever clearer.

Yao Pei drew two Dragon Painting Pistols and fired with both hands. Every shot was loaded with a Grade-A Series Seven Dragon Eye Bullet. After two shots, she reloaded the gun with one hand at dazzling speed, repeating the firing and reloading until she had unleashed 20 shots in the blink of an eye. Each round cost 400 Taiping coins, so 20 rounds amounted to 8,000 Taiping coins.

Li Changge disliked firearms. Instead, he scattered countless Five Thunder Talismans as casually as tossing funeral paper at a procession. On the black market, each of these talismans cost 1,000 Taiping coins and was often purchased by Jianghu swordsmen as life-saving treasures. Yet Li Changge squandered them without a second thought.

The talismans exploded one after another, each transforming into bolts of lightning as thick as an adult woman’s wrist, cascading down to form a forest of thunderbolts.

In the blink of an eye, the four prodigies had already spent more than 40,000 Taiping coins.

However, their investment paid off. The results were undeniable.

The oguji no longer had his golden body, nor could he manifest his Spiritual Body. Thus, the accumulated damage left him gravely wounded. The speed at which he tried to pull Mortal Vitality from his chest grew slower and slower.

At that moment, the oguji suddenly snapped his head toward Yao Pei. The moment their gaze met, a scorching brilliance shot out from his eyes, blazing like the sun.

In the next instant, Yao Pei’s head exploded. Shards of bone and brain matter splattered everywhere, while the headless corpse sprayed blood skyward like a fountain.

Since Shamans sacrificed physical strength, it was only natural that they were compensated in other ways.

With his Pseudo-Immortal cultivation, a single glance was enough to kill a Wuliang-stage Heavenly Being. This was something no Martial Arts Practitioner could ever hope to match.

However, Yao Pei’s figure appeared intact a short distance away, while the headless corpse slowly dissipated. It had only been a Banished Immortal’s Tribulation Substitute.

With Heavenly Calculation and the Eye of Destiny, Yao Pei had naturally foreseen the oguji’s attempt and successfully evaded it.

Seizing the moment, Li Changge produced a sword box. With a slap of his hand, countless tiny flying swords as fine as ox hair shot out in dense layers. Hundreds upon thousands of them gathered like a torrential rain of blades, piercing into the oguji’s body.

In terms of resources, Li Changge truly commanded immeasurable wealth. Beyond semi-immortal objects, he lacked no treasures.

The oguji, wounded once more, turned his gaze upon Li Changge. The sea and the moon appeared in each of the oguji’s eyes, radiating an overwhelming chill.

In an instant, Li Changge became a lifelike ice sculpture.

The sculpture shattered the next moment, crumbling into snow.

Like Yao Pei, Li Changge reappeared unharmed a short distance away. The shattered ice sculpture had also been a Tribulation Substitute.

Though Li Changge did not employ Heavenly Calculation or the Taiping Qingling Sutra, his Longevity Stone Heart differed from Qi Xuansu’s, granting him sudden premonitions of danger and allowing him to evade in advance.

Clearly, luck was not on the oguji’s side. He faced only Banished Immortals and ones capable of foreseeing danger. Against anyone else, his two strikes would already have turned the tide.

At that moment, Zhang Yuelu swallowed a second Six Qi Pill, instantly restoring all her true essence, while Qi Xuansu continued burning through his divine power.

In truth, the couple were nearing their limits, crushed beneath the weight of the Heavenly Preceptor’s Twin Swords. Their bodies were like fractured porcelain, with cracks spreading and blood seeping through. Their souls teetered on collapse, battered into chaos by the immense sword intention, leaving them with only a final thread of clarity and instinct.

However, they still pushed themselves to unleash a third strike, fighting with their all.

The third sword light descended once more.

Slaying a Zaohua-stage Heavenly Being would usually require only one strike from the twin swords. This Pseudo-Immortal suffered three such strikes, which made his death far from unjust.

Beneath the sword light, the oguji’s body stretched and lengthened, like a shadow drawn thin under the night, growing longer and fainter until it vanished completely into the light.

The first two sword lights had struck directly upon the oguji but had failed to kill him because the range was limited.

This time, the sword light illuminated the entire belly of the mountain.

Countless torii gates and the remaining Tenmon Sect shinkan were consumed by the expanding sword light, erased without a trace.

The sword light spread all the way to the outer section of the Ise-jingu before gradually weakening and dissipating.

When the sword light finally faded, only Mortal Vitality and Yield Sovereignty remained. Half of the oguji’s mutilated head fell to the ground, a single lifeless eye staring at the four young Daoists, his lips faintly trembling.

Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu dropped from midair, forced to brace themselves on their immortal swords while kneeling on one knee to keep from collapsing outright.

Yao Pei’s eyes were still pure white as she checked whether the oguji might be feigning death.

A moment later, her eyes returned to normal. Retrieving Yield Sovereignty, she declared, “This is our first time slaying a Pseudo-Immortal, and it will not be the last.”

Li Changge likewise retrieved Mortal Vitality that was charred. He poured divine power into it, helping to heal it slowly, like dead wood coming to life again.

In the future, when these four rose to positions of power in the Daoist Order, this battle would be recorded as part of their chronicles. At least then, this fallen oguji would have his name etched into Daoist history.

After regaining some strength, Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu supported each other to stand.

Qi Xuansu was in somewhat better shape since he had the physique of a Martial Arts Practitioner. Though his body was relatively intact, his soul was battered, and his mind was dazed.

Zhang Yuelu’s injuries were far more severe. A Banished Immortal’s body could not compare to a Martial Arts Practitioner’s. She had also never cultivated body-strengthening methods. Though she tried to endure and support Qi Xuansu, she soon fell limp into his arms, as if she had no bones.

Qi Xuansu rarely carried healing pills himself, but he deftly opened Zhang Yuelu’s magical receptacle and retrieved a Zaohua Rebirth Pill worth about 20,000 Taiping coins each and fed it carefully into her mouth.

Her breathing steadied immediately, but she still leaned against Qi Xuansu, her eyes shut tight.