A Pawn's Passage

Neither the Vairocana, nor the Three Noble Children, nor even the Daoists led by Sage Qingwei could slay Izanagi, but a Heavenly Tribulation did.

This time, Izanagi was truly dead.

The immediate effect was stark. Half his divine kingdom collapsed, which marked his second death. All that he left behind was a name. When memory of him faded from the world, that would be his third death—true obliteration.

As Izanagi’s divine kingdom collapsed, the Three Yin Beings withdrew through the yin-yang rift back into the Ghost Kingdom.

The Sakka carried Qi Xuansu and followed Sage Qingwei out. Later, this pinnacle of creation returned on its own. Though it did not have consciousness, it retained instincts befitting a manmade god.

The Great Tengu, Tamamo-no-Mae, and Princess Himiya Akiko immediately sensed the Sakka’s presence, feeling its awe-inspiring pressure, greater even than Sage Qingwei’s.

The Sakka was unlike any living being, so the Great Yokai of Fenglin did not realize that he was the legendary manmade god.

Instead, they concluded that another Daoist Immortal had arrived at a critical time.

That was why they dared not betray the alliance mid-battle. The Daoists sending only two Immortals into the field did not mean they had only two. They could always dispatch more reinforcements when necessary.

The Sakka’s very presence was proof of this. Someone stronger than Sage Qingwei had joined the fray.

Soon, they also noticed Sage Qingwei’s unusual condition.

The Sage Commander wielded three divine artifacts! In Daoist terms, that was three immortal objects.

Such was the foundation of the Daoist Order’s dominance in the East. The Imperial Capital was an extension of Jade Capital because the imperial family of the Great Xuan Dynasty was once the Northern Sect of the old Daoist Order.

In truth, the two were one body. The Great Xuan Emperor sought to intervene in Jade Capital affairs not to abolish the Daoist Order, but to seize more power, reclaiming the Son of Heaven title so as to become the sole sovereign of the Central Plains. Legally, this defied the pact made by the Holy Xuan and Emperor Gaozu, but it was not wholly unreasonable. It could not be deemed as outside interference because the Emperor was one of the only two superlative Daoists besides the Grand Master.

Most crucially, the Emperor had the Taiping Sect as his ally.

Unlike the others, Zhang Qihan, as the Great Sage of the Fenglin Daoist Mansion, was privy to the inner workings of the Daoist Order. At a glance, he recognized the Sakka. So even without Sage Qingwei’s explanation, he already pieced together that the Quanzhen Sect and the Zhengyi Sect had intervened in this mission. However, what he could not figure out was how they had smuggled the Sakka into Izanagi’s sealed divine kingdom.

But the moment Zhang Qihan’s eyes fell on Qi Xuansu, he instantly understood.

The other Longevity-stage Immortals also noticed the young man standing beside the Sakka.

Tamamo-no-Mae had crossed paths with Qi Xuansu briefly, but the Great Tengu and Princess Himiya Akiko did not know of his existence. However, that did not lessen their shock. That was because seeing a mere Wuliang-stage Heavenly Being in a clash between Immortals was like spotting a child in the midst of armored warriors brawling. A single stumble from any party could easily trample him dead, yet this “child” remained unscathed. This was what made it bizarre.

However, seeing how natural Sage Qingwei and Zhang Qihan looked, showing no intent to send the young man away, the three Immortals were forced to re-examine Qi Xuansu in a new light.

Soon, they all noticed the peculiar link between Qi Xuansu and the Sakka.

Unbelievable as it was, they could see that the Sakka seemed to be this young man’s attendant.

Was he perhaps some secret heir of a Grand Master?

The nine dragons about Sage Qingwei gradually faded. Still gripping the Mountain Whip, he cast a distant glance at the Yinglong Warship bearing the golden husk before turning to Qi Xuansu. “The Holy Court harbors ill intent. Who’s to say they won’t strike again?”

Qi Xuansu asked, “What do you think, Sage? Should we retaliate in kind?”

Sage Qingwei paused, then replied, “Do not dance to another’s tune. Let them fight their battles. I’ll fight ours.”

Qi Xuansu nodded in dawning comprehension.

One day, Qi Xuansu would also govern a region, so dealings with Westerners would be unavoidable. Whatever Sage Qingwei’s factional stance, the underlying principle remained the same.

The Westerners only dared act so brazenly because they had prepared contingencies and laid traps. The Daoist Order would only fall into the Westerners’ snare if they retaliated, so the wiser path was to shift the battlefield and strike from an angle they had not foreseen.

This thought led Qi Xuansu to recall the famed stratagem of Vertical and Horizontal Alliances devised by the School of Diplomacy.

In those days, the world was divided into seven states, with the First Emperor’s state being the mightiest of all.

The Vertical Alliance meant uniting the weak to resist the strong.

A master strategist once bore the seals of the Six States, binding them into an alliance. For fifteen years, the First Emperor’s state dared not march past the Hangu Pass. Such was the strength of the Vertical Alliance.

But after the First Emperor’s death, another master strategist arose from that state, proposing a Horizontal Alliance.

Horizontal meant aligning with the strong to subdue the weak.

The key to breaking the Vertical Alliance was not forming a new grand coalition, but negotiating separately with each state. Each only needed to ally with the First Emperor’s state for the alliance to crumble.

This was the classic example of everyone fighting their own battles.

If one were to follow the enemy’s rhythm, one would form a counter-alliance, pitting against each other, a struggle of mutual destruction. Against a foe who was already one step ahead, such a move was unwise.

Thus, one must move to one’s own rhythm by cooperating with different forces in different ways, without forcing them into a single camp.

The Daoist Order had mastered this art. They never sought to make the New World as a vassal and only wanted to use them to restrain the Holy Court. With their interests aligned, an agreement came naturally.

The Daoist Order had also not tried to claim West Shakya. Instead, they encouraged rebellion, urging the people to fight the Holy Court’s tyranny for their own independence.

Yet the rebels of West Shakya and those of the New World were never allies. They were not even connected at all. The Daoist Order also never forced them into some anti-Holy Court coalition.

This echoed the teachings of the Primordial Daoist Ancestor that only by not contending could no one contend against you.

On the surface, the Daoist Order and the Holy Court still seemed like friends.

Thus, there was a saying that the highest strategy targeted plans, the next best at alliances, and after that, at armies. The Daoist Order deployed an army to Fenglin due to internal pressures, not a failure of strategy.

The Holy Court grew anxious, yet had no concrete target, so they struck at the Daoist Order, seeking to provoke them into an alliance-against-alliance warfare. Their meddling in Fenglin was not the first time, nor would it be the last.

As Sage Qingwei mentioned, the Daoist Order would never stoop to copying the Holy Court’s tricks by staging a shady move on the latter’s territory. That would be falling into their trap.

For years, the Holy Court spread slander of the Daoist calamity, portraying the East as a menace to the West and urging Westerners to unite against it. They even produced a famous painting of a winged Apostle symbolizing the Holy Court leading seven Valkyries, representing the Western nations, to stand against an Eastern dragon with an Easterner on its back. The piece was titled “Roar of the Evil Dragon.”

The Daoist Order and the Holy Court were both players. While the Holy Court played Chess, the Daoist Order played Go. One favored blunt force, while the other favored vertical and horizontal alliances.

Qi Xuansu felt deeply moved. Whatever the rivalry of factions, he had to admit that he had learned a lot in following Sage Qingwei to pacify Fenglin. He learned how one should govern a region and how to think from a bigger perspective rather than be shackled by a single corner of the board.

The old days of the Celestial Empire’s supremacy had lasted so long that the Warring States’ strategies were forgotten. But now, as the East and the West clashed, ushering in a great upheaval unseen in three millennia, those long-buried doctrines of vertical and horizontal alliances revived.

These strategies were not invincible. Their power lay in the Daoist Order’s ability to stand equal with the Holy Court, thus leaving room for maneuver. Had the Holy Xuan not unified the Daoist sects and had the Daoist Order not risen to dominance in the East, then no stratagem would prevail at the Holy Court’s arrival. It would only be a replay of the Golden Horde conquering the Central Plains—a humiliating loss of sovereignty.

However, concrete decisions must pass through the Golden Tower Council’s deliberation. Sage Qingwei did not linger on the topic. Instead, he said, “To guard against another ambush by the Holy Court, the Yinglong Warship transporting these remains must be heavily protected. Since I must handle Fenglin’s affairs and cannot leave at will, I will have to ask you to escort it to Jade Capital, Deputy Hall Master Qi.”

Qi Xuansu had not expected Sage Qingwei to kick him out of Fenglin so smoothly. But this order was reasonable.

He could only bow and oblige. “Yes, Sage Commander.”