A Pawn's Passage

Qi Xuansu agreed to let Shangguan Ya send the pill to Madam Qi using the Five Ghost Transport Method. He then personally contacted Madam Qi, urging her to take the matter seriously by subtly hinting that he had already made full payment to Shangguan Ya.

Madam Qi readily agreed. Even if not for Qi Xuansu’s sake, she had to honor the payment. Thus, she promised an answer within three days at the latest.

Qi Xuansu had no choice but to wait. Meanwhile, he told Shangguan Ya to stabilize the King’s condition. At the very least, she had to keep him alive.

Shangguan Ya had anticipated this and had come prepared. After administering a pill produced by the Eight Tribes, the King remained unconscious, but his qi and blood finally began to circulate slowly.

She mentioned that it was impossible for the King to return to full health. But maintaining his life would not be difficult.

Qi Xuansu no longer had the luxury to care about recovery. Keeping him alive was enough. Besides, the King also bore responsibility for throwing the Yu Court into this current mess.

He had a growing premonition that as he dug deeper, the mastermind was also accelerating their plans.

Perhaps Chen Shuhua’s sudden appearance at the royal palace was because she had sensed something. She was not there to test him, nor to admire his blade. That was probably a distraction, or a deliberate misdirection.

So, if Chen Shuhua willingly produced a real pill, was it meant to pacify him or delay him?

A fake pill would not fool or stall him. By giving him a real pill, Chen Shuhua took a huge risk, but she knew it would divert his attention, forcing him to study the components of the pill. Meanwhile, she could push forward with her own plans at full speed.

Qi Xuansu’s only advantage now was that Chen Shuhua and the others did not know about the Eight Tribes. They probably assumed that Qi Xuansu could not analyze the pill himself and would need Huasheng Hall’s help, specifically Huasheng Hall’s headquarters in Jade Capital. This would take time.

Even Shangguan Ya had admitted that she needed proper equipment to analyze it. So Chen Shuhua’s prediction was not wrong per se.

But Qi Xuansu had the support of the Eight Tribes and Madam Qi, who was no less than Xu Dacheng and much closer than Jade Capital. Thus, the timeline shortened drastically.

If Chen Shuhua predicted seven days, but Qi Xuansu needed only three, then the remaining four days became his unexpected advantage.

Thinking this through heightened Qi Xuansu’s sense of urgency. He immediately summoned Chen Jianqiu again.

He gave Chen Jianqiu one task—she was to find Sikong Guang within three days, alive or dead. She could either use her status as a princess or invoke the special channels of the Ziguang Society.

On the other hand, Chen Jianchou brought Qi Xuansu a piece of good news.

He had discovered a crucial lead by reviewing the secret archives of the Green Phoenix Guard Office.

A few years back, the Yu King personally issued a classified order to the Green Phoenix Guard to secretly excavate a grand tomb outside the city. It was the same spot where Chen Jianchou later discovered the red-robed Bodhisattva.

Following this trail, Chen Jianchou uncovered several additional commands the King had issued. First, he ordered the Green Phoenix Guard to secretly escort large groups of craftsmen to the tomb. They were then ordered to locate auspicious feng shui nodes around the tomb. Finally, all persons involved in the tomb excavation were to be executed, and all documents destroyed.

However, the officials in charge, seeking to protect themselves, secretly kept the records. No one expected that years later, someone would forcibly seize the Green Phoenix Guard Office and expose these documents to the world.

Since Thanglong Prefecture sat upon the Southern Dragon’s main node, these feng shui sites were just minor branches of dragon qi. Chen Jianchou discovered that they corresponded exactly to the burial sites of the seven chief eunuchs.

After listening to the report, Qi Xuansu fell into a long, heavy silence.

By this point, many things were already clear. The earlier doubts could finally be resolved.

The biggest question was, why had the Yu royal palace been infiltrated so deeply? That was because there was a traitor inside.

This traitor was not Queen Dowager Yang E, nor Princess Chen Jianqiu. It was the King of the Yu Kingdom himself.

Silently killing seven powerful chief eunuchs was easier for the King than for anyone else. Though the King could not control dragon qi, he could decide where that dragon qi was allocated.

These eunuchs were utterly loyal to him. So when he decided they had to die, they had virtually no means of resisting.

Outwardly, the King adored his daughter Chen Jianqiu. But internally, he guarded against her. He pretended to follow Buddhism, deceiving both the Daoist Mansion and his daughter. But the Bodhisattva he worshipped was not the Buddhist one. Instead, it was the red-robed Bodhisattva, which was Wu Luo’s incarnation. The Buddha he worshipped was the white-robed Buddha, which was True Lord Siming’s incarnation.

The Ancient Immortals had once cooperated with the Buddhist Sect to resist the Daoist Order, so each had a Buddhist counterpart and image.

In the end, the Yu King had personally orchestrated the divine descent of two Ancient Immortals through the Southern Dragon.

Queen Dowager Yang E’s plight was also connected to the King.

Chen Jianqiu once said that Yang E’s beliefs were chaotic and mixed, which meant she was not devout at all. Changing faiths was nothing out of the ordinary for her. Thus, with a bit of guidance, she could easily be directed into worshipping an Ancient Immortal.

Yang E’s role was simple. She was a decoy. If things were exposed and investigators discovered that all the deceased eunuchs had visited Changning Palace, and that the Queen Dowager was an Ancient-Immortal believer, it would be easy to conclude that she was the mastermind. In that case, no one would suspect the King.

However, Chen Jianqiu still picked up on certain clues. She never imagined her father to be the mastermind. Instead, she assumed it was Chen Shuhua’s doing. So she contacted Qi Xuansu, who got involved. Through Xu Jiaorong, Chen Jianchou began his investigation.

This disrupted their plans and caused the two Ancient Immortals to clash with Great Sage Lan earlier than intended.

On that thought, Qi Xuansu overturned his own hypothesis.

Chen Jianqiu’s involvement was also within the King’s expectations.

Or rather, this did not disrupt their plan. Great Sage Lan fighting the two Ancient Immortals might not have been planned, but once it happened, it benefited them, so they happily went along with it.

With Great Sage Lan gravely wounded and unable to control Poluo’s situation for a while, they had free rein to do as they pleased.

What they did not expect was Qi Xuansu stabilizing the Poluo Daoist Mansion so quickly. Instead of one faction dominating, two factions ended up restraining each other.

So, they tried to use their puppet Yang E to kill Qi Xuansu. But they failed.

Naturally, this raised new questions.

If the Yu King was the mastermind, why had he willingly become a living corpse?

He eliminated his own loyal subordinates, used his mother as a disposable pawn, and even harmed himself. What was the purpose of all this?

What role did Chen Shuhua play? Was she just waiting to reap the benefits? Or were there multiple layers to this? Could it be that while the King used the Queen Dowager as a cover, Chen Shuhua used the King as her cover?

Unfortunately, with the evidence Qi Xuansu currently held, he still could not pin the blame on Chen Shuhua. Her only visible crime was attempting to murder the King.

But that directly contradicted the fact that the King himself was the mastermind. This ironically cleared her name. Unless one insisted she was silencing the King to cut off loose ends.

But would one really use such a unique pill to silence the King? Though the Daoist Order had cultivated more Refined Jade Trees, it was still considered precious, not something ordinary people could obtain.

With only this, Qi Xuansu had no way to deliver a fatal blow to Chen Shuhua. So all he could do was wait.

The next day, Chen Jianqiu also sent word. Although she had not captured Sikong Guang, she had used the Ziguang Society’s special channels to uncover his true identity.

Sikong Guang was actually a member of the Cult of Fates.

After the seven chief eunuchs died, he entered the palace disguised as a eunuch and acted as a messenger for the Yu King, mainly overseeing the Green Phoenix Guard and executing the divine descent.

This was not something Chen Jianqiu had intentionally concealed before. The Ziguang Society lost three people to obtain this information. All of them were undercover agents planted within the Cult of Fates.

This was not surprising. Although the Cult of Fates was a heretical cult, heretics were still human, and these men still desired women.

Many of the Lingshan Witch Cult members originally worshipped Wu Luo because they wanted to use forbidden arts to indulge their desires. Thus, this created opportunities for the Ziguang Society.

The Ziguang Society’s intelligence network was expansive, making them a special secret society. Unlike the Lingshan Witch Cult and the Cult of Fates, the Ziguang Society did not cause large-scale disturbances, hold blood sacrifices, or harvest souls. But their ability to infiltrate any organization was terrifying. Even high-ranking Daoist officials could fall prey to them.

This was one of the reasons why the Ziguang Society was listed among the Three Major Secret Societies.

From this, it was clear that Chen Jianqiu’s status in the Ziguang Society was not low. She might even be considered a future high-ranking member in training.

This made Qi Xuansu curious about how the princess joined the Ziguang Society. However, now was not the time to dwell on that.

Qi Xuansu had a feeling that he would soon have to confront Chen Shuhua directly.

For now, he still needed to await Madam Qi’s reply to learn what that pill was capable of.

During this period, Qi Xuansu assigned more Spirit Guards to the royal palace to stand watch over the bedridden Yu King, treating him almost like a prisoner.

At the same time, Qi Xuansu held a secret meeting with Xu Jiaorong, Spirit Guard Jia Yin, Spirit Guard Ding Chou, and some others, dispatching people to closely monitor Chen Shuhua and her associates to guard against any unforeseen developments.