A Pawn's Passage

Any of these—colluding with an Ancient Immortal, stealing dragon qi, arranging a blood formation, refining a Longevity Stone, and opposing the Golden Tower Council—alone were enough for anyone to be executed. One did not even need to succeed, as merely intending such acts was already a monstrous crime. Astonishingly, Chen Shuhua had achieved all of them. Having come this far, there truly was no turning back.

She committed these crimes to pursue immortality.

Many people criticized Daoists for scheming, fighting for power, chasing ranks and fame, wasting heaven’s gifts, and neglecting their proper path. The reason was that most Daoists simply knew that they could not attain immortality.

Human life spanned 100 years, regardless of whether one spent the century in restraint or in indulgence.

Some Daoists feared laboring their whole lives and enduring every hardship for a century, only to miss out on life’s pleasures.

Meanwhile, those who wielded power and lived in lavish enjoyment also lived 100 years.

The hardworking ones would feel they had labored for nothing, lamenting that immortality was just an illusion. Meanwhile, others would think that they had lived their life to the fullest.

It was human nature to compare oneself to another, but this would inevitably make one feel like they were at a loss somehow.

Thus, most people would realize early on that they lacked the talent to pursue immortality, so they would abandon the thought altogether and choose instead to live an exciting life.

Since the Daoist Order adopted the Nine-Rank System, the higher one’s position, the greater the resources. The Daoist Order could even create Immortals, so if one climbed high enough, say to the Grand Master’s position, even a talentless cripple could become an Immortal with enough resources.

Of course, this created a paradox. Those who needed resources to become an Immortal would never qualify to become the Grand Master. Those who could become the Grand Master did not need many resources to attain immortality.

That said, there were only a few truly talentless people, as the Daoist Order gathered gifted people from across the world. Most were considered prodigies in mortal eyes.

Among them were many who hovered at the boundary, not guaranteed immortality but not without hope either. With concentrated resources, they could succeed. But without such resources, they could not. Thus, these people were compelled to fight for higher positions.

Chen Shuhua was precisely one of those at the borderline to immortality. She had the backing of the Yu royal family and resources from the Daoist Mansion. Thus, her cultivation advanced at breakneck speed. Before reaching sixty, she had already become a Pseudo-Immortal, not far off from the Three Daoist Heirs.

However, her ascent stopped because her political career had reached its ceiling.

Though the three Daoist sects fought internally, they would never allow a member of the Yu royal family to enter the Golden Tower Council. Since the Holy Xuan Era, the Daoist Order had never fully trusted powerful royal families of vassal states.

The Daoist Order only trusted two kinds of people—those of common birth raised in the Wanxiang Daoist Palace, like Qi Xuansu, and those from old Daoist aristocratic lineages, like Zhang Yuelu.

The Yu King had once said that Chen Shuhua should not have been merely a Chief Deputy Mansion Master and ought to have been at least a Mansion Master. Judging solely by cultivation, he was not wrong.

Thus, when blocked at the border of immortality, Chen Shuhua would either lose heart or grow resentful.

Clearly, Chen Shuhua chose the latter. She took a dangerous risk by colluding with secret societies to pursue immortality using any means necessary.

One way to do that was to use Longevity Stones. Wu Luo, being one of the Ten Great Witches of Lingshan and the last leader of Ancient Wuism knew the method for refining Longevity Stones. It was not even a tightly held secret, as the Shamanistic Sect still preserved fragments of it.

To the Daoist Order, the true classified secrets were the second-generation Longevity Stone refined by the Six Enlightened Witches and the Order’s own improved third-generation version.

Strictly speaking, between the first and second generations, there had been an unsuccessful intermediate version.

Wu Yang did not participate in the refinement of the first-generation Longevity Stone, also known as the Undying Elixir. The result was disastrous—Yayu lost his mind and became a monster.

This failure led to the separation of the Ten Great Witches. Five of them, led by Wu Peng, left Lingshan. Together with Wu Yang, who had always wandered outside, they formed the Six Enlightened Witches and traveled to Kunlun, where they refined the second-generation Longevity Stone. This was the most perfect version, capable of helping Immortals survive a heavenly tribulation.

The five Great Witches who remained at Lingshan did not idle either. Led by Wu Xian, they attempted their own improvements on the first-generation Longevity Stone, which was the intermediate version. Since they lacked several crucial ingredients that were only found within Kunlun Paradise, the intermediate version also failed.

Wu Xian personally tested this elixir and fell into madness. She was then slain by the other four Great Witches, including Wu Luo. They buried Wu Xian in the Nether Valley, and Wu Luo succeeded as the leader of Ancient Wuism.

However, they soon encountered the rising genius, the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor. With only four of them remaining, they were no match for him. Thus, Wu Luo and the remaining witches perished, Lingshan was destroyed, and in the end, Daoism replaced Ancient Wuism. Had all Eleven Great Witches banded together, the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor would have been the one who perished.

Wu Luo had two methods of refining Longevity Stones—the first-generation version that turned Yayu into a monster and the intermediate version that drove Wu Xian mad.

The Ancient Immortal had given the second method to Chen Shuhua.

Naturally, Chen Shuhua would not repeat Wu Xian’s fatal mistake, so she improved upon the original formula.

Wu Xian’s approach had not been wrong. The problem was simply a lack of indispensable materials, forcing them to use crude substitutions and thus leading to catastrophe.

Chen Shuhua’s idea was to replace the missing materials. Though she could not enter the Kunlun Paradise to gather them, she had a replacement that was incredibly versatile—dragon qi.

Everything that followed came naturally. Chen Shuhua began refining the Longevity Stone following Wu Luo’s method, using dragon qi in place of ancient beasts’ flesh or the life force of hundreds of thousands of living beings.

In the past, those who refined Longevity Stones were all Longevity-stage Immortals. They worried only about materials, as the furnace was never an issue.

Chen Shuhua was the opposite. She had the materials but lacked a suitable furnace.

It was then that her brother, the Yu King, stepped forward, volunteering to serve as the furnace to help her refine the Longevity Stone.

Everything afterward unfolded exactly as Qi Xuansu deduced. The Yu King’s cultivation was too weak, so he could not withstand the strain. As such, Chen Shuhua had to keep him alive with potent pills, which had severe side effects.

Thus, the King deliberately claimed he had dreamed of the red-robed Bodhisattva, misleading others into believing his symptoms came from that apparition. This shifted the Daoist Mansion’s attention toward the Buddhists and secret societies, causing them to overlook the abnormalities in the King himself.

This eventually led to Chen Jianqiu seeking help from Qi Xuansu.

Only at this stage did Chen Shuhua’s entire scheme fully surface. Until then, the situation had largely remained under her control.

Judging by her abilities, she would have been more than capable of being a Mansion Master or even a Hall Master. However, her heart had strayed. If someone like her were ever placed in true power, the damage she could cause would be immeasurable.

Since the Southern Dragon Qi was already greatly weakened, the resulting Longevity Stone could not compare to the second generation. But it was quite close to the Daoist Order’s improved third generation, free of hidden dangers and sufficient to push Chen Shuhua into the Longevity stage.

The Longevity Stone was not the same as the Longevity Stone Heart. The latter was an entirely new cultivation system, while the former was more akin to the Qinghuo Pearl. However, it was certainly far more powerful, not merely granting one the power of a Longevity-stage Immortal but allowing them to ascend to that realm.

Of course, the Qinghuo Pearl had its own advantage, which allowed it to be passed down through generations, whereas a Longevity Stone could only have one master.

Chen Shuhua had only just stepped into the Longevity stage, so she was still far inferior to an old Immortal like Lan Hexu. But it was more than enough for her to completely disregard the two first-rank Spirit Guards.

It would take at least three first-rank Spirit Guards to contend with her.

The two Spirit Guards were knowledgeable. Though some details eluded them, they had already grasped the overall situation.

Their movements were nearly simultaneous. A black circular disc appeared behind their armor and broke apart like a puzzle into countless irregular fragments that reassembled and expanded outward until they formed the Daoist Bagua symbol.

This was the second form of a first-rank Spirit Guard. The disc served to link them to Jade Capital’s Thirty-Three Heavens, allowing them to draw down immense divine power, similar to the Ancient Immortals’ divine descent.

Together, the two Spirit Guards intoned, “Follow the Dao.”

Two vast torrents of divine power pierced deep into the ground, ignoring every barrier of the formation, and descended from the heavens, enveloping the two Spirit Guards completely.

Chen Shuhua had long known that Spirit Guards possessed a second form. But Poluo had been peaceful for years, and she had never gone to the battlefield, so this was her first time seeing it.

However, Chen Shuhua felt no fear whatsoever. She tore off the Great Witch pendant that she had worn around her neck for years.

At this moment, her aura was no longer suppressed. It radiated layer upon layer, instantly overwhelming both first-rank Spirit Guards.

She had become a true Earthly Immortal of the Longevity stage.