A Pawn's Passage

Welcoming a Great Sage was essentially the Daoist Mansion’s responsibility. Yao Pei and Li Zhuyu could choose to attend or not. Zhang Yuelu, being from the Lingnan Daoist Mansion, simply did not come at all and stayed behind in Lion City to oversee the situation.

Yao Pei happened to be in Thanglong Prefecture, so she joined the reception. Li Zhuyu’s task was in Lion City; hence, she had no need to travel such a long way just to attend.

Li Zhuyu was the Acting Deputy Beichen Hall Master. Beichen Hall ranked among the Three Great Halls because it specialized in covert external operations, something the Fengxian Hall lacked. With the Buddhist Sect in decline and losing its former influence, the next external enemy of the Daoist Order was the Holy Court.

Thus, Beichen Hall dealt with the Holy Court almost as frequently as the Ciji Hall.

Both Zhang Yuelu and Li Zhuyu originated from Beichen Hall, but Zhang Yuelu switched midway to Tiangang Hall. Thus, within the Daoist Order, most people now considered her a Tiangang Hall insider, rarely mentioning her experience in Beichen Hall. Qi Xuansu was similar. He was originally from Tiangang Hall but was later reassigned to Ziwei Hall, so people now regarded him as a Ziwei Hall insider. In truth, one’s true affiliation was determined by where one first served as Deputy Hall Master.

Li Zhuyu had always been rooted in Beichen Hall. Thus, she was a professional handling external investigations, significantly better than Zhang Yuelu, who had dealt almost exclusively with internal affairs and hardly any external operations.

During the previous riot, Qi Xuansu declared martial law. As such, the Nanting Protectorate arrested many individuals who were in public spaces after curfew and confined them to military camps. Once detained, the Black Robes registered and verified each person’s identity.

Following Qi Xuansu’s directives, this group needed to be controlled and sorted. Organizers, agitators, and those responsible for major destruction were separately interrogated.

There were distinctions among them. The Poluo natives, who were mere accomplices, were only restricted within the camp. They had no shackles and were guarded by the Black Robes. However, foreigners from the Western Continent and West Shakya were detained in far stricter facilities for interrogation. The guards there were armed with Thunderbolt Guns, not normal firearms.

The interrogation results would then direct arrests of the hidden forces still at large.

At the same time, the Nanting Protectorate deployed Black Robes forces to secure Lion City and its ports, preventing anyone from fleeing.

When Li Zhuyu arrived, she mainly coordinated with Qin Hengjun. The Deputy Protector finally felt relieved because he was not great at such matters and was only acting under pressure. Now that a real expert had come, he could finally breathe.

Li Zhuyu did not bring many people, but they specialized in sorting intelligence and identifying targets. The Black Robes and Spirit Guards would assist in the actual operations, as organized army units were vastly more effective than ordinary Daoist priests fighting alone.

No matter what, Nanyang was ultimately Daoist territory. Hunting external infiltrators on one’s own land was always easier than rooting out internal traitors.

Thus, Li Zhuyu progressed faster than Yao Pei and soon locked onto her first target.

Based on interrogation results and various other clues, a group of Western merchants appeared highly suspicious. But they had never entered Lion City nor even the port. Instead, they remained at sea outside the city, ready to flee at the slightest sign of danger.

To avoid alarming the enemy, Li Zhuyu did not deploy the Nanting Protectorate’s ironclad warships. Instead, she borrowed a flying ship from Zhang Yuelu. The two had once worked together in Beichen Hall and shared some camaraderie, and now that they were cooperating again, Zhang Yuelu had no reason to refuse.

Strictly speaking, Li Zhuyu requested the flying ship from Xie Jiaofeng. Zhang Yuelu simply advised him to lend it.

Li Zhuyu intended to surprise these Westerners with a descent of heavenly soldiers.

Since the Westerners entered Nanyang under the banner of commerce, they could only bring sea vessels into Daoist territory.

Before acting, Li Zhuyu had already observed them for a long while.

This ship came from the Ibia Kingdom. Although the Lune Kingdom, Ibia Kingdom, and Nederland Kingdom had recently been embroiled in conflicts that destabilized West Shakya, the Holy Court’s pressure eventually forced them into a temporary ceasefire, maintaining the status quo and uniting them against external enemies.

The Holy Court wished to strike, and to do so, it needed all five fingers clenched into a fist.

The Daoist Order had been on the defensive on several fronts due to its worsening internal strife in recent years.

This internal friction was not limited to political infighting like the major Jiangnan case. Even the Western Region Campaign and the Fenglin Campaign were manifestations of the same struggle. At heart, it was a competition of strength. Neither war had been strictly necessary, not back-to-back at the very least. But the two Daoist heirs and their factions had to accumulate merit to solidify their succession to the Grand Master’s seat. After the successor was chosen, such victories would lose much of their value.

While the Daoist Order was fractured and busy fighting its own battles, the Holy Court naturally advanced on other fronts.

Under Li Zhuyu’s command, the borrowed Yellow Hornless Dragon took off like an ordinary cargo flying ship headed for Thanglong Prefecture. As it passed over the Western ship, its massive cargo hatch swung open, and Spirit Guards leaped out one after another, using their armor’s brief flight capability to descend rapidly.

This tactic was nothing new. The Daoists had used it when attacking Kobe City, dropping troops directly inside the walls for a pincer assault.

At the same time, many Western soldiers rushed onto the deck. Since they were posing as merchants, they did not wear armor. However, they held firearms.

Unlike the firearms of the Central Plains, Western weapons had evolved in a completely different direction. Many Western soldiers carried a square backpack-looking device connected to their long guns by thin tubes. As a result, their weapons no longer fired bullets but unleashed shockwaves that were as sharp as sword qi. Depending on the type of pack, some guns could continuously spew lightning, fire, or even frost to suppress their enemies.

In an instant, the Western soldiers on deck opened fire, their attacks erupting like a battle of Daoist techniques, with multicolored lights surging everywhere.

The Spirit Guards still wielded firearms with talismanic bullets, which were less flashy, lacking dazzling light effects. However, it had far greater penetration and explosive force. A hit to a vital spot would mean certain death.

In terms of weaponry alone, both sides had strengths and weaknesses. Spirit Guards had armor and shields, allowing them to withstand the barrage of ice, fire, and lightning and return fire. The Westerners lacked proper armor and did not dare take such hits directly, but they held the advantage of shipboard terrain and partial cover.

But this was Nanyang territory after all. Once the Spirit Guards boarded, the Black Robes moved as well. A pre-positioned ironclad warship rammed the Western ship at an angle, smashing into its hull.

The Black Robes then leaped onto the deck one after another.

The battlefield descended into chaos. Firearms became far less effective as both sides drew sabers or handguns and began melee combat.

At that moment, a burly Western soldier with a thick beard emerged from the captain’s cabin. He wore a tricorn hat and clenched a pipe between his teeth, smoke puffing from him like a chimney. He resembled the stereotypical pirate captain with one eye and a missing limb. But instead of an eyepatch, hook, or peg leg, he had a gemstone artificial eye and prosthetic limbs that gleamed with metallic light. The fine metal wires fused seamlessly with his meridians.

The West lacked talismans, but they had alchemy.

Times had changed. Western sorcerers were no longer the archaic staff-holding spell-chanters. Their newly developed Arcane Alchemy rivaled the Daoist creation projects.

In Western theory, alchemy and arcanum were originally incompatible, with entirely different foundations and structures. But a sage later discovered that the two could be fused within the human body, achieving a unique equilibrium. Thus, Arcane Alchemy was born and progressed quickly under the control of the Arcane Council.

The modifications on this captain’s body were products of the Arcane Council.

Had the Holy Xuan not unified the Daoist Order two centuries ago and advanced the creation projects, the Daoists would have stagnated like the Confucians. Even with scattered techniques preserved, cultivation would still depend solely on talent and time. In that alternate world, facing the West today would be unimaginable, perhaps even disastrous.

Upon his appearance, the situation shifted swiftly and dramatically.

With the immense power granted by Arcane Alchemy, this captain was nearly the equal of a Heavenly Being. Even the parts of his body without prosthetics had been strengthened through special alchemical augmentation, allowing his flesh to regenerate like a Martial Arts Practitioner. Ordinary Spirit Guards were utterly no match for him.

Just as Li Zhuyu was preparing to intervene personally, another Black Robes officer joined the fray. It was Qin Hengjun, the Deputy Protector of the Nanting Protector, wielding a jet-black spear.

This was the most common weapon on the battlefield.

Qin Hengjun charged straight toward the Western captain. Sensing Qin Hengjun’s strength, the captain stopped relying on brute force and drew his sword.

Qin Hengjun twisted his spear, bending the shaft into a crescent arc before snapping it upward with explosive force, knocking the captain’s sword clean out of his hand. The spearpoint, like a serpent flicking its tongue, shot forward and pierced the side of the captain’s exposed neck.

When Qin Hengjun withdrew the spear, a gaping hole remained, yet no blood flowed out. Instead, thick white steam billowed from the captain’s wound.

The captain behaved as though nothing had happened. Through the wound, one could faintly glimpse metal wires, spinning gears, and pistons pumping up and down inside his body.