A Pawn's Passage

Wang Jiaohe successfully dissolved all of Great Sage Jiang’s probing questions.

After all, Great Sage Jiang could not punish Great Sage Lan or definitively pronounce judgment.

Setting aside whether Great Sage Jiang even had such authority, even if he did, he could not do so. Matters of power were never simply about right or wrong. Balance was more important. If Great Sage Lan were punished, the entire balance would collapse, and rebuilding it would be an immense undertaking.

Great Sage Lan was like a load-bearing wall in the Poluo Daoist Mansion. Once removed, the entire structure would collapse.

Qi Xuansu had expected such an outcome. If Wang Jiaohe were that easy to topple, all this maneuvering would have been unnecessary.

After the council ended, attendees dispersed in small groups.

Great Sage Jiang left first, walking at the front. Wang Jiaohe followed as the second to depart.

Qi Xuansu and Xu Jiaorong walked side by side, trailing behind the rest.

“Chief Deputy Qi, what do you think?” Xu Jiaorong asked.

Qi Xuansu sighed. “Perhaps Great Sage Jiang truly does wish to cure the illness and save the patient, but some people refuse treatment.”

Xu Jiaorong said softly, “If not for the rotten mess of the Nanyang United Trading Company, he might have genuinely slipped through the cracks.”

Qi Xuansu was silent for a moment before saying, “We should take this as a warning for ourselves. Of course, these are minor details. What matters is standing in the right place.”

From a moral standpoint, such matters were certainly not minor, as they clearly touched the foundation of the Daoist Order. The Nanyang United Trading Company had existed for years, so how could no one not notice the corruption? Clearly, that mess was not the main issue. The core problem was that Wang Jiaohe had stood in the wrong place, upsetting the balance of power.

Qi Xuansu never saw himself as a crusader of righteousness. He understood exactly what role he played. He would be a hypocrite if he were to preach virtue endlessly, and others would only resent him.

However, Wang Jiaohe and Chen Shuhua were not the same. Chen Shuhua not only betrayed the Daoist Order but also gravely harmed its interests. The loss of dragon qi could cause irreversible consequences, such as Ancient Immortals descending and the devastation of common folk. Her actions shook not only the Daoist Order but also the stability of the entire Nanyang, all for her own selfish intent. Against such a person, one could indeed speak from moral high ground. She deserved to be condemned by all.

No matter what, Qi Xuansu no longer had a path of retreat now that he had reached this point. Stopping now was impossible. If he did, Wang Jiaohe would not appreciate it, and those backing Qi Xuansu would not accept it either. Thus, he could only press forward and bring down Wang Jiaohe, completing the mission entrusted to him by the Golden Tower Council.

The two did not continue the conversation. Before long, they parted ways. Xu Jiaorong headed toward the Water Palace, while Qi Xuansu went to the Fire Palace.

Wang Jiaohe did not return to the Fire Palace since Qi Xuansu resided there.

Qi Xuansu instructed Chen Jianchou to activate the formation on his side and prevent any disturbances. With Great Sage Jiang present in the Sheji Palace, no one would dare cause trouble.

At this time, Qi Xuansu decided to absorb his newly obtained Xuan Jade.

Although Qi Xuansu sensed something vaguely off about this piece of Xuan Jade that had come to him almost too easily, he had no clear answers for now. He could not refuse it simply out of caution, so he would just deal with whatever consequences later.

While absorbing the Xuan Jade, Qi Xuansu returned once more to the familiar Lingshan.

It was still the same shattered, apocalyptic landscape. The sky was torn, and the land was broken into fragments. White bones and ruined artifacts were scattered everywhere. Splintered peaks floated suspended in the air, shifting slowly like motes of dust caught in sunlight. At the horizon, space twisted and writhed. Countless ancient, towering columns of lightning stretched from heaven to earth.

Madam Qi’s whisper echoed repeatedly. “Go up the mountain. Don’t wander.”

“Yes, yes, I’m going. Stop nagging...” Qi Xuansu muttered as he began ascending the summit.

Before long, Shi Hengbo appeared before him. “You’ve come.”

“Yes, I have,” Qi Xuansu replied.

She retorted, “You shouldn’t have come here.”

“And yet I am here.” Qi Xuansu shrugged.

Shi Hengbo turned and led the way.

Qi Xuansu followed him to the mountaintop. Everything was as before. The eternal bonfire was at the center. Now, there were an additional eleven tall, translucent totem pillars that were almost crystalline.

These eleven pillars corresponded to the eleven Ancient Witches.

Seven of the totem pillars were lit. The pillars representing Wu Yang, Wu Xian, Wu Xiang, and Wu Luo remained at the sixth mark, while those of Wu Zhen and Wu Gu stayed at the fifth mark. Only Wu Peng’s pillar towered above the rest, rising to the seventh mark.

This meant Qi Xuansu had now reached the Preserved Body Realm of a Wuliang-stage Rogue Cultivator, the Five Elements Origin Realm of a Xiaoyao-stage Banished Immortal, the Thunder Realm of a Guizhen-stage Diviner, and the Spiritual Body Realm of a Xiaoyao-stage Shaman.

The Martial Arts Practitioner lineage was influenced by both Wu Xiang and Wu Gu’s totems, allowing it to be at the Wuliang stage’s Everchanging Realm. Although the Qi Refiner lineage was also affected by the Wu Xiang totem, Wu Xiang leaned more toward the Martial Arts Practitioner lineage. Thus, the Qi Refiner lineage could not reach the Wuliang stage and remained at the Xiaoyao stage’s Returning Void Realm.

The Banished Immortal lineage could not advance on its own. It could only rise when other lineages rose. Thus, to reach the Wuliang stage’s Three Flowers Gathering Realm, at least three lineages needed to reach the Wuliang stage first.

The Earthly Preceptor had given him a Xuan Jade of Death.

The Daoist Six Immortal Lineages and the Ancient Wuist Eleven Great Witches were fundamentally different systems. In the earlier framework, Wu Peng corresponded to the Corpse Liberation Immortal; Wu Xian and Wu Xiang to the Earthly Immortal; Wu Yang to the Heavenly Immortal; Wu Luo to the Godly Immortal; Wu Xiang and Wu Gu to the Manly Immortal; and Wu Zhen to the Ghostly Immortal.

The other four Ancient Witches were Wu Di, Wu Lu, Wu Fan, and Wu Ji.

The Xuan Jade of Death that the Earthly Preceptor gave him was unusual, far more complete than the previous one he obtained. Besides corresponding to Wu Zhen, it also corresponded to Wu Lu.

As the Xuan Jade’s power poured in, Wu Zhen’s totem rose to the sixth mark, and Wu Lu’s totem, which was originally empty, also rose to the sixth.

Thus, Qi Xuansu’s Ghostly Immortal lineage leaped straight from the Guizhen stage’s Thunder Realm to the Wuliang stage’s Object Creation Realm, skipping the Xiaoyao stage’s Transformation Realm entirely.

Since Wu Lu’s totem also corresponded to the Godly Immortal lineage, its rise to the sixth mark boosted that lineage as well. Although it still had not reached the Wuliang stage’s Heaven-Earth Manifesting Realm, it was now only one step away.

This advancement also pushed Wu Peng’s totem, which was linked to the Corpse Liberation Immortal lineage, up by half a mark, bringing it to a bottleneck. As Qi Xuansu had expected, two high-grade Xuan Jades would be required to support his breakthrough into the Zaohua stage.

In addition, the Wu Yang totem, which corresponded to the Heavenly Immortal lineage, also advanced. But to reach the Wuliang stage’s Three Flowers Gathering Realm, he still needed one more lineage to enter the Wuliang stage.

This Xuan Jade functioned like laying a foundation. Its effects seemed modest on the surface, yet it was indispensable. No tall building could be raised without first setting the foundation.

Qi Xuansu focused on inspecting his Ghostly Immortal lineage.

For Qi Xuansu, the Ghostly Immortal lineage had always been unfamiliar, as it was the weakest among all his lineages. Yet this time, it was the one that surged ahead, filling in a longstanding gap.

In the Thunder Realm, a Diviner’s yin spirit no longer feared lightning. In the Transformation Realm, illusions turned real. Upon reaching it, spells became tangible, and the Martial Arts Practitioner’s blood qi no longer completely suppressed them. Though Martial Arts Practitioners still held the advantage, it was no longer overwhelmingly so.

Earlier-stage spells were mostly idealistic in nature, targeting the mind and perception rather than material reality. But once one reached the Transformation Realm, spells began affecting the real world, like summoning wind and rain or splitting mountains and rocks.

Given sufficient preparation time, the range of a Diviner’s spells was the greatest among all lineages. They had the widest reach and formidable power. Thus, Diviners naturally excelled in support roles in large-scale battles. The applications of their spells were also extremely broad, such as the Earth Qi Recall Technique. But when fighting alone, they tended to be weaker.

The Object Creation Realm blurred the line between truth and illusion even further. They could create objects out of nothing, manifesting a tangible item with a single thought. If one conjured a steamed bun from thin air, anyone eating it would genuinely feel full.

Beyond that was something akin to rearranging components. Westerners believed all things were composed of elements arranged in specific patterns. The Object Creation Realm allowed one to rearrange these elements, turning one thing into something else entirely, like the Daoist Golden Touch spell, which could turn stone into solid gold.

However, such transformations were never permanent. It required constant magical power to maintain. Once the magical power dissipated, the world’s correcting force would reverse this change. Now, as the end of the era approached, reality grew ever more rigid, and Diviners could no longer mass-produce gold.

Put plainly, it was like the Martial Arts Practitioner’s Transformations. The body could change into many variations, but it ultimately had to return to its true form.

Martial Arts Practitioners and Diviners were like the yin-yang symbol. While Martial Arts Practitioners focused on themselves by changing their own bodies, Diviners focused on the external world by changing everything else around them.