A Pawn's Passage

In a certain sense, Great Sage Jiang unleashed killing intent three times.

With the first surge of killing intent, Chen Shuhua was almost reduced to ashes. She only managed to resolve it in the end by relying on the Taisu Mystical Arts.

With the second surge of killing intent, Chen Shuhua was likewise on the brink of death and had no choice but to allow Wu Luo to descend into the mortal world.

The third surge of killing intent had a weaker momentum due to exhaustion, so it was neutralized by Wu Luo using the river of blood.

Great Sage Jiang could hardly be called weak because he singlehandedly unleashed three killing strikes. Unfortunately, Wu Luo was no ordinary opponent either.

Chen Shuhua was a newly ascended Immortal, but Wu Luo was not. She was an Ancient Immortal. In comparison, Great Sage Jiang was little more than a child before Wu Luo.

It was only because Wu Luo was constrained by the heavenly tribulation that she could not easily descend into the mortal world, nor could she fully unleash her strength. Even a divine descent vessel formed by dragon qi could not compare to a true Immortal like Chen Shuhua.

Moreover, Great Sage Jiang had already injured his vital essence by using Moral Sovereign twice.

The fact that Great Sage Jiang could still hold a slight advantage was due to the immortal object.

However, Great Sage Jiang was not fighting alone.

Countless Daoist priests and Spirit Guards gradually revealed themselves, filling the skies and forming a surrounding ring as they looked down from above, like the legendary heavenly soldiers.

At this moment, the grand formation was no longer focused on trapping its target, so the starry sky gradually dissipated.

Replacing it was another formation—the Five Thunder Demon Slaying Formation. Thus, the stars transformed into a vast pool of lightning.

Three first-rank Spirit Guards should be able to contend with a single Immortal. Great Sage Jiang, together with two Spirit Guards, could even assault Wu Luo’s divine kingdom. However, such confrontations were only meant to injure the target, not kill.

Killing an Immortal and severely injuring one were entirely different matters.

If an Immortal was determined to flee and refused to fight to the death, then killing them outright would become exceedingly difficult.

If two Immortals fought to the death, one was certain to perish. But if one fled while the other pursued, or if two Immortals pursued a single target, success was still far from guaranteed.

Chen Shuhua would certainly not foolishly stand in place and fight Great Sage Jiang for 300 rounds. Thus, the bulk of Great Sage Jiang’s planning focused on how to prevent Chen Shuhua from escaping, rather than on calling in three first-rank Spirit Guards for support.

Put plainly, what Great Sage Jiang was considering was not how to win, but how to eliminate potential trouble.

Now that the situation changed, the contingency plan was immediately activated.

Five Daoist priests at the Zaohua stage maintained the Five Thunder Demon Slaying Formation to brew heavenly thunder, while the three first-rank Spirit Guards withdrew from the formation.

The Spirit Guard armor upon their bodies began to transform. A black disc appeared behind them, then broke apart like a jigsaw puzzle into countless irregular fragments. As these fragments reassembled, they extended outward in successive layers, ultimately forming the Daoist emblem—the Taiji Eight Trigrams.

This was the second form of a first-rank Spirit Guard. The disc’s function was to connect to the Thirty-Three Heavens of Jade Capital, allowing them to obtain almost unlimited divine power across space, similar to the divine descent used by the Ancient Immortals.

Three voices rang out in unison. “Follow the Dao!”

However, Wu Luo did not sit idly by awaiting death. She extended her hand and summoned a massive tower taller than a city gate, with flying eaves and black tiles, its gates tightly shut.

The gates slowly began to open, the sound of their movement rumbling like muffled thunder. Faintly visible behind the gate was a gigantic figure, wearing a beaded crown. The beaded curtains veiled the figure’s face, revealing only the chin.

It was none other than True Lord Siming. Wu Luo and True Lord Siming had always been inseparable, so it was not too shocking.

Divine descent could take many forms and did not strictly require a vessel. One could also use divine power to create a projection. For example, when Wu Luo sank the Yinglong Warship above Cuowenbu, she did not use a vessel or her true body. However, such methods would consume vast amounts of divine power, so it was not used lightly.

At this moment, True Lord Siming was using this method for his divine descent.

In the blink of an eye, the massive gate that was seemingly leading straight to the netherworld, had already opened halfway.

One could see True Lord Siming’s two enormous palms bracing the edges of the doors, accelerating their opening.

If True Lord Siming were to descend here, though he could not exert his full strength, he would still surpass ordinary Pseudo-Immortals, introducing many new variables.

Great Sage Jiang merely flicked his sleeve.

A Daoist nun appeared out of thin air not far from Great Sage Jiang.

Flames blazed within the Daoist nun’s eyes, like a firebird.

Without the Daoist nun making any visible movement, the intense fiery aura she radiated alone evaporated the surrounding blood mist, turning it into wisps of pale smoke that dissipated into the air.

A feather fan appeared in the Daoist nun’s hand. It was none other than the Seven Feather Five Fires Fan. Within a 50-kilometer radius, the temperature surged abruptly, and the air itself began to warp and distort.

With a single sweep of the feather fan, five clouds of fire spread across the sky, scorching the heavens and boiling the seas.

When the fire clouds touched the river of blood, they hissed sharply, causing the river to shrink at a visible rate and setting Wu Luo aflame.

Great Sage Jiang temporarily put away Moral Sovereign and invoked Heaven and Earth Convergence, placing his hands upon the gate that had been forced apart. The gate, already opened halfway, not only halted its opening but also began to close slowly.

On the other side of the gate, True Lord Siming strained with all his might to push it open. However, opening the door meant resistance against heaven and earth, while closing it followed the natural flow. Thus, in this exchange, Great Sage Jiang held the advantage.

In the end, True Lord Siming could not withstand Great Sage Jiang’s vast and overwhelming power and could only watch helplessly as the gate slowly shut.

True Lord Siming let out a furious roar and braced with all his strength, causing the gate to stall for a brief moment.

Through the narrowing gap, True Lord Siming and Great Sage Jiang exchanged a glance.

Great Sage Jiang said in a deep rumble, “Heaven and earth converge!”

Heaven and earth lent their strength.

True Lord Siming’s body shuddered, forcing him to release his grip. The gate then slammed shut with a thunderous crash.

At the same time, a massive, illusory formation appeared in the sky, covered in countless talismans that condensed thunder orbs, each the size of a dragon’s eye. As they slowly revolved, thin strands of lightning occasionally spilled out, blooming like flying flowers before gradually dissipating.

Among all Daoist arts, thunder techniques reigned supreme. A single thunder orb was formed by the condensation of hundreds of talismans.

The surrounding elemental energy grew violently restless. Black clouds pressed down layer upon layer. Heavenly thunder responded, purple lightning rolled and surged, as though a heavenly tribulation had descended.

The five Zaohua-stage Daoist priests curled the fingers of both hands, forming the Five Thunder Seal.

All the roaming lightning converged into a single point, transforming into a pillar of purple light as thick as 10 meters. It pierced heaven and earth, instantly illuminating the entire world as it descended upon Wu Luo’s head.

For a moment, heaven and earth vanished from sight. Only the boundless, resplendent, and awe-inspiring purple light remained, completely engulfing Wu Luo’s form.

After the purple light dispersed, Wu Luo reappeared, her body covered in scorched marks, looking utterly battered and disheveled.

Once again, lightning and fire descended together.

Wu Luo grasped Chen Shuhua’s sword—Heaven’s Will—using the might of this immortal object to split the lightning and sweep aside the raging flames.

However, the three first-rank Spirit Guards had already seized the opportunity to close in, instantly forcing Wu Luo into a highly passive situation.

At that very moment, a gigantic palm extended out of thin air, its fingers bent and flicked in rapid succession.

The three first-rank Spirit Guards were all flicked away like marbles.

Seeing this, Great Sage Jiang’s expression immediately turned grim.

The three first-rank Spirit Guards retreated to Great Sage Jiang’s side, barely managing to steady themselves. Though their expressions were hidden behind their visors, the shock in their voices was impossible to conceal. “Is it the Golden Patriarch?”

It did not matter which Spirit Guard had asked, because all three shared the same thought.

Great Sage Jiang slowly shook his head. “It’s not the Golden Patriarch. It seems more like the Lord Buddha.”

The three Spirit Guards were even more shocked. “Isn’t the Lord Buddha already dead?!”

Back in the struggle between the Buddhist Sect and the Daoist Order, the Holy Xuan faced off against the Lord Buddha and won. Had the Lord Buddha won, their world would have been ruled by the Buddhist Sect instead.

Whether in Daoist records or through various scattered clues, all indications suggested that the Lord Buddha had already died at the hands of the Holy Xuan. However, the Holy Xuan also paid a tremendous price. In his final period in the mortal realm, he rarely appeared and was even unable to attend to major matters like integrating the Three Sects. This was what allowed the Three Sects to grow powerful and the second-generation Grand Master to be promoted in advance.

There were even rumors that the second-generation Grand Master had plotted against the Holy Xuan and forcibly seized his position, but the Daoist Order had always remained tight-lipped about such matters.

As the Zixiao Palace Master and the fourth-highest-ranking figure within the Daoist Order, Great Sage Jiang knew far more of the hidden truths unknown to others.

Was the Lord Buddha truly dead?

Strictly speaking, the Holy Xuan did not truly kill the Lord Buddha.

It was the same principle as how the Vairocana, as well as the Daoist Order, had failed to kill Izanagi. This ancient god ultimately perished under a heavenly tribulation.

Killing even someone like Chen Shuhua was already so troublesome, let alone a figure of the Lord Buddha’s stature.

Back then, the Holy Xuan stood as the leader of the Daoist Order, while the Lord Buddha was the leader of the Buddhist Sect. When the two clashed, neither side had the strength in numbers, nor could there have been elaborate prior arrangements. Thus, even though the Holy Xuan defeated the Lord Buddha, it was still exceedingly difficult to kill him completely.

The Holy Xuan only brought back the Lord Buddha’s head, while the Buddhist Sect retrieved the Lord Buddha’s body.

Great Sage Jiang knew this because he had seen that Buddha’s head, which was now in Jade Capital, within Zixiao Palace.

The Buddhist Sect had attempted several times to retrieve the head, but each attempt failed.

Thinking of this, Great Sage Jiang could not help but look toward that Buddhist palm.

Although only a single Buddhist palm had manifested in the world, Great Sage Jiang’s gaze pierced through the void, as if he could see the headless Buddha behind that palm.

Great Sage Jiang was also uncertain what state the Lord Buddha was truly in. However, one thing was certain—the Lord Buddha had not resurrected. Otherwise, a heavenly tribulation would already have been triggered.

Even so, the immense pressure brought by the Lord Buddha left Great Sage Jiang tense. He dared not be careless.

It seemed Chen Shuhua had secured more than just a single escape route, since the Buddhist Sect had finally intervened.

Chen Shuhua first worked with the secret societies, aiding in the divine descent of two Ancient Immortals. But clearly, she still felt that it was not secure enough, so she also maintained covert dealings with the Buddhist Sect. It was also possible that Wu Luo had acted as an intermediary. After all, the reason the Ancient Immortals were able to rise again was precisely due to the support of the Buddhist Sect behind the scenes. Today’s problems with secret societies were the lingering remnants of the old struggle between the Buddhist Sect and the Daoist Order.

“Red-Robed Bodhisattva and White-Robed Buddha,” Great Sage Jiang murmured softly.

When Qi Xuansu first arrived in Poluo, he had already heard that the Buddhist influence here was very strong, yet he had not felt it particularly deeply because the Buddhist Sect kept itself hidden. Its sense of presence was even weaker than that of the Holy Court.

Chen Shuzhen’s secret devotion to Buddhism had seemed merely a cover. Now, it appeared that it was likely far more than a simple cover.

Great Sage Jiang grasped Moral Sovereign once more, hesitating whether he should use this immortal sword for a third time.