A Pawn's Passage

The gate of the temple was extremely tall, clearly not meant for ordinary people but for Ancient Witches who had undergone the blood-sacrifice ascension ritual. Each of these Ancient Witches stood more than 5 meters tall, which fundamentally altered the structure of the temple.

At this moment, the temple gate was not closed. Since Lingshan Paradise had already been conquered by the Heavenly Sect, the gate could not have been shut, unless the Ancient Witches had revived and closed it again.

As soon as he stepped through the gate, Qi Xuansu saw a ferocious beast as large as a small mountain, blocking most of the entrance. This beast had been dead for a long time, yet it was not reduced to a skeleton. Its hide, fur, and flesh were all intact and lifelike, as though it had died only recently.

It seemed that the beast had tried, in its final moments, to use its massive body to block the entrance and hold off the enemies outside.

However, judging from the current scene, the beast had still been pushed aside by a tremendous outside force, leaving some distance between it and the temple gate. Instead of sealing the entrance, the beast now resembled a kind of screen wall.

Qi Xuansu did not let his guard down. He poked the beast with the Green Cloud, and the seemingly lifelike carcass, which looked as if it might revive at any moment, instantly turned into dust.

The Daoist predecessors back then were truly ruthless. It seemed that the vast majority of living beings here had completely lost all vitality and had no chance of revival. Only a small number slipped through the net. Still, the fact that these beasts’ bodies remained outwardly intact even after many years of death showed just how powerful they were in life.

After the beast turned to dust, the scene behind it was revealed.

A human figure sat with its head lowered, holding a wooden staff that resembled the Staff of Merit in its arms. Two serpents were coiled around the staff, but unlike the traditional image of two dragons playing with a pearl, the object between the two snakes was a grim skull.

This figure was not a 5-meter-tall Great Witch but rather of ordinary human size. It did not move at all, as though it had been dead for a long time.

Qi Xuansu began to imagine the Heavenly Sect’s armies surrounding the temple, the beast shielding its master and blocking the temple gate with its body, only to be slain by the Daoists in the end, while its master was likewise unable to escape and ultimately died here.

Not only was this figure of ordinary size, but it was also unarmed and unarmored.

Qi Xuansu repeated the same method and poked it with Green Cloud.

Green Cloud was one-half of an immortal object, so it was fearless of all evil. On its own, it had the power of a semi-immortal object.

Unlike the beast’s remains earlier, this figure did not turn into dust. Instead, it slowly raised its head. Deep within its originally hollow eye sockets, two points of red light began to glow.

Qi Xuansu also clearly saw the figure’s face, which was literally nothing but skin and bones. It exuded an ominous grayish-black hue, resembling a desiccated corpse.

Qi Xuansu was startled and was about to strike first, but at that moment, the figure spoke. “There is an Ancestral Witch’s aura within you...”

Strictly speaking, it was not an audible voice produced from a voice box, since that had long since decayed beyond recognition. Instead, it was a kind of mental voice transmitted directly into Qi Xuansu’s mind, similar to the Buddhist Telepathic Technique.

Since this was mental communication rather than spoken language, the conveyed intent was automatically transformed into meaning the listener could directly understand. Qi Xuansu was most familiar with everyday speech, so to him this mental voice sounded like plain vernacular rather than archaic expressions.

Hearing this, Qi Xuansu did not rush to attack, but he maintained a guarded stance and likewise asked through his mind voice, “Who are you?”

The figure laughed. “But you also carry the aura of the Heavenly Sect. If I’m not mistaken, the immortal sword in your hand belongs to Zhang...?”

For some reason, the figure was unable to utter the full name of the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor.

This was not out of reverence or taboo, but because the power of the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor still permeated the Lingshan Paradise, making the figure deeply wary.

Without changing his expression, Qi Xuansu casually fabricated an answer. “It’s a replica.”

The figure seemed unconcerned by this and said, “You are not of the Zhang family’s bloodline.”

Qi Xuansu asked, “Speaking of the Zhang family’s bloodline, have you ever encountered another family? A family whose members are Daoists yet also possess the Great Witch bloodline?”

“Never,” the figure transmitted with absolute certainty. “You are the first person I have seen. If not for you, I would not have been able to return from this feigned death.”

Qi Xuansu’s heart jolted. Feigned death? Did this fellow survive a calamity by pretending to be dead for so long?!

After all, the essence of spells was deception. If one could deceive oneself and truly believed that they had died, perhaps it could fool the heavens too. In a state of minimal consumption through feigned death and without heavenly tribulation, it made it possible to linger on for over a thousand years.

However, this kind of existence was truly worse than death and utterly meaningless, so very few people would choose such a form of longevity by cutting themselves off from the outside world and living in isolation.

But Qi Xuansu did not dwell on this point and repeated his question. “Who are you?”

This time, the figure finally answered. “My name is Quan. What about you?”

The figure before him had survived for over a thousand years without dying. Though not an Ancestral Witch like Wu Luo, it was still at the level of a Great Witch.

The Great Witches in later Daoist terminology mainly referred to the Eleven Great Witches, whereas the same term in the Ancient Wuist Sect referred to any witch who had undergone the pseudo-ascension ritual. The Eleven Great Witches were honored as Ancestral Witches. There was also a distinction between witches and shamans, the former being female, and the latter being male. However, later generations blurred this distinction. Since the Eleven Witches were all female, both witches and shamans were collectively referred to simply as witches.

Qi Xuansu asked, “Why do you not possess beastly traits? Why did you not become a giant?”

Quan answered, “Because I didn’t use the blood of wild beasts in my ascension ritual.”

Qi Xuansu was startled, but he understood at once. “Human blood?”

Quan did not answer, which amounted to tacit confirmation.

After a moment of silence, Quan asked again, “Daoist who bears the aura of the Ancestral Witches, why have you come to our sacred land?”

Qi Xuansu replied evasively, “I came to seek some answers. As you said, I carry the aura of the Ancestral Witches, and I want to know why.”

Quan cut straight to the point. “Then you intend to go to Lingshan.”

Qi Xuansu likewise gave tacit consent.

Quan said, “We are not enemies. Although I do not know how long I have been in slumber, judging from the degree of decay of my body, it must have been a very, very long time—at least several hundred years. Perhaps the Ancestral Witches have already fallen, and the Ancient Wuist Sect no longer exists. Those grudges have all become matters of the past.”

Qi Xuansu replied, “Indeed. It has been nearly 2,000 years since the destruction of the Ancient Wuist Sect, and the Ancestral Witches are no longer in the mortal realm.”

He played a subtle trick here. He did not deceive the Great Witch by saying that the Ancestral Witches had all perished, but only that they were no longer in the mortal realm. After all, Wu Xian, Wu Luo, and Wu Yang had not fallen. They were simply no longer in the human world. For instance, Wu Luo resided in her own divine kingdom, which could not be counted as the mortal world. However, his wording would easily mislead the witch before him into believing that all Eleven Ancestral Witches had already perished.

Sure enough, Quan let out a sigh. “Even the Ancestral Witches cannot escape the fate of downfall.”

Then Quan asked, “So in that case, the Heavenly Sect has already established a Daoist state in the human world.”

Qi Xuansu said, “The Heavenly Sect no longer exists either.”

Quan was startled. “Then...who replaced the Heavenly Sect?”

Having roamed Jianghu for many years, Qi Xuansu knew that he must never let down his guard. So at this moment, he did not tell any outright lies, yet he did not disclose the whole truth either, using the information gap to misdirect the stranger in order to protect himself.

He answered, “The Confucian School.”

“The Confucius?” Quan had also heard of the Confucian School.

The Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor was the founder of the Heavenly Sect, not the founder of the Daoist Order. At the time, Daoism and Wuism once coexisted for a period of time. As early as the era of the First Emperor, Wuism had already been in decline, retreating to what was now the southern border of Shuzhou, becoming the “southern barbarians,” and severing contact with the Central Plains. At that time, Daoism had already begun to emerge as a co-ruler of the world and was locked in intense conflict with Confucianism. Even after Confucianism was elevated to become the dominant religion, Daoism did not collapse overnight. Instead, there was a long process of gradual decline.

It was only after Daoism suffered a complete defeat and withdrew from the Imperial Court that the rise of the Heavenly Sect and the Taiping Sect became possible. Only then did the Heavenly Sect begin to eradicate the lingering remnants of the Wuist Sect. Therefore, most Wuists were also aware of the existence of the Hundred Schools of Thought, though their understanding was not deep.

Qi Xuansu nodded and said, “Yes. The Confucian School replaced the Heavenly Sect, suppressed the Taiping Sect, and became the supreme authority in the world. They take the Human Sovereign as their religious leader, calling him the Son of Heaven.”

In truth, the Confucian School and the Holy Court were playing the same game. The Western world regarded the goddess as the daughter of the Supreme Will, while the Confucian School regarded the emperor as the Son of Heaven. They were merely different versions of the same narrative.

Quan murmured, “That should be the way. Our Wuist Sect was also subordinate to the Human Sovereign. But how can the Human Sovereign be the Son of Heaven? Heaven, earth, and man should be equal. The Human Sovereign is the ruler of the human world and should not bow to the Heavenly Dao.”

Qi Xuansu said, “This is the difference between the Confucian School and the Wuist Sect. In Confucian ideology, there is an ordered hierarchy of Heaven, Earth, Sovereign, Parent, and Teacher. Heaven is supreme, earth comes next, and man follows.”

Quan asked again, “How does this Confucian School you speak of view the Wuist Sect?”

Qi Xuansu answered, “The Sage does not speak of strange powers and chaotic spirits. Daoism and Wuism are both regarded as occult practices.”

Qi Xuansu’s answer created the illusion that the Confucian School now ruled the outside world, while the Daoist Order was merely struggling to survive. It was not exactly wrong, but this was a matter of the past. He deliberately omitted the fact that the Daoist Order had later made a comeback and regained power.

Quan fell into silence.

This time it was Qi Xuansu’s turn to ask, “Do you know how to get to Lingshan?”

Quan shifted her gaze outside the temple.

At this moment, everything outside was tinged in a blood-red hue.

Quan said slowly, “I do. But we cannot set out for Lingshan right now. The blood moon signifies immense danger.”