A Pawn's Passage

As Wu Ji’s remains returned to its dormant state once more, all the illusions they had produced, including the Thunder God incarnation, vanished as though they had never existed at all.

Qi Xuansu did not hurry to leave. Instead, he carefully observed the mutated remains of Wu Ji from across the formation.

He had come into contact with many creations, including the Sakka and the Longevity Stone. Thus, he discerned something from this. There were obvious traces of artificial modification, bearing not only Wuist totems but also Daoist talismans, combining the strengths of both. No doubt, this was Elder Yao’s handiwork.

Clearly, Elder Yao’s modification achieved multiple goals at once. First, it completely eliminated any possibility of Wu Ji’s resurrection. Second, it turned Wu Ji into the core of the defensive formation at this checkpoint, not needing to draw upon earth qi or store divine power, squeezing out every last bit of Wu Ji’s remaining value.

This was certainly the Yao family’s style. When defeated, one should harbor resentment. When victorious, one should settle accounts in return.

Clearly, this was Elder Yao’s settling of accounts.

Qi Xuansu felt a sense of familiarity arise within him. Everything before his eyes seemed to share the same root and origin as his Longevity Stone Heart. If the Longevity Stone Heart was the culmination and essence of the creation project, then the modification of Wu Ji’s remains represented one particular facet of that same discipline.

From this, a thought arose in Qi Xuansu’s mind. Can I obtain Wu Ji’s divine abilities through Wu Ji’s remains? After all, this power of illusion was so formidable that it could flawlessly pass the false as real.

At that moment, Qi Jiaoyao’s voice came from above. Tian Yuan, come up quickly! The passage is about to close!”

Hearing this, Qi Xuansu looked up and saw that the passage he had opened was steadily shrinking, like the flesh of some living creature, writhing continuously as it gradually healed.

This made him question if the entire city was actually Wu Ji’s remains.

With that thought, Qi Xuansu also knew he could not remain any longer. He sprang upward and left the area before the passage fully closed.

After all, whether he could obtain Wu Ji’s abilities was secondary. His primary objective was to investigate the secrets of the Longevity Stone Heart.

After returning to the surface, Qi Xuansu discovered that the grayish-white mist that had once shrouded the city had vanished at some point, revealing the city’s true appearance. It was a unique city, filled with temples of varying sizes built along the mountainside. The temples were constructed from massive blocks of stone, yet their doors and windows were made of metal, their surfaces cast with various Daoist talismans that seemed to be technology from the Tianji Hall.

Within and around these temples were various creations, including firearms, crossbows, mechanical puppets, and animated corpses. However, due to Qi Xuansu’s Jianxiu Mountain Class-C access, none of these creations made any movement and remained in a dormant state.

Qi Xuansu walked up to a mechanical puppet and discovered that it differed from the one he had seen in the Tianshui Core Tower of the Wanxiang Daoist Palace. It appeared to be an earlier version. After examining it carefully, Qi Xuansu suddenly threw a punch. A series of explosive sounds rang out as the puppet’s armor disintegrated into scattered components. Its helmet, cuirass, armor plates, and boots flew out. Yet beneath the armor was not a mechanism, as Qi Xuansu had expected. It was not just an empty shell, either, but a dried corpse.

Qi Xuansu now understood why he had found this puppet unsettling. In essence, it was still an extension of corpse refinement. This must have been a very low-grade prototype of the Sakka, merely clad in a suit of armor. By contrast, the mechanical puppets he had seen in Tianshui Core Tower were based primarily on mechanics and divine power, even incorporating some elements of Western arcanum. That mechanical puppet could even engage in simple conversation with Qi Xuansu, which was entirely different in nature.

He examined the dried corpse more closely and discovered a stitched wound in its chest. Upon opening it, the chest cavity was completely empty. There was no heart, only a stone.

This was certainly not the Longevity Stone Heart. At most, it was just a Stone Heart and a very low-grade prototype of the Longevity Stone.

It made Qi Xuansu question whether combining a prototype of the Longevity Stone with a prototype of the Sakka actually had any potential.

Qi Xuansu had an intuition that Elder Yao had been experimenting with something. These creations seemed like something she was capable of.

Could Elder Yao’s original idea have been to embed a complete Longevity Stone into the Sakka’s body? The Sakka itself already rivaled an Immortal. If combined with a Longevity Stone capable of creating Immortals, would that not produce a First-Tribulation Immortal?

There was little doubt that Elder Yao was capable of refining a Longevity Stone. As early as Wu Xian’s rule, two Longevity Stones had already been refined. Not to mention, even Chen Shuhua had been able to secretly refine a Longevity Stone. Given that Elder Yao surpassed Chen Shuhua by far in authority, resources, and cultivation, how could she possibly be unable to refine one?

However, judging from the last time Qi Xuansu directly controlled the Sakka, the Sakka had not reached the level of a First-Tribulation Immortal. The most obvious sign was that it did not overwhelmingly suppress Sage Qingwei. No matter how many immortal objects Sage Qingwei possessed, he was still only a Pseudo-Immortal. If the Sakka truly were a First-Tribulation Immortal, then it would have overwhelmed Sage Qingwei immediately.

From this, it appeared that Elder Yao’s attempt had failed. She had been unable to implant the Longevity Stone into the Sakka’s body. This led to a subsequent shift in direction, a complete turn toward mechanics, which in turn gave rise to the new-generation puppets of Tianshui Core Tower.

However, Elder Yao did not destroy these failed experimental subjects. Instead, she casually discarded them within the Lingshan Paradise.

It gave the impression that Elder Yao treated the Lingshan Paradise like a storage room, piling all manner of useful and useless items inside to be rummaged through when needed. No wonder she did not allow others to enter.

Although this experiment had failed, it still offered a glimpse into Elder Yao’s thinking. Qi Xuansu even formed a bold conjecture. After the failure to implant the Longevity Stone into the Sakka, Elder Yao must have reflected on the reasons for failure. She concluded that the Sakka was, in essence, a dead being, incompatible with the Longevity Stone, which emphasized immortality, resurrection, and eternal life. Hence, it was unsuitable as a vessel of the Longevity Stone. As a result, Elder Yao changed her approach, choosing living humans as the hosts of the Longevity Stone.

However, the Longevity Stone carried various negative side effects. Even the second-generation Longevity Stone from the Six Enlightened Witches needed an excessively high threshold. In essence, it was still something prepared for Immortals.

Thus, Elder Yao completely changed her approach. Using the second-generation Longevity Stone as a blueprint, she lowered the threshold and allowed the Longevity Stone to grow together with its host.

This was likely the origin of the Longevity Stone Heart.

Compared to the Longevity Stone, the threshold of the Longevity Stone Heart was lowered to the absolute minimum. Even Houtian Beings could have a Longevity Stone Heart implanted as long as their bodies were fully developed. However, the Longevity Stone Heart could not directly elevate a person to the rank of a Longevity-stage Immortal.

Nevertheless, the Longevity Stone Heart granted its host limitless future potential. As the Longevity Stone Heart and the host grew together, once the host became an Immortal, there would be little difference between the Longevity Stone Heart and a true Longevity Stone.

This made Qi Xuansu think of himself as an alchemical furnace for refining a Longevity Stone.

However, all of this was merely Qi Xuansu’s speculation and lacked concrete evidence. After all, the Li family also possessed a Longevity Stone Heart, and one could hardly claim that the Li family treated Li Changge as a mere furnace. This, in turn, indirectly negated Qi Xuansu’s conjecture.

He would have to continue his exploration to find out the underlying reasons and hidden truths within all this.

That said, this also confirmed Qi Xuansu’s original thought that the Lingshan Paradise indeed concealed the secrets of the Longevity Stone Heart.

In the real world, he would never see these primitive versions of mechanical puppets, nor would he ever encounter Wu Ji’s remains.

Qi Jiaoyao also came over. She glanced at the stone heart in Qi Xuansu’s hand and asked, “What is this thing?”

Qi Xuansu asked in return, “You’ve been here for so long. Don’t you know?”

Qi Jiaoyao replied matter-of-factly, “Though I had authorization in the past, I never provoked these creations. So why would I know anything?”

Qi Xuansu clenched his five fingers and crushed the stone heart directly into powder.

Clearly, whether in material quality or function, this kind of primitive imitation could not be compared with the one in his chest cavity.

Qi Xuansu picked up another piece of armor, examined it carefully for a moment, found nothing noteworthy, and set it down again.

Qi Jiaoyao was already growing impatient. “Are we going or not?”

“Let’s go,” Qi Xuansu said.

After that, there were no further obstacles. The journey was smooth, and Qi Xuansu and Qi Jiaoyao soon left the area. Outside lay another vast plain, which was also a battlefield. Elder Yao and the Yao family had not completely cleared this battlefield and had merely carved out a single path through it.

Qi Jiaoyao had traversed this place more than once and explained to Qi Xuansu, “There aren’t really any creations here, but this is where the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor once slew Wu Ji. The electricity here is dense due to frequent lightning strikes, so be careful.”

Qi Xuansu raised his head and looked up.

Sure enough, overhead were not ordinary dark clouds but thunderclouds. Lightning surged and coursed within them, flashing intermittently, as though they might strike down at any moment.

Qi Xuansu grasped Green Cloud. This lightning left behind by the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor would recognize its master’s sword due to the same signature. In any case, he was not afraid.

Seeing Qi Xuansu’s reaction, Qi Jiaoyao promptly moved closer to him.

Qi Xuansu thought, She’s so shameless, like that little imp.

He paid her no mind and continued forward. The lightning struck all around them, consistently avoiding the area around Qi Xuansu.

The single long road in the midst of this expansive field of bones seemed to stretch on, its end nowhere in sight.

After walking for a long time, night approached. Qi Xuansu suddenly stopped and looked up.

Qi Jiaoyao followed Qi Xuansu’s gaze, only to find two figures locked in fierce combat mid-air.

They moved amid the streaks of lightning. Countless fragments of stone floating in the air were shattered by the aftershocks of their clash, and ripples visible to the naked eye spread outward.

One of them continuously unleashed countless crescent-shaped sword qi that fell like rain. The other summoned vast expanses of grim, chilling flames. At first glance, these flames seemed to form a human face, the flame tails resembling hair that rose and blotted out the sky.

Qi Xuansu had seen this scene before.