A Pawn's Passage

Qi Jiaoyao was the sort of person who never told outright lies yet never told the whole truth either.

Earlier, she had said that Wu Zhen had fused with a semi-immortal object she carried with him, which created a misleading impression. If it was something Wu Zhen carried, then it must have belonged to her.

But in reality, it was a semi-immortal object left behind by the Heavenly Sect that was placed upon Wu Zhen’s remains. Thus, it was not exactly wrong to say that Wu Zhen was carrying the semi-immortal object.

However, the nature of the two cases was entirely different. If it were Wu Zhen’s own item, it could be taken freely, since Wu Zhen would not suppress herself. But the Heavenly Sect would never be so generous as to leave behind a semi-immortal object simply as a burial object. There had to be a purpose in suppressing Wu Zhen. As such, removing such a suppressive artifact would inevitably lead to serious consequences.

If Qi Jiaoyao had stated from the beginning that the Bone-Illuminating Mirror belonged to the Heavenly Sect, Qi Xuansu might not have come with her at all. On her own, she could temporarily suppress the mirror, but she could not simultaneously take it away. She needed another set of hands. Although Qi Xuansu appeared to have taken the mirror with ease, without Izanagi’s Left Hand, he might not have been able to pass through the shadows surrounding the mirror.

But now that the Bone-Illuminating Mirror had fallen into Qi Xuansu’s hands, he felt entirely justified in keeping it.

Anything belonging to the Heavenly Sect belonged to the Zhengyi Sect. What the Heavenly Preceptor’s son had left behind was effectively a Zhang family heirloom. Since he was the Zhang family’s son-in-law, was this not simply returning the item to its rightful owner?

Wu Zhen had been dead for many years. Even though her remains retained some mystical qualities, they were at most comparable to a manifestation of Wu Luo. Moreover, most of the power within Wu Zhen’s remains had already been drained by the Bone-Illuminating Mirror, leaving only fragments that were hardly worth mentioning.

However, the Shadow Realm gave Wu Zhen the possibility of resurrection. That was why the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor’s son had no choice but to divide her into two parts. Her soul was trapped within an illusion of her final battle, while her remains were placed upon the throne and suppressed with the Bone-Illuminating Mirror.

This was also one of the reasons why the Earthly Preceptor had not taken the Bone-Illuminating Mirror away.

Wu Zhen’s remains were already extremely weak, but once they leveraged the power of the Shadow Realm, everything changed completely.

Countless shadows surged out from the void, circling the throne as they danced, then flowed one by one into the phantom figure, continuously filling it and making it more solid.

Unfortunately, Qi Xuansu had just used the Ancestor Heavenly Preceptor’s heavenly thunder, so he could not use it again within its cooldown period. He could only manifest his Celestial Phenomenon Spiritual Body, led by Himiko. He raised his hand and pulled downward, causing a blazing sun to fall toward the mortal world.

At that moment, a pair of enormous hands formed entirely from shadows suddenly appeared out of thin air, catching and holding the blazing sun.

Qi Xuansu looked up and saw that behind the throne, at some unknown moment, a dark curtain connecting heaven and earth had appeared, descending from the starry sky above. The shadowy hands had emerged through a gap in this curtain.

After catching the radiant sun, the two hands closed together, and all the firelight vanished instantly, as if it had never existed.

Behind this curtain was likely the Shadow Realm.

Wu Zhen’s soul was also within it, though it had been trapped by the Heavenly Preceptor’s son through great divine power.

The enormous hands just now were likely manifestations of Wu Zhen’s soul wielding the power of the Shadow Realm. Yet the seal still remained, and Wu Zhen could only do this much, ultimately unable to personally descend.

Qi Jiaoyao said, “Wu Zhen’s soul has always been in slumber. The revival of her remains has most likely awakened it. As long as we deal with Wu Zhen’s remains, her soul will fall back into sleep.”

Qi Xuansu withdrew his Spiritual Body and instead revealed his Manly Immortal True Form.

The blood qi of a Zaohua-stage Martial Arts Practitioner was nearly stagnant in the body. Without the driving force of blood qi, the body spirits within the acupoints remained in a dormant, deathlike state, ensuring that the Martial Arts Practitioner would not inadvertently harm others through uncontrolled leakage of blood qi.

If blood qi were infused into the body’s acupoints to awaken the body spirits, then one could unleash full strength, allowing the Martial Arts Practitioner to transform into various forms.

As Qi Xuansu circulated his blood qi, the bones throughout his body crackled loudly. The Youyi Cloud Robe swelled, and his figure expanded visibly to a height of 5 meters. At the Zaohua stage, the Manly Immortal True Form was fully complete, no different from the Great Witches.

The next moment, Qi Xuansu leaned slightly forward as if about to sprint, but it was merely an afterimage. The real Qi Xuansu had already arrived one meter in front of the throne.

Qi Xuansu’s punch contained no flourish whatsoever. Driven by the intense blood qi, it forcibly tore through layers of shadow. Wherever it passed, the darkness dissipated.

Countless shadows continually clashed and canceled against Qi Xuansu’s surging blood qi.

Ripples spread outward in circles. Wherever they passed, the ground transformed into something resembling glazed crystal. This was because the Martial Arts Practitioner’s blood qi had reached the temperature of blazing fire. Even the stone paving could not withstand it.

Under the surging force of the fist intention, Wu Zhen’s form flickered between clarity and obscurity.

Qi Jiaoyao had already retreated far away, loudly cheering, “Tian Yuan, well done! Beat her to death!”

From this perspective, Qi Jiaoyao was far smarter than Little Yin. Whenever trouble arose, Little Yin would charge in foolishly, only to be grabbed by the back of the neck and stabbed, with blood gushing out. If not for her unique constitution, she would have lost her life. Little Yin was simply too young to be cunning.

When his first punch proved ineffective, Qi Xuansu used the Manly Immortal Hundred Forms, transforming his right hand into a dragon’s head to bite down on Wu Zhen’s shoulder. Despite Wu Zhen’s remains having fully transformed into shadow rather than a physical body, she still could not evade the attack.

Meanwhile, Qi Xuansu’s left hand ignited with demonic fire before he unleashed another punch.

The demonic fire was one of the strangest fires, surpassing even Himiko’s True Solar Fire. It could forcibly transform living people into monsters and burn both tangible and intangible things alike. Even Izanami had been grievously wounded by such flames when giving birth to the fire god, a testament to its terrifying power.

Naturally, Wu Zhen could not escape its effects. The demonic fire spread rapidly, burning through the shadows. Wherever the fire passed, the body twisted and warped.

Had she cultivated orthodox methods such as the Five Thunder Celestial Heart Method or Righteous Qi, she might have relied on their righteous properties to counter evil. Unfortunately, Wu Zhen herself walked an unorthodox path, so she could not resolve it.

Wu Zhen could only suppress it temporarily. Then, just as depicted in the mural, she tried to remove the bronze mask from her face, revealing her true appearance.

As long as she could drag Qi Xuansu into the Shadow Realm, he would not be able to harm her no matter how strong he was. Instead, he would be in extreme danger.

Qi Jiaoyao shouted, “Tian Yuan, don’t look into her eyes!”

Before Qi Jiaoyao finished her sentence, Wu Zhen had already removed the shadow-formed mask from her face, revealing her true appearance.

Just as depicted in the mural, Wu Zhen’s face could not truly be seen. Her entire visage resembled an empty void. The only thing visible were two points of light at the positions of her eyes. They were like whirlpools, bottomless and capable of devouring all things.

Qi Xuansu closed his eyes, refusing to look. Relying on the perception and instinct of the Demonic Blade, he unleashed a full-power punch.

Around Qi Xuansu’s body, 365 body spirits manifested from his acupoints, each bearing his likeness, all striking simultaneously.

Every joint in Qi Xuansu’s body erupted with thunderous sounds, like war drums resounding across heaven and earth. As the punch was thrown, his slightly bent arm snapped straight. The force of the strike tore through the air, sounding like hundreds of thunderclaps in one go.

There was only pure, unyielding yang energy in this punch. However, it had reached such an extreme state of yang that yin was born.

The violent shockwaves spread throughout the void as his punch was released, reaching everywhere and permeating all things. For a moment, everything within the temple’s domain became blurred and indistinct.

The void was the foundation upon which all things rest. It was more elusive and unfathomable even than qi itself. Since the void carried all things, then by shattering the void with a single punch, everything reliant upon it would naturally be annihilated along with it.

This was the Shattered Void Realm of Martial Arts Practitioners.

Qi Xuansu had not yet become a true Immortal, so he could not shatter the void yet. But he could shake it.

If even the void itself warped and twisted, everything dependent upon it could not remain unharmed. Many intricate formations and talismans would deviate from their original paths under such distortion, collapsing on its own.

Martial Arts Practitioners always had one weakness or another. Under certain circumstances, they could even be toyed with by Banished Immortals, often trapped in awkward situations where their strength could not be properly used. Yet without question, if given the right opportunity, a single punch was enough to shatter all things under heaven.

Qi Xuansu no longer held anything back, ignoring whether the fragile space of the Lingshan Paradise could withstand the strain. Still, a sub-pocket realm existed within the Lingshan Paradise, which meant that the spatial structure should be relatively stable.

The starry sky above twisted and warped, stars falling like rain.

The dark curtain behind Wu Zhen shattered under Qi Xuansu’s shock.

The momentum of this punch did not cease. The vibrating void spread across Wu Zhen’s entire body, causing her form to twist and distort like a frenzied shadow.

The demonic fire, which Wu Zhen had temporarily suppressed, began raging once again.

No matter what techniques she used, they dispersed at a single shock.

But at that very moment, the thing Qi Xuansu feared most came to pass. As he shook the void, a spatial rift suddenly widened from a small stream to a great river.

If several such spatial fissures became connected, an entire region could collapse, forming an abyss.

If one were to fall into an abyss, one might find oneself in another domain in the best-case scenario. In the worst case scenario, one might fall beyond the bounds of any realm, only to never return again.