A Pawn's Passage

The contents of the letter continued.

“The third case occurred on an isolated island. The Southern Continent was too vast and too sparsely populated, so this island did not even have an official name. The locals called it Kamakai, which meant a place to rest midway.

“As maritime trade flourished, long-distance ships frequently stopped there to replenish fresh water. Thus, the once-desolate island gradually became inhabited. Some people opened inns and restaurants. Brothels quickly followed the trend, and merchant ships began conducting trade there, forming marketplaces. In time, a town emerged.

“No matter how one looked at it, the place had been thriving. But one night, shadows descended upon the small town. Strictly speaking, the shadows engulfed the entire island. Even the ships docked there were not spared. This was also why we could not determine the exact time of the incident. It was only many days later that passing merchant ships discovered something wrong with the island and reported it to us.

“Unfortunately, at that exact time, the Steam Evangelical Sect’s forces were pressing down upon us in great numbers, and we simply lacked both the time and manpower to investigate abnormalities on a remote island.

“By the time the war ended and we returned to the island, the power of the shadows had still not dissipated. We temporarily broke through the shadow barrier and entered the island’s interior, only to discover that there were no survivors. Every single person on the island had been drained dry by the shadows. The situation was even worse than at the Sun God temple. We presumed that because the temple had enjoyed the Sun God’s protection, the shadow outbreak there had not been overly powerful. But on this remote island, the shadow force was more than ten times stronger than at the temple.

“The corpses of all the dead had transformed into servants of the shadows. The investigation team we dispatched even suffered casualties because of this. Nevertheless, the investigation team risked their lives to retrieve some of the corpses. These bodies likewise bore black sun tattoos, including the corpses of our own investigation team members.

“This indicated that these black sun tattoos were not originally present. At least, not all of them were. A significant number only appeared after death. Some individuals probably had them while alive, while others only developed them after death. It was difficult to distinguish between the two.

“Furthermore, calling these marks tattoos might not even be accurate. It would be more appropriate to describe them as a special kind of imprint. This overturned our earlier theory regarding factional struggles within the temple and implied that the matter involved a much broader scope. For this reason, we named this entire series of cases the Shadow Cases.

“Since the special imprint took the form of a sun, we believed that, whether this was a deliberate framing or due to some other reason, the Sun God could not possibly be unrelated to the matter. However, we lacked the ability to investigate the Sun God directly. Although no new war broke out between the North and the South, during the period that followed, tensions remained high, and the hidden struggles beneath the surface entered a new peak. The Juesheng Hall had to devote all efforts toward countering the attacks of the Evangelical Ministry and truly had no spare energy left to continue investigating the Shadow Cases.

“Of course, there are more such cases. However, due to limitations of space, I cannot recount each one in this letter. Still, I have already compiled all of these cases for your review, Chief Deputy Qi.”

The letter was signed by Tantai Ying, Chief Deputy Juesheng Hall Master of the Western Daoist Order.

From this letter, it was clear that Tantai Ying was not particularly afraid of Huangfu Ji. She even jokingly remarked that Huangfu Ji was inferior to Sage Qingwei and that Qi Xuansu’s Taiping coins had forced Huangfu Ji into compliance. Clearly, the two had a fairly good relationship, and Tantai Ying herself possessed considerable confidence, which undoubtedly came from the powerful family backing her.

Tantai Ying was from the same family as the foremost figure in the Western Daoist Order, Tantai Zhenxiao. In this respect, the Western Daoist Order had inherited the worst traits of both the Zhang and Li families, such as their emphasis on bloodline and personal allegiance. At least in the Daoist Order, outsiders like Qi Xuansu could still rise to prominence, which meant that the hierarchy had not yet become completely rigid.

Qi Xuansu put away the letter and asked Huangfu Ji, “Brother Huangfu, is Chief Deputy Tantai a woman?”

“She is the eldest granddaughter of Great Sage Tantai, not by direct descent. As you know, Immortals rarely have children. A grandniece still counts as a granddaughter,” Huangfu Ji replied.

Among the three bigwigs of the Western Daoist Order, Tantai Zhenxiao was the eldest, Gong Fu came second, and Huangfu Zhao was the youngest. Huangfu Ji, as Huangfu Zhao’s son, happened to fall between Tantai Zhenxiao’s children’s generation and grandchildren’s generation, making him too young to be called an uncle. Furthermore, Huangfu Ji did not put on airs in private, so Tantai Ying was not especially deferential toward him, nor did she truly regard him as an elder.

Qi Xuansu expressed his understanding. “Qing Xiao isn’t the Heavenly Preceptor’s biological granddaughter either.”

But Qi Xuansu was unsure what relationship Yao Pei had with the Earthly Preceptor.

Huangfu Ji had met Zhang Yuelu at Qi Xuansu’s apprenticeship ceremony and held her in very high regard. In fact, very few people thought poorly of Zhang Yuelu. As long as Zhang Yuelu did not trouble them, most people from a neutral standpoint would acknowledge her capability and character.

“My deputy can’t compare to Qing Xiao. She has a strange temperament and can be quite petty. If you offend her, she’ll remember it for at least a decade, if not a lifetime.” Huangfu Ji commented. “Still, I stopped caring long ago. In private matters, I let her do as she pleases. But if she delays official business, I won’t show the slightest bit of courtesy.”

Qi Xuansu believed Huangfu Ji. In some ways, they were similar. Huangfu Ji had two distinct faces, one for public matters and one for private life. He was clearly a very amiable person, yet when it came to the affairs of the Western Daoist Order, he became an aggressive and domineering extremist.

From Tantai Ying’s letter, it was evident that she often had no choice but to redirect her efforts toward dealing with the Evangelical Ministry. This showed that Huangfu Ji ruled Juesheng Hall with absolute authority. No matter how resentful she might be, she lacked the power to retaliate and could only grumble or mock Huangfu Ji a little, never daring to oppose his will.

Of course, Huangfu Ji’s approach was not wrong either.

Though these shadows were threatening the very foundations of the Western Daoist Order, he had to prioritize based on urgency. No matter what schemes the shadows harbored, they could not yet truly endanger the Western Daoist Order in the short term. However, the Steam Evangelical Sect in the Northern Continent was a genuine matter of life and death for both the Western Daoist Order and the Tawantin Court. One wrong move, and the Steam Evangelical Sect could destroy the Southern Continent, taking everyone down together.

Westerners had never cared much for civility when dealing with foreign races. After the Steam Evangelical Sect returned to the Southern Continent, they had no reservations whatsoever about killing people and blowing up temples. Their Apostles also destroyed divine kingdoms. They believed that stones should be carved, grass should be burned, and “undesired” people had to be eliminated. As such, a native’s scalp could be exchanged for one Gold Pound. Facing such an enemy, who would still care about conspiracies or hidden plots?

The Steam Evangelical Sect would not care about the shadows engulfing an isolated island, as that would simplify their job of wiping out the entire island together with every living thing upon it. They also would not care about seawater contamination and would only contaminate it even further by dumping all the sewage and waste into it. If they could not use it themselves, then others should not even dream of using it as well. At worst, they would retreat from the Southern Continent.

From a certain perspective, internal conflicts only ever involved one’s own people. Once outsiders came in killing, those conflicts ceased to matter at all.

Therefore, the Evangelical Ministry of the Steam Evangelical Sect had always been the primary target of Juesheng Hall.

However, now that the war had temporarily subsided, the Western Daoist Order sought development, and cases like these could no longer simply be ignored. Thus, even though the Western Daoist Order and the Daoist Order did not completely agree with each other, they still approved Qi Xuansu’s secret investigation and instructed Juesheng Hall, which had already been involved in these cases, to fully cooperate.

For the next stretch of time, Qi Xuansu remained in his room reading the files.

Tantai Ying’s letter was merely a summary, allowing Qi Xuansu to roughly understand what had happened. The compiled files formed an outline that revealed certain hidden threads while filling in the background and context. As for more detailed information, that could only be learned upon arriving at Juesheng Hall itself.

Tantai Ying had only introduced three relatively representative cases in her letter to Qi Xuansu. In reality, there were many more, all compiled within the files. One of these cases involved the Royal Guard.

The Tawantin Empire had already been thoroughly sinicized by the Western Daoist Order. All official positions were modeled after those of the Great Xuan Dynasty. This was especially true in the military, where ranks followed a layered hierarchy. At the top was the Commander in Chief, equivalent to a Western general. Beneath that was the Garrison Chief Military Officer, equivalent to a lieutenant general. Then came the Deputy Chief, equivalent to a major general. The non-permanent title of Seal-Bearing General was equivalent to a marshal.

The commander of the Royal Guard was a Garrison Chief Military Officer, someone absolutely trusted by the Tawantin royal family. The Garrison Chief was not originally from the Central Plains, but since childhood, he had accompanied members of the royal family in studying Central Plains culture. He was considered a disciple of Huangfu Zhao and an elder martial brother of Huangfu Ji, which was why he also had a Central Plains name—Huangfu Zhu.

To bear the Huangfu name, he must certainly have obtained the Huangfu family’s approval. This showed just how closely Huangfu Zhu was connected to the Huangfu family.

When New Paititi was constructed, it was influenced by the Western Daoist Order and, to a certain extent, modeled after the Qi Dynasty’s Xijing.

Thus, the Royal Guard also imitated the Qi Dynasty by establishing the Northern and Southern Palace Guards.

In summary, the Northern Palace Guards were the troops that protected the royal palace and were responsible for guarding the emperor, while the Southern Palace Guards were the troops that protected the city, responsible for defending New Paititi.

The Southern Palace Guards belonged to the formal national military, while the Northern Palace Guards were the emperor’s personal troops.

In the Qi Dynasty, the emperor’s personal troops wielded unparalleled influence over the empire’s politics. The four palace coups in Xijing all hinged upon control of the Xuanwu Gate and whether the Northern Gate Guards sided for or against them. One could even say that whoever controlled the Northern Palace Guards controlled the empire.

With such precedents as warnings, these two branches of the Royal Guard naturally could not be placed under a single person’s control. Therefore, the Northern Palace Guards were commanded by two Deputy Chief Military Officers, who checked and balanced one another. The Southern Palace Guards posed less of a threat and were overseen by a single Garrison Chief Military Officer.

Huangfu Zhu was primarily responsible for the Southern Palace Guards that handled the city’s defense. As such, many criminal cases also fell under the jurisdiction of the Southern Palace Guards.

In order to deal with the endless stream of heroes disrupting order through force, Huangfu Zhu invested enormous effort into building a special elite unit known as the Divine Eagle Guard.