A Pawn's Passage

Madam Wu had previously mentioned that among the Fallen Apostles, there was an apostle who held authority over death.

As the Chief Deputy of the Juesheng Hall, Tantai Ying was quite familiar with the Fallen Apostles who were stirring up trouble throughout the New Continent. So she gave Qi Xuansu a detailed introduction to the Death Apostle, Samuel.

Strictly speaking, Samuel’s divine authority over death referred specifically to the dead and the afterlife, whereas slaughter represented the process of death in progress. The two were still quite distinct from one another.

As such, Zuriel and Samuel formed an ideal partnership, much like Wu Luo and True Lord Siming.

There was a saying among serial killers that murder was easy, but disposing of the body was hard. Zuriel handled the killing, while Samuel handled the disposal of the dead. That was the tacit understanding behind their cooperation.

These two Fallen Apostles also had distinct appearances.

Zuriel frequently appeared as a young Western man with black hair and black eyes. He wore classical aristocratic attire, carried a rapier and a dagger, and projected a cold and reserved aura. Many of his “Prince” titles originated from this image.

Samuel was completely different. He often wore loose black robes with a hood attached to the garment. Beneath the hood was only darkness, though occasionally, a skull-like face would emerge. He frequently carried a massive long-handled scythe in one hand and a set of scales in the other. This was because he also possessed the divine authority of fairness, which dated back to his days as a Holy Court Apostle.

After he became a Fallen Apostle, this concept of fairness acquired an additional meaning: before death, all people are equal, and death is the greatest equality of all.

Compared to Zuriel, who frequently stepped into the spotlight to stir up trouble, Samuel disliked standing under the public gaze. He preferred to remain behind the scenes, silently observing everything, plotting schemes, and harvesting lives. Crows served as both his messengers and his eyes and ears. Through their eyes, he could observe and spy upon all things in the world. Crows announced the coming of death, while black cats conveyed his divine revelations.

At the same time, Samuel also possessed partial authority over fear and misfortune. He spread his influence through the primal fear of death felt by the living. However, there were occasional moments when this former Apostle gave people the illusion of being compassionate and merciful.

Thus, Samuel’s holy emblem consisted of a skeleton, a scythe, and a crow.

Naturally, Samuel also had followers and clergy, who spread fear among mortals, causing ordinary people to dread death.

However, Samuel’s faith was not widespread. His followers tended to resemble members of secret societies. Many worshipped Samuel out of fear, offering sacrifices to him during funerals or other occasions related to death. Yet very few genuinely believed in him. As such, it was rare to see temples for Samuel. Even when such temples existed, it was difficult for them to openly exist in the world.

Due to this, Qi Xuansu suspected that the temple above ground and the underground complex might actually be two separate entities. The structure above was merely a mask, while the underground section was the true face hidden behind it.

Since it was a temple dedicated to Samuel, its architectural style naturally differed from the indigenous architecture of the Southern Continent and bore unmistakably Western characteristics.

All these clues seemed to point toward a single truth, that the Shadow Cases had been jointly orchestrated by Zuriel and Samuel to devour souls and flesh through blood sacrifice.

Whether in terms of motive or capability, everything fits remarkably well, with no obvious flaws in the theory.

These two Fallen Apostles, Zuriel and Samuel, both required divine power. Under normal circumstances, the amount of divine power they could obtain was extremely limited. Thus, they devised this Shadow Tide. Zuriel harvested souls, while Samuel consumed flesh and blood, each taking what he needed.

As the God of Deception, Zuriel deceived the priests of the Sun Temple and left behind the mural of the black sun deep within the temple, triggering the Shadow Tide that engulfed Kamakai. Meanwhile, Samuel used a fugitive to lure the Divine Eagle Guards, who were pursuing the escapee, into his own temple, where he ultimately devoured them.

From a logical standpoint, the explanation seemed to hold.

At the very least, that was what Tantai Ying believed.

However, Qi Xuansu did not share this view. He raised an objection. “Judging from all the evidence, this temple belonging to Samuel has existed for a very long time. But it has also been abandoned for a very long time. The fact that the shadows erupted here does not necessarily mean the shadows originated from Samuel. It is also possible that someone else borrowed this temple for their own purposes. At the very least, we should thoroughly investigate the situation here before drawing any conclusions.”

The Daoist Order preached equality, which meant that it did not concern itself with taboos such as not looking directly upon a god or not blaspheming against one.

This was a form of demystification. If one could not deconstruct the concept of a god, one would inevitably revere it. If one could not understand a god, one would fear the unknown. Even if a deity did not possess divine authority over fear itself, mortals would still become afraid of it and ultimately be crushed by their own fear. In common terms, they would scare themselves to death.

But if one could deconstruct a deity, understand it, and know its true nature, then no matter how powerful that deity might be, there would always be a way to resist it. It was merely a powerful person.

The Daoist Order’s reverence for the Primordial Daoist Ancestor was not a form of deity worship. It was closer to venerating an ancestor. The difference between those two forms of reverence was enormous.

As such, when Qi Xuansu spoke of “someone else,” he was not necessarily referring to a person. It could be understood as “some other god.”

Thus, Tantai Ying followed Qi Xuansu through the stone doors and into the interior of the underground temple.

Although it was called an underground palace, it looked more like a tomb that had been converted for another purpose. With the shadows no longer obstructing them and no followers of Samuel standing in their way, the two proceeded unhindered.

After walking for roughly an hour, they arrived at a three-way junction. Excluding the passage by which they had entered, the deep burial corridor split into three separate branches, each leading toward an unknown destination.

These different branches converged into a hall. On the wall directly facing the entrance passage hung a portrait that was likewise covered in dust. With a wave of his hand, Qi Xuansu swept away the dust.

The painting depicted the profile of a figure clad in black robes and wearing a hood. His face was concealed within darkness. A massive scythe rested behind him, his hands hidden within his sleeves. A crow perched upon his shoulder, while a black cat rested in his arms. The background was somewhat indistinct, but one could vaguely make out countless white skeletons.

It was none other than a portrait of Samuel, the God of Death.

Needless to say, when Tantai Ying had entered this place previously, the portrait had been covered by shadows, which was why she had failed to notice it.

Tantai Ying pointed to the base of the wall beneath the portrait. “This is where I found the blood message.”

Qi Xuansu carefully examined the spot. There were no signs of a struggle, but there were faint traces suggesting that someone had leaned against the wall. It was as though someone had once sat beneath Samuel’s portrait, resting briefly with their back against the wall.

Without a doubt, this person had to be the missing Divine Eagle Guard Commander Adjutant. He had sat here and left behind the message written in blood.

Qi Xuansu asked, “Was there any attempt at Earth Qi Recall?”

Tantai Ying replied, “After the shadows receded, I had my people perform an Earth Qi Recall. As expected, the earth qi was in complete chaos.”

Qi Xuansu first stared at the place where the Divine Eagle Guard Commander Adjutant had sat to leave the blood message. Then he raised his head and looked at Samuel’s portrait. For a long time, he remained silent.

Unable to contain her curiosity, Tantai Ying asked, “Chief Deputy Qi, have you noticed something?”

Qi Xuansu took out the blood message and said, “Judging from the chaotic handwriting, the Divine Eagle Guard Commander Adjutant had already fallen into extreme panic and confusion before and after writing this message. The other Divine Eagle Guards were unlikely to have been in any better condition. If anything, they were probably worse off. This was likely the primary reason for their disappearance.”

Tantai Ying kept quiet, as this much had already been established.

Qi Xuansu continued, “So I’ve been thinking...if a person is consumed by overwhelming fear and panic, would they still have the awareness to leave behind a message? If I were him, I’d have fled in terror like a headless chicken. I wouldn’t have left clues for those who came afterward.

“Not long ago in Kamakai, I personally confronted the fear of facing Kukulkan. At that moment, I had no other thoughts whatsoever, only the most basic instinct for survival. I reckon that I’d only leave behind a blood message if I were trapped in a hopeless situation, yet still managed to remain calm enough to think. That’s the prerequisite—calmness. Were these missing Divine Eagle Guards calm?”

Tantai Ying froze. This was something she had never considered. “Of course they weren’t calm.”

Qi Xuansu said, “Therefore, there are two possibilities regarding this blood-written message. The first possibility is that the mastermind behind the Shadow Cases deliberately forged the message and left it behind to confuse us and misdirect our investigation.”

Tantai Ying could not help but ask, “And the second possibility?”

Qi Xuansu looked once more at Samuel’s portrait. “The second possibility is that some other external force intervened, creating an unforeseen variable and leaving behind a flaw in the plan.”

Tantai Ying looked at Qi Xuansu with some surprise. This was a possibility that had never occurred to her.

She had to admit that this Chief Deputy Qi from the Daoist Order truly lived up to his reputation. It was no wonder that he had repeatedly distinguished himself through meritorious achievements and risen to his position as Chief Deputy of the Beichen Hall. He was certainly not a pampered scion living off his family’s prestige.

What Tantai Ying did not know was that Qi Xuansu’s judgment was based entirely on his own personal experiences.

Many of the schemes devised by Zhou Mengyao and those behind her had originally been flawless and nearly perfect. However, because of the intervention of an external force—the Heavenly Preceptor—flaws and variables appeared, allowing Qi Xuansu to detect the danger ahead of time and begin actively saving himself. This was precisely why conspiracy chains that relied upon a sequence of interconnected events were so difficult to execute successfully.

Tantai Ying asked again, “If it’s the second possibility, then what is this external force?”

Qi Xuansu did not answer. Instead, he tipped his head over to the portrait of Samuel that he had been staring at the entire time.

Tantai Ying was not foolish. She immediately realized the implication. “The missing Divine Eagle Guard Commander Adjutant once sat beneath Samuel’s portrait.”

Staring at Samuel’s profile in the portrait, Qi Xuansu was reminded of the scroll given to him by True Lord Ziguang. In that scroll, Yao Yueyan, who had originally been walking toward Lingshan Mountain, suddenly stopped, turned her head, and appeared ready to remove the Ancient Wuist mask from her face. Yet at that very moment, the image abruptly stopped moving.

Qi Xuansu had a feeling that when that Divine Eagle Guard Commander Adjutant had sat beneath this portrait, the image of Samuel had come alive. It had turned to face him directly. Those eerie eyes hidden beneath the hood had gazed down upon the unfortunate Commander Adjutant, who had fallen into madness, allowing him to recover a fragment of his reason and a brief moment of clarity. It was during that fleeting moment of lucidity that he wrote the crude message in his blood.

Then, when Samuel withdrew his gaze and returned to facing sideways once more, the unfortunate man fell back into madness. In the end, he disappeared into the depths of the temple, leaving behind only that blood message.

Why would Samuel do such a thing?

Qi Xuansu recalled Tantai Ying’s description of Samuel. “There were occasional moments when this former Apostle gave people the illusion of being compassionate and merciful.”