A Pawn's Passage

Among the many temples in the Temple District, Kukulkan’s temple was the tallest, symbolizing his supreme status among the gods, standing out like a crane among chickens.

At this moment, everyone could clearly see a gigantic feathered serpent coiling around Kukulkan’s pyramid temple. Its tail rested at the base of the temple, while its head towered at the very top. Its body wound around the pyramid’s outer walls like a vine, and its enormous eyes gazed coldly down upon the entire Temple District. The wings on its back spread wide, like dark clouds blotting out the sun and casting a vast shadow below.

No matter how one looked at it, Kukulkan had manifested himself.

Immediately afterward, a firebird resembling a phoenix soared into the sky, rising even higher than the Feathered Serpent God coiled around the temple. When it spread its wings, the sky was instantly dyed crimson. The clouds overhead seemed as though they were about to burst into flames.

The Feathered Serpent God no longer looked downward. Its gaze shifted upward toward the firebird in the sky.

An ordinary person would instantly turn into stone when meeting the gaze of the Feathered Serpent God, their soul sealed within the statue for all eternity. Yet the firebird was completely unaffected. It flapped its wings once more, and the magnificent sea of fiery clouds in the sky pressed steadily downward, drawing ever closer to the serpent’s raised head.

The next moment, countless streaks of crimson light and flames rained down from the fiery clouds like a meteor shower of fire descending upon the mortal world. These were not ordinary flames but True Solar Flames. Each streak left behind a distorted trail across the sky, scattering sparks in its wake.

The flames struck Kukulkan’s body and exploded on impact, scorching the feathered serpent until its flesh split open and its skin cracked apart.

The one battling the Feathered Serpent God was Qi Xuansu’s Corpse Liberation Incarnation, or rather, Madam Wu. Qi Xuansu’s true body had never gone to the Temple District at all. Qi Xuansu was considered a major figure in the eyes of others, so even if he wished to risk himself personally, those around him would strongly urge him not to.

The reasoning was simple. Too many people’s fundamental interests were tied to Qi Xuansu. Hun Ahau hoped Qi Xuansu would help him regain favor, restore the Western Daoist Order’s trust in him, and return him to the center of power. Huangfu Xi hoped Qi Xuansu would help her ascend the throne like Chen Jianqiu in the Yu Kingdom. Though separated by thousands of kilometers, Huangfu Xi had heard about the events in the Yu Kingdom and knew that Chief Deputy Qi believed in equality. People like Tantai Ying and Lu Yujue would also be held accountable if anything happened to Qi Xuansu in the Southern Continent.

However, Qi Xuansu also did not follow the others’ suggestion of boarding the Horned Dragon outside the city. That would have been going a bit too far.

Qi Xuansu arrived at Huangfu Xi’s Princess Residence. The bodies there had already been given rudimentary burial preparations, but because there were so many of them, they remained temporarily housed within the residence.

Accompanied by Huangfu Xi, Qi Xuansu examined each corpse one by one. Huangfu Xi was still saddened. After all, these had been people she saw every day, including some who had been close to her. Yet as the Crown Princess, or the future Empress Regnant, she could not display too much weakness.

Qi Xuansu paused before one of the corpses and said, “These bodies all share one common characteristic. They bear traces of residual deathly divine power. That aligns perfectly with General Hun’s suspicion. But was concealing one’s identity and avoiding showing one’s true face necessary, only to deliberately kill using one’s own signature methods afterward? Wouldn’t all that earlier concealment become completely pointless?”

Huangfu Xi softly asked, “Sage Qi, do you mean that someone is deliberately impersonating Utu to stir up trouble behind the scenes?”

“It’s possible.” Qi Xuansu withdrew his gaze. “If that’s really the case, then there’s still one final step missing.”

Huangfu Xi asked, “What step?”

“Impersonate Utu and kill me, then frame my death on him,” Qi Xuansu replied. “Unulatu has gone completely mad. Slaughtering everyone in the Princess Residence isn’t enough, she even attempts to assassinate an envoy of the Daoist Order. In the end, the Daoist Order erupts in thunderous fury, cleanses the filth and corruption, and Qi Xuansu is immortalized for all ages.”

As the words left his mouth, Qi Xuansu turned his head.

At some point, an additional figure had appeared within the now-empty Princess Residence. Standing not far away, the person’s icy gaze fell upon Qi Xuansu, locking onto him so firmly that escape seemed impossible.

The person wore a black robe and a hood. Beneath the hood was a dense shadow that even a Martial Arts Practitioner’s True Sight could not penetrate. Only two crimson points of light were visible.

Qi Xuansu showed no fear and merely signaled for Huangfu Xi to withdraw.

Huangfu Xi was greatly alarmed and dared not object, but she soon discovered that the entire residence had been sealed off from the outside world. Those within could not leave, and those outside could not enter.

It was a divine domain, the mystical ability of Shamans in the Fruition Realm.

This was the same divine domain that Hun Ahau had faced when confronting the assassin. The deathly aura was even capable of eroding and suppressing an Manly Immortal True Form.

In other words, this was the very person who had massacred Huangfu Xi’s Princess Residence, then fought a fierce battle against Hun Ahau before being forced back by Hun Ahau’s Void Shattering Punch.

Now he had come for Qi Xuansu as well. His intentions could not have been clearer.

Qi Xuansu could clearly sense the dense killing intent contained within that cold gaze. He could even feel a metaphysical chill spreading through his body. If he allowed fear to take root and accepted it as reality, that chill would become real, permeating every part of him and freezing him from the inside out until he could no longer move.

Clearly, this chill had little to do with actual cold and everything to do with fear.

However, techniques that manipulated fear worked best when used unexpectedly against an unprepared target. Thanks to the warning from the Guizang Lantern, Qi Xuansu had been on guard, greatly limiting the effectiveness of the technique.

That said, Qi Xuansu was still not a Pseudo-Immortal. Without his Corpse Liberation Incarnation and without Madam Wu by his side, he remained weaker than a genuine Pseudo-Immortal. Sending a Pseudo-Immortal to assassinate Qi Xuansu was entirely reasonable from a strategic standpoint.

Qi Xuansu’s cultivation was inferior to that of this person, so he did not unfold a divine domain. If he forcibly did so, it would be overwhelmed by the opposing divine domain.

Instead, Qi Xuansu employed his Manly Immortal True Form, growing to a height of 5 meters. The aura surrounding him became almost tangible, resisting the erosion of the divine domain.

Immediately afterward, Qi Xuansu threw a punch, causing the void itself to tremble. Even a divine domain depended upon the existence of space. As space distorted, a tiny crack appeared within the otherwise flawless divine domain.

Qi Xuansu grabbed Huangfu Xi from afar and hurled her through that narrow opening, throwing her out of the divine domain to prevent her from dying within.

The assassin seized the opportunity to close the distance between him and Qi Xuansu in an instant and then launched a punch.

There was not the slightest trace of fist intention in this punch. Instead, it was saturated with the divine power of death. Even a Manly Immortal True Form would suffer damaged vitality and withering flesh if struck by it.

Qi Xuansu did not take it head-on. Relying on the instincts of the Demonic Blade, he evaded the attack.

The death attribute within the divine domain suddenly transformed.

There were many subdivisions within the vast domain of death, such as slaughter, the moon, and the world of the dead. The world of the dead could be divided into spirits and corpses, while spirits belonged to the broader domain of souls.

There were countless such examples. The sun was often associated with fire and light, while life was frequently linked to vegetation and water. Thus, the Godly Immortal cultivation system resembled an immense interwoven web.

It was often said that there was great terror between life and death. As such, fear was also considered one of the branches within the domain of death.

Since the assassin’s gaze had failed to take effect, he relied on his superior cultivation and the suppressive power of his divine domain to forcibly generate fear within Qi Xuansu’s heart.

For a moment, Qi Xuansu was bombarded by countless illusions. His mind wavered, and it became difficult to maintain control. It was much like an ordinary person bewitched by ghosts and spirits. The greater the fear, the more numerous the hallucinations. These hallucinations magnified weaknesses and made the visions increasingly realistic, which further amplified the fear in an endless cycle.

Although Qi Xuansu had been affected by this terror, which dazed him slightly, he was able to fight through instinct alone with the Demonic Blade. Even when his rationale faltered, his hand did not stop, and it continued striking.

Qi Xuansu’s punch was not only overwhelmingly powerful, but it was also swift like lightning. Once it landed solidly, its force erupted like a tsunami and a collapsing mountain, exploding outward with devastating might.

The assassin expanded into a 10-meter-tall Spiritual Body, directly withstanding Qi Xuansu’s punch. At the same time, he raised a palm and brought it crashing down toward Qi Xuansu’s head.

Relying once again on the instincts of the Demonic Blade, Qi Xuansu retreated dozens of meters at the critical moment, narrowly evading the strike.

A thunderous boom rang out. Although the assassin’s palm never actually touched the ground, dust billowed into the sky and spread in all directions. Countless stone fragments infused with sharp qi scattered outward, peppering the earth with innumerable small craters. When the dust finally settled, a gigantic palm print had appeared on the ground.

Having missed his target, the assassin curled his five fingers. Divine power poured forth like liquid mercury, forming a giant scythe. Moonlight condensed along its blade, making it resemble a crescent moon from afar.

Qi Xuansu dismissed his Manly Immortal True Form and drew Pure Bodhi, crossing paths with the assassin and appearing behind him.

The assassin remained standing and slowly turned around. A thin crack appeared in his black robe, from which corpse qi seeped out. More cracks quickly followed, releasing even greater amounts of corpse qi. Eventually, all the cracks connected into a vast web-like pattern. Corpse qi poured out in torrents, and the black robe disintegrated into countless fragments that fluttered down from his body.

The assassin’s form shrank from the 10-meter Spiritual Body back to ordinary human height. Only a few tattered remnants of the black robe remained, though the hood was still largely intact. His exposed body closely resembled Utu’s, like a corpse already beginning to rot. No wonder Hun Ahau had mistaken him. With nothing left to restrain it, the dense corpse qi surged skyward. Wherever it passed, even lifeless things such as soil and stone were stained with an ominous gray-black hue.

The next moment, taking advantage of the divine domain’s terrain, the assassin teleported in front of Qi Xuansu. The scythe in his hand collided with Pure Bodhi, twisting and locking the two weapons together.

With his free left hand, Qi Xuansu pulled out a sword from the void itself. The blade was formless and invisible. Were it not for the unmistakable sword-gripping gesture of his hand, one could scarcely tell that he held a sword at all.

This sword was drawn from heaven and earth, independent and unchanging. It was the Daozi Sword.

Soon after, Qi Xuansu drove the Daozi Sword fiercely toward the assassin’s chest.