A Pawn's Passage

Zhang Yuelu smacked the armrest. “Tian Yuan is always like this.”

Her words were not without cause. Qi Xuansu rarely asked for her opinion. The most unforgettable instance was his jaw-dropping leap.

At this moment, the two principal seats facing south remained empty, while the two women sat across from each other in the chairs arranged along the eastern and western walls of the living room.

Madam Qi sat opposite Zhang Yuelu and tapped out her pipe. “Tian Yuan probably figured there was no point telling you. After all, you can’t fly over there. It would only make you worry for nothing. So it’s better not to say.”

Zhang Yuelu looked at Madam Qi, knowing there was certainly a deeper purpose for her to come all this way to tell her about it.

Madam Qi did not beat around the bush. “For certain reasons, I have signed a contract with someone and cannot say too much.“

As she spoke, Madam Qi raised her left hand. On the back of it was a strange symbol that seemed branded into her skin. Usually, it remained invisible, but the moment she touched upon a certain sensitive content, it lit up and pulsed with purple light, as if warning her.

Madam Qi said, “What I can say is that you must pay particular attention to your own safety.”

In that instant, Zhang Yuelu’s thoughts raced in many directions.

Things were no longer as they had been in the past. Back then, Zhang Yuelu had been loved by no one, so she became a target for anyone to bully her.

But with the Zhang family having confirmed the line of succession—from Zhang Wushou to Zhang Jucheng, and then to Zhang Yuelu—and with Sage Cihang formally naming Zhang Yuelu as her successor, as well as Zhang Yuelu’s betrothal to Qi Xuansu settled, Zhang Yuelu’s standing had risen again and again. Whether she would become Grand Master was still uncertain, but her role as the future leader of the Zhengyi Sect was virtually assured.

Under normal circumstances, Zhang Yuelu’s safety was guaranteed because the Heavenly Preceptor and Sage Cihang protected her. No one would be permitted to harm her.

Thus, Zhang Yuelu usually paid little thought to questions of safety. Who would dare do anything to her?

The Li family might dare to, but there was no need. Their primary target had long since ceased to be Zhang Yuelu or Yao Pei. It was now Qi Xuansu. In a sense, Qi Xuansu had become Zhang Yuelu’s shelter from the wind and rain.

But the people protecting Qi Xuansu were also far more numerous. The Heavenly Preceptor had even entrusted him with the Guizang Lantern. Having foresight was Qi Xuansu’s ultimate protection, making him a far harder target.

Zhang Yuelu’s situation was rather like the darkness beneath a lamp. All eyes were on Qi Xuansu, so few paid her much attention. Those who wished her ill, such as certain desperate old Daoists, lacked the ability to do anything to her. They could not even get past Lin Yuanmiao. Those who had the ability lacked the will. They had not been driven to desperation and had no need to push things to a mutual annihilation.

Others understood this, and so did Zhang Yuelu. That was why she paid no heed to her own safety.

Under these circumstances, if someone were to do the opposite and act against all expectations, they might very well succeed.

Thinking more deeply, it was not even necessary to kill Zhang Yuelu. Capturing her and holding her temporarily would suffice. There would be no need to use her as a threat against Qi Xuansu. Simply impersonating her and deceiving Qi Xuansu would be enough to accomplish a great deal.

Since Zhang Yuelu had not been killed and was merely imprisoned, there might still be room to maneuver afterward.

Zhang Yuelu did not think Madam Qi was making a fuss over nothing. Though Little Yin had not explained it very clearly, Zhang Yuelu had grasped the gist. Madam Qi knew Zhou Mengyao well. If Madam Qi harbored this concern, it meant Zhou Mengyao was genuinely capable of doing this.

After all, Zhou Mengyao was a madwoman. She was not one to observe the rules completely.

Zhang Yuelu could not afford to take it lightly.

Madam Qi tapped Little Yin on the head once more.

Little Yin recalled something and said, “The other day when I was reading, Madam Qi accidentally dropped a book. I picked it up and read it, and I came across a terribly vicious technique called Demon Embryo Planting. It uses someone else as a furnace and refines a strand of your own soul into a seed. This seed is lodged into the other person’s heart, where it takes root and grows. The seed is concealed by the embryo, so no one will notice.”

It was not only Zhou Mengyao who could manufacture convenient coincidences. As Zhou Mengyao’s longtime friend, Madam Qi was equally adept. But clearly, Little Yin had simply muddled through the explanation. Her account was disjointed, and she had forgotten parts.

But Zhang Yuelu had understood nonetheless and even corrected Little Yin.

Little Yin nodded repeatedly. “Right... After the demon seed parasitizes the embryo, it still preserves the host’s soul, memories, and personality while there is a fusion occurring. The host doesn’t even realize it. They simply feel like they have awakened to their true self and feel no resistance.“

Hearing this, Zhang Yuelu pressed a hand to her forehead and fell into deep thought.

This Demon Embryo Planting Technique was genuinely terrifying.

Being possessed merely preserved the shell. The soul within had been replaced, so this was relatively easy to detect. But this technique used the host’s own soul as the embryo, nurturing a seed within it, like the union of yin and yang between a man and a woman. The two would fuse and assimilate to develop into a new individual. Since it was so well hidden, outsiders could not detect it in time. The host themselves could barely perceive it.

After all, people would change, and they usually accepted their own changes. A child thought differently from an adult. Even after adulthood, one’s thinking would change after achieving success. Radical shifts following trauma were common, hence the many sayings about sudden enlightenment, seeing clearly at last, and awakening to truth.

Such a gradual, insidious shift was easily mistaken for an awakening. The person themselves would neither notice nor resist. It would only be much later, over a long stretch of time, that others would detect a change in temperament when comparing the past and present, by which point it would be too late.

In open combat, this technique was of little use. But it was extraordinarily effective for striking at someone in secret.

Madam Qi would not have let Little Yin “stumble upon” this technique without reason. This meant that the technique was very likely one of Zhou Mengyao’s specialties.

Moreover, Madam Qi had warned Zhang Yuelu to pay attention to her own safety. As such, Zhang Yuelu had already grasped Zhou Menyao’s plan. She would likely find an opportunity to capture Zhang Yuelu, plant this demon seed, erase part of her memories, and then release her. Eventually, Zhang Yuelu would no longer be Zhang Yuelu. She would become Zhou Mengyao.

What Zhou Mengyao might then do was easy enough to imagine.

Of course, the Daoist Order had all kinds of experts. No matter how concealed, such an act carried enormous risk, and Zhou Mengyao would not dare attempt it unless driven to desperation. As things stood, if Zhou Mengyao failed in her confrontation with Qi Xuansu and found herself unable to defeat him, she might very well take a desperate gamble and turn her attention to Zhang Yuelu.

Zhang Yuelu even thought of the disappeared Qi Haoran. Had the real Qi Haoran also been parasitized by Zhou Mengyao, reduced to a puppet extension of Zhou Mengyao’s will, then discarded entirely once all usefulness was exhausted?

The mere thought was enough to send a chill down her spine.

But there was another possibility. Zhou Mengyao’s ultimate target was not to kill Qi Xuansu, nor to parasitize Zhang Yuelu, but to parasitize Qi Xuansu himself, replace him, and live on in his identity.

Madam Qi began smoking again. Wisps of mist curled and drifted around her.

Someone like Zhou Mengyao might not be lethally dangerous, but she was deeply insidious, a source of ceaseless unrest.

After all, she did not openly contest for the position of Grand Master. She also had the protection of the Earthly Preceptor, which meant she reaped the benefits of power without bearing its obligations. Naturally, she acted as she pleased.

Qi Xuansu understood this perfectly, which was precisely why he sought an opportunity to strike a decisive blow on Zhou Mengyao at the cost of putting himself in danger. He wanted her to feel the pain and make her fear him.

On the other side, Qi Xuansu’s dragon-slaying operation had officially commenced.

Several Longevous stood on the watchtowers along the shore, vigilantly monitoring every movement around them against the threat of an attack.

Normally, their greatest threat was the great demon that had fought the Dragon God to a standstill, but that demon had also been gravely wounded by the Dragon God and was hiding away to recuperate. It would not be launching any attack. They should have been quite safe.

Yet somehow, the atmosphere today felt oppressive and heavy.

Before dawn, when the sky was still a deep, dark blue, countless shadows dissolved into the darkness of night and surged in from every direction. Soon after, individual black silhouettes appeared simultaneously behind each sentry, their blades rising and falling as one.

One by one, the sentries were silently eliminated before they could make a single sound.

In the darkness, these shadows intertwined like fabric, light and dark entangled in all directions.

Anyone from the Juesheng Hall would have recognized it instantly. This was the Shadow Tide, once a source of dread and headache for many.

It was now known that the Shadow Tide had originally been unleashed by Chak Chel, who held the divine authority of night, with the aim of resurrecting Itzamna. Now, Chak Chel and the divine authority of night belonged entirely to Ixchel, so the Shadow Tide was now under Ixchel’s command.

As Ixchel climbed up the ranks, Utu, as her chosen servant, rose alongside her. The divine authorities and abilities at his command grew more numerous.

Seen from high above, shadows were devouring this stretch of sea. Though some of the Longevous were of considerable cultivation, Utu used the shadows to isolate them, leaving each person cut off and without support. Those trapped within the shadows only felt that they had been sealed in an independent space, with nothing around them but endless darkness, silently breeding fear.

Driven by Utu, the Shadow Tide spread, swiftly engulfing the fishing village on land and then expanding deep into the sea. Wherever it reached, the deep blue waters turned black as ink, as though the ocean had become a massive ink pot, its dense black fluid ready to overflow and spill in every direction.