A Pawn's Passage

Qi Xuansu was the only Heavenly Being among the survivors, who were all Guizhen-stage Xiantian Beings. Thus, crossing mountainous terrain posed no real challenge to him. In fact, if not for the wounded he was escorting, Qi Xuansu could have simply flown.

Though they were crossing several districts, Fenglin was not the Central Plains—its districts were much smaller than the prefectures of the Central Plains, equivalent at most to a single county. If Qi Xuansu flew, he could reach Hita Castle in no time.

After entering the mountains, the lingering chill was still a bit harsh despite it being spring, and the snow had yet to melt. The deeper and higher they went, the thicker the snow became. By the time they reached the remote forest, not even a footprint could be seen. All around was a world of white. Trees and ground alike were blanketed in thick snow.

By dusk, the wind began to howl.

The cold wind was piercing, chilling to the bone. The temperature plummeted rapidly. Water froze the instant it touched the air.

But the cold did not affect them much. Qi Xuansu, with his Heavenly Being physique, was immune to heat and cold. The others, while not as advanced, were also resistant to this extreme cold. Moreover, they wore their winter Daoist hechangs, equivalent to a winter cloak. It was excellent against wind and cold. Even without it, their cultivation provided sufficient resistance.

Given the extraordinary circumstances, the group pressed on through the night without rest. By around 10 PM, the wind carried icy pellets that stung the face. Not long after, snow began to fall.

The snow came swiftly and fiercely, turning into a blizzard in the blink of an eye. It was already the dead of night, and they were in the deep mountain forest, which was the likeliest place to be trapped in a supernatural maze. With the snow sealing all paths, the world became a vast, indistinct white. They could not see a thing, let alone tell which direction they were heading in.

It was like a natural illusion. They often thought they were walking in a straight line, only to be tracing a wide arc, ultimately circling back to where they started.

As always, if Qi Xuansu were alone, it would not be a problem. He could simply fly out or brute-force his way through, even if it meant chopping down trees the whole way. But he was leading a group of wounded cultivators. Though they were all at the Guizhen stage, their injuries were serious. Even the toughest Martial Arts Practitioner would need two or three days to recover. At this moment, they were essentially a burden to him.

He did not have the Joyous Cloud Shield of Banished Immortals, which allowed one to carry others in flight. Even if he had one, it could carry only a single passenger at best. He was also not a Wuliang-stage Qi Refiner who could summon wind and disperse this blizzard.

The bigger issue was that they were in Fenglin, where the local ghosts and spirits were far stronger than those in the Central Plains.

It was not that Central Plains spirits were weak. It was just that the Daoist Order had already suppressed most of them. The Demon-Vanquishing Cave and the Demon Suppression Tower weren’t built for nothing. Even the Qingqiu lineage had fully submitted to the Daoist Order, which was why demons, ghosts, and malevolent entities were now rare in the Central Plains.

But Fenglin was different. It was said to harbor 8 million spirits, with events like the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons occurring regularly. Here, monsters and demons were beyond counting.

If the two places were likened to two forests, the Central Plains had too many hunters. Wolves, tigers, and leopards had nearly gone extinct, and bears were locked away. Only some foolish deer still roamed outside, and many groves had been chopped down. As a result, it was very safe. If one ventured into the mountains at midnight to chop wood, one might fall to death, but the likelihood of being dragged off by wolves was slim to none.

On the contrary, Fenglin had too few hunters. Thus, it retained much of its original wilderness. Ferocious beasts roamed freely, and many animals that had fled from the forests of the Central Plains to seek refuge in Fenglin now moved in packs and even brazenly attacked villages.

Qi Xuansu felt this all too personally. He had barely entered Fenglin airspace when he was attacked by the legendary monster Yamata-no-Orochi. If this had happened in the Central Plains, he would have had a higher chance of being attacked by an Immortal than by a monstrous beast.

That was why Qi Xuansu could not just chop his way through the forest and cause a ruckus. If he attracted something, he might be able to escape, but his injured companions would have been dead.

Qi Xuansu halted and turned to look behind him.

The Qi Refiners and Martial Arts Practitioners were still holding up, but Lu Yuting, being a Diviner, was physically weak to begin with. Adding injury to that, she was clearly struggling in the harsh cold, evident with her deathly pale face.

Qi Xuansu knew that if they kept going, even if she did not freeze to death, she would at least suffer lasting damage. That was the drawback of being a Diviner. Their physical bodies were too weak. Yet large-scale warfare could not do without them, especially in numbers. If there had been a full Diviner battalion, the kinds of things they could accomplish—burning mountains, boiling seas—would have been no challenge at all.

Qi Xuansu sighed and said, “We can’t keep going. We need to find shelter from the wind and snow.”

Standing all night in the snow was not a problem for him, but he had to consider the others.

Lu Yuting forced herself to speak. “Deputy Hall Master, there’s something strange about this snow.”

Qi Xuansu was startled. “What do you mean?”

Lu Yuting said, “This snowfall is too rapid and too gloomy. Deputy Hall Master, since you have high cultivation, the snow can’t even touch your body, so you wouldn’t sense anything. But I can. Each snowflake that lands on me seeps in the faintest trace of yin energy. Logically speaking, even if my body is weak, it’s still far stronger than an average person’s. I’m not some pampered noble lady, and I shouldn’t be collapsing like this.”

Qi Xuansu withdrew his protective qi shield and reached out to catch some snowflakes. He then rubbed them between his fingers and sensed carefully.

His expression subtly shifted. Just as Lu Yuting had said, there was an extremely faint trace of yin energy in the snow, so faint it was almost imperceptible. Martial Arts Practitioners, with their vigorous blood qi, and Qi Refiners, with their protective qi shield, would not have noticed it. Only a Diviner like Lu Yuting could detect it. This sudden blizzard was indeed suspicious.

But it was still unclear if this anomaly was due to the nature of this forest or if it was someone manipulating things from the shadows.

Han Yongfeng said, “There’s just something sinister about Fenglin. They say when a nation is about to fall, demons will emerge. Fenglin boasts of an unbroken imperial line, but I’ve heard one emperor turned into a Tengu, a human-demon hybrid with wings and bird-like features, and another emperor married a fox demon as his empress. If even emperors behave like this, just imagine what goes on elsewhere. If you ask me, this ‘unbroken line’ is just a nation that’s been dying for ages but won’t quite keel over. That’s why demons keep popping up here. They just can’t stop.”

The others nodded in agreement.

Aside from the ancient Emperor Di Xin, who once took a nine-tailed fox as his wife, no emperor of the Central Plains had ever married a demon, much less become one himself. That kind of thing would alarm all Three Religions.

Donghuang had also married a nine-tailed fox, but he was not an emperor, so his decisions had nothing to do with the fate of the realm. Their union was even considered a romantic legend. Still, since both the Holy Xuan and his wife achieved immortality and thus remained childless, the burden of the Li family’s lineage had fallen to Donghuang. As such, many suspected that the Li family carried fox demon blood from the Qingqiu lineage, though their family kept that tightly under wraps.

Qi Xuansu had discussed this topic with Zhang Yuelu before. The Zhang family had Ancient Immortal blood, the Li family had fox demon blood, and the Yao family had Great Witch blood. Did that mean some people were born with not just higher status, but superior bloodlines too?

In response, Zhang Yuelu had joked boldly, “Then we ordinary folks with no fancy lineage will just trample those with pedigrees underfoot and use them as stepping stones. Did they think blood makes them special?”

Qian Daren chuckled. “Exactly. This time, the Daoist Order will put it down for good, clean and quick. While we’re at it, we’ll sweep away all these demons and monsters and return Fenglin to a bright, just world.”

Li Mingshan added, “We ought to build a few Demon Suppression Towers here too. This place must be crawling with demons.”

“Do you think there’ll be beautiful female demons?” Tang Yongshui said in a tone only men would understand. “They say there are 8 million spirits and demons. Surely they’re not all ugly and fanged? That’d be disappointing. I heard of one called the Shiranui that dances over the sea.”

“I thought Shiranui was a last name?”

“I heard it’s the name of a cursed blade.”

“Well, this place is barbarian territory anyway. There’s not much culture, so they just recycle a few terms. It might be a last name or a blade, but definitely a female demon.”

“Then she must be stunning. I also heard of a Yuki-onna, the snow spirit.”

As the only woman present, Lu Yuting could not bear it anymore. “That’s enough. Is this how a Daoist should act?”

The men who had been chatting eagerly cleared their throats and looked sheepish. “It’s just casual talk...”

Qi Xuansu cut them off. “Talk later. For now, let’s find shelter from this blizzard.”

With that, Qi Xuansu pushed his palms forward, conjuring a one-meter-tall wall of qi that stood before them. It did not block the snowstorm completely, but it was better than nothing at all.

Qi Xuansu leaped into the air, activating his Seer Eyes and Qi Observation Technique as he surveyed the forest from above.

As he looked around, Qi Xuansu sensed something unusual. The forest below felt undeniably strange.

He had roamed the world and seen his fair share of landscapes. He had even visited Beimang Mountain with its 32 towering peaks. That mountain held more than 320 imperial tombs. Coupled with the influence of the ancient Gezao Sect, Beimang Mountain was perpetually steeped in ghostly yin energy.

But this was at most a single mountain ridge, hardly comparable in scale to Beimang Mountain. There were no tombs or haunted graveyards, so where was all this yin energy coming from?

Qi Xuansu took out the compass Madam Qi had given him. While it was designed to locate the Xuan Jade, it also functioned as a regular compass. But now, the needle spun endlessly, refusing to settle, clearly an indication that something was wrong.

At this moment, Qi Xuansu could not help but regret his decision. If he had known, he would have taken the main road. Even running into some ronin, ashigaru, or hatamoto would have been preferable to this strange game of wits against a bizarre mountain.