A Pawn's Passage

At the very moment when the Daoist Order reassembled Izanagi’s body over Donghai, Qi Xuansu, who was far away in Xiujing, immediately sensed it.

He could clearly feel the demonic fire within his body battering against the Heavenly Preceptor’s seal, yearning to burst free. At the same time, he faintly heard a call—the summons of Izanagi himself.

Since Izanagi lacked part of his left arm, his form was incomplete, leaving him at a disadvantage.

Qi Xuansu raised his own left arm, noticing that his veins were bulging and his skin was split apart. Beneath the cracks glowed a molten crimson light, resembling magma. As he slowly clenched his fist, illusory flames blazed around it.

Was this the power of Izanagi’s severed left arm?

Until fully refined, this power was not Qi Xuansu’s to own. Qi Xuansu was more like a vessel to store this power.

There were many forms of vessels capable of bearing a Godly Immortal’s descent. They might be human or mere objects.

The quality of the vessel determined the level of power a Godly Immortal could manifest upon their descent.

The Cult of Fates had chosen their painstakingly cultivated Blessing and countless Gifts as vessels, using Zhenwu Lake as the womb and the Xuan Jade as the catalyst to form the body of True Lord Siming.

Using humans as vessels had far greater limitations. One’s fate and innate endowment had to align so as to minimize the restraints and enhance compatibility.

A Banished Immortal who had fused with the Xuan Jade was the most fitting vessel of all, fully capable of withstanding a god’s might. Other than Li Changge, Qi Xuansu was also suited for this role.

Thus, Izanagi’s severed left arm immediately noticed Qi Xuansu’s presence in Ise Province. Through a chain of manipulations, it lured Qi Xuansu and his companions to its seal, then poured vast amounts of demonic fire into him without regard for cost. That inferno contained nearly half of the arm’s essence. Once embedded in Qi Xuansu, it took root and began to merge, seeking to remake him into a suitable vessel.

Whether this transformation succeeded was still uncertain, but it had undeniably forged a bond between Qi Xuansu and Izanagi.

Qi Xuansu’s earlier dream had been proof enough.

Suddenly, Qi Xuansu recalled a troubling question. The Heavenly Preceptor mentioned that he could not remove the demonic fire buried in Qi Xuansu’s body and could only seal it. Qi Xuansu was to refine it slowly as his cultivation advanced. But now, faced with the fact that it came merely from half the essence of a single severed arm, Qi Xuansu wondered if it was truly beyond the Heavenly Preceptor’s ability or if the elder had simply chosen not to remove it.

At that moment, Qi Xuansu nearly had the impulse to sever his left arm outright.

Far away in Wuzhou, within the Dazhen Mansion atop Yunjin Mountain, the Heavenly Preceptor made his way up to the Demon-Vanquishing Platform.

The platform was built upon a cliff’s edge, an excellent place to see the scenery.

Two Punishment Pillars stood upon the platform, resembling a guillotine but lacking the falling blade.

These pillars had been left behind by the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor. They brimmed with thunderous might, and none but the worthy dared approach, since they risked being obliterated.

The Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor had founded the Heavenly Sect. The title of Great Heavenly Preceptor was hereditary, passed from father to son. By the fourth generation, the Heavenly Sect collapsed, forcing the Zhang family to abandon Shuzhou and reconstitute themselves as the Zhengyi Sect before returning to the Dazhen Mansion on Yunjin Mountain in Wuzhou’s Shangqing Prefecture. Their descendants continued the line until the title was later changed by the Holy Xuan to just “Heavenly Preceptor.”

After the third generation, the Demon-Vanquishing Platform gradually became a place of executions, its murderous aura piercing the heavens.

Due to this, the Dragon Tiger Sword Technique hidden within the pillars by the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor remained undiscovered.

In the past, the deposed Heavenly Preceptor had been imprisoned upon this platform and punished for his grave transgressions. There, he gleaned the Dragon-Tiger Sword Technique from the pillars. Later, when Heavenly Preceptor Zhang Jingxiu and Earthly Preceptor Xu Wugui ascended together, the deposed Heavenly Preceptor seized his chance to usurp power, sparking a rebellion.

During the suppression of that rebellion, the deposed Heavenly Preceptor used the Dragon Tiger Sword Technique and grievously wounded the Holy Xuan’s wife. Enraged, the Holy Xuan killed the deposed Heavenly Preceptor and nearly severed the ley lines of Yunjin Mountain, altering its terrain forever.

In seeking to save her, the Holy Xuan ascended the Demon-Vanquishing Platform to find a countermeasure, thereby discovering the sword technique left by the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor.

At this moment, the Heavenly Preceptor Zhang Wushou stood between the two pillars. Looking upward, he could see inscriptions normally hidden from view, carved in one continuous motion by a long sword. They brimmed with sword intention and radiated a killing aura.

It was not uncommon for swordmasters skilled in calligraphy to write with their blade, every stroke sharp with sword intention. The inscriptions on these pillars were not only imbued with sword intention but also with the divine meaning of Daoist talismans.

Beyond that, there was yet another sword intention that was utterly distinct and endlessly enduring, unlike the thunderous slaughter here. This was the Holy Xuan’s legacy.

Strictly speaking, what he left behind was a short verse.

“A hundred years of wandering Jianghu, stirring up dust across the world.

As the world stirs with wind and thunder, lament at the unceasing storms.

One sword lasts ten years, but a hero’s bones remain proud.

With a green serpent hidden in the sleeve and a sword hanging at the waist, tread the uneven roads of the mortal realm.

Look up before Heaven’s Gate and behold the sword qi sweeping in all directions to reopen the boundless heavens.”

The Heavenly Preceptor let out a soft sigh and recited, “Tread the uneven roads of the mortal realm.”

The Heavenly Preceptor extended his hand to touch the Punishment Pillar. The instant his fingertip brushed its surface, a spray of sparks erupted, but he was not harmed. Electricity danced and coiled around his fingertip but could not penetrate his flesh, as if the two were utterly incompatible. Moments later, the sparks dissipated entirely, leaving nothing behind.

He then pressed his entire palm against the pillar. At once, the pillar flared in resistance. Countless purple sparks, as large as human heads and shaped like hexagonal snowflakes, burst outward, while a tangled web of glowing lines rippled across its surface. Even so, the Heavenly Preceptor did not flinch. He simply let the lightning crawl across his palm until it flickered and faded away.

The pillar’s defiance grew fiercer. From its surface surged torrents of electricity, converging into a colossal dragon of lightning that coiled about the pillar, spiraling skyward.

Thunder roared across the entire Demon-Vanquishing Platform, but no one came to investigate, as the Heavenly Preceptor had given prior orders for all to keep away.

Now that he no longer carried the Heavenly Preceptor’s Twin Swords, he was no longer master of the pillars, and so, he was subject to their rejection.

The Punishment Pillars and the Heavenly Preceptor’s Twin Swords were one.

The pillar he touched corresponded to Green Cloud, one half of the Twin Swords.

Such was a hallmark of certain immortal objects. They existed as paired sets, not isolated entities. The Heavenly Preceptor’s Twin Swords happened to be such a pair.

Successive Heavenly Preceptors had used the Twin Swords to command the pillars. Conversely, one could use the pillars to alter the swordmaster, but there was a catch. Doing this required a vast gulf in cultivation between the swordmaster and the pillars. Without such disparity, success was near impossible.

As a quasi-First-Tribulation Immortal, the Heavenly Preceptor stood about three and a half realms above Qi Xuansu—the Zaohua stage, the Pseudo-Immortal stage, the Longevity stage, and half a step further into the First-Tribulation.

To put it simply, the Heavenly Preceptor could use the pillars to influence the Twin Swords and their wielders without ever descending in person.

The affairs of the world were akin to a game of chess. Each move was calculated.

On this vast board, Qi Xuansu had become a useful pawn, but he was still a far cry from being a chess player.

The true players were but a few, strategizing from hundreds of kilometers away, conjuring clouds with a turn of the hand, and summoning rain with a flip of the palm.

This was one of the reasons Qi Xuansu always sought to climb higher up the Daoist hierarchy. After all, no one wished to be forever at the mercy of others. He longed to become the hand that moves the pieces instead.

Fortunately, the current players must one day leave the game. Some left early—like the sixth-generation Grand Master who departed in fury after losing the game. Some left unwillingly—like the fifth-generation Grand Master. Some departed by choice, like the Holy Xuan.

Thus, there were always seats for those who came after.

The Heavenly Preceptor lightly tapped on the Punishment Pillar corresponding to Green Cloud.

Qi Xuansu suddenly saw Green Cloud emerge from his magical receptacle, appearing right before him.

Just as Qi Xuansu stood in front of this sword with a puzzled expression, the blade thrust straight into his abdomen.

For Qi Xuansu, who had the physique of a Wuliang-stage Martial Arts Practitioner, such a strike was not life-threatening.

But as the sword entered his body, Qi Xuansu felt the seals left by the Heavenly Preceptor crumble apart at terrifying speed.

Those three seals were supposedly firm. Even a Longevity-stage Immortal would struggle to undo them without great effort. They were like impregnable bastions that should last until Qi Xuansu had fully refined the demonic fire within him.

Qi Xuansu had believed the same, and so he rested easy.

But if the one who placed the seals wished to undo them himself, it only required a small gesture.

In truth, this was a backup plan. Though the Golden Tower Council had agreed to investigate the secret of resurrection in Fenglin, the decision of how to proceed still lay in Sage Qingwei’s hands.

If the Taiping Sect chose not to target Izanagi, then this would remain nothing more than a seal, protecting Qi Xuansu as he refined the demonic fire for himself. But if they chose to strike at the ancient god, then this seal became a fulcrum for the Heavenly Preceptor to exert his will.

Once the three seals unraveled, the demonic fire surged through every inch of Qi Xuansu’s body.

At this time, the demonic fire no longer sought to escape Qi Xuansu’s body. Instead, the demonic fire engulfed him and dragged him along some unseen tether straight into Izanagi’s divine kingdom.

Though Izanagi was bound, he could still use Qi Xuansu as the perfect vessel to reforge his shattered golden body within his own divine kingdom.