A Pawn's Passage

Shi Hengbo looked toward the totems representing the Great Witches and said, “Your progress is very fast.”

The last time Qi Xuansu came here, he had wondered why Shi Hengbo’s remnant soul was preserved inside the Longevity Stone Heart. Did the forging of the Heart require living sacrifices? Or had Shi Hengbo once been the Heart’s master, so upon death, the Heart retained a fragment of her soul?

When Qi Xuansu asked this previously, Shi Hengbo replied that she was merely a remnant soul split from her true self and did not possess complete memories. Thus, she was unable to answer his question.

Qi Xuansu had no choice but to let the matter rest.

Now, Qi Xuansu approached the question from another angle. “Senior, if you are a second-generation Daoist disciple, who was your master?”

Lineage and parentage were memories that would last, as it was ingrained like instinct, impossible to fully sever.

As expected, Shi Hengbo answered directly this time. “Master Yao.”

The answer seemed obvious. A first-generation disciple with the Yao last name who was deeply tied to the Ancient Witches. This confirmed Qi Xuansu’s guess that Shi Hengbo had been the disciple of Elder Yao, and that the Longevity Stone Heart was crafted by Elder Yao as well.

At the very least, Qi Xuansu’s Longevity Stone Heart originated from Elder Yao. The Li family’s version was clearly different, likely a later-generation Longevity Stone crafted by Donghuang.

Qi Xuansu continued, “In your memories, who was the Grand Master at the time?”

Shi Hengbo cast him a glance. “The Holy Xuan, of course. Is there anyone more suited for the position?”

Qi Xuansu cleared his throat. “Of course not. What about the Earthly Preceptor? Was it Earthly Preceptor Shangguan or Earthly Preceptor Yao?”

Shi Hengbo replied, “It was my master.”

From this, Qi Xuansu could pinpoint the approximate era. The Holy Xuan was still the Grand Master, but the first Earthly Preceptor Shangguan had already stepped down. This placed it in the later period of the Holy Xuan’s reign.

Qi Xuansu asked again, “Senior, what was the state of the Buddhist-Daoist conflict at that time?”

Shi Hengbo replied, “The Holy Xuan and the Buddha Lord were fated to clash, and at that time, the outcome was uncertain. But judging from your present situation, it seems the Holy Xuan and the Daoist Order must have won.”

Qi Xuansu once again narrowed down the timeframe.

The reason Qi Xuansu asked all this was because a seed of suspicion had already taken root in his heart.

A Western quote had left a deep impression on him. “Every gift bestowed by fate has long been marked with a price.”

As an orphan with no family background, Qi Xuansu’s rise to surpass the Daoist Order’s Three Prodigies was not solely due to his capability and efforts. These were insignificant in the face of greater forces. Qi Xuansu had always felt there was an invisible hand pushing him forward.

If this was his fate, if he was destined to stand at the peak of the Daoist Order, then what was the price for it? What must he pay for such an ascent? Was this a price Qi Xuansu could bear?

Qi Xuansu did not wish to become anyone’s pawn. But at present, he dared not reject this gift. Thus, he sought to uncover the reason without alerting certain people.

The beginning of everything, and the key to his rise, was undoubtedly the Longevity Stone Heart.

Qi Xuansu wanted to ask more, but Shi Hengbo had already spoken. “It’s about time for you to leave. I look forward to our next meeting.”

With that, Qi Xuansu’s consciousness was drawn out of his dream, similar to when he left the Qingping Society’s dream meeting.

For Qi Xuansu, the greatest benefit of absorbing this Xuan Jade was not entering the threshold of the Wuliang stage, but replenishing the deficit within his body and accelerating his digestion of the Jade.

The digestion of Xuan Jade was typically presented as an increase in cultivation following the initial absorption. Since he had used that push to patch his internal deficit, he did not get the leap in cultivation level.

The apostle who created the Scripture of Zuriel likely never imagined that it possessed such an effect. This was where Qi Xuansu’s doubts deepened. The Scripture of Zuriel accelerated his digestion of the Xuan Jade, and another Xuan Jade was gifted to him right after. Everything was just a little too coincidental.

After the Holy Xuan reorganized the Six Lineages, one must supplement the innate divine abilities through acquired cultivation methods to fully unleash their power and increase their combat ability.

The Martial Arts Practitioner lineage was no exception. For instance, the Manly Immortal Hundred Forms normally granted only localized transformations. Even the Manly Immortal True Form was merely a variant of a Great Shaman True Form. But once one practiced the Hundred Beast Sutra, they could transform into all manner of mythical beasts. This was what it meant by supplementing one’s innate abilities with cultivation methods.

Though the Shaman lineage’s Spiritual Statue naturally carried various divine abilities, and the Fruition Realm granted one the power to turn words into law, one could still refine this ability through techniques such as the Cloud Heaven Law.

The Banished Immortal and Qi Refiner lineages relied most heavily on perfected methods.

Qi Xuansu’s Martial Arts Practitioner lineage relied mainly on the Tantai Fist Intention, which was a high-attainment method. Since Qi Xuansu was not a pure Martial Arts Practitioner, it was more than sufficient when paired with the widely applicable Demonic Blade Technique.

His Shaman lineage was supplemented by Izanagi’s demonic fire, and his Qi Refiner lineage was supplemented by the perfected Dragon Tiger Sword Technique. Though Qi Xuansu rarely used it, it was mostly paired with Green Cloud to enable the Twin Sword Union.

The Diviner lineage likewise required learning numerous spells. Its strength lay in volume. Qi Xuansu only knew very few spells, including the Green Netherworld Armor and the Nine Nether Chains, given to him by Master Yin. He rarely used them, as he preferred direct confrontation through his Martial Arts Practitioner or Shaman lineages.

But now that his Diviner lineage had advanced to the Object Creation Realm, he could no longer ignore it.

Coincidentally, Qi Xuansu happened to pick up The Taiping Essential Arts during his visit to the Dragon Palace.

The Taiping Essential Arts, also called the Taiping Qingling Records, was not the modern Taiping Qingling Sutra. The latter was merely a perfected method, whereas the former was an entire lineage.

When the Holy Xuan reorganized the various lineages, he removed the dross and kept the essence, greatly raising the floor, allowing many who previously had no hope of ever reaching the Xiaoyao stage to do so simply by following these guidelines. This was one of the fundamental reasons for the significant increase in the number of Heavenly Beings throughout the century.

The downside was that it had lowered the ceiling. By setting a fixed path, the Holy Xuan narrowed the possibilities of growth. Since there were fewer detours, there was also less room for innovation. As such, many geniuses preferred to study the original texts that most faithfully reflected the author’s intent, ultimately reaching a level of mastery where one law could apply to all. To put it simply, one could only understand what was right if one first understood what was wrong.

Qi Xuansu’s copy of The Taiping Essential Arts was the original edition, containing portions long lost, not included in the Taiping Qingling Sutra nor in the Nameless Volumes.

He had originally intended to give this Taiping Essential Arts to Zhang Yuelu, but with the chaos that followed—dealing with Chen Shuhua and True Lord Siming, then falling unconscious—he completely forgot about it.

Since ancient times, the Wuist and Daoist paths were never separated. Before the Heavenly Empress became a deity, she was called the village witch and a goddess. The Eleven Great Witches were likewise called goddesses.

A witch and a goddess were two sides of the same coin. The Heavenly Empress combined the strengths from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, rising above the many sea deities. Thus, The Taiping Essential Arts she left behind was a manifestation of the unity of the Wuist and Daoist paths.

Qi Xuansu’s Longevity Stone Heart already had inexplicable ties to the Ancient Wuism, so learning Wuist spells from The Taiping Essential Arts was perfectly fitting.

Implanting the Longevity Stone Heart had several requirements. The host body had to be mostly mature for proper compatibility. Although the Heart could expand or contract with the body, it was only possible after its activation, which happened after implantation. If the size did not match, the Heart could not be implanted at all.

Both Li Changge and Qi Xuansu implanted their Longevity Stone Hearts only after they were twenty. This was the main reason their progress remained comparable. If Li Changge had this implant at birth, he would have far outpaced Qi Xuansu with the support and resources of the Li family.

Before getting the heart implant, Li Changge focused entirely on cultivating the Taiping Qingling Sutra, so Qi Xuansu could not possibly compete with him on that front.

With that train of thought, Qi Xuansu took out The Taiping Essential Arts and flipped through it. He did not intend to learn the Taiping Qingling Sutra, as it was a perfected method far too difficult to master in a short time. It was said that Li Changge had trained in it from childhood and only achieved minor mastery by twenty. Time was precisely what Qi Xuansu lacked most.

Qi Xuansu skipped the general outline and focused on the spell section of The Taiping Essential Arts.

These spells were powerful but extremely complex, with many constraints and requirements.

For example, a spell called Seven Nail Slaughter could kill without form, shattering a person’s soul from thousands of kilometers away. However, it required erecting an altar, crafting a straw effigy, and writing the target’s birth date upon it. Ideally, one should obtain the target’s hair, blood, or nails as a medium. Then, one could place a lamp above the effigy’s head and one beneath the feet and burn talismans, conducting three daily rites until midday of the 21st day. During this period, the victim would not be able to resist, as they would suffer great spiritual damage. After 21 days, their soul would disperse. At this time, stabbing the straw effigy with a ritual sword would cause both the effigy and the victim to bleed.

Though powerful, this spell was nearly useless in live combat. Building the altar alone would take more than enough time for a Martial Arts Practitioner to kill the spellcaster several times over. Yet in certain special circumstances, it could produce astonishing results.