A Pawn's Passage

Jianghu slang was always filled with grassroots ingenuity, yet inevitably unrefined and unfit for elegant discourse.

A tit was slang for a woman’s nipple. “Pointed tit” was used to describe girls who still had perky breasts, while “black tit” referred to older women, who usually had darker nipples.

Qi Xuansu was once a Jianghu wanderer, so he was a master in slang. But with his change in status, he seldom used such slang words anymore. Instead, he grew used to speaking in formal, bureaucratic fluff.

In theory, a noble lady should not know such vulgar terms. Yet Zhang Yuelu’s curiosity had once led her to ask Qi Xuansu about the meanings, logic, and origins behind some slang words. Thus, the moment Qi Xuansu explained what the word meant, the sharp Zhang Yuelu understood instantly.

Qi Xuansu also realized he had misspoken. He let out a light cough and lifted his head to gaze at the bright moon.

Only Little Yin remained utterly baffled, not understanding any of it.

It was similar to when parents accidentally talked about sex in front of a child. The child would often be curious and clueless, while the parents were evasive and embarrassed.

Qi Xuansu had not killed the female guard. He only knocked her unconscious. Since Little Yin had already dragged her over, it saved Qi Xuansu the trouble. He used the Diviner’s Soul Recall Technique to awaken her.

The female guard opened her eyes and immediately met Qi Xuansu’s gaze.

In an instant, her eyes glazed over as she fell into a dazed, unfocused state.

This time, he used the Shaman’s Bewitching Technique, which was capable of affecting another’s mind. It could be used either to beguile and control or to soothe emotions. Wu Luo excelled at such arts. Before being defeated by the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor, she could manipulate millions at her peak.

However, this method had one flaw. Large-scale control required the target to open their minds willingly. Wu Luo controlled millions by exploiting human desires, enticing them in dreams with the Zhuyou Spell. Those people then used this technique to hypnotize others while they sank deeper into Wu Luo’s control. Through decades of accumulated influence, millions were bound to her. In sudden events like the Lion City riots, this method would be useless without prior preparation.

Qi Xuansu did not require mass control, so he did not need the target to open their minds. He simply forced it open.

The female guard instantly fell under Qi Xuansu’s control.

Qi Xuansu asked, “How many people are on the island? Who is the leader?”

The female guard murmured sluggishly, “Including all kinds of servants, there are about a hundred people. The leader is Xiang Guangying, a Heavenly Being.”

Normally, when someone was referred to simply as a Heavenly Being without specifying the stage, it defaulted to the Xiaoyao stage.

Qi Xuansu asked again, “Is Li Tianzhen on the island?”

The female guard answered, “He is.”

“What about Wu Guangbi?”

The guard shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Qi Xuansu rephrased the question. “Have there been any distinguished guests on the island recently?”

“Yes.” The guard nodded.

Qi Xuansu asked his final question. “Where are they?”

The guard pointed in a general direction. “In the main building of the winter retreat villa.”

Qi Xuansu instructed, “You saw nothing. Nothing unusual has happened during this time. In ten breaths, you will awaken remembering nothing, and everything will be as usual.”

The guard repeated his words woodenly like a puppet. “Yes. I saw nothing. Nothing is unusual here.”

Qi Xuansu, Zhang Yuelu, and Little Yin swiftly departed.

Ten breaths later, the guard awoke, looked around, and saw no one. She even yawned, thinking that everything was as usual.

Along the way, Qi Xuansu discovered that there were hardly any men on the island. Every guard was female. It seemed Li Tianzhen was certainly one to indulge in casual sex, unlike the more conservative Qi Xuansu.

Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu used the Bewitching Technique to send the guards they encountered off to patrol elsewhere so as not to alert the enemy nor shed unnecessary blood.

Soon, Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu were near the winter retreat villa.

Qi Xuansu gave a final reminder. “After using the Scripture of Zuriel, you will become extremely arrogant, believing yourself to be the axis of heaven and earth and the Chosen One. Your mindset will be heavily affected, so be prepared. Keep at least a sliver of clarity so that we don’t end up fighting each other first. If you suddenly find me unsightly and think I’m beneath you, or if I start looking down on you and treat you as a stepping-stone, arguing over who is the real Chosen One, our mission will fail.”

Zhang Yuelu asked, “You’ll be fine?”

Qi Xuansu said, “I’ve used it twice before. The Longevity Stone Heart safeguards my soul. At worst, I’ll become arrogant, but I will still retain my reason.”

Zhang Yuelu did not have such confidence. She retrieved six sword-shaped silver hairpins from her magical receptacle and inserted them into her hair bun one by one, from top to bottom.

The six silver pins could be regarded as six miniature swords, collectively known as the Six Mantra Sword. Each sword corresponded to one syllable, and the six together formed a single entity. This was a semi-immortal object passed down through generations of the Cihang lineage.

Once the six pins were set in place, they trembled lightly and emitted the faint syllables “Om, Ma, Ni, Ba, Mi, Hum.” This semi-immortal object could attack or defend. When attacking, the six swords moved in formation. When defending, it dispelled delusive afflictions, cleansed one’s karma, and urged one to lay down the blade and seek compassion. As the six syllables resonated, a serene Buddhist aura flowed all around, greatly diminishing killing intent, dissolving violence, and shielding one’s mind from confusion.

This semi-immortal object originally belonged to Sage Cihang. But after the Golden Tower Council assigned Zhang Yuelu to serve as the Deputy Lingnan Daoist Mansion Master, Sage Cihang entrusted the Six Mantra Sword to her for self-protection. Thus, Zhang Yuelu now possessed three semi-immortal objects.

With her current cultivation, wielding all three at once was still taxing, but after using the Scripture of Zuriel, she would temporarily advance to the Zaohua stage, which would then make it possible. Moreover, the Six Mantra Sword would help keep her mind clear, preventing her from turning against Qi Xuansu.

Qi Xuansu then turned to Little Yin. “You handle Xiang Guangying. Wait for my signal to open the gate.”

Little Yin nodded. Though she was inexperienced, her cultivation level alone allowed her to overwhelm most opponents with sheer strength.

For the two of them to infiltrate this deeply without being detected was already pushing the limit. One could even say Wu Guangbi had been careless. Any further approach would certainly alert him, so there was no point in risking more.

If Wu Guangbi were decisive enough to strike first and kill one of them at any cost, the two might not even have the chance to use the Scripture of Zuriel.

Thus, Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu activated their Scripture of Zuriel pages in advance. As the strange words on the human-skin pages entered their sight, a wave of overwhelming arrogance surged through them.

Everything felt beneath them, as they were now the only supreme beings in existence.

The auras around both of them suddenly expanded, the illusory power inflating their sense of dominance. They felt as though they were the rulers of this world, the pivot of heaven and earth. They even had a fleeting notion that they were already Immortals.

The two advanced into the Zaohua stage at the same time.

Having gone through it twice before, Qi Xuansu was able to maintain the bare minimum of rationality. He was only more arrogant than usual.

Meanwhile, Zhang Yuelu was almost completely unaffected.

Although the Scripture of Zuriel was indeed an immortal object, this was but one page of 397 pages. No matter how potent, a single page could not fully override the effects of a semi-immortal object.

Just as Qi Xuansu expected, his Diviner lineage had been boosted, rising directly from the Object Creation Realm to the Yangshen Realm, which was the Zaohua stage for Diviners.

Extreme yin birthed yang. Before the Yangshen Realm, a Diviner only had a yin spirit, which was subject to many restraints. Upon entering the Yangshen Realm, the yin spirit transformed into a yang spirit. Thus, they no longer had to fear heavenly thunder or heavenly winds. The Thunder Realm merely removed fear of spring thunder, while the Yangshen Realm dispelled fear of thunder itself. More importantly, a yang spirit was no longer suppressed by a Martial Arts Practitioner’s blood qi. That was because the yang spirit was no longer just an illusion.

A Ghostly Immortal could abandon the physical body entirely—the yang spirit shedding the mortal shell like a cicada, able to exist independently for long periods of time.

Moreover, upon entering the Yangshen Realm, one would gain the Supreme Sight, shifting between the tangible and intangible at will. Their control over spells would advance dramatically.

Just as a Shaman in the Fruition Realm could manifest laws by mere speech, a Diviner in the Yangshen Realm could omit lengthy preparation of spells, allowing them to cast with a simple gesture so that they no longer had to fear close-quarters combat.

Qi Xuansu’s physical body remained where it was, but his yang spirit had already moved ahead.

Though called a villa, it was no different from a royal palace.

The main hall was supported by twelve white-jade pillars flanking each side. Silk drapes of various colors hung from the columns, veiling the view. A straight central passage paved with black marble extended inward, while on both sides, shallow pools had been carved out. The walls were lined with white jade, while the bottoms were paved with green jade. A water channel connected the two pools and circled the hall, with lotus lanterns drifting along the surface of the crystal clear water, circling the chamber and illuminating the entire hall with their glow.

Beyond the main hall was an immense bedchamber. At its entrance was a twelve-panel folding screen painted with erotic images from the “Spring Nights of Secret Pleasures.”

Behind the screen lay a magnificent canopy bed, so large it scarcely resembled a bed at all, capable of holding more than a dozen people without feeling crowded. At this moment, several figures upon it were engaged in various erotic acts.

The participants had arranged themselves into a posture nearly indescribable in words. Their hands and feet were completely intertwined and indistinguishable, forming an obscene sight.