A Pawn's Passage

Only when a crisis arose would one finally realize how hard it was to choose death. After all, not everyone had the courage to die.

Zheng Jiaohe was dead, and so was Sun Jiaofeng.

But there were also those who did not die, like Wang Jiaoyan and her husband Lin Tianhe.

Both harbored a strong hope of slipping through the cracks, so they chose to cling to life.

In truth, although they were married, there was little affection left between them except for shared interests. Most of the time, each lived their own life. She even kept a young lover, while he kept his mistress. Neither interfered with the other.

Thus, except for formal occasions or holidays, the two were seldom seen in the same place and lived in separate residences.

Due to this, Zhang Yuelu and Yao Pei had to split into two teams.

Yao Pei was in charge of apprehending Lin Tianhe. By all logic, this should have been relatively easy. The Shibo Hall had no combat force, and Lin Tianhe’s cultivation was mediocre. Resistance was essentially impossible.

More importantly, the Daoist Order was still at its peak, so the Golden Tower Council’s authority was still strong. Thus, once the political winds shifted, even before things reached the final stage, everyone not too deeply tied to the case began to distance themselves, change allegiances, or even turn against their former masters.

By the time the Fengxian Hall officers arrived, no one would still obey Lin Tianhe’s orders. He was left completely alone.

Naturally, Wang Jiaohe was an exception. Strictly speaking, he was part of the Golden Tower Council. Whenever people referred to the Golden Tower Council’s authority, he was also included.

From this, one could see how formidable an Omniscient Sage truly was. Wang Jiaohe was merely one of 36 such figures, not even among the strongest of them. He was far inferior to Sage Donghua, Sage Qingwei, and Sage Cihang. Yet even bringing him down was so difficult. In a sense, each Omniscient Sage was like a regional warlord.

Put simply, someone like Qi Xuansu held power only because of his office. Without his position as Chief Deputy Mansion Master, his authority vanished.

However, Omniscient Sages were different. Even without an official position, their influence did not disappear, and they remained figures of great weight. For example, Sun Heyu, who had been retired for years, should not be underestimated.

Therefore, to deal with Wang Jiaohe, one must first remove his wings and talons. Directly attacking him would likely create massive chaos.

In truth, Qi Xuansu had not yet decided who should ultimately be the one to arrest Wang Jiaohe. Should he do it personally? But he lacked seniority. Perhaps Great Sage Jiang would have to make the arrests himself.

However, Lin Tianhe was nowhere near that level. Yao Pei alone was more than enough to deal with him.

Although Yao Pei did not have the Ziguang Society behind her like Zhang Yuelu did, nor could she mobilize the Heavenly Court like Li Zhangge, she was by no means alone. Poluo had long been considered Quanzhen Sect’s territory. Thus, finding Lin Tianhe was not difficult for her.

But what Yao Pei never expected was that Lin Tianhe had already disguised himself and boarded a passenger ship heading to East Shakya. From there, he planned to transfer to West Shakya and then onward to the Western Continent.

As long as he reached the Western Continent, even the Golden Tower Council would have no way to touch him.

Lin Tianhe did not travel alone. He brought along his favorite mistress. The two posed as a merchant couple and carried a large amount of gold crowns.

This mistress was a Westerner who had helped design Lin Tianhe’s entire escape plan.

Long ago, Lin Tianhe had sensed that a day like this might come. Some might call it being cautious, while others call it foresight. However, he had always believed disaster would strike someday. Thus, he began preparations early on—mapping escape routes, creating false identities, and using his official position to convert part of his Taiping coins into gold crowns. He also used his connections to buy a property on the Western Continent and deposited about 500,000 Taiping coins’ worth of money into several Western banks.

He also had an illegitimate daughter, whom he had sent to the Western Continent long ago.

As long as he could reach the Lune Kingdom, he would live quite comfortably as a wealthy man.

Compared to Lin Tianhe’s actions, even the infamous major Jiangnan case seemed trivial.

This was the true earth-shaking scandal.

One had to admit that Lin Tianhe’s instincts were razor-sharp.

Even before Qi Xuansu officially decided to make arrests and when Qi Xuansu had only just begun digging into the Nanyang United Trade Company, Lin Tianhe had sensed something was wrong. He believed the Wang family’s ship was about to sink, so he immediately chose to abandon ship and flee. He then executed the escape plan he had prepared for years.

Lin Tianhe was a Heavenly Being, so he could fly or even walk on foot to leave Nanyang. However, that carried too much risk. It was too conspicuous and too easy to identify. It was far safer to hide within crowds and more likely to succeed.

Thus, Lin Tianhe prepared three fake identities. The first was for leaving Poluo. Upon reaching East Shakya, he would switch to the second identity. After arriving in West Shakya, he would switch to the third one, which was his only long-term identity. From that point onward, he would abandon his old self completely and live as a Westerner on the Western Continent.

The second component of this plan was the escape route.

Geographically, Thanglong Prefecture lay on the eastern edge of Poluo, very close to the Central Plains, while East Shakya sat on the western side.

To travel from Thanglong Prefecture to East Shakya meant crossing nearly the entire island. It was time-consuming and far too conspicuous. As the Shibo Hall Branch Manager, Lin Tianhe could not disappear for long without raising suspicion. Once anyone noticed something amiss and reported it, the Daoist Mansion would immediately recognize signs of his escape and take measures to intercept him. By then, fleeing would become nearly impossible.

Thus, Lin Tianhe devised a solution.

The nations of Poluo included the Yu, Lanxang, Funan, Jawa, Luzon, Sukho, and Pagan Kingdoms. The Shibo Hall also had sub-branches in each of these states.

Setting aside the island nations and looking only at the landmass, the Yu Kingdom sat on the far east of Poluo, while the Pagan Kingdom lay on the far west, closest to East Shakya, sharing a border across the sea.

The Shibo Hall’s sub-branch in Pagan was located in Sangang Prefecture, a harbor city.

Long ago, Lin Tianhe drafted an inspection itinerary, starting from the Yu Kingdom, then moving through Lanxang, Funan, Jawa, Luzon, and Sukho Kingdoms, with the final stop conveniently being Pagan’s Sangang Prefecture.

To anyone else, this appeared to be a perfectly normal schedule, nothing resembling an escape attempt. Normally, after finishing the inspection in Pagan Kingdom, Lin Tianhe should have returned to Thanglong Prefecture. But according to his plan, this final stop

was the perfect springboard for his escape from Poluo.

Lin Tianhe instructed his mistress to wait in Sangang Prefecture beforehand to prepare for everything in advance. Then, he led the Shibo Hall team there at a leisurely pace.

Everything appeared routine, lodging at the local Taiping Inn during the day and attending the customary welcome banquet at night.

Lin Tianhe excused himself, claiming to be in poor condition due to a mishap in cultivation and that he needed to rest early. He even gave his subordinates the day off to enjoy themselves freely.

Naturally, his subordinates were delighted, drinking and reveling late into the night. The next morning, they did not see Lin Tianhe but thought nothing of it.

By noon, when there was still no sign of him, they sensed something was wrong and checked his room, only to find it empty and spotless, as if no one had stayed there at all. All of Lin Tianhe’s belongings were gone.

Realizing something was seriously amiss, they immediately reported the situation to the Daoist Mansion.

People said the wind had shifted, and it had. These subordinates had grown cautious.

In the past, they would have reported directly to Chief Deputy Chen Shuhua and Mansion Master Wang Jiaohe since Great Sage Lan had never cared about such matters. Thus, no one would bother reporting further up the chain because Lin Tianhe was one of Wang Jiaohe’s people. But now, things were different.

Great Sage Jiang was not Great Sage Lan. He was strict and thorough. Something of this magnitude had to be reported not only to the Mansion Master but also to the Chief Deputy and Second Deputy.

After receiving the report, Qi Xuansu immediately notified Yao Pei.

But by then, Lin Tianhe had already boarded the ship bound for East Shakya and had entered its territory.

Under such circumstances, Great Sage Jiang had no choice but to intervene. In his capacity as the Poluo Daoist Mansion Master, he contacted the East Shakya Daoist Mansion Master and formally requested their cooperation.

The East Shakya Daoist Mansion treated the matter with utmost seriousness, getting the Second Deputy to lead the investigation. They sealed the relevant ports and initiated a comprehensive search.

At the same time, Yao Pei led personnel from Fengxian Hall and rushed toward East Shakya as well.

In a sense, fleeing was far more egregious than committing suicide.

It was normal for individuals to commit wrongdoing. Although mistakes revealed weaknesses in supervision, the ability to identify and remove such individuals proved that the corrective mechanisms of authority still functioned well.

Suicide merely meant the person was cornered and chose to die rather than face punishment.

But someone escaping was no longer a mere lapse. It was a loss of control. This was a serious charge because the loss of control implied failure to maintain balance and stability.

Though Qian Xiangyun had successfully fled, Li Ruoshui did not face severe consequences. The reason was that the Daoist Order acknowledged the Imperial Capital as the Great Xuan Court’s territory. Not even the Daoist Order could command full control of the Great Xuan Court. Thus, the circumstances cannot be compared.

But the Poluo Daoist Mansion was different. A Great Sage was stationed here, and the region was under the Daoist Order’s control. If Lin Tianhe successfully escaped, then everyone would have to bear responsibility. No one would be able to avoid blame.

More importantly, Qian Xiangyun never fled into the Western lands. She merely wandered within Nanyang. But if Lin Tianhe were to escape into Western territory and be taken in or used by Western nations, the nature of the case would change entirely.