A Pawn's Passage

The gigantic serpent hidden within the shadows drew closer to Qi Xuansu. An invisible yet clearly perceivable massive maw opened wide, as though it wanted to swallow Qi Xuansu whole in one bite. Yet Qi Xuansu had not completely fallen into madness and still retained his rationality, preventing that bite from closing down upon him.

The two sides fell into a stalemate.

At that moment, a pale white hand stretched out from the side and covered Qi Xuansu’s eyes.

With that action, the overwhelming terror trying to crush Qi Xuansu to death was unexpectedly blocked off.

Then Madam Wu’s voice sounded beside his ear. “Guard your spiritual platform firmly.”

Madam Wu manifested on her own at such a critical moment. This was not surprising, as Madam Wu was an immortal object capable of acting independently and did not rely on Qi Xuansu to activate her. She simply spent much of her time resting and rarely appeared. Now that she sensed Qi Xuansu was in danger, she took the initiative to show herself. This was also one of the reasons the Golden Tower Council had entrusted Madam Wu to Qi Xuansu. If it had been another immortal object, like the Guizang Lantern, which ignored him half the time and worked inconsistently, that would have been fatal.

Qi Xuansu immediately felt a burden lift from his body. The purifying power of the Pure Bodhi began dispelling the lingering fear. He also cast a soul-calming spell on himself, gradually regaining his rationality.

With Madam Wu interrupting things, the terror-inducing power of the dark shadow was greatly weakened. It felt like a sudden jump scare, catching Qi Xuansu off guard, so his mind was shaken. But this trick could only work once. Since the first attempt had failed to scare Qi Xuansu to death, it could no longer frighten him again when he was on guard.

At its core, it was still a form of spell. The essence of spells was turning falsehood into reality through belief.

For example, both Diviners and Banished Immortals could use teleportation-like techniques. However, a Diviner’s teleportation worked by tampering with a person’s subjective perception. Space itself had not changed, but the target’s understanding of space had been altered. Then, through the power of believing falsehoods to be true, that mistaken perception became real.

Believing falsehood as truth was somewhat like borrowing force to strike back. It was similar to ghosts that could not directly harm people but could use illusions to confuse them. The victim would feel as though someone was choking them, so they desperately tried to pry away the hands around their neck. In reality, it was their own hands choking themselves. The harder they struggled, the tighter they strangled themselves. This was a distortion of perception, ultimately causing the victim to kill themselves. Martial Arts Practitioners were capable of countering this sort of spell.

A Banished Immortal’s teleportation changed objective reality itself, altering space regardless of whether the target believed it. Since it was real, Martial Arts Practitioners could not counter such methods. Thus, they could easily be toyed with by Banished Immortals. With one careless mistake, they could be exiled thousands of kilometers away.

In summary, a Diviner’s spell had greater flaws but required less effort. When used skillfully, through subtle guidance and manipulation, it could sometimes achieve tremendous effects with minimal force. Meanwhile, Banished Immortals’ methods had virtually no weaknesses, but they relied on one’s strengths, lifting only what matched the strength exerted, with no shortcuts possible.

At this moment, Qi Xuansu broke free from the fear and became guarded. He once again activated the Dragon Eyes of the Manly Immortal Hundred Forms. Brilliant light burst from his eyes. Madam Wu also withdrew her hand. This time, he finally succeeded in piercing through the illusion.

The enormous shadow began to distort, like a reflection rippling across water. Those snake eyes, once as large as the sun and moon, started shrinking into the size of lanterns, then small flames, and finally down to the size of soybeans.

Its massive body followed the same transformation, shrinking from the size of the Great Wall into a dragon, then to a huge python, and finally into a tiny snake.

Qi Xuansu gathered his qi in his Dantian and let out a thunderous roar. The Martial Arts Practitioner’s blood roar could split clouds and shatter stone as an overwhelmingly powerful pure-yang blood qi surged outward. It burned fiercely like raging flames. Though coming from only one man, it sounded like thousands of soldiers roaring in unison in battle. The surrounding space trembled, and all eerie energies were swept away.

He focused his gaze, only to find there was no gigantic monster before him at all.

There was only a feathered serpent slightly larger than a palm, with wings growing from its back. It was extremely close to Qi Xuansu. If Madam Wu had not blocked it just now, it would have been face-to-face with him.

At such proximity, it was only natural for it to appear unimaginably huge. It was precisely because this thing was so tiny that Qi Xuansu’s earlier punch had struck air.

Qi Xuansu never would have imagined that such a tiny creature almost made him stumble fatally. He reached out and grabbed the feathered serpent, discovering that its aura was rapidly weakening.

Madam Wu said, “This thing possesses the power of a Pseudo-Immortal, but it’s only a one-time effect. Once you broke its spell, it became useless.”

Sure enough, the feathered serpent quickly lost all signs of life, leaving behind only an empty husk.

Madam Wu sighed and said, “People nowadays cultivate strength but not the mind, which is why they fall for tricks like this. Though you are a Martial Arts Practitioner and can restrain spells, you must remember that while water can extinguish fire, if the fire grows too large, it can also evaporate the water. A seed of fear had already existed in your mind, so this feathered serpent merely nurtured that seed, letting it grow into a towering tree and ultimately manifest into reality. Fortunately, you still retained half your rationality. Otherwise, you would have been crushed by your own fear. If you hadn’t had the slightest trace of fear, it couldn’t have done anything to you.”

Qi Xuansu flashed a bitter smile and did not argue.

Of course he had fear in him. Back when he first arrived in Jade Capital and nearly had his identity exposed by Zhang Yuelu, he had been extremely nervous and frightened.

Qi Xuansu no longer dwelled on the matter. He handed the feathered serpent’s skin to Madam Wu and asked, “Madam Wu, you spent a long time in the Southern Continent before. Help me examine this. Does this feathered serpent have anything to do with Kukulkan?”

Under normal circumstances, Qi Xuansu would always do his homework before undertaking something. But this time, in investigating Kukulkan, he had not prepared much. That was because there was very little information about Kukulkan available. Moreover, Qi Xuansu had been too busy dealing with internal struggles recently and simply had not had the time.

Madam Wu merely glanced at it once and said, “Kukulkan has many names and many forms. Sometimes he appears as a human, sometimes as a terrifying feathered serpent. Most of those who worship him do so out of extreme fear.

“Throughout the dense forests of the Southern Continent are countless temples dedicated to serpent gods. To please Kukulkan, the natives carried out innumerable blood sacrifice rituals in these temples. The serpent-shaped stone statues were even stained red with blood. This terrifying Feathered Serpent God held dominion over the death and rebirth of the natives.

“According to the legends of the Southern Continent, Kukulkan brought four elements to the world, but what he truly controlled was the power of wind. Upon his winding neck rested a powerful gem that was said to be the source of all winds. Kukulkan also brought the calendar to mortals. The Southern Continent’s calendar extends far into the distant future, only to abruptly end on a special date, foretelling the coming of an apocalypse, or perhaps the legendary end of the era.

“On the battlefield, Kukulkan spreads his tyranny and dominion. He thirsts endlessly for blood, but mortal blood is insignificant. The blood of gods, however, seems far more capable of satisfying him.

“Kukulkan commands four to five divine authorities: the sun, death, fear, storms, and war. This feathered serpent should correspond to Kukulkan’s authority over fear. These divine authorities came from the gods that Kukulkan devours.”

Qi Xuansu could not help but sigh. “Even True Lord Siming only controlled life and death.”

Madam Wu said, “Although possessing more divine authorities generally means greater power, it also depends on the degree of mastery. Take the authority of the sun, for example. There are many sun gods, yet very few can compare to the Vairocana. Some deities possess only a single divine authority, but if they refine it to the extreme, they can still become Second-Tribulation or Third-Tribulation Immortals. In my opinion, Kukulkan has not yet become a true First-Tribulation Immortal.”

This principle was easy enough to understand. Qi Xuansu currently carried six lineages, but the quality of his cultivation had not reached the highest level. Against the Imperial Preceptor, who possessed only a single lineage, he would still be slain by a single sword strike.

Qi Xuansu asked, “So the Feathered Serpent God Kukulkan is the mastermind behind everything?”

“How could it be that simple?” Madam Wu did not agree with the speculation. “Don’t forget, this was originally Kukulkan’s temple. It’s perfectly normal to encounter a trap left behind by Kukulkan beneath his own divine statue inside his own temple.”

Qi Xuansu was speechless for a while.

He added, “But the shadows on the island also erupted from this very temple, and the methods left behind by Kukulkan did nothing to stop the outbreak of the shadows.”

Madam Wu raised her index finger. “First, this method of fear is mainly meant for dealing with living things. Inanimate things like these shadows do not feel fear.”

Then Madam Wu raised another finger. “Second, don’t you always like to repeat that saying about everything being entangled? Is it possible that the issue with these shadows originated from inside the temple itself? The strongest fortresses are often breached from within.”

Qi Xuansu fell into deep thought.

After a moment, Qi Xuansu asked again, “Where is the source of the shadows?”

Madam Wu’s fiery golden eyes scanned the darkness for a moment, then she ignited a blaze that dispersed the very last traces of darkness in space.

Qi Xuansu’s flames being ineffective did not mean Madam Wu’s flames were ineffective as well.

With the surroundings illuminated by fire, Qi Xuansu was finally able to see the true state of the place.

This was not some boundless void but an ordinary hidden room. It had been filled with darkness so dense it seemed impossible to dissolve, creating the illusion of an endless void. The entrance had been directly behind Qi Xuansu the entire time, merely concealed by the darkness. Now that Madam Wu had driven the darkness away, its true appearance was finally revealed.

On the wall directly facing Qi Xuansu was painted a black sun that nearly covered the entire surface. Countless shadows were pouring out from within that black sun.

This was the source of the shadows in Kamakai.