A Pawn's Passage

Hun Ahau said, “Many insects originate in the sea, as can be seen from numerous insect fossils. Their distribution ranges from shallow seas to the deep ocean, and even the tracks left by certain creatures crawling along the seabed have been fossilized. Through the transformations of the ages, ancient seas became land, which is why traces of marine insect fossils can be found throughout the continents today. During his lifetime, my master collected a large number of insect fossils. This was one of the important reasons why he believed the humanoid insects originally came from the sea.”

Qi Xuansu knew what fossils were. The Daoist Order had some involvement in the field, though its research lacked a systematic framework and was more of a subsidiary branch of the creation projects.

Westerners, however, were quite interested in such things. Many naturalists frequently traveled all over the world for research. As exchanges between East and West deepened, Western learning became popular within the Daoist Order. As such, the Daoist Order also began offering such disciplines in imitation of the Westerners. Some of Qi Xuansu’s former classmates, having failed to qualify as Daoist priests, even switched to studying these subjects.

Hun Ahau continued, “My master personally traveled to Nanyang to trace the origins of the humanoid insects. There are two primary questions regarding them. First, where is the Spirit Realm that serves as the humanoid insects’ hive? Second, where did the earliest hosts of the humanoid insects come from? Since my master concluded that the hive lay in the depths of the ocean, his journey to Nanyang was not to search for the hive itself but to investigate the origins of the first hosts.

“Nanyang was under the protection of the Heavenly Empress. During her lifetime, she suppressed countless sea demons and sea monsters, including many whose strength rivaled that of Immortals. Based on various traces and evidence, my master concluded that the humanoid insects first appeared after the Heavenly Empress had left this world.

“The Heavenly Empress’ maiden name was Lin, and she lived during the early years of the Jin Dynasty. She ascended on the 9th day of the 9th month in the 4th year of the Yongxi Era, under Emperor Taizong of the Jin Dynasty. Prior to that, there were no records whatsoever concerning the humanoid insects. Even for many years after her ascension, there were still no traces of them.

“However, records resembling the humanoid insects do appear in certain notes from the early years of the Wei Dynasty. At that time, there was no concept of humanoid insects. People regarded it as a kind of insect venom. Consuming the eggs raw could greatly increase one’s power, but once the larvae hatched, they would devour all of the host’s internal organs, leaving behind only an undying shell. Many people who were eager for quick gains consumed the eggs whenever they encountered them and eventually fell ill. Furthermore, the humanoid insects were adept at disguise, so the matter was not taken particularly seriously.”

Although Hun Ahau was not originally from the Central Plains, he had become highly sinicized and possessed an extensive knowledge of its history.

Hun Ahau continued, “After conducting investigations throughout Nanyang, Lingnan, and other regions, my master roughly determined that the humanoid insects first appeared during the period when the Golden Horde ruled the Central Plains. However, they only became widely known to and taken seriously by the Daoist Order during the Nanyang expansion several centuries later. During those intervening centuries, the humanoid insects hid among ordinary people and achieved substantial growth.

“Looking back now, the humanoid insects undoubtedly overestimated themselves and sided with the wrong faction. Encouraged by the Nanyang Buddhist Sect and the Goddess Society, they chose to oppose the Daoist Order. But when the Daoist Order’s iron fist came down upon them, the humanoid insects discovered that none of their allies could be relied on. The Nanyang Buddhist Sect and the Goddess Society scattered and fled, each returning to their own backers. The Nanyang Buddhist Sect was backed by the Central Plains Buddhist Sect, and the Goddess Society was backed by the Holy Court. The humanoid insects were abandoned and left to fend for themselves. With no one to protect them, the Daoist Order nearly exterminated them. To survive, they began a great migration. They left Nanyang, crossed the vast ocean, and fled to the Southern Continent.

“The Western Daoist Order also carried out an extermination campaign against the humanoid insects, but several factors limited its effectiveness. The Western Daoist Order was not as powerful as the Daoist Order, as it was under tremendous pressure from the Steam Evangelical Sect. Even today, the Western Daoist Order has not fully brought the Southern Continent under its control, let alone in those days. As a result, the campaign was incomplete, and many humanoid insects remained hidden in dormancy.”

After Hun Ahau’s explanation, Qi Xuansu had more or less pieced together the developmental history of the humanoid insects. He asked, “So where did the first hosts of the humanoid insects come from?”

Hun Ahau said, “Sage Qi, have you heard of the Battle of Yashan?”

Qi Xuansu paused for a moment and nodded. “Yes.”

At that moment, Qi Xuansu already had a faint suspicion forming in his mind.

Yashan was located within Lingnan. The waters of Yinzhou Lake flowed out to sea here, serving as the inlet and outlet for the tides. To the east of this lake was Yashan, and to the west stood Pingshan. The mountain ranges of both extended southward into the sea, resembling gates enclosing the waterway.

After the Golden Horde took control of the Central Plains and defeated the Jin Dynasty in the Battle of Xiangfan, the Jin Dynasty Court failed in its attempts to negotiate peace and fled to Lingnan.

After arriving in Lingnan, they suffered repeated defeat. Eventually, some fled to Champa in the Yu Kingdom of Nanyang and later escaped to Siam. The last emperor of the Jin Dynasty fled to Yashan, where he established a stronghold and prepared to continue resisting the Golden Horde.

The Jin Dynasty claimed to have a force of more than 200,000 men, though in reality over 100,000 of them were civil officials, palace maids, eunuchs, and other noncombatants. They possessed more than 200,000 vessels of various types. Meanwhile, the Golden Horde army had 300,000 strong men and several hundred warships.

In the end, the Golden Horde achieved a complete victory. The Jin Dynasty’s army was annihilated, and the last emperor of the Jin Dynasty leaped into the sea and took his own life. More than 100,000 accompanying soldiers and civilians followed suit and drowned themselves. The History of Jin recorded that 100,000 corpses floated upon the sea 7 days later.

Qi Xuansu carefully recalled the events of the Battle of Yashan and said, “The imperial family and court officials of the Jin Dynasty ultimately died by jumping into the sea, but a portion of them escaped to Nanyang.”

Hun Ahau said, “Exactly. A man named Chen Jingguan proposed escorting the Jin Emperor to Champa in the Yu Kingdom, and he personally led a group there in advance. Later, the Jin Dynasty repeatedly summoned Chen Jingguan back, but he believed the situation was beyond saving and refused to return. After the Golden Horde army occupied Champa, Chen Jingguan fled again to Siam, where he was said to have died. However, according to my master’s investigation, Chen Jingguan never died. He was one of the earliest humanoid insects. In addition, some of those who did not follow the last emperor of the Jin Dynasty in drowning themselves drifted across the ocean to Nanyang and eventually became humanoid insects.”

Qi Xuansu’s expression grew grave. “Did your master have evidence?”

Hun Ahau replied, “My master was certainly not making baseless conjectures. Although the Battle of Yashan ended in disastrous defeat and the emperor even drowned himself, the Grand Tutor and others managed to break through the encirclement with more than 10 ships, intending to regroup and continue the conflict later. However, they perished in a rare windstorm. After several years of investigation, my master finally discovered the corpse of that deceased Grand Tutor in an underground cave beneath Pingzhang Mountain.

“That underground cave was enormous and connected to the sea through an underground river. Somehow, a wrecked ship had been stranded in the cave. The Jin Dynasty’s Grand Tutor was aboard this ship. My master explored the ship and discovered that everyone aboard was dead, though they had not died from drowning.”

“After all, these people were Confucian cultivators. Even if they were no match for the Western Buddhist Sect and the Shamanistic Sect that supported the Golden Horde, they were still far superior to ordinary folk. It was impossible for them to have drowned like common people. In reality, they died from an ambush. However, the attacker never boarded the ship and most likely struck from a distance, which is why there was no attempt to destroy the evidence. It was on this ship that my master discovered the remains and notes of the Jin Dynasty’s Grand Tutor. From these, he deduced the origins of the humanoid insects.

“My master also examined the remains of the Grand Tutor and discovered that he and the others aboard the ship had most likely died from an exceptionally sophisticated illusion technique. Their consciousnesses were trapped within a dream, and they ultimately perished within that dream. The notebook, being an inanimate object, was unaffected by this illusion.

“After my master passed away, these relics, including this notebook, were entrusted to my care, as they were neither valuable nor particularly important. I can show it to you right now, Sage Qi.”

With that, Hun Ahau began rummaging through his magical receptacle.

Just as Qi Xuansu evaluated, Hun Ahau was an extremely traditional man. He believed that an elder brother was like a father and always sought to shelter Chowen from hardship, fulfilling what he saw as an elder brother’s duty. At the same time, he believed in orthodoxy and had been shaped by authority. He was the sort of man who would voluntarily shoulder the burdens of a family without anyone forcing him to do so. He always saw himself as the pillar, the foundation, and the main support of those around him. As a result, he lived a very exhausting life.

A master was like a father. After his master was gone, Hun Ahau, being the elder brother, naturally regarded himself as the head of the family. Many possessions and responsibilities passed into his hands. At that time, Hun Chowen and Unulatu were still young and preoccupied with romance, so they paid little attention to such matters.

Had these items ended up in the hands of the latter two, Qi Xuansu would not have known where to begin searching for them.

Hun Ahau handed the Jin Dynasty Grand Tutor’s notebook to Qi Xuansu.

It was perfectly normal for disciples of the Confucian School to keep notebooks. Almost 90% of the unofficial histories and secret anecdotes in the world originated from the various notebooks of scholars.

Had the Jin Dynasty Grand Tutor not died unexpectedly, his notebook would likely have been passed down through the generations, adding yet another entry to the already vast body of unofficial historical records.

However, with his mysterious and sudden death, the notebook was lost to history and eventually came into the possession of Hun Ahau’s master. For reasons of his own, that Immortal of the Western Daoist Order chose not to make the notebook public, and it remained hidden until today.

Qi Xuansu opened the notebook and began reading it carefully.

Most of the notebook revolved around the Golden Horde’s conquest of the Central Plains and the decline of the Jin Dynasty Court. It also revealed the inner thoughts of the last Grand Tutor, detailing military defeats, surrenders, disagreements, and internal conflicts.

None of this particularly interested Qi Xuansu. Those events belonged to the past. Even the Wei Dynasty, which had later expelled the Golden Horde, had long since become history, let alone the Jin Dynasty.

Qi Xuansu patiently turned the pages one by one and finally reached a section near the end of the notebook that concerned the humanoid insects.

When the notebook’s author wrote these entries, the concept of the humanoid insects did not yet exist. He had no idea what they were and merely recorded an incident he had personally experienced.

After the military defeat, the last Grand Tutor received a letter from Chen Jingguan.

In the letter, Chen Jingguan, who had fled to Nanyang earlier, wrote that he had accidentally come into contact with a deity. The deity promised that if he worshipped her, served her, and offered sacrifices to her, she would bestow divine power and help them resist the Golden Horde.

Having reached a dead end, Chen Jingguan agreed to the deity’s demands, converted to her faith, and planned to persuade his former colleagues to do the same.

The Jin Dynasty Grand Tutor was an orthodox disciple of the Confucian School, so he rejected the proposal outright.

Not long afterward, the Grand Tutor encountered the windstorm and the illusion, ultimately meeting his end beneath the sea.