A Pawn's Passage

These two futures belonged to relatively complete threads, while many other threads ended abruptly.

Among these abruptly terminated threads, some ended because the Guizang Lantern could no longer extrapolate further, while others ended because either Qi Xuansu or Little Yin died midway through, leaving no conclusion.

In one such thread, Qi Xuansu became entangled in the ancient gods’ internal conflict on the Southern Continent and died prematurely, never even getting to involve himself in the Daoist Order’s internal power struggle. As a result, the Guizang Lantern only extrapolated a small portion of that future. His death did cause quite a stir, and the Daoist Order posthumously bestowed various honors upon him. Yet, in the grand span of the Daoist Order’s long history, his death was no more than a pebble cast into a lake, creating a brief ripple before quickly being forgotten.

Little Yin was likewise soon forgotten. She initially remained with Zhang Yuelu, but later Zhang Yuelu went mad and was confined by the Zhang family. From that point onward, Little Yin disappeared without a trace, likely having returned to the Ghost Kingdom.

There were also threads in which Little Yin died midway through. In one such future, Little Yin dreamed of another version of herself. It was an utterly ordinary afternoon. As usual, she went out treasure hunting. Neither Qi Xuansu nor Zhang Yuelu thought much of it, assuming she would, as always, spend a few days wandering before returning home. But to their utter shock, she never came back.

Only then did Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu panic. They searched everywhere for her, yet Little Yin seemed to have vanished completely from the world, leaving behind not the slightest trace.

Many years later, Little Yin suddenly returned. But she was already on the verge of death. No one knew how she had made it into Jade Capital. It was as though she had clung to life solely through her determination to return home. The moment she arrived, she could no longer hold on. She did not even survive long enough for Qi Xuansu to take her to the Huasheng Hall and passed away almost immediately.

In the end, Qi Xuansu carried her back to the Ghost Kingdom and buried her beneath the Emperor Willow.

Naturally, the Guizang Lantern did not continue extrapolating that future, leaving unanswered whether Qi Xuansu ultimately became the Grand Master.

Of course, there were also futures in which both Qi Xuansu and Little Yin died. Those threads ended immediately, without even the briefest continuation.

A very obvious pattern emerged. As long as either Qi Xuansu or Little Yin remained alive, the thread could continue to be extrapolated. They were the key figures, the “protagonists.” Everyone else, like Zhang Yuelu, Madam Qi, or even the Three Deputy Grand Masters, made little difference to the continuation of the thread. They were merely “supporting characters.”

From this, one could draw a conclusion that there was some kind of connection linking Qi Xuansu, Little Yin, and the Guizang Lantern.

Thus, when Qi Xuansu took out the Guizang Lantern and pointed it toward Little Yin, the necessary conditions were fulfilled, awakening the lantern from its long slumber.

This also reminded Qi Xuansu of what had happened before. When he had returned to the Lingshan Paradise of the past, those same three elements had all been present—Qi Xuansu in secluded cultivation, the Guizang Lantern placed beside him, and Little Yin inexplicably asleep while clutching the lantern.

Qi Xuansu could not help but form a hypothesis. Could it have been Little Yin’s contact with the Guizang Lantern that had caused him to travel back to the Lingshan Paradise of the past?

If this hypothesis were correct, then what kind of ability did Little Yin possess that could produce such an outcome?

Qi Xuansu’s first thought was the Emperor Willow.

Naturally, Little Yin herself did not possess such power. She was just a little girl who would cry out in panic after being beaten up by monsters in Fenglin. How could she possibly wield the power of an Immortal? The Emperor Willow was said to surpass even ordinary Immortals in might. According to legend, two Ancient Immortals had fallen because of the Emperor Willow.

Before this, while studying at the Wanxiang Daoist Palace, Qi Xuansu had consulted numerous records and historical documents, from which he had reached another preliminary conclusion.

Unanchored pocket realms, divine kingdoms, spirit realms, and hells all existed between the mortal world and the boundless, wondrous higher dimension. This was a unique dimension where heavenly tribulations could be avoided, which meant it no longer belonged to the mortal realm. Yet it was not the destination of ascension either, making it possible to return to the human world.

Within this dimension, time was muddled, and space was unstable. Many feats impossible in the mortal world could be accomplished here.

That was how Qi Xuansu had been able to travel into the past.

However, one question remained unresolved. Even if this dimension between the heavens and the mortal world was extraordinary, accomplishing such a feat still required immense power. According to estimates made by the Daoist Order’s predecessors, it would theoretically require the combined efforts of two First-Tribulation Immortals.

As far as was currently known, counting True Lord Ziguang, Wu Luo, and the Heavenly Preceptor, there were only three Immortals in existence. That was undoubtedly formidable, but it was still insufficient to reverse the flow of time.

Qi Xuansu suspected that other Immortals had also been involved, and more than one of them.

Combining his two hypotheses, perhaps there was no need for additional Immortals at all. The Emperor Willow, with its immense power, might have served as a substitute.

The Heavenly Preceptor was a Quasi-First Tribulation Immortal. Judging from the Imperial Preceptor’s performance on the Fenglin battlefield, a Quasi-First Tribulation Immortal was worth at least 1.5 times that of ordinary Immortals. Combined with the Guizang Lantern, which was an immortal object perfectly suited for the task, along with a portion of Wu Luo’s power and some of the power of the Demon-Vanquishing Cave, it roughly amounted to one full First-Tribulation Immortal. On the other side, True Lord Ziguang, together with the Emperor Willow, likewise equaled one First-Tribulation Immortal. The numbers more or less matched.

Qi Xuansu had long suspected that the Heavenly Preceptor could remotely control the Guizang Lantern, and there was precedent for such a belief. Whether it was when Qi Xuansu encountered Izanagi’s Left Hand or later when he confronted Sage Qingwei within Izanagi’s divine kingdom, the Heavenly Preceptor had been able to wield the Twin Swords from afar and had even influenced Qi Xuansu through Green Cloud.

If the Heavenly Preceptor truly could control the Guizang Lantern, then had the old man even anticipated that Little Yin would secretly fiddle with the lantern? Considering that both the Heavenly Preceptor and True Lord Ziguang were masters of divination and foresight, predicting such an event would not have been particularly difficult.

By now, Qi Xuansu had formed a rough outline of the truth.

All of this had been orchestrated by the Heavenly Preceptor. Perhaps the Heavenly Preceptor had seen through the Earthly Preceptor’s schemes and learned part of the truth. In any case, the Heavenly Preceptor intended to reap the rewards himself. So he had personally set these events in motion.

In effect, Qi Xuansu had become a pawn in the contest between the Heavenly Preceptor and the Earthly Preceptor.

Even so, Qi Xuansu could hardly blame the Heavenly Preceptor, because the old man had never forced him to do anything. He had merely guided events along their natural course. If Qi Xuansu himself had no desire to investigate, then the Heavenly Preceptor’s scheme would have had no means of unfolding.

After piecing everything together, Qi Xuansu finally had a rough understanding of why he had returned to the Lingshan Paradise.

However, this also gave rise to a new question: was Little Yin really that extraordinary?

Qi Xuansu had long known that Little Yin was the spirit of the Emperor Willow, yet he had never considered her particularly formidable. The Emperor Willow was undeniably powerful, but Little Yin clearly could not wield its strength. Combat was the clearest measure of that. Little Yin’s fighting ability was, at best, passable. She had a tough physique, remarkable regenerative abilities, a sharp tongue, an even sharper bite, and an astonishing appetite. Beyond that, there was little else.

Little Yin was different from Madam Wu, whose true form was the Seven Feather Five Fires Fan. Madam Wu was basically the immortal fan gaining sentience and taking on a human form. In essence, she was not human but an immortal object, which was why even Immortals found it difficult to kill her.

On the other hand, Little Yin was not the Emperor Willow itself. She had been born from it. Qi Xuansu likened her to the fruit borne by the Emperor Willow, which meant she could not be equated with the tree itself. Sun Heyu might have been incapable of harming the Emperor Willow, but he had certainly been able to injure Little Yin. That alone proved the two were not one and the same.

This reminded Qi Xuansu of something Zhang Yuelu had once told him.

Lin Yuanmiao, Pei Xiaolou, and Ji Jiaozhen had sworn brotherhood and were collectively known as the Nanyang Trio. They often gathered to drink wine and hunt whales together.

Little Yin had wanted to join them, but the three grown men refused, saying she was too young. Whale hunting was surprisingly addictive, and sometimes the three of them would spend an entire day at it. Once immersed in the activity, Lin Yuanmiao paid little attention to Little Yin, indirectly giving her the opportunity to sneak away.

In the end, Lin Yuanmiao had to personally go after her and eventually found Little Yin, who was busy playing hide-and-seek with the Heavenly Court.

When Zhang Yuelu asked Little Yin what she had been trying to do, Little Yin claimed she had dreamed of another version of herself burying treasure somewhere in Nanyang, so she had gone treasure hunting. Naturally, Zhang Yuelu did not believe a word of it. That incident eventually led to the decision to send Little Yin to the Wanxiang Daoist Palace for further studies.

At the time, Qi Xuansu had likewise dismissed the story, assuming it was merely Little Yin making excuses for herself. Looking back now, however, it seemed entirely possible that she had been telling the truth.

As Qi Xuansu pondered these thoughts, the light of the Guizang Lantern suddenly deepened. Within its glow, a full-body image of Little Yin gradually appeared.

Beneath the image, a single line of seal script appeared.

Seal script referred to the writing system that predated clerical script. It was divided into large seal script and small seal script. The former encompassed oracle bone script, bronze script, and other ancient forms. Small seal script was the standardized script adopted by the First Emperor during his unification of the written language.

This script still retained certain characteristics of pictographic writing and was rarely used nowadays. However, the Wanxiang Daoist Palace offered a dedicated course on it, since many of the Daoist Order’s internal records were written in small seal script or even oracle bone script and bronze script. As the Daoist Order later launched its great translation initiative, these ancient records were systematically organized, compiled into volumes, and transcribed entirely into modern script. As a result, the study of ancient writing eventually became an elective course.

Needless to say, the younger Qi Xuansu had never taken that course. Coupled with the unusual layout and inscription of that seal, it was no wonder he had made a fool of himself in front of Yao Pei.

Fortunately, Qi Xuansu had taken that embarrassment as motivation to improve. After his cultivation advanced, his aptitude likewise improved, making it far easier for him to learn. Moreover, with his elevated status, proficiency in calligraphy had become an essential skill. As such, he had gone back and filled this gap in his education, so reading seal script was no longer a challenge for him.

The line of Seal Script was asking Qi Xuansu a simple question. “Do you wish to learn Little Yin’s true origins?”

Qi Xuansu considered the question carefully. Rather than agreeing immediately, he asked in return, “What is the price?”

Experience had taught Qi Xuansu that there was no such thing as a free lunch. Leaving aside the matter of the Longevity Stone Heart, which still remains unresolved to this day, there were also True Lord Ziguang’s revelations, the Heavenly Preceptor’s assistance, and countless other examples. They all pointed to the same truth. Every gift carried a hidden price tag. Even if the price was not collected now, it would eventually come due. Thus, it was better to ask about the cost in advance.

The Guizang Lantern gave a simple reply. “Divine power.”

Qi Xuansu was not surprised. Divine power was indeed a universal hard currency that was even more valuable than Taiping coins. It was recognized by ancient gods and the Ancient Immortals, and regarded as a strategic resource by both the Daoist Order and the Holy Court. More importantly, divine power was versatile, with boundless potential.