A Pawn's Passage

Back when Qi Xuansu came to the Wanxiang Daoist Upper Palace for advanced studies for the second time, it was also his first time meeting Great Sage Shi. At the time, Great Sage Shi already knew that Qi Xuansu and Yao Pei had secretly entered the Tianshui Core Tower. However, Great Sage Shi had merely given them a verbal reprimand and taken no substantive action. He had not even taken back the Staff of Merit.

Strictly speaking, this was a matter for the Zixiao Palace, which was Great Sage Jiang’s problem.

Great Sage Shi had once told Qi Xuansu that he had relocated the dragon lady. But now, it seemed that Great Sage Shi had deliberately lied.

First, relocating the dragon lady would have been extremely troublesome. The first step was to remove the restrictions left behind by the sixth-generation Grand Master. The second was to subdue the dragon lady once she was freed. The third step was to move her elsewhere and establish new restrictions.

Qi Xuansu himself had first reached an agreement with the dragon lady, allowing him to dispense with the second and third steps. Yet even carrying out just the first step had still cost him a page of the Scripture of Zuriel. Great Sage Shi truly had no reason to undertake such a thankless and laborious task.

Moreover, there was no suitable place to put her. The Wanxiang Daoist Palace was a place for teaching and cultivating students, so it had no dedicated dungeon. Even when someone committed an offense, such cases were few and far between. The offender would simply be handed over elsewhere. So where could the dragon lady possibly have been transferred?

As Qi Xuansu had said, the sixth-generation Grand Master had imprisoned the dragon lady on a whim, leaving behind no records or files. If Great Sage Shi wanted to formally incarcerate her somewhere like the Demon Suppression Tower, it would have been exceedingly troublesome. He would either have to pull strings or go through the proper procedures. Great Sage Shi certainly did not have the leisure to put himself through the entire process from scratch.

Evidently, Great Sage Shi’s philosophy was to maintain the status quo. As long as there was nothing wrong with the sixth-generation Grand Master’s seal, there was no reason to tamper with it.

In truth, Qi Xuansu had long since forgotten what Great Sage Shi had told him, because he had never taken it to heart in the first place. But now that he had rescued Long Xiaobai, he finally remembered again.

But at this point, it no longer mattered.

When Qi Xuansu brought Long Xiaobai down to the first floor, something suddenly occurred to him. He stopped in his tracks, turned around, and scrutinized Long Xiaobai.

Long Xiaobai was somewhat bewildered and a little apprehensive, as she had no idea what Qi Xuansu intended to do.

Qi Xuansu asked, “Xiaobai, can you change the color of your hair? It stands out too much!”

Long Xiaobai was fair-skinned, just like Pei Shenfu. But she had a full head of white hair that stood out.

Long Xiaobai said, “Back when I first came to the Wanxiang Daoist Palace, there weren’t nearly this many rules. Your Grand Master at the time seemed intent on repudiating his predecessor and abolished many regulations. Everyone wore whatever they wanted. There were even people with bright red hair!”

Qi Xuansu said, “That was a special period. Things have returned to normal now. The Daoist Order doesn’t permit bizarre clothing, nor does it allow people to make themselves look excessively young. Ideally, everyone should look more or less the same. The more conventional and unremarkable, the better. Of course, wild Daoists and Jianghu people are another matter. Nobody cares what they do. But as long as you’re within the Daoist Order, it’s best to follow these rules and not go out of your way to make yourself stand out.”

Long Xiaobai reluctantly said, “Fine, then.”

Without any visible movement on her part, her eyebrows and white hair turned black. Dressed in white with raven-black hair, she now looked even more like a younger version of Pei Shenfu.

In all fairness, although Qi Xuansu did not get along with Pei Shenfu, he still had to acknowledge her beauty.

Qi Xuansu looked her over again. “Not bad. Old Lin and Little Yin both have connections to the Daoist Order. One is a senior of the Daoist Order, while the other is a Daoist creation, so they can both become Daoist priests. You’re different. I don’t have the ability to secure you the status of a Daoist priest. At most, I can get you a Daoist Priest Kindred status, so you don’t need a hechang or a Daoist crown.”

Long Xiaobai was confused. “Who’s Old Lin? Who’s Little Yin?”

Qi Xuansu said, “You’ll meet them eventually, since you’ll have to work together.”

With that, Qi Xuansu headed outside.

Long Xiaobai followed behind him. After so many years, she finally saw the sun again. Naturally, a Pseudo-Immortal had nothing to fear from sunlight, but she still instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes.

After a moment, Long Xiaobai lowered her hand and gazed up at the sun, nearly moved to tears.

She was finally out.

Then, she turned back to glance at the Tianshui Core Tower behind her and muttered, “Farewell forever, my prison!”

Qi Xuansu waited for Long Xiaobai to finish going through her emotions before finally continuing onward.

The Spirit Guards stationed outside stood ramrod straight and saluted him.

Even though an unfamiliar face had suddenly appeared behind Qi Xuansu, they did not dare ask a single question. Their gazes remained fixed straight ahead, as though they had not seen Long Xiaobai at all.

Qi Xuansu walked along the road back to his office amid the constant flow of people coming and going.

People continually stepped aside to make way for Qi Xuansu and saluted him, addressing him as “Palace Master,” “Sage Qi,” and “Sage Taiwei.”

Qi Xuansu merely had to nod in acknowledgment for it to count as returning their salute.

Seeing this, Long Xiaobai no longer had the slightest doubt that Qi Xuansu was the Palace Master.

Following behind Qi Xuansu, Long Xiaobai drew plenty of curious looks as well.

Everyone began wondering who she was. They knew that she certainly was not a member of the Daoist Order because of the way she dressed. When on duty, Daoist officials were required to wear formal attire. No one, not even the Three Deputy Grand Masters, were exempt from this rule.

They even entertained the thought that she was Sage Qi’s mistress. But that did not seem right either. Sage Qi had only just gotten married, and everyone had heard a thing or two about Sage Zhang’s temperament. Even if Sage Qi wanted to take a mistress, he certainly would not parade her around so openly.

Their next guess was that she was someone from the Western Daoist Order. After all, the Western Daoists were less particular about such formalities. Moreover, with the Western Daoist Order currently building its own Daoist Palace and Sage Hungfu coming once on an inspection tour, it was likely that they had sent someone else over to observe and learn from the Wanxiang Daoist Palace.

After all, since it concerned affairs involving the Western Daoist Order, it was only reasonable for the Palace Master to personally receive her.

Long Xiaobai had no idea that, in everyone else’s eyes, she had already become a Western Daoist. She merely found the way these people looked at her rather strange.

Though the Daoist Order hated to see the Western Daoist Order suffer, the former also did not want to see the latter thrive.

In the minds of many Daoist priests from the Central Plains, the Southern Continent was nothing but an impoverished backwater. They lacked everything except trees. The people there eat raw meat, drink blood, and even practice human sacrifice. It was simply too barbaric and backward.

After regaining her freedom, Long Xiaobai kept glancing around from side to side, making her look even more like some country bumpkin who had never seen the world.

This undoubtedly gave these people of the Daoist Order a tremendous sense of superiority. To them, the Western Daoists were like poor relatives from the countryside who were always coming around asking for handouts. Some people could not see the Southern Continent’s immense strategic importance and would inevitably grumble about the Daoist Order’s leaders constantly sending aid to the Western Daoist Order. There was not even enough to go around among their own people, yet they were giving it away to outsiders.

Of course, Qi Xuansu understood the reasoning. If one wished to take, one must first give. The Daoist Order’s aid would bring returns, which could be greater than anyone imagined. Fundamentally, it was about making the pie bigger. It was like having a sack of seeds. If one ate them, they would simply be gone. But if one planted them, there were two possible outcomes. The harvest could fail completely, in which case one might as well have eaten them. Another outcome was harvesting far more produce in return.

If they could secure the Northern Continent, the benefits they stood to gain would surpass even those of installing the ruler of a nation. But all that was a matter for another time.

Qi Xuansu brought Long Xiaobai back to his office and told her to wait there while he went to see Great Sage Shi again.

With nothing to do, Long Xiaobai sat idly on the Western-style sofa. She bounced up and down while seated on the springy sofa, amusing herself. It was quite soft, much more comfortable than a wooden chair.

Back when she had come to the Wanxiang Daoist Palace, there had been no such thing as a sofa. In the blink of an eye, times had changed, and the outside world had transformed tremendously as well.

Of course, there was another possibility. Perhaps sofas had already existed back then, but she simply had never gotten the chance to see one.

Just as Long Xiaobai was amusing herself, Yan Yongzhen returned with Little Yin after finishing her enrollment procedures.

Little Yin was still sulking, her lips pursed in displeasure. But however resistant she might be, she would ultimately do as she was told.

Yan Yongzhen patiently tried to coax Little Yin that as long as she endured these three months, she could go to the Western Region Daoist Mansion. By then, she would become a Great Sage’s secretary, which meant she would be a little Sage and could do whatever she wanted.

As a secretary himself, Yan Yongzhen knew that saying something like this was rather inappropriate. But there was nothing else he could do. If he did not paint Little Yin a sufficiently enticing picture of the future, she would have no motivation.

Only then did Little Yin show some interest. She began asking what the Western Region was like and how it was compared with Nanyang.

Yan Yongzhen told Little Yin that Nanyang was by the sea, while the Western Region also had a sea, only theirs was a sea of sand. There were also snowcapped mountains like those of Kunlun.

Little Yin had never seen a desert before. Hearing this, she immediately grew curious about the legendary deserts and began pestering Yan Yongzhen with one question after another.

Yan Yongzhen felt as though he had already started raising a child before he had even gotten married.

However, Zhang Jucheng had personally briefed him before and had mentioned that this little girl was extremely lovable and was essentially the darling of the entire family. Great Sage Qi, Madam Qi, Qi Xuansu, Zhang Yuelu, and Lin Yuanmiao would go to great lengths for this little one. Judging from Yan Yongzhen’s own observations during this period, that was indeed the case.

So there was certainly no harm in getting along well with Little Miss Yin. At the very least, it would help him integrate into this circle more quickly.

While walking, Little Yin noticed an unexpected visitor, Long Xiaobai.

Little Yin immediately marched up to Long Xiaobai in an imposing manner, planted both hands on her hips, and demanded loudly, “Who are you?”

Long Xiaobai had not thought much of Little Yin at first, but she noticed that Little Yin was suffused with a dragon aura and even possessed a Zaohua-stage cultivation. She replied, “I’m Long Xiaobai. Are you a dragon too?”

Little Yin seemed to sense something as well. Her attitude quickly changed, and a mischievous little smile crept across her face.

“What dragon?” Little Yin asked with an innocent expression. At the same time, she slowly edged closer to Long Xiaobai, a devious gleam flickering in her eyes.

Compared with Little Yin, Long Xiaobai seemed positively naive and gullible. Long Xiaobai said, “A flood dragon, of course. Why else would you have a dragon aura?”

Little Yin did not answer. Instead, she threw her arms around Long Xiaobai, buried her head in Long Xiaobai’s bosom, and nuzzled against her vigorously. “Big Sister, you smell so good!”

Just as Long Xiaobai thought she had encountered a kindred spirit far from home, Qi Xuansu returned and saw this scene. He quickly strode over to them and promptly grabbed Little Yin, hoisting her up by the back collar and scolding her, “No, don’t you dare! You can’t eat this one! All you ever think about is eating...”