A Pawn's Passage

Qi Xuansu personally tried using the Taiji Eight Trigrams Mirror again and found it considerably easier to wield compared to the Heavenly Preceptor’s Twin Swords. It seemed this was one of the advantages of auxiliary-type immortal objects.

Qi Xuansu put away the Taiji Eight Trigrams Mirror and began preparing his lesson.

After all, this would be his first time taking the podium to teach, so naturally, he wanted to start things off on the right foot.

The question was, what should he lecture about?

Qi Xuansu pondered on this and decided to further expound on moral development while tying it into the era of the fifth-generation Grand Master.

After writing roughly three pages of lesson planning, Long Xiaobai came back from exploring the area.

Qi Xuansu temporarily set aside his work, motioned for Long Xiaobai to sit down, and then asked, “How was it?”

Long Xiaobai replied, “The buildings don’t seem to have changed much, but everything still feels very unfamiliar to me. The people I knew back then are all gone as well.”

Qi Xuansu asked, “Did you have friends at the Wanxiang Daoist Palace back then?”

Long Xiaobai shook her head. “No.”

Qi Xuansu nodded, pushed his lesson plans aside for the moment, and leaned back against his chair. “Since we’ve touched upon this subject, let’s talk about you in greater detail.”

“Me?” Long Xiaobai asked, puzzled. “What is there to talk about?”

Qi Xuansu said, “Tell me about your past so that I can get to know you better. Since we’re going to be working together, for at least 20 years, we should get to know each other. Besides, I still need to report your second-rank Daoist Priest Kindred status to Ziwei Hall, and your relevant records will have to be filled in when the time comes.”

Long Xiaobai thought for a moment before nodding. “Alright.”

Qi Xuansu asked, “Do you have parents?”

Long Xiaobai shook her head. “I’ve never met my parents.”

Dragons and humans could not be judged by the same standards. Without parental care or someone else to take them in, human infants would most likely not be able to survive.

However, dragons were born extraordinarily powerful and could survive independently from birth. Even if a newborn dragon could not yet overturn rivers and seas, it could still catch enough fish and shrimp as sustenance.

Qi Xuansu sighed. “No parents, huh? You also ended up at the Wanxiang Daoist Palace, so I suppose the two of us are the same in that aspect.”

He then asked, “How old are you this year?”

Long Xiaobai did some calculations and said, “About...70 years old.”

Qi Xuansu was taken aback. “That young?”

A dragon’s lifespan could not be judged by the same standards as a human’s. A 70-year-old human had already entered old age. But a 70-year-old dragon was essentially still a child.

Under normal circumstances, a flood dragon would only become comparable to a Longevity-stage Immortal at 500 years old, which was considered adulthood. Even exceptionally gifted flood dragons would still need to be 400 years old before reaching the Immortal stage. Thus, compared to 400 and 500 years old, 70 years old truly was still just a child.

Qi Xuansu said, “Before you were imprisoned by the sixth-generation Grand Master, you already possessed the strength of a Pseudo-Immortal and could assume human form. Subtracting the years that you have been imprisoned and considering that you had no parents to guide you, are you a prodigy among the flood dragons? But you don’t really look like a genius to me.”

Long Xiaobai hesitated for a moment before saying, “The reason I was able to assume human form ahead of time was that I accidentally discovered a cave dwelling left behind by an Ancient Immortal. I don’t even know how I stumbled my way inside. There was a furnace of elixirs in there, and I was starving at the time, so I simply ate them all. After that, I went to sleep and woke up with Pseudo-Immortal cultivation.”

Qi Xuansu could not help but marvel at this for quite some time. Flood dragons truly were extraordinarily gifted by nature.

There were two kinds of elixirs—internal and external. Internal elixir meant slowly cultivating oneself, while external elixir was external substances. External elixir had one major drawback. It was limited by how much one’s body could withstand.

Simply put, the higher one’s cultivation, the greater one’s ability to withstand the effects. This created a paradox. Immortals, who had the least need for external elixirs, were the ones best suited to taking them. Meanwhile, ordinary people, who needed external elixirs the most, were the least suited to taking them.

Those who lacked elixirs were starved of it, while those who had plenty drowned in excess.

The same was true for the Daoist Order when it came to treating difficult and complicated illnesses. Curing the illness itself was not difficult. The real challenge was lowering the threshold for the patient. This was a common problem encountered by the Huasheng Hall. Those capable of enduring the side effects of a particular treatment did not need such treatment and could basically heal themselves, while those who actually needed treatment could not withstand its side effects. In the end, only a handful of exceptional cases could make use of such treatments, such as Audrey.

Even the Longevity Stone Heart had to progress step by step. No one would fill it with Xuan Jades right from the very beginning.

But flood dragons were different. They were born with immensely powerful physiques and extraordinary endurance. Even a juvenile flood dragon had a Heavenly-Being physique.

Although Long Xiaobai was at the Pseudo-Immortal stage in terms of cultivation, her physique was already comparable to that of an Immortal aside from Manly Immortals. Once she reached adulthood, she would not even need to deliberately cultivate for her physique to be comparable to that of a Manly Immortal.

Qi Xuansu figured that the elixir left behind by the Ancient Immortal had most likely been intended for the Immortal’s own use. Had it been anyone else, even if they had found the elixir, they would not have dared to take it rashly. Otherwise, the medicinal power might have consumed them from within. But Long Xiaobai was a flood dragon and had instead managed to withstand its medicinal power and advance her cultivation level.

Besides, even if this elixir had been taken by a human, it might not necessarily have produced such remarkable effects. For example, the Longevity Elixir refined by Sun Lingxiu was powerful enough, but aside from extending Zhang Yuelu’s lifespan by several decades, it had only allowed her to brush against the threshold of the Pseudo-Immortal stage, rather than allowing her to advance to it. This was an innate limitation of the human race, which was precisely why Yao Pei’s Great Witch bloodline was so precious.

Flood dragons also had such bloodline power, as shown in the tremendous advances in cultivation and varying degrees of dragonlike transformation when people drank dragon blood.

The elixir that Long Xiaobai consumed had further awakened her bloodline power, allowing her to reach the Pseudo-Immortal stage in a single step. It was not just the medicinal power alone that forcibly pushed her into the Pseudo-Immortal stage.

To put simply, it had accelerated her maturation.

It was a matter of timing, fortune, and fate.

Qi Xuansu asked, “Where is this cave dwelling?”

Long Xiaobai answered honestly, “It’s at the bottom of Yunmeng Marsh, not far from where I used to live. There’s also a mortal shell left inside the cave dwelling. I think that Ancient Immortal died.”

Qi Xuansu’s heart stirred at this. A fallen Ancient Immortal and elixirs inside an alchemical furnace... Could it be that an Immortal had suffered grievous injuries and had been refining elixirs to heal themself but died before the elixirs were completed? That was probably why Long Xiaobai could reap the benefits.

He wanted to explore the area if he had the time.

In any case, he did not have much to do at the Wanxiang Daoist Palace. Since he would otherwise be idle, he could consider taking up a little side quest.

But now was not the time to discuss that. Qi Xuansu continued asking, “Since you lived in Yunmeng Marsh, how did you end up at the Wanxiang Daoist Palace?”

Long Xiaobai answered truthfully, “After I ate the elixir, I could assume human form, so I left Yunmeng Marsh and began wandering the human world, gradually learning about the Daoist Order’s various policies. I was terrified of Daoist priests because, back then, I didn’t know any techniques, so I couldn’t properly make use of my strength. Then I happened to hear someone say that the Wanxiang Daoist Palace was recruiting disciples. I figured the most dangerous place would also be the safest, so I went over and enrolled myself since I could learn some skills there as well. I ended up passing the admission process straightaway probably because my aptitude was simply too good.”

Qi Xuansu casually made a note of this on his lesson plan.

Attention must be paid to strengthening the admissions screening process at the Wanxiang Daoist Palace. Ideally, applicants’ backgrounds should be investigated three generations back.

Fortunately, it was only a flood dragon who had managed to slip in. What if someone from the Buddhist Sect or the Holy Court infiltrated the palace, and then, with covert support from foreign powers, rose to a high-ranking position? The consequences would be unthinkable.

Long Xiaobai craned her neck to see what Qi Xuansu was writing.

Qi Xuansu made no attempt to hide it. She could look all she wanted, since it was hardly anything that needed to be kept secret.

Long Xiaobai clicked her tongue. “No wonder you managed to become an Omniscient Sage. You’re thinking about work all the time.”

Qi Xuansu said, “Whatever profession you’re in, you should learn to love it.”

Long Xiaobai let out a scoffing laugh, but halfway through, she remembered that Qi Xuansu was now both her employer and superior. So she forcibly swallowed the rest of her laughter.

Qi Xuansu did not care about such things and continued asking, “What did you do after sneaking into the Wanxiang Daoist Palace?”

Long Xiaobai said, “I mostly attended classes. But everything taught in the Lower Palace was too basic. Later, I heard that the Upper Palace was specifically for teaching high-ranking Daoist priests, so I found a way to sneak into the Upper Palace. During the day, I attended classes in the Lower Palace, and at night, I slipped into the Upper Palace.”

Qi Xuansu nodded slightly. It was hardly difficult for a Pseudo-Immortal to sneak into the Upper Palace. After all, even before he became a Pseudo-Immortal, he and Yao Pei had managed to sneak into the Tianshui Core Tower.

At this thought, Qi Xuansu casually made another note on his lesson plan.

Should internal security within the Daoist Palace be further strengthened? Note: To be discussed.

Long Xiaobai continued, “After I reached the Upper Palace, I met a Daoist priest who was studying here. He thought I was beautiful, so he tried all sorts of ways to woo me. It was from him that I learned about the library in Gen Garden and the Tianshui Core Tower. So I began trying to enter the library and secretly learn the perfected methods stored inside.”

Qi Xuansu said, “Eventually, you pushed your luck even further and went into the Tianshui Core Tower, only to run straight into the Grand Master, huh?”

Long Xiaobai said aggrievedly, “That tower was located right in the very center, so obviously, it had to be the best one. Since no one could discover me anyway, I wanted to explore it. Who could have guessed that your Grand Master would come all the way from Jade Capital just to read books here?”

Qi Xuansu corrected her. “What do you mean by ‘your’ Grand Master? It’s ‘our’ Grand Master now. Make sure you remember that.”

Long Xiaobai pursed her lips but obediently said, “Our beloved Grand Master, whose radiance rivals the sun and moon, and whose longevity equals that of heaven and earth.”

Qi Xuansu laughed. “So you even know how to chant slogans.”

Long Xiaobai said, “I spent so many years hanging around the Wanxiang Daoist Palace. Even if no one taught me, I learned just by watching. By the way, I heard people say that you also came from the Wanxiang Daoist Palace. In that case, wouldn’t that make me your senior schoolmate?”

Qi Xuansu said, “You could have counted as one before, but you’ve already been expelled from the school, so it doesn’t count anymore.”

Long Xiaobai pouted, unable to come up with a response.

In truth, the Wanxiang Daoist Palace had officially treated her as a missing person back then, because the matter was not something they could publicize. After all, they could not possibly announce that a flood dragon had infiltrated the Wanxiang Daoist Palace and even managed to sneak into the Tianshui Core Tower. That would be equivalent to slapping themselves in the face.

Thus, when the matter was actually handled, it was split into two separate incidents. One incident was that the sixth-generation Grand Master had captured a flood dragon and sealed off the Tianshui Core Tower. Another incident was that a student from the Lower Palace had gone missing and was consequently treated as having withdrawn from the school.

On the surface, the two incidents had nothing to do with each other. People even suspected that the missing student was eaten by the flood dragon.

Based on that, Long Xiaobai had essentially eaten herself.