A Pawn's Passage

Although they had said they would not discuss the matter further, Qi Xuansu could not help but feel a stir in his heart because it involved the Ancient Wuist Sect.

The Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor was a disciple of the Primordial Daoist Ancestor, who had bestowed the Heavenly Preceptor’s Twin Swords and Seal on him. To directly grant him two immortal objects clearly meant that he was being sent into battle. So one could say that the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor had come with a mission.

Later, the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor founded the Heavenly Sect and destroyed the Ancient Wuist Sect. There were many different accounts regarding his motives. Some said it was to seize their territory, while others said the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor could not tolerate the barbaric practices of the Ancient Wuist Sect. Some even claimed that the Ancient Wuist Sect had caused widespread chaos and therefore had to be eradicated. In short, there were all kinds of explanations.

But regardless of which explanation was true, the Primordial Daoist Ancestor must have known about it and tacitly approved the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor’s actions.

Combined with the myths and legends Shi Bingyun had just mentioned, this gave rise to another possibility—the destruction of the Ancient Wuist Sect had actually been an act of purging a rival faction.

Qi Xuansu reorganized his thoughts and gradually formed a conjecture.

The Eastern Sovereign led the gods in establishing the first Celestial Court. As the chief deity, the Eastern Sovereign naturally became the ruler of the Celestial Court, which made him the first Heavenly Emperor.

In essence, this was no different from Itzamna’s divine court. At the pinnacle of the Celestial Court was the Heavenly Emperor, beneath whom were the Cloud God, Thunder God, Wind God, and Rain God.

At that time, the pantheon was still simple and primitive, nowhere near as complex as it would later become. Each god had their own distinct duties. When people prayed for a particular kind of weather, the Wind God, Thunder God, Rain God, and Cloud God would each play their respective roles, but each deity had to be worshipped separately.

Since society at the time was still based on a primitive, rudimentary agricultural system, its gods were largely associated with the weather. There was no God of Commerce or God of Wealth. Since people had yet to venture out to sea, there were also no sea gods such as the Heavenly Empress either.

The God of Wealth and the Heavenly Empress were considerably new deities who emerged later as society developed, created to satisfy the increasingly diverse needs of the common people. The divine path was constantly developing and advancing rather than remaining forever stagnant, so there was really no need to blindly revere the ancient past while disparaging the present.

However, at the time of the first Celestial Court, there was already another ancient and immensely powerful being who did not belong to the Celestial Court—the Primordial Daoist Ancestor.

At the most fundamental level, all power rested upon force. When someone possessed absolute force without possessing absolute authority, the situation was bound to spiral out of control.

Perhaps at that time, the Primordial Daoist Ancestor had not yet attained the state of non-action that he would reach in later years. Thus, rather than remaining indifferent, he took action, assuming the identity of Elder Guangcheng and enlightening the Heavenly Emperor. That was how the Human Sovereign rose to prominence.

During the Human Sovereign’s rise, he also encountered various adversaries, like the Jiuli Tribes, which were closely connected to the Ancient Wuist Sect. There were even legends claiming that the Great Chieftain of the Jiuli Tribes was a Great Witch.

When the two sides fought their great war, the Wind God and Rain God personally entered the fray to aid the Jiuli Tribes, joining hands to drive back the Yinglong winged dragon, who was loyal to the Human Sovereign.

From this, one could reasonably suspect that the first-generation Celestial Court had been the power backing the Jiuli Tribes.

The Eastern Sovereign had not simply stood by and watched the Human Sovereign rise without doing anything. He had indeed intervened.

A series of events followed, during which the Human Sovereign received the assistance of the Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens.

The Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens was the one who left behind the Longevity Maiden Sutra. She broke the spells of the Wind God and Rain God, allowing the Human Sovereign to defeat the Jiuli Tribes and pursue them all the way to the Land of Zhuolu. There, she captured the Wind God and Rain God alive, making the two deities submit to her, while the Great Chieftain of the Jiuli Tribes was executed.

The Eastern Sovereign did not personally intervene because he was wary of the Primordial Daoist Ancestor standing behind the Human Sovereign.

With that, the Human Sovereign gained control over the Central Plains.

Later, with the Primordial Daoist Ancestor’s support, the Human Sovereign established a new Celestial Court of his own, setting it up as a rival to the first-generation Celestial Court.

Judging from the final outcome, it was the Human Sovereign who emerged victorious. All of the Eastern Sovereign’s sons died in battle, while the Eastern Sovereign himself had most likely fallen as well. The Ancient Wuist Sect surrendered, the God of Thunder submitted, and the God of Cloud disappeared without a trace.

The Human Sovereign became the second Heavenly Emperor and the master of the second-generation Celestial Court, a lineage that had continued to the present day.

However, the Heavenly Emperor’s position was not yet secure at the time, while the Ancient Wuist Sect remained immensely powerful and could not be moved against lightly. Thus, the Heavenly Emperor primarily adopted a policy of appeasement toward the Ancient Wuist Sect, continuing to allow its members to serve as his priestesses. At the same time, he planted one of his own people among them—Wu Yang.

This would explain why Wu Yang had always seemed so out of place among the Ten Great Witches of Lingshan and why the legends concerning Wu Yang were relatively independent from theirs. Ultimately, Wu Yang chose to become an enemy of the Ten Great Witches of Lingshan and was favorably disposed toward the Daoist Order.

Wu Yang was a trusted confidant of the second Heavenly Emperor and a spy that he had planted in the Ancient Wuist Sect.

This inevitably reminded Qi Xuansu of a scene he had often witnessed in his dreams. The Great Witches would gather around a bonfire in discussion, only for Wu Yang to kick the fire apart, plant her hands on her hips, and burst into laughter.

Moreover, all of the Ten Great Witches of Lingshan were giants, while Wu Yang alone was of ordinary human height.

Qi Xuansu had never thought of this before. But as his understanding of the Ancient Wuist Sect continued to deepen, he suddenly realized that aside from having “Wu” in her name, there was really nothing else about Wu Yang that resembled a member of the Ancient Wuist Sect.

That would also explain why the Daoist Order later disparaged the Ten Great Witches of Lingshan while elevating Wu Yang. It was not merely because Wu Yang had once helped the Holy Xuan, but more importantly because Wu Yang was one of their own from the very beginning.

Once the Heavenly Emperor had firmly established his position and the overall situation was securely in his favor, he began setting about dismantling the Ancient Wuist Sect.

The first move was to sacrifice Yayu.

Yayu was killed by his own subordinates, and his corpse was brought to Lingshan so that the Ten Great Witches of Lingshan could save him. The Ten Great Witches revived Yayu with the Undying Elixir, but after Yayu was brought back to life, his temperament changed drastically, and he began devouring people wherever he went. In the end, the Heavenly Emperor sent someone to shoot him dead.

After this incident, Wu Peng, the second-in-command of the Ancient Wuist Sect, got into a disagreement with Wu Xian, the leader of the Ancient Wuist Sect. Wu Peng believed that their Undying Elixir was incomplete and that they needed to change their approach, while Wu Xian rejected Wu Peng’s proposal. Both sides had their own supporters, though their disagreement had not yet reached the point of an outright fallout.

It was at this time that the Heavenly Emperor made his second move, where Wu Yang entered the stage.

After Wu Yang entered the picture, the Six Enlightened Witches broke off from the Ten Great Witches of Lingshan. Led by Wu Peng and Wu Yang, the Six Enlightened Witches rebelled against Lingshan and headed for Kunlun, where they were ultimately trapped by God Luwu, a loyal subordinate of the Heavenly Emperor.

The five remaining Great Witches were no longer much of a threat, yet they proceeded to cripple themselves further over the Undying Elixir. First, Wu Xian fell into madness after testing the medicine on herself. Then Wu Luo secretly joined forces with three other Great Witches to betray Wu Xian, burying her in the Nether Valley. In the end, Wu Luo replaced Wu Xian as the leader of the Ancient Wuist Sect.

By this point, the Ancient Wuist Sect had been torn to pieces and was no longer a significant force.

At this point, the Primordial Daoist Ancestor and the Heavenly Emperor made their third and final move. They bestowed the Twin Swords and the Seal on the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor and ordered him to establish the Heavenly Sect.

Later on, the Heavenly Preceptor gradually evolved into a priest serving the Heavenly Emperor. In this way, the Heavenly Preceptor completely replaced the Great Witches in both function and status. Even later, the Holy Xuan assigned the Zhengyi Sect to oversee matters concerning ghosts and gods, an arrangement that has continued to this day.

After the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor was ordered to establish the Heavenly Sect, he steadily accumulated strength. Meanwhile, Wu Luo failed to recognize this new trend and acted with reckless abandon, ultimately provoking the wrath of the Heavenly Emperor and the resentment of the people, losing all popular support.

The Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor then raised an army in revolt, acting on behalf of the heavens to uphold the Dao, relieving the suffering of the people by punishing the perpetrator. His cause was righteous and fully justified. He stormed the Lingshan Paradise, slew the last four Great Witches, eradicated the Ancient Wuist Sect—which was considered the remnants of the first-generation Celestial Court—and formally laid the foundations of the Daoist Order.

This was how the Daoist Order took the place of the Ancient Wuist Sect, just as the second-generation Celestial Court had replaced the first-generation Celestial Court.

Elsewhere, the Six Enlightened Witches who had been trapped within the Kunlun Paradise by God Luwu likewise failed to escape their fate. They did not die at the hands of the Ancestral Heavenly Preceptor, but rather at the hands of the Holy Xuan, Elder Li, Elder Zhang, Elder Xu, Tantai Yun, Emperor Gaozu of the Great Xuan Dynasty, and others. These were also the figures who rendered great service in the Holy Xuan’s restoration of the Daoist Order, laying the foundations for the later Taiping Sect, Zhengyi Sect, Quanzhen Sect, Western Daoist Order, and the Great Xuan Imperial Court.

In the end, among the Six Enlightened Witches, all five Great Witches other than Wu Yang fell. Not one of the Ten Great Witches of Lingshan from the Ancient Wuist Sect escaped that fate.

After nearly a thousand years, the Ancient Wuist Sect, which had been a colossal power that had once dominated the Central Plains, became nothing more than a legend buried in dusty old records. Meanwhile, the Daoist Order rose in its place and stood tall across the realm.

The Primordial Daoist Ancestor and the Heavenly Emperor also became the exalted deities for the people of the Central Plains.

Qi Xuansu could not help but wonder, was there truly a heaven’s will guiding these things?

Anyone else would not have been able to make such a conjecture, but Qi Xuansu was different.

Since he possessed the Longevity Stone Heart, he knew far too much about the Ancient Wuist Sect. He had even visited the Lingshan Paradise and, through a vision of the past, personally witnessed the fall of the Great Witches.

As his position within the Daoist Order continued to rise, he had also learned more and more of the Daoist Order’s secrets.

Given all this, it was impossible for him not to draw connections between them.

His conjecture was not necessarily correct, but at the very least, it was logically consistent.

The reason Qi Xuansu was paying such close attention to these ancient legends was due to the Yao family.

Qi Xuansu was very reluctant to admit it, but he was indeed heading down a path that would make him an enemy of the Yao family. The Yao family possessed the bloodline of the Great Witches, and every generation of Earthly Preceptors had shared an inexplicable connection with Wu Xian.

Only by knowing oneself and one’s enemy could one emerge victorious in every battle. So how could Qi Xuansu neglect these legends?

As descendants of the Ancient Wuist Sect who now occupied the upper echelons of the Daoist Order, did the Yao family harbor any other objectives? Like revenge, for example?

That was difficult to say.

Just then, Shi Bingyun’s words pulled Qi Xuansu back from his thoughts.

“According to legend, the Cloud Lord, or the God of Cloud under the Eastern Sovereign, held an exalted position. But there are also legends that say the Cloud Lord was not merely the God of Cloud but also the Water God of Yunmeng Marsh, and that he and the Xiang Lord were two aspects of the same being.

“You should know what it means to be two aspects of the same being, right? The Moon Goddess you encountered in the New Continent was just like that. Her two aspects were called Ixchel and Chak Chel.”