A Pawn's Passage

Qi Xuansu staggered out of Taiqing Square, still drunk. He relied on his memory and made his way back to Haichan Place. Finally, he arrived as dawn approached.

Fortunately, Jade Capital did not implement curfews or close the gates of the neighborhoods. Qi Xuansu entered Haichan Place, fortunate enough not to encounter any patrolling Spirit Guards. Otherwise, he would undoubtedly have been questioned.

As the night faded away, the sky turned a deep blue, and a hint of light appeared on the horizon. That was when Qi Xuansu saw the stela.

The moment Qi Xuansu saw the stela, many memories from the past flooded into his mind. Drunk, he got caught up in those memories and lost track of the present.

He recalled the days many years ago when he was just an ordinary Daoist priest who knew nothing of the world. Running for his life, seeking revenge, and joining the Qingping Society was nothing more than a distant dream.

Qi Xuansu stood still and calmed his mind.

The surreal sensation receded like a tide, and the past and present memories were finally untangled.

He walked toward the stela that was erected when Haichan Place was first built. It was considered an antique, recounting the origins and history of the neighborhood. Next to the stela was the entrance to a quiet and narrow alley. Since land in Haichan Place was not as expensive as in Nanhua Place, the alleys here all led to individual houses.

This alley was a dead end that did not lead to any other street. Qi Xuansu walked to the end of the alley, where there was a dilapidated courtyard. The doors were tightly closed. Most of the door guardian sticker had fallen off and was flapping in the wind.

Qi Xuansu looked at the sticker on the door, recalling the time when he watched his master put it on. At the time, he even asked his master, “Master, you’re a distinguished mage who can destroy evil spirits. Why do you still need to use a door guardian sticker? What kind of demons and monsters would dare to wreak havoc in Jade Capital anyway?”

At the time, his master just smiled and replied, “It’s just tradition.”

Qi Xuansu walked up and smoothed out the door guardian sticker that was about to fall off. However, when he retracted his hand, the sticker started swaying in the wind again, as if the past could not be fixed or reversed.

He did not try again and merely took out the key that he had carried with him for many years from his satchel. Then he unlocked the door and entered the courtyard.

There was a Chinese parasol tree in the courtyard, which his master used to relax under.

At that moment, the courtyard was covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves, some of which had even turned into mud. As Qi Xuansu walked over the dry leaves, they crunched under his weight.

He passed by the Chinese parasol tree and paused for a moment before heading straight to his room.

To Qi Xuansu’s surprise, his room was exactly the same, aside from being covered in dust. It was as if no one had been there all this time. After some thought, he realized that this was to be expected. After all, his master did not die at home and had been killed in an ambush.

Jade Capital was under the jurisdiction of Beichen Hall, so no one would be so reckless as to commit murder in the city.

If one wanted to kill, they could only do so outside the city.

Back then, Qi Xuansu and his master had been ambushed on their way back to Jade Capital. His master was surrounded as the main target.

At the time, Qi Xuansu was not even a Xiantian Being yet, so no one paid him any attention.

Qi Xuansu slowly closed his eyes, recalling everything that had happened that day. It was something he would never forget.

His master, covered in blood from his injuries, managed to break free from the encirclement and grabbed Qi Xuansu by the collar, throwing him out and shouting at him to run.

At that time, Qi Xuansu was just a fledgling who had never even seen blood. He had not yet become a Qingping Society member who could slay more than ten Green Phoenix Guards without batting an eye. He was terrified, so he ran away without giving it a second thought.

Qi Xuansu ran with all his might, only able to hear his own heavy breathing and heartbeat.

The assassins lying in ambush did not pay much attention to the young Qi Xuansu and only sent one person to chase after him.

That person was a Xiantian Being, so capturing a Houtian Being at the Baodan cultivation stage like the young Qi Xuansu was a piece of cake.

However, instead of delivering a fatal blow, the assassin toyed with Qi Xuansu like a cat playing with a mouse. The assassin chased the young and lost Qi Xuansu persistently until Qi Xuansu was exhausted and could no longer run.

That was when the assassin intended to finish Qi Xuansu off once and for all.

Qi Xuansu fell to the ground, wanting to fight back but unable to summon a sliver of strength to draw his sword. His vision darkened, and he could only watch helplessly as the assassin plunged a dagger into his chest.

Just before he passed out, the assassin, who was about to pull out his blade, suddenly froze.

The assassin slowly lowered his head to see a palm piercing through his chest from behind.

It was a woman’s palm, fair and delicate yet incredibly sharp.

A graceful and charming, round-faced woman then emerged from behind the assassin.

This was how Madam Qi first appeared in Qi Xuansu’s life, leaving a lasting impression on him.

The rest, as they say, was history. Madam Qi took away the unconscious Qi Xuansu, who was on the brink of death due to his severe injuries. Thus, the Qingping Society transformed his body. They not only saved his life but also made his physique exceptionally tough. This explained why he was not killed by Zhuge Yongming’s punches.

When Qi Xuansu woke up, he begged Madam Qi to save his master, but she only returned with his master’s body.

That was when Qi Xuansu vowed to seek revenge on the ambushers.

Madam Qi often said, “The Qingping Society has great powers and is capable of anything.”

From Qi Xuansu’s perspective, this was indeed true of the Qingping Society.

The Qingping Society could fulfill the wish of a fated person, but in exchange, they had to give up their body and soul.

Qi Xuansu, whose body was transformed by the Qingping Society while he was unconscious, was one such fated person.

At that time, Qi Xuansu, consumed with thoughts of revenge, sold himself to the Qingping Society without hesitation.

The Qingping Society quickly uncovered the background of Qi Xuansu’s enemy—Shen Yuzu, from the Shen Clan of the Taiping Sect. Shen Yuzu’s status within the family was mediocre, so he could not participate in the core matters of the clan and could only run his own business using his family’s name.

Three years ago, Shen Yuzu clashed with Qi Xuansu’s master over some official matters and held a grudge. Then, he took the opportunity to hire assassins to kill Qi Xuansu’s master as soon as the latter left Jade Capital. The hired assassins came from another secretive organization called The Inn.

The Qingping Society then allowed Qi Xuansu the opportunity to personally kill his enemy and assigned Madam Qi to deal with the aftermath.

Qi Xuansu remembered that night vividly. Shen Yuzu was drunk in a mansion in Jinling Prefecture. The alcohol he drank contained a special drug from the Qingping Society that scattered his qi, so he could not utilize anything more than thirty percent of his cultivation. Shen Yuzu had spent the night with a courtesan.

He only got drugged because he was careless, thinking that no one knew his whereabouts. He was also surrounded by his personal guards. However, Shen Yuzu did not know that his guards were already unconscious, and the Qingping Society had him followed for about a month prior.

That night, Qi Xuansu crept into Shen Yuzu’s bedroom with a sword. Although Shen Yuzu woke up at the last moment and kicked Qi Xuansu in the chest, Qi Xuansu’s newly transformed body resisted the blow. Qi Xuansu then stabbed Shen Yuzu in the chest, piercing through his heart and lungs.

That was the first time Qi Xuansu killed someone—by stabbing his enemy.

Qi Xuansu did not expect his revenge to be so swift and decisive. He did not wait for ten months to avenge his master, let alone ten years.

Then, amidst the courtesan’s screams, Qi Xuansu quickly fled the mansion.

To this day, Shen Yuzu’s family and friends remain clueless about the assassin. They thought a thug killed him for money because all of his possessions were looted, including cash notes and several spiritual objects, totaling about 3,000 Taiping coins.

Qi Xuansu speculated that Madam Qi had seized this opportunity to amass her wealth. However, Madam Qi vehemently denied it and accused Qi Xuansu of slandering her. She also refused to give him anything from the loot.

Shen Yuzu’s relatives and friends reported the murder to Beichen Hall. After investigation, Beichen Hall locked onto the Qingping Society, the secretive organization already marked by the Daoist Order. The Qingping Society, having done many incriminating things in the past, readily accepted the blame, so no one questioned it.

No one could have imagined that the young and naive Qi Xuansu was the murderer. After all, Shen Yuzu had no shortage of enemies and had at least seven adversaries. That was how the Qingping Society fulfilled Qi Xuansu’s wish to avenge his master, and Qi Xuansu began his days of serving the Qingping Society, even to this day.

This was a trade-off, and Qi Xuansu was a debtor. To leave the Qingping Society, he needed to clear his debt by accumulating 9,000 merits. At the moment, he only had 600 merits, which was not even one-tenth of the required amount.

Qi Xuansu snapped out of his reverie and went to fetch water from the courtyard.

Since the Jade Capital was situated atop Kunlun Mountain, it was impossible to dig wells. The water in the city came from melted snow from the high mountains, which was then channeled into the Jade Capital through pipes. No one knew whether this snow-water entered the Jade Capital through mechanical devices or through formations.

Though they were hardly classified, Qi Xuansu had heard some rumors that the future development of the Daoist Order would be divided into two factions. One faction advocated for the prominence of mechanical devices, while the other favored talisman formations. The members of these two factions always argued incessantly about which method to prioritize.

For example, the Celestial Wheel that Qi Xuansu saw on Taiping Mountain was the work of the mechanical faction, while the flying ship that soared through clouds and mist was the work of the formation faction.

This led to the development of the world becoming extremely peculiar and fragmented. It was like a painting, where the left side of the canvas was a Western oil painting while the right side was an Eastern ink wash painting. Though both were considered paintings, their styles were completely different.

This concept extended to the Daoist community.

Some people had already started using firearms to kill, while others still stuck to using bows and crossbows. Foot soldiers started equipping themselves with breechloaders and grenades on a large scale, yet the cavalry remained a formidable force on the battlefield with swords and bladed weapons.

This was because their armor, enforced with talismans, could remain unscathed as long as it was not directly hit by artillery fire.

The Daoist Order crafted flying ships from the bones of dragons, enabling them to traverse the heavens and the earth, while the imperial navy crafted warships from metal, using them to dominate the seas.

Moreover, there was also collaboration between the two sides, such as the Divine Dragon Pistol. It was considered a masterpiece of the mechanical faction because it had fixed ammunition inscribed with talismans to destroy protective qi shields.

The list went on.

It was hard to say which faction would ultimately gain the upper hand and emerge victorious in this battle, or if both sides would continue to coexist until they eventually merged into one.

However, Qi Xuansu did not care about all of this. He was a mere seventh-rank Daoist priest who could not participate in the decision-making of the Daoist Order.

After fetching water, Qi Xuansu first cleaned his room and then brewed a pot of water. He ate all the pastries from the wedding banquet with only plain water to drink.

Only then did he lie down on his bed and succumb to the final lingering effects of the alcohol, drifting into a deep sleep.