A Pawn's Passage

"Are you alright?” Qi Xuansu asked while loading the Divine Dragon Pistol.

Zhang Yuelu took a deep breath. “I’m fine.”

Qi Xuansu gently stroked the barrel of the Divine Dragon Pistol and praised. “This is a great weapon. When I get rich, I will definitely buy one for self-defense.”

"Have you already noticed something wrong with these women a long time ago?” Zhang Yuelu gradually realized that Qi Xuansu was only able to shoot the second woman at a critical moment because he was prepared to attack.

Qi Xuansu put the Divine Dragon Pistol back into the holster at his waist. He did not answer her question directly. “I didn’t know what was wrong with them. I only know that we must always be wary of others.”

Zhang Yuelu blamed him. “Then why didn’t you remind me?”

In fact, Zhang Yuelu was usually not one to blame others for her mistake. If it were anyone else, she would have reflected on herself, but Qi Xuansu was an exception.

"You will only learn from your mistakes. It’s hard to remember what others say, but getting hurt will only make you remember the lesson deeply.” Qi Xuansu then reached out to untie his right lapel.

Zhang Yuelu was startled. She subconsciously took a few steps back and crossed her arms in front of her chest. She said suspiciously, “What are you doing?”

Qi Xuansu opened his collar and middle garment to reveal a hideous wound. “When I first started traveling on my own, I didn’t understand what it meant to always keep my guard up, and I almost died from it. That’s why I remember my lesson well.”

Zhang Yuelu looked at Qi Xuansu’s wound, which was almost touching his throat, heart, and lungs. He could have died.

Qi Xuansu straightened his clothes again. “Also, there are four taboos when you’re traveling: Daoists, the elderly, women, and children. Take you as an example. You’re a Daoist priest and a woman, so to others, you spell trouble. Disregarding Daoists, normal people would consider women, children, and the elderly weak. Out in the real world, anything unconventional was considered odd. If these 'weak' people could travel on their own, they must have some skills.”

Zhang Yuelu gently pressed on her ribs and nodded. “I get it now.”

"Are you really alright?” Qi Xuansu looked at Zhang Yuelu’s ribs.

Zhang Yuelu frowned and said, “It’s strange. These two women were merely Houtian Beings with bodies weaker than Diviners, but they still managed to hurt me. There is also a strange qi that won’t dissipate in my body.”

Qi Xuansu asked, “Are you saying there’s something fishy about these two women?”

Zhang Yuelu nodded. “I suspect that they are related to the Ancient Immortals. Believers of the Ancient Immortals didn’t have particularly strong bodies, but they used their bodies as vessels to pray for the divine power of the Ancient Immortals. If these two women are Ancient Immortal believers, then everything will make sense.”

Qi Xuansu went to the woman that he shot dead. Since the woman was not dressed in layers, there was no need to search her body. He looked at the woman’s wrists, neck, and other parts of the body. Sure enough, he found a string of beads on her wrists.

These beads were Daoist prayer beads.

The most common number of beads for Buddhist prayer beads was 108 to signify 108 kinds of troubles. The most common number of beads for Daoist prayer beads was 81, signifying 81 transformations of the Primordial Daoist Ancestor. Of course, the numbers 12, 24, 28, and 36 were also common in Daoist prayer beads.

Qi Xuansu took off the prayer beads from the corpse’s wrist and looked at them carefully. There were 12 beads in total, in typical Daoist fashion. Each bead was engraved with a different form of the same woman. Some forms were like humans, while others were like dragons or snakes. Some forms even had three heads and six arms, or two heads and four arms. Some had a third eye between the brows or wings on the sides.

He had never seen this woman before, so he handed the prayer beads to Zhang Yuelu.

She took the prayer beads and studied them for a while. “This is probably from Wu Luo.”

"Wu Luo?” Qi Xuansu asked doubtfully.

Zhang Yuelu and Qi Xuansu had their strengths in different aspects. She was not as experienced as him in terms of travel, but when it came to matters involving the Ancient Immortals, she was far more knowledgeable than him.

She explained, “Wu Luo is one of the Ancient Immortals and the founder of the Lingshan witchcraft. Before the rise of the Daoist Order, ancient witchcraft was at its peak. The ancestors of the ancient witchcraft were called the Ten Witches of Lingshan, and Wu Luo was one of them.

"Later, the Ten Witches of Lingshan disbanded. Five of them left Lingshan with Wu Yang and named themselves the Six Enlightened Witches. The remaining witches fought among themselves. Wu Luo and her sisters murdered the then-leader, Wu Xian. There were only four witches left in the ancient witch clan, with Wu Luo being the most powerful. Thus, Wuluo replaced Wu Xian and became the new leader of Wuism.

"When the former Heavenly Preceptor from the Zhang family came to power, he led an army to attack Lingshan and killed Wu Luo and Wu Gu. Wuism was destroyed, and the remaining two Great Witches fled to the grasslands and the Samudra Kingdom. Each left a legacy, which became the origin of the Shamanistic Sect.”

"However, just 200 years ago, Wu Luo was resurrected and manifested in the mortal realm, claiming to be the founder of Wuism. She is classified as an Ancient Immortal by the Daoist Order.”

Qi Xuansu gaped. “These two women are followers of Wu Luo? This place is only a few hundred kilometers away from the Kunlun Pass, yet they're so rampant!”

Zhang Yuelu said, “This is nothing. When the Ancient Immortals were at their most rampant, they had even infiltrated Xuan City.”

Qi Xuansu was speechless for a while. Then he said, “No one could tolerate another party encroaching on one’s boundaries. No wonder the Daoist Order wants to crack down on secret societies.”

Zhang Yuelu started to pace back and forth habitually. Due to her injury, she subconsciously put her hands on her waist, so she looked like a walking pregnant woman.

Seeing this, Qi Xuansu wanted to hold back his laughter, but he failed to do so. His shoulders shook slightly.

Zhang Yuelu stopped pacing, looked at Qi Xuansu, and asked softly, “Tian Yuan, why are you laughing?”

Qi Xuansu coughed lightly. “I suddenly thought of something funny.”

"If there’s something funny, you might as well share it with me and make me laugh too.” Zhang Yuelu’s tone was so gentle.

Qi Xuansu suddenly felt that something was wrong. Before he could think of something to change the subject, he felt a pain in the side of his ribs where Zhang Yuelu pinched him. ƒ

"Ouch!” Qi Xuansu gasped and put his hand on his waist like Zhang Yuelu did.

Zhang Yuelu laughed. “It is indeed quite funny. It’ll be even funnier if you take two more steps.”

Qi Xuansu snorted. Considering his own level of cultivation, he did not dare rebut.

Zhang Yuelu thought that Qi Xuansu was becoming more impudent, but that was only because she had indulged him. That was why they seemed more like friends rather than a superior and a subordinate.

After a while, Zhang Yuelu used her qi to dissolve the strange qi in her ribs. Finally, she could stop supporting her waist.

Qi Xuansu rubbed his ribs and asked, “Why do the Ancient Immortals want so much power? Is it just because of the incense power? You also said that some Ancient Immortals joined the Daoist Order as first-rank Daoist masters.”

Zhang Yuelu pondered for a moment. “For those high-ranking Ancient Immortals, worldly gold and silver no longer mean much. Their currency was incense power, which was even more important than money. It was their sustenance.”

Zhang Yuelu paused and added, “I’m just retelling you what I know.”

Qi Xuansu said thoughtfully, “You once told me that the world is a huge cage for the Ancient Immortals. The Grand Masters and Great Sages of the past generations have ascended and passed away, but the Ancient Immortals continued to stay in the mortal realm. You also mentioned what would happen if we all lost our magical powers. Is there any relationship between the two?”

Zhang Yuelu did not hide her admiration for Qi Xuansu. “Yes. I can only tell you that the incense power is the key for the Ancient Immortal to break free from the shackles of the mortal realm. The Daoist Order did not force Ancient Immortals to stay in the mortal realm but did not allow them to harvest incense power. The Ancient Immortals weren’t allowed to establish cults for their own selfish purposes.

"In other words, the Daoist Order only cared about the order of the world and did not care about the lives and deaths of the Ancient Immortals. From the perspective of an ordinary human, the Daoist Order was naturally right.”

Qi Xuansu wondered. “What’s the difference between an orthodox and evil religion?”

Zhang Yuelu replied, “Actually, it’s just like doing business. Orthodox religion is akin to a serious business where it takes time to slowly accumulate wealth, reasonably and legally. However, cultists are like profiteers who only care about making money quickly and benefiting themselves at the expense of others.

"Generally speaking, orthodox gods would persuade their believers to do good. After gaining incense power, they would protect the people. However, an evil god makes up doctrines and harvests incense power at will while failing to perform their duties of benefiting the people.”

Qi Xuansu inquired, “What good does it do to the Ancient Immortals by persuading people to do evil? Is it just for evil’s sake?”

Zhang Yuelu knew very well about the annihilation of witchcraft because of the Zhang family's history lessons. “Back then, Wu Luo once created a Divine Kingdom in the mortal realm. Anyone who believed in Wu Luo could enter her Divine Kingdom in their dreams. As long as one could pass the various tests set by Wu Luo, one could obtain the Zhuyou Spell. The Daoist Order calls this Ecstasy and the Holy Court calls it Hypnosis, which could make someone follow orders unknowingly.

"This spell did not work on Xiantian Beings, so they were used on Houtian Beings. The spellcasters' desires were endless. Some took the opportunity to steal money, while others took the opportunity to rape people’s wives and daughters. This spell also made more people believe in Wu Luo.

"At its peak, Wu Luo had nearly a million followers. She dominated the region as the most powerful among the Great Witches. Don’t you think this counts as persuading people to do evil? Is there any benefit in it?”

Qi Xuansu remained a calm facade, but deep down in his heart, he was shocked. Entering a Divine Kingdom through dreams?

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