A Pawn's Passage

Qi Xuansu recalled how he attended the dream meeting of the Qingping Society through his dreams. Madam Qi said that it was the dream realm of a certain person, but Qi Xuansu realized how similar it was to Wu Luo’s spell. Was the dream meeting of the Qingping Society actually Wu Luo's Divine Kingdom?

For a moment, Qi Xuansu did not know whether to believe Madam Qi’s statement or his own conjecture.

Zhang Yuelu explained enthusiastically. After giving examples of Wu Luo, she also talked about several other secret societies. Qi Xuansu calmed his emotions, remained silent, and listened attentively.

There were mainly three secret societies that were clearly labeled as evil cults by the Daoist Order.

The first was the Ziguang Society. There were not many members, and they were all mainly women. These women were carefully selected and trained by the Ziguang Society since they were children. The chosen women had outstanding looks and were skilled at understanding and serving men. They were talented and beautiful. In addition, they also had identities carefully arranged by the Ziguang Society.

Some were disciples of the Daoist Order; some were innocent women from normal families; and some were women from aristocratic families.

Some girls were born weak and sickly, so members of the Ziguang Society would pretend to be Daoist nuns, visiting the girls’ homes and promising to take the sickly girl to a temple and teach her cultivation. After a certain age, the girls could return home, free of illness. Some families were reluctant to part with their daughters, but some gave them away. When those women returned home, they had become chess pieces carefully cultivated by the Ziguang Society.

The Ziguang Society’s membership was passed down from generation to generation. They were best at strategizing and betting on those not yet in power. Some Ziguang Society disciples married into noble families but were not used throughout their whole lives. In the eyes of outsiders, she was just an ordinary woman, but she was secretly a member of the Ziguang Society. As such, her daughters and granddaughters would also become members of the Ziguang Society.

This led to a situation where the Ziguang Society spent several generations cultivating a family, from grandmother to mother, and mother to daughter. If people were to investigate, they would not find anything. It was also difficult to prevent these women from marrying into other families. Coupled with the other operations of the Ziguang Society, these women were like spiders spinning a large, interconnected web.

Then there was the Cult of Fates, which believed in death. Someone who did not take their own life seriously would not care about the lives of others. Thus, they transformed corpses, played with souls, and often made trouble.

Compared to the Ziguang Society, the Cult of Fates preferred more violent methods. They spread curses in several small countries outside the region, turning living people into living corpses. These living corpses continued to infect other living people, eventually turning huge cities into zombie cities. The army of living corpses formed a tide of zombies that spread all over the world.

During this process, the living souls of those people were sacrificed to the True Lord Siming. For the Ancient Immortals, souls, flesh, blood, and incense power had the same value. The difference was like chickens and eggs. One could raise chickens to lay eggs, or they could kill chickens and eat their meat. The Cult of Fates undoubtedly preferred the latter approach.

However, such actions often led to severe suppression by the Daoist Order. The last time there was a zombie breakout, the Daoist Order sent a Great Sage, a first-rank Spiritual Guard, and 12 sages to battle. Hundreds of other third-rank and fourth-rank Daoist masters, low-ranking Daoist priests, and Spirit Guards also assisted.

All members of the Cult of Fates who participated in the zombie incident were executed and destroyed forever. No one was spared. The Cult of Fates suffered a heavy blow from that event and still had yet to recover from it.

Finally, there was the Heavenly Court, which was not the same as the Western Holy Court. The Heavenly Court was also known as the Baiyang Sect. In its early years, it was a branch of the White Lotus Sect, which believed in the future Buddha.

Somehow, they became independent and converted to worshiping the Baiyang Ancestor. They then merged with the remnants of the Qingyang Sect. In the end, they became more outrageous, claiming to have unified the five religions. Thus, many people believed in it.

If the Heavenly Court were regarded as a person, it would be the most delusional person in the world, as it combined Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Shamanism, and the Holy Court into one. The Heavenly Court claimed to have achieved what the leaders of the Confucian School and the Daoist Order in the past failed to do, integrating all five religions into one.

However, unlike the Ancient Immortals, they were quite money-minded. They did not want flesh and blood or souls. They only wanted incense power and money. They were swindlers who had scammed hundreds of thousands of people.

Under such circumstances, it was mainly up to the Imperial Court to eradicate the Heavenly Court, which was causing harm to the country and the people. In retaliation, the Heavenly Court rebelled, but most of them were ineffective and vulnerable to the Black Robes. The Green Phoenix Guard had never successfully captured the core and senior leaders of the Heavenly Court, so they could not fully exterminate it.

Regarding these mysteries, Qi Xuansu heard about some of them during his travels. However, he had never heard of the Ziguang Society or the Cult of Fates. He could not help but secretly marvel at the methods of these secret associations.

It was the existence of these secret organizations that allowed the Daoist Order and the Imperial Court to maintain a cordial relationship, as the two big powers had a common enemy.

Qi Xuansu asked, “Since this group of bandits is related to the Ancient Immortals, should we pursue it further?”

"Of course, we have to investigate.” Zhang Yuelu’s eyes lit up. “It’s best if we can investigate this for three months. That way, I won’t have to go home. Since it concerns the Ancient Immortals, my mother can’t say a word of objection.”

Qi Xuansu pursued. “So what should we do now? Go after the bandits who have escaped?”

Having worked in Beichen Hall before, Zhang Yuelu was more well-versed in matters involving the Ancient Immortals.

Her tone was solemn. “They’re all just minions who may not know the details. However, the Lingshan Witch Cult is aggressive. Since we killed their people, they won’t let us go easily. They will most likely come to us, so we just need to wait here.”

Qi Xuansu took a look at the environment outside the ancient temple. It was quite open, with a forest of dried trees not far away. He asked, “Qing Xiao, do you still have the Phoenix Eye Bomb or the Dragon Eye Bullet?”

"Both of these things are expensive, so the quotas are fixed, and we won’t have any in excess. It’ll only be distributed during a deployment.” Zhang Yuelu rejected Qi Xuansu’s idea. “This is a small scene, so there is no need to use such high-powered ammunition.”

Qi Xuansu had no choice but to ask, “Is there any substitute?”

Zhang Yuelu pondered for a while and took out a small bag from her magical receptacle. “This is the Phoenix Eye Bullet. It’s much less powerful, but I have a lot of them.”

Qi Xuansu opened the bag and glanced at it. There were about a dozen bullets about the size of hawthorns. He began to think about how he should use this.

Madam Qi told him more than once that fighting in the real world was not like a duel. There was no fairness to speak of, and it was about using every possible means to win.

Realm cultivation came from the founders of the Three Religions. Its original intention was not to compete with others but to achieve immortality or enlightenment.

Therefore, one's cultivation level did not equate to one’s combat power, even though it had some inevitable connection. Under normal circumstances, the higher the realm, the stronger the combat power, but it was not absolute. There were exceptions to this rule.

For example, those flowerbed Daoist priests who had little fighting experience would have a higher cultivation level. But when they fought with experienced fighters in a lower realm, the flowerbed Daoist priest could be defeated.

Fights in the real world, especially in battles of life and death, were dependent on one’s cultivation level, time, location, tact, mystical abilities, and external objects. These were the six essentials to winning a fight.

Qi Xuansu left the ancient temple and set up a trap outside, in the forest.

Zhang Yuelu stayed in the ancient temple, searching around to see if there was anything she had missed.

About an hour later, Qi Xuansu returned to the ancient temple and asked, “Did you get anything else, like free money or something?”

Zhang Yuelu was sitting on You Leifu’s big tiger-skin throne. She rested her chin on her hands as she studied the prayer beads carefully. “They are Ancient Immortals believers, so most of them handed over their money to the cult leaders. I didn't find anything.”

Qi Xuansu sighed. “I never have the luck to loot. When will I ever get rich?”

"It’s a pity that I don’t have money either.” Zhang Yuelu said with a smile, “If I were from the Zhang family’s main branch and had a grandfather who was the Heavenly Preceptor, I would have rewarded you with thousands of Taiping coins just so you'd stop being so money-minded.”

Qi Xuansu commented, “Isn’t that like having a boy toy?”

Zhang Yuelu was silent for a long time. After a while, she said, “Tian Yuan, please restrain yourself when you see my mother.”

Qi Xuansu coughed lightly to hide his embarrassment.

Fortunately, Zhang Yuelu had become accustomed to Qi Xuansu’s weird remarks from time to time. This time, she did not get angry and took the initiative to change the topic.

"I found similar beads on the other corpse. I suspect they managed to hurt me because the Ancient Immortal’s divine power comes from these two strings of beads, similar to the armor of the Spirit Guards.”

Qi Xuansu said in surprise, “Two Houtian Beings could hurt a Guizhen-stage Banished Immortal with just a string of prayer beads. It’s definitely more powerful than a flying sword.”

Zhang Yuelu explained, “These prayer beads are just for one-time use. Now that they have lost all their divine power, they are just ordinary prayer beads. In a sense, these things are similar to our Dragon Eye Bullet or Phoenix Eye Bomb. You could use the Phoenix Eye Bomb to kill Desmond, so it’s not surprising that they can hurt me with an external object.”

Qi Xuansu nodded, agreeing with this statement.

The key was not the external objects, but the timing of the strike. If Desmond had not been at his weakest, or if Zhang Yuelu had been more vigilant with the two women, then these external objects would not have been able to hurt them.

Zhang Yuelu was about to speak when her expression suddenly changed. She dropped the prayer beads and warned, “Someone’s coming.”

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