A Pawn's Passage

At this time, Zhang Yuelu also realized that the woman in the green robe was actually trying to get to the main hall of the Buddhist temple. However, Zhang Yuelu was unaware of the Xuan Jade's presence, so she could only make a rough guess. She also had no intention of letting the woman in the green robe leave, no matter what. That was because the woman in the green robe was a member of the Qingping Society.

Zhang Yuelu’s sword moves became more rapid, preventing the woman from taking a step forward.

The woman in green watched irritatedly as Qi Xuansu disappeared into the main hall. If it were not for Qi Xuansu, the woman would have successfully attacked Zhang Yuelu. Thus, the woman in the green robe hated Qi Xuansu for ruining her mission.

Once again, the woman in the green robe pricked Zhang Yuelu with her needle. This method was called the Divine Crane Needle, specially designed to destroy qi shields, indestructible golden bodies, and spirit protectors.

If the needle pierced one’s body, it would block the flow of qi and suppress the opponent’s cultivation level.

There was a saying that it was possible to hold fire without scorching one’s fingers, but one had to be extremely fast. Another saying was that a sharp nail could penetrate metal and stone as long as all forces were concentrated at that one point.

The silver needle was extremely small, but Zhang Yuelu’s Spiritual Statue was huge. The 20-meter-tall Spiritual Statue could only withstand the needle strikes for a short while before the needles pierced through it.

Zhang Yuelu had already gotten pricked before, so she was careful this time. She did not care about maintaining the 64 paper swords and immediately transformed them into a paper umbrella for protection.

The Amorphous Paper was a semi-immortal object. The Divine Crane Needles could pierce through the Spiritual Statue, but they shattered into little streams of light when they landed on the paper umbrella's surface.

Seeing that Zhang Yuelu was distracted, the woman in green seized this opportunity to slash her sword qi at Qi Xuansu. As soon as Qi Xuansu entered the hall, he felt a cold gust of wind coming from behind and quickly threw himself to the ground, narrowly escaping the sword qi.

Thus, the woman’s first attack on Qi Xuansu was ineffective. Before the woman could deliver the second strike, Zhang Yuelu attacked her again.

The woman in the green robe was annoyed that she could not get rid of Zhang Yuelu and continued fighting with the latter.

The sword qi landed on the already cracked Buddha statue, which exploded instantly.

That was when Qi Xuansu clearly saw a flash of green buried under the rubble. However, he did not rummage for the Xuan Jade immediately because he recalled that there was a Buddhaputra around. He was also unsure what the monk’s purpose was.

He thought, Is the Buddhaputra here to slay demons? Or is he also here to look for the Xuan Jade, like the woman in the green robe?

If the Buddhaputra came to this temple for the former reason, then it was fine. If it was the latter, then Qi Xuansu would have to guard against the monk.

Qi Xuansu stood up and walked toward the Buddaputra, who was sitting on the ground. He introduced himself, “I am Qi Xuansu, a deacon of the Daoist Order's Tiangang Hall. May I ask for your identity?”

This Buddhaputra looked a few years younger than Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu, like he had just turned 20. He wore a monk's robe without a Kasaya and had shaved off all his hair.

The young monk put his palms together in a Buddhist salute and said, “Brother Qi, I am Yan Xiu, a Qishi monk from the Jingchan Temple. I have been ordered by my master to experience the hardships of the world.”

Based on the character Yan in the monk’s name, Qi Xuansu could calculate which generation this young monk was from.

Monks with Wu in their names were the same generation as Li Daoxu, Xu Wugui, and other respected Daoist elders. Wu Zhen was a Buddhist character card worth eight points in the Holy Xuan Cards.

Since Buddhism was once a part of Daoism for a long time, the generations were roughly equal. The Holy Xuan was in the same generation as the monks named Yuan. The sixth-generation Grand Master and the three incumbent Deputy Grand Masters were the same generation as the Ren generation of monks.

This young monk was in the Yan generation, which was only one generation lower than the three Deputy Grand Masters and the same generation as many of the Daoist Sages. For comparison, Zhang Yuelu was grand-disciple of the Deputy Grand Masters, which was considered a senior in the Daoist Order. However, Zhang Yuelu was still one generation below this Buddhaputra.

In addition, many people had dual generations. For example, the Imperial Preceptor, who was also the Great Sage of the Taiping Sect, was five generations below the Holy Xuan in the Daoist Order of seniority. However, in terms of seniority within the Li family, the Imperial Preceptor was the grandson of the Holy Xuan.

This was a common occurrence in large families with a long history. The sons of aristocratic families often had sex before they reached their prime, so they would have children in their teens up to their fifties. Although these children would be of the same generation, there was a difference of 40 years between the younger sibling and the older sibling.

These children carried on to build their own families. Thus, in this situation, it was common for a white-haired old man to be several generations younger than an infant. As such, the seniority of generations became confusing.

Due to this, with the restructuring of the Daoist Order, seniority in generation was no longer so important. One’s rank and position were more important. To this day, besides a clear master-disciple relationship, most people in the Daoist Order judged superiority based on rank.

Jingchan Temple was known as the largest Buddhist temple in Zhongzhou, located on Zhongyue Mountain, which was not far from the Wanxiang Daoist Palace. However, Qi Xuansu had never been there and had only heard of its name.

Qi Xuansu cupped his fist and asked, “Zen Master Yan Xiu, why did you come to this temple? How did this place turn out this way?”

Yan Xiu put his palms together and said, “I traveled far and came to this Buddhist temple in the city, thinking I could rest here. But the gates of this temple were closed, so I used my divination to explore the temple and found something strange. That was why I broke through the wall. Many of the Buddha statues here have become monsters, and all the monks in the temple have been killed.

"My master often warned me that Buddhist disciples should not only be compassionate but also slay demons and suppress heretics. That’s why I used the Vajra Warrior to destroy several Buddha statues in this place. I am also unaware of how this place turned out like this.”

Qi Xuansu did not hear any flaws in the monk's explanation. “No wonder. Zen Master Yan, this place is a den for the demons of the Lingshan Witch Cult. My colleague and I have traced them here.”

Yan Xiu looked out the door and asked, “Brother Qi, among the two women fighting outside, which one is your colleague?”

Qi Xuansu answered, “The woman in the green robe is a cult demon, and the other one is Mage Zhang from the Daoist Order.”

Yan Xiu nodded. “Brother Qi, please wait a moment as I recover some of my strength. After that, I will help Mage Zhang slay the demon.”

The monk took out a pill that resembled a chestnut from his sleeve and stuffed it into his mouth. He then sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and started meditating.

Qi Xuansu sighed, thinking about how naive the young Buddhaputra was. If he had malicious intentions, he could have shot the Buddhaputra with his Divine Dragon Pistol, and the latter would have been defenseless at such a distance.

However, Qi Xuansu had a bottom line. He would not kill people for no reason. He looked back and saw the two women still fighting fiercely outside, so he walked toward the rubble of the Buddha statue.

Earlier, he saw the Xuan Jade buried underneath. To Qi Xuansu, the Xuan Jade not only meant gaining rewards from the Qingping Society but also merits. At the moment, he only had 600 merits, far from his goal of 9000 merits to leave the secret society for good.

If he could get his hands on the Xuan Jade, then he could probably accumulate 1000 merits, which was more than what he had earned over the past few years.

......

The land was arid as far as the eye could see, with no signs of vegetation. All that was left were ravines and scorched soil.

Bones, corpses, and broken magical weapons were littered everywhere, like the scene of a battlefield. There were ravines and huge pits with animal bones piled high in them.

There was a dark mountain standing majestically between the sky and the earth, covering most of the sky. The top of the mountain could not be seen. Many fragmented peaks were suspended in the air around the mountain. They were not stationary and were moving at an extremely slow speed, like specks of dust visible in sunlight.

At the far end of the horizon, there was a distorted and chaotic scene. One could vaguely see lightning connecting the sky and the earth, flickering erratically. Even if the lightning was extremely far away, one could still feel the terrifying power it brought.

This was a destroyed paradise on the verge of collapse. However, since it was a vast space, it withstood erosion over time and had not yet completely disappeared.

The sky-high mountain was the center of this destroyed paradise. There were more cracks on the surface of that dark and imposing mountain upon closer inspection. These cracks were like ravines that formed a mesh barrier around the mountain.

Halfway up the dark mountain was a big palace that did not look like any buildings in the existing world. It was rough on the edges with an ancient feel to it. At this time, the palace was dilapidated, and only the severed limbs of the various statues in the hall remained.

At this time, a man and a woman were sitting opposite each other in the main hall of the dilapidated palace.

"In other words, the Xuan Jade must be activated with divine power, right?” The man fumbled with the Xuan Jade in his hand as he asked the woman sitting opposite him.

"Yes.” The woman was shrouded in a heavy mist to conceal her true appearance. It also seemed like she would be blown away by a strong gust of wind at any time. “Blood qi, Thoughts, and innate qi are not interconnected. If you want to keep one of them, you must first destroy another. Divine power is an exception, just like gold. It’s valuable no matter where it is used.”

The man looked at the Xuan Jade in his hand and fell into deep thought.

After a moment, he said, “Although divine power is good, it must be transformed through incense power. In the past two hundred years, countless wars have been waged between the Daoist Order, Ancient Immortals, Buddhist Sect, and secret societies for the sake of incense power. Even the Western Holy Court wants incense power. These parties are not easy to contend with.”

"Everything in this world operates on interests.” The woman laughed. “Just as mortals work hard for a few Taiping coins, immortals aren’t exempt from such vulgarity and have to work hard for incense power. Some say that incense power is the currency of immortals. I think that's an appropriate saying.”

The man asked, “Then what should we do with this XuanJade?”

The woman did not care much. “You can keep it or give it to someone else. You can even return it. It’s not my business how you deal with it.”

The man fell into deep thought again.

The woman reminded him. “Adding the finishing touches to a dragon painting isn’t as simple as it seems. The key lies with the artist. Only a master can achieve good results.”

"That boy from the Li family?” The man could not help but ask.

The woman stated, “The boy from the Li family is the bloodline of the Holy Xuan, so it won’t be a problem.”

The man suddenly fell silent.

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