A Pawn's Passage

The conditions of the other corpses were similar. Most of them died abruptly of blood loss while in a blissful state.

Lingquanzi said, “Zombies suck blood but cannot use illusions, but ghosts can use illusions. For example, when you see a beautiful woman in an abandoned house or an ancient temple at night, that is a common illusion used by ghosts. But ghosts do not have a physical body, so they can’t suck blood and can only absorb people’s yang energy.

"Only demons are capable of sucking blood and performing illusions. Fox demons and cat demons are masters of this.”

Zhang Yuelu said, “Fox demons and cat demons? I don’t think the problem is that simple, right?”

Lingquanzi nodded and said, “It’s really not that simple.”

Zhang Yuelu asked, “Deacon Qi, what do you think?”

Qi Xuansu said, “I’m a little curious. Why would these demons kill everyone in this Daoist temple? This doesn’t seem like a simple show of authority but more like a provocation. What is their motive?”

"Motive.” Zhang Yuelu dispersed the qi shield around her hands. “I am also wondering about this. There’s no money here, so we know it’s not for wealth. This group of people aren’t natives of the Western Region and are new here. The Western Region Daoist Mansion doesn’t even have time to take care of them, so it’s not a hate crime. After ruling out these two possibilities, it seems that provocation is more likely.”

"Provoking the Daoist Order is asking for death.” Lingquanzi was in disbelief. “Tiangang Hall has a Hall Master and nine Deputy Hall Masters. There are 35 other Omniscient Sages and the three Deputy Grand Masters supporting our Hall Master. Over the past hundreds of years, many Immortals have died in our hands.”

Qi Xuansu asked, “They may have been instigated. After all, they may be new in the region, so they aren’t aware of how powerful the Daoist Order is. That makes more sense.”

Lingquanzi said coldly, “It doesn’t matter whether they were instigated or deceived. Since they have made such a big mistake, they must die."

Zhang Yuelu suddenly thought of something. “This is different. If there is really a mastermind behind this, then the group of demons who committed the crime are merely used as weapons. We need to find out who is behind the scenes and who wants to be an enemy of the Daoist Order.”

Zhou Bai chimed in. “Speaking of motives, if we assume that this group of demons was instigated by others, what would be the mastermind’s motives?”

This reminded Zhang Yuelu of something. She quickly turned around and inspected the body carefully again.

Qi Xuansu thoughtfully followed Zhang Yuelu.

Zhang Yuelu asked, “Deacon Qi, do you see anything?”

Qi Xuansu replied, “I haven’t seen anything yet, but I have a guess. Is there something missing from the corpses?”

Zhang Yuelu immediately ordered her subordinates. “Check the corpses again. Focus on the internal organs. Cults like to use those for their sacrifices.”

Xu Zhen and several subordinates who were proficient in autopsy came forward and carefully examined the corpses again.

After a while, Xu Zhen shook his head and said, “All organs are well preserved.”

Zhang Yuelu fell into deep thought. Then, she looked at Lingquanzi and said, “Superintendent Lingquan, please check their Niwan Palace.”

Lingquanzi understood his task. He immediately went into his mind and entered the corpses’ Niwan Palace.

Daoists believed that the human head had nine palaces, corresponding to the Nine Heavens. The Niwan Palace was located in the center of the head, which was the upper Dantian.

The Diviner’s Guizhen stage was also called the Thunder Realm. A Diviner who was soul-traveling was most afraid of two things: daylight and thunder, with spring thunder being the worst. That was because the sound of spring thunder could scatter one’s soul. Without the protection of the body, the soul could be torn apart.

A Martial Arts Practitioner in the Guizhen stage was in the Heavenly Connection Realm, where they could sense and imitate celestial phenomena. This realm had a technique called Tongue-Induced Spring Thunder, which was similar to the Buddhist technique, Lion’s Roar.

The Tongue-Induced Spring Thunder Technique imitated the roar of spring thunder, which could cause one’s blood to boil. Thus, it was most effective in restraining evil spirits and ghosts. Diviners below the Guizhen stage could not fight back against this technique.

However, such methods had little effect on Qi Refiners and were even more useless on Banished Immortals. Among the several major lineages, Banished Immortals had almost no weaknesses, followed by Qi Refiners. The other major lineages had clear advantages and disadvantages.

However, upon reaching the Thunder Realm in the Guizhen stage, a Diviner no longer had to be afraid of daylight and thunder. He could soul-travel during the day. As long as he was not directly struck by lightning, the thunder would not hurt him at all. Although he was restrained by nature, at least he still had a fighting chance.

There were more than 1,200 acupuncture points in the human body, among which 365 were major acupoints, corresponding to the number of celestial bodies, like the numerous lakes. The three major Dantians were the three vast oceans, with twelve main meridians and eight extraordinary vessels. The meridians and other vessels connected to form a large network in which qi flows endlessly, just like a river.

A Martial Arts Practitioner in the Guizhen stage could condense 183 acupoints, and a Diviner in the same stage had 183 Thoughts.

Before the Diviner reached the Yangshen Realm, a lost Thought could not be recovered. If it was lost, it would be lost forever. For a Diviner, Thoughts were like a Martial Arts Practitioner’s acupoints. A Martial Arts Practitioner in the Divinity Realm could condense his body and spirit in the acupoints. Similarly, a Diviner in the Object Creation Realm could turn a Thought into something physical. Destroying a Thought was akin to destroying an acupoint. Although it was not fatal, it would still damage the Diviner’s cultivation level.

Lingquanzi was a Diviner in the Thunder Realm of the Guizhen stage, so he could soul-travel during the day. His soul could gather and dissipate outside of his physical body, turning into Thoughts. Thus, he sent out thirteen Thoughts to enter the thirteen corpses.

An experienced examiner could tell by looking at the corpse whether someone fell to death or if they had their body thrown out only after they died.

Diviners were proficient in the art of the soul. They could also judge from various traces in the Niwan Palace whether the soul of the deceased dissipated on its own after death or whether it was forcibly taken away.

After a moment, Lingquanzi retracted his Thoughts. He had a serious expression on his face as he reported his findings. “The Deputy Hall Master is right. There are obvious signs of damage to these people’s Niwan Palace. Their souls were forcibly taken away.”

Zhang Yuelu said in a deep voice, “This isn’t just a massacre. It’s soul-harvesting.”

Soul-harvesting was a technique that involved a complete set of magic rituals upon killing. After the killing, the deceased’s soul was collected in a special container.

This was different from the Daoist method of cultivating ghosts. A Daoist Canon stated that after death, the soul returned to Heaven, the spirit returned to earth, and the Three Corpses turned into a ghost.

Humans had three major Dantians: upper, middle, and lower Dantians. Each Dantian had a “god” residing in it, collectively known as the Three Corpses.

The human body was like a cage. The human blood restrained the Three Corpses in the body, so they were unable to escape. Therefore, the Three Corpses could only leave after the person died.

Without the restraints of the human body, the Three Corpses turn into a ghost, who could accept incense offerings and still hold partial memory. Due to its incomplete memory, unlike the soul, the ghost carried many negative human desires. Thus, a ghost was akin to a madman. This was why powerful ghosts often harmed others.

Since the Three Corpses could only roam around freely as a ghost after a person died, the ghost often looked forward to the person’s premature death, secretly attacking the human and destroying the human’s spiritual vitality. Generally speaking, the higher one’s cultivation level was, the more powerful the Three Corpses would be. Therefore, only an Immortal could live forever.

Even a Heavenly Being would eventually succumb to death. That was why, to become an Immortal, one had to kill the Three Corpses and pull out the Nine Worms.

This was also the reason ghosts could be controlled. The practice of cultivating ghosts was also not regarded as cultish or disrespectful to the dead. However, it was a demonic cult-like practice to take the soul by force and stop it from returning to Heaven and Earth.

This knowledge was not hidden by the Daoist Order and was taught in the courses of the Wanxiang Daoist Palace. Therefore, there was no need to explain much, as everyone already understood the gravity of the situation.

The main motive of this attack on Bishan Temple was to seize the victims’ living souls.

Tiangang Hall and Beichen Hall had solved many similar cases before. Once a living soul was involved, it was most likely related to cult sacrifices. Those cults had to be eradicated without any mercy. Most of the cultists were fanatical, so they could easily cause a large number of casualties.

Zhang Yuelu frowned and asked the two guards from the Western Region Daoist Mansion, “What are the lineages of these dead priests?”

One of them replied, “There are six Diviners, four Martial Arts Practitioners, two Qi Refiners, and two Rogue Cultivators.”

"Six Diviners.” Lingquanzi suddenly thought of something and said, “No wonder they attacked Bishan Temple. Ancient Immortals usually prefer the souls of Diviners because they are more nourishing than the rest.”

Qi Xuansu interjected. “In that case, there should be fourteen people stationed at Bishan Temple, but there are only thirteen corpses here. One person is missing.”

Zhang Yuelu immediately looked at the two guards from the Western Region Daoist Mansion.

The two guards spoke with mournful expressions. “We don’t know either. We were told to guard the corpses and wait for the people from Tiangang Hall to arrive. When we got here, there were only thirteen corpses.”

Lingquanzi, who had been a superintendent for a long time, immediately understood what was fishy about this. He said in a dissatisfied tone, “The Western Region Daoist Mansion is too careless. One person is missing, and his life or death is unknown. They didn’t investigate, carry out a search, or even write it down in the file.

"All they did was wait for our arrival. If they had sent people out to look for the missing person at the time of the incident, they could have probably found out what happened in Bishan Temple.”

Zhang Yuelu took a deep breath. “It’s too late to talk about this now. Our top priority is to find the missing person. Maybe he holds the clue to all this.”

Lingquanzi said, “What are your orders, Deputy Hall Master?”

Zhang Yuelu instructed, “Prepare the mother-child talisman. Deacon Qi and I will pair up, while Superintendent Lingquan and Deacon Xu will team up to conduct the search. No matter the result, we will only check within a 50-kilometer radius of Bishan Temple. Everyone else can stay here and follow the orders of Deacon Zhou and Deacon Mu.”

Everyone responded in unison, “Yes, Deputy Hall Master.”