A Pawn’s Passage

Qi Xuansu and Little Yin set off on their return journey from Mount Suzuka. They could clearly feel that the atmosphere throughout Ise Province had changed. It was tense and chaotic, as if facing a great enemy.

The Ise-jingu not only had to guard against Mount Suzuka behind them but also had to resist the Daoist army pressing forward from the front. Relying solely on the Sonno-joi faction within Ise Province was far from enough. They had to request reinforcements. Since the royal family and the Ise-jingu were essentially one entity, the former bore an inescapable responsibility in this matter.

More critically, as the ancestral seat of the Tenmon Sect and the foremost of the Three Grand Shrines, the Ise-jingu hid far too many secrets regarding Fenglin. If it were to fall into Daoist hands, the Sonno-joi faction would have virtually no secrets left. This was something they could never accept.

Thus, even though the Sonno-joi faction knew full well that the Daoists' intended to besiege one point to draw reinforcements and that Ise Province was now a trap, they still had to grit their teeth and jump right in.

This was an open scheme.

For Qi Xuansu, this was naturally a good thing. After all, the greater the chaos, the less likely anyone would notice him. Even if they did notice him, he would be the least of their worries.

In fact, if Qi Xuansu wanted to make a name for himself, he could easily have used the Three Yin Beings to rampage through Ise Province, throwing the rear of the Ise-jingu into utter turmoil. Yet after much deliberation, he chose to abandon such a course.

First of all, the Three Yin Beings could not be used for free. Each summons was a debt of personal favor that would need to be repaid later. Secondly, if things escalated, it would be difficult for Qi Xuansu to explain himself to the Daoist Order because the Three Yin Beings were ultimately creations, and Qi Xuansu had no authority to deploy them privately. If only a few people knew, he could secretly use them, and the upper echelons of the Quanzhen Sect, led by Sage Donghua, might turn a blind eye. But if the matter grew big, they would be forced to deal with his breach of rules seriously. Another reason was that the Ise-jingu, as the ancestral court of the Tenmon Sect, was no simple target. If he truly provoked them, the Ise-jingu could very well send an Immortal to crush him.

This was the battlefield's inherent unpredictability.

Many of the usual unwritten rules would be broken. Under normal circumstances, beings of the Immortal level would not act lightly. But in wartime, nothing was certain.

There were only two Jonin across all of Fenglin, representing Iga and Koga Schools respectively. Yet the Koga Jonin joined in the fray and was beheaded by Sage Qingwei. If a Pseudo-Immortal like him could die, would Qi Xuansu be immune to death?

Of the eight Kengo, only two had truly taken a clear stance—Yagyu Sosei, representing Chancellor Toyotomi's Office, and Katsura Yoshiyuki, representing the Sonno-joi faction. The other six held ambiguous attitudes.

Among these six, one was a daimyo far from the center of the battlefield, concerned only with preserving their own domains and waiting until victory and defeat were decided before drifting with the tide to choose a side.

Another was eccentric and solitary, obsessed with only swordsmanship. They wander the land with no fixed residence, caring nothing for the rise and fall of the world.

One of them had committed too much slaughter in their youth, so in old age, he had abandoned his sword to live in seclusion, facing the wall in meditation and wrestling with himself for years, still unsure whether he should remain true to himself.

One Kengo had retired for many years, doting on grandchildren and enjoying the joys of family, now wishing only to live in peace as wealthy men, no longer involving themselves in worldly affairs.

Another devoted himself wholly to spreading their swordsmanship, taking in many disciples. However, he never asked whether his students would serve the Chancellor's Office or the royal family.

There was even one who had long since left Fenglin altogether, sailing far across the seas, their whereabouts unknown.

Of the eight Kengo, only three held high positions in the court, while five lived far away in Jianghu.

It had to be said, Fenglin's Jianghu was still thriving.

By contrast, the Central Plains' Jianghu inevitably felt lifeless, nothing but one secret society after another. Among these, half were heretical cults opposing the authorities, and the other half were mere extensions of said authorities.

Ultimately, the authorities and the Jianghu were in an inverse relationship. When the authorities grew strong, Jianghu weakened. When the authorities' power waned, Jianghu flourished.

At the end of the previous dynasty, the Central Plains' Jianghu had also been vibrant, standing as an equal rival to the Confucian School, which represented the Wei Dynasty Court.

Now, with the Daoist Order and the Great Xuan Court more powerful than ever before, far surpassing all previous dynasties, Jianghu had naturally been reduced to a vassal of the court.

The reason Fenglin's Jianghu remained so vigorous was precisely because its court was weak.

The eight Kengo were much like the current state of Fenglin, fragmented and divided.

If the Emperor of Fenglin was merely a symbol, then the Chancellor's Office was only a nominal alliance leader, far from holding absolute authority. The various daimyos acted as they pleased within this framework, passing their titles down from generation to generation, in effect becoming local kings of their own domains.

The Daoist Order only targeted the nobility and left the commoners alone because these nobles with hereditary fiefs were the greatest obstacle.

Fenglin seemed to have many Pseudo-Immortals, but on closer thought, there were only 12 true elites among them—eight Kengo, two Jonin, and two jokai-rank guji of the Tenmon Sect. The Onmyodo had been in decline for a long time, lacking successors and hence had no Pseudo-Immortals.

In terms of numbers, they were far fewer than in the Central Plains. In the Central Plains, the Pseudo-Immortals Qi Xuansu encountered already included the Innkeeper's Owner, Madam Qi, Sage Qingwei, Sage Cihang, Sage Donghua, the Ancestor Eunuch of Xuanhui Court, Zhang Wuhen, Star Lord Xuanji, the Golden Patriarch, Wu Guangbi, Spirit Guard Ding Wei, Spirit Guard Jia Chen, Great Sage Shi, Li Changsheng, and Zhang Wuliang. That was already 12 in total.

In the Central Plains, there was a Wuyou Leaderboard that recorded ten Pseudo-Immortals outside the Daoist Order. The Golden Patriarch ranked first, and Wu Guangbi ranked last, while the Owner, Star Lord Xuanji, and the Ancestor Eunuch was between them. There were still five Pseudo-Immortals on the Leaderboard who had yet to appear.

Among the 12 first-rank Spirit Guards, half were Pseudo-Immortals. Excluding the Spirit Guard Jia Chen and Spirit Guard Ding Wei, there were still four Pseudo-Immortals Qi Xuansu had yet to meet.

Among the seven Great Sages of the Daoist Order, there were still a few Pseudo-Immortals.

In addition, the Confucian School's academies, the Great Xuan Court's inner cabinet, and the Daoist Order's Golden Tower Council all had Pseudo-Immortals as well.

This was not even counting the Daoist Order's countless and varied creations.

In terms of Pseudo-Immortal numbers, the Central Plains had an overwhelming advantage.

Some might argue that not all these Pseudo-Immortals belonged to the Daoist Order. Many even stood opposed to it. By the same logic, not all of Fenglin's Pseudo-Immortals were of the Sonno-joi faction. Many preferred to remain aloof, uninvolved in worldly disputes.

The most crucial point was that in the Central Plains, everyone operated within a tightly organized system, whereas Fenglin was a loose pile of sand. Even if their numbers were equal, or even if Fenglin had more Pseudo-Immortals, defeat was inevitable. Throughout history, the organized had always triumphed over the unorganized, without exception.

A mountain god like Suzuka Gozen, who existed for over a century but could not leave Fenglin, could not be considered a normal Pseudo-Immortal.

The Central Plains had once had similar Pseudo-Immortals, but most met tragic ends when they encountered God Luwu, guardian of Jade Capital's gates. They were now extinct. Fenglin, however, had kept itself closed to the outside world, preserving much of its original state, so such Pseudo-Immortals could still be found. It was rather like how many books that were long lost in the Central Plains had been well preserved in Fenglin.

In short, Qi Xuansu did not plan to linger too long in Ise Province. As he was now, Qi Xuansu was far from being able to act without restraint here. Perhaps once he reached the Pseudo-Immortal realm, such problems would vanish.

But one's fate was up to the heavens. When passing through Anno County, Qi Xuansu still encountered an unexpected incident.

He and Little Yin came across a demon, whose upper body was a woman, dressed in traditional Fenglin attire. But her lower body was that of a giant serpent.

Since Master Yin had already returned to the Ghost Kingdom, Qi Xuansu and Little Yin could only join forces to face this demon.

This monster was none other than Kiyohime, the very one spoken of by Aobozu.

After killing Anchin, Kiyohime had been suppressed by Fenglin's Buddhist sect, then handed over to the Ise-jingu to be sealed within Ise Province. After the great battle of Ise, many seals across the land had loosened to varying degrees, and the gravely weakened Ise-jingu lacked the strength to reinforce them. Following Master Wan's full-force battle against the jokai-rank shinkan of Ise Province, Kiyohime took the opportunity to shatter her seal and appeared in Anno District.

According to the Buddhist Sect's view, this was karmic retribution. Qi Xuansu had called forth Master Wan to wreak havoc in Anno District, which ended up releasing Kiyohime, who then turned to block his path back to the field camp.

Years of being sealed had worn away most of Kiyohime's intellect. When the two sides met head-on on this narrow path, she immediately swam toward them and spewed out rolling waves of fire.

At first, Qi Xuansu did not take it seriously. After all, he had the indestructible body of a Martial Arts Practitioner. The Youyi Cloud Robe he wore was also impervious to water and fire. Yet the moment this flame touched him, he realized something was wrong. The fire seemed to have two layers. The outer layer was ordinary flame, blocked by his Youyi Cloud Robe, but beneath it burned another flame that ignored both the robe and his indestructible body as well as his protective qi shield, striking directly at his heart's vital acupoints.

Qi Xuansu was greatly startled. He was no stranger to strange techniques, yet he had never seen nor even heard of something this bizarre.

Fortunately, the Longevity Stone Heart activated at that moment.

As the finest creation jointly forged by the Ancient Great Witches and the Daoist Order, the Longevity Stone Heart was truly marvelous. Even this uncanny flame could not breach its protection.

However, once stopped, the flame immediately scattered and merged into the innate qi within Qi Xuansu's body, vanishing in an instant.

Qi Xuansu's heart skipped a beat. He had witnessed Zhang Yuelu's Six Void Tribulations before. Once it entered a person's body, it lay dormant, waiting for the right moment to incite one's own innate qi into self-destruction. Could this flame be akin to the Six Void Tribulations?

Just then, Little Yin's voice broke his train of thought.

It turned out that after Kiyohime had spewed flames at Qi Xuansu, he had entered a state of detached soul traveling, while Little Yin had been ensnared by Kiyohime's serpentine body. She had tried to bite, but the serpent scales were impossibly hard and could not be pierced, and even her corpse qi was powerless against them.

The coils grew ever tighter, stronger even than the strength of a Martial Arts Practitioner, squeezing Little Yin until she wailed. If Qi Xuansu did not snap back to his senses soon, she would be reborn on the Emperor Willow.

Seeing this, Qi Xuansu instantly drew Green Cloud and slashed toward Kiyohime with a single stroke.