A Pawn's Passage

Could an immortal object become an Immortal?

In theory, it could. According to Eastern and Western theories, becoming an Immortal was a process of transformation. That was why Immortals undergo rebirth and metamorphosis, fundamentally ascending into higher-dimensional beings, which in turn caused the mortal world to reject them.

Humans and demons could become Immortals, and this process of rebirth and metamorphosis was known as transcending the mortal realm.

An immortal object could likewise undergo such a transformation and become a higher-dimensional existence. The crucial requirement was that it possessed sentience. In Madam Wu’s case, she had been far luckier than other immortal objects and had progressed much farther than they ever could.

However, she remained stuck at the most critical step: her physical body. Madam Wu’s true body was the Seven Feather Five Fires Fan, making it incomparably durable, so much so that even Immortals could not destroy her. But this was also where the problem lay. A body that sturdy could never undergo rebirth and metamorphosis. The essence of an Immortal’s transformation was destruction followed by renewal. But how could an immortal object be broken? If it could not be broken, how could it ever be rebuilt? Thus, Madam Wu had always remained a Pseudo-Immortal.

Every gain came with a loss. The Seven Feather Five Fires Fan, as Madam Wu’s true body, was both her greatest strength and her greatest limitation.

If Madam Wu wished to advance any further, she would have to free herself from the constraints of the Seven Feather Five Fires Fan and become a truly independent individual.

In this regard, the spirit of the Emperor Willow had been far more ingenious. It had never used the Emperor Willow itself as its body, and hence was never constrained by it, allowing it to become an Immortal long ago. Although it eventually fell, it at least left behind Little Yin. Had it taken the Emperor Willow as its body, it would be difficult to imagine how such an enormous tree could ever undergo rebirth and metamorphosis. It would likely have been unable to move at all, never leaving the Ghost Kingdom. By then, even if it possessed the power of an Immortal, such an existence would have offered little enjoyment.

This was also why it was so difficult for many demons to become Immortals. The first obstacle was intelligence, and the second was the body itself. If a demon’s intelligence were too low, decades of life might leave it no more mature than a human child. It would die before it even understood what longevity truly meant. The second obstacle was an overly powerful body. The stronger the body, the harder it became to destroy and rebuild it, sometimes requiring the assistance of a Minor Heavenly Tribulation. For demons, a Minor Heavenly Tribulation was not merely an obstacle or a trial, it was also the force that enabled them to cross the final threshold.

Thus, throughout history, very few demons ever became Immortals. Most who succeeded had first consumed some extraordinary elixir that greatly extended their lifespan. Over the course of countless years, they gradually awakened their intelligence until it became indistinguishable from that of ordinary humans, after which they endured a near-impossible ordeal and finally attained immortality.

As for beings such as God Luwu, they were born as Immortals, or more precisely, immortal beasts, so they never had to concern themselves with such problems.

Such beings were actually products of an era when the world had not yet fully solidified. Since reality had not yet stabilized, such loopholes could exist. Now, in the Taiji Era, the world became incomparably real, stable, and rigid. As such, naturally born immortal beasts could never come into existence again.

This was precisely why humankind was said to be the favored race of heaven and earth. Whether in terms of intelligence or physical constitution, humans possessed exactly the right balance. Though their natural lifespan was short, they were the race best suited to pursuing immortality.

Apart from humans, the dragon race was also relatively well-suited to becoming Immortals. Although dragon bodies were immensely powerful and they must undergo Minor Heavenly Tribulations, they were born with intelligence equal to that of humans and enjoyed exceptionally long lifespans. Their only real weakness was the difficulty of producing offspring. Once they came into conflict with humans, even a one-for-one exchange of lives was an enormous loss for the dragon race.

The war between the dragon race and the Daoist Order ultimately ended with the dragon race being brought to the brink of extinction.

Not only did the Daoist Order avoid suffering crippling losses, it even rose upon the corpses of the dragon, dominating the skies and becoming the master of the Eastern world.

There were too few examples of beings other than humans and demons attaining immortality, so it was too difficult to establish any discernible pattern. Each had to find its own path through trial and error, and aside from those who experienced it firsthand, no one else could explain the process clearly.

When Madam Wu said that her destined opportunity might lie in Paititi, she was probably not speaking casually. After all, she had once spent time in the Southern Continent, so her understanding of this place certainly surpassed Qi Xuansu’s.

Qi Xuansu did not press the matter further. As someone now destined for longevity, it was difficult for him to truly understand the anguish of those who could not attain it. Before obtaining the Longevity Stone Heart, he had not been destined for immortality either. But he had been young, so death had never felt imminent, nor did he have an urgent desire for eternal life.

At that time, his thoughts had revolved more around questions such as how to advance to the Heavenly Being stage. Even if he were to die, that would be 70 or 80 years in the future, which was still a long way off. How could a youth who was in his twenties comprehend the weight and breadth of a century?

However, Madam Wu naturally felt a sense of urgency. Her perception of time was completely different from that of the young Qi Xuansu. She had already lived through several human lifespans. To her, such a period was not particularly long, and the saying that a hundred years pass in the blink of an eye was no exaggeration.

More importantly, the end of the era was approaching. Wasn’t that precisely why so many Immortals wished to escape the mortal world? It was impossible to say what would become of immortal objects once the end of the era arrived. No matter how one looked at it, attaining immortality and leaving this world was the best possible choice.

Madam Wu pushed open the palace gates, and the two stepped into the dilapidated royal palace. It was evident that although the royal family had been driven into despair, they had still managed an orderly evacuation, leaving behind very little of value.

The two had not come to the palace in search of treasure. Their true objective was to find the entrance leading to the pocket realm.

The royal palace was certainly large, but compared to the Great Xuan Imperial Palace, it was much smaller. They decided to split up for the search.

At their cultivation level, Qi Xuansu and Madam Wu simply swept the area slowly with their divine senses.

It had to be said that sometimes the simplest method was the most reliable.

After searching for nearly half a day, Madam Wu finally noticed something unusual within one of the inner halls. Its layout resembled that of a temple, yet it did not enshrine a known deity. She glanced at the stone figures, each about the size of a human head, and concluded that they were probably connected to some form of ancestor worship. What caught her attention was that the ground beneath the temple seemed to be hollow, so she simply tore up the entire floor.

Beneath it, they discovered a passage leading downward. There had perhaps once been a formation concealing the entrance, but it was long gone now.

Madam Wu called over Qi Xuansu, who had been searching on the other side, and the two entered the passage together.

The passage was narrow at first but gradually widened as they descended. It was filled with mechanisms and traps every step of the way. Toxic arrows, ground spikes, venomous snakes and insects, falling rocks, poisonous mists, hidden pitfalls—virtually every kind of deadly trap imaginable was there, proving just how tight the defenses were. However, just as these mechanisms had failed to stop the ancient gods back then, they likewise failed to stop Qi Xuansu and Madam Wu now.

The ancient gods had passed through with effortless ease, without even triggering the mechanisms. Qi Xuansu and Madam Wu, on the other hand, had no choice but to expend some effort, smashing each trap apart through brute force.

After traveling for some distance, the two finally emerged from the passage. The space before them suddenly opened up to reveal another world.

There was actually an underground lake here, and it was quite vast.

Qi Xuansu gazed at the underground lake before him. “Could the entrance to Paititi be at the bottom of the lake?”

Madam Wu said, “This scene reminds me of something that happened long ago. Back then, Li—your Holy Xuan—gave me to Tantai Yun. I left the Central Plains with her, and while passing through a desert in the Western Region, we came upon a great lake. It happened to be the 15th day of the month. For some reason, Tantai Yun insisted on taking me to the lakeside to admire the moon. I suppose the scenery reminded her of her dead husband. After all, they had married young, and there had been genuine affection between them. The full moon on the 15th was reflected perfectly upon the lake.

“Then we sensed that something wasn’t quite right. Tantai Yun stepped onto the lake and walked, one step at a time, toward the moon reflected upon the water. She did not use the slightest trace of divine power, yet the lake beneath her feet seemed like solid ice, allowing her to walk across it. When she finally stood upon the reflection of the moon, a beam of white light enveloped her, and she vanished completely.

“Later, Tantai Yun told me that it was actually a small pocket realm. Naturally, it couldn’t compare to the Kunlun Paradise or the Lingshan Paradise, and it was much smaller than the Ghost Kingdom as well, only about the size of a county town. But that town was strange. It was perfectly intact, showing not the slightest trace of damage from war, yet there wasn’t a single person to be seen. Moonlight bathed the empty city. It wasn’t quite like the Paititi we found. After entering the town, Tantai Yun discovered that it was completely brand new, as though it had only just been completed. There wasn’t the slightest sign that anyone had ever lived there. It wasn’t that the people had disappeared, but there had simply never been any residents at all.”

Having said this, Madam Wu returned to the matter at hand. “I think this underground lake resembles the great lake we encountered in the desert.”

Qi Xuansu’s curiosity had been piqued. He asked, “What happened afterward?”

Madam Wu replied, “Later, Tantai Yun discovered that after some time had passed, the town’s inhabitants and all traces of their lives seemed to appear out of nowhere. The town itself also gradually began to fall into ruin. From this, Tantai Yun concluded that the place was caught within a time loop. However, time only has meaning when it is anchored to space. So she simply used her Martial Arts Practitioner’s Void-Shattering Punch, breaking through space itself and forcibly leaving the pocket realm. After that, we continued westward.”

Qi Xuansu fell silent for a moment before muttering, “That’s a rather anticlimactic ending. If the protagonist of an adventure is too powerful, the story becomes dull.”

Madam Wu shrugged. “Which is why I only told the first half of the story. You’re the one who insisted on hearing the second half.”

Qi Xuansu sighed. “You said this underground lake resembles that great lake, but Tantai Yun entered the pocket realm through the moon’s reflection. We’re underground now, so where would we find the moon?”

Madam Wu replied, “Don’t you have the key?”

Qi Xuansu froze for a moment before taking out the key.

This key was shaped like a circular disc. Qi Xuansu had never understood its significance before, but after hearing Madam Wu’s explanation, he suddenly felt enlightened.

As the saying goes, having an elder in the family was like possessing a priceless treasure.

Madam Wu’s immense experience had spared Qi Xuansu from taking countless unnecessary detours.

Had Qi Xuansu come here alone, it would have been difficult for him to think along these lines. Moreover, the restrictions had been established by the ancient gods, making brute-force methods impossible for him, a mere mortal. Most likely, he would have been forced to return empty-handed.

Qi Xuansu handed the disc-shaped key to Madam Wu.

Madam Wu examined the disc from both sides. “The front symbolizes the sun, while the back symbolizes the moon. We encountered Itzamna’s temple on our way here, so let’s try the sun first.”

She manipulated the disc a few times and infused it with divine power. Immediately, the entire disc radiated brilliant golden sunlight.

Then Madam Wu tossed the disc into the air. It flew directly above the lake and transformed into a blazing sun.

Ordinarily, a lake would not reflect the sun in such a way, so Madam Wu adjusted its angle from afar, turning it into the appearance of a setting sun. Its light dimmed, and its position shifted toward the horizon.

A reflection of the sun then appeared upon the surface of the lake.

At the same moment, both Qi Xuansu and Madam Wu sensed that a gateway leading to another world had opened.

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