A Pawn's Passage

It had been a long time since Qi Xuansu had come into possession of anything resembling war spoils.

There were several reasons for this. First, as Qi Xuansu’s status rose, he possessed semi-immortal objects and even immortal objects. Ordinary treasures no longer caught his eye, nor were they of much use to him. It was better to maintain a certain dignity. Second, if he did find something worthwhile, regulations required him to hand it over to the Daoist Order. Many of the Daoist Order’s immortal objects had originated as spoils of war. Third, given Qi Xuansu’s current position, it was no longer appropriate for him to go around scavenging battlefields. There were specialists assigned to handle such matters.

This time was different. The operation to eliminate the humanoid insect was something of a grey area. The Daoist Order had never issued such an order because, when the Golden Tower Council had convened to discuss Southern Continent affairs, no one even knew the humanoid insect existed. It was only after Qi Xuansu arrived in the Southern Continent and conducted an in-depth investigation that their traces were uncovered. It had been Qi Xuansu’s own decision to eradicate them. He had simply exercised his own initiative and decided to do a good deed.

More importantly, Qi Xuansu had not used the Daoist Order’s own personnel. Instead, he had relied on forces from the Western Daoist Order and Ixchel. That made the situation even more ambiguous. He could nobly choose to hand everything over, or he could keep it for himself. Either way, no one could really object.

If anyone wanted to make an issue of it, it would only happen after Sage Donghua and Qi Xuansu had fallen from power, when people began fabricating charges against them. This would make for a convenient accusation.

Since the matter was so vaguely defined, it would never become an issue so long as Qi Xuansu remained in power. If he ever did fall, this minor matter would hardly be worth mentioning, as there would be far graver charges waiting for him.

The Space Bag was locked. Utu had deliberately refrained from opening it beforehand so that Qi Xuansu could do the honors.

Qi Xuansu asked, “Can you unlock it?”

Only then did Utu take the Space Bag and erase its restriction with the cultivation of a Pseudo-Immortal.

Qi Xuansu opened the Space Bag and found that it contained quite a number of items.

The first things he found were all sorts of deeds and certificates. Although this priest had ruled within the rainforest, he owned properties in New Xijing, New Paititi, San Francisco, and St. York. Whenever he had free time, he would leave the jungle to indulge in the pleasures of the outside world. In his tribe, he played the role of a mysterious and awe-inspiring high priest. Outside, he passed himself off as either a Western clergyman or an Eastern Daoist priest.

After all, times had changed. The days of hiding one’s wealth at home were long gone. Banks now operate across almost every corner of the world. With nothing more than a few pieces of paper, one could withdraw money without carrying large quantities of gold and silver, making travel vastly more convenient.

Among the numerous documents were not only property deeds but also deposit certificates of both gold and silver from Eastern and Western banks. Qi Xuansu made a rough count and converted the total, which came to nearly 500,000 Taiping coins. This was an immense fortune! Who knew how many years the priest took to accumulate this sum?

However, to Qi Xuansu, money was no longer his priority. Money was certainly important, since everything ultimately revolved around it. Even the Grand Master had to worry about finances. But those were sums in the millions or tens of millions. At the personal level, it was merely a number, nothing more than worldly possessions.

Now that Qi Xuansu’s status and authority had grown, so had his perspective. He said, “Hand all of this over to Sage Huangfu. Since the new port is short of funds, consider this a small contribution from me as a friend.”

Utu accepted the thick stack of certificates and agreed without hesitation.

Although the money could purchase a great deal of divine power, Utu dared not touch any of it, much less embezzle it. Communication was so convenient nowadays that Qi Xuansu and Huangfu Ji would certainly discuss the matter. If the accounts failed to match, he would be blamed for it.

Besides the certificates, there were also numerous documents, including correspondence and official communications between the native tribes. Qi Xuansu could not be bothered to read through them. “Hand these over to Sage Tantai. They’ll probably prove useful when integrating the various tribes.”

Utu agreed once again. Though he was a dignified Pseudo-Immortal, he was now reduced to running petty errands. But he had no objections since these were the Moon Goddess’s orders. During this period, he was to obey every instruction given by Sage Qi.

For Utu, the Moon Goddess’s words were the equivalent of an imperial edict. She was everything to him.

Then came the real prize. Qi Xuansu unexpectedly discovered two pages of the Scripture of Zuriel. These were truly valuable treasures, something Qi Xuansu had used many times before.

After giving it some thought, Qi Xuansu found that it was reasonable for a follower of Zuriel to carry pages from the Scripture of Zuriel. But the priest probably had not used them himself because the Scripture of Zuriel made no distinction between friend and foe, causing backlash. Moreover, he simply had no opportunity. He had barely cast one spell before he was decapitated with a single slash.

It truly was a case of getting exactly what he needed. If Qi Xuansu wanted to deal with Zhou Mengyao, he had little to fear on the Daoist Order’s side. Sage Donghua supported him, and the Heavenly Preceptor protected him. Though Zhou Mengyao had elevated him back then, she could no longer crush him outright. There was little she could do to him through official means.

What Qi Xuansu truly feared was Zhou Mengyao resorting to underhanded tactics outside the rules. Right now, what Qi Xuansu lacked most was cultivation. But now, he had something to instantly increase his cultivation for a short period of time.

If Qi Xuansu were honest, he rather missed that old state of mind, that arrogant confidence with which he had once regarded the Daoist Three Prodigies as nothing more than paper tigers.

These two pages had been rolled up like scrolls to prevent anyone from accidentally seeing their contents. This time, Qi Xuansu did not hand them over to Utu. Instead, he stored them inside his magical receptacle.

The remaining contents consisted of various strange spellcasting materials, along with potions and medicinal pills of uncertain purpose. People from the Central Plains preferred making medicine into pills, while Westerners preferred liquid potions. This collection contained both Eastern and Western medicines, a true blend of the two traditions.

Qi Xuansu had no interest in any of them because he was unsure what side effects they might have. So he handed everything over to Utu and left the disposal entirely up to him.

Utu then unfurled his divine domain, enveloping both Qi Xuansu and the humanoid insect elder within it.

Utu’s divine domain was austere. The upper half was fairly unremarkable, consisting only of the night sky, stars, and a bright moon. After Ixchel reclaimed the divine authority of the stars, moon, and night, Utu’s divine domain had changed accordingly. However, the lower half presented a stark contrast. There were no moonflowers and night dew grass. Instead, it was a barren wasteland with wandering spirits, a world belonging to the dead.

The moon shone upon the dead, bringing them back to life. Meanwhile, the sun shone upon all things, bestowing life on all creation.

Utu excelled at wielding the divine authority of death, which extended into the domain of souls.

Utu’s five fingers curved like iron claws as he pressed them onto the humanoid insect elder’s head. Flames of death flared, burning away the outer layer of human skin and exposing the mature insect hidden beneath.

The mature insect resembled an enormous, elongated centipede, with countless legs that were more like tendrils extending into every corner of the body. These tendrils had originally been connected to the host’s meridians and internal organs, but Utu’s flames had burned them away, revealing the insect’s true form. The insect’s main body served as the host’s spine, while at its head was a vague human face, perfectly replacing the brain and occupying the Niwan Palace.

This sight was enough to send chills down anyone’s spine.

This mature insect had already had part of its body torn away by Qi Xuansu unintentionally and was now barely clinging to life.

Utu said, “Many people question whether the humanoid insect even has a soul. After all, what they call the Nascent Soul stage is when the insect separates from its host. Many even believe that the insect inside a humanoid insect has already devoured the host’s soul. The insect then becomes the soul.”

Qi Xuansu asked, “So do they actually have souls or not?”

Utu answered without hesitation, “All things have spirit, so of course they do. Even things that originally have no soul may eventually give rise to one, let alone beings that had souls to begin with.”

Qi Xuansu considered this for a moment and found that Utu was indeed correct. The Seven Feather Five Fires Fan originally had no soul, only spiritual essence. Yet through a fortuitous chain of events, the Seven Feather Five Fires Fan gave birth to a soul, which became Madam Wu. The Three Corpses were much the same. Lin Yuanmiao had been severed from his original self and became an independent individual. He possessed his own soul and could even cultivate his own Three Corpses.

Utu placed a hand upon the mature insect’s human-like face and made a pulling motion.

The mature insect immediately went rigid.

A mass of grey, sinister radiance then appeared in Utu’s hand. It had no definite shape, constantly twisting and morphing.

Utu kneaded and compressed this mass until it dissolved into countless tiny motes of light, then he flicked them forward.

Within a divine domain, the boundary between truth and falsehood was a fine line. Illusion could be treated as reality, and the intangible could be made tangible.

The motes of light gathered before Utu and Qi Xuansu, forming a luminous curtain.

The light curtain revealed a vast, boundless ocean beneath a pitch-black night sky.

The image continued to shift until an island emerged upon the sea, shrouded in dense mist that obscured its true appearance.

Above the island, the previously empty night sky now held a dim black moon, resembling a pitch-black eye.

Ordinarily, with both the night sky and the moon being black, distinguishing one from the other should have been impossible. However, the outer rim of the black moon still emitted a faint glow, separating it from the surrounding darkness. It was like an eye whose black pupil was framed by a white sclera, making it resemble a pitch-black eyeball.

Qi Xuansu said, “I’m familiar with Zuriel’s Black Sun. I didn’t know there was also a black moon. Utu, you’ve served at the Moon Goddess’s side for a long time. Have you ever heard of such a thing?”

Utu shook his head. “I’ve never heard of a black moon. However, I can say with certainty that this island is the Blue Cloud Island, the stronghold of the humanoid insect’s Blue Cloud Sect.”

Qi Xuansu nodded, agreeing with the assessment.

Utu continued, “Blue Cloud Island is unlike an ordinary island. It can move at any time. No matter how large the island may be, it is insignificant compared to the boundless ocean. Its location is constantly changing, and it is concealed by thick mist. Finding it would be exceedingly difficult.”

Qi Xuansu understood this all too well. Back when Great Sage Jiang had personally come to Nanyang, more than half his time had been spent searching for the exact location of the Tongzhen Palace, simply because it drifted endlessly across the sea and could only be located through painstaking calculations.

Even if an Immortal personally undertook the search, it would be no easy task without any clues.

Finding the Blue Cloud Island now presented the same challenge. The greatest difficulty lay in its constantly shifting location.

Utu pointed at the dark moon within the image. “It’s not only outsiders who have trouble finding the Blue Cloud Island. Even humanoid insects returning from abroad would find it inconvenient. There has to be some sort of marker to guide them. I believe this dark moon serves that purpose.”

Qi Xuansu muttered, “A dark moon rises above the sea, connecting distant souls at the ends of the earth.”

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