A Pawn's Passage

Qi Xuansu guessed correctly. It was indeed an eye that was shimmering with green light. Moreover, it had neither an eye socket nor eyelids. It was a solitary eyeball suspended high above the Toad Palace. From the dark starry void surrounding the Toad Palace, tentacles extended outward like human limbs, yet there was no body to be seen.

These tentacles were wrapped around numerous humanoid insects. The gates of the Toad Palace opened wide, and the humanoid insects were sent inside one after another before falling completely silent. It looked like something was feeding.

Meanwhile, Qi Xuansu and the Spirit Guards who had been innocently dragged in were left untouched for the moment, seemingly because they were not to the creature’s taste.

If this Toad Palace was the Insect Queen’s true body, then the Insect Queen was rather picky to be eating only humanoid insects. Considering that the Spirit Realm had been sealed for so many years, the Insect Queen must truly have been starving.

What Qi Xuansu saw at this moment was the Toad Palace with a green sphere of light suspended high above it and numerous tentacles extending from the surrounding void.

This appearance was difficult to describe. It certainly looked nothing like a human. Yet it was also vastly different from the gigantic insect Qi Xuansu had imagined.

Just then, a voice resounded within Qi Xuansu’s mind. “Daoist, you have slaughtered my people. Do you know the gravity of your crimes?”

This was not a voice produced through a throat or any other physical organ. Rather, it was a form of mental communication similar to telepathy, so there was no language barrier.

Clearly, the Insect Queen was not a mindless monster. She was still capable of communication.

What Qi Xuansu feared most was something completely incapable of communication. For example, after Yayu was resurrected by the Ten Witches of Lingshan, it had completely lost its sanity and all ability to communicate, only capable of devouring people. In the end, there had been no choice but to shoot it dead. If the Insect Queen were equally unreasonable and simply tried to kill him outright, Qi Xuansu truly would not have any good way to deal with her.

Of course, it was quite possible that the Insect Queen was willing to lower herself and communicate only because Qi Xuansu was sufficiently powerful and even posed a certain degree of danger. He could no longer be regarded as a mere ant. If an ordinary mortal encountered the Insect Queen, she probably could not be bothered to say anything at all. She would either leave them to fend for themselves or casually crush them to death. To such a mortal, the Insect Queen would be an existence that could not be gazed upon or comprehended. Merely looking at her would cause a full mental breakdown.

In any case, Qi Xuansu still possessed a page of the Scripture of Zuriel, as well as a Buddha sarira that he had been reluctant to use even against Zhou Mengyao. Although Qi Xuansu was certainly no match for the Insect Queen, he could definitely cause her some trouble.

However, judging by the Insect Queen’s act of directly devouring the humanoid insect, there was clearly no point in expecting her to respect any rule of law. If she believed Qi Xuansu was guilty and deserved death, then she would not have bothered asking him this question, much less given him an opportunity to confess his guilt. She would simply have killed or eaten him.

Yet the Insect Queen had still asked the question. It was much like a tactic commonly employed by certain people. First, one would belittle and suppress the other party to seize the moral high ground, then use that position to make demands.

Qi Xuansu was no longer the same Qi Xuansu who had once stood at the Kunlun Mountain Pass. Although he was now in a perilous situation, he did not panic much and remained remarkably composed, his thoughts never ceasing.

He said, “Who feeds on their own kind? From what I can see, they aren’t your people at all, but your food. Though killing people is a grave crime that should be repaid with one’s life, they are just food. So at most, destroying someone’s food warrants compensation at its proper value.”

Of course, Qi Xuansu could not talk to the Insect Queen about how the humanoid insects had violated the law or the legitimacy of the Western Daoist Order’s extermination of them. That would just be courting death.

Instead, he approached the matter from a different angle, taking the Insect Queen’s perspective and using her own actions to define the nature of the humanoid insects. In other words, before discussing the issue of the humanoid insects, they first had to define what the humanoid insects actually were.

The Insect Queen said they were her people, but Qi Xuansu labeled them as food.

Either way, compensation was still required, but the nature of the compensation would be worlds apart.

This turned the matter into a negotiation. One side named an exorbitant price, while the other bargained it down.

This was precisely what high-ranking Daoist priests were best at. If one wanted to gain influence within the Daoist Order or engage in internal struggles without openly falling out with the other side, there were two indispensable tools. The first and foremost was strength, which included one’s background, connections, cultivation, official position, and rank. The second was eloquence, whether it was blowing an issue out of proportion, slapping labels on others, or using sophistry to evade the important points and dwell on the trivial ones.

Possessing strength was one thing, but knowing how to use it was another. In fact, when the enemy was strong and one’s own self was weak, such methods became even more important.

Back then, during the council meeting at the Poluo Daoist Mansion, Great Sage Jiang, who was temporarily covering for Great Sage Lan, had deliberately made things difficult during the proceedings. Wang Jiaohe had relied on his eloquence to achieve great results with minimal effort, drawing Great Sage Lan into the matter and forcing Great Sage Jiang to exercise restraint for fear of the consequences, thereby temporarily defusing the crisis. If Wang Jiaohe had confronted Great Sage Jiang head-on and slammed the table in front of him, he would most likely have been arrested on the spot as soon as the meeting ended.

After spending so many years within the Daoist Order, Qi Xuansu had learned how to do this simply by watching others.

The voice fell silent for a moment. “Whose rule is it that says one cannot eat one’s own people?”

Qi Xuansu replied, “The founders of the Three Religions, the Westerners’ Supreme Will, and most deities of the various pantheons say so. This has already become a universally accepted convention.”

Both fell silent.

The Insect Queen seemed torn between whether to debate with Qi Xuansu or simply disregard reason altogether. Clearly, she needed something from Qi Xuansu, or rather, wanted to bargain with him. That meant she had no choice but to speak with reason.

Qi Xuansu also felt somewhat uneasy.

If Ixchel were standing before him, then no matter how much higher her cultivation was compared to his, Qi Xuansu could still remain perfectly composed. That was because he knew Ixchel was completely lucid and rational and would weigh the pros and cons, which meant that everything was negotiable. With the Daoist Order backing him, Qi Xuansu would actually be the stronger party in such negotiations.

But given the Insect Queen’s current state, her rationality certainly could not compare with Ixchel’s. No one knew how much reason the Insect Queen still retained after becoming this grotesque creature. If a disagreement caused her to fly into a rage out of humiliation, then even having the Daoist Order backing him would be of no use. After all, the Daoist Order was much like the law. Its primary role was to punish offenders after the fact. Before that, it could only serve as a deterrent.

If deterrence failed, then there was nothing that could be done. If the people did not fear death, how could one expect to threaten them with death?

If Qi Xuansu really died here, there would be nowhere for him to seek justice.

Even if the Daoist Order avenged Qi Xuansu afterward, it would no longer mean anything to him.

At the same time, Qi Xuansu was secretly observing and pondering what the Insect Queen’s original true form actually was.

Deities could be divided into two categories.

The first category consisted of innate deities, beings formed from the condensation of certain concepts. True Lord Taiyin and others like her were among this category. They were not born of parents but instead emerged from some form of primordial belief.

For example, the ancient people worshiped the moon, and over time, this collective belief condensed and eventually manifested as True Lord Taiyin. Whatever the ancient people believed a Moon Goddess should look like was what True Lord Taiyin became. Thus, the deities of different regions naturally resembled the people who worshiped them. Easterners would not imagine a deity with a Western face, just as Westerners would not imagine one with an Eastern face.

The other category was acquired deities, those who became gods through growth and cultivation. They could be humans or demons. If they were demons, then they would possess an original true form. For example, Kulkulkan’s true form was a feathered serpent. Wu Luo, on the other hand, was human, though she belonged to a branch of the ancient human race and was exceptionally tall, practically a giant.

Judging by the Insect Queen’s appearance, she did not seem human. Instead, she resembled a demon. But what exactly was she?

According to legend, the Yin Moon was formed from yin energy that escaped from the Eye of the Sea on the seabed. Moreover, the Insect Queen possessed tentacles, and the areas where she had been active were mostly near the sea. She first appeared in Nanyang and is now off the coast of the Southern Continent. She did seem rather like some kind of giant aquatic demon.

Was she a squid or an octopus? But their tentacles had suckers and did not look like these, which resembled tail fins more.

Tentacles with fin-like tips reminded Qi Xuansu of a strange beast recorded in the Classic of the Northern Mountains.

From Qiaoming Mountain, the Qiao River springs forth and flows westward into the Yellow River. Within it are many Heluo Fish, each with one head and ten bodies. Their cries resemble barking dogs, and eating them can cure abscesses.

The Heluo Fish had a fish-like head and ten long and slender bodies, which resembled tentacles. However, they merely resembled tentacles. They were not true tentacles, which was why each body had a tail fin at its end.

This matched the Insect Queen’s current appearance perfectly.

The Heluo Fish was not something to be underestimated. Although it could not compare with the primordial divine beasts, it could be regarded as a smaller version of the Kunpeng. The Kunpeng was an enormous fish that spanned thousands of kilometers and could transform into a bird whose back spanned just as wide.

The Heluo Fish could likewise transform into a bird, namely the Guhuo Bird, also known as the Ghost Bird. According to legend, this bird originally had ten heads and could seize human souls, but one of its heads was devoured by a dog. Thus, the Ghost Bird originally had ten heads, corresponding perfectly with the Heluo Fish’s ten bodies.

When Qi Xuansu looked at the Insect Queen again, the more he looked, the more she resembled a Heluo Fish.

If she truly was a Heluo Fish that had become a deity, then she should be called the Heluo God. Just as Kulkulkan was no longer merely a Feathered Serpent after becoming a deity, but the Feathered Serpent God.

It was unclear why she had not transformed into the Ghost Bird.

This would also explain why the Insect Queen’s Yin Moon originated from the Eye of the Sea, because the Insect Queen herself had come from the sea.

The humanoid insects were the Insect Queen’s food, just as humans raised pigs for meat.

In fact, no one from the Daoist Order had ever seen the Insect Queen. They had merely taken it for granted that she was some kind of sacred queen of the humanoid insects.

If someone from the Daoist Order came to the Spirit Realm and saw the Insect Queen’s true form, they certainly would no longer regard her as an Insect Queen, because the two were fundamentally unrelated.

Acquired deities also possessed one advantage over innate deities. They had powerful physical bodies, especially demons who had ascended to godhood. Even if their divine power was insufficient, they would not simply vanish into nothingness like innate deities. Izanagi and Kulkulkan were both examples of this. They had to be killed twice, once to destroy their golden body and once to destroy their true body.

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