A Pawn's Passage

Walking along the path down Kunlun Mountain took a long time. Thus, the Daoist Order built hanging baskets controlled by winches and metal chains on several cliffs, which could go straight up and down the mountain, saving people a lot of time.

It was a pity that neither Zhang Yuelu nor Qi Xuansu were Heavenly beings, so they could not fly. According to Zhang Yuelu’s plan, they would descend the Yuxu Peak, walk along the Tongtian River toward the Kunlun Pass, and enter Shuzhou. Then, they would head east and cross Shuzhou, passing by Baidi City to enter Huzhou. Finally, they would pass through Huzhou to get to Wuzhou.

Just by estimating the distance from the map, it was almost 3000 kilometers away. The actual distance would probably be at the higher end of 4000 kilometers.

Even as a seasoned traveler, Qi Xuansu felt sick just thinking about the long distance. He believed that he was truly unhinged to accompany Zhang Yuelu home. But since he had already agreed to it, he could not go back on his word.

However, Zhang Yuelu was already prepared for this journey. After descending from Yuxu Peak, she took out a pair of Jiamas from her magical receptacle and handed them to Qi Xuansu.

The Jiama was a type of talisman that could make it seem like one was walking on clouds. With the Cloud Feet Method from The Geographical Secrets, people would write “White Clouds Rising” on each Jiama talisman and tie one to each leg before reciting the cloud-riding mantra.

The mantra for that was, “I invoke the Six Dings and Six Jias, the gods of white clouds and cranes, to form clouds on the soles of my feet. Allow me to fly as fast as the wind in the blue sky. I am commanded by the Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens to take flight!”

This Cloud Feet Jiama would allow one to travel up to 400 kilometers a day on foot. This was also the most common type of Jiama that was mostly used for traveling.

The Jiama that Zhang Yuelu gave to Qi Xuansu was even better. It used the Earth Shrinking Method from the Six Jia Heavenly Scriptures. After attaching the Jiama to each leg, one would have to recite the shrinking mantra, “Let the ground shrink so that a hundred steps become one step. Flatten the mountains and dry up the rivers. I am commanded by the Three-Peaks-Nine-States!”

A traveling day was 12 hours. If they could travel 500 kilometers a day, a journey of 4000 kilometers would not seem like too much.

Qi Xuansu had heard of Jiama talismans, which were very expensive on the black market. However, this was the first time he used them. After tying two Jiamas, one on each leg, he felt that the ground at his feet had shrunk exponentially. He could traverse a rugged mountain path as if he were walking on smooth ground, as effortless as a Martial Arts Practitioner in the Guizhen stage.

Zhang Yuelu did not use the Jiama and relied on her own cultivation to walk side by side with Qi Xuansu. Her clothes fluttered in the wind, making her seem like a fairy. To be fair, Zhang Yuelu was beautiful, but she was not a striking beauty. Her exquisite facial features, paired with her righteous temperament, made her seem more like a model Confucian scholar.

That day, Qi Xuansu did not lie to Shangguan Dun that he did not travel much in the northwest. He had only walked from Yuxu Peak to Kunlun Pass twice with his master. Since that was many years ago, he did not have much memory about the route they took.

Qi Xuansu could only pray that Zhang Yuelu would not get lost again. He did not want to end up in the Samudra Kingdom instead of Shuzhou. That place was not within the territory of the Great Xuan Dynasty, so there were no Daoist flying ships. The Samudra Kingdom was also as big as the Great Xuan territory. If that happened, it would be a long journey home. Then they would probably not be able to return to Yuxu Peak before the Shangyuan Festival on January 15th.

Fortunately, Zhang Yuelu made enough preparations this time, so the two of them arrived at the Kunlun Pass smoothly. There was also a Daoist temple there, so they rested in the temple for a night before they set off on the road again early the next morning.

The distance from Kunlun Mountain Pass to Tongtian River looked short on the map, but in reality, they had to climb over a snowy peak. The mountain road was rugged and difficult to navigate. They had to ascend and descend the mountain, so the real distance was twice as long as the distance on the map.

Without the high-quality Jiamas prepared by Zhang Yuelu, Qi Xuansu estimated that it would have taken him several days to cross the snowy peak. With the Jiamas, it only took him one day to cross the snowy peak. In the evening, they arrived at the bank of the Tongtian River.

The two of them stood on a high slope and looked down, only to see a flickering bonfire by the river. Sitting around the bonfire were seven to eight men wearing dirty sheepskin capes with the fur side out. They were drinking wine and eating meat. Their horses were nearby, and one of the horses had a decapitated human head hanging on the side of the saddle.

They were certainly not ordinary merchants.

Zhang Yuelu remarked, “This place has already exceeded the jurisdiction of the Kunlun Daoist Mansion, so it’s not surprising that there are some bandits around.”

Qi Xuansu took off the Jiamas tied to his legs, carefully put them away, and let out a deep breath. In the early winter, the white mist escaping his mouth was particularly clear.

Zhang Yuelu had no intention of making a move, so she just tightened her cloak.

The next moment, Qi Xuansu rushed down from the high slope at the speed of light.

At this moment, the bandits noticed Qi Xuansu, who was charging toward them. The leader of the group shouted, “An Eagle Claw! Band together!”

The group of bandits drew their sabers and charged at Qi Xuansu. However, Qi Xuansu snatched a saber from one of the bandits and left a thin red line across three of the bandits’ necks. The wound was just deep enough to kill them.

The other bandits were frightened by Qi Xuansu’s skill and dared not step forward. However, Qi Xuansu kept rushing forward with the saber in hand.

The leader of the bandits shouted and was about to charge at Qi Xuansu when he saw a flash of light and felt a cold wind passing by. Then, half of his blade fell to the ground with a thud. He was still holding the hilt and the other half of the blade. He slowly lowered his head, looked down, and suddenly felt that the world was spinning.

The bandit leader, with his head bowed, had his body slashed diagonally in half. The top half of his body, from his neck to his flank, slid down slowly, with blood gushing out from all directions.

Qi Xuansu remained expressionless as he flung out the blood from the saber in his hand. The other bandits looked at Qi Xuansu again, their bodies trembling in fear. One bandit dropped his saber, turned around, and ran away. The others followed suit and fled the scene.

With a few more flashes of light, blood gushed out from the bandits’ backs and hearts. Their corpses flew more than three meters forward before they collapsed, and a pool of blood formed under them.

Two more bandits climbed on their horses to flee, but Qi Xuansu threw out the saber in his hand and instantly skewered them.

That was how Qi Xuansu killed this group of bandits in the blink of an eye. At this time, Qi Xuansu no longer looked like a flowerbed Daoist priest.

Zhang Yuelu had known for a long time that Qi Xuansu had an intense killing aura, but this was the first time she witnessed just how decisive and precise he was when killing people.

When Zhang Yuelu came down from the high slope, she found Qi Xuansu tugging at his cloak and checking left and right. She asked, “What are you looking at?”

Qi Xuansu returned to his usual self. “I was checking if there was any blood on my new cloak.”

Zhang Yuelu chuckled. “It’s just a cloak. So what if it gets dirty?”

Qi Xuansu casually said, “Of course, it matters. If it’s dirty, will you wash it for me?”

"Dream on! You can wash it yourself.” Zhang Yuelu rolled her eyes at him.

When Qi Xuansu saw that there was no blood on his cloak, he walked to the horse with the decapitated human head and opened the dead man’s mouth to check his teeth.

Zhang Yuelu followed Qi Xuansu and asked, “What are you doing?”

Qi Xuansu replied, “I’m checking for the degree of tooth wear to roughly judge whether the deceased was rich or poor.”

Zhang Yuelu clarified, “Those whose teeth are badly worn are poor because the food poor people eat is hard to chew, right?”

Qi Xuansu nodded and said, “More or less. Poor families can’t afford refined flour and polished rice. They even have to mix some bran or other coarse grains into the flour. Not to mention that it tastes bad; the texture is like chewing on bark. It’s naturally bad for the teeth.”

Zhang Yuelu sighed. “The poor are already living such hard lives even in this peaceful era. I can’t fathom what it’ll be like for them if there are wars and natural disasters.”

Qi Xuansu added, “Some sell their children to get food.”

Zhang Yuelu did not continue such a depressing topic. She asked, “So what did you find?”

"The deceased is a rich man.” Qi Xuansu closed the mouth of the corpse and shut the corpse’s eyelids. “But as far as I know, bandits generally won’t behead someone if they are just robbing someone.”

Zhang Yuelu asked, “Do you think it’s a vendetta?”

"That’s possible.” Qi Xuansu continued, “But there is another possibility. These bandits were hired hitmen. They needed proof of the kill, so they cut off the target’s head in exchange for a reward.”

"These people aren’t ordinary bandits?” Zhang Yuelu was a little surprised. Although her cultivation level and position were higher than Qi Xuansu’s, she had been staying in the Jade Capital for a long time, so she did not have as much real-world experience as him.

"We’ll find out.” Qi Xuansu took off his cloak and handed it to Zhang Yuelu. Then he rolled up his sleeves, tucked the hem of his robe into his belt, and walked toward the corpse of the bandit leader, whose body had been divided into two halves.

Zhang Yuelu had seen corpses and had killed before, but she still shied away from this gore.

Qi Xuansu squatted down, turned over the dead body, and fumbled around the body’s chest area. “Found it.”

Zhang Yuelu turned around and saw Qi Xuansu shaking open a piece of cloth with his bloodied hands. There was a portrait on the cloth, which matched the decapitated head hanging next to the saddle.

"Wow, they’re really hitmen! Are there any letters or contracts?” Zhang Yuelu asked in surprise.

Qi Xuansu shook his head and explained, “Hiring a hitman is usually done in person and won’t be put into writing. Most writing, if any, will also be destroyed after reading. The hitman will also carry around the portrait for ease of comparison to avoid killing the wrong person.”

After that, Qi Xuansu threw the cloth on the ground, went to the riverside, broke the thin layer of ice formed on the surface, and slowly washed his hands.

Zhang Yuelu remembered that Qi Xuansu once said that he used to work hard to make a living in the real world, so she asked, “Tian Yuan, you’re so familiar with these procedures. Have you done this kind of business before?”

Qi Xuansu shook his head and said, “I haven’t done it, but I have mingled around in The Inn for a while and have seen a lot of these dealings.”

Zhang Yuelu secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but she did not show it on her face.

Qi Xuansu washed the blood on his hands and shook off the water droplets. “If we’re not in a hurry, we can investigate this case.”

"Sure!” Zhang Yuelu had the same intention and immediately agreed.

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