A Pawn's Passage

Chapter 368: A Good Beginning and a Good Ending

Qi Xuansu glared at Liu Hu, who stared back at him. They were in a stalemate for a while, but in the end, Qi Xuansu chose to give in.

He was not a kind-hearted person, having killed countless people, so one would even consider him a fiend.

The reason Qi Xuansu did not want to kill Song Luodi was not because he was soft-hearted, but because he had previously promised to let Song Luodi go, as long as the Diviner answered his questions honestly.

Even if Song Luodi had not died at his hands, Qi Xuansu still considered it an indirect breach of trust. That was why Qi Xuansu was angry at Liu Hu. To Qi Xuansu, a promise was worth more than gold. Otherwise, he would not have risked his life to escort Liu Hu to Bohai Prefecture for only 1,000 Taiping coins.

Qi Xuansu also did not care much about the consequences of letting Song Luodi go because he would no longer have to continue pretending to be the Black Robes, Wei Wugui. Pei Xiaolou promised that he would be able to return to the Daoist Order soon, so he could finally regain his identity as Qi Xuansu, a sixth-rank apprentice mage with a bright future. So if anyone wanted to seek revenge, they would have to look for the non-existent Wei Wugui.

What Liu Hu said also made sense. She was not the one who promised to let Song Luodi go. Moreover, Song Luodi wanted to break her neck earlier, so it was only reasonable for her to want vengeance. Since Song Luodi was already dead, Qi Xuansu had no choice but to compromise with the girl.

“Don’t do this again.” Qi Xuansu reprimanded Liu Hu as an elder and walked away.

Liu Hu kept silent, showing no hint of remorse or embarrassment.

Qi Xuansu removed Hong Lang’s Imitation Spirit Guard Armor and sighed. “I guess there won’t be a next time. After we get to Bohai Prefecture, someone else will take care of you.”

Liu Hu finally had some expression on her face. She seemed dejected and aggrieved. “My father and my adoptive father abandoned me, and now, you too?”

Qi Xuansu paused in his actions. He was silent for a moment before he explained, “My name, my face, and my identity are all fake. We met by chance. Who knows if fate will allow us to meet again?”

Liu Hu looked up at Qi Xuansu, her animated eyes brimming with tears.

The feelings between Liu Hu and Qi Xuansu were not romantic. What she felt was more an admiration and attachment like that between a father and daughter or an older brother and a younger sister. After all, repeated life-and-death experiences could pull people closer together by deepening their bond.

Qi Xuansu and Liu Hu were also similar in temperament, so they got along well. But Liu Hu had been reticent, so she never showed her attachment to him.

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As an orphan from the Wanxiang Daoist Palace, Qi Xuansu had never had to deal with familial relationships. However, he could empathize with Liu Hu to a certain extent.

Qi Xuansu sighed, took out a talisman from his satchel, and handed it to Liu Hu.

“What is this?” Liu Hu asked in a muffled voice, glanced at it, but did not take it.

Qi Xuansu replied, “This is one-half of the mother-child talisman. You can contact me anytime with this mother talisman while I keep the child talisman.”

Liu Hu’s eyes lit up. She then reached out to take the mother talisman.

Qi Xuansu smiled. “Thanks to the Daoist Order, we can still keep in touch after saying goodbye.”

After the flying ship crash, Qi Xuansu no longer received a salary or subsidies from the Tiangang Hall. But he still had subsidies from the Qingping Society. Although Madam Qi had withheld his salary from the Qingping Society, she still delivered the elixirs and talismans to him frequently.

Qi Xuansu would take the elixirs to improve his cultivation because if he only relied on self-cultivation, his progress would be slow. He could only take shortcuts if he wanted to advance further.

Most of the mother-child talismans were split between Qi Xuansu and Madam Qi to facilitate communication between each other. However, Madam Qi had provided Qi Xuansu with a complete set of mother-child talismans so that he could exchange contact with others.

Liu Hu carefully put away the mother talisman; her tears made her already-animated eyes sparkle under the light. “Let me help you.”

Before Qi Xuansu could respond, she went to Song Luodi’s body, turned the corpse over, and pulled out two Bliss Needles from his eyes.

Qi Xuansu almost forgot about his weapon embedded in Song Luodi’s eyes, but Liu Hu remembered.

He continued to take off the armor from Hong Lang’s body. The Eight Tribes’ craftsmanship was decent, but since many valuable materials were strictly controlled by the Daoist Order, they had to replace those with second-grade materials. That was why the quality of the imitation armor was lacking compared to the original, hence why it could crack under Qi Xuansu’s fists. If this armor was an original Spirit Guard Armor from the Daoist Order, it would not have been so fragile.

However, even with these cracks, this imitation armor was still worth a lot of money. Qi Xuansu would have had enough to buy Jade Liquor even without the commission from Madam Qi for this escort job.

The only problem was that the armor was heavy and bulky, making it difficult to carry. Thus, Qi Xuansu left the broken parts behind and only kept the relatively intact parts of the armor. Since it was not a complete set, it could only be sold as “scrap metal,” which would not sell at a high price. But Qi Xuansu was not greedy. With his current savings, any additional earnings were better than nothing.

On the other side, Liu Hu helped Qi Xuansu retrieve two Bliss Needles from Song Luodi’s body. She also found two unused talisman soldiers and several cash notes.

Qi Xuansu had a total of six Bliss Needles and a set of Seven Phoenix Feathers. He signaled Liu Hu to keep the two Bliss Needles she had retrieved so that she could keep them for self-defense. He then took one talisman soldier from her. He also let her keep the cash notes, which amounted to about 200 Taiping coins. However, he took back the Jiamas from Liu Hu because those were of great significance to him, since they were a gift from Zhang Yuelu.

Liu Hu did not want to keep the Taiping coins, but Qi Xuansu reminded her. “You will be traveling alone, so every coin counts. Li Qingnu will not be escorting you on her own, so you can use this extra money to buy favors from the others.”

Hearing this, Liu Hu reluctantly accepted it.

Qi Xuansu put away the talisman soldier and dug a big pit for Song Luodi and Hong Lang. However, before burying the bodies, Qi Xuansu took off Song Luodi’s robe and used it to wrap up the armor so that he could carry it as a bundle.

The duo continued on the road. After about five kilometers, Qi Xuansu came to a tomb with relatively strong yin energy. He opened the Yin-Yang Gate to the Ghost Kingdom and summoned his trusted horse, Bu Yue.

That way, Qi Xuansu did not have to lug all these items on his own. He did not feel bad for Bu Yue since this horse was no longer the same old grade horse when he first bought it. After their trip to the Ghost Kingdom, Bu Yue was a lot more energetic.

The next part of their journey was uneventful.

Two days later, they could finally see Bohai Prefectural City, a city built by the sea.

Among the Three Great Dragon Veins[1], the North Dragon began from Kunlun and passed through Nanshan, Zhongyue, Wuxing Mountain, and the Imperial Capital before finally reaching Bohai Prefecture, known as the Dragon’s mouth, from which geomantic energy would flow out to sea.

The various prefectures and counties around the Imperial Capital formed an administrative region under a common name, Zhili[2], which directly obeyed the orders of the Imperial Court. Its governor’s office was located in Bohai Prefecture.

During the final days of the previous Wei Dynasty, the Qin and Li families made a pact to attack the Imperial Capital. The Li family’s fleet bombarded Bohai Prefecture, bringing their troops to the city gates. These troops were then split into two groups—one marched along the White River to the Imperial Capital, while the other sailed south into the mouth of the Grand Canal, cutting off the grain transport routes.

That was how the last emperor of the Wei Dynasty and the Confucian School surrendered to the Great Xuan Dynasty and the Daoist Order.

Bohai Prefecture might not have much cultural heritage compared to Longmen Prefecture, Jinling Prefecture, and Xijing Prefecture, but it was an important stronghold.

Qi Xuansu and Liu Hu set off from Longmen Prefecture on March 15th. In the blink of an eye, it was already the beginning of May. Their journey lasted for one and a half months and ended in Bohai Prefecture. At first, it started out with only the two of them. A few people had joined briefly along the way. But by the end of their journey, only Qi Xuansu and Liu Hu were left.

The Sycamore Villa in Bohai Prefecture was backed by the Li family. This large, upscale brothel had a constant flow of people, so it was easy to blend in and avoid attention. This was where Qi Xuansu and Li Qingnu had agreed to meet.

1. Geomantic channels of energy that flow through mountain ranges. ☜

2. 直隶 means direct governance. ☜