A Pawn's Passage-Chapter 1269: What Was Seen in the Past

The one who launched the sneak attack from behind was none other than Qi Jiaoyao.

Yao Liu seemed to realize something. “It’s you!”

It might have been better had he said nothing. The moment he spoke, Qi Jiaoyao stopped holding back. With a twist of the sword in her hand, she shredded Yao Liu’s chest cavity into a mangled ruin.

The words Yao Liu had yet to finish would never be spoken.

However, Yao Liu left no corpse behind. Instead, he turned into dust and scattered with the wind.

Seeing this, Qi Xuansu could not help but ask, “Is he dead or not?”

“He’s dead,” Qi Jiaoyao said, curling her lips. “But not completely dead. Just as you said, nothing here truly dies.”

Qi Xuansu did not pursue the matter further. With Yao Liu dealt with, there were no more obstacles, unless the Earthly Preceptor himself appeared.

They could now proceed all the way toward the summit of Lingshan.

Before long, Qi Xuansu began to feel that the surroundings were strangely familiar.

This was a place he had once visited in a dream.

A sudden thought arose in Qi Xuansu’s mind. Could Shi Hengbo be here? After all, she is Elder Yao’s disciple and a participant in the Creation Project. But that’s unlikely, since this isn’t the Longevity Stone Heart’s dream realm.

After walking for a while, they reached a fork in the road.

One path was a broad road with stone steps, stretching endlessly beyond sight. The other was a rugged trail, lined with grass and trees. Among the grass, colorful flowers bloomed, while the trees were adorned with equally vibrant ribbons, as if some celebration were underway. The narrow path wound upward and disappeared into darkness, its end likewise unseen.

This place was familiar to Qi Xuansu. It was where his dream had begun.

Qi Jiaoyao asked, “Which path?”

Without hesitation, Qi Xuansu replied, “The small path. I know it.”

“You say that as if you’ve been here before,” Qi Jiaoyao remarked, though she raised no objections.

The two stepped onto the narrow path and headed toward the mountain summit. A howling wind sounded by their ears, accompanied by a woman’s voice like murmured whispers or soft singing. The ribbons hanging from the trees along the path swayed in the wind like countless arms dancing wildly, while flower petals carpeted the trail, releasing a strange and unusual fragrance.

Qi Xuansu walked in front, with Qi Jiaoyao following behind.

After some time, the woman’s voice by Qi Xuansu’s ear became clearer. It was a language he had never heard before, ancient and difficult to comprehend, with an indescribable eeriness. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Whose voice was this? Shi Hengbo?

Qi Jiaoyao suddenly spoke, “We’re not just trying to leave the Lingshan Paradise. We also need to find the Longevity Stone.”

Qi Xuansu replied, “Head up the mountain. Don’t wander around.”

The moment the words left his mouth, Qi Xuansu paused in surprise. Isn’t this the message Madam Qi had left within the Longevity Stone Heart?

Perhaps he had heard it too many times, so his first reaction had been to repeat it.

Qi Jiaoyao immediately countered, “If we don’t look around, how are we supposed to find the Longevity Stone?”

Qi Xuansu was about to respond when his vision suddenly blurred. There we go again...

The Guizang Lantern was feeding him another memory.

This time, the figure that appeared before Qi Xuansu was Elder Yao, almost identical to how she looked in the painting.

Elder Yao arrived at a palace located halfway up the mountain, one Qi Xuansu had seen in his dream but had been unable to enter.

The palace, which was in ruins, had an ancient, primordial aura. The statues inside were reduced to broken limbs and scattered fragments.

Elder Yao entered the hall and walked straight to its center. She crouched down, pressing her palm against the ground. A breeze rose from her and spread outward in all directions.

The thick layer of dust on the ground was swept away, revealing a massive eye painted upon the floor. Elder Yao stood directly at the pupil’s center, and beneath her feet was a fist-sized hole.

Elder Yao took out a stone from her magical receptacle and set it into the hole. It fits perfectly, neither too large nor too small.

In an instant, dazzling light burst from the stone. Countless vein-like rays spread outward in all directions, filling the entire eye and causing it to shine brilliantly.

The eye slowly split apart like a yin-yang symbol. A spiral staircase appeared beneath her feet, descending downward.

Elder Yao muttered to herself, “I hope the Heavenly Sect back then never discovered this place, and I hope my sisters didn’t destroy what lies inside.”

As she spoke, Elder Yao stepped onto the descending staircase, walking into the pitch-black abyss.

Just as Elder Yao’s figure completely vanished into the darkness, Qi Xuansu abruptly came back to his senses.

Qi Jiaoyao had already grown somewhat accustomed to such situations, so she had patiently waited for him to recover before asking, “What did you see this time?”

“If there really is a Longevity Stone here, then I probably know where it is,” Qi Xuansu replied.

From the beginning, he had never believed the Longevity Stone remained here. He suspected that Madam Qi had already taken it. But since Qi Jiaoyao insisted otherwise, he had no choice but to bring her to see for herself so she would give up.

Qi Jiaoyao instantly perked up. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go and grab the Longevity Stone, then leave this damned place at once. I won’t ever come back again.”

Qi Xuansu was naturally very familiar with this place. He had been here countless times in dreams. Under his guidance, they quickly found the palace that Elder Yao had entered.

Just as Qi Xuansu had seen in his vision, the entrance had already been opened by Elder Yao. A spiral staircase extended downward, unsupported by any structure, floating in midair. Darkness surrounded them on all sides.

Since this was a twisted pocket realm, it could not be compared with the mortal world.

Before reaching the main peak of Lingshan, Qi Jiaoyao had been the one answering Qi Xuansu’s questions. But once they entered the main peak’s domain, the roles reversed, with Qi Xuansu explaining things to her instead. After all, he had come here many times in his dreams and had the Guizang Lantern’s memory recall.

Along the way, Qi Xuansu had glimpsed several fragmented visions again, so he roughly figured out what this place was.

Qi Xuansu explained, “This used to be where the Great Witches refined the Elixir of Immortality. Besides storing various materials, it also had prisons, alchemy chambers, and more. The prisons held unfortunate test subjects, like wild beasts, ordinary humans, and even Wuists who had committed grave crimes.”

“A place for refining the Elixir of Immortality, huh?” Qi Jiaoyao murmured. “The Longevity Stone must be here, then.”

Qi Xuansu took the lead walking down the spiraling staircase, with Qi Jiaoyao following closely behind.

After walking for about half an hour, they finally finished descending the long staircase and arrived at the place where the Great Witches once refined the Elixir of Immortality.

The prison cells were now completely empty, leaving behind only scattered bones piled together.

Qi Jiaoyao headed straight for the storage area. The stone doors there had already been opened, and everything inside had been removed. Even the remaining materials had decayed over time into indescribable, grotesque substances. Whatever medicinal properties they once had were likely gone, while their toxicity had only increased.

Qi Jiaoyao immediately felt disappointed, though her mask concealed any visible expression.

The two then headed toward the most important location—the alchemy chamber.

The entire alchemy chamber was cast from bronze. Its double doors were 10 meters tall, covered with countless strange symbols.

Seeing that the doors were still mostly intact, Qi Jiaoyao breathed a small sigh of relief. But now, the problem was how to open the doors.

At that moment, a scene began to replay before Qi Xuansu’s eyes once again.

He saw Elder Yao standing before the same closed doors. Then, she began chanting ancient and obscure syllables. The symbols engraved upon the bronze doors started to shift and move, eventually disintegrating into countless characters suspended in midair.

Beyond the doors lay an enormous hall, much like the underground chamber they had seen earlier, not supported by a single pillar.

A star map made from unknown stones was embedded in the ceiling above. The stars flickered and shifted. Though artificial, they were indistinguishable from the real constellation, capable of simulating cosmic movements within a limited range. It was truly awe-inspiring.

A massive bronze cauldron that was as tall as a two-story building stood at the center of the hall. Ordinary people would need ladders just to climb up or down it. Light mist drifted through the hall while the starry ceiling glittered above, yet an indescribable ominous aura lingered throughout.

Elder Yao entered the hall, circled around the enormous cauldron, and came to its far side. The sight there caused her expression to grow grave.

Standing there was a woman over 3 meters tall. Her black hair flowed like ink, hanging all the way down to her calves.

Elder Yao said softly, “Wu Gu.”

The vision abruptly ended there.

Qi Xuansu snapped back to reality without wasting words. Following Elder Yao’s example, he began chanting the same syllables.

Perhaps due to the Longevity Stone Heart, the Wuist language, which should have been extremely complex and difficult, felt strangely simple to Qi Xuansu, as though it was an innate ability.

With this, Qi Xuansu thought, Was this special Longevity Stone Heart meant to transform me into an orthodox Wuist?!

Before Qi Xuansu could overthink further, the symbols engraved on the bronze door began to move, breaking apart into countless characters floating in midair.

The scene inside the great hall appeared before the two of them, the same as what Qi Xuansu had glimpsed in his trance.

Before Qi Xuansu could speak, Qi Jiaoyao had already rushed ahead to the alchemical furnace and opened its door. A dense medicinal fragrance, tinged faintly with the scent of blood, immediately spread through the air.

Unfortunately, the furnace did not contain what Qi Jiaoyao had been longing for.

This left Qi Jiaoyao deeply disappointed.

Before Qi Xuansu’s eyes, fragments of past flashbacks interwove continuously with the present reality.

From Elder Yao’s perspective, Wu Gu had been pierced through the chest by a long sword formed from condensed lightning.

Even after thousands of years, the lightning had not dissipated. Wu Gu had one hand gripping the thunderbolt in her chest, as if trying to pull it out. However, a wave of ice qi had frozen both her and the lightning in place, turning her into a block of ice standing behind the furnace, forever locking her in that moment, unchanged for a millennium.