Chapter 1745: The Head

Zhou Mengyao did not answer directly. Instead, she looked toward the headless corpse. “Let’s first confirm the identity of these remains.”

Qi Xuansu had no objections. “I’ll leave it to you, Madam San.”

He knew his own limitations. In this regard, he was far inferior to Zhou Mengyao. Setting aside her Immortal cultivation, her age alone gave her an enormous advantage. Even though many confidential matters were no longer kept from Qi Xuansu, that did not necessarily mean he knew about them. After all, he still had to take the initiative to learn about these matters, and that required time.

The Daoist Order’s secrets were like a vast library of scriptures. Even if there were no restrictions and he could now browse its contents freely, it would still be impossible to read everything in just a year or two.

The same principle applied to being the Grand Master. In name, the Grand Master possessed virtually unlimited authority. However, to exercise that authority to its fullest extent and truly live up to the title required an immense investment of energy, so much so that one barely had a moment to rest. If the Grand Master did not wish to personally oversee every matter and desired a more leisurely existence, delegating authority would become inevitable. Yet handing power to others carried the risk of being deceived or even reduced to a figurehead.

While Zhou Mengyao went to examine the mortal shell, Qi Xuansu turned to Long Xiaobai and asked, “Xiaobai, how many days have you been here?”

Long Xiaobai replied, “Just like last time, I was transported directly beside the alchemy furnace. There’s no daylight here, and I can’t get out either. I’d say it’s been less than 10 days.”

Qi Xuansu did some calculations. Based on Li Yuanjing’s 3,000 years, a little over two months should indeed have passed in the mortal world. However, when he and Zhou Mengyao traveled to Cangyun Fortress in the yin realm, they had experienced two instances of temporal distortion. Once was in the mist atop the city walls and again when they entered the Commander’s Office in the yin realm. More importantly, Qi Xuansu had also deliberately used the Guizang Lantern to perform a localized reversal of time. As a result, those two months had been shortened even further. With that in mind, the timeline made sense.

Qi Xuansu asked another question. “Also, what’s up with the Innkeeper? Have you been fighting him for nearly ten days?”

Long Xiaobai replied, “He only arrived here yesterday. We had a disagreement and immediately started fighting. It took quite a bit of effort to exhaust his divine power. He was rather troublesome to deal with.”

Qi Xuansu frowned. “In other words, the Innkeeper wasn’t teleported directly here like you were. He entered from outside. But how did he manage to get in?”

Qi Xuansu’s doubts were entirely justified. He and Zhou Mengyao were a Pseudo-Immortal and an Immortal, respectively. Moreover, they had many immortal objects at their disposal. Even with all that and a measure of luck, they had still endured countless hardships to reach this place. They had lost Su Yuanzai’s multi-decked ship and the Myriad Manifestations Body along the way.

On the other hand, the Innkeeper was merely a Zaohua-stage Heavenly Being. What gave him the ability to reach this place?

He certainly could not have entered by relying on his cultivation alone. That left only one explanation—the Innkeeper possessed something akin to a key that allowed him to bypass the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon.

It was even possible that the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon itself was somehow connected to the Innkeeper. That was because Su Yuanzai had visited this place numerous times without incident. So why had something gone wrong on this particular occasion?

There were four variables in this situation: Zhou Mengyao, Qi Xuansu, Long Xiaobai, and the Innkeeper.

In fact, Long Xiaobai could be ruled out first because she had already been here once before. Moreover, she had been teleported directly into the core area.

Next were Zhou Mengyao and Qi Xuansu, who were both victims. That left only the Innkeeper, who was nowhere to be seen and had somehow managed to avoid the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon. As such, the Innkeeper was undoubtedly the prime suspect.

This raised another question. Whether it was a key that allowed unrestricted passage or some mechanism for controlling the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon, where had the Innkeeper obtained such a thing?

The Innkeeper could not have possibly acquired this key on his own. With the Daoist Order having developed to its present heights, fortuitous opportunities lying undiscovered in the outside world had become exceedingly rare. Even Qi Xuansu’s own fortuitous encounters, including the Longevity Stone Heart and his other immortal objects, had essentially all originated from the Daoist Order.

Thus, he concluded that this key must have been provided by the Great Xuan Imperial Court.

Given that the Great Xuan Imperial Court used to be the Northern Daoist Sect, it was not surprising that it possessed such resources and foundations.

With that, everything began to make sense.

The Great Xuan Imperial Court knew that the extraordinary phenomena in Yunmeng Marsh were connected to the Azure Heaven and wanted to claim the opportunity for itself. However, fearing that it might alert the Daoist Order, the court could not openly dispatch its own people. Instead, it entrusted the matter to The Inn, which specialized in carrying out the court’s dirty work.

Under normal circumstances, The Inn’s Owner should have personally undertaken the mission. Unfortunately, he had been injured by Zhou Mengyao, so the Innkeeper had to step in as a temporary replacement.

Sending only the Innkeeper was not overly reckless because secrecy was the key to success. After all, the Imperial Court’s priority was to avoid bringing this matter to the Daoist Order’s attention.

Unfortunately for them, Su Yuanzai had already discovered the extraordinary phenomena in Yunmeng Marsh. The only saving grace was that he had yet to realize these phenomena were connected to the Azure Heaven.

If the Imperial Court dispatched a large contingent of powerful experts, it would undoubtedly arouse Su Yuanzai’s suspicions. Feeling that the situation was slipping beyond his control, Su Yuanzai would immediately report the matter to the Daoist Order, defeating the entire purpose of maintaining secrecy.

Moreover, given Su Yuanzai’s status as an Omniscient Sage and Mansion Master, they could not simply kill him. Their only option was to send the Innkeeper alone, lulling Su Yuanzai into a false sense of security and making him believe that everything remained under control. That way, Su Yuanzai would refrain from reporting the matter to the Daoist Order, allowing the Imperial Court to wait for an opportunity to act.

Back when the Daoist Order dispatched Qi Xuansu to the Southern Continent, his cultivation had been roughly on par with the Innkeeper’s current level. One could hardly argue that the Daoist Order possessed the boldness to undertake such a gamble while the Great Xuan Imperial Court did not. The only difference was that Qi Xuansu had succeeded, whereas the Innkeeper had failed.

Then again, the Innkeeper had come remarkably close to succeeding. Had Qi Xuansu not brought Long Xiaobai along and unexpectedly interfered, the Innkeeper would already have achieved his objective. If Long Xiaobai had accompanied Qi Xuansu into the body of the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon and similarly suffered a severe loss of cultivation, the Innkeeper might even have been able to take on all three of them single-handedly.

Who could have anticipated that Long Xiaobai would be transported directly into the core area, allowing her to conserve her strength while waiting for her exhausted opponent, ultimately beating the Innkeeper to death?

This was truly a case of human schemes being no match for the workings of fate.

This peculiar circumstance might have something to do with the fact that Long Xiaobai had lived in Yunmeng Marsh since childhood. She was the only native of Yunmeng Marsh among them, while everyone else was an outsider. Since the Cloud God was a deity of Yunmeng Marsh, it would also make sense if Long Xiaobai possessed some mysterious connection to the Cloud God or had inherited some form of the deity’s legacy.

This could be interpreted as the Cloud God making a special exception for Long Xiaobai, who had been born in Yunmeng Marsh, thus granting her preferential treatment through some unseen influence. For her, entering the Cloud God’s pocket realm was practically like returning home.

With this thought in mind, Qi Xuansu quickly walked over to the Innkeeper’s corpse and thoroughly searched it.

Sure enough, just as he had expected, Qi Xuansu discovered a withered human head inside the Innkeeper’s magical receptacle.

From the human head to the headless corpse and the human-faced “mask” on the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon’s manifestation now seemed connected.

Before Qi Xuansu could give the matter further thought, Zhou Mengyao had also more or less determined the corpse’s identity. “Tian Yuan, I believe I know which Immortal these remains belong to.”

Qi Xuansu asked, “Who?”

Zhou Mengyao enunciated each syllable. “Wang Jujun.”

Qi Xuansu asked again, “What makes you say that?”

Zhou Mengyao explained, “There are traces of the body having been pieced back together, indicating that it was once dismembered. Quite a few Immortals meet that particular criterion. However, among those, there was only one who wore imperial attire and lived before the Yellow Turban Uprising—Wang Jujun. Most importantly, after Wang Jujun’s death, his head was severed and subsequently preserved by successive royal families throughout the generations.”

Qi Xuansu nodded slightly. “Just as I thought.”

Zhou Mengyao asked, “You don’t seem surprised at all?”

Qi Xuansu took out the human head. “Because I found this, which happens to align perfectly with your deduction.”

Zhou Mengyao was momentarily stunned before quickly realizing what it was. “Wang Jujun’s head?”

Qi Xuansu replied, “Most likely. I found it on the Innkeeper. As you know, the Great Xuan Imperial Court is the power behind The Inn. So it makes perfect sense that this head, which has been preserved by successive imperial families throughout history, would eventually end up in the hands of the Great Xuan royal family.”

Zhou Mengyao rolled her eyes upward as her mind raced. “That explains everything. The true core of the seal isn’t this great hall, nor is it the Cloud God’s pocket realm or the Grand Illusion Realm. It’s Wang Jujun’s corpse.

“The Red Emperor founded the Pei Dynasty and initially governed according to the Daoist Huang-Lao teachings. Later, he began using the Confucian School to counterbalance the Daoist Order. Eventually, the Imperial Court rejected the Hundred Schools of Thought and elevated Confucianism as the sole orthodox doctrine. It was the Red Emperor’s lineage that had raised the Confucian School to prominence, only to suffer a backlash from the very institution it had empowered. In the end, Wang Jujun, a Sage of the Confucian School, usurped the throne and seized power.

“King Xiao, a descendant of the Red Emperor, harnessed the power of the Azure Heaven to kill Wang Jujun, stopping the Confucian School’s first attempt to seize political power. He subsequently ascended the throne as Emperor Shizu of the Pei Dynasty. To send a warning to the Confucian School, King Xiao not only stripped Wang Jujun of his title as a Sage but also decapitated him and preserved his head in the imperial treasury. He then had Wang Jujun’s body dismembered.

“When the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, the Old Taiping Sect relied on the Yellow Heaven to defeat the Azure Heaven and overthrow the Pei Dynasty. However, they were unable to completely destroy the Azure Heaven, so they reassembled Wang Jujun’s dismembered body and sealed the Azure Heaven within it. They then constructed this great hall deep within the Cloud God’s pocket realm and placed Wang Jujun’s corpse here.

“That means Wang Jujun’s head became the key to the seal, which explains why successive royal families preserved it. It seems the Innkeeper relied on this head to summon the Azure Heaven into the world, nearly getting both of us killed in the process.”

Long Xiaobai had also been listening nearby. Her foolishness mainly manifested in her lack of understanding of social conventions and interpersonal relationships. She was not at all intellectually slow.

Upon hearing this, Long Xiaobai suddenly understood. “In other words, the Great Xuan royal family already knows what’s going on here, and their goal is to gain control of the Azure Heaven.”

Qi Xuansu’s expression turned grave. “No wonder they wanted to keep this hidden from the Daoist Order. How could something like this possibly be permitted? What does the Great Xuan royal family intend to do with an Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon?”

Zhou Mengyao replied nonchalantly, “To kill you, of course. What, did you think they wanted to kill me?”

Long Xiaobai asked curiously, “But why?”

Zhou Mengyao explained, “Because he’s a leading contender for the position of eighth-generation Grand Master. Killing me wouldn’t accomplish anything.”

Qi Xuansu remarked, “Back then, the Great Xuan Imperial Court attempted to refine the Mind Monkey at Wuxing Mountain, only to have its plans halted by the Daoist Order. Now they’re trying to obtain an Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon. The Emperor certainly has grand ambitions. It seems he’s determined to take both the Daoist Order and the Imperial Court under his control.”

Zhou Mengyao gloated, “As the old saying goes, the bird that sticks its head out gets shot, and the rafter that protrudes is the first to rot. The tallest tree in the forest is the first to be battered by the wind. You’re precisely the one to get battered first.”

Qi Xuansu glared at her. “Madam San, don’t celebrate too soon. It’s precisely because of the Great Xuan Imperial Court’s ruthless ambitions that the Zhengyi Sect and Quanzhen Sect have decided to join forces. We’re on the same side now. Whether the Taiping Sect or the Imperial Court comes to power, neither will let you off the hook.”

Zhou Mengyao replied, “Not necessarily. The Zhengyi Sect and the Quanzhen Sect may be cooperating, but they’re merely sharing a bed while dreaming different dreams. The cooperation between the Taiping Sect and the Great Xuan royal family isn’t much better. The Great Xuan Emperor wants to replicate the system used in Fenglin, where the ruler is merely a figurehead while the chief minister holds the real power. He intends to reduce the Grand Master to a ceremonial position while personally controlling the Daoist Order’s actual authority. Even if they emerge victorious, the Li and Qin families will still have to fight each other. When that happens, defeated remnants like us will become valuable allies worth rallying, much like the Confucian School during the Buddhist-Daoist conflict. But you’re a different matter. You absolutely must be eliminated. There’s no room for compromise whatsoever.”

Unable to refute her argument, Qi Xuansu merely let out a snort.

Since he had chosen to step forward and compete for the exalted position of Grand Master, he could not expect to be treated the same as everyone else.

If he were already competing to become the Grand Master yet still expected others to treat him like an ordinary person, wouldn’t that defeat the entire purpose of competing in the first place?

Members of a fallen dynasty’s imperial clan might be allowed to live, but its crown prince could never be spared.

Qi Xuansu placed Wang Jujun’s head into his magical receptacle. “Then I’ll make sure they don’t get their way. Back then, I was able to anchor the Monkey. Now, I can also grasp the Azure Heaven.”