A Pawn's Passage

Chapter 445: Small World

chapter 445: small world

amid the raging fire, parts of the buildings in zhenwu temple began to collapse.

the diviners from the jiangnan daoist mansion arrived as well, preparing spells and talismans, which proved far more efficient than water carts for fighting this inferno.

additionally, daoist priests from huasheng hall took charge of transferring the severely injured to the local branch for treatment.

with bai yingqiong present to oversee and command the situation, the site remained relatively orderly.

zhang yuelu gazed at the sea of flames, her mood heavy. she sighed. “so much evidence has now been reduced to ashes. ye xiu is dead too. all our efforts have been destroyed, just like zhenwu temple.”

qi xuansu stood beside zhang yuelu and comforted her. “at least we made them leave behind the head of a heavenly being in exchange for all this.”

zhang yuelu turned her head to peer into the distance.

a cylindrical glass jar, about as wide as a bucket, was filled with an unknown liquid they had just obtained from the huasheng hall for preserving corpses and specimens.

inside the jar was a severed head, its white hair disheveled, and its eyes wide open, still reflecting the terror in its final moments.

it was marshal thunder.

it was hard to say who met a more miserable end—marshal thunder, who was decapitated, or marshal tianpeng, whose remains were entirely pulverized.

zhang yuelu did not have a peculiar habit of treating an enemy’s head as a trophy. she had no choice but to do this as a form of evidence, so as to prevent others from twisting the narrative later and pinning blame on her.

those who planned the attack would ultimately accuse zhang yuelu of dereliction of duty.

with this head in her possession, zhang yuelu would be in a stronger position to defend herself. after all, being able to kill a heavenly being was already the limit of a guizhen-stage banished immortal. thus, it was not justifiable to hold her accountable for not protecting the entire zhenwu temple.

it would be like giving a commander 10,000 troops to defend a city against a force of 100,000. but in the end, the 10,000 troops were sent out to engage in an open battle with this vastly superior enemy and expected to achieve victory or face punishment. no one would stand for such an unjust accusation.

the most likely scenario, however, was to blame this incident on lei xiaohuan, as she was in charge of the investigation team.

zhang yuelu withdrew her gaze and looked at the azure thunderbolt in her hand. this was marshal thunder’s relic, an extraordinary treasure and a great asset for a heavenly being.

“tian yuan, i’ve been thinking...how could marshal tianpeng disappear without a trace? deserting one’s post is a serious taboo, whether in the daoist order or in secret societies,” zhang yuelu mused. “i have a feeling that something unusual is going on. could a third party have interfered in this?”

lei xiaohuan knew this story and understood the mechanics of the small world, feeling a sense of irony. it seemed that throughout history and across cultures, disguising treasures as chessboards was an easy way to fool people.

she was tricked by it herself.

the only difference was that one was go, and the other was western chess.

lei xiaohuan tried to break the small world but quickly realized she could not. after all, she was in the ever-changing realm of martial arts practitioners, far from the shattered void realm. a diviner of equivalent level, specializing in such techniques, might have had a chance to break this small world.

the reason lei xiaohuan felt despair was because she had only heard about western chess but did not know how to play it. hence, hoping to win was nothing more than a fool’s dream.

her only option was to wait until the small world naturally collapsed over time, allowing her to escape.

however, she also understood one thing. though her life was not in immediate danger, her confinement gave ample time for other events to unfold outside.

shi luosi would not take such a significant risk just because he wanted to chat with her. she was well aware that shi luosi was not interested in her. even if shi luosi had actually lost his mind being infatuated with her, others with ill intentions would not pass up such a golden opportunity and would surely exploit the daoist order's vulnerability at this moment.

lei xiaohuan knew her husband well. based on her experience, pei xiaolou was not reliable by any measure. otherwise, pei xuanzhi would not have relegated his brother to a mere deputy palace master nor kept him from leading the investigation team.

zhang yuelu, on the other hand, was reliable but too young. she lacked sufficient experience, credentials, and cultivation. things might have been different if zhang yuelu were a heavenly being in the wuliang stage.

qi xuansu had a promising future. he shared zhang yuelu’s shortcomings but also had deficiencies that she did not. for example, he held a lower position, lacked family backing, had insufficient prestige, and lacked experience in overall coordination.

at this moment, lei xiaohuan could only hope that madam qi would arrive in time to salvage the situation.

however, madam qi was an unpredictable variable. though she was fully capable of handling matters and putting everyone at ease, she was just as likely to sit idly by and watch as the chaos unfolded. it all depended on whether she was sufficiently compensated.

if the matter was already a foregone conclusion, venting her anger on shi luosi afterward would be pointless. after all, shi luosi was a member of the holy court, and lei xiaohuan could not actually kill him.

she could only blame herself for being too careless.

dressed in a white robe, shi luosi sat in a high-backed chair made of gold and encrusted with jewels. he rested his elbow on the armrest, propping up his chin as he silently observed lei xiaohuan.

in contrast to lei xiaohuan’s fury, the cardinal deacon was extremely calm, his blue eyes as still as a serene lake.

he was fully aware of the consequences of his actions, yet he proceeded anyway. the reason was simple. he had also been dragged into this quagmire. thus, to protect himself, he had no choice but to choose the lesser of two evils.