A Pawn

Xifeng Island. Li Xijun arrived riding the snow. With a gentle flick of his sleeve, he cast out a sweep of gold. The Chongming Dongxuan Screen radiated several bands of pale golden spectral light, enveloping a radius of thirty feet around him. Wang Fu was of the Shaoyang nature, which did not belong to the Jiangnan orthodox lineage, so the screen would hardly play a decisive role. Moreover, besieging Wang Fu was already a foregone conclusion, and the Li clan had no intention of revealing this magical artifact before the others, so Li Qinghong had handed it to him to carry back. Li Xijun flew across a small islet flanking Xifeng Island. Taking this opportunity, he retrieved the artifact to shroud himself from prying eyes. Calming his heart and steadying his breath, he prayed silently within: *“Xijun, a disciple of the Li clan, respectfully invokes the Magical Mirror: seek the obscure and probe the minute, pierce the profound, illuminate the eight directions, seize ghosts and inspect gods…”* Visions instantly surfaced before his eyes. His perspective surged upward, and the range of his spiritual sense seemed to expand boundlessly. A torrent of scenery flooded his perception, and Li Xijun immersed himself within it, gazing down upon the island. He had always acted with great caution, timing this precisely as he flew past the island so that he need not halt his flight, allowing his spirit to roam across and take in everything on the island with utter clarity. The Qixing Fuling Grand Formation of Xifeng Island posed no obstacle whatsoever, letting his consciousness wander straight through. His gaze swiftly pierced the roof of the grand hall, resting upon the vast hall within—the table at the very head was completely bare, and the spot where that pitch-black box had once rested was empty. Li Xijun breathed a sigh of relief, then circled the island twice to search, but found no trace of the box anywhere. *It seems I was overthinking after all.* He flew out from the formation, about to withdraw from this state of spirit-roaming, when a glance from the corner of his eye made him freeze abruptly. On the island, two cultivators—a man and a woman—were taking flight upon flames. The man's cultivation seemed respectable; dressed in the robes of Chijiao Island, he possessed handsome, upright features. The woman was dainty and charming, holding a slender token in her hand. He shifted his gaze to the female cultivator's face. That face was so familiar it was repulsive—Li Xijun had seen this woman back when he was still in Qi Refinement: “Guo Hongyao!” “People from Chijiao Island!” Li Xijun watched in silence. Under the Magical Mirror’s insight, he caught sight of a bright light emerging from her ornate sleeve. A pitch-black jade box lay nestled within— The Mingfang Sky Stone! “The people from Chijiao Island being on Xifeng Island isn't some secret collusion between sects… Wang Fu contacted them privately! He secretly sold the Mingfang Sky Stone to Chijiao Island!” *They wanted to force my family to labor in vain for nothing! Well done, Chijiao Island! To scheme so thoroughly… they must have rushed here in haste, noticing my family moving out in full force and seizing this precise moment to swap the treasure away!* *Chijiao Island has likely observed my clan for years, convinced that we were making preparations for Zhouwei! That explains everything! All this back-and-forth interference—they will probably target Zhouwei next…* *No… it couldn't be Ximing. No matter how cunning Chijiao Island is, they would never scheme against Ximing, nor would they need to go to such lengths.* *Chijiao Island has always loved capturing and slaying those bearing karmic mandates. They must possess numerous methods of detection and observation; they must have noticed Zhouwei's uniqueness… and grown greedy.* Ximing had never taken half a step outside the family, and Chijiao Island should have had no way of knowing the clan possessed that technique, yet they still plotted against his family like this! *As expected!* The faces of those two from Chijiao Island lingered in his mind. Li Xijun let out a soft breath, rose with an untroubled demeanor, and formed an incantation seal, sweeping the painted screen back into his sleeve before riding the wind forward. Li Xijun's eyes were bright as stars, gleaming with a white mist like frost and snow that drifted and dispersed along the corners of his eyes. Guo Hongyao had once been heavily wounded by Tu Longjian; he did not know her current cultivation, nor had he ever seen the other man, leaving their strength uncertain. Whether he could overcome them remained unknown, yet Guo Hongyao hated him to the bone. Without needing much provocation, that fool would certainly strike the moment she saw him. Li Xijun rode the snow onward. After a quarter of an hour, he suddenly felt a faint itch in his heart, and his feet unconsciously drifted off course. A jolt of icy qi abruptly surged up from his sea of qi acupoint, snapping him to his senses. Keeping his course unchanged, a cold sneer rose in his heart. A Purple Mansion cultivator's spiritual sense could not pierce a formation, nor could it penetrate an obscuring artifact of this caliber; they would have to travel through the Great Void to see within. Ordinarily, with the Chongming Dongxuan Screen paired with his talisman seed, even a Purple Mansion cultivator could not eavesdrop from the side. Yet hiding within the artifact, he still dared not let slip the slightest emotion. The chill in his heart slowly ebbed as he thought to himself: Li Xijun suddenly came to a realization. A wave of cool clarity washed over his heart; he finally understood where his intermittent unease had truly stemmed from. Li Xijun closed his eyes, terrified that the cold glint in his pupils might be detected, enlightenment dawning upon him: Whether this deduction was correct, he would soon find out! Li Xijun wandered here and there, flying at his leisure, yet his thoughts grew ever clearer. Bi Yuzhuang's face surfaced before his eyes, and that woman's smiling words echoed in his ears once more: *“Who would have thought Fellow Daoist Chen would happen to be traveling here and generously lend a hand… Running into him was truly a pleasant surprise.”* *“He is the Shizi.”* *“Things went so smoothly that there was really no need to trouble Ximing and Xijun… Your noble clan need only watch; returning to preside over the family is just as well.”* Her words now made Li Xijun increasingly certain: in this entire encirclement, there had to be a Purple Mansion involved! Why had Bi Yuzhuang appeared here so abruptly? Since the Chen clan of Yuyang was hostile toward Changxiao Gate, Chen Xuanyu and Bi Yuzhuang acting together would have been more than enough to slay Wang Fu. Why had they not done so earlier? Why wait for Li Qinghong? For the three of them to join forces, wasn't that overkill? *Chen Xuanyu was dispatched later, not to ensure Wang Fu's death, but solely to prompt Bi Yuzhuang to utter that single sentence: ‘Your noble clan need only watch; returning to preside over the family is just as well.’* *The stone truly was not on the island, but neither would it be on his corpse—it was swapped away by Wang Fu… to Chijiao Island!* *And Chen Xuanyu… was the pawn brought in to replace us, backed by Hengxing and the Chen clan's Purple Mansion.* *Guo Hongyao, Wang Fu… swapping away the Mingfang Sky Stone at this very moment—what precision, what scheming!* *Chijiao Island's reaction—or rather, their move on the board—must have come out of nowhere, which is why they rushed to take the stone away at this exact moment. By the same token, Bi Yuzhuang's arrival was likewise a countermeasure from the Chen clan's Purple Mansion or Hengxing.* *Changxiaozi's stance remains unknown—perhaps he finds himself tied down—yet the fact that Changxi of Xuanyue Gate used my family to place a stone on the board has already left its marks. At its root, this matter has long been a struggle between Purple Mansion masters!* The clarity in his eyes was almost terrifying, his mind crystal clear. The sea beneath reflected a stretch of frost and snow. Protected by his talisman seed, he did not fear a Purple Mansion peering into his thoughts. He flew forward effortlessly, his expression relaxed and at ease. He opened his eyes, quietly riding the wind forward within the Chongming Dongxuan Screen, his expression tranquil. One hand already rested upon Hansu, fingers set upon the hilt, cold gleams shimmering.