A Pawn's Passage

Qi Xuansu did not immediately locate Spirit Guard Jia Chen’s forces. Instead, he arrived first at the main battlefield, where Spirit Guard Jia Shen’s troops clashed directly with Maeda Masao’s army.

It made little difference, since these different paths led to the same destination. Even if he had found Spirit Guard Jia Chen’s troops first, he would have ended up riding alongside them to reinforce this front. It only meant he reached here a step earlier.

Qi Xuansu swept over the battlefield from the skies. As a Wuliang-stage Martial Arts Practitioner, the dense blood qi of the army formations did not overly discomfort him. However, he clearly sensed that his other lineages, including the Banished Immortal lineage, were heavily suppressed.

The greatest impact was that he could not open the Yin-Yang Gate to the Ghost Kingdom.

This was reality in its purest form, suppressing illusion.

Madam Qi had once said that the lineage most likely to endure the end of the era would most likely be the Martial Arts Practitioner lineage. Yet even so, forming body spirits would no longer be possible. Instead, Martial Arts Practitioners might merge with Qi Refiners, becoming practitioners of hard qigong, an almost absurd path in current society. That so-called hard qigong could not even be released outward as a protective qi shield. Without the body spirits, a Martial Arts Practitioner’s physique could hardly be considered indestructible, and it could never withstand gunfire.

Shamans and Diviners would also merge, reduced to mere geomancers and psychics, relying on external tools to exorcise spirits. They would lack true spellcraft or possess it only to such a feeble degree that it was negligible. If enough believers gathered, they might accumulate a trickle of incense power. Most of their practice would devolve into trickery, using illusions as a crutch. By then, they would not be inviting gods to descend to the mortal realm. Instead, they would call upon gods to possess them, but these gods were nothing more than demons, spirits, and the like.

The Banished Immortals would, without question, be the first to go extinct. After all, when the sky collapsed, those standing highest would be the first to perish.

At that moment, a blade qi surged from below, piercing skyward and rushing straight for Qi Xuansu.

Startled, Qi Xuansu flared his wings and veered aside.

Then he saw a figure leap from the army ranks below, clad in a dark blue haori, wielding a blade that was slightly over one meter long. This was the famed meito called the Bizen Osafune Nagamitsu, also called Monohoshizao, a weapon so long it resembled a clothes-drying pole.

Though this was Qi Xuansu’s first time seeing the man in person, he had often seen portraits of him. This was none other than Katsura Yoshiyuki, one of the leaders of the Sonno-joi ronin and a renowned swordmaster. This was the very man who had once attempted to assassinate Sage Qingwei.