Volume 1, Chapter 10 – Bai Xiang’s Dao

“Uncle Fu.”

Sliding into the front passenger seat, Zhou Ji called to the driver.

He was a dark‑skinned, white‑haired middle‑aged man, his frame seeming a little shrunken, his smile kindly and gentle.

But Zhou Ji wouldn’t dare underestimate him; he had seen “Uncle Fu” in action with his own eyes.

A dozen guards on the verge of forging their swords had rushed him and been beaten by Uncle Fu with nothing but a thin bamboo stick… Zhou Ji guessed Uncle Fu was at least a master who had completed the Dao’s initial three realms. And from how he almost never used a sword, Uncle Fu might even have a named blade of his own.

“I don’t get it…” Zhou Ji turned his head toward the window, staring at the surge of people at No. 1’s main gate.

“Did something big happen?”

Commissioned to “teach someone a lesson,” he’d not only been humiliated for nothing—he’d botched the job. With the pot of “poisoning” finally slammed onto his head, Zhou Ji felt himself unable to explain it away; his mood and spirit had both hit bottom.

But that had been ten‑odd minutes earlier.

After a harsh scolding from Inspector Han and admonitions from Ma Bolan and the others, Zhou Ji had figured he and Tang Min were doomed to be hauled off to the Inspectorate to sit in a cell and await arraignment—only for Han Li to suddenly take a call and then slip away with Zhao Xiaoqin.

Ma Bolan took a call too. Zhou Ji noticed how grave Ma’s expression was. When he hung up, he just waved the two of them off and specifically told them not to return to the dorms—go stay off‑campus tonight.

Together with the school throwing open both gates to funnel people out, even a slow‑witted (月费群694936135) Zhou Ji realized something else had happened on campus.

“And the girl you paid off?”

Uncle Fu started the car and asked in passing.

“Tang Min? I gave her some cash and told her to get a room at the inn across the way.”

Zhou Ji said it lightly.

Tang Min had left with him; she’d been there when Uncle Fu called.

The girl had clearly guessed something and had tried to beg him to take her along.

But Zhou Ji had no interest—he always drew a hard line on that front.

Playing around outside was one thing, but if his old man Zhou Lue found out he’d dared bring that kind of girl into the car, he’d be skinned alive at home.

“Wrong approach.” Uncle Fu sighed faintly.

“When you use a woman to do something, you can’t rely on profit alone. You have to move her on top of rewarding her.”

“If it were Ying Xing handling it, he wouldn’t have let the girl in the car either, but he’d have given her far more money and, when parting, fussed over her and told her to pick a safe hotel.”

“Uncle Fu—” Zhou Ji dragged out the words, impatient. “Can we not bring him up? I know you were waiting because you heard something in advance. Just tell me—what the hell is going on?”

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“I’ve already heard the gist from the Dao Master.”

Uncle Fu drew out a cigarette and held it in his teeth without lighting it, just sucking on the filter now and then.

“You agreed to warn Bai Shengju for the Chai girl—with a laxative. But the laxative inexplicably turned into a deadly poison. Now that the Inspectorate is involved, Zhang Longze is playing it safe and won’t step in… Did I get that right?”

“Exactly!” Zhou Ji ground his teeth, then glared. “So why did they suddenly stop pursuing it?”

“Stopped because something bigger came up, of course.” Uncle Fu chuckled and went on: “You know that poisoning case in Zezhou?”

“Vaguely…” Zhou Ji thought. “They couldn’t identify the toxin, right?”

He found it laughable.

So many experts and doctors piled together, stumped by a mere toxin.

Wasn’t that like a high‑schooler not knowing how to use a microscope?

“Of course they couldn’t.” Uncle Fu nodded. “Because it wasn’t a toxin. It was a Demon Pool aberration.”

“…Really?”

Zhou Ji blinked, then sat bolt upright.

Only just now had it occurred to him—given how weird today had been, could it also be the work of a Demon Pool?

“A Demon Pool?” he demanded, eyes wide. “Someone drove a Demon Pool to fake a poisoning? To pin it on me?”

“Not an ordinary Demon Pool.” Uncle Fu nodded again, sighing. “From how Zhang Longze began evacuating people at once, the affected area’s quite large.”

“The Zezhou poisoning might have been just a test. This time, they’re making their move.”

“…Why?” Zhou Ji stared, then questioned.

“At whom?”

“Who did it?”

“Yaoxian Dao?”

“Zhengwo Dao?”

“Jinchan Temple?”

“Or… remnants of the Xuan Dynasty?”

“Target unknown, but likely not the Xuan remnants or Jinchan.” Uncle Fu analyzed. “Their noses are in the clouds; they think themselves orthodox and wouldn’t use methods like these.”

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A range‑type Demon Pool, willing to butcher innocents for experiments.

Zhou Ji shivered and conceded it wasn’t those two factions.

“Then it’s the demonist sects like Yaoxian Dao.” he muttered. “Didn’t think Qizhou had them now…”

“Whoever it is, they plan to pin it on Qingya.”

Uncle Fu summed up as he drove.

“So your father told me to fetch you.”

“Don’t show your face again until the dust settles.”

…

Something’s off.

In the dark, Bai Xiang slowly opened her eyes.

She took out her phone and checked the time: 19:30—half past seven in the evening.

After calling Zhou Ji and Tang Min away, that Mr. Ma had left her sitting this long without word of whether she could go. That development wasn’t normal.

Even if the school didn’t want to deal with her, Inspector Han Li should have come to take her statement.

For both the school and the Inspectorate to ignore her at once—Bai Xiang immediately realized something unusual was happening outside.

She had no intention of waiting longer. She opened the classroom door into the corridor and leaned over the railing to look down.

Rain was pouring. A jumble of red, purple, blue, yellow… raincoats and umbrellas squeezed together, chattering as they streamed slowly toward the gates.

Something had happened.

Bai Xiang was sure now.

Evacuating students at this hour—Grandpa’s worry had come true…?

“Bai Xiang! You’re still here!”

Ma Bolan popped out of a bend and, seeing Bai Xiang, let out a small breath.

Then his tone snapped taut again: “Didn’t you hear the announcement?”

Bai Xiang glanced back at the classroom door.

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Ma looked inside too and only then remembered—this was one of the school’s oldest classrooms, already mothballed; broadcasts couldn’t reach here.

A little abashed, he reached to tug the student along.

“Well, now you know! Don’t just stand there—downstairs, now!”

“Mr. Ma.”

Bai Xiang lifted a hand to avoid him, faintly frowning.

“May I know what happened?”

Ma was silent, then said, “That thermos of yours… it wasn’t ordinary water.”

“Source is the lab building?”

“Yes.” Ma nodded. “A Demon Pool may have manifested… Inspector Han and Inspector Zhao are already there stabilizing things, and several dojo instructors too… Enough talk! You’re coming with me!”

“Mr. Ma.”

Bai Xiang stepped back, slipping his grasp again.

“I want to know whether my classmate, Chen Jing, is also in the lab building.”

Huh?

Ma was stunned.

Students in the lab this late?

He hadn’t heard a thing!

But Bai Xiang remembered clearly—Chen Jing had left with Gao Feng. And she hadn’t sent a single text or call, which didn’t fit her noisy personality.

Chances were good she’d quietly followed the teachers who took the thermos to the lab.

Thinking that, Bai Xiang skirted past Ma and faced the corridor leading to the lab building.

“Bai Xiang?”

Ma roared. Right then a bolt of lightning split the black sky, briefly lighting his snarling face.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“This isn’t your concern!”

“Even if it is… Inspector Han and the others will bring your classmate back!”

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“Do you hear me!”

“Bai Xiang!!!”

He might be from the Moral Education Office, but he didn’t practice sword dao—he was just a commoner.

If Bai Xiang insisted on going, he couldn’t stop her.

Rumble…

Bai Xiang had already gone a ways. After passing two corridor junctions, she stopped where she was.

Riding the thunder, a gale slanted rain through the opening, soaking the floor—and her white hoodie.

“Mr. Ma.”

Bai Xiang turned her face to the side.

“As I recall, demon rampages in ancient times were far worse than now. Many villages and towns were wiped out by aberrations.”

“Back then, as long as you were a sword‑track student—so long as you had entered the Dao—anyone who heard of danger burned with righteous anger and drew their sword to go aid.”

“And now, No. 1 has over twenty who’ve entered the Dao.”

“I have a question.”

“I can’t be the only one facing this way, can I?”

This…

Ma Bolan stared, speechless.

“Is that so.”

Bai Xiang shut her eyes.

“To be wise and prudent, to preserve oneself—yes, that’s a sensible choice.”

“But…”

Crack!

Another bolt cut through the curtain of rain, lighting the golden eyes the sword student opened.

“This isn’t the Dao I want.”