Volume 2, Chapter 25 – Killing Intent

Back at the dojo, after parting ways with Ma Yue, Bai Xiang didn’t see Chen Jing anywhere.

She hadn’t actually planned on being Chen Jing’s real master—she just wanted to put her name on it so others wouldn’t make things too hard for the girl.

That went for inside the dojo as well. Compared to everyone else, Chen Jing had no foundation at all. To keep people from slandering her as someone who’d come in through connections and back doors, Bai Xiang simply decided to make the “back door” official and cut off any rumor at the root.

So she went to find Bai Lianzhou right away and learned that after she’d left, Hu Hu had gone to call Bai Zhuqing, and Bai Zhuqing had taken Chen Jing in to see the Old Master.

“The Old Master likes her,” Bai Lianzhou said, as sparing with words as ever. “He’s having her stay where Jiang Haojing used to. Hu Hu took her to get her things.”

Got it.

Bai Xiang understood and didn’t ask any more.

Bai Lianzhou’s “seat of command” was also in the training hall—a little room screened off in a corner—so when she stepped out from behind the divider, every disciple practicing in the hall could see her.

“Senior Sister.”

“Senior Sister!”

Even though they’d already seen her a lot these days, quite a few of them still got excited, stopping what they were doing to bow in her direction.

Bai Xiang gave them a simple nod in response, and then saw in the corner a young man in a black tank top who acted like he hadn’t seen her at all, lying on a machine doing the most basic strength training.

They had this sort of fitness equipment in the hall too.

You needed a body to wield a sword. A bit of proper fitness training only made your foundation better.

At first, Bai Xiang thought the guy’s heart was utterly focused, that he was so absorbed in his training world he couldn’t pull himself out—but when she walked closer, she realized he had two earbud wires hanging from his chest and was listening to music while he trained.

Listening to music was bad enough—he was even humming along.

She’d been standing next to him for quite a while and he still hadn’t noticed.

Bai Xiang raised Feixiang Heaven and held the sheathed blade horizontally in front of his eyes.

“Hm?”

The young man jolted, turning his head in confusion.

Crap!

When he saw it was Bai Xiang, he went ghost-pale, completely forgetting the barbell in his hands. He accidentally pushed the bar up too high and then tried to sit up in a panic.

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Whoosh!

The twin plates of the machine didn’t care about common sense. They came crashing down with a rush of wind, about to turn his head into paste.

At the last split second, Bai Xiang caught the bar with one hand, pinning it in place with the end of Feixiang Heaven’s scabbard and forcing the weight to a stop, saving the young man’s life.

He looked back at the weights, then back at what Bai Xiang had just done. Only then did he realize he’d just walked out of the Gates of Hell, and he hurried to pull out his earbuds and thank her.

“Senior Sister—”

“No need.”

Bai Xiang stopped him.

“Your foundation’s better than most of the people here. Your family’s doing pretty well, aren’t they?”

This kind of equipment wasn’t something your average Sword-Track Student could just play around with.

The youth looked at most eighteen to twenty. Judging from his frame… just his muscle alone said he’d been on supplements since he was a kid.

So why was he at Shenming Sword Dao?

And with his family’s means, why wasn’t he at university at his age?

“Oh, I actually…” The young man rubbed his hands together, eyes darting around.

“What’s your name?” Bai Xiang cut him off.

She’d rather just ask than listen to him babble nonsense.

“Chen Shi!” The young man straightened at once.

He grabbed his waist bag from the side and stuffed his cassette player and earbuds into it.

Bai Xiang’s gaze lingered on the black waist bag, catching the line of white print stamped on it.

[Commemorative Waist Bag for 100 Million in Savings]

She narrowed her eyes. A lot of questions suddenly answered themselves.

“You’re very rich.”

She didn’t phrase it as a question.

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“Not that much!” Chen Shi waved both hands. “Hey, that’s all my dad’s money anyway! I’m just a spoiled wastrel! Out here messing around!”

After a short chat, Bai Xiang learned that Chen Shi’s father was Chen Shulin, the “helmsman” of Jiangnan Pharmaceuticals.

The current generation of the Chen family had three sons. Chen Shi was the second and wasn’t exactly the focus of attention at home.

As the saying went: “The eldest is cherished, the youngest is loved, the one in the middle gnaws bottle caps.” Chen Shulin put most of his energy into the eldest and youngest. Chen Shi was basically left to grow like a weed.

Annoyed by the favoritism, because of some earlier conflict with his father, Chen Shi had thrown a perfectly good university away and come back to play “local tyrant punk.”

But he was a coward at heart, and he didn’t dare actually do anything truly “punk.” Every day he just called up a bunch of people to eat, drink, and play cards in KTVs and bars.

“This!”

His eyes lit up at the mention of cards. He pulled a leather card case out of his waist bag and showed it to Bai Xiang. “Look, gold-embossed ‘Blue-Eyes White Dragon’! Cost me a ton back then!”

Kids’ trading cards.

At first, Bai Xiang had wondered if a rich young master like him had squeezed in here with some ulterior motive. Once she saw this, she finally relaxed.

Everyone knew that adults who still played with kids’ cards weren’t bad people.

As for why Chen Shi had come to learn the sword—according to him, he’d watched her matches and heard about her slaying demons and monsters, and felt inspired. He figured he wasn’t young anymore and that a real man should learn some real skills and bring honor to his family.

So he came.

That was all.

Bai Xiang had him run through some sword forms and found he’d already learned all the basic Shenming Sword movements—he just couldn’t chain them together at speed yet.

After correcting a few of his mistakes, Bai Xiang went back to Bai Lianzhou and specifically asked about Chen Shi.

“It’s like this… ahem.”

For once, Bai Lianzhou actually cleared his throat before speaking, then lowered his voice to say to Bai Xiang, “I didn’t want to take him at first.”

“Mm.” Bai Xiang’s tone dipped.

“But then his family secretly sent someone to beg me—and dropped a ten-million tuition fee on the spot.”

“Mm…?” This time, Bai Xiang’s tone rose.

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“How much?”

“Ten million.”

Bai Xiang paused. “That’s perfectly normal.”

“You think it’s normal too, right?” Bai Lianzhou nodded solemnly.

For Shenming Sword Dao to develop, to upgrade, to become one of the great Dao grounds and major sects, there was no way they could keep every rich kid out.

Without these people’s money and connections, the dojo simply couldn’t grow.

If you wanted development, that and your own strength were both indispensable.

Clearly, Bai Lianzhou had already weighed all this. So Bai Xiang didn’t need to worry any further and took her long sword back to her room.

It was a bit hot today. She stripped and took a shower first. Afterward, sitting on the edge of the bed, she took out her phone and typed in “Jiangnan Pharmaceuticals.”

A moment later, the results popped up. Bai Xiang carefully read through them and confirmed that this pharmaceutical company was one of the few with a conscience.

Evidence?

The evidence had come from someone she knew, even.

Wang Lim—the bespectacled female reporter who always had a mouth full of “principles.” Bai Xiang saw one of her articles. In it, Wang Lim listed quite a few pharmaceutical companies in the Jiangnan region, condemning them for colluding with certain hospitals to force patients to use more expensive drugs whose safety hadn’t been properly verified.

Among the lists she published, “Jiangnan Pharmaceuticals” was nowhere to be found. That put Bai Xiang completely at ease. She decided Chen Shi joining the dojo was a good thing.

It meant Shenming Sword was starting to earn recognition from the upper-middle class.

If things kept going like this and the dojo’s influence continued to grow, they would definitely return to the Seventy-Two Paths one day and fulfill Grandpa’s old wish.

But.

“Wang Lim?”

Staring at the author’s byline, Bai Xiang suddenly realized she could absolutely consult this professional when it came to investigating pharmaceutical companies.

Just as she was about to call, she looked up and saw a basket of grapes on the table.

They looked big and round, with deep purple and light green skins mottled together so that she could faintly see the flesh beneath. A few skins still had droplets of water clinging to them. The sweetness of that freshness almost seemed to hit her in the face.

Perfect—Bai Xiang was hungry.

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She walked over, picked one up and popped it into her mouth, then lifted the note pinned under the basket.

[Little Hu and I went to help Jingjing get her things. Remember to save some grapes for me, sis~]

Bai Zhuqing.

Bai Xiang recognized the handwriting at a glance—it was Bai Zhuqing’s.

With the grape’s juice in her mouth and her little sister’s smile in her mind, for a moment, Bai Xiang couldn’t quite tell what it was she was tasting.

Chen Jing’s situation…

Her thoughts spun outward.

Chen Zhien had been missing for ten days, and he wasn’t the only one. Something had definitely gone wrong at Qingyun Pharmaceuticals. Odds were high he was already dead.

Deputy Manager—nothing low about that position. Especially in a place like R&D, where every bit of information was first-hand. Chen Zhien definitely knew a lot of top-secret internal matters. What happened to him was very likely an attempt to silence him.

And given it was silencing… what reason would they have to spare his wife and child?

Old Jia’s face flashed through her mind, his words echoing in her ears.

For a moment, the image of the three Shen family members dying miserably in their inn transformed in Bai Xiang’s mind into the faces of three girls.

This might be the only chance.

Without hesitating, she tapped her phone a few more times, switched to Ma Yue’s number, and hit dial.

“Chief?”

Ma Yue sounded a little confused.

“There’s something… I’ll have to trouble you to bring the car back again.”

As she spoke, Bai Xiang stepped over the threshold and quickened her pace toward the outside.

On the horizon, the setting sun burned like blood.

That bloody light reflected in her yellow eyes, unable to drown out the blinding killing intent there.