Volume 2, Chapter 55 – Hidden Strife

“This here—these are your Senior Brothers and Sisters.”

She pointed at the photo and held her phone out to Bai Xiang.

So she wanted her to hold it and look herself… Bai Xiang took it smoothly and began carefully examining the picture.

In the group photo, Xiang Xian, unsurprisingly, sat in the center. She looked almost exactly the same as she did now.

On her left was a delicate, doll-like little girl of about thirteen or fourteen, still with a bit of baby fat in her cheeks, a pair of dark, glossy eyes that were very cute.

On the right was a pale, clean-cut youth in an old-style long robe, looking not yet eighteen. Besides the sword slung on his back, he was also holding a feather fan in his hand.

Behind them stood two more youths in their early twenties, one man and one woman. The man wore black, the woman wore purple. They were both smiling toward the camera.

“This photo was taken seventeen years ago,” Xiang Xian sighed.

“The one in black is your First Senior Brother, Song Ruhua.”

“The one in purple beside him is his younger sister—Song Chengqing.”

“I first saved the two of them from a demon riot. I saw they had some talent, so I taught them deduction first, and after they’d entered the door, they formally became my disciples.”

“The one below with the fan is Guo Rongzhi, Dao name ‘Yusuanzi.’ He specializes in the Dao of calculation and in alchemy.”

“That little girl is Liang Yu. Back then she was only this small, and now she’s already in her thirties, with a mind of her own.”

There was clear emotion in Xiang Xian’s voice.

“At the time, I happened to be teaching Liang Yu and couldn’t spare the time. I had to run back and forth between Yujing and Chilong, mostly staying in Yujing.”

“As for Nianchan, she was older than Yu’er anyway. I thought leaving her here alone wouldn’t cause any problems, but I never expected… ai.”

Without noticing it, the topic had slid onto the taboo name “Bai Nianchan.” Xiang Xian propped her fingers against her brow. After a sigh, she couldn’t bring herself to speak any further.

Bai Xiang glanced at the photo, then at Xiang Xian, who was full of regret and grief, and said, “Master, you won’t take a picture with me?”

“Hm?” Xiang Xian froze, not quite following how the topic had jumped over there.

“In the future, I’ll most likely be someone who breaks through as a Sword Lord and ascends—destined to go down in history.”

Bai Xiang looked straight at her, completely serious.

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“If Master takes a group photo with me early on, then if anyone refuses to believe you’re really my master later, you can just show them the picture.”

Eh?

Xiang Xian stared blankly for a long moment, then suddenly burst out laughing.

“Xiang’er… hah! Honestly, you really…!”

“But that’s not a bad idea.”

After laughing, Xiang Xian put on a straight face again, took the phone back, and adjusted the camera. “Then your master will take one with Xiang’er too!”

Click!

As the shutter was pressed, their figures were captured on the screen.

“My phone runs through a dedicated satellite line, you know.” One shot wasn’t enough for Xiang Xian; she snapped several more in quick succession, saying as she did, “I can send it straight to the group chat and let them all get a look at their Little Junior Sister!”

“…”

Bai Xiang was starting to regret this.

Xiang Xian’s photography skills were nothing to brag about. In the last few shots, Bai Xiang’s expression was pure disgust, and she’d been squeezed all the way to the edge of the frame by Xiang Xian.

At the same time, in Yujing City, at Baishan Dojo under Yuming Sword Dao, a phone buzzed a few times.

Beside the phone sat a woman with her hair coiled up, face like carved white jade, skin like congealed frost. She’d originally been in a meditative state, cultivating; disturbed by the vibration, she opened her eyes, picked up the phone, unlocked it, and checked the screen.

After a moment, the woman shook her head with a soft sigh. She set the phone down, got up to put on her shoes, opened the door of her side room, and called out:

“Ling’er, are you there?”

“Master.”

A girl in a green dress immediately stepped out from behind the potted greenery by the door. She first dipped in a curtsey to the coiled-hair woman, then said, “I don’t know why Master is calling for me?”

“Go ask your Senior Uncle Guo if he wants to get together tonight.”

“Can’t Master just ask him on the phone?” The girl in green looked puzzled.

The coiled-hair woman narrowed her eyes. “Are you questioning your master’s decision?”

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“Your disciple wouldn’t dare!” The girl stuck out her tongue in fright. “I’ll go right away!”

“Always fooling around.”

Watching the girl flee, the coiled-hair woman clasped her hands behind her back and shook her head.

“I should remind her to stop slacking off on her homework and cultivation.”

“Never growing up—how am I supposed to explain that to the other side?”

The scene cut back to the girl in green. She followed a pebble path over a ridge, and ahead, a dense bamboo grove came into view.

She went into the bamboo, twisting and turning through it—who knew what route she was taking—until suddenly her vision brightened. The scene ahead flipped from dim, cool green to dazzling daylight. Before her lay a secluded forest valley by a waterfall, and beside it she could see a Daoist in black robes playing a zither.

“Senior Uncle Guo!”

The girl ran up at a trot and stopped below the rock where the black-robed Daoist sat, looking up at him. “Master asked me to bring you a message—she wants to know if you want to get together tonight!”

“Hm?”

The black-robed Daoist stilled his hand on the strings and frowned down at her.

“Did your master say anything else?”

“No, that was all.”

“You didn’t ask her why she didn’t just call?”

“I did, but Master really wasn’t happy about it!”

Of course she wasn’t happy.

The Daoist gave a cold little laugh.

In a technological society, any discussion that left traces behind was creating evidence of your own crimes. Asking her that outright was no different from poking through the paper window for her; how could she possibly be pleased?

“I don’t have the time.” The Daoist said, “Go ask your Senior Uncle Song and the others. Don’t just stand here like a post.”

The girl in green pouted. “Knew you’d just kick me around like a ball!”

After she left, the black-robed Daoist pulled out his phone and swiped a few times. A look of understanding amusement crossed his face.

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“I knew it—she’s acting like she’s been provoked… so that’s what it is.”

“But that has nothing to do with me.”

“Oh, junior sister, junior sister.”

“I’d advise you to watch your step.”

Elsewhere, the girl in green had reached another dojo on the northern side of Baishan, where she went into a Daoist palace-like complex to pay her respects to two more seniors in the Dao.

“Did he say anything else?”

Song Ruhua and Song Chengqing looked at each other across the table and asked in unison.

“No.” The girl in green only shook her head. “She only told me to say that.”

After a moment’s thought, Song Ruhua took a small white-jade bottle from his sleeve and handed it to the girl.

“Take this and use it yourself.”

“And go back and tell your master I’ll go see her later.”

“Alright!”

The girl happily took the little bottle and skipped out the door.

“Maybe we shouldn’t get involved in this…” Song Chengqing frowned and looked at her dao companion.

That’s right.

They were not only brother and sister but also dao companions, and had been living together for many years.

As for what this “matter” actually was—in the end, it was still a struggle over fame and position.

Their master hadn’t taken new disciples for many years. All of Yujing assumed Liang Yu was her final disciple. And Xiang Xian did indeed dote on this youngest apprentice. No one doubted that the responsibility of inheriting the Dao lineage would fall on Liang Yu’s shoulders in the future.

Then all of a sudden, along came a “Bai family’s Miss Xiang.”

What would everyone at the dojo think?

What would the whole of Yujing City think?

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Of course Liang Yu wouldn’t be willing to accept that. All of this was an entirely predictable development.

The two of them, Song Ruhua and Song Chengqing, had been dragged back from the brink of death by Xiang Xian and regarded her as a benefactor who’d granted them new lives. They had never once thought about competing for the seat of Dao Lord.

Even when Liang Yu had just entered the sect, the two of them treated her like a blood younger sister, practically watching her grow up, and they felt deeply for her as well.

That was why Song Chengqing didn’t want to get involved—though she knew full well in her heart that Liang Yu was being a bit of a bully, that Liang Yu was throwing her weight around off the back of Xiang Xian’s past indulgence. But in the end, Liang Yu was closer to them and dearer to them emotionally—that was something this newly entered Little Junior Sister couldn’t compare with.

“Junior Sister Liang has gone a bit astray.”

Song Ruhua didn’t agree with her. “She’s taken in several children from various princely mansions and is teaching them all wrong. What she’s really after is clinging to power so she can get more cultivation resources.”

“And that ‘final disciple’ title too… Master has never once said she wouldn’t take any more disciples. Other people started that rumor, and she never denied it either!”

What was she trying to do?

Put bluntly, this was deceiving her teacher and hiding things from her superiors.

“Last time Master wanted Demon-Transforming Pills, she was pulling little tricks behind the scenes.” The more Song Ruhua spoke, the angrier he became. “She even used our names to persuade Master not to announce she was taking a disciple, and just ‘be master and disciple in truth’ with Little Junior Sister!”

“Isn’t she just afraid people will laugh at her when the news gets out? Afraid the Dao Lord’s seat won’t end up hers?”

“Senior Brother!” Song Chengqing hurriedly grabbed his arm.

“Keep your voice down…”

“I will not.” Song Ruhua glared sharply at his own younger sister. “Trading a lifetime’s reputation for a moment’s gain… She wants to swap a few measly pills for the ‘final disciple’ title? That’s some calculation! Even Yushen couldn’t predict something this outrageous!”

“Senior Brother!”

“I watched Junior Sister Liang grow up too.” Song Ruhua’s tone softened.

“If she keeps this up, she’ll only fall into the demonic path.”

“That won’t do.”

“I have to sit her down and talk this through.”