Volume 2, Chapter 66 – Opening (Two-in-One)

Bai Xiang arrived at the venue around nine-twenty. After taking her seat, the only things she did besides asking Xiang Xian for instruction on the Splitting-Light Multiple-Images Sword Formula and some knowledge and experience from the Sword Dao circle were all on her phone.

She remembered Bai Shengju’s request to check in safe. Even though she’d already sent a message last night, she still sent another one this time, attaching photos she’d taken along the way on her phone.

Bai Shengju didn’t reply, probably because his phone wasn’t on him for the moment.

Bai Xiang also chatted with Yu He and learned that, after internal reorganization, the Demon Suppression Bureau in the Qi region had in fact caught a mole.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】: You’ll never guess how we caught him!

Seeing that line, Bai Xiang backed out of the chat and tapped the freshly updated avatar of another friend—she was looking to talk to Xu Xi.

She actually wasn’t very keen on getting involved with Xu Xi. Back then, she’d never really planned on saving this girl in the first place; she’d even had the thought of killing her. So she felt that the gratitude she was receiving didn’t match what she’d actually done. If she could avoid contact, that would be best.

There was an even bigger reason: Xu Xi loved talking with her about the Yaoxiang Rankings and kept sending anonymous comments to tease Bai Xiang.

“Lady Xiang took third on the Fragrance List so easily, and she did it at an age when she hasn’t even enrolled yet. There’s never been such a thing in all of history—this really counts as a first!”

“Does Lady Xiang know? A lot of people say you ought to have been the Fragrance List champion. They say that when everyone voted, they all voted for you unanimously, but somehow in the end you were only third. Many people have written to Yujing to protest because of this~”

“About this, after discussing it, we all feel… it must be that some people are too rigid and old-fashioned, chasing after so-called ‘classical beauty’, and that’s what dragged Lady Xiang’s votes down.”

“I’m not saying Lady Xiang doesn’t have classical beauty~ mainly it’s your features, your makeup, and in that judging system the most important things—your skin tone and hair color. Actually, I think if Lady Xiang wore her hair up, she’d look amazing!”

…Which was exactly why Bai Xiang wasn’t that eager to talk to her.

If Xu Xi had only said these things, Bai Xiang could have tolerated it. But later, she started sending screenshots of comments that were way too “unrestrained”.

They were all anonymous, after all—so you could imagine the kind of things people were exchanging.

Luckily, Xu Xi had picked up from her attitude that she didn’t like it. Since Bai Xiang had reached out first this time, Xu Xi didn’t bring any of that up again and instead enthusiastically introduced what was fun around campus, even saying that after the event she could take Bai Xiang around for a proper tour.

“By the way,” Xu Xi asked again, “there’s something I wanted to ask Lady Xiang… When I was coming over from the Sword Institute, everyone was saying that Dao Lord Xiang and Dao Lord Li had some kind of clash. Do you know what exactly happened?”

Worried her own Dao Lord hadn’t been able to smooth things over and had eaten a silent loss, huh.

After thinking for a bit, Bai Xiang used the excuse that she’d been following from farther away and hadn’t seen clearly, brushing the question off casually.

After chatting a while, she switched back to Yu He’s chat and saw that he had indeed already written out what had happened.

To put it bluntly, it was a high-tech crime so simple it couldn’t have been any simpler.

The mole had used a foreign-made bugging device. He’d brought it in under the identity of a house servant and installed it on the owner’s radiator.

The servant himself would never have had a problem if you only checked his identity. If it hadn’t been for some bored kids at home with nothing better to do, gathering a bunch of little friends upstairs and downstairs to bang on the radiators and study “secret codes” until they vibrated the device loose, it would’ve been hard to secure a conviction.

At the end, Yu He even sighed over how cautious Bai Xiang had been. Fortunately, she hadn’t said anything in the group at the time and had gone straight for Nammu Company’s headquarters, which was the only reason they’d managed to nab that whole bunch in one go.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】: We also dragged out some informants. One of them is connected to Tao Xingxuan, but not very deeply. The trail broke off once it reached Ze Prefecture.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】: And Tao Xingxuan himself is pretty interesting. We looked into his rise and his network and found that he managed to take off because he was personally recommended by Yao Qingyuan. So the push for the New Law can’t be separated from Yao Qingyuan either.

Yao Qingyuan was the real name of the Prince of Nanling.

According to rumor, that wasn’t his original name. He’d changed it on purpose to put the previous generation of the Imperial House at ease.

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【Bai Zhixing】: Ze Prefecture doesn’t have a Demon Suppression Bureau?

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】: Nope! Ze Prefecture is the turf of the Prince of Nanling and Shangqing! Never mind the Demon Suppression Bureau of the Qi region—even Shangqing has been squeezed by the Nanling Prince’s household so hard they can only play local tyrant along the Jingshui.

The Nanling Prince’s household again.

Bai Xiang frowned.

She noticed that in the shadows there seemed to be many threads which looked messy and directionless, but all ultimately pointed toward Ze Prefecture, toward the territory under the Nanling Prince’s jurisdiction.

Take the Demon Pool “Shenli” for example. The earliest reports had come from Ze Prefecture. Those bounties and pleas for help from pharmaceutical companies had also originated there.

This time Nammu Company’s collusion with Reef Company was also tied to Demon Pool experiments. So this experiment and the “Shenli” experiment very likely used the same large laboratory—and the location was very likely in Ze Prefecture.

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】: Our jurisdiction only covers the Qi region… there’s no way to keep investigating beyond that.

【Bai Zhixing】: What about the lab results for the Marrow-Washing Pills?

【Heaven-Breaking Sword】: Nothing turned up. All we can do is look into Qingyun Pharmaceuticals and see if their plant or labs have left any traces.

It was a public setting, after all. Bai Xiang kept her hand covering her screen while she checked the messages, and when she was done she had a clear idea in mind.

Chances were, operations targeting Qingyun Pharmaceuticals were about to begin.

Just then, thunderous cheers broke out in the venue. Bai Xiang immediately shut off her screen and looked up to see a group of dark brown–skinned people coming out of a tunnel in scattered formation, making a circuit of the field amid the students’ applause and cheers.

This was the Luohou delegation.

Seeing the introduction on the big screen and the Luohou national flag held aloft by the person in front, Bai Xiang understood.

She glanced at Xiang Xian, only to see her sitting even more properly than herself.

But her eyes had been closed from earlier on. Bai Xiang couldn’t tell whether she was Nurturing the Spirit or actually asleep.

After a moment’s thought, Bai Xiang stopped playing with her phone too and just sat obediently by Xiang Xian’s side, watching the entrance ceremony for the three teams and the opening speeches.

The Luohou team had roughly twenty people.

The Qingze team had a dozen or so.

The largest was Qizhou University’s own team, with a full fifty to sixty people.

The circuit of the field and the speeches alone wasted at least an hour. By the time Principal Wang Lun passed the microphone to Wang Ran behind him, Wang Ran had to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

He was a cultivator and a Dao Lord to boot, but his speech was much more concise and efficient. After a few words of encouragement, he directly announced the start of the “exchange matches”, drawing thunderous applause from the whole audience.

【Ahem…!】

At the same time, a male student’s cough came from the sound system.

【All right… this is the Qizhou University Publicity Department! I’m your old friend, Wen Qingxuan! I’ll be explaining the progress of the matches this time too!】

As the curtain rose, the names of one participant after another began flashing quickly across the screen. They’d actually mixed all three sides’ people together and formed four groups, assigning them to the four platforms currently in the field for their duels.

“Too many people.”

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At this point, Xiang Xian finally opened her eyes and casually commented on this competition format.

“The host has registered too many of their own. They really had no choice but to use this method to get rid of some people quickly and sift out those destined protagonists.”

Master seemed to put a lot of stock in “destiny”.

Bai Xiang glanced sideways at her.

This was probably the first time Xiang Xian had ever mentioned “fate” in front of Bai Xiang, but for some reason, Bai Xiang just had a feeling that Xiang Xian was a firm believer in it deep down.

Was it the influence of the Jade Spirit Mingxin Method?

If you calculate everything, calculate everything to excess, you might end up believing in fate because of the very path of calculation itself. There were precedents for that.

Just then, Wang Ran and Li Sheng, who had just finished their speeches, walked over side by side and found their way to this “guest seating area”.

Li Sheng shot a slanted glance over here, said nothing, then turned away and sat down at the far end of the row.

Wang Ran stroked his beard and sat beside Xiang Xian, starting to chat with her about matters concerning the competition.

“For this Reclamation exchange, I wonder who Dao Lord Xiang thinks will stand at the summit?”

Although there hadn’t been detailed introductions of every participant, they’d all made a circuit of the field. Wang Ran didn’t believe Xiang Xian couldn’t see how deep the younger generation’s waters ran.

“So that’s why you dragged me over here,” Xiang Xian said with a little laugh and a meaningful tone. “Turns out I’ve been pulled in as an arbiter of orthodoxy.”

With her eye, she could tell at a glance that many in the Luohou delegation had walking posture and overall qi flow extremely similar to Benling disciples.

Thinking again of Benling’s origins, it was easy for her to guess that the other side had likely managed to win over a Fuhu Temple branch that had gone abroad years ago. It was even possible that this Yu clan had, over years of bloodline mixing, been assimilated by the locals.

This could be considered a big trump card for the Luohou people.

Not only were they using Fuhu Temple’s power to vie for leadership of the Reclamation Operation; if they really won, there would definitely be more disputes later on over the origin of Benling, especially over that “Spirit Tiger Visualization Chart”.

“As expected of Dao Lord Xiang.”

Wang Ran stroked his beard, still smiling very amiably.

“I’m afraid I can’t help with that,” Xiang Xian shook her head. “If they start making a scene here, I can step in. But I doubt they’re that foolish.”

Wang Ran nodded. “They certainly aren’t.”

“And what kind of competition would ever come down to us taking the field?” Xiang Xian glanced at Bai Xiang, deliberately putting on a troubled expression. “As for if the Luohou people do win the lead and start using that to make a fuss over origins afterward—that’s an internal dispute within your own Dao. As an outsider, I really shouldn’t get involved.”

She was absolutely right.

There were grudges between some of the Nine Daos, but one unspoken rule among them was that if a dispute involved internal branches, outsiders were not allowed to interfere.

Was Fuhu Temple a Benling branch?

Yes.

Did that count as an internal Benling dispute?

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It did.

All right, then Yuming Sword Dao couldn’t stick its hand in.

Unless Fuhu Temple resorted to violence and tried to storm the Benling Pagoda Tower to snatch something by force, it really wasn’t appropriate for outsiders to interfere.

But odds were they wouldn’t be that stupid.

They understood the rules too.

“Ahem!”

Wang Ran coughed a few times, glanced at Bai Xiang somewhat awkwardly, then asked Xiang Xian with a fawning smile, “Well… I was wondering where Lady Xiang plans to study in the future?”

“She’s already my Yuming disciple, so naturally she’ll be going back to Yujing with me to study,” Xiang Xian replied.

Wang Ran’s expression shifted several times before he added, “Then… could we maybe arrange for her to be an ‘exchange student’ in advance?”

This old man really had no shame. He was working his abacus in the Qi region, but people all the way in Yujing could hear it.

It even made Bai Xiang turn her head to look at him. He gave her a smile in return.

That instantly made Bai Xiang think of Chan Master Wenluo, Chan Master Daokong, and Master Hua’an, and her heart started to thump a little, suspecting that people who ate vegetarian and chanted sutras all day were more or less all a bit problematic.

Meanwhile, the matches in the field were in full swing.

Xia Ran walked onto the platform with his sword on his back and fixed his gaze on the dark-skinned burly man standing opposite him. He first observed the man’s lower-body stance for a bit, then unconsciously furrowed his brow and muttered, “This is a mess.”

“You should step down yourself,” he told the man, looking up. “Your Submerging Dragon Stance is all wrong. This stance is about ‘the dragon lurking in the depths, astonishing the world in a single roar’. Without sixteen years of bitter cultivation, it’s not going to amount to anything. You’re… clearly just too impatient.”

In his view, his opponent’s upper body and lower stance weren’t keeping rhythm together; there was a very slight disconnect.

That meant the man had indeed put in hard work on the Submerging Dragon Stance and achieved decent results. But because Submerging Dragon was the kind of stance where if you didn’t succeed you ended up crippled, these people had probably used external means to force their growth just to keep up with this “exchange”.

Like drugs.

Or spirit infusion.

“Enough nonsense!”

His opponent had a bad temper. He hefted his war sword and, the moment the green light came on, charged straight at Xia Ran.

In his life, what he despised most were these pampered Yu pretty-boys!

His mama had been tricked away by a swordsman from the lands of Yu! She’d been missing ever since, with no word at all!

And every time Xia Ran won a match, he drew raucous cheers from the whole crowd, with flocks of girls waving their handkerchiefs at him!

He couldn’t stand it!

He was going to defeat this Yu youth and let these idiots see what was what!

The burly man’s build was already massive, and now the field had been divided into four platforms, each with limited space. With his long arms and legs swinging that huge sword in great hacking arcs, an ordinary person caught in that space would really have a hard time dodging and would be forced to trade blows head-on.

But Xia Ran dodged every one of them.

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The Submerging Dragon Stance came from the Thirty-Six Stances of Fuhu Temple. Every stance, once mastered, could give rise to a matching footwork and sword art. They all shared the same root and formed an integrated whole. Paired with the exclusive “Spirit Tiger Heart-Vessel Chart” and the divine powers of the Benling Tiger Demon Pool, each set was extremely powerful—a rare and marvelous art.

But as Xia Ran had said, this man’s stance wasn’t fully trained.

Submerging Dragon emphasized explosive power. Because his movement wasn’t coordinated, his footwork and sword art couldn’t mesh perfectly, leaving tiny hitches that ordinary people would never notice.

Xia Ran took advantage of this to keep dodging, guiding the big man into chasing him around the platform in a flurry of wild slashes. The man was soon exhausted, standing in place with his hands braced on his hips, panting, while Xia Ran remained calm and composed, his sword still sheathed on his back, not even a drop of sweat on his face.

A wave of laughter rose from all around, mixed with that damned commentator using a few “Yu idioms”… The burly man’s eyes went bloodshot. With a roar, a ring of blood-red demonic aura burst from his body, and he gripped his sword and charged at Xia Ran again.

“Bang!”

Their figures crossed in a flash, and the burly man pitched forward, flying off the platform. His upper body slammed into the pillar at the edge, dragging a trail of blood as he slid down.

A teacher immediately jumped up to check on him, then waved a hand toward the audience. The lights on that platform turned green at once, and the big screen flashed with a graphic announcing Xia Ran’s victory.

Boring.

Xia Ran walked off the platform, rubbing his fingers.

Even though this was a Fuhu Temple branch, they’d been away from Yu culture for too long. He suspected they’d been practicing some things purely by rote.

For example, some phrases from the sutras—explaining them clearly required a deep accumulation of Yu culture.

You all immersed yourselves in foreign lands and sure, that bought you some temporary comfort. But if you think you can come back and fight over anything on that alone…

His eyes grew cold.

I won’t allow it.

“Bang!”

“Argh!”

Just then, he suddenly heard a dull thud and a scream. He turned and saw a figure flying off another platform and crashing heavily onto the grass.

At this distance and height, it wouldn’t be light even with grass.

Xia Ran looked back up at the platform and met the gaze of the bald, dark-skinned youth he’d seen earlier.

The big screen promptly flashed a graphic: 【No. 31! Alnan-Bolu wins!】

I’ll tear you apart.

The bald youth stared at Xia Ran, silently mouthing the words.

Xia Ran smiled.

He nodded in that direction and mouthed back:

I’ll be waiting.