Volume 1, Chapter 15 – Dingbo Slays the Demon

Before the last syllable of “Dao” had even fallen, the boy turned into a black blur, zigzagging toward Bai Xiang.

Bai Xiang was ready. She didn’t let the talk distract her for a second. With her left hand she guarded herself with the cloud-pattern wooden sword; with her right she drew the Dingbo Sword from behind and swept it across at the enemy.

“Clang—”

The blur was unbelievably fast. Bai Xiang had barely brought the blade up to intercept when a tremendous shock ran through the hilt in her right hand—the clash even rang with the sound of metal on metal.

“Blocked it?”

The shadow hopped back, revealing the boy—“Yang Xing.” He crouched low, upper body forward, five fingers on each hand lengthening into pale, razor talons. He stared at Bai Xiang in frank surprise and licked his lips. “Oh… then I really do want to recruit you…”

“Ahem!” After a cough, “Yang Xing” spoke straight: “Don’t be fooled by all those people living in peace out on the streets. It’s just the Great Yu imperial house papering things over.”

“Holdovers of the Xuan Dynasty, Jinchan Temple, the Zhengwo Dao… The Nine Provinces are already aflame in secret, and in the wilds who knows how many demon kingdoms are getting restless.”

“This is exactly, ‘When Human Principle goes awry, the Demon-Immortal Dao thrives’! Big sister, the path you’re on has already lost its omen anyway~ Why not join our great Demon-Immortal enterprise and seek the Grand Dao together?”

Bai Xiang fixed her eyes on his. “Nanping Road, that incident at Jingmao Tower—was that the Demon-Immortal Dao’s work as well?”

“Eh?”

“Yang Xing” looked surprised. “Didn’t expect big sister to remember something that old.”

“Let me think~” His eyes rolled. “Back then Wang Shou should’ve been serving as Governor of Qizhou, right?”

“He killed plenty of our people in Daizhou and thought he could hide in the rear to enjoy the good life… As if the world would ever be that kind! That incident was just a little warning for him~!”

Bai Xiang’s lashes trembled. “And what was Wang Shou’s end afterward?”

“His end?” The boy grinned, flashing two sharp fangs. “His two daughters, his wife, and the dear old mother he cherished most—had their bellies slit open and were eaten right before his eyes…”

Before the words finished, the Dingbo Sword chopped straight down. The boy let out a “Waa~~~oo!”—a cat-beast’s wail—and nimbly slipped the strike.

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“Hey, hey! So touchy!” Regaining his feet, he flashed that radiant smile again. “I really do want to bring big sister in~! Because your eyes are beautiful—and they look a lot like my kind’s~!”

“Eh…”

Faintly frowning, he noticed the stance of the white-haired girl opposite was a little odd.

Besides that annoying iron sword, she actually held another three-foot wooden sword—and… she was slowly drawing it back?

I shouldn’t have been grazed…

Just as he wondered, “Yang Xing” felt a wetness along his thigh.

He glanced down. Clear water was trickling now and then from the white flask—at some point a hard blow from outside had punched a hole in it.

“Ah… your target is ‘Shenli’…”

“Yang Xing” looked up with a smile. “A clever and cunning beauty of a big sister…”

“You’ve made it so I can’t… give a report~!!!”

“Waa~~~~oo!!!”

With another beastly roar, “Yang Xing’s” body suddenly swelled. Black hair spread to his tailbone; his eyeballs bulged like a fly’s; the corners of his mouth stretched to the front of his ear canal; a mawful of fangs… In an instant he’d become a savage, black-furred monstrosity!

“ROAR!!!” The beast kicked off, shattering brick as it launched at Bai Xiang—clearly faster than in human form!

Bai Xiang held her breath and slipped aside from the first lunge. With her heart-aspect issuing a command, the muscles around her eyes snapped taut; barely catching the beast’s afterimage, she extended the sword toward it.

She “passed” it forward—rather than any other action.

Her thinking was clear: she couldn’t match the beast by strength. She could only exploit its own speed, use the blade as a threat, and force it to shy from the edge.

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“ROAR!!!”

After several pounces that found the point faintly lining up between its brows, the beast bellowed and lunged again, swiping its paw at the keen blade.

But Bai Xiang neither flinched nor dodged. She flashed in close instead. Her left hand gripped the wooden sword at mid-blade, angling it into the oncoming pad; her right hand drove the sword straight in, the point aiming at the beast’s right eye.

Does she have a death wish?

The beast’s mind was full of shock and confusion.

At best she’d put out one of my eyes—then I’d bite off her whole upper body!

Thoughts aside, the beast had no desire to trade like that. It instantly drew back its posture and slipped sideways, taking a slash from Dingbo across the belly rather than be skewered by Bai Xiang’s thrust.

“What quick reactions!”

Landing, the beast spoke human words, though the voice was far deeper than in human form.

“Even someone perfected in Nurture-the-Spirit wouldn’t necessarily react like that—yet your strength is obviously far too low…”

“So strange. Just who are you?”

Bai Xiang panted lightly and had no intention of answering.

Suddenly, she sensed something was off.

She looked down. She still wore the black stab-resistant suit, the matching black pants, and white shoes.

But her socks had vanished.

As if she’d never worn any… And the pair of swords in her hands—at some point only the ‘Dingbo’ in her right remained?

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She whipped around—and saw another her—another self in a white hoodie and black leggings, feet in only socks, standing behind with a wooden sword in hand, eyes vacant, like a puppet on strings with its soul gone.

Demon Pool?

Her gaze dropped. At the “puppet’s” feet lay a white flask. Judging from the scene, some of the remaining poison water had splashed onto the “puppet.”

“Ha ha ha!”

The beast let out a shrill laugh.

“You schemed against ‘Shenli’—so now you’ll die by ‘Shenli’!”

“What a pity about those pretty eyes…”

“Maybe I should dig them out before you dissolve? Keep them as my private collection—and hand them in to the others…”

But I do not believe I’m already dead.

Out of body in spirit and soul, Bai Xiang instead slipped into a strange state.

“Bai Xiang? How are you feeling today?”

“Bai Xiang, you can still hold on today, huh…”

“Bai Xiang, you’re uncanny, you know that? By rights you shouldn’t be able to feel your hands or feet, yet you can still force yourself out of bed?”

“Your case isn’t simple… You’ve explained how you do that meditation training, but other patients just can’t do it.”

“How about this: you assist the hospital with observation and treatment, and we’ll keep negotiating the costs?”

Time slowed to a crawl. Fragments of her past life surfaced one after another in her mind, flickering like a lantern show gone wild.

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Watching old scenes, seeing the attending physician’s astonished face, Bai Xiang savored it carefully—and could still clearly feel the tight bond between herself and her flesh.

So, those later years really were a medical miracle.

That body had already been ruined.

The only reason it looked like it could barely move—was entirely my “thought”…

Ignoring the “split soul,” the beast strolled up to the “puppet,” leaned in, and tried to admire those golden eyes up close.

Just then! A mortal warning jolted through it!

It tried to retreat! To dodge! But the blade was faster! The “puppet” yanked the Dingbo Sword out of the void, lifted her arm, and drove the short blade straight in through its mouth!

“Squelch!”

The razor point burst out the top of the beast’s skull—and everything it was doing stopped.

Drip… drip…

Scalding beast-blood mixed with brain matter—and with Bai Xiang’s own blood—ran down her arm.

She’d used so much force the beast’s teeth tore the stab suit, carving a bloody groove along her right forearm.

But she showed no pain. In her uncanny yellow eyes, ripples welled for once.

“When the tidal bore surges on the Qiantang River—only today do I know I am myself.”

“Heh…”

“So that’s how it is.”