Volume 2, Chapter 87 – Cultivating Bai Zhuqing

After coming in, Bai Xiang quickly went back to her own room. Without another word, she opened the wardrobe, dug out a set of casual clothes with long sleeves and pants, then started stripping down.

Tonight’s business wasn’t over yet.

Those two assassins had actually dared to fly the banner of the Prince of Nanling’s Manor, and at that time they hadn’t even known the person blocking the road was her. That alone said a lot.

Either this group had already basically taken control of the Chilong Circuit, and only meant to get whoever was in the way out of the picture, planning to wipe out the Shenming Dojo first and then hunt down the rest afterward.

Or they simply didn’t care anymore.

When a killer truly makes a move, they don’t care about exposing their identity. And they hadn’t known who was blocking them then. If you think carefully about that kind of “not caring,” it most likely meant their final plan was already about to be put into motion—that “not caring” was aimed at everyone.

Has the Chilong Circuit already been taken over…?

Zhang Daoming probably didn’t know. As for anyone above him, Bai Xiang had no idea. She had to assume the worst.

Layers of clothing were peeled off her body one by one, along with the black pantyhose she’d been wearing for two days. Bai Xiang changed into the casual outfit, pulled on thick socks and sneakers, then fished a black anti-stab suit out of the drawer and threw it on as a jacket.

As she pulled up the zipper, she kept feeling out the qi presence, remotely keeping track of the corpse lying outside the dojo’s front gate.

Qi presence was one of the hallmarks of the Core realm. It could be used to lock onto an enemy or sense danger.

Bai Xiang still wasn’t very skilled at using qi presence. At first she’d picked it up on her own while practicing the Shangqing Sword; afterward, she’d mainly been copying what those two had done when they fought.

Her enemy hadn’t been dead for long, and the Core realm’s qi presence hadn’t fully dispersed yet. Even from a long distance away, she could still faintly sense what was happening at the front gate.

Nothing but deathly silence.

No one to pick him up…?

No corpse playing dead either. Looked like he didn’t have that many secrets on him after all.

Bai Xiang’s brows relaxed slightly. She reached back and grabbed the sword sheath on the desk, hooking it into the latch on the back of her anti-stab suit and locking it in place. “Do you know what I’m going to do?” she asked aloud.

“Eek—!”

Bai Zhuqing had been secretly undressing on the bed. At Bai Xiang’s words, her body jolted. She turned her head with a sheepish grin. “Isn’t that something I wait for you to tell me, Sis~”

Bai Xiang looked back at her, fixing her with a steady stare. “Then do you know what I just went out to do?”

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Bai Zhuqing froze. “You went out to practice your sword?”

She’d actually woken up when Bai Xiang carried her onto the bed. After that, while Bai Xiang pondered the sword scripture, she’d been secretly peeking at her from behind the whole time.

When Bai Xiang went out, she’d hurriedly climbed up to flip through that sword scripture, confirmed it was all sword techniques, and figured Bai Xiang must have gone out to train.

But judging from Sis Xiang’s tone now… was that not it?

Seeing her dazed expression, Bai Xiang suddenly grinned.

In the Bai family, even just counting their generation, having only herself as the sole pillar clearly wasn’t enough.

She couldn’t personally handle everything, and she didn’t have the energy to waste on all of it either. So training up a successor—or rather, a helper—had become a pressing issue.

And right now might just be the perfect chance.

“Zhuqing.” She asked her little sister, “Do you want to be a grown-up?”

What does that… mean?

Bai Zhuqing instinctively felt a little on guard. She couldn’t quite figure out what her sister was really trying to say. She could only vaguely guess that if she nodded now, she might be getting involved with some nasty things.

But wasn’t that exactly what Sis Xiang had been bearing all this time?

I’m always saying I want to grow up, that I want to protect Sis Xiang. If I don’t even have that bit of courage, wouldn’t that make me completely useless?

With that thought, Bai Zhuqing nodded hard at Bai Xiang.

“I’ll give you two minutes to change.” Bai Xiang took another new anti-stab suit out of the drawer.

“Chief Inspector Zhang sent it as an extra last time we came back from No. 1 High.”

“Let’s see if you get the chance to walk out wearing it.”

A few minutes later, the two of them, both in anti-stab suits, tiptoed through the dojo and opened the front doors of the training hall.

This—!?

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Seeing the devastation outside the door clearly, Bai Zhuqing was stunned for a moment.

The originally flat bluestone road had been completely torn up. Not only were there craters blasted open everywhere, exposing the dirt underneath, even the stone slabs that hadn’t been torn free were covered in gouges and scratches. It looked like an abandoned construction site.

Don’t tell me this is from Sis Xiang practicing her sword…?

Shocked and uncertain, Bai Zhuqing stared wide-eyed at Bai Xiang.

“Come with me.”

Bai Xiang led her forward and found Zhou Jing’an’s corpse, still soaking in the water.

This—!

Seeing the old man’s miserable corpse lying on the ground, Bai Zhuqing’s heart finally shook.

Zhou Jing’an had died far too wretchedly. At the very end of his life, his soul had been tainted, and the not-yet-fully-refined Demon Pool, carrying the Purple Core, had turned on him and taken over, dragging all his blood essence and soul power in a mad rush to escape. It left his physical body with blood spraying from all seven orifices, even his eyeballs exploding to powder.

So Bai Zhuqing hadn’t recognized who he was at first glance. She only thought he was dead, and that he’d very likely tried to scheme against the dojo, only to be cut down here by Bai Xiang.

Otherwise, who would show up here at midnight?

And in weather this awful, no less!

So Sis Xiang brought me out here to look at a corpse?

Bai Zhuqing lifted her eyes to look at Bai Xiang again.

She wants me to see how cruel these fights really are?

“He’s Zhou Jing’an,” Bai Xiang said.

“He tried to wipe out the dojo while Master and Grandpa were both away. There were two of them. I killed them both.”

Bai Zhuqing’s eyes went wide, her pupils trembling.

“They died cleanly. Their corpses have been left here and no one’s come to pick them up. That probably means they didn’t manage to send any word out, and the forces behind them most likely still don’t know what happened to them.”

Bai Xiang continued to toss grenades.

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“I’m going to the Qingya Dojo now.”

“Want to come?”

“You decide for yourself.”

Crack!

Lightning lit up half of Bai Xiang’s face, and the thunder only rolled in a second later. Bai Zhuqing’s breathing instantly grew rapid.

There was too much information in what Sis Xiang had just said.

Zhou Jing’an… the Qingya Sword Sage… a man honored as a True Person. And together with his companion… did that mean Sis had already reached the True Person realm too?

And she said she was going to the Qingya Dojo.

First they’d been the ones coming to their door; now she was about to head straight to their home turf. What she meant to do was obvious without saying.

So that’s what “walk out wearing it” meant…

“I’m going with you!” Bai Zhuqing pressed her lips together, her expression firm.

It had been so hard to get Bai Xiang to relent… to let her into her world. How could she possibly let an opportunity like this slip by?

“Good.” Bai Xiang nodded and pointed at the corpse. “Strip him, then stab him again.”

Since she’d decided to train her little sister, looting corpses and finishing blows were habits she couldn’t skip.

Bai Zhuqing groped around Zhou Jing’an’s body for a while, finding a silver-inlaid jade token and a phone.

The phone’s screen was covered in cracks, but the SIM card inside was probably fine. Bai Xiang pocketed both for now, then directed Bai Zhuqing to draw her wooden sword and stab three times into the corpse’s head and chest respectively.

“Huff… huff…!”

After she finished stabbing, Bai Zhuqing’s face was slightly flushed. The hand holding the sword was trembling, and she did her best to hide what she was feeling inside.

This was the Qingya Sword Sage, after all.

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Honestly, she still felt like she was dreaming. The terror of “being targeted by such a big shot” and the thrill of “Sis Xiang actually being this strong” coexisted inside her, to the point that just standing there made it feel like the ground was swaying.

She really shouldn’t have been exposed to all this so early.

Bai Xiang’s expression, however, had gone a bit dark.

They were both seventeen, but Bai Zhuqing wasn’t like her.

Her original plan had been to wait until her little sister turned eighteen, then gradually let her take over these affairs. By then, Bai Zhuqing would surely have succeeded in Transforming Qi, with combat strength comparable to Sword Dao Condensing the Aspect. Bai Xiang could have pulled her into the Demon-Suppression Division along with her, and whether it was liaising with the State Chancery or acting as her partner on missions, there wouldn’t have been any problem.

The Prince of Nanling’s Manor’s assassination operation had blown up all her plans. On top of that, they were entangled with Bai Nianchan’s death…

Hm?

Bai Zhuqing suddenly shivered and turned to look at Bai Xiang beside her, only to feel something terrifying leaking off her body. Just standing next to her made her whole body go cold.

“Let’s go.”

Bai Xiang flicked her hand, scattering a sweep of sword-sha that shredded Zhou Jing’an’s corpse into a mist of blood, then stepped around it.

Bai Zhuqing hurried after her, and saw that her sister was fiddling with the phone.

After lighting up the screen, Bai Xiang first checked the display.

There was still signal, but the data was dead.

A quick check showed that the Demon-Suppression Division’s group chats were no longer receiving any messages.

The signal was confined to the local area only. She tried dialing Tao Shuohua’s number as well as Xiang Xian’s. Without exception, none of them went through.

They went out of their way to stop me from calling for help?

Heh.

Then I won’t be polite.