Volume 2, Chapter 90 – Plotting

The horizon was turning pale fish-belly white. The rolling black clouds thinned and scattered, and the curtain of rain that had spanned heaven and earth finally ceased, leaving the world freshly washed and clean.

But the back hillside of the Qingya Dojo was still shrouded in the stench of blood. In the forest and along the walkways, chopped-up corpses lay everywhere. Even with the rain rinsing over them, the gore refused to wash away. Instead, some exposed organs had soaked until they turned white, taking on an even more disgusting color.

“Hurgh—hurgh—”

In the second-to-last villa, Bai Zhuqing was bent over a sink, violently retching.

“Can you handle it?” Bai Xiang leaned against the doorframe, watching her little sister. “If you can’t, I’ll take you back.”

Bai Zhuqing’s reaction was a bit extreme, but it was understandable.

Any normal seventeen-year-old girl with no professional training—if she could follow her big sister around, watch her slaughter nearly a hundred people in the hillside villa district, including women and children, and still keep a straight face afterward, that would be the real problem.

This reaction was pretty good, actually.

It meant her little sister wasn’t like her—no insights from a previous life, no messed-up thoughts on the psychological level.

Very pure.

Bai Xiang was actually quite satisfied.

Still, to keep Bai Zhuqing from being traumatized, she explained aloud, “Those people deserved worse than they got… My sword doesn’t leave unjust souls behind.”

First in the line of targets here had been Zhou Ji.

After being interrogated and tortured by her several times, he’d started out cursing and ranting, yelling things like “Bai Xiang, you’ll die a horrible death,” “If you kill me, the Bai family will be buried with me.” But his spirit soon broke, and he began begging Bai Xiang to give him a quick end.

He just hadn’t expected Bai Xiang’s way of killing to be a little special. After her sword pierced his skull, he faintly felt himself float out of his body, like some so-called “soul” wrapping around the edge of her blade.

Seeing Bai Xiang from that angle… especially seeing those strange golden eyes of hers actually turn to look at him, with that air of being able to see straight through a “soul”—Zhou Ji nearly died a second death from sheer terror. But before he could even push out a plea for mercy, his soul was shredded by sword-Qi, his spiritual essence completely absorbed as nourishment.

Bai Xiang had done it as an experiment. When she’d killed Zhou Jing’an and absorbed his remnant soul, she’d tried to peer into the memories he’d left behind, but the results hadn’t been ideal. All she’d gotten were some scattered, chaotic fragments.

She guessed it was because Zhou Jing’an’s mind had already been polluted by then.

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His awareness and soul had both been tainted, and his memories churned to pieces. She wasn’t even sure whether what she’d seen had been “Zhou Jing’an’s” memories, or memories belonging to the “newborn Yaosui.” She didn’t really understand that process yet and lacked any real understanding of lifeforms like Yaosui.

So she wanted to test it on Zhou Ji, see if she could read his memories.

The results were so-so—but she really had seen something.

Not much—that might have to do with how fragile Zhou Ji’s remnant soul was—but she still saw a few of the things he’d done, all of them vile crimes.

In one fragment in particular, she saw Tang Min’s corpse.

Naked, covered in filth, tossed into an abandoned factory. The abuser had taken photos from multiple angles and sent them to Zhou Ji, who had carefully saved them in his phone’s album.

Only when Bai Xiang thought of that did she realize she shouldn’t have let her sister check the phone—but it was too late… Bai Zhuqing had already opened the album. Inside, she’d seen not only Tang Min’s corpse, but plenty of other… in short, things that were utterly unforgivable.

Scum like that deserved to die—and the mother who raised such scum deserved it even more.

From the few fragmented memories, Bai Xiang learned that Zhou Ji had grown into this because his mother, Zhao Xinlian, had played no small part.

“Doting” and “indulgent” weren’t nearly enough to describe this woman. When Zhou Ji went too far, she would use her family’s influence to help him cover things up, even personally helping him dispose of corpses.

Bai Xiang had sent her to meet her son in her sleep. That was Feixiang Heaven’s only mercy.

As for those servants and maids, not one of their hands was clean. Their usual cringing fear toward Zhou Ji was only because they didn’t want trouble for themselves. Faced with those weaker than them, they showed an entirely different face, their actions fully displaying the ugliness of human nature.

Bai Xiang couldn’t be bothered to sort out who’d been coerced and who hadn’t. She simply killed them all.

After she finished, she felt completely clear and unburdened. It was only because Bai Zhuqing couldn’t stomach it and felt sick that she was standing here now, trying to talk her through it.

“Hurgh—I’m fine—”

Bai Zhuqing insisted through her gagging. “It’s just my first time… hurgh—”

“Once I’ve sh…shanked enough people I’ll—hurgh hurgh hurgh!”

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Still trying to put on a brave face.

She really was a sight right now. Bai Xiang’s lips curved in amusement, and her impression of Bai Zhuqing improved yet again.

Being unable to do something was one thing.

Forcing yourself to try anyway was something else.

All along the way, Bai Zhuqing had followed her around cutting down anyone they saw. Sometimes she’d even go up herself to deliver the finishing blow. Most girls her age simply couldn’t have done that.

Not bad at all. At least she wasn’t lacking initiative. With that as a foundation, the rest could be trained. Given enough polish, she’d be capable of carrying real weight.

Looking at her sister, Bai Xiang shifted her thinking over to the path of qi.

The path of qi.

The method corresponding to Condensing the Aspect was almost fully developed now, and she’d more or less walked out the road to embracing the core.

Her “qi core” was still brewing at the moment and didn’t count as having truly formed, but the power she’d displayed after completing her sword techniques left her very satisfied. Fighting two Purple Cores felt as easy as reaching into a sack.

The only thing left was the entry method she was still stuck on—without a major opportunity or great fortune, there was no way to Enter the Dao.

Previously, she’d planned to use Abbess Li Sheng’s handwritten sword scripture to build up experience and try to create a path-of-qi-exclusive entry method. But that manuscript was sword techniques from start to finish. Even though “Li Sheng’s Transmission” contained the complete Shangqing Wave-Sweeping Lightning-Drawing Sword Formula, there wasn’t a single insight in it that really sparked anything for her.

Bai Xiang had been ready to shelve the matter for now—but then a flash of inspiration hit her. Why was she reaching far and ignoring what was close by?

If she really couldn’t enter the Dao on her own, then she simply wouldn’t.

Instead, she could model things on the last step of the Jade Spirit Mingxin Method, that so-called “spirit-pointing method (monthly-fee group 694936135),” and create a way to “point the spirit and enter the Dao.” That would be far better suited.

Because without a doubt, once the path of qi appeared, it would inevitably impact the Sword Dao. Before the path of qi gained broad recognition and was fully popularized, it simply wasn’t suitable for widespread transmission.

Bai Xiang wasn’t afraid of being targeted or hunted, but she couldn’t only think of herself.

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All things considered, using a spirit-pointing method to precisely control the number of path-of-qi cultivators would actually help keep it secret and delay the outbreak of the conflict between them.

The more she thought about it, the more appropriate it seemed. Bai Xiang decided that once things here were settled, she’d devote all her energy to researching spirit-pointing.

The example of what had happened with Zhou Jing’an.

And that bloody mess Xiang Xian had coughed up onto the newspaper.

All of it convinced her that the Sword Dao was a wrong road.

Even pushed all the way to Divine Fetus, it could only “control the pollution” at best. How could she stand by and watch her family and friends slide into the abyss?

This rotten Dao-lineage—I’m rewriting it!

Bai Zhuqing turned on the tap to wash her hands and rinse her mouth. Finished cleaning up, she looked back and saw Bai Xiang wearing a resolute expression, the light in her eyes shining brighter than the stars in the cosmos.

Sis Xiang is so beautiful and so cool…

The anti-stab suit came with a belt. For ease of movement, Bai Xiang had cinched it tight, and even under the fabric her figure still stood out.

Paired with that cool, striking face, just looking at her felt good for the eyes.

Bai Zhuqing suddenly felt very silly.

If I feel sick, I’ll just look at Sis more!

From now on, every time we kill someone, I’ll take a good look at Sis—let her beauty cleanse the filth from my soul… help me temper my heart and be reborn!

“You look like you’re thinking something you shouldn’t.”

Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes at her little sister.

“Pack up. We’re moving.”

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“It’s dawn.”

“The network and signal should be back too.”

Bai Zhuqing answered obediently, then followed after Bai Xiang once she’d finished packing up. The two of them slipped down to the street via the back-hill path.

“Are you at all curious why I dared to kill so many people so openly?”

On the way, Bai Xiang tried to guide her sister’s thinking.

“Not curious.”

Bai Zhuqing’s head was shaking like a rattle drum. Her face basically had one line written on it— Whatever Auntie does, I support her.

“…” Bai Xiang was speechless. She raised her voice a little as she gave the answer. “Because they picked a time to attack me when Dao Lord Xiang wasn’t around. They’re very likely confident that they can keep Dao Lord Xiang pinned in Qiyun Circuit. In other words, most of their strength is currently in Qiyun, and the Chilong Circuit is actually defensively empty.”

“Oh!”

Realization dawned on Bai Zhuqing. After thinking for a moment, she stuck both thumbs up at Bai Xiang.

“Auntie, you’re a tactical genius!”

I did not bring you here to play the yes-man…

Bai Xiang’s eyelid twitched. She shook her head. “Let’s find an inn and rest first.”

“Things here probably won’t blow wide open right away, but what happened tonight will definitely move the ‘eruption’ forward. We can’t keep waiting.”

By “eruption,” she meant the Demon-Suppression Division’s infiltration operation scheduled two days from now.

It was aimed at Qingyun Pharmaceuticals… but now the people behind them had already surfaced, and they were supposed to keep plodding along investigating some factory?

She didn’t believe Yu He and the others would be that rigid. Her plan was to get in touch once communications came back—ideally, they’d start moving this afternoon.