Volume 2, Chapter 103 – Inheritance (1)

If there really existed someone who had walked out from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, it would be nothing more than this.

By reflex, the same line surfaced in Yao Qingyuan and Xu Zhe’s minds. The former’s face slowly twisted, as if he couldn’t believe he was actually seeing such a scene.

They had used the Blood-Draining Method as a reference to extract so many grievance blood remains. Even if Shangqing Sword Dao’s Li Sheng were here and unleashed lightning-drawing sword arts without restraint, she still wouldn’t be able to strike them all down… so how had they been devoured by that sword just like that?

What in the world was that sword?

“You’re not Bai Xiang.” The pale young man spoke each word slowly and clearly. “Who are you really?”

His answer was Bai Xiang’s sword.

Feixiang Heaven, now entirely wrapped in blood-sha—the term “blood-sha” was no longer just a vague description. Its appearance was far too striking now: every inch of it was blood-red and reeking of iron; every swing left a storm of bloody afterimages hanging in the air.

Clang… chime!

Yao Qingyuan drew the longsword at this body’s waist. The two blades met edge-to-edge in a deadlock, and the black aura coiling around Yao Qingyuan and the blood-sha clinging to Bai Xiang’s sword clashed and collided as well, squeezing out two opposing membranes of demonic aura around them, with a shrill, tooth-aching screech of metal and explosion between.

Ching!

Bai Xiang twisted her wrist. Relying on her greater bodily strength, she forced Yao Qingyuan’s sword downward, then stepped her left foot forward and drove her left elbow toward his chest.

Through that probing exchange, she could tell: after attaching itself, Yao Qingyuan’s soul (if they could call it that) had grown even more condensed, seemingly giving this body an exaggerated boost. It kept him from being completely crushed by her strength; she was stronger, but not by a vast margin.

There was no way this secret art came without a price.

Most of that soul had already been annihilated by her sword-Qi and lightning. Let’s just take that as his actual cultivation level—could such a thin remnant really support combat at this intensity?

Even if it could, could this body, which had only just been strengthened—its bare skin and muscles fully exposed, blood vessels and veins showing right on the surface—actually withstand it?

Having already tasted how terrifying Bai Xiang’s strength was, Yao Qingyuan didn’t dare let that elbow land. But with his blade knocked aside, he had no time to recover his guard. He released the hilt with his right hand, lifted his arm in a rush, and used his palm to block.

Bang!

Crack!

His pupils contracted as his body was knocked off its feet from the spot. In his ears sounded a crisp noise—the faint crack of arm bones splintering from the clash. He’d already taken a heavy internal injury.

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This vessel was one Xu Zhe had prepared with painstaking care for his descent. Every parameter had been tested; the compatibility between it and him was over eighty percent…

Seeing Xu Zhe rush in to shield him and get swatted away by a single slash from Bai Xiang’s sword—slammed straight into the nearby ruins—Yao Qingyuan’s shock deepened.

The Purple Core indeed put more emphasis on tempering the body, but that too had its limits. The principle was that the Purple Core contained a Demon Pool. Refining one-ninth of it each time absorbed one part of the Demon Pool’s power into the body, and naturally the body would be strengthened.

Most cultivators, after entering the Core realm, neglected further tempering of the flesh because they knew—so long as they made it through the Core Tribulations, their bodies would grow stronger on their own.

But the focus of the Core Tribulations lay in the heart-aspect.

That horrifying, bizarre spiritual pollution, that invasive demon-force of the Demon Pool upon the soul—if left unchecked, it could even seize a cultivator’s body without their noticing.

Most cultivators at this realm focused their cultivation on resisting the Demon Pool’s corruption, so the bodily strength a Core realm cultivator should have after each turn, after each Core Tribulation, had basically been turned into a formula.

Bai Xiang had broken that formula.

According to Yao Qingyuan’s calculations, if his split soul manifested, in terms of strength it could compare to the fourth Core Tribulation. Once it found a suitable vessel, it could shoot up in a rush, straight to the ninth Core Tribulation, even nearing the Divine Fetus realm.

Of course, this was only talking about physical strength.

This body also had Blood-Draining Divine Patterns engraved into it. Even with his split soul greatly diminished, he could still achieve this degree.

Yet Bai Xiang could suppress this body.

That meant her bodily strength had already surpassed the level expected of nine Core Tribulations and could be compared to a Divine Fetus cultivator.

Was this the result of absorbing the tens of thousands of blood remains?

Her strength had already been frightening when they met; though they hadn’t crossed blades then, so he couldn’t quantify the gap, it shouldn’t have come from the blood remains.

That meant her burden must be huge as well.

This definitely wasn’t a righteous method. He didn’t believe there was no backlash!

Clang!

The blood-colored blade came cleaving down at him once more, and Yao Qingyuan, face dark, was forced to receive it.

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He knew he couldn’t win this fight.

He’d already calculated the result.

The split soul couldn’t leave the vessel… Bai Xiang’s methods—that strange sword-Qi, the lightning, the soul-draining—all restrained him. He had no desire to find out what would happen if he got sucked into that demonic sword.

His biggest trump here had been the split soul and the brute force of the body after the split soul possessed it. Now that he couldn’t use the split soul, and even the bodily strength was being suppressed by Bai Xiang, there was no way he could deal with her with the means he had on hand.

However—

“You’re exhausted too, aren’t you?”

Grinding his teeth and bracing against the edge of her sword, Yao Qingyuan spoke to Bai Xiang one word at a time.

“Such dense blood energy… the resentment of tens of thousands of violent deaths gathered into one, that’s the most intense spiritual pollution there is. How much longer can you keep your self intact?”

Bai Xiang’s gaze flickered slightly. An absurd feeling welled up in her chest.

If tens of thousands of grievance souls had all gathered and wrapped themselves around her and simply “chanted” at her, that resentment and pollution really would be terrifying. Bai Xiang wouldn’t have been able to withstand it.

After two lives, her soul had already been tempered. Even without counting her soul-arts, her raw soul strength was very high. But even so, before tens of thousands of grievance souls it wouldn’t be worth much—under normal logic, that was how it should be.

But those things had made the worst possible choice.

They’d tried to invade her body.

They’d wanted some “mystical contact” with her. They’d wanted to pass through the barrier of matter and seep into her flesh, to tear her soul apart and devour it.

That was a death wish.

Her soul-ability had many limitations. To this day she still couldn’t project it outward. Its range was locked to “inside Bai Xiang’s body” and “can only act on the individual called Bai Xiang”, and beyond that it could at most provide some boost to the intensity of her sword-Qi.

But as long as those two conditions were met, its power could only be described as ridiculous.

How ridiculous?

“With the strength of spiritual will, freely interfere with and rewrite material reality.”

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Condensed into that one line, that was enough.

That was why she’d been able to cultivate The Scripture of Returning to Origin and Transforming Qi.

Once the cycle diagram was worked out, the surgery itself was no good; with existing technology it was outright impossible to perform. So what then?

Direct interference by will.

At a single stir of thought, the world inside her turned upside down.

So long as she wanted it, so long as the structure made sense, she could absolutely give herself four or five hearts, then thicken her bones several times over and remodel her organs for even greater strength.

If not for a hazy premonition that doing so would “break the perfection” and actually diminish her dao-age, Bai Xiang really would have tried it.

She’d studied her soul-ability many times and finally confirmed that as long as those two conditions were met, anything that dared break into her body would have its life and death and fate entirely in her hands.

So it had been with the cicada demon and Chan Master Daokong’s souls.

So it was now with the tens of thousands of grievance souls.

Which was why she bore no real burden—at most she just found it distasteful that Feixiang Heaven looked so red and filthy, completely at odds with her inner image of an immortal sword.

None of this was anything anyone else could know. From Yao Qingyuan’s vantage point, seeing so much blood-sha coiling around her blade, feeling that even a single motion of hers vaguely stirred a blood wind full of underworld wails in his ears, it was only natural he would come to that conclusion.

The pleasure… that came from this information gap?

The corner of Bai Xiang’s mouth tugged faintly as she continued to cross swords with Yao Qingyuan.

Their physical strength was close, and their sword arts each had their own marvels. Black and red sword-Qi slashed in all directions, sending dirt plumes flying and broken walls exploding. From time to time thunder-tigers and thunder-dragons rampaged and roared, paired with the dark clouds overhead and the howls of blood-sha. It made Yao Qingyuan’s vessel look like some righteous master struggling to hold the line against Bai Xiang, this demonic fiend of the Dao.

Xu Zhe had already crawled out of the rubble and now watched from afar, not daring to approach.

This was not a battle he could join. If he went up now, he’d just die.

“Really not going to reconsider…?”

As their blades locked yet again, Yao Qingyuan panted as he questioned Bai Xiang, “Xiang Xian is someone you care about, isn’t she? With just a split soul I can stand against a Divine Fetus. Guess how long three Divine Fetus realm experts can be held off?”

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Bai Xiang dropped her gaze to his bare upper body, where patterns similar to the blood arrays in the morgue had been drawn.

“…Of course it’s not my power.” Yao Qingyuan admitted.

“But that doesn’t matter.”

“Compared to rotting away, dying of old age, turning into a handful of filthy yellow soil, what’s so bad about selling my life to them?”

“This world is very big, Bai Xiang… and you aren’t the type to be bound by rules. There’s no need for us to be enemies at all.”

“Work with me. Together, we’ll study, and live forever.”

“Your master can live too. Once the Blood Sea descends, I can go negotiate with them, at least spare Qiyun Circuit and Chilong Circuit. Everyone you care about can survive. What more could you ask for?”

“Choosing demonization and facing the Body Tribulations can also grant a long life.” Bai Xiang finally answered. “Why didn’t you choose that?”

“Because a demon beast’s lifespan has a ceiling, of course.” Yao Qingyuan sneered. “Or rather, those things don’t even count as true demons—”

What I want is not that kind of shackled longevity.

Bai Xiang fell silent again. Her sword grew even more ferocious.

“You’ll regret this!”

Knowing she’d made her choice, Yao Qingyuan glared at her, face contorted, and roared.

“You won’t change anything!”

“You’ll die!!”

“Everyone you care about will die!!!”

This body of his had reached its limit. Its arms couldn’t endure many more of these high-intensity clashes; its skin was cracking on the surface, blood spraying out with every movement.

Bai Xiang watched his sword path with a cold eye.