Volume 3, Chapter 8 – Hidden Danger

When it came to the chaos in Zezhou and Qizhou, if you were a local, the information you could get online was actually very limited.

At best, it gave a rough summary of the events, but said absolutely nothing about the causes behind them. A bunch of newspapers and media outlets just followed each other in hyping up Bai Xiang’s rise, praising her as the supreme talent, the foremost of the younger generation.

But Bai Xiang had other connections. Her master, Xiang Xian, had ties spread across all Nine Provinces and could get news reports from beyond Zezhou and Qizhou, even a small amount of international coverage mixed in.

In short: within Ze and Qi the stance was conservative; outside Ze and Qi, the tone was moderate. Even in a place like Yujing, the firmest “official affirmation” of Bai Xiang actually came down to just a few proclamatory lines recorded in the chronicles by the Fengchang Office.

The Fengchang Office was the historiography bureau. The proclamation itself wasn’t long, but it carried immense weight—arguably even more than the voice of Qianyu Palace.

It was precisely because the Fengchang Office had put its name behind her that so many news outlets had followed up with praise… but even so, that praise had remained fairly restrained.

This time was different. Bai Xiang clicked into the news and read it closely, discovering that this feature report had practically laid out her whole life story.

From being adopted by the Bai family to her transformation after Entering the Dao, and of course including her crushing of the Chai father and daughter’s scheme in the Ancestral Ground and her backing of Shenming Sword Dao’s rise. The report especially highlighted her filial piety and loyalty.

So they’ve finally started promoting me… This is to build momentum for me before the grading edict is placed in my hands.

Bai Xiang lightly brushed her fingertips over her lips.

She’d also looked into a bit of foreign coverage. Small neighboring countries like Luohou didn’t dare offend Great Yu and basically just parroted Great Yu’s state media.

But the farther ones, like those western federations and the eastern continental nations, relied on their advantage in technological development and no longer really put Great Yu’s will in their eyes.

A lot of their reports had a snide, sarcastic tone. Between the lines, they questioned whether this so-called genius was actually real, and hinted that the true root of the southern chaos in Great Yu lay at the top—that it was a problem of the system.

How nostalgic that line of argument was.

Savoring foreign media’s sentence patterns and word choices in her memories, Bai Xiang lowered her lashes halfway, the white tips trembling slightly as she pulled the phone-linked chat window out from the right side of the screen.

Her task bar, text messages, and private messages all showed new notifications.

She clicked into the task bar first and saw that her Swordsman’s License assessment had already passed.

“Heaven’s way is hard to bear; the sword divides good from evil. In recognition of their merits in pacifying the southern lands, we hereby confer upon Bai Zhixing and Bai Xiang the Grade A-Plus Swordsman’s License. May they continue to exert themselves, safeguarding the country’s peace and prosperity…”

Softly reading the lines on the screen, Bai Xiang pressed her lips together in a proud line.

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As expected, it was a Grade A-Plus License.

She’d already anticipated that. She hadn’t taken on the second-stage Swordsman’s License assessment, but from what Yu He had said, those assessments weren’t rigid—they adapted to changing circumstances.

For example, she’d never even selected a first-stage mission, but the Sword Dao Association had looked at the fact that she was in Qiyun Circuit and had defeated Bolou, and judged that she’d completed “First-Stage Mission: Frustrate the Luohou Delegation.”

Given the situation at the time, that was an extremely difficult mission. They’d simply credited that achievement to Bai Xiang, and she really hadn’t been shortchanged.

It followed naturally that “Second-Stage Assessment: Investigate the Reason for the Luohou Delegation’s Entry”… would be auto-cleared once Yao Qingyuan fell.

The Luohou delegation had cooperated with the Prince of Nanling’s rebellion. Many people had seen that with their own eyes. That was enough to prove there was a direct link between the two, and practically confirmed that this unit—and even Luohou as a whole—had been acting under Yao Qingyuan’s control recently.

In the multiple testimonies from Bai Xiang, Xiang Xian, Abbess Li Sheng, Wang Ran, and Fang Xiaochun, she’d been confirmed as “coordinating with three Dao Masters to suppress and kill the Prince of Nanling.” That meant she’d effectively leapt over a whole chain of investigation tasks and gone straight to taking down the mastermind.

She fully deserved the Grade A-Plus License.

The reason it had taken so long to arrive was likely because they’d been waiting for that feature report just now—waiting for Yujing to set the tone on this affair.

Three months, and they’d deliberately chosen this moment to set the tone—not because of external pressure, but because they’d confirmed that the “Great Blood-Cloud Marsh” wasn’t going to spread?

Yujing seemed to care a lot about the Blood Sea incident. There might still be unknown variables there.

Bai Xiang’s expression grew grave. She felt she had to convince Bai Shengju to move the Dao field on Nanping branch road to Zhen’nan Circuit as well.

The Great Blood-Cloud Marsh… the aftershocks of the Blood Sea truly hadn’t spread for now, but there was no guarantee they would never spread.

As long as the “spring” wasn’t completely sealed, the hidden danger would remain. And the Blood Sea “spring” in Chilong Circuit was surrounded by mountains on three sides. That meant that if the Blood Sea erupted again, the entire Chilong Circuit would be flooded directly, with no barrier to break the impact.

Grandfather still wanted to hold the fort there because of the Ancestral Ground.

That wouldn’t do.

Even if they had to airlift the entire Dao field over, she couldn’t let him stay in that place.

Thinking it over, Bai Xiang checked her texts and private messages.

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There were plenty of new messages, all of them without exception offering congratulations.

Adults weren’t fools. Everyone could see that the implication beneath the feature report was that they were preparing to grant her an official rank and honor.

Bai Xiang picked a few familiar names to reply to, and found that both Abbess Li Sheng and Wang Ran had sent their congratulations too.

Those two… are interesting.

Thinking of their change in attitude, Bai Xiang’s lips curled faintly.

Wang Ran was fine—he already had the goodwill from helping her win the exchange bout, so at the very least he was “neutral and friendly.”

Abbess Li Sheng was naturally proud, but when Bai Xiang had deliberately revealed that much of her sword art had drawn inspiration from the Abbess’s notes… the look on Li Sheng’s face had been very subtle, and none of that had escaped Bai Xiang’s notice.

That was enough.

All she needed was for the two of them not to immediately turn hostile, forcing her to use spirit-pointing control and drag things to a fish-dead-net-torn conclusion.

Things had indeed developed as she’d expected. As long as the two Dao Masters didn’t start out too worked up, once she laid all her cards on the table and detailed the path of qi, they naturally understood what the true, healthy Great Dao really was.

With spirit-pointing, one could Enter the Dao directly. Above Condensing the Aspect, there were no restrictions on switching paths. After converting all their Sword Dao cultivation, they might even condense a Golden Core on the path of qi. Their strength would at least be on par with before, while eliminating the risk of pollution and leaving far more possibilities for the future.

Devoting themselves to Sword Dao in the past had been a matter of having no choice. For a hundred years, there’d been only the one path—if you didn’t take it, you didn’t walk any path at all.

But now they had the path of qi, which fused both Buddhist and Daoist principles, right in front of them, with even the possibility of pursuing true longevity… of course their hearts would waver.

So, as a matter of course, once Bai Xiang had explained the path of qi’s concepts, their attitude shifted from “we won’t turn on you for now” to “give us time to think.”

Think, my foot.

Bai Xiang had already pronounced their “death sentence.”

Leaving aside how irresistible the path to longevity was to Divine Fetus experts, just look at Sword Dao itself… One of the prerequisites for resisting Demon Pool pollution was that you couldn’t doubt your own Dao.

As Tao Shuohua had once said: for a cultivator, whether they followed orthodox arts or demonic arts, the most important thing was “never to doubt.”

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Only by keeping the heart firm could the heart-aspect keep the Demon Pool in check.

Otherwise, it would slip out of control, and they’d meet an unimaginably miserable end.

In the past, it hadn’t been hard to do this, because Sword Dao had enjoyed singular dominance—it was the only viable Great Dao.

But now that they knew the path of qi existed…

Compared to Sword Dao—with all its latent hazards—the path of qi advanced alongside all Dharmas, forged the golden body, and relied on no external crutches. How many people could keep their hearts from wavering?

Once the heart wavered, the road of Sword Dao could no longer be walked.

It looked like they had a choice, but in truth, turning to the path of qi was their only option.

“Two Divine Fetus-level cultivators… With their accumulated experience, if they switch over, they might even be able to develop more routes of advancement.”

Bai Xiang spread her hand toward the screen, gradually curling it into a fist.

“Saves me from having to research everything alone…”

“The pursuit of longevity should be something we explore with the wisdom of the whole world.”

Beep beep beep——

Right then, a private message notification popped up.

Looking closely, she saw it was from Wang Ran. Bai Xiang glanced upstairs, then connected the call directly. “Calling me this late—what is it?”

“Two things,” Wang Ran said bluntly. “First, congratulations… It looks like no one can fight you for the seat now.”

“And the second?”

Bai Xiang didn’t show the slightest reaction.

This was the outcome that was supposed to happen.

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But… was it really something that was “supposed” to happen?

On the other end, Wang Ran was quietly sighing in his heart.

An imperial edict from the Son of Heaven; a Mountain-and-River fief sealed in your name.

That was the lifelong dream of so many Sword Dao leaders—even founders.

Yao Qingyuan had surely used the picture of “splitting off two provinces and crowning himself king” to bewitch people.

Why had so many medium and small Dao fields thrown in with him?

Why had so many in Zezhou’s army supported him?

All because they’d been seduced—especially by rank and honor!

But now, in hindsight, all of that had just been a wedding robe tailored for Shenming Sword Dao.

There weren’t many clean Sword Dao lineages left in the surrounding region. The ones that had supported the rebellion had been investigated and shut down, their people thrown in jail; the rest simply weren’t big enough to compete.

He’d heard some out-of-province sects even wanted to come try their luck?

Well then, I, Wang, wish them the best of luck.

“The second matter has to do with the Prince’s Manor.”

Pulling his thoughts back, Wang Ran’s expression hardened.

“One of the elders of my Dao… Liang Qiusheng.”

“According to Lord Fang’s latest interrogation results, the last place anyone saw him… was in the Prince of Nanling’s Manor.”