Volume 3, Chapter 23 – Burial【1】

Once she’d passed the key checkpoints and registered the “pet crocodile,” Bai Xiang no longer had any scruples and could just grab Hannah and fly through the sky.

It did not feel good at all… After entering the Zhennan Circuit’s territory, Bai Xiang finally set Hannah down. The moment she touched the ground, Hannah staggered and collapsed to hands and knees, and without a word started throwing up.

Then let’s be extravagant for once.

Seeing her like this, Bai Xiang couldn’t bear to push her. Since they were already on home turf anyway, she took out her phone, dialed a number to notify the local Dao administration to send someone over, and the two of them rode a car back to Rain-Listening Tower.

When they arrived, Bai Xiang suddenly noticed the whole area looked completely different.

Many streets and buildings were being torn down. The construction teams that were supposed to be out expanding the Dao market district had actually pulled nearly a hundred people back, all working around this marked-off plot of land. She had no idea what they were building.

“Jie!”

A surprised shout came from the side. It was Bai Leying, killing time because she had nothing better to do, squatting by the roadside with Bai Maoxu watching an excavator. They happened to spot Bai Xiang getting out of the car.

“Jie! You came back today!?” She immediately rushed over, looking Bai Xiang up and down from every angle, her mouth running nonstop: “Why didn’t you call and let us know? I could’ve had my mom go buy groceries!”

You want to eat well, and you’re sending your mom Zhu Ying out to buy it for you?

Bai Leying was still just as straightforward—and straightforward with such righteous confidence that you couldn’t even get mad.

The instant Bai Xiang saw her and Bai Maoxu, she knew what had happened—Grandpa must have brought the whole Bai family over after she left.

There was no need to ask about that plot of land up ahead either. The project coordinator must have been afraid of slighting them, immediately rewritten the construction schedule, and pulled people off other work to set up that earthen hill from the Shenming Dojo here.

What was strange, though, was that she’d tried to talk Bai Shengju into moving here before, and the old man had brushed her off every time with “one mustn’t abandon the ancestral land” as an excuse.

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So now that I’ve stopped nagging him, Grandpa suddenly decided to come?

If there was a variable, it could only be Bai Zhuqing… Was it Zhuqing who persuaded Bai Shengju?

Bai Xiang was very surprised. She really hadn’t expected Bai Zhuqing to have that kind of gift for talking.

“You all came?” Bai Xiang pinched Bai Leying’s ear, telling her not to crowd so close.

“Me, Maoxu, Hu Hu, we’re all here. Senior Brother Chen came too. Only Senior Brother Ma had to stay over there to handle the follow-up—they’re planning to hoist the Dao field buildings out with crane baskets! That’s a huge project; someone has to keep an eye on it!”

“What about Maoxu?” Bai Xiang looked at Bai Maoxu. “Have you started practicing the sword yet?”

“Uh…” Bai Maoxu finally put his phone down and let out a sigh. “I’ve started, I guess…? My dad says your roots and bones need to be tempered from a young age, so he’s making me stretch my legs every day…”

“You need to train hard.” Bai Xiang reminded him, “Children of great clans soak in medicinal baths and eat medicinal meals day in and day out from a few years old. Their foundations are ground in until they’re rock solid. You didn’t get serious until your teens—you’re already late. You’ll have to work twice as hard to make up for it.”

“I know.” Bai Maoxu nodded. “We need to grow up as fast as we can, so we can help you shoulder some of the burden, Jiejie.”

Maoxu was still as prematurely mature as ever.

Among the younger generation of the Bai clan, Bai Maoxu seemed careless on the surface, uninterested in anything important, always sitting around reading or messing with his phone. But on key issues, he saw things more clearly than anyone.

He just didn’t say it because he couldn’t be bothered. As long as Leying practiced the sword alongside him, with him leading the way, Bai Xiang could relax.

After sending the two of them off, Bai Xiang had the car turn down a nearby side lane and let the cloaked Hannah out in an alley.

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“Everything here is temporary construction and will be torn down later,” Bai Xiang told her. “For now, you’ll stay in this shack. I’ll have someone take care of your daily needs.”

Hannah owed her life to Bai Xiang, so she didn’t dare voice even the slightest objection, hurriedly nodding to say she was very satisfied.

“After all, the Zhennan Circuit has only been under construction for a few months. Never mind calling it a city—right now it’s at best an oversized village.” Bai Xiang’s tone was genuinely earnest. “I’ll set up a separate laboratory for you. When the time comes, you can fully apply what you’ve learned.”

With things said to that extent, Hannah couldn’t help being a little moved.

She stared seriously into Bai Xiang’s eyes, hesitated for a moment, and still chose to ask, “May I ask, my lady… are you, like Yao Qingyuan, looking to prolong your life?”

The reason she and her rival “Dr. Evan” had made it into Great Yu and snuck into Yao Qingyuan’s service was not only that Yao himself had proposed a trade of benefits to countries like the Sami Federation; they had to be willing personally as well.

In fact, the whole thing was rather strange—this choice of theirs wasn’t because they couldn’t compete with their peers back home. Quite the opposite: they were standouts among their peers, with extremely deep professional attainments.

The reason they were willing to give up research opportunities in their own countries to come all the way to Great Yu boiled down to this: there were more research opportunities here.

Take Hannah herself, for example. What could she study if she stayed in the Sami Federation?

Humans?

The Sami Federation certainly had plenty of people; you could buy a baby out of a slum for a few dozen federation coins. But that wasn’t the kind of material Hannah wanted.

She wanted “demonic entities.”

Whether Demon Pools or demonic beasts, the topic she’d chosen required a constant influx and consumption of such materials, which meant she had no choice but to come to Great Yu. Only Great Yu had so many demonic entities for her to study.

Hannah had ambitions.

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Her first priority was, of course, staying alive. But once that most basic premise was met, she also hoped to find an “enlightened employer.”

“Prolong my life? Is that what Yao Qingyuan told you?” When Bai Xiang finished listening, she pressed her lips together and smiled.

Wasn’t it?

Hannah couldn’t understand what she found funny.

In biology and life sciences, what all benefactors ultimately hoped to obtain usually boiled down to those same two words.

“A life spent dragging out a wretched existence is meaningless, no matter how long you stretch it.” Bai Xiang shook her head. “Rather than ‘prolonging life,’ I personally prefer to call it ‘immortality.’”

“Don’t worry.” She turned to leave. “I’m not interested in your brain-implant brand of immortality, and I’m not about to lock you into some death order.”

“When the time comes, just focus on the research you’re good at. You don’t need to concern yourself with anything else.”

Immortality… did she mean to keep growing stronger and stronger, all the way to the very end of time?

Hannah had watched that Creation Qi Tribulation sword strike from up close. She’d long since been overawed by Bai Xiang’s strength. Asking this question had only been to give herself an excuse.

But she really hadn’t expected this answer!

She couldn’t help comparing the image Bai Xiang was building now with that of Yao Qingyuan. The former’s ease and boldness stood in stark contrast to the latter’s penny-pinching calculations.

“I am willing to follow your will!”

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Without hesitation, she bent in a deep bow to Bai Xiang.

“I will do everything I can to help you attain immortality!”

Hm?

Glancing back slightly, Bai Xiang had no idea what nerve had misfired in her, making her suddenly swear loyalty like this.

But that kind of promise was worthless.

She said nothing, merely nodded, then got into the car and headed into Rain-Listening Tower, where she met the Bai family members she hadn’t seen in some time.

After exchanging greetings one by one, Bai Xiang sat facing Bai Shengju on the second floor and laid out in full everything she’d gone through and seen on this trip.

Bai Shengju squinted, occasionally saying a few words—not to lecture her, but to fill in some details.

Things like Lu Niezhi’s background, his relationship with Zheng Xuliang, and the “Xiwu Ancient Clan” the Western Army guarded against… Without Bai Shengju mentioning them, she would have known none of it.

Truly, having an elder in the family is like having a treasure.

After their talk, Bai Xiang still felt she’d gained a lot, marveling that Bai Shengju’s years of wandering in his youth hadn’t been for nothing—his breadth of knowledge and experience really was impressive.

Bai Shengju, too, felt deeply moved.