Volume 3, Chapter 25 – Capital Upheaval (4)

A sigh came through the walkie-talkie.

At the same time, Zhao Feng floated down from the city gate tower with his sword in his arms, landing beside the tea stall and looking straight at Xiang Xian.

“Dao-lord Xiang knows me, and you also know what you might face, coming back this time.”

He stared at Xiang Xian’s face first, then shifted his gaze to the white jade cup in her hand.

She hadn’t drunk a drop.

If this wasn’t the Jade Spirit’s calculations being too sharp, then it could only mean she’d been on guard all along.

“And yet you still came alone.” Zhao Feng’s expression grew more and more serious. “All I can do is admire Dao-lord Xiang. Your courage is commendable.”

“Captain Zhao.” Xiang Xian smiled. Clearly, she knew Zhao Feng as well. “I know you’re not the same as them . So why force yourself to keep doing things that wrong you?”

“I have no choice.” Zhao Feng shook his head, but his tone was firm.

“There’s a lot about this world I don’t understand, and a lot I can’t stomach.”

“But I asked my master, the old man, and he told me… ‘Everything you don’t understand, everything you can’t stand—this is already the immortal blessed life that all beings in the world dreamed of 1,600 years ago.’”

“Sixteen hundred years.” Xiang Xian let out a long, heavy breath. “That must have been… the era when demons ruled the world, right?”

“Correct.” Zhao Feng’s eyes locked on the sword at her waist. He spoke to her word by word. “I do know some of the inside story, and I understand that Dao-lord Xiang has her own difficulties.”

“I know very well that if we have to yank some scapegoat out of this tangled mess, it absolutely shouldn’t be Dao-lord Xiang we blame. There are others who should be the ones getting chopped and killed.”

“But if the rules are going to keep running, there has to be sacrifice and compromise.”

“It’s unfortunate, but to keep this immortal blessed life that all beings dreamed of 1,600 years ago going—and for the sake of those who died to uphold these rules—I have to carry on the work they didn’t finish.”

“Dao-lord Xiang.”

With a clang, he drew his war sword, stood it upright in front of him, and gave her a sword salute.

“I must off—”

BOOM!!!

A tremendous shockwave hit, making Zhao Feng whip his head around at once.

As if in slow motion, firelight painted his face. He saw a huge ball of fire slowly rise from somewhere inside Yujing City.

Rumblerrrr…

The blast wave rippled out a few seconds later, rolling across to the south gate. Cups and saucers on the food truck clinked and rattled, car alarms went off all over the parking lot, and even Yao Ying couldn’t help opening the door to look.

What… was that?

Not just them. It wasn’t just a handful of covert agents, and it wasn’t limited to the sleepless citizens inside Yujing City either. Every person—anyone within the extreme range who could see, hear, or feel this disturbance—without exception turned their gaze toward Yujing.

Toward the direction of Baishan.

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Baishan had already been completely swallowed by flames and smoke.

The most famous Guest-Greeting Peak collapsed in the dust, rock and earth falling with sparks, clumps of burning trees raining down. From the mountaintop rose an impossibly thick mushroom cloud.

“……”

The corner of Zhao Feng’s mouth twitched. Bit by bit, he turned his head back, glaring at Xiang Xian with an expression that was a mix of shock, confusion, and sheer incomprehension.

Xiang Xian hadn’t hung up yet. Through the phone came Guo Rongzhi’s slightly manic voice: “Ahhh! Master! You really did call it! Senior Brother’s such a big naive dummy, who knew he’d be so trustworthy!”

“Guo Rongzhi!” Over the line came Song Ruhua’s furious, stunned roar. “That explosion… what did you just press!?”

“Oh come on, isn’t it obvious~” Guo Rongzhi’s tone was actually cheerful. “We of Yuming are researchers. For people who do research, hand-making a bomb is nothing—it’s a complete piece of cake!”

No, is this really about it being a piece of cake?

Song Ruhua’s head was full of giant question marks.

What he was asking was why there was a bomb, and why they had to set it off on Baishan!

Sure, the surroundings of Baishan weren’t exactly bustling, but it was still within Yujing!

Setting off explosives inside Yujing City?

Did Guo Rongzhi have a death wish?

“I told him to do it,” Xiang Xian said into the phone. “I’ve already evacuated the disciples, don’t worry. There won’t be any casualties.”

“Master…?”

“This time when I came back, I never planned on returning once I left again. And the foundation at Baishan was passed down by the Patriarch. I can’t just leave it there to be taken over by others.”

“Dao-lord Xiang, you—” Zhao Feng lifted his sword tip, his expression full of shock and suspicion. “Just what is this—”

“Not just Baishan.” Xiang Xian held his gaze sincerely. “Captain Zhao knows Yuming is all about heavy work and heavy machinery. It’s entirely possible that some alchemy furnace, some laboratory, even the estates that invited me to treat illnesses or forge swords may have dangerous leftovers.”

“Dao-lord Xiang!” Zhao Feng bared his teeth, bloodshot filling his eyes as he hissed at her in a low, furious whisper. “Do you know what you’re doing?”

“Threatening Yujing.” Xiang Xian nodded. “Threatening Qianyu Palace.”

“I know it looks ugly. Outwardly, you can pass it off as a research accident, but a lot of people will know the truth. Everyone involved is going to lose face.”

“Xiang Xian…!”

“Weren’t you the ones who forced this?” Xiang Xian raised a brow, sounding perfectly justified.

“I had a vague sense of the final outcome seventeen years ago. Those ‘Furnace-Blasting Pills’ have been in production since then.”

“I just held onto a last shred of hope—my last bit of hope in you.”

Zhao Feng shook his head. “Things haven’t reached the point of no return…”

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“They already have,” Xiang Xian cut him off.

“Seventeen years ago, they used some laughable excuse to let Yao Qingyuan kill my disciple and even used her remains as experimental material. Seventeen years later, you want to do it again—and you don’t even bother to cover it up.”

As she spoke, blood-red anger flashed across Xiang Xian’s eyes.

“What then? Am I supposed to just stand by again, watch you draw her blood and suck her marrow, while I just sit on the sidelines?”

The muscles in Zhao Feng’s jaw bulged as he moved half a step forward.

“Ah~ I’d advise you not to act rashly,” Xiang Xian said with a mocking reminder.

“I’ve been to the sleeping palaces of several imperial consorts. You know what that means.”

Zhao Feng’s chest rose and fell heavily.

Not in his wildest dreams had he imagined things would escalate in this direction.

“Terms.”

But he quickly calmed down.

Compared to Song Chengqing sprawled on the ground, staring blankly at the mushroom cloud, Zhao Feng had already realized that the top priority now was to soothe Xiang Xian as much as possible, and keep her and her disciples from losing their minds and blowing the whole of Yujing sky-high.

As for whether Xiang Xian was telling the truth—whether she really had hidden those Furnace-Blasting Pills inside Qianyu Palace as well—for now, he had to treat it as true.

Because they couldn’t gamble.

They really couldn’t…

“Go on,” Zhao Feng sighed. “What conditions do you want for you to stop?”

“It’s simple.” Xiang Xian nodded. “I want Maozhou to stand on its own. Yujing is not to have jurisdiction over that land.”

“Impossible!” Zhao Feng frowned. “The court won’t agree. My master and… they won’t agree either!”

“What if I add a deadline?” Xiang Xian smiled.

“I know the Old Celestial Master isn’t literally sitting there every second. As soon as the other one comes back, this one can have a few days of free time.”

“So I don’t plan to drag this out too long,” she said gravely. “Just until the next Nine Prefectures Sword Meet.”

The Nine Prefectures Sword Meet?

Zhao Feng reflexively replied, “That’s the end of August… less than five months from now…”

Not even half a year. That sounded doable to him.

“Fine.” Zhao Feng let out a breath. “As long as it’s not openly declaring independence, I’ll take it on myself and agree. If His Majesty doesn’t, I’ll have my master speak to him… Anything else?”

A Suzhen Dao disciple has that kind of authority?

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Xiang Xian’s face didn’t show it, but she was just as shocked by Zhao Feng’s answer.

Just what was the relationship between the Two Supreme Daos and Qianyu Palace…

But now wasn’t the time to dig into that. She drew in a breath, her gaze locking onto the carriages parked below the gate tower.

“I want you to go and drag that unfilial disciple of mine out here right now.”

“She’s mine to deal with. No interference.”

“Fine.” Zhao Feng nodded again.

His figure flashed—and in the distance, a few deep sword-lights flared over the car convoy. Amid spurting blood and shrieks, one of the cars was sliced cleanly in half by sword-qi. Zhao Feng appeared before the wide-eyed Liang Yu, grabbed her, and brought her back in an instant.

“You…!”

He tossed Liang Yu onto the ground. She scrambled up and tried to draw her sword in resistance.

But after just a few seconds on her feet, a wave of dizziness hit her. She staggered and collapsed again, hacking desperately as pitch-black blood seeped from between her lips and teeth.

“Master…”

She lifted her head toward Xiang Xian in shock and confusion.

“This poison…”

“W-when did you…”

Xiang Xian smiled. “Every minute and every second we’ve known each other.”

Liang Yu’s eyes suddenly went wide.

“Inconceivable?” Xiang Xian raised a brow. “When I was taken in as a disciple of Yuming, there were thirty-seven senior brothers and sisters before me.”

“Why don’t you guess, then, why I ended up as Dao-lord in the end?”

“Mas—”

“Shut up!”

Xiang Xian suddenly exploded in fury and kicked Liang Yu hard in the face.

“Every generation of Yuming has to go through this process when choosing a Dao-lord! Because no matter how advanced ‘calculation’ is, it still can’t see through the human heart—so we simply treat everything as ‘inherently evil’ and guard against it!”

“I asked Xiang’er the same question! You know how she answered? She didn’t care at all!”

“Only those who don’t care can have everything! That is the Dao-lineage of Yuming! The Dao-lineage that’s been passed down to this day!”

“Master… ah… Master!”

Face covered in blood from the kick, utterly miserable, Liang Yu crawled back over, trying to clutch at Xiang Xian’s ankle.

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“I truly was partial to you.” Xiang Xian stepped out of reach and just shook her head.

“There were some things you said that I was willing to treat as thoughtless talk.”

“But you really shouldn’t have schemed against Chan’er—and against me.”

“Yuer, Liang Yu.” She stared fixedly at that wretched face below her. “You’ve disappointed me far too much.”

Heh…

As if seeing her own end clearly, Liang Yu gave up begging for mercy and instead let out a cold laugh.

“I’ve… disappointed you…”

“I’ve disappointed you?”

“Honored Master, maybe you can chalk all this up to a test. But let me just tell you here and now—your so-called test is meaningless.”

“Because the human heart can’t withstand testing!”

“Fame, cultivation, status, riches!”

“…You put all of that temptation in front of an orphan, like stretching out a bamboo pole to a drowning person, and then you pray she doesn’t climb up it?”

“How ridiculous!”

“This was never my problem…” She glared at Xiang Xian with venomous hatred. “Humans… are just like this. That Bai Xiang is the same. She must be plotting something too—you just haven’t noticed yet…”

Shluk—

The sword tip pierced her between the brows. With a twist of the wrist, all the tissue inside was shredded. Liang Yu’s gaze went blank, and the qi presence in her body began to dissipate.

“Die by your own hand.”

Xiang Xian pulled out the Yuming Sword. Liang Yu’s body thudded to the ground, and Xiang Xian turned to look at Song Chengqing.

“Use her sword.”

“I’ll tell your senior brother she’s the one who did it.”

“Master…” Song Chengqing’s eyes were full of despair.

Now that things had come to this, how could she not see that Xiang Xian’s return to the capital had been an exam she’d set for them?

Those who passed—like Guo Rongzhi and Song Ruhua—would be taken away with her.

Those who failed—like Liang Yu, like herself—would also be taken away.

Just in another form.

Another form that filled people with terror and despair.