Volume 1, Chapter 22 – There Was a Reason

As the group walked along the stone path, the looks they cast at Bai Lianzhou were a bit odd.

Everyone thought he was standing up for Bai Xiang—turned out it was just to stop Bai Guanshan from smoking…

Bai Xiang was also turning over these family ties in her mind, curious whether Bai Lianzhou had blocked him purely for that rule, or if he was seizing the chance to air his displeasure at his elder brother by invoking the precepts.

The stretch wasn’t long; before she could sort it out, the dojo was already at hand.

It was an imposing faux-ancient building with a black-tiled roof in two tiers.

The first floor was extremely spacious. Upon entering, you could see fitness equipment and wooden sword racks placed around the perimeter; white lines marked off four corner zones, guarding the raised central ring at the very middle.

Within Great Yu’s sword daos, Shenming Sword Dao was barely middle-of-the-pack. They currently counted 268 disciples on the rolls, split into advanced and intermediate classes—the former for the well-heeled and well-connected, the latter for common folk.

Stepping inside triggered certain imprinted memories. Bai Xiang recalled that her earliest recollection of “Sword Contemplation” had been reflected right here.

Since all the schools in the circuit city had been forcibly closed, the dojo was quiet today.

The two hundred-plus student-disciples had apparently been told to take leave when they came in the morning and sent home to await news.

But in a corner there was a young man in a pure-black training uniform, wooden sword in hand, cutting continuously as he wove alone through the rotating ‘wooden-dummy grove,’ drilling his swordwork with meticulous care.

That swordwork was the Bai family’s ancestral “Shenming Sword.”

With the lineage broken and no subsequent method for Forge the Sword, there were many places in this set of techniques that looked baffling. For a time, it had been abandoned as untrainable.

Only after Bai Shengju returned from studying abroad and used his own experience and lessons to improve the moves did the swordwork bloom anew, and the dojo’s fortunes began to turn.

Even so, Bai Xiang felt that a set of techniques that didn’t point the way to Forge the Sword—no matter how good for conditioning—wasn’t of much use.

The credit for the turnaround belonged more to Bai Shengju personally.

The Bai clan had meant to cut straight through the hall to the back rooms; seeing the youth lingering to practice, both Bai Guanshan and Bai Lianzhou halted, and the others had to stop as well, standing aside to watch the youth battle the ‘wooden-dummy grove.’

The “wooden-dummy grove” referred to fixed-in-place rotating dummies.

They were made of springy wood, shaped like the character for “wood,” with two straight-out arms and diagonally kicking legs.

Since the things spun, once a challenger swatted them aside, those arms and legs would circle back in to strike again.

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Worse yet… the tips of those arms and legs were smeared with white chalk. Training in a black uniform amid the ‘wooden-dummy grove,’ if you weren’t careful you’d be swept by a dummy’s leg and leave a mark on the dark fabric.

The youth noticed he had an audience, and his smooth sword sequence hitched slightly.

He’d had only seven or eight chalk marks on him; once his moves fell out of rhythm, the surrounding dummies whirled in on him. The marks multiplied out of nowhere, and he even took a swipe across the head—making him look especially ridiculous and bedraggled.

“Pfft!”

“Hahahaha!”

Bai Leying was the first to laugh out loud, and Bai Guanshan also burst out laughing as he strode toward the youth. “Diligent, eh! Xiao Xu!”

“Uncle-Master Bai!” The youth called Xiao Xu tugged a smile. “It’s already past ten…”

He inverted his grip on the wooden sword, faced Bai Guanshan, cupped his fist and bowed. Then he turned his body toward the rest, bowing even lower.

Xu Shu, a local of Chilong. In Bai Xiang’s memory, he’d been following Bai Shengju in sword practice since he was very young. Though of ordinary background, he was diligent and hard-working, with a good temperament; he often corrected disciples’ wrong moves, and the Bai family treated him as half one of their own.

Compared to herself—the not-very-useful dojo senior sister—it was Xu Shu who looked more like the lead senior.

“Why are you the only one here?”

While Bai Leying tugged Bai Zhuqing aside to whisper, Bai Lianzhou, brow half furrowed, came closer and glared at Xu Shu. “Where’s Jingjing?”

“Huh?” Xu Shu blinked and scratched his head. “Jingjing told me yesterday she had to go home. Didn’t she tell you?”

Bai Lianzhou frowned. He hadn’t received any word at all.

Bai Shengju was old; day-to-day, it was Bai Lianzhou who handled dojo affairs. Everyone there knew that.

As the only disciple to enter the Dao in the last two years, Jiang Haojing had been slated to be taken in as Bai Shengju’s personal disciple soon. Like Xu Shu, she lived and ate at the dojo—how could she have family business and not inform them?

Instinctively, Bai Lianzhou felt there might be more to this.

He kept his face unreadable, grunted an “Mm,” and offered Xu Shu a few pointers.

“Your chains of moves aren’t fluid enough.”

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“You don’t know how to infer by analogy—above all, you fear others watching!”

“People watching you aren’t trying to kill you. What are you afraid of?”

“Cringing like that—how will you ever train good swordwork!”

While Bai Lianzhou asserted the authority of the acting Dao Lord over there, Bai Guanshan was busy undercutting him on the side.

“All right, all right… cut the grand lectures.”

“Practice, practice—every day it’s just practice! Even if you perfect it, what’s the point?”

“Come on, Xiao Xu, don’t listen to your master blather. Come, come, let’s go in and have some water…”

“Leying hasn’t seen you in a while either—you two should have a good time~”

“Hmph!”

Bai Lianzhou couldn’t stand his elder brother’s line; he snorted, annoyed, and stalked off ahead alone.

“Dad!”

The perpetually low-presence Bai Maoxu called out, looking at Bai Guanshan with clear displeasure, and was tugged along inside by Shen Xuelan.

The air grew heavy, and it was Zhu Ying who took the lead scolding her husband.

“I say you’re just deliberately needling Lianzhou.”

“Such a grown man and still so stubborn… If the old master takes you to task, I’d like to see you wriggle out of it!”

“Even if the sky falls, I’m in the right.”

Unmoved, Bai Guanshan dragged Xu Shu inward. As he went, he muttered, “If sword practice were any use…”

He paused, then suddenly cut his eyes sideways toward Bai Xiang.

Whether it was an illusion, Bai Xiang felt that in that instant he was looking through her at someone else.

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She was actually a bit surprised. There was no way Bai Guanshan had seen through her transmigration at a glance, right?

Bai Shengju hadn’t noticed talking with her, none of the Bai family had noticed—how would Bai Guanshan spot it right off?

Bai Guanshan was surprised too, because this time Bai Xiang actually dared to meet his gaze head-on.

He clearly disliked that attitude; he gave a heavy “hmph,” quickened his pace, and went inside.

No one spoke on the way. The stiffness lasted until the inner hall, where Bai Shengju came out from within, cane in hand.

Bent.

Hunched.

Movements stiff.

Looking at this octogenarian, you’d never connect him with the brilliant swordsman who’d once been acclaimed across the Circuit in his youth.

Time spares no one, that was all.

Nothing endures the washing of years.

Bai Shengju greeted Bai Guanshan first, then Bai Lianzhou, then Zhu Ying and Shen Xuelan, and only after that did he begin questioning Bai Xiang.

Such was the rite.

Aside from the eldest and second sons and the two women who were Bai Xiang’s elders, Bai Xiang’s seniority here was the highest.

Bai Shengju’s questions were very detailed.

Though he’d already gotten the gist from Bai Xiang over text, he still dug to the roots about the aberration at No. 1 High, practically making her account for every detail.

This was clearly the first time Bai Guanshan had heard it. After a bit he just stood there, dumbstruck.

His wife Zhu Ying and his sister-in-law Shen Xuelan kept gasping, astonished that Bai Xiang had thus forged ties with so many important people, praising her for making something of herself. Bai Guanshan remained stupefied, unable to snap out of it.

“Is that true?”

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“No kidding! What, you think it’s fake…?”

Bai Maoxu couldn’t help whispering with Bai Zhuqing and Bai Leying on the side; all three stared at Bai Xiang, and Bai Zhuqing’s eyes shimmered faintly.

When he’d finished with Bai Xiang, Bai Shengju questioned Bai Zhuqing and the other juniors in turn, then finally raised his teacup and took a sip.

Xu Shu wasn’t present.

This was an internal Bai family meeting; however close he was, he was still an outsider, and sensibly slipped away early to resume practice.

“That’ll be all.”

“We’ll talk tonight.”

Bai Shengju waved a hand.

“Xiang’er stays. I have things to discuss with her.”

Bai Guanshan opened his mouth to say something, but Zhu Ying held him back, and the group drifted out of the courtyard.

Only after they had gone did Bai Shengju look at Bai Xiang again.

“Your eldest uncle’s matter… by rights it should have been explained earlier.”

“But on one hand, it’s a shame of our Bai family; on another, you were too young, your emotional control insufficient; most importantly, your cultivation was lacking—there’d be no benefit to letting you juniors hear it.”

Bai Xiang focused, guessing he might be about to address Bai Guanshan’s attitude toward her.

“Do you know that besides Guanshan and Lianzhou, and your third uncle who went off to do business in Liangzhou, you should also have had an aunt?”

Bai Shengju faced her.

The look in his eyes… felt exactly the same as when Bai Guanshan had looked at her earlier.