Volume 3, Chapter 30 – Current Situation 【2】

Bai Xiang didn’t dodge. She just stared straight at it.

The thing inside the light smoke gradually condensed, forming a pale eyeball that looked almost solid. It dangled out of nowhere in front of her, its pupil slowly swiveling, inch by inch, toward her.

At last, their gazes met.

Bai Xiang felt something bore its way into her brain through her eyes. Then a shrill “Yee!” screamed by her ear, and the pale eyeball suddenly convulsed in midair. With a wet splurt , it sprayed out a reeking flood of blood—at least as much as a small stream—then shriveled in on itself and dropped to the ground.

That amount of blood had to have come from all of its victims.

Sidestepping the spray, Bai Xiang used her sword tip to lift the shriveled eyeball up, holding it in front of her for a closer look.

A dozen people weren’t enough. This wasn’t its first attack.

The eyeball was clearly the origin of the Demon Pool. After it withered, even the smoke coiling around Yu He faded away, its danger level almost entirely suppressed.

It wasn’t dead yet. Pinned on the sword, it kept trembling, trying to shy away, refusing to meet Bai Xiang’s eyes again.

I can take this back for Dr. Hannah to study.

Bai Xiang took a cloth pouch, dropped the eyeball inside, put it away, then walked over to Yu He and watched him continue doing his blindfolded sword dance.

“It’s dealt with.”

Yu He paused, then swung a few more times before seizing a gap to suck in a breath. He tugged his blindfold up and checked the surroundings.

“Really dealt with?” His eyes went wide. “What the hell was it? Is there even anything left in this world that could stump you?”

“?” Bai Xiang frowned. “You want something to stump me that badly?”

“No!” Yu He’s expression changed on the spot, and he let out a fake little laugh. “Heh heh… we’re basically a community of shared fate now, right… you being awesome means I’m awesome… I don’t look down on that… heh heh, really, I don’t.”

Not bad.

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Seeing him grinning like a rogue again, Bai Xiang finally relaxed.

Still the same scoundrel as before; looks like there’s been no erosion from the phantasmal god.

The two of them headed off together to find the unit, gathered everyone, and made their way back to the construction site, talking about the attack the whole way.

“It’s really weird,” Yu He said. “I’ve seen demonic beasts charge human settlements, and I’ve seen Demon Pools that formed because clearing the forest went too far. But demonic beasts attacking with a Demon Pool pushing behind them? I’ve lived this long and never seen that before.”

Both the demonic beasts and the Demon Pool had manifested that blood-mist look. There was no way that was some random coincidence. His reasoning wasn’t off.

“But the amount of blood that Demon Pool bled out was wrong,” Bai Xiang said. “Get in touch with the other squads and take stock of the defense situation.”

Yu He did as she said. About ten minutes later, a reply came back—around three kilometers to the southeast, they’d discovered more than twenty gnawed, desiccated human corpses, presumed to be refugees who’d slipped out to hunt on their own.

“That’s probably the direction they came from,” Bai Xiang analyzed. “They came around from the far side of the Nanluo Mountain Range.”

Nanluo Mountain Range?

Yu He blinked.

“You mean, they were affected by the ‘Blood Sea’…”

To call down the Blood Sea, Yao Qingyuan had tinkered up eight “spring eyes” in eight different Circuit Cities, connecting them to the Blood Sea and letting blood mist gush out.

But that blood mist hadn’t caused much trouble in their surroundings. As long as you stayed away from it, you were fine. That was clearly different from what Yu He had in mind.

They’d thought the ritual had gone wrong somewhere, weakening the blood mist’s power. Looked like they’d celebrated too early.

The Blood Sea…

Bai Xiang, for her part, was mulling over the entanglements behind this incident.

This thing could actually grant infected demonic beasts a regeneration ability, and seemed capable of catalyzing new Demon Pools.

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Because that eyeball-type Demon Pool was a species she’d never seen before.

Even with the experience she’d inherited from the Yuming library, she’d never come across it. It was almost certainly newly spawned, and very likely influenced by the Blood Sea.

When it first emerged it didn’t have this kind of impact. Did it hide dormant in the bodies of the beasts, waiting for the right moment to flare up…

“That’s exactly the forest where the Chilong Circuit ‘spring eye’ is,” Bai Xiang said. “Tell them to slow the pace of land clearing, pull the Zhen’nan Garrison back in, and focus on defense for now.”

“Got it.” Yu He knew that was the right call and immediately started calling the squads one by one.

The blood mist’s reach back then had been huge. There was no way only this handful of demonic beasts had been affected. They had to be ready.

After reminding Yu He again to have Fang Xiaochun spread the word, and if possible notify Lu Niezhi’s side as well, Bai Xiang returned to Tingyu Tower, planning to study the eyeball Demon Pool together with Han Yuanfeng.

But Han Yuanfeng wasn’t there.

“Grandfather called him over to talk,” Bai Zhuqing said, hugging a little notebook as she followed behind Bai Xiang, the very picture of a secretary. “I think he’s using his connections to get in touch with Hongchen Sword Dao, to ask them to help inquire about Third Uncle.”

Contacting his lover.

Bai Xiang gave a subtle nod in her heart, thinking that Grandfather had finally let go of his obsession.

“I don’t think it’ll do any good…” Bai Zhuqing muttered. “Grand-Master and Yujing have already fallen out. Hongchen Dao definitely won’t bother with us.”

“No.” Bai Xiang shook her head. “They’ll agree.”

?

A giant question mark popped up in Bai Zhuqing’s mind.

But Bai Xiang clearly had no intention of explaining, and Bai Zhuqing was sensible enough not to press.

“There’s one more thing, Aunt.”

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Taking advantage of Bai Xiang being right in front of her, Bai Zhuqing opened her notebook and started reporting, “We’re running low on food.”

Bai Xiang halted mid-step. “How can we be running low?”

Never mind that Maozhou and the Zhen’nan Route’s territories had already been staked out—total population across the entire Zhen’nan Route, at most, was only forty thousand people.

Even with the daily radio broadcasts, letting wandering folk, refugees, or village households like Lian Feng’s know that they could seek refuge here, the daily population increase still wouldn’t exceed two thousand.

Food supply here, under Fang Xiaochun’s arrangements, had always been allocated out of Chilong Circuit. Chilong Circuit’s population was over a million; sending aid to the Zhen’nan Route was as easy as drinking water. How could it possibly not be enough?

Unless someone was deliberately skimming.

Sure enough, Bai Zhuqing checked her notebook and read, “Supposedly, a new Watchman showed up in Chilong Circuit, named ‘Zhang Xianzhi.’ As soon as he arrived, he cut off our supplies!”

“And! That envoy group that never showed up before? Chief Inspector Zhang sent word—they actually came together with Zhang Xianzhi, and they’re all holed up right now at the Roads Directorate residence in Chilong Circuit, who knows what they’re scheming!”

Bai Zhuqing’s tone was full of indignation—no doubt about it, she was tattling. “Aunt, tell me! What do we do about them?”

“Lord Fang hasn’t even sent us a reminder…” Bai Xiang mused. “That means they’ve started guarding against our people.”

Fang Xiaochun and Maozhou had gotten very close recently. If Bai Xiang had obediently let Yujing control her, her rise could have been counted as one of his achievements. But now that Xiang Xian had “kicked up trouble” together with her, Fang Xiaochun was bound to catch some blame too.

“Want me to send someone to give them a taste of pain?” Bai Zhuqing’s expression was a little excited.

She could finally fight. She was already figuring out how to talk Bai Xiang into letting her lead the team this time.

“Since Master set the terms, it’s not good for us to make a direct move right now.” Bai Xiang shook her head.

“Yujing’s patience has a limit. The only reason they agreed to the terms is because we’re still maintaining appearances on the surface—the outside world still thinks we’re subjects of Great Yu.”

“If we break that agreement and make a move on officials outside Maozhou, that façade will be gone. They won’t tolerate us anymore.”

“That’s such a pain.” Bai Zhuqing frowned. “They definitely figured that out and decided to pull this disgusting little stunt on purpose.”

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“Maozhou is still Maozhou of Great Yu. They can be annoyed with us, but they won’t just sit there and watch Maozhou starve,” Bai Xiang said, looking off in the direction of the Chilong Circuit.

“They’re telling me to go over and negotiate.”

Negotiate, huh.

Bai Zhuqing mulled it over.

They knew the food cut-off would get lifted sooner or later, and they still went ahead and did it anyway.

That cowardly vibe… yeah, it really did feel like that was what they meant.

“How much longer until Master’s back?” Bai Xiang suddenly asked.

“Soon!” Bai Zhuqing flipped pages with a rustle, checking her notes. “If he’s early, this afternoon; if not, he’ll be here by tonight at the latest!”

She put the notebook down and added, “He’s mainly bringing some people with him. Otherwise he’d have flown back ages ago…”

“All right.” Bai Xiang made the call.

“When Master comes back, I’ll go pay this Zhang Xianzhi a visit.”

You’re not taking me?

Bai Zhuqing held the notebook over her nose and mouth so only her big eyes showed, blinking up at Bai Xiang.

Bai Xiang stared back at her mischievous little sister. After a long moment, she gave a small nod.

“Fine.”

“And while we’re at it, we’ll see about getting you a sword that really suits your hand.”