Volume 3, Chapter 33 – Defection【1】

Bai Xiang led the group, with Bai Zhuqing as her deputy. They brought along four inner disciples—Ma Yue, Lian Feng, Hu Hu, and Chen Jing—as well as a number of outer disciples. Split into seven off-road vehicles, they quickly drove out of the Zhennan territory.

Most of the other vehicles were packed full; only Bai Xiang’s car held just two people—Bai Xiang herself in the back seat, and Bai Zhuqing at the wheel in front.

The little lass had somehow sneaked herself a set of driving skills from somewhere. She clearly had no license, yet her handling was absurdly proficient. She kept formation with the convoy the whole way without once messing up, and even on muddy stretches and uphill roads, her driving stayed smooth as silk.

Bai Zhuqing had half a mind to show off. Every time she pulled off some difficult maneuver, she’d glance back over her shoulder, only to find Bai Xiang sitting cross-legged on the seat, calmly cultivating. Never mind noticing Zhuqing—she hadn’t even opened her eyes.

No fun at all.

The girl pouted, a bit deflated at last, but it wasn’t the time to throw a little tantrum.

Bai Xiang had taught her a lot, and in terms of shaping her outlook on the world, it might well surpass Bai Guanshan and Zhu Ying put together. In the past, she absolutely couldn’t understand Bai Xiang’s “grab any chance and dive into cultivation” grind mindset. Cultivation was obviously a dry, boring process—yet Xiang’er-jie could always settle her mind and focus on it. However you looked at it, that level of diligence was way over the top.

But now things were different—Xiang Xian’s whole uproar had dragged certain conflicts into the open. Even airheaded Bai Leping understood the burden weighing on their eldest sister’s shoulders now. Naturally, Bai Zhuqing understood too—she knew who Bai Xiang was working this hard for.

“How’s your cultivation coming along?”

The question suddenly floated up from the back.

“Me?” Bai Zhuqing jumped, almost jerking the steering wheel off course.

She snuck a glance at the rearview mirror. Bai Xiang had already opened her eyes—those golden irises shone in the dark like two pieces of translucent dark-gold amber, making Bai Zhuqing swallow hard before stammering in a soft, sticky voice, “Um… it’s… okay, I guess…”

“What do you mean, ‘okay’?” Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes. “In the latest pamphlet we handed out, both Enter the Dao and Refining Qi were divided into ten layers. Before I left, your realm was at Refining Qi, second layer. Have you made any progress these past days?”

“Ahaha…” Bai Zhuqing grinned weakly, cold sweat beading on her forehead. “Well… I think so…”

“Mm?” The girl suddenly shuddered. A hand had reached forward from behind to pinch the back of her neck like lifting a cat, giving the flesh there a light flick as though flicking a whip.

With that flick, a strange, tingling sensation shot down Bai Zhuqing’s spine, instantly shaking the strength out of her entire body so that she could barely even hold the steering wheel.

Not only had she failed to improve, she’d actually regressed.

Bai Xiang had already probed her cultivation progress and let out a displeased little snort. She flicked her hand again, sending a strand of force into her little sister’s arms, helping her regain control of the vehicle.

“Cough, cough! It’s really not my fault…” Bai Zhuqing hunched her shoulders as she carefully corrected their course. “Xiang’er-jie… Auntie, you put me in charge of general affairs. I’ve had to learn a lot of new things these days—where am I supposed to find the energy to cultivate…”

On that point, she truly wasn’t lying. In the past she’d always thought anyone in a high position had it easy, just giving casual orders and having subordinates execute them. Only when she had to do it herself did she realize how dense the web of details really was. A lot of things couldn’t be learned in full just from books and lectures; she had to personally try them, had to personally suffer through them once before she could understand the reasons behind them.

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Take certain rules that seemed unreasonable on the surface—why had they been passed down so long? There were lessons written behind each one.

She really had grown a lot. The price, though, was that she was utterly exhausted every night. Never mind collapsing on the bed right after her bath; there were even two nights when she couldn’t be bothered to bathe at all and just fell asleep slumped in a chair.

“I’ll allow that,” Bai Xiang said after thinking it over, temporarily accepting her excuse. “But you need to remember…”

“Yes, yes!” Bai Zhuqing hurried to cut her off before she could start chanting scriptures again. “‘All beings suffer, for they fail to attain longevity,’ ‘The method of longevity grants peace and freedom, stepping beyond the mortal world without envy of immortals’… Auntie, I can recite them all~”

“Oh…” Bai Xiang’s lips curled, and she actually showed a rare hint of a smile. “Then do you still remember what I said—that the difficulty of cultivation lies in repeatedly entering the gate: before you enter, stray thoughts remain; once you pass through, all thoughts fall empty.”

It’s over. Auntie’s about to switch into lecture mode.

Bai Zhuqing wilted like an eggplant hit by frost.

Uuuu, this Auntie is scary like this…

“You explain it to me.” Bai Xiang gave a soft snort. “What does that mean?”

“Sigh…” Bai Zhuqing sighed and recited dully, “It means that cultivating on the path of qi is also a process of soothing the body’s pain and fatigue.”

“Not bad.” Bai Xiang nodded. “Cultivation can’t completely replace sleep, but as long as you endure the initial wave of drowsiness and enter meditative stillness, that fatigue will ease. Each time you struggle against sleepiness and laziness, it’s like entering the gate again—and that’s a daily, refined practice.”

“I was wrong,” Bai Zhuqing chose to surrender outright.

“You don’t need to apologize,” Bai Xiang shook her head.

“You saw how many people arrived today. It’ll still take some time for your Grandmaster to fully absorb and convert all that demonic power, but once she does, it’s very likely she’ll condense a ‘false core.’”①

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① “False core”: refers to the preliminary core condensation state Bai Xiang attained when she comprehended the Dao on the eve of the Qizhou University exchange meet—an intermediate stage where the core has begun to form but hasn’t fully succeeded.

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“And then under Grandmaster, I have two senior brothers whose Sword Dao cultivation is already at the Core realm.” She continued, “Behind them are the people of the Shangqing Dao and Benling Dao. Once these people all switch to cultivating the path of qi, which of them won’t surpass you in cultivation? You’re about to be pushed further and further to the back—I can’t panic on your behalf.”

That… actually made a lot of sense!

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Bai Zhuqing stared, finally feeling a sense of urgency well up.

She remembered some of the “harsh words” Bai Xiang had told her before—things like “if you can’t keep up, I won’t look after you anymore.” Her little heart instantly leapt into her throat, and she blurted, “Starting today I’m going to cultivate like crazy! I’ll definitely push them all down!”

Bai Xiang could feel her shift in mindset. She nodded and didn’t continue pressing her.

Bai Zhuqing had fine talent and a good disposition. She just had a few minor flaws common to most people. As long as they were corrected in time with proper guidance, it would be enough. If she nagged too much, the girl might get annoyed.

But why did something about this feel a little off…

Bai Xiang frowned slightly.

Even for things like this, she had to worry. Was she supposed to be Bai Zhuqing’s big sister, her aunt, and her master all at once?

She shook her head, shooing that strange thought out of her mind. She preferred to think of it as playing a pet-raising game.

Helping the “pet” choose its evolution path, then supervising it as it kept striving forward… It would be perfect if certain odd fetishes weren’t involved.

“By the way, Auntie.” Bai Zhuqing’s eyes rolled as she shifted the topic onto someone else. “Was Grandmaster always controlled by that ‘Sacred-Heart Pill’?”

“Calling it control isn’t quite accurate,” Bai Xiang shook her head.

According to Xiang Xian’s account, the Sacred-Heart Pill was more of a shackle and restraint.

The holder of the master pill couldn’t remotely control someone who’d taken the Sacred-Heart Pill and make them do things across a great distance. But once they were close enough, a single thought from the master pill holder could plunge the target into unbearable agony, a torment worse than death.

It was really only a pseudo-control. If someone could endure the torture, the shackle would cease to be effective. It was just that no one had ever managed to do so, which was why Divine Fetus cultivators on the Sword Dao turned pale at the mere mention of the Sacred-Heart Pill.

So Xiang Xian had planned things out precisely—she’d guessed people would set up roadblocks on her way to the capital. By launching her plan then, she didn’t have to face the master pill holder directly and thus wouldn’t be threatened.

And even in the worst case, she had Guo Rongzhi to help her control the “Furnace-Breaking Pills.” She’d prepared safeguards on all fronts.

“There’s another point—the timing,” Bai Xiang went on. “The Sacred-Heart Pill has to be taken once a year, usually during the Nine Prefectures Sword Meet, when Qianyu Palace distributes the pills.”

Bai Zhuqing asked, “What happens if you don’t take it?”

She was truly curious. If that was all the punishment amounted to, then couldn’t someone who’d taken the Sacred-Heart Pill just run away?

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“Don’t take it?” Bai Xiang’s expression didn’t change, but her tone grew colder. “Every Divine Fetus on the Sword Dao still carries the poison of the Nine-Turn Pill; it’s never been fully purged. If they don’t keep taking the pills, the result is the Nine-Turn Pill Tribulation being stirred up in backlash, the demonic power growing stronger, breaking free of its restraints, and turning them into something neither human nor ghost before they rot apart and die.”

That horrifying?

The girl clicked her tongue. These people really were vile enough.

“Then, Auntie!” A few more questions came to her. “Does every Dao Lord have to take the Sacred-Heart Pill?”

Bai Xiang nodded. “Yes.”

“And it’s not limited to Dao Lords. In your Grandmaster’s own words, even Human Immortals and Earth Masters have to submit.”

“And that’s still not the full extent of their control,” she said with another shake of her head. “Someone like your Grandmaster, who can still resist the pill poison fairly easily—she can tough it out.”

“But if, as the years pass and cultivation wanes, they become less and less able to withstand the backlash of the pill poison’s demonic power, then they can only swallow another kind of pill—‘Saint-Transition Pills.’”

Bai Zhuqing was curious. “Saint-Transition Pills?”

“These pills can suppress the pill poison’s demonic power, but the price is corrosion of the spirit and will,” Bai Xiang explained. “Taken long-term, they make you dull-witted. According to your Grandmaster’s guess, it’s very likely they turn you into a puppet in the end, completely at the mercy of the master pill holder.”

“Then—!” Bai Zhuqing gasped, glaring fiercely at the vehicle ahead. “Then Auntie, won’t you also… will those people force you to take these pills?”

She meant the Yujing diplomatic mission stationed in the Chilong Circuit.

For a mere ranking edict to be dragged out this long, she suspected there was some dirty bargaining behind it—that Qianyu Palace very likely meant to use it as leverage to coerce Bai Xiang into swallowing the Sacred-Heart Pill and submitting.

“They probably did bring the pills,” Bai Xiang said, lips pressed together, a faint curve at the corner of her mouth.

“But most likely, they’ll pretend they didn’t.”

Is that so.

Thinking it over, Bai Zhuqing quickly caught up in her heart.

Of course… originally, Qianyu Palace would surely have wanted to control Xiang’er-jie as well. Every Divine Fetus immortal in Great Yu’s borders had to be brought to heel—this was the very root of their rule.

But after all the trouble Grandmaster had stirred up, as long as they weren’t idiots, there was no way they’d dare push things on this side anymore. Even if they brought the pills, they wouldn’t dare take them out.

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Probably because they figured half a year didn’t make a difference…

They thought the situation was under control, so they wouldn’t press too hard.

So this negotiation trip probably wouldn’t get pushed to the breaking point.

Bai Zhuqing tried to map out the future.

Zhang Xianzhi cutting off their supplies to force them over was, more likely than not, his way of first confirming Xiang’er-jie’s stance toward the Maozhou officialdom system.

He needed to clarify that on ground he considered relatively safe, so instead of coming directly to Maozhou, he chose to lure them back to Qizhou.

“It’s about time we went back to the Chilong Circuit anyway,” Bai Xiang said in a low voice from the back. “There are more and more people now… Even if food isn’t an issue, there are various miscellaneous supplies that need to be recounted and purchased.”

“Zhuqing.”

“Yeah?”

“This heavy responsibility of general affairs—thank you for shouldering it.”

Huh? Was that… praise?

It took Bai Zhuqing a few seconds to react, and then joy flooded her face.

And there was something even better coming. She heard Bai Xiang’s calm voice from behind: “I went out this afternoon, and I’m a bit tired after getting back.”

“Once we camp for the night, could you help me massage my feet?”

Th-this… is this a tangible reward?

The girl swallowed nervously and snuck a look at the rearview mirror.

The cold, dignified Dao Lord elder sister still sat there cross-legged.

As Bai Zhuqing’s gaze slid down to the arch of that black-stockinged foot, those toes seemed to curl in shyly, and their owner’s expression shifted just a little, as though a faint blush had flown up onto her face…