Volume 3, Chapter 34 – Clear Heart【2】

The Clear-Heart Formula didn’t have any “IQ and EQ boosting” effects, so the fact that her little sister actually had this kind of talent really did surprise Bai Xiang.

“Someone just cut off our food supplies, and we go rushing over like our hair’s on fire—” Bai Zhuqing’s eyes went wide. “Even an idiot would know they’ve grabbed us by the weak spot. Wouldn’t that make us the biggest idiots of all?”

“It’s a very simple truth, but not everyone can see it,” Bai Xiang nodded. “What a pity that you can.”

?

Bai Zhuqing couldn’t make sense of that last sigh, a big question mark practically popping up on her forehead.

“I don’t want you tangled up in these petty matters all the time,” Bai Xiang reminded her. “Seeing too clearly might not be a good thing for you right now.”

There were far too many people in this world who liked to fancy themselves clever.

Sure, some of them really were sharp. They could grasp things others found difficult to understand, pick up complex formulas and scriptures at a glance and master them in a single practice session. But that only made them lose their awe of the world, relying too much on that cleverness.

The best swimmers are the ones who drown in water.

A perfectly normal seventeen-year-old girl, suddenly discovering she has this kind of advanced “political mind”—could you guarantee she’d keep her composure and not abuse it?

She’d almost rather have someone like that Guo kid—who looked like a fool but was single-minded at heart. That was a born cultivation seed.

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“Auntie…” Bai Zhuqing didn’t fully grasp what Bai Xiang meant, but she could tell Bai Xiang was worried about her—that this was for her own good.

She rubbed Bai Xiang’s smooth instep, and seeing that she wasn’t angry, a sudden impulse struck her. Like a little snake she wriggled up along the side and leaned into Bai Xiang’s shoulder.

“All the good Auntie does for me, I remember,” she said, lifting Bai Xiang’s hand and pressing it earnestly to her own chest. “I’ll definitely cultivate properly and stay with Auntie until the end of time.”

“…” Bai Xiang’s eyes flickered for a moment. She quietly drew her hand back and said only, “Then I’ll be waiting.”

Bai Zhuqing meant it.

On a normal night, she would at most cultivate for a bit and then go to sleep. But whether to show Bai Xiang or thanks to the Clear-Heart Formula’s help, she actually cultivated alongside Bai Xiang all the way until two in the morning. When Bai Xiang went to sleep, she was still going.

This wasn’t putting on a show; she truly felt the crisis.

She had to cultivate.

She took out all the pills Auntie and Grandmaster had given her and threw herself into it.

The Clear-Heart Formula really lived up to being a heart-meridian technique tailored for her. As she kept softly reciting the lines and using their unique rhythm to vibrate her muscles and bones, the more she cultivated, the clearer her mind became; drowsiness and fatigue vanished without a trace.

Sss sss sss…

Refined heart-flow moved quietly through her body, completing one full great circuit after another.

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The vibrating tone also made her incredibly sensitive to that heart-flow. Every time she completed a circuit, she could feel it grow just a little bit stronger.

There was a real sense of harvest in it. For the first time, Bai Zhuqing tasted the joy of cultivation—her first realization that growing stronger could feel so magical, so deeply satisfying.

If every cultivation session in the future felt like this, she would definitely fall in love with it. She wouldn’t need reminders; she’d seek it out on her own.

But even she didn’t realize that the nature of her qi-force manifestation was quietly changing as well.

Previously, her qi-force only had the properties of sticking, clinging, and winding—true to the image of her heart, a direct manifestation of the possessiveness and need for control she’d once had toward Bai Xiang.

Now, though, there was a new streak of hardness woven into it.

Spread out, it was a web—clinging and tenacious.

Drawn in, it was a core-pellet—hard and unyielding.

If Bai Xiang had been awake and observing this change closely, she would definitely have been taken aback.

Because Bai Zhuqing’s qi-force was developing in a very strange direction. Once gathered together into a pellet state, it was practically like the “sword-pellets” from xianxia novels, able to zip about at its master’s whim, freely shifting between soft and hard.

And this was still just inside her body.

Once manifested in actual combat, its power would only be more fearsome.

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Unfortunately, Bai Xiang was asleep.

Bai Zhuqing herself had no idea what was happening to her. She just muddled on cultivating like this, all the way until dawn.

In the morning, Bai Xiang woke.

After she washed up, Ma Yue called to report that there were indeed people who wanted to see her.

“It’s Dao Lord Pei of Huanxi Sword Dao…” Ma Yue’s voice was a little heavy.

These were all old faces—third-rate local Dao lineages that had once joined Chengfeng Sword Dao in bullying the Shenming Dojo, only to be visited one by one by Bai Xiang later. She’d chopped down their halls, hacked off hands and feet, and pinned them to the ground.

“Them?” Bai Zhuqing had just finished cultivating as well and blinked in surprise when she heard.

In her mind, those people counted as enemies.

Back then, Bai Xiang’s hand had been harsh. Chopping down their halls was already the equivalent of stomping their faces into the floor; some of them had even been turned into limbless stumps by her. Injuries like that weren’t the sort you fixed by reattaching limbs or swapping in mechanical prosthetics—they would never work as well as the originals.

Shouldn’t they be avoiding Shenming Sword Dao like the plague?

So why were they here now, asking for an audience, putting on the same “coming to defect” act as the Jingyi Gang?

Bai Xiang told Ma Yue she’d come down in a bit. After hanging up, she turned to her little sister. “Guess why the Jingyi Gang came looking for us.”

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“Why there of all places.”

“Why at this particular moment.”

Hm?

Bai Zhuqing frowned and thought for a moment. “Because… they were already nearby?”

A gang of three thousand wasn’t something that Wu Teng could just march across several circuit cities on a whim.

If he’d managed to reach Zhennan’s gates, their main force had to be close at hand.

In other words, the Jingyi Gang had to be stationed in the Chilong Circuit right now.

“One place can’t hold too many exploiters.”

Bai Xiang slowly closed her eyes.

“That Zhang Xianzhi…”

“…is not a nice man.”