Volume 3, Chapter 51 – Feathered Ascension

“Who are you people?”

Bai Xiang immediately demanded toward the other side, “How am I supposed to tell whether what you’re saying is true?”

In truth she believed the intel at once, because along the line of deductions she had made on this trip, the imperial clan of Great Yu definitely knew of the existence of divine-blood fiends; they would surely have drawn up contingency plans for when divine-blood fiends stirred up unrest. There was no way they would do nothing to counter it.

Even if they weren’t coming for Dr. Evan, given that she had privately taken matters into her own hands, overstepping her authority to strip Zhang Xianzhi of his post, the court had every reason to send people over to “deal with” her.

“Have you heard of the Feathered Ascension Sect?” The other party reported the name of his organization. “It was the state cult of the Xuan Dynasty, back when demons ruled the world.”

Feathered Ascension Sect?

The Xuan Dynasty, the Xuan Emperor’s descendants?

Bai Xiang frowned. “Where did you get this number?”

After she’d taken over the position of Shenming Dao Lord, she had replaced her private number; the people who knew this number were extremely, extremely few. She quickly filtered through her contacts list, and in the end decided that only Fang Xiaochun’s side could have leaked it.

The other party wasn’t willing to reveal too much. “We naturally have our own ways.”

“It can’t have been easy, digging up this bit of news.” Bai Xiang pressed. “Five Divine Fetus cultivators—quite the lineup. But transferring personnel of that level is extremely troublesome. I don’t believe the Qianyu Palace would take such a huge public-opinion risk to mobilize five Dao Lords just to target me, the ‘banner’ they still have to rely on in the open.”

“Believe it or don’t,” the man on the other end snorted. “I’m only responsible for bringing you the message.”

“Let me guess, those five Divine Fetus cultivators are no longer Dao Lords. Or to put it another way, they’re Dao Lords who are, in the public’s eyes, already dead.”

“…How do you know that?” The male voice finally showed a ripple of emotion.

“The Saint-Transition Pill.” Bai Xiang spoke the term aloud. “The father of Kong An, that grandmaster of the Startling Bamboo Dao, suddenly disappeared a few months ago. Combine that with certain bits of intel—‘the court is secretly refining Divine Fetus puppets’… that fact isn’t hard to deduce.”

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“We’re talking about five Divine Fetus cultivators.” The man could no longer hold it in. “You don’t think you might need a little help?”

“I’ll remember the favor of the Feathered Ascension Sect for passing the word.” Bai Xiang said calmly. “As for help, I’ll pass. I have no desire to get tangled up with people like you.”

“You—” The man still wanted to say more, but Bai Xiang had already hung up.

“Bastard!” he exploded in fury. “What kind of attitude is that?!”

He’d been planning to use this piece of information—so hard-won—to sell the imperial daughter a favor, and he’d never expected the other party to be that arrogant!

But what could he do about it?

He… he really didn’t have a single way.

After all, if the Feathered Ascension Sect truly had the strength to stand against five Divine Fetus cultivators, they wouldn’t have been beaten down like maggots, forced to live only in the dark.

The plan hammered out within the sect was no more than persuading the imperial daughter to flee—to escape to those little border nations under the sect’s control. It was, admittedly, not a particularly glorious suggestion.

But the man didn’t think it was wrong.

The Feathered Ascension Sect had survived these years precisely by hiding this way. If they hadn’t, there was no way they could have preserved their strength and organizational structure under the Court of Great Yu’s repeated purges. He did not think his proposal was mistaken.

“Anyway, notifying her was Uncle Song Qiao’s idea. If it doesn’t work out, the blame sure isn’t on me.”

The man’s true body sat in a little street-side diner, who knew in what part of town. Anger surging to his head, he was about to pay the bill and storm off.

On the other side, Bai Xiang stared at the call log, then forwarded the contents to Xiang Xian.

Xiang Xian immediately called. “What’s going on? The Feathered Ascension Sect? Why would the Feathered Ascension Sect contact you?”

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She was just as shocked—shocked, on one hand, that the court truly did have multiple Divine Fetus puppets under its control; on the other hand… even to an old fossil like her, the name Feathered Ascension Sect was far too distant and ancient.

“Master, do you know this organization?” Bai Xiang tried to get more intel out of her.

“Know it? I do, but they…” Xiang Xian thought a moment about her phrasing. “They operate in a very low-key way.”

Calling it “low-key” was definitely putting it mildly. After all, they were a sect whose ultimate goal was “feathered ascension to immortality”; they certainly wouldn’t choose to have their influence reduced to this degree. That so-called “low profile” was nothing but the result of the court’s suppression.

“Compared to the Demon-Immortal Dao, they’re low-key enough—and that probably has to do with the difference in how hard they get hit.” Xiang Xian said, “Because those Demon-Immortal Dao sects… I’ll be blunt here, they’re just larger-scale gangs. The court doesn’t really take these demon factions seriously at all. The level of effort it puts into suppressing them and suppressing the Feathered Ascension Sect simply isn’t in the same league.”

“Take the nationwide physical examinations, for example.” She gave an example. “Every circuit city has scheduled rounds of mandatory checkups. That involves an enormous amount of resource allocation, and the policy was originally created precisely to target the Feathered Ascension Sect—to ‘catch bugs’.”

“Catch bugs?”

“People who cultivate the Feathered Ascension Sect’s methods grow a tattoo of insect wings on their back.” Xiang Xian continued, “Once the root method takes deep hold, they even use the human body as a cocoon to incubate new life. In the early stages, all of that can be detected with instruments.”

“The Feathered Ascension Sect really is different.” She stressed it. “Compared to them, the Demon-Immortal Dao’s so-called ‘bewitching the masses’ amounts to nothing. If you leave the Feathered Ascension Sect alone, they can easily convert several hundred thousand believers within a few months. Historically, there have been multiple circuit cities poisoned by them, brewing up what were called ‘insect calamities.’ You can look all of this up and verify it in the Yuming archives.”

Literal insects?

Bai Xiang recalled On the Five Worms , and still felt something was off.

This Feathered Ascension Sect was, in all likelihood, practicing a crooked path. Dreaming of becoming immortals was wishful thinking.

“Why would they sell you information?” Xiang Xian was very tense about this. “Did they say why?”

“They probably want to build a connection.” Bai Xiang guessed.

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Their intel network was fairly sharp; they even knew each time she went against the court. Perhaps the Feathered Ascension Sect saw her as a like-minded comrade in arms, maybe even wanted to win her over, have her convert and join the sect.

“Don’t get involved with them.” Xiang Xian warned her.

“Everything you’re doing right now, I support. Even if you wanted to openly rebel against Yujing itself, I’d be ready to risk it all and go in with you.”

“But this one organization… the Feathered Ascension Sect! You must never get entangled with them!”

Because the nature of it was different.

Xiang Xian despised the Qianyu Palace, but that didn’t mean she was about to throw in with an evil cult that ravaged living beings.

The Feathered Ascension Sect’s scriptures polluted the common folk too heavily. She was willing to be a resistor whose name would go down in history, but she was not willing to be branded a “vile cultist” in the judgment of later generations.

Bai Xiang, of course, had no intention of doing so either. The reason she’d refused so bluntly was precisely because the Feathered Ascension Sect’s reputation was so bad.

“But if there really are five Divine Fetus cultivators…”

Xiang Xian worried aloud. “Do you need me to come over and help?”

You coming won’t help.

Bai Xiang shook her head outright.

This bargain-bin master of hers seemed to have some sort of passive trait—most of the time she was useless when it came to fighting strength, but the moment she did stir up trouble, it was always on a world-shaking scale.

“I’ll send Kong An over!” Xiang Xian snorted. “The talk of puppets was just my master’s speculation before. If it’s confirmed, then we won’t be waiting half a year—today, all the Daos will be demanding an explanation!”

Kong An’s father, Kong Tianbao, had previously vanished, and that incident had caused a huge uproar in Xuzhou. Xiang Xian knew about it.

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Bai Xiang did not refuse. She wasn’t sure whether Divine Fetus cultivators transformed by the Saint-Transition Pill would have any changes in strength; and on top of that, they might have to face the ancient demon Shi Ling . A bit of extra insurance could only be a good thing.

She then informed Xiang Xian about Shi Ling as well, actually managing to shock Xiang Xian into silence.

“If your speculation is right, then that ‘B2’ containment object…”

“Mm.” Bai Xiang responded.

“I suspect that’s the blood of Shi Ling .”

In the Southern Range there is a worm, its name is Shi Ling . It often hides within the years to avoid the calamity of “You.” It has the power to protrude into the present. It erodes time and seasons, causing day to lengthen and night to shorten.

This was the most concise summary description, in the data Dr. Evan had collected, of that ancient demon.

If that so-called “power to protrude into the present,” and the claim that it “hides in the crevices of time itself,” were true, then its blood suddenly appearing on some offshore island really wasn’t so hard to understand.

“Ancient demons… do they really exist?”

Xiang Xian’s tone was thick with difficulty and strain.

The shock she’d taken was a bit too much.

“Whether they exist or not, we still have to stay alive.” Bai Xiang said.

At the very least, in her plans, no existence had the right to stand in the way of her longevity.