Volume 3, Chapter 82 – Comprehending the Sword (Two-in-One)

“I don’t agree.”

At Starwater Joint Construction Security Company’s Diming City headquarters, inside the company tower, a white woman with orange-red hair pinned up leaned over the table and argued against the room.

“If we deploy the ‘Star Dawn’ system, more than half of Diming City will be reduced to dust. That’s inhumane and runs counter to the company’s basic investment logic.”

“Don’t be like that, Dr. Judy.” One of the executives below sighed. “According to the intel from the people of Yu, she’s a full-fledged war-level unit. Even if we deploy all of the company’s current security forces, we still won’t be able to inflict any real damage on her.”

“You have to understand what that means, Doctor.” The others chimed in. “If we can’t even hurt her, we can’t collect any biological samples. That would be an even bigger loss.”

Listening to the executives talking at her from every angle, the redhead—Dr. Judy—went thunderous in the face.

She knew exactly what these people were up to. One by one, they made it sound so good, but if she raised her hand right now and voted in favor of deploying the Star Dawn system, they would instantly flip 180 degrees and start listing all the problems it would cause.

Of course they would. Starwater had invested over a hundred billion here in Diming City, with key support going to her “Tyrant” project. Why would they turn Diming to ash with Star Dawn now?

Forget the losses they couldn’t accept. Just talk fallout. It wasn’t only Starwater’s branch here. There were also offices for “White Dragon Biotech,” “Nardo Real Estate,” and other subsidiaries. These forces truly weren’t as big as Starwater in Diming itself, but that didn’t mean what stood behind them was weaker than Starwater.

Starwater’s parent company was the Star Tower Group, a global giant in armed security and weapons, with operations and products around the world.

White Dragon Biotech was no weaker, either. It belonged to Laidi Life Sciences Group. Nardo Real Estate, meanwhile, was directly controlled by the Westwood Federation as one of its many state enterprises.

Which of these people didn’t have a space-based weapon or two?

If you just went ahead and flattened this place without even giving them time to pull their people out after a bit of consultation, how were you planning to explain that later?

So there was no way they were actually going to use Star Dawn.

The timing was too rushed, the location too sensitive. Forget Star Dawn, even getting a nuclear warhead approved would be a stretch.

The reason they were saying all this nonsense to her was not for anything else. They just wanted her to start producing results—use the Tyrant soldier against Bai Xiang.

“Dr. Judy, headquarters has high expectations for your project,” said a bald executive earnestly. “But look how long it’s been since the project was approved. This country’s regime has changed hands twice now. Isn’t it time you showed some results?”

“That’s right. In the last progress report you submitted, didn’t you say it was ready for live combat?”

“I’ve seen the numbers. Its speed and destructive power have both reached the criteria for a war-level unit. I think it’s time to show people what we’ve accomplished.”

“Yes. We should send a message, let certain people know that the ‘Augu God’ program isn’t the only thing worth relying on.”

“But control of the Tyrant is still very unstable…” Dr. Judy had gone pale. “When I said ‘live combat,’ I meant deployment . And the battlefield can’t have any friendly units present.”

“Isn’t that perfect, then?” Laughter rose from below.

“Exactly. Just right.”

“No matter how much damage a war-level unit causes, the impact is still less than setting off a nuclear warhead.”

“If we deploy it proactively, we can keep the affected area within the range we choose. What’s there to hesitate about?”

“Sign off as soon as possible, Dr. Judy.”

Everyone was pressuring her. Even as a fellow shareholder, she couldn’t stand against that kind of weight. She could only retreat a step for now and agree to let the Tyrant out of its cage.

But she had her own calculations. She felt that, aside from herself, everyone here was just a bunch of businessmen who didn’t know what they were talking about. They only cared about immediate profit and had no understanding of how terrifying what they were researching really was.

If the Tyrant went out of control, it could destroy this city too.

And given the “contamination” it would cause, the damage might be even worse than Star Dawn.

So she had to keep the authority to decide the drop point in her own hands. As for the controller, she would never hand that over. She would have to hold it personally.

“It’s basically set.”

What she didn’t know was that after the meeting, the bald executive slipped back to his room and made a call. “I’m not sure what she’s here for… but it probably isn’t that she’s sensed the Tyrant. We’ve hidden that very well. Even their headquarters barely has anyone who knows.”

“As for combat power, there’s nothing to worry about… I’ve read the report. That thing really can fight a Divine Fetus. Progress that fast has to be based on research from the ‘breeding facilities.’”

“Threat from mortals? You’re worrying too much. Sometimes they do have a clever idea or two, but this so-called research… The Tyrant project only succeeded because of our help.”

“Without the ancient demon fossils and tissues we provided, they wouldn’t have made anything at all.”

“So let’s leave it at that. I’ll keep watching.”

“The Demon God is eternal.”

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With a few words, the bald executive ended the call, took out the chip, snapped it in half, and tossed it into the sewer, flushing it away.

Anyway, the whole point was to make a big scene and attract attention…

He bared his teeth in a feral grin, as if tendrils were swelling and crawling under the skin of his face.

Laying the groundwork for the return of demon rule… He couldn’t wait for the day when they no longer had to hide.

Suddenly.

The entire room flashed red, and an electronic siren blared through the speakers.

A red alert at a time like this?

The bald executive’s expression changed.

There were two colors for the alert lights: red and yellow.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, only the yellow lights would flash. The red came up in less than one percent of cases, and it meant the company building was under direct attack. Everyone was to evacuate immediately.

That woman?

But how could she get here this fast?

Rumble—

At the same time, he felt the walls around him shaking violently.

Desk lamps and furniture rattled and clattered. He scowled, yanked back the curtains, and looked down to see the street in chaos.

“They’re fighting again!”

“Move! Move!”

In Bai Xiang’s opinion, Diming’s civilians were much quicker to take cover than most people of Yu.

Back in Chilong Circuit, when they were trying to evacuate, a huge number of civilians had refused to leave their homes.

But here in Diming, even in the upper city, even the wealthy, bolted as soon as they heard the first gunshot. Their practiced reactions made you wonder how many times they’d gone through this scene.

Thoughts turning, she suddenly drew her sword and raised it in front of her. The blade rippled with violent waves.

A sniper round hit the edge of the blade dead on, and with one smooth cut, she sliced the bullet in two. The split core hissed into the ground on either side of her.

Whoo—

The air howled. Rockets came down like rain.

Bai Xiang stepped back and stood straight. Feixiang Heaven rose vertically before her chest in a sword salute. By using the Vibration Art to vibrate her wrist and blade at high speed, and simultaneously casting the Splitting-Light Multiple-Images Sword Formula, she turned waves of sound into layers of rippling distortions in the air. From above, it looked as if she were the center of a hazy, transparent flower blooming open.

Shenming Sword: Flower That Shakes the Sky.

Whsst whsst whsst—

The rocket barrage that had been meant as a saturation strike slammed into the sword move midway. The warheads hit the twisted field and, as if diverted by some skewed gravity, curved off to the sides and veered past her, booming to pieces all around.

The street was blasted to pieces. Dust rose in clouds, only to be scattered by the gale, revealing Bai Xiang in her long coat.

The coat hung open at the collar, exposing a one-piece tight battlesuit underneath. The brim of her baseball cap was pulled low. Her face was covered by a black mask, making her golden eyes look all the more eerie and sharp.

That move had been a modified version of Only Regret Summer Is Short.

For a newly-Transforming-Qi Bai Xiang, that old family sword move would only have spread sound waves, nothing more.

But now it was different. After combining several techniques, the move itself had changed entirely. It would likely sprout more variations in the future.

[Miss Bai!]

A drone, silver-gray all over, descended from above. A light-screen lit up below it, showing Dr. Judy’s tense face.

[We don’t believe we’ve ever wronged you. I don’t know why you would—]

Sssk!

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Boom!

Before she could finish, the drone was split by Bai Xiang’s blade, sparking and exploding midair.

“People always wait until they’re about to die before they want to talk reason.”

Bai Xiang shook her head, her gaze cold.

Why had Mingfei Airlines’ company compound sprouted a demon pool today of all days?

Because Starwater had backed it, of course. It might even have been a demon pool they’d deployed themselves.

And now they wanted to say they’d done nothing to offend her and play innocent?

Were they out of their minds?

This Bai Xiang… she was absolutely impossible to reason with!!!

In the monitoring room, Dr. Judy was so furious her nose went crooked.

“Send all the security teams out!”

“Drones too!”

“Saturation attack!”

Whsst whsst whsst—

Bai Xiang looked up as another shrill whine of shells cutting through air came from above.

At the same time, a whole swarm of drones burst out around her, a black cloud like a sea of insects. They flew in her direction while the multi-barrel cannons slung beneath them spat fire in a storm.

Pointless.

Bai Xiang casually flicked her sword, sending out arcs of sword Qi that slashed the rockets apart in midair. The backward-flowing sword Qi then wove into a qi membrane that shredded the incoming rain of bullets. With her sword tip pointed skyward, she pinched a sword seal.

Clouds rolled overhead. Sparks crackled in the air. In moments, the sky took on the look of a doomsday storm.

The efficiency seemed noticeably higher.

Bai Xiang glanced up, satisfied.

During her recent seclusion, her main focus had been on God-Descent Calisthenics and the Sun-Chasing Scripture. She had spent relatively little time on the Wind-Riding Frightened-Bamboo Sky-Evasion Sword Scripture.

Relatively little didn’t mean no gains.

For instance, in her aerial battle with Qin Wuyang, if she hadn’t gained insight from that sword scripture and raised her ability to move in midair, there was no way she could have fought him to a standstill in the sky.

As for Qin Wuyang’s defeat, that had been a matter of his techniques, moves, and origin all being inferior to hers. It had nothing to do with movement in the air. The two concepts were not comparable.

Aside from that, the Wind-Riding Frightened-Bamboo Sky-Evasion Sword Scripture had also strengthened her “thunder formations.”

People always said that weather-type divine abilities boiled down to “wind, rain, cloud, and thunder.”

Formations of wind really could enhance a few of the thunder sword moves.

Boom!

Guided by her qi, the bank of black clouds gathered above her erupted in lightning. Bolts of purple-blue thunder wrapped in white light crashed down in succession, giving the already ravaged street another grand baptism.

Crackle!

Snap!

The drone swarm had no hope of surviving that kind of love. They exploded into fireballs in midair before they could fall, scattering the street with scrap and twisted metal.

“Mofu above… Mofu protect us…”

The sight left many of the civilians hiding behind shop fronts and obstacles completely stunned. Some, coming out of their daze, dropped straight to their knees and started worshiping Bai Xiang, believing her to be Mofu’s messenger. Otherwise, how could she command heavenly lightning?

“No good!”

In the monitoring room, the operator reported back in a panic. “They say they can’t lock onto the target at all. Thermal imaging is down. They suspect heavy magnetic interference!”

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“How is that possible!”

“She’s war-level. This kind of little skirmish is pointless…” As the metal door opened, the bald executive walked in. “Dr. Judy, you need to deploy the Tyrant soldiers immediately.”

“Are you insane?” Dr. Judy glared at him.

She didn’t feel safe deploying it from dozens of kilometers away, and he wanted to drop it at the company’s front door?

Did he want to die with the enemy?

“We have no choice.” The bald executive shook his head slowly.

“Unless you’re willing to activate Star Dawn.”

“…” Dr. Judy fell silent for a moment. “Then we have to evacuate now.”

“There’s nothing else we can do.” The bald executive gave a light shake of his head.

“Let’s go.”

“There’s a helicopter on the roof. I already made arrangements for you.”

…

Once she had crushed all resistance, Bai Xiang didn’t continue advancing toward Starwater’s tower.

She stood amid the rubble, head tilted back, and the world in her eyes was completely different from before.

“The way qi feels… has changed.”

In her fight with Qin Wuyang, partly because of his preferences and partly because both of them believed that divine abilities were useless against opponents at this level, they had tacitly chosen to close in and fight at short range—a clash of blades.

But only now, truly using divine ability sword moves after leaving seclusion, did Bai Xiang immediately notice how things differed from before.

It was as if there was more in the air.

No.

It was as if there was more in the world .

She wasn’t sure how to describe it. She only knew there were things in the outside world—intangible energies—that could react with the qi she released. They were like electrical components receiving orders, faintly within her control.

It was hard.

Her Yintian Aperture pricked with pain.

But she could feel them. She could feel how those energies were guided by sword Qi to summon wind and cloud, how they formed the dark clouds and thunder overhead.

At that moment, she recalled Chan Master Wenluo’s meditations in the Scripture of Returning to Origin and Transforming Qi, titled “Five Dragons of Heavenly Water.”

[Swift and wild runs the water dragon, unruly and fierce, born of the confluence of the rain dragons in the heavens.]

[Surging and mighty roars the rain dragon, its momentum overwhelming, born of the union of the wind dragon and cloud dragon.]

[The wind dragon and cloud dragon both feed upon the qi dragon of the earth, while the qi dragon is itself born anew from the water dragon.]

[Water dragon, rain dragon, wind dragon, cloud dragon, qi dragon… To tame these five dragons is no easier than taming the five dragons in one’s own heart.]

[By what does heaven and earth bind them?]

[Now, having observed the method of the Five Dragons of Heavenly Water, I find myself suddenly enlightened.]

In plain speech, water and wind could naturally transform into any form between heaven and earth. Rivers, rain, wind, cloud.

It was from the Five Dragons of Heavenly Water that Chan Master Wenluo had grasped the law of cycles.

Bai Xiang had created the circulation of the heart meridian on that basis, using the same theory as her reference.

Circulation…

Following that thought, she stopped pouring out violent lightning and tried to guide those energies through a change of form, turning them into a downpour from the sky.

Crashhh—

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The rain was nearly torrential, a curtain of water pouring from the heavens. Raindrops struck her skin only to be halted by her qi membrane, while in the pits and hollows of the ruins they quickly pooled, gathering into a stream of filthy water that gurgled past her feet.

Bai Xiang looked down at the stream and lifted her sword to hook up a sheet of water.

The sheet moved as if alive. She started it, and the rest of the flow followed, all at once dragged into the air. Before her eyes, it constantly changed its form.

Sometimes wind and rain.

Sometimes cloud.

Sometimes flowing stream.

Sometimes thunder.

“To think I once grasped the sword move Creation Qi Tribulation, yet somehow overlooked this principle…”

Bai Xiang watched the display and kept shaking her head.

She looked like she was sighing, but inside she was delighted.

It was the joy of being reborn, a sign that her understanding of sword moves had entered a new chapter.

“Hm?”

Just as she was enjoying the moment, Bai Xiang suddenly felt the ground tremble.

Something a dozen meters away, underground, was rapidly rising toward the surface.

Ssst!

She barely looked up when a large rectangular container was launched from beneath the street. The alloy cover cracked with several seams, and icy white vapor billowed out.

The sight reminded Bai Xiang of the silver dart capsule that had held the Blood of the Corroding Order.

Crack!

As the white mist thinned, a glass tank took shape.

It was about twenty meters tall, and inside it was a monster.

Its lower body was serpentine, coils stacked upon coils down to the base.

From mid-body upward, it swelled and warped, revealing shoulder-like bulges and a humanoid torso. Four pairs of sharp, spider-like limbs jutted from its abdomen, while another pair of massive arms grew from its shoulders, folded over its chest and face as if it were asleep.

Thup thup thup—

The helicopter roared into the air. In the turbulence, Dr. Judy swiped across a light-screen, a steely resolve flashing in her eyes.

Boom!

Crashhh!

The tank shattered. The monster launched into the air and crashed down in front of Bai Xiang, coils thudding onto the ground.

Only then did she see its face clearly. It was the face of a Buddha, solemn and dignified, which only made the monstrous body beneath it all the more uncanny.

Biochemical experiments, then.

Listening to the nonstop gasps and prayers ringing out around her, Bai Xiang let her eyes slowly half-close.

On the front of its chest… embedded there were countless human skulls.

Not bare bone skulls, but skulls that looked as if they’d been melted and fused out of living flesh, grafted together into a single patchwork.

[No matter who rules this place, they’ll always call the lower city their ‘breeding farm.’]

Alai’s words echoed in her ears.

[This is a factory of flesh.]

[If Mr. Guo hadn’t saved me, I’d just be one more piece of ‘fertilizer.’]