Volume 1, Chapter 29 – Delivering the Letter to Yinling Temple

Bai Xiang led the group, Xu Shu drove, and the bunch set off in lively chatter.

Xu Shu hadn’t wanted to come, but he’d gotten his license over summer break—just in time to be useful—so Bai Lianzhou tossed him a set of keys.

On the road, Xu Shu kept sneaking glances in the rearview mirror at the Bai sisters squeezed together in the back.

Bai Xiang, Bai Zhuqing, and Bai Leying were all in formal dresses.

Bai Zhuqing wore white with white stockings.

Bai Leying wore black with white stockings.

Bai Xiang’s was white with black edging, the style more modern; its crisscrossed hem bared a bit of calf, and her black-silk-clad toes were caught in red-thonged black sandals.

It was her first time in full-on women’s dress. Bai Xiang had thought she might balk, but she felt nothing at all.

Which made sense. She had stared down life and death and sworn to live a second life. If she still fussed over needless proprieties—this and that—how was she supposed to train the sword well?

So she didn’t care.

Wear what needed wearing.

If Bai Zhuqing wanted to look, let her look.

It was precisely this mindset that made her stand head and shoulders above the youths around her; to Bai Zhuqing, who never stopped watching her, it only confirmed that she was Bai Nianchan reborn.

No… I can’t keep staring.

Shaking his head, Xu Shu steadied his mind and focused on driving.

My heart already belongs to Jingjing. I must keep my eyes off other women.

He and the front-seat Bai Maoxu also wore faux-ancient formalwear. But Bai Maoxu was only in junior high and used to being around the Bai sisters; the scenery in back left him unmoved. He was engrossed in Xu Shu’s phone, playing Snake with gusto.

Yinling Temple sat on the pedestrian street, to the east. Coming from the south, they inevitably had to pass by No. 1 High.

They even got stuck in a traffic jam. A crowd of students’ parents had gathered on the road, blocking traffic, waving signs and banners and shouting.

“Things here still haven’t blown over…”

Leaning to the window, Bai Leying sighed at the scene outside.

“How could it blow over that fast!”

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Bai Maoxu snorted back.

“So many people died! Not just students—teachers too. I bet the closure lasts at least a month to start. And will those greedy lot refund us…”

His words carried a general resentment toward the school, and that was normal: with less than a year left before his two elder sisters’ Big Exam, time lost to closures wouldn’t make the exam date budge.

They didn’t wait long. Soon a wave of black-clad Inspectorate police surged in, whipping out electric truncheons to lash the front ranks. The crowd scattered quickly, and the road reopened.

“Too much!” Bai Leying fumed. “They’re already pitiable—why treat them like that?”

“Oh, please~” Bai Maoxu couldn’t stand her naiveté. “Didn’t you see there aren’t even any reporters around?”

“No reporters means they got tipped off in advance—some people planned to pressure them to clear out.”

“Hey! If it were me, I wouldn’t stupidly gather here.”

“That ‘Media Star’ bunch? Just pets licking the bigwigs’ fingers.”

Hmm?

The others didn’t react, but Bai Xiang shot Bai Maoxu a surprised look.

This younger brother of hers seemed careless and slow-witted most of the time, yet on key points he was awfully clear-headed.

Second Uncle always worried Maoxu wouldn’t be able to support himself when he grew up. Looks like that worry was unnecessary.

With an eye like that, whatever line he picks, he won’t do badly.

No. 1 High was right by the pedestrian street; once past that stretch the way opened up, and Xu Shu pulled over to find parking.

Pedestrian street means pedestrian street.

No motor vehicles allowed.

All five piled out. Led by Bai Xiang, each carried a cloud-patterned wooden sword, and they merged into the crowd heading toward the street’s end.

A sword-track student walking with sword in hand wasn’t rare, but five at once—and three so strikingly pretty—had plenty of passersby turning for a second look before their girlfriends hauled them away with scolds.

Across the road, a woman in a red dress sat in a bright-red sports car. She smiled at the sight; then her eyes slid to Bai Xiang’s back, and she leaned forward all at once.

“Shengge! Shengge!”

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[What? Why yell like that—trying to scare me to death?]

“I think I’ve found that Bai Xiang!”

[Huh? Which Bai Xiang?]

“The one who got Protector Lü’s younger brother killed!”

[Really?]

The voice on the channel turned grave.

[Can you be sure?]

Shengge… the waitress who’d eaten the white-collar man pressed her.

“White hair, age, sword-student’s sword… all the traits line up.”

[Good!] Shengge exulted.

[Keep eyes on her. I’m coming over now!]

“But Ao Lin told us to shadow the Benling people.”

The woman in red wavered.

“They all showed up at once—maybe they found demonic aura in the hills. Ao Lin said that’s the top priority to clarify right now! Shouldn’t we…”

[The Benling people are at No. 1 High, aren’t they?]

“Right, but…”

[Relax. They’ll talk forever—human officials are always like that. I know better than you do!]

[And even if we finish Ao Lin’s assignment, so what?]

Shengge’s voice hardened.

[Protector Lü’s matter… who’s going to explain when we go back?]

[It sure won’t be Ao Lin himself. Who do you think he’ll send?]

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[Me?]

[Or you?]

[If we don’t bring back the killer’s head, you and I will die a dozen deaths.]

[Are we doing it or not—decide for yourself!]

Well…

Shengge had a point.

The woman in red’s face turned ruthless.

“I’ll tail them.”

“Hurry! Be quick!”

On the other side, Bai Xiang and the rest had already entered Yinling Temple.

Crowds were never lacking on a pedestrian street; the temple had many worshippers, and they even had to queue on the stone steps.

While they waited, Bai Xiang studied the temple’s scale.

From outside, the temple wasn’t large—at most two storefronts joined together, with a tiled roof and walls on both sides, and a crosswise arched bridge in the middle that could be mounted from either side.

The temple’s location and name were interesting.

Yinling—Hidden Spirit.

Bearing such a name, yet planted right at the mouth of the circuit city’s noisiest, busiest pedestrian street—clearly it meant the “Great Hidden.”

When they finally reached the front, Bai Xiang first took out a few bills and, in front of two little novice monks, slipped them into the donation box. Only then did she present the letter, stating she wished to see Master Cizheng.

The novices bowed respectfully; one ushered her and her companions into the meditation court, took the letter, and dashed off.

“So annoying!”

Kicking pebbles, Bai Leying grumbled.

“They could just take us straight there.”

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Annoying?

Sitting in a stone pavilion, Bai Xiang looked around and noticed warrior monks guarding each entrance of the meditation court. The level of lockdown was peculiar.

After a while, a novice hurried back and bowed again.

“Master says the female benefactor is invited to come alone.”

Bai Leying’s mouth turned down at once. Bai Xiang soothed them briefly—no need to wait here; they could go have a bite on the pedestrian street—then followed the novice toward the back.

They walked in silence.

Crossing the doors into the rear main hall, the first thing she saw was the giant Buddha facing the entry.

Four meters tall, cast wholly in bronze. On connecting panels, two slightly smaller deities were outlined, though their identities were unclear.

An incense table stood before the image, and beneath it two monks sat facing each other on meditation cushions, heads turning toward her as she entered.

One, dark-skinned with a white beard and a prominent brow, wore the abbot’s robe—Master Cizheng, the man she’d come to find.

And the other—

An ochre robe draped his body; a string of bone prayer beads hung at his neck.

His long beard trailed wantonly along the floor; a wine cup brimmed in his hand, and he smiled.

Who was this?

Bai Xiang frowned.

He looked older than Master Cizheng—and he dared break the precept by drinking in front of the Golden Buddha?

“Little Xiang’er? Don’t you recognize me?”

The drinking monk waved at her with a roguish grin, face flushed as he gave a boozy hiccup.

“Back then you… oh!”

“When you were brought here back then, it was yours truly—this Buddha—who gave you your name~”