Volume 3, Chapter 107 – Karma

In the Illusory Realm where the Blackrock Demon Kingdom lay, past the market beyond Jingwu Village, a lone figure was walking along a mountain path.

She held an unscabbarded Yu sword in her hand, wore a black skintight combat suit that showed off every line of her figure, and had long since thrown away her tattered trench coat. A black mask covered the lower half of her face, leaving the upper half exposed. Her white hair was tied into a ponytail, the strand of black hairband bound with it streaming in the wind.

No need to ask. It was Bai Xiang, who had slaughtered her way through the market and was now heading toward the central region of the Blackrock Demon Kingdom.

It had in fact cost her a bit of time, because she had taken those rescued human-mine vessels into account. They were still alive, after all. She had to hold back her strength, leave them some buildings and supplies behind to wait for rescue.

With a soft whoosh, there was a sound behind her head.

Bai Xiang did not look back. She reversed her grip on Feixiang Heaven with both hands and drove the blade hard into the ground. The next instant, a muffled howl came from deep below, and the ground under her feet shook violently.

Rumble, rumble…

She leaped straight into the air and looked down, carefully avoiding the streak of shadow that burst up through the surface.

On a closer look, the revealed form was a demon beast, a “rock serpent” several hundred meters long. Its entire body was pieced together from countless jagged black rock blocks. Only at its core did a sliver of black-crystal sheen show through; everywhere else looked rough and crude.

Even so, the pressure it gave off far surpassed that of those black crystal demon cultivators. After it burst out of the ground, it opened its maw at Bai Xiang and roared in fury, a gale laced with gravel and dust spewing from its throat.

Bai Xiang flew higher to avoid the breath, watching it with some curiosity. In secret she circulated the Lightning-Drawing Sword Formula, drawing together the heaven-and-earth power in the Demon Kingdom’s Illusory Realm to gather thunderclouds and call down bolts of lightning on the rock serpent.

Crackle-crackle!

Thunder crashed onto the rock serpent and ran wildly over its body. The blows could shear off some of its crystal-stone ridges and corners, but the damage they did was far from serious.

Bai Xiang shook her head. She brought her sword down in earnest, cleaving the rock serpent in two. Both halves of the corpse were shredded to mush by sword qi, and instead of falling, she rode the air and went straight down.

She really was descending, because if she tried to climb her way down, the road ahead would be extremely complicated. One had to walk along a colossal spiral mountain path that wound downward.

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Put simply: the Blackrock Demon Kingdom was a nation built over an abyss. The Illusory Realm space where it sat was a vast pit of black rock, sunken within, spiraling down into a deep chasm.

Its few settlements, like Deeprock City and Blackflare City, were built on the mid-slope or lower layers of that spiral abyss, and the so-called Black Crystal Sacred Venerable sat at the very bottom of the chasm.

As for why it was like this, Bai Xiang guessed that the huge hole had probably been smashed out by that Black Crystal Sacred Venerable.

It possessed only a faint consciousness and had no way to grow limbs and climb up, so after all this time it was still stuck at the bottom.

That made perfect sense.

Muttering to herself, Bai Xiang slowly drifted to the open air above the abyss and saw a massive pit, easily over ten kilometers in diameter.

Scattered trees grew on the inner walls of that pit. Their trunks looked normal on the surface, but the leaves they bore all gleamed with a violet-crystal sheen.

Some demon beasts, startled by the commotion from the rock serpent and the falling thunder, poked their heads out from their hiding caves, alone or in groups. Their skulls were wrapped in warped crystalline growths, and they craned their necks in every direction, trying to figure out what was going on.

“The terrain of this Demon Kingdom is so peculiar. It actually helps me save time.”

Bai Xiang muttered under her breath, withdrew her control, and let her body go into free fall, diving straight down.

The wind howled past.

In her main field of view, the entire abyss turned into exploding “speed lines,” and in the blur ahead she seemed to see a castle standing, leaning against a sheer cliff.

Bai Xiang could not be bothered to make it out clearly. When she neared the castle, she twisted in midair with Feixiang Heaven in hand and hurled the sword down. She watched it slice into the castle as easily as cutting tofu, then detonate in a thunderous blast from within.

She thought she heard screams.

Hard to tell. They were probably drowned out by the wind.

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She kept going down. Before long, Feixiang Heaven came streaking back up like a fish through water, brushing against Bai Xiang’s hand, nuzzling her in a fawning way.

Bai Xiang reached out and wrapped her fingers around the hilt, closing her eyes to feel carefully. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly under the mask.

So many remnant souls absorbed already… you know how to revenge-binge too, huh?

She could only say that the lineage of the black crystal demon cultivators and that of the Black Heaven thralls really were different. These demon beasts and demonfolk, even after their bodies had been polluted by black crystal and warped, still had souls that remained remarkably intact.

Unlike those who cultivated the Black Heaven Buddhist Dharma. Even if you killed them, you could hardly draw out any soul power, let alone glean much memory.

These two demonic factions, one turned people into human mines and “devoured their bodies,” the other squeezed out people’s blood and essence and “devoured their souls.” Each got what it wanted and did not interfere with the other.

No wonder the two of them could manage to cooperate.

There was no reasoning to be had with these polluted demon cultivators. Bai Xiang flew downward along the spiral, her sword cutting as she went. She wiped out four castles in a row, slaughtering every demon cultivator heaped within each fortress. Before long, Feixiang Heaven’s blade had turned blood-red, and if one drew close, one could faintly hear the wails of countless wronged souls.

When she reached the fifth castle, she ran into a bit of resistance.

An old Rock Envoy with a beard of black crystal fought her for a while, black crystal longsword in hand. After a few exchanges, she drove a kick straight into the center of his chest. His crystallized body was smashed through on the spot, her leg bursting out of his back.

“You… you’ve slaughtered countless subjects of my kingdom… one day you’ll get what’s coming to you…”

The old Rock Envoy knew he did not have long to live, and cursed Bai Xiang with venomous hate.

Bai Xiang looked at him, unmoved.

The old thing panicked. “I’ll become a vengeful ghost! Even as a ghost, I’ll never let you go!”

Bai Xiang raised a brow. “Oh?”

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She lifted her leg, then chopped down as if it were an axe blade. The force and qi-origin surging along her leg shredded the old man’s body to pieces in an instant. A wisp of black-air remnant soul fled out, only to be snatched up in Bai Xiang’s hand.

The remnant soul still faintly resembled his living face. Seeing this, terror immediately twisted his features.

Bai Xiang leaned in and stared at him. “You want to take revenge on me even as a ghost?”

The remnant soul froze, then shook his head frantically.

Bai Xiang’s golden eyes curved like crescent moons as she held him in her palm and looked around. From the ruins of the fortress, hundreds and thousands of human souls were streaming out. Every one of them fixed their gaze on the old man’s soul in her hand, their expressions and eyes full of hate.

“Wait… don’t!”

The old man instinctively guessed what she meant to do. He had just started to beg for mercy when Bai Xiang flung him into the air. The next instant, it was like tossing a bloody hunk of meat into a school of sharks. The mob of wronged souls tore him apart and devoured him.

Feixiang Heaven buzzed in her hand. Bai Xiang squeezed the sword, pressing down the surge of killing intent, and as usual she raised the blade in salute to the liberated souls.

She had thought it would be the same perfunctory gesture as before, but unexpectedly, some of the human souls seemed to have kept a portion of their awareness and intelligence. They did not disperse in relief like the others.

Bai Xiang blinked, then saw those souls darting toward her all at once, plunging straight into the “blood sword” in her hand.

Vmmm…

Feixiang Heaven let out a light, joyful hum. The blade quivered faintly, expressing delight.

“You want to fight at my side, to become my strength and take revenge with your own hands?”

Bai Xiang’s expression grew a little heavy. She had not expected to receive this kind of “courtesy.”

After a moment’s thought, she gripped the sword with both hands and bowed toward the ruined fortress that was now only rubble, then once more sped down toward the lower levels.

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On the way, she closed her eyes and began to absorb and bear the memories of these wronged souls.

It had to be done.

She had received their gift, so she had taken on their karma.

The point of digesting their memories was not to gain information, but to be able to share in what they had felt, to carry this hatred with her as she went on killing demons.

Thus, one horrific and cruel scene after another flipped rapidly through Bai Xiang’s consciousness.

The more she read, the heavier the killing aura around her became.

Suddenly, her closed eyes snapped open, a hint of surprise flickering within.

It was because she had glimpsed, amid the jumbled memories, a distant scene: the soul’s owner, in the hazy moment before death, had seen that old man Bai Xiang had just killed, flying up with others toward the upper levels and bringing down a huge ancient tree.

The tree was enormous and leaning long, its trunk thick enough that more than a dozen people would be needed to encircle it. Its crown truly blotted out the sky. Its scattered leaves had five leaf-lobes each, and when the wind blew, they looked like a crowd of tiny people hanging there, dancing.

That was a Bosuo Tree?

Bai Xiang remembered an essay she had read before, The Wet-Slave Crone’s Observations, and the tree before a grave that the author had mentioned at the end.

You did not haul something like that over here for no reason at all.

Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes, thinking that, with luck, she might not need to make an extra trip after all.