Volume 4, Chapter 5 – Aberrant Shadow (Double-Length)

Ever since March, Bai Xiang had rarely stayed honestly within the Dao. Most of the time, she was constantly on the move.

On one hand she worried whether, behind some of the surrounding disasters, there were still forces like the Shenwu Immortal Dynasty. On the other, after the alliance of the various provinces had been formed, she also had to shoulder reconnaissance missions. For example, not long ago she had made a trip to Xizhou.

Xizhou really was nothing but yellow sand, stretching for thousands of li with no sign of human life. On her way, Bai Xiang had uncovered several hidden Illusory Realm nodes. Inside them she had found some strange natives with feathered caps stuck into their hair and nine-colored feathered cloaks on their backs, and she guessed they were the Western Wu ancient clans.

She had nothing much to say about those people. Even without mentioning how excited they became when they saw her, their brutal deeds in legend alone were enough reason for Bai Xiang to wipe them out.

Unfortunately, aside from that there had been no further discoveries. Among the rescued human captives there were a few who had kept some shred of sanity, not driven mad by long exposure to gore and torture, but the clues they spoke of were not coherent.

Things like “nine-headed demon birds,” “blotting out the sky” — she had not seen any demon beast that huge on this whole trip.

Given how well she had mastered the Taishang Sense, if she said something wasn’t there, then it truly wasn’t. So, barring surprises, that thing had finished ravaging Xizhou and moved on. The other possibility was that it had not left yet, just hidden deeper in the Xizhou desert.

The latter was beyond what Bai Xiang could deal with for the moment. Her main territory was still Maozhou; she could not leave Maozhou for too long.

As for the reports coming from other places, she could only say they were acceptable. That was indeed very much related to her spreading a simplified version of the Shenming Qi-Refining Formula.

Liangzhou was the first place where this influence had spread. By the end of May, they had finally driven back the sea clans there. Although the price had been terrible, they had at least kept two fortress cities: Liangshui Circuit and Dongchuan Circuit.

The other two, Longhai Circuit and Guanliang Circuit, had both been lost. Taking them back again in the short term was out of the question.

In other places, such as Luezou and Xuzhou, they had never quite lost contact. The damage there was clearly lighter than in Liangzhou. At first, when the disasters rose up, they had indeed been thrown into chaos, but after three months of turning one circuit city after another into fortresses, the situation had finally stabilized.

Bai Xiang still remembered how Han Yinshuang had described things when she reached out. The eastern sea clans were extremely skilled in the Dao of Illusory Gods. This art especially countered disciples of the Red Dust Dao. If they were not careful, they would sink into it and be plagued by illusions, and in severe cases their seals would break and their hearts would fall into loss of order, turning them from living Sword Dao disciples into Yaosui monsters.

“Thank goodness for Dao Lord Bai’s new method!” Han Yinshuang had said then. “It can’t completely neutralize the sea clans’ illusion arts, but at least we don’t lose control the moment we hear their song!”

Han Yinshuang was the one who coordinated directly with her. As for the miscellaneous tedious matters, such as how the other provinces arranged to send aid over, those were all handled personally by Bai Shengju.

These were indeed good news.

But there was bad news too. After the Thirty-Six Circuits of the Nine Provinces had basically completed their preliminary fortress-ization, the wilderness outside had become far more dangerous.

This kind of settlement layout always implied ceding the wilderness. Back when Bai Xiang had lived in the Chilong Circuit, she already had that impression. All ground transport that went back and forth was heavily regulated. People at the bottom almost never had the chance to ride trains or use freight services and could only pay high prices for air travel.

Those ground routes were basically all used by the Transport Directorate, occasionally leased to certain security companies to transport their mercenary units stranded in the wild.

It had been like that even then. Now, with all urban strength pulled back and scattered villages and towns almost entirely abandoned, the wild territories had naturally fallen. Demon beasts and Aberrations had multiplied sharply compared to before.

At the start of April, on a whim, Bai Xiang had flown to the edge of Qi territory. Following the map, she found that what she saw did not match. The jungle and trees had grown denser, the whole mass of vegetation spreading forward like a living thing.

At this rate, the plant life would soon carpet all the land humans had abandoned, much like the two cities over in Liangzhou that had been swallowed by seawater. The price of taking them back would be much higher than the price of evacuation.

Then there were the village populations who had been pulled back into the circuit cities.

With one province and four circuits, each circuit had taken in an extra one to two million people on average. These people were indeed cheap labor for resisting calamities, but figuring out how to settle them properly had every provincial capital tearing its hair out.

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By comparison, Maozhou’s days were by far the easiest.

Xizhou had already fallen. Liangzhou had been badly damaged. Luezou, Xuzhou and the like were still busy coping with natural disasters for the moment, while the true demon calamity lurked hidden behind them, yet to strike, keeping everyone’s nerves taut.

Only Maozhou had passed through the great calamity and seen its hidden dangers fade. Apart from the aura the blood abyss had left behind, which was still accelerating pollution, there really were no major problems left to worry about.

This time, Bai Xiang had brought Bai Zhuqing out to train along Longchuan partly because she had received a report from disciples that “abnormalities” had appeared in the villages at the foot of this mountain, and partly to get Bai Zhuqing out and moving so the little girl would not stay cooped up cultivating at home.

When the Shenwu Immortal Dynasty invaded, Bai Zhuqing’s cultivation had been at the seventh layer of Refining Qi. When Bai Xiang had been at that level back then, the combat strength she could exert had been several times Bai Zhuqing’s. So she felt Bai Zhuqing needed to relearn the power she held, and killing demons was a good way to do it.

“Gugu, hurry!” The young girl was skipping ahead. “The mountain stream over here tastes so good!”

Would a normal girl even use that kind of tone?

Watching the girl shout up ahead, Bai Xiang only walked slowly, her expression completely unmoved.

She suspected she had been spoiling Bai Zhuqing too much lately. She had even mentioned the word “dao companion” to her that night, which had left the girl a little restless.

This was what people called “pushing your luck,” tail practically sticking up into the sky.

Of course Bai Zhuqing wasn’t afraid — wasn’t afraid there was anything wrong with this mountain spring water — because Bai Xiang had given no warning.

Cultivating outside with Bai Xiang, she had gradually figured out the pattern. Whenever something was wrong somewhere, whether she herself noticed it or not, if Bai Xiang said there was a problem, then there definitely was.

But as long as Bai Xiang looked completely unconcerned and let her mess around as she pleased, that meant there was no danger. She could let loose and indulge her nature all she wanted, and her days were much freer than back in the Dao.

Not to mention that every night she could curl up in Bai Xiang’s arms to sleep…

And Bai Xiang would even take time every day to share their qi and dual cultivate with her…

Bai Zhuqing was so happy she hardly missed Maozhou at all. The occasional Demon Pool Aberration they ran into she treated as a bit of spice in life, without any of the fear a normal girl ought to have.

If nothing unexpected had happened, what I actually wanted was to finish training here and then make another trip to Luohou…

Watching Bai Zhuqing peel off her shoes and socks and splash barefoot through the mountain spring, Bai Xiang could only shake her head in secret.

Luohou was too close to Maozhou. Aurora had been talking this whole time about moving some of Starwater’s branch equipment plants over there. By now, more than half had indeed been relocated, but the remaining population was still a problem.

How to put it…

Back then, when she had wanted to accept the people of Luohou and bring them to Maozhou, there had been no choice.

Now there was a choice. Maozhou had taken in quite a few people from the Chilong Circuit, so Bai Xiang no longer felt so pressed about this matter.

But if she just left those people of Luohou to live or die on that land, they would almost certainly be eaten clean by things like the Black-Heaven Thralls.

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That would be handing resources to the enemy for nothing, so she was still thinking of going again, to find the Illusory Realm that connected to the Black-Heaven Thralls and cut that thing down in one go, so that those southern barbarians could be transferred in an orderly way over here to Longchuan.

In the end, they were all human.

I can only provide you with a place to blend in. What comes after isn’t something I can really manage.

Finding Bai Zhuqing far too slow splashing along in the water, Bai Xiang let both feet float clear of the ground, grabbed her by the collar and scooped her up around the waist, turning into a streak of rainbow light that flashed down the mountain.

Soon they saw the village she had mentioned. There were only four or five households, and the bones had all been gnawed down by bugs and ants until almost nothing was left.

This had been going on for quite a while.

Bai Xiang glanced at Bai Zhuqing again. After the girl had put her shoes and socks back on, she stepped forward once more, grabbed a skull and flipped it over.

“Gugu, look, every one of them has a gap in their head.”

“That was chiseled out with something sharp,” Bai Xiang commented. Her gaze moved to the spread hands of the corpses and she saw that either they still clutched knives and other tools, or those tools lay scattered all over the ground.

What was this?

She frowned.

She had originally thought it was more demon beasts eating people, but this looked like they had killed each other.

Was it caused by the Demon Pools’ illusion arts?

She spread out her thoughts. The Taishang Sense gave no warning at all.

That made it unlikely a Demon Pool was behind it.

There were very few people in Longchuan. The fact that these people had been able to live here at all meant they had ability. You could see it from their bones — their quality and toughness were indeed a cut above ordinary folk.

Bones like these could feed beasts and demon beasts for a long time. The stink of blood would hang around and build up, and that in turn would slowly draw all the bloodthirsty creatures from the surrounding area. Naturally, that included Demon Pools.

Demon Pools liked human presence and would usually migrate only toward places with people.

And because they had no intelligence, they only instinctively took root where they were.

If a Demon Pool had done this, it would definitely still be nearby.

But the Taishang Sense had not given the slightest warning, which meant it was not a Demon Pool.

Not demon beasts.

Not Demon Pools.

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Which made it very interesting.

Bai Zhuqing was still busily explaining her own analysis and discoveries, but Bai Xiang’s mind had already drifted far away, considering further possibilities.

Bzzz, bzzz—

Suddenly, her phone rang.

She did not recognize the number, but chose to pick up anyway.

“Dao Lord Bai,” a clear, pleasant male voice came down the line. “I finally managed to find a free moment to contact you. I wonder if Dao Lord Bai has any interest in working with Blood-Soul Heaven?”

Blood-Soul Heaven, huh.

They had been pressing the court so hard for three whole months that it had no time to spare for the other provincial governments. Aside from the situation in Huangzhou, which was still relatively stable, it seemed that bad news came out of Daizhou every so often.

And these people actually had the spare time to reach across more than half the country and come courting her for cooperation?

“No interest,” Bai Xiang said, and hung up on the spot.

She had nothing to say to beings like that.

After all, she still had a few blood jades in her hand. Things like that did not appear in the memories of Wu Qing and the others, which was enough to prove that the one who had secretly sent god-vein demons into Starwater Company, planting blood jades to cultivate a tyrant, was not Shenwu Heaven but Blood-Soul Heaven.

She hung up just like that?

Elsewhere, in the brightly lit lobby of a hotel, a middle-aged man holding a phone raised his brows, surprise flickering across his face.

“What is it?” Across from him sat a man as burly as an ox, though he too wore a black suit and bow tie. “Told you the girl’s little sister wouldn’t give you the time of day, but you just had to go sniffing around.”

“There aren’t many unclaimed territories left. I figured we could try to win over a new venerable. I didn’t expect her not to even let me finish a sentence.”

The middle-aged man shook his head. “Still, it’s not all bad. She’s highly wary of us. The Demon Court will get the same result if they go knocking.”

“The Demon Court?” The burly man had just speared a whole slab of steak and stuffed it into his mouth. As he chewed, he arched a brow. “Funny, I heard a little rumor that one of the Demon Court’s sky-patrolling envoys wants to use the new method to break through.”

“That’s not the kind of thing you should be saying out in public.” The middle-aged man smiled at him and slid his phone back into the inner pocket of his jacket.

He glanced once more at the lobby’s ambient lighting.

He found the new look the prime world had developed over the years quite fascinating.

“So, should we tell her?”

The burly man made a show of taking out a napkin to wipe his mouth, his face still full of lingering appetite.

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“If you’re not full, just keep ordering.”

The middle-aged man was a little speechless. He picked up the menu again and slid it over, saying as he did, “Leave her be.”

“And if she gets crushed by the Demon Court?” The burly man lifted his brows. “Wouldn’t that be a waste of good material?”

“As more and more people return to the prime world, there will only be more and more who want to use the new method to break through.” The middle-aged man shook his head again. “And I don’t mean the method she created.”

“I know.” The burly man tilted his chin. “So you’re testing her?”

“People with arrogant attitudes usually have real ability.” The middle-aged man gave no direct answer.

“If she proves she truly has ability, I can let bygones be bygones.”

“I think you’re pretty arrogant yourself.”

“…How about you pick up the tab for this meal, then?”

“I may have misspoken. You are the most modest monster I’ve ever met.”

“…Well, thanks so much for that.”

Time flowed on in its strange way, and deep night quickly fell.

At the mouth of a narrow alley in the resettlement block, Uncle Liu Er was struggling to push his little street cart along. He was planning to catch the night market and earn a bit more.

He had no choice. As order slowly returned to the circuit city, people had started thinking again about sending their kids to school.

And because there still were not enough teachers, the cost of schooling now was even higher than before.

He had to work hard if he wanted to feed the daily expenses of his two little money-eating beasts. Compared to the past it was indeed more tiring, but Uncle Liu Er was not afraid. The only thing he feared was losing hope.

Passing a side alley halfway down, he heard again that weird sound like a straw sucking up yogurt. He turned his head and saw a small, thin figure standing there, holding something in its arms.

“Xiao Ying?”

Uncle Liu Er’s eyesight was not great. He thought it was still the neighbor’s kid.

“It’s late. Go back and do your homework, okay?”

After the reminder, he pushed his cart on ahead.

He never noticed that the figure had already stopped moving, just stood there staring after his back all the way until he vanished into the shadows.