Volume 4, Chapter 15 – Dreaded Name

“Sis! Sis!”

With the thump-thump-thump of hurried footsteps, Bai Leying came flying in from the courtyard, launched herself forward, and hugged her older sister Bai Zhuqing from behind. She shouted right in her ear, “I’m so mad I could die! I’m going to explode!”

Today Bai Zhuqing was wearing an antique-style white dress. Her hairstyle was similar to a character from an anime-style game whose nickname was “Little Steamed Bun,” young and cute yet still dignified. Hearing this, she put her book down with a huff and said, “Let me guess… you climbed over the firewall again so you could argue with people online.”

“They were the ones going way too far!” Bai Leying’s face was dark, her teeth grinding. “They were saying Sister Xiang’er’s reputation is all hype and that she’s just a pretty face with nothing else going for her! Can you believe that? That’s not even human speech!”

“What level is Sister Xiang’er, and what level are those nobodies?” Bai Zhuqing calmly stroked her braid. “You’re not a little kid anymore, Leying. Remember, don’t get tangled up with the mediocre. It only drags you down to their level.”

“But some of them won’t even admit she’s pretty.” Bai Leying froze. “They said Sister Xiang’er only got first on the Graceful Fragrance List because the judging is garbage, and that white hair and white eyelashes are weird and uncomfortable to look at, so she’s not actually good-looking at all.”

They actually said that?!

Bai Zhuqing’s eyes went wide. Her fair face slowly flushed red. She instantly pulled out her phone and hopped the firewall. A quick search showed that a lot of people really were spouting that nonsense.

This was outrageous. At lightspeed she dragged herself down to their level, set both her book and her sword aside, and huddled up with Bai Leying, their heads almost touching as they teamed up to unleash furious posts online.

When Bai Xiang came back, this was exactly what she walked in on. She quietly stepped up behind the two of them and watched for a moment without saying anything, then went straight inside and upstairs and used her own main terminal to cut off their access rights.

Once those permissions were cut, there was no way to hop the firewall anymore. Before long, Bai Zhuqing came upstairs, biting her lower lip, and glared at Bai Xiang with a wounded, resentful look.

We were speaking up for you.

It would be one thing if you didn’t support us, but how could you stab us in the back like that?

“Running four phones at once so you can argue with the whole internet,” Bai Xiang said, watching her calmly. “Should I report to Grandmaster that this is how you’re using the Jade Spirit?”

No way.

If Grandmaster ever found out about this, her backside would definitely get beaten raw.

Bai Zhuqing immediately wilted. She shuffled over and leaned softly against Bai Xiang. “Auntie, Qing’er won’t dare do it again, okay…”

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Bai Xiang was completely unmoved. “Please use a normal person’s tone when you talk to me.”

“I’m serious, Auntie.” Bai Zhuqing’s expression straightened almost instantly. “With how things are outside… are we really not going to get involved at all?”

“You know perfectly well you shouldn’t get tangled up with the mediocre, yet what you say and what you actually want clearly don’t match.” Bai Xiang tapped a finger in the air toward her forehead. “I was counting on you to be a good example for Leying and Mao Xu. Right now I’m more worried you’ll be the one leading them astray.”

The girl who had been getting lectured felt a little embarrassed, and only then did Bai Xiang shift her tone. “But I also know that wanting to win, wanting to prove yourself, is human nature. If the urge gets too strong, blocking it completely isn’t good either.”

“You’ll have chances to vent your feelings,” she warned her younger sister. “Just not now.”

“Remember what I told you before. Everything in this world is ultimately an illusion.”

“No one becomes an expert without grinding through it, and no true expert fails the test of loneliness. Ideally, you’ll be able to keep cultivating with a calm mind even when everyone out there is cursing your name. Only then will you have a chance to slap them in the face with the results of your cultivation.”

Bai Zhuqing eyed Bai Xiang with suspicion. The reasoning sounded legit enough, but that first line, the one about ‘grinding it out’… somehow she felt like Bai Xiang was the one person who had no right to say that.

After all, everyone else really had clawed their way up, but Bai Xiang? She entered the Dao at seventeen and immediately caused a sensation, shooting straight into the sky. At eighteen she directly inherited a Mountains-and-Rivers-ranked dojo. Oh, and that rank was something she had hacked out with her own sword.

“Do you have some other opinion you’d like to share?” Bai Xiang picked up on her doubt. Her golden eyes slid over at a slight angle.

“Qing’er certainly wouldn’t dare have any other opinion.” Bai Zhuqing pouted, giving up on herself. “So all those Sword Dao tournaments and martial arts tournaments they’re holding out there… I guess I can’t go to any of them either?”

“That’s right.” Bai Xiang nodded. “And it’s not just you. Leying and the others, Xu Shu and the rest, none of them are allowed to go.”

“That’s way too restrictive…” Bai Zhuqing muttered under her breath.

Bai Xiang glared at her, and she instantly sidled closer to act cute. “Auntie…”

“Then make something tasty for me to eat…”

This was already the third time Bai Xiang had backed down. She decided there was no need to refuse a request like that, so she got up and went to the kitchen to cook, making a full table of rich dishes for her little sister.

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Something still felt off.

Sitting at the table, watching the girl wolf down mouthful after mouthful of meat and fish, Bai Xiang rested her cheek on her hand, eyes narrowed slightly. It really did feel like she was simultaneously playing the roles of big sister, aunt, master, Dao partner, and even the girl’s mother.

On a whim, she took out her phone and started scrolling through the comments from outside. But unlike her younger sisters, she couldn’t get worked up. Even the most over-the-top slander passed before her eyes like air, without stirring so much as a ripple of emotion.

Thinking it over carefully, Mao State really hadn’t had many good days.

One disaster and contamination after another had drained countless people’s hopes and strength. They had finally cut down the demon calamity and driven off foreign enemies, only for the changes in the heavens to stir up a fresh wave of panic.

I might be able to stay unaffected, but the pressure down below is getting heavy.

“After we eat, I’ll write a letter for you to take.” Bai Xiang suddenly spoke to her sister. “Bring it to Zhang Mushou and tell him I want to discuss lifting the regional restrictions on external information.”

“We’re going back online?” Bai Zhuqing froze, her chewing slowing down.

It was something she’d dreamed of, but Bai Xiang hadn’t agreed before. For her to suddenly relent now made Bai Zhuqing suspect there was some profound reasoning here that she didn’t yet understand.

“There isn’t any profound reasoning,” Bai Xiang said with a shake of her head. “If anything, the reason I didn’t reconnect before was that I was worried a Demon Pool might be able to spread along the network.”

“But judging by the current situation outside, such a Demon Pool either doesn’t exist yet, or even if it does, it’s not that dangerous. For now we don’t need to worry about it too much.”

Bai Zhuqing was now the person she was closest to and trusted the most. For her alone, Bai Xiang was willing to explain a little more.

After dinner, the girl took the letter and left. Bai Xiang stood on the upper pavilion and watched her disappear from sight, her mind turning over its own considerations.

A letter instead of a phone call. On the one hand it was more formal. On the other, it deliberately drew a line between herself and her authority, so as not to give Zhang Xianzhi the sense that she could just ring him up and order him around.

As long as she was in office, the Shenming Dao Master’s power in Mao State was so great that her word was law.

There was definitely a good side to that. In troubled times under the looming shadow of disaster, centralized power meant mobilizing resources more effectively and avoiding internal disputes and waste.

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But there was a downside too. It made some officials feel like they were sitting on pins and needles, terrified that one mistake would cost them their heads.

After all, “Mao State is Bai family’s Mao State now” had already become common wisdom in Mao State and even across Qizhou.

Her authority here outweighed even the imperial throne. For those officials, serving by her side or serving by the emperor’s side made little difference.

Bai Xiang didn’t want people overthinking things, unable to bear the pressure and driven to do something stupid. So she had no intention of becoming a true local despot. She still planned to leave them some breathing room.

She had already given them a way out.

If trouble broke out again, they would have no one to blame for her ruthlessness but themselves.

Bzz, bzz.

Her phone rang.

Bai Xiang picked up and found that the caller was her former partner, Yu He.

“Dao Master Bai, I’ve got one good piece of news and one bad piece of news. Which would you like to hear first?”

Yu He was still officially on Fang Xiaochun’s roster, under the Demon-Suppressing Division of Qizhou. Since Mao State had not yet been granted an official charter by the Court, it could not establish its own Demon-Suppressing Division. Seeing that Bai Xiang wanted to train professional personnel in that area, Fang Xiaochun had specially seconded Yu He and the others to her, and he still hadn’t taken them back.

They had put in a lot of work. Take Yu He, for example. Never mind how many Demon Pools he had helped deal with; just his teaching and lectures for batches of rookies alone had been immensely valuable.

“Bad news first.”

In her mind’s eye, Bai Xiang saw Yu He’s usual beggar-like getup, and the corner of her mouth curved with a faint smile.

“The bad news is, that ‘Head Shop’ you told me to watch for has shown up again.”

Bai Xiang raised a brow. “Isn’t that the good news?”

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It had been some time since she cut down Li Guangyuan. She had already grasped the basic intel on his people and found their hideout, only to come up empty. Clearly they’d been spooked. She had been watching the circuits ever since, just waiting for them to finally lose patience and show themselves.

Now they had finally surfaced. Never mind the Demon Court’s sky-patrols for the moment; at least she could start by clearing these things out.

“What if I said the scale is a little bigger this time…”

Yu He let out a sigh over the phone.

“The location is in Longchuan Circuit.”

“The number of people affected has already passed a thousand, and it’s spreading rapidly to the surrounding area.”

“I’m heading over right now.” Bai Xiang’s eyes had already gone cold.

“And the good news?”

“The good news is, I’ve got a ‘distinguished guest’ over here.”

Yu He’s tone turned a little strange.

“He says he’s from Tianfu Mountain and wants to establish a cooperative relationship with you. And he really did use some method to calm the pollution caused by the ‘Head Shop.’”

“I see.” Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes. “Then why didn’t he come see me himself?”

“He says he’s afraid of you.”

Yu He’s voice grew even stranger.

“He’s afraid you’ll cut him down with a single sword before he can even say what he’s here for.”