Volume 4, Chapter 24 – Promotion

What Xiang Xian meant by that “feeling” was the pull that the Yuming Sword Dao’s inherited Dao-sword, the “Yuming Sword,” exerted on all the swords in the world.

The Yuming Sword Dao had once been firmly controlled by the court. After the Sword Dao first spread, the court used the Yuming Sword Dao to stimulate and improve the standardized swords on the market, thereby establishing a relatively unified standard for sword-forging.

Forget the steel swords. Even many Sword-Student Wooden Swords in sword-students’ hands were actually produced back then by “Yuming Workshop.”

In nature, it was more or less like the “Longquan Treasured Swords” Bai Xiang had heard of in her previous life, pure brand effect.

Now, however, Yuming could be said to have broken with the court, and her “cheap master” had willingly merged her lineage into Shenming. There were many hidden undercurrents in that.

First and foremost, the court was unwilling to give up this brand. From the internet and other channels, it could be seen that after Xiang Xian left with her people, they chose another group to establish a new “Yuming Sword Dao.”

This was also why many regions were not greatly shaken by the matter. The court had always been strict with information control. As long as one had not personally seen Xiang Xian, the former Yuming Dao Lord, at a Shenming dojo, then seeing that a Yuming signboard still hung in the capital, they simply would not pay particular attention.

But that did not mean Xiang Xian’s act of rebellion would just be written off.

First to bear the brunt was the business of the genuine “Yuming Workshop,” which was suppressed. Many of the convenient regulations it had enjoyed in the past for operating were canceled.

Next, the court heavily supported the new Yuming Sword Dao, launching a new signboard, “Yuming Fine Arms Workshop.” It siphoned off a large portion of the customer base, causing sales of “Yuming Workshop” swords in many prefectures to be directly cut in half compared to before.

If not for this, out of every ten swords in the world, it should not be that only five came from “Yuming Workshop.” Eight, even nine of them ought to have been paying homage to its craftsmanship.

Bai Xiang understood this as well and knew that on this matter, there was a tacit understanding between Maozhou and the court.

On the surface, whether it was some of Governor Zhang Xianzhi’s moves or the Bai clan’s control over Maozhou together with the entire Shenming Sword Dao, all of it was outright treason in the court’s eyes.

Never mind everything else. Just the Watchman posts of the four Circuit Cities were undisguised court appointments. Those had always been decided and reassigned solely by the central authorities. Since when did local regimes get to decide them in private?

Judging from these angles, the current upper ranks of Maozhou, the entire Bai family including Bai Xiang herself, and Xiang Xian and the others whose actions amounted to rebellion, all deserved to be executed.

The problem was that even if such charges were issued, they would be very hard to enforce.

Bai Xiang was no longer the Bai Xiang of more than half a year ago.

And the court was no longer the court of more than half a year ago either.

Blood-Soul Heaven was a force far stronger than the Shenwu Immortal Dynasty had ever been. They were mad, cruel, and bloodthirsty, and every member believed in the Void Tribulation and the Loss of Order. Even in the Upper Realm, they were among the extremely dangerous elements.

There was already ample evidence that Blood-Soul Heaven was the hand behind the anomalies of the sea of blood and the Blood Abyss. Even before the passageways loosened, the court had needed to upgrade its military just to hold the Northern Ramparts. Now that the passages were wide open and Blood-Soul Heaven could keep sending down mid and high level forces, it was foreseeable that the battles at the Northern Ramparts would pull away most of the court’s attention.

In such circumstances, the Jade Capital had no leisure to worry about Zhennan Circuit.

In any case, there was still some time left before the agreed date of the Nine Prefectures Sword Meet.

So long as you do not imitate that Lord Yao Mouyuan and openly rebel, I am willing to maintain this tacit understanding with you. I will permit “Yuming Fine Arms Workshop” and “Yuming Workshop” to coexist, and for now I will not pursue the series of crimes you have committed in Maozhou.

According to Bai Xiang’s estimation, this was likely the court’s current thinking.

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Even though she had seized the opening to start promoting the Path of Qi, and that move genuinely shook the very foundation of the Yu Emperor Sacred Dynasty’s rule, the court’s reaction was still nothing more than issuing outright bans while pulling their forces tighter, intent on preserving the tacit understanding as it was.

“You realized something?” Xiang Xian saw Bai Xiang’s shifting mindset from the moves on the board and could not help looking up at her with some curiosity.

“I think the court intends to leave everything to be settled at the Nine Prefectures Sword Meet,” Bai Xiang said with firm conviction.

“Settled?” Xiang Xian frowned, murmuring under her breath.

“And not just settling things with us and Maozhou,” Bai Xiang added. “At the same time, they will be settling things with the Upper Realm and with the many Illusory Realm powers that have jumped out so far.”

“So what you mean, Xiang’er, is that this August’s Nine Prefectures Sword Meet might be livelier than in previous years?”

Xiang Xian clicked her tongue.

But thinking it over carefully, it really was possible.

She herself had said it earlier: since the secrets of the Illusory Realms had surfaced and terms like Dao-Void Methods, Dao-paths, and condensing a Divine Pool were being spoken aloud, it was easy to imagine that the Sword Dao was not something simple either.

They had all thought this before. If even a “Head Shop” could be seen by Upper Realm people as a viable path to condensing a Divine Pool, then why should the Path of Qi not be viable?

The Path of Qi had to be more important, a greater path. Using it as a Dao-path, one would surely be able to condense a stronger Divine Pool, so it was bound to draw focused attention from many powers.

By the same logic, if the Path of Qi could, there was no reason the Sword Dao could not.

Looked at from this angle, the Sword Dao, something that had once felt so familiar, suddenly became strange.

Xiang Xian did not even dare speculate whether, in the sixteen hundred years since the founding of the Yu Emperor Sacred Dynasty, there had been anyone who managed to walk this Dao-path through, whether any member of the imperial clan had used the “Sword Dao” as their path to condense a Divine Pool and in one leap step into the Xuanhua Immortal Venerable realm or even the level of a Saintly powerhouse.

From a rational standpoint, the possibility was very high.

Otherwise, there was no explaining the court’s bizarre behavior now.

Those Illusory Realm forces were making trouble all over the Nine Provinces, lighting fires everywhere. They were already tearing the Nine Provinces apart, which could already be regarded as invasion and a declaration of war.

Yet the court’s response was so quiet.

Were they brewing something?

Could it be, as Xiang’er said, that they were planning to hold this Nine Prefectures Sword Meet on a grander scale, livelier than ever, and even invite those Illusory Realm powers over, then use the toughest possible stance to tell the world that the Nine Provinces were still Yao-Yu territory?

If that was the case, the threat posed by the Jade Capital would surge sharply.

Xiang Xian frowned, somewhat regretting that she had not spent more years building up power there in her early days.

It might look like she had made a big splash with that Furnace-Exploding Pill, but thinking back on the decades she had lived there, she had not even known that the Great Yu imperial clan had entanglements with monsters.

And people still called her the “Immortal of Perfect Strategy”?

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She really did not feel worthy of the title.

Xiang Xian had good reason to be anxious as well.

Now that Bai Xiang had pointed out this hidden danger, a lot of their arrangements suddenly had different priorities.

Especially the Path of Qi. Xiang Xian now very much felt that multiple powers were laying out their plans around the Dao-paths they had in hand.

The Upper Realm’s Demon Court had the Dao-Void Methods.

The Upper Realm’s human race had the Path of Sacred Armaments.

The court of the main world had the Sword Dao.

And now Bai Xiang’s Path of Qi had joined in.

In the unseen, she had a feeling that the new art her own disciple had created was dragging everyone into a world-shaking Dao-struggle.

If that was the case, then the Path of Qi had to be spread as quickly as possible.

But with only a bit more than a month left until the Nine Prefectures Sword Meet, and with the court’s blockade and the Demon Court’s Heaven-Patrol about to arrive, where was there time to work on such a matter?

No wonder Xiang’er was worried.

Xiang Xian also knew that she and Lori Aurora had reached a cooperation agreement and that in the coming days, nearly half of Star Tower Group’s subsidiaries and industries would be moving to Maozhou.

But something like this, something like this could not be done even if they had several complete Star Tower Groups, let alone just half of one.

“Do not worry, Master.”

Bai Xiang, however, was perfectly composed, leisurely placing another black stone.

“I already have a way to deal with this.”

…

“Yuming Workshop has released a new line of swords?”

In the prime minister’s residence in the Jade Capital, Liu Xi turned back with a stunned look and asked.

“Yes, Chancellor…” the messenger replied meekly, eyes lowered. “We do not know why, but they really did issue such a notice.”

Is that so?

Liu Xi stared blankly for a moment, then suddenly went to the table, sat down, picked up his phone, and began tapping away, using handwriting input to search for Yuming Workshop’s online store.

To restrict this shop’s business, many prefectural networks had been blocked from reaching it. Clicking the page would bring up messages like “unable to display.”

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But Liu Xi’s clearance was high enough. He went in directly and saw, sure enough, a huge banner hanging across the shop page with wording like “New Product Promotion,” and even a claim no one had ever made before: free nationwide shipping.

Free nationwide shipping… nationwide?

Liu Xi stared at the page in a daze for quite a while, then split his lips in a laugh of pure anger.

“Truly, those whom the heavens would destroy, they first drive mad…” He chuckled twice, then his face turned cold. “Nothing but the dying struggles of the doomed.”

“Prepare the carriage.”

“I am going to see His Majesty.”

Riding to the palace gates, Liu Xi got out and walked into the halls, making his way into the garden with practiced ease, but after searching for a while he did not see any sign of Yao Xing.

Puzzled, he found an old eunuch standing and smiling in front of a side courtyard in the garden. Taking advantage of a courteous handclasp, Liu Xi slipped a jade pendant into his palm and asked him gently,

“Chancellor, you have asked the right man.” The eunuch smiled, eyes narrowed, and pointed the way. “His Majesty has been a little lazy these days and was summoned by the Old Buddha to the back mountain. He is being urged to study.”

The back mountain?

Urged to study?

Liu Xi felt dazed for a moment, then a sense of crisis rose in his heart.

This kind of thing, this kind of thing had never been kept from him in the past.

Helpless, he could only take a carriage out of the city again and head for the so-called back mountain area. After many twists, he set foot on a mountain path and, following a long climb, finally saw a red-walled Buddhist temple amid the dense forest.

There were Imperial Guards at the gate. Liu Xi reported his presence and waited at the entrance. He waited nearly an hour before a monk came out to bring him in.

When he found Yao Xing, the current emperor of the Yu Emperor Sacred Dynasty was reciting sutras under the guidance of two eminent monks.

Yao Xing was very happy to see Liu Xi. He immediately tossed aside the scripture in his hands and loudly called him over.

The two monks both showed displeasure. “Your Majesty, do not forget today’s lesson…”

“Yes, yes, I know!” Yao Xing waved his hand. “Just go back and tell the Empress Dowager that I have finished reading. You are not allowed to tattle on me, understand?”

The two monks shook their heads. “We still have to let the Empress Dowager know the situation.”

Yao Xing flew into a rage, but their legs were quick and they had already slipped away. He cursed and fumed his way back, then dragged Liu Xi down onto a cushion beside him and asked in a tone like chatting about household matters, “So, Chancellor, you came looking for me now, is there something you need my help with?”

As he spoke, he was frantically waggling his brows, only one step short of writing directly on his face for Liu Xi to come up with an excuse to drag him back to the palace.

I do not dare do that.

Liu Xi shook his head inwardly, ignoring Yao Xing’s pleading gaze as he bowed.

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“Your servant is here to congratulate Your Majesty.”

“Oh?” Yao Xing raised his brows. “What congratulations?”

“On the Maozhou problem, the Path of Qi problem.” Liu Xi took out his phone and showed Yao Xing, adding in passing, “This is a move to destroy their own future. It seems they have run out of options.”

“Good!” Once he understood, Yao Xing’s brows also blossomed with delight. Holding the phone, he paced excitedly back and forth inside the Buddha hall.

“Although I do not really know why Mother is so concerned about this matter, if this hidden danger can be removed… then I suppose I do not have to stay here anymore!”

Yao Xing was overjoyed. Once he had Liu Xi’s phone in his hands, he was loath to give it back, leaning against a pillar to chat with him while playing on the device.

As for why he was so starved for it, of course it was because his own phone had been confiscated.

He had already gone at least a week without the internet. Every day he had neither fine wine nor beautiful consorts and could only sit in this wretched place chanting sutras. It was driving him mad.

Still, he at least had some sense of crisis. Partway through, he anxiously asked Liu Xi, “Chancellor, do you think Maozhou’s move might be a ruse?”

The screen had been swiped back to the Yuming Workshop page. He scrolled down and made sure he saw labels like “50% off storewide” and “free nationwide shipping.”

As if worried that the discount was not tempting enough, there was even a spin-the-wheel lottery interface below, claiming that every order placed would earn a chance at a discount spin.

Yao Xing had studied that wheel and knew it did not just offer terrifying discounts like ninety percent off. One could even hit free swords and sword-case sets.

Given the current size of the Shenming Sword Dao, running a promotion like this was basically asking to die.

He had just been worrying about how to further suppress that new Path of Qi and reclaim the orthodox Yuming Sword Dao to report back to Mother, and then he saw this development.

Was it not all a bit too smooth, too coincidental?

Yao Xing suspected there was a trap inside.

“Rest assured, Your Majesty,” Liu Xi said gravely. “I have already studied the workings and even contacted people in Maozhou to snap up some swords and send them over for testing and examination. We found nothing unusual.”

“So what they are doing is just trying to buy public favor through promotions?” Yao Xing brightened again. “They think this can speed up the spread of the new art? They are thinking a bit too beautifully.”

The ruler and his minister discussed matters at length and finally reached a conclusion. The blockade and suppression of the Path of Qi could not be relaxed, but as for this “Yuming Workshop” suicide move, they could give it a little helpful push.

“Some prefectures still cannot access that shop. Those restrictions can be lifted for now.”

Yao Xing waved a grand hand and made his decision.

“If they are so eager to die, let us oblige them. Let them die even more miserably.”