Volume 4, Chapter 38 – Invitation to Battle

That voice had clearly used an extremely advanced divine technique. Just like in a novel, it stayed condensed instead of dispersing, and basically reached only Bai Xiang; everywhere else, no one heard anything at all.

Bai Xiang frowned. After a moment’s thought, she had the disciple at the doors close the hall and announced that she would be in seclusion inside for a while and was not to be disturbed. In private, however, she slipped out through a side hall, rose into the air under the cover of night, pierced through the billowing clouds, and suddenly broke into open clarity.

The distance was very short, because Shenming’s main peak was already extremely high, very close to the sea of clouds. After passing through the cloud sea, Bai Xiang looked around and saw only banks of mist rolling under the moonlight, and, besides that, a black-robed man standing in midair with a sword at his waist, his long, narrow, strangely bewitching eyes fixed on her.

“Golden pupils, for real?” The man had obviously heard of Bai Xiang’s deeds beforehand. When she arrived, he first looked her over from head to toe, letting out a quiet sound of surprise.

Bai Xiang said nothing, facing him calmly.

She could feel that this man was more than a cut above Cui Yuanhao. Even with the Tianxuan Sword in hand, Cui Yuanhao would absolutely not be his match.

If it really came to a fight, she was confident she could contend with this man. But the scenery all around, and any damage that might be done to the dojo’s mountain gate below, would be impossible to care about.

“Very well.” As if something had just clicked in his mind, the man gave a short, derisive laugh and muttered under his breath like he was talking to himself.

“So what if he is…?”

“That is his path, not mine.”

“How could my path lie beneath his? Why would I need to covet what belongs to him?”

In Bai Xiang’s eyes, it looked very much like he had just gone off on some bizarre tangent. When his gaze cleared again and he looked back at Bai Xiang, the doubt and covetousness were gone, replaced by thick, fervent madness and a will to fight.

The joy overflowing from him gave Bai Xiang a clear feeling that this man was genuinely delighted that she existed, that she was alive. As if that alone gave him a chance to prove something. As if he were about to open his mouth any second and issue a challenge.

“I am Li Huiran.” The man suddenly spoke, bowing toward Bai Xiang as he did. “You may address me directly by name.”

Bai Xiang did not speak. She kept feeling there was something very strange about him.

Suddenly, she tested him. “Are you human?”

She had finally realized what felt off. The Demon Court did not demand formal ritual, but compared to the other Heaven-Patrols in her intel, this man was far too proper. This was nothing like a demon’s style; he was practically more “human” than humans.

Li Huiran nodded. “I was once human.”

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Once?

So now he had completely turned to Dao-Void Methods, truly becoming a traitor to the human path?

Though Bai Xiang said nothing, all her feelings showed in those golden pupils of hers. Li Huiran caught them in a single sweep of his eyes.

“You think I betrayed the human path, don’t you?” he asked her.

Bai Xiang still did not speak.

It was not that she did not want to answer. She had simply never really thought about how one ought to judge a question like that.

“How do you view Blood-Soul Heaven? How do you view their efforts to revive ancient demons?” Li Huiran switched questions, and before Bai Xiang could answer, he continued on his own. “Blood-Soul Heaven believes that ‘demons’ are no longer enough, not disordered enough, not mad enough. So they want to embrace something even more extreme. They want to become that kind of thing, and they believe that kind of thing is better suited to survive the great calamities.”

He suddenly glared at Bai Xiang. “Do you agree that their doctrine is correct?”

Bai Xiang still said nothing, but he laughed. “Let me answer then. My answer is, if they can prove that they are right, I will abandon my current identity and join Blood-Soul Heaven on the spot.”

Hm?

This time, Bai Xiang was genuinely a bit startled. She had not expected a Heaven-Patrol from the Demon Court to have this sort of personality. You could say things like that?

“The Immortal-Demon Xuan Bird…” Li Huiran stared at the Tianxuan Sword at Bai Xiang’s waist. “You know that demon also evolved from ancient demons, don’t you?”

Bai Xiang’s expression turned a little odd. “If the Patrol Warden is talking about evolution from dinosaurs…”

“Indeed.” Li Huiran nodded, then said, “When the environmental conditions allow it, a living being manifests an outward form that is an ‘ancient demon dragon beast.’”

“But when the conditions do not allow for it, as in the current main world, the ‘ancient demon dragon beast’ appears instead in the form of birds and fowl.”

“Can you say that this is a weakening? Can you say that their choice is wrong?”

“You cannot.” Li Huiran smiled. “Because that is the result of them straining every nerve to evolve. They did not do this to be stronger than someone else, or to surpass or defeat someone else. They were just trying to survive. That is a very simple truth.”

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“So long as they survive and wait for the right time, once the conditions and environment align again, they can immediately evolve back into the dragon beasts they once were, perhaps into outward forms even mightier than dragon beasts. This is the true path Heaven and Earth grant to all things.”

Bai Xiang pondered in silence.

She more or less understood what this weirdo wanted to say now.

“So,” Li Huiran said proudly, hands clasped behind his back.

“Since living things can continuously evolve between different outward forms according to different environments, why can’t humans be demons and demons be humans?”

“Dragon beasts are birds, and birds are dragon beasts.”

“Humans can be demons, and demons can be humans.”

“Tell me, where is the difference? How is such transformation any sort of ‘betrayal’?”

“What you mean, Patrol Warden,” Bai Xiang said, “is that in the context of the current era, you believe the human race to be a species destined for elimination, so you chose to evolve into a demon.”

“This is Heaven and Earth’s true path,” Li Huiran nodded. “There is nothing shameful about it.”

Bai Xiang frowned. “Why tell me all this, Patrol Warden?”

This was honestly rather baffling.

He had suddenly come all this way to say a bunch of strange things, and judging from his posture, he did not seem inclined to start fighting right away either.

“Because I realized you are very much like me.” Li Huiran looked at Bai Xiang again with that fervent gaze.

“Not only in your origin and your bloodline.”

“Even more because, like me, you are pursuing a Dao that belongs to yourself.”

“You have not been trapped in his path, unable to extricate yourself. You chose to found a new Dao.”

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“That is good. Very good.”

“I came here to confirm whether you are worthy of dying beneath my sword. Now that I have seen you, I can finally be at ease.”

“The Tianxuan Sword… hahaha! Zhang Dai, that old dog, finally lives to see this day!”

Throwing his head back, he burst into wild laughter, and his figure faded away amid the clouds.

From far away, his voice still carried over from the horizon. “On the day of our sword duel, I will be waiting for you to come!”

He had come in secret, but he made no effort to conceal his departure. Pealing waves of sound spread in all directions, blasting this stretch of cloud sea apart with a roar and forcing the entire cityscape of the Zhen’nan Dao region to be exposed.

Many ordinary people inexplicably raised their heads to look at the sky, gathering and asking questions, but they had no idea what had happened.

Down in the pitch-dark city, lights came on in many places.

“Demon path… human path?”

Bai Xiang hung quietly in the astral winds, looking in the direction Li Huiran had gone, her face expressionless.

A sword duel, then.

Next month’s grand Nine Prefectures gathering was going to be even livelier than she had imagined.

……

Bang.

At the same time, in the depths of cosmic space, a loud crash echoed from within a flying boat docked at a starport.

Clang.

A jagged gap was ripped straight out of an alloy steel bulkhead, and Cui Yuanhao stepped out of the cabin bare-chested, his face sunk in dead stillness.

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He had already vented all his fear and rage. What remained now was only this dry, empty emotion.

But he also knew that he had only just used a secret art to resurrect himself, and his Qi presence was incredibly weak. He promptly took the items he had left, opened the hatch, slipped into the void, and vanished in a flicker.

“Master?”

Inside the flying boat, a woman’s voice suddenly came over the speakers of a cabin.

“I heard something. It sounded like Dao Enforcer Cui came back, and then left again?”

“Pay it no mind.” Seat-holder Liu was sitting in meditation on the futon in the center of the room. At her words, he could not even be bothered to open his eyes.

“Without the aura of the Tianxuan Sword, he must have lost to that Bai Zhixing and, deeply afraid I might do something to him, simply used an escape art and ran.”

“Then, Master,” the woman said, her voice turning bright with excitement, “are we really not going to do anything?”

All that blood essence, an Immortal Venerable’s blood essence, had to be incredibly valuable, right?

“His divine pool is far too troublesome. Disrupting the plan for his sake would not be worth it.” Seat-holder Liu shook his head.

“Then now that we have also tested what level that Bai Zhixing is at,” the woman asked, “are we going to contact Blood-Soul Heaven according to plan?”

“Haven’t we already begun?”

Seat-holder Liu’s lips curved into a smile.

“This stellar spaceport.”

“You did not think it was unclaimed, did you?”