Volume 4, Chapter 70 – Manifesting Divinity

Once she had thought it through, Bai Xiang understood why the dark-skinned monk had said she had “darkened Yintang” and was “wreathed in tribulation-aura.”

It was obvious enough. With her “completely unmutated appearance,” she stood out here as starkly as a crane among chickens or a goose among fish. Being stared at by the locals was the least of it. More likely, she had already drawn the attention of the broker’s faction, who were plotting to take something from her body.

Sure enough, when Bai Xiang turned her head again, she saw that the dark-skinned monk had already packed up his stall in a hurry, transformed it into a wooden handcart, and was pushing it away as he fled.

“Meeting you is a matter of fate, lady patron! Take this as a gift. Until we meet again!”

Lowering her gaze, Bai Xiang saw a wooden token half the size of a palm lying on the ground. In the center of the token was set a bluish-white piece of jade, and in the middle of the jade were carved the two characters “Spirit Command.” Apart from that, the only thing on it was the token’s intricate patterning.

She made a mental note of it and was just about to pick up the token when a group of Dao soldiers suddenly surrounded her from the side, staring at her with ill intent.

“You! Where did you come from?” The leading Dao soldier greedily eyed Bai Xiang’s face and figure, doing his best to put on a fierce expression. “Do you know this entire area has already been claimed by our Jieving Heaven? Outsiders have to report themselves first before entering!”

Jieving Heaven? That name seemed faintly familiar.

Bai Xiang roughly recalled it. It seemed to be a somewhat noted Illusory Realm plane. In terms of strength, it had previously been inferior even to the Shenwu Immortal Dynasty, but it excelled at hiding and fleeing, which was why it had not been swallowed up by the other Illusory Realms.

In truth, she had no need to care about any of that, because she had already spoken with people like Sun Yaoming and Daoist Fengxu. From their descriptions, and from what she herself had seen, any power that named itself “such-and-such Heaven” was a third-rate power.

That meant their strength could at most affect the Illusory Realm plane that had birthed them. Some such powers might not even be able to fully control their own local Illusory Realm, instead having to share it with others, which made them even less impressive.

The powers that truly counted were those like Taixu Monastery and the Qinglan Immortal Sect, which took the names of Dao traditions. That meant their influence had long since far exceeded their original Illusory Realm planes. The name of a single Illusory Realm was no longer enough to define the scope of their power.

There were only a very few exceptions. Blood Soul Heaven, for instance, belonged to that category. In reality, there was no Illusory Realm plane actually named Blood Soul Heaven. It was a general designation: any land shrouded in its power could be called Blood Soul Heaven.

As for these Dao soldiers… they did not look like the sort who knew secret arts. Should she kill them and read their memories for intelligence?

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She did not think much of it. Bai Xiang suddenly stepped forward and, before any of the Dao soldiers could react, shot out a hand and seized the leader by the throat. With a squeeze of the web between thumb and forefinger, she shattered his spine together with his skull, and when her hand pulled away, it had already drawn out a remnant soul.

“You dare kill someone?!” These Dao soldiers had little cultivation to speak of and could not see the translucent soul at all. They were all shocked beyond belief by Bai Xiang’s “resistance.” In an instant they broke formation and spread out, and one of them even snatched a horn from his back and blew into it.

Woooo—woo—

The deep horn call pierced through the crowd and through the air, drifting ceaselessly toward the blood-red sky. It immediately triggered a chain reaction. The crowd fled outward in terror, and in the distance, more Dao soldiers could already be seen converging in this direction.

Even the human-looking broker on the raised platform turned his gaze over, watching Bai Xiang with considerable curiosity.

“What now?” From the tent behind him emerged a seductive woman wearing a purple veil over her head and a half-transparent purple gauze dress. In a mildly teasing tone, she said to the broker, “What’s gone wrong this time?”

“You ask me, who am I supposed to ask?” The broker really did seem to be the sort who hated trouble. On hearing that, he frowned impatiently, glanced at Bai Xiang, flicked his sleeve, and instead sat down to start writing in his ledger.

“It’s easy enough to guess.” The seductive woman smiled faintly. “That person’s skin is pale, her looks are exquisite, and both her figure and bearing are top-class. Most likely the little princess upstairs saw her, grew jealous, and wants to buy her skin by force.”

“I’ll say the ugly truth first.” Without even lifting his head, the broker said, “Shenwu Heaven is doomed to decline and perish. What we are doing is no different from the flies and mosquitoes on a rotting corpse.”

“Hm?” The woman paused. “And then?”

“And then?” The broker looked up at her coldly. “At a time like this, the job of flies and mosquitoes is to gorge themselves, to eat as much as they can. But not a single fly or mosquito loses its mind and goes around provoking the others.”

“You’re afraid she has a backing force behind her?” The seductive woman laughed softly and slowly shook her head. “My master already said you’re too cautious, and you still won’t listen. Think about it. Among the powers that truly have status, who would be willing to lower themselves to eat this rotten flesh?”

“At a time like this, any ‘outsider’ who comes to Shenwu Heaven is no more than another fly or mosquito.” She continued, “If they eat, then they eat. Who would care if one less fly vanished? We should know soon enough…”

Bang!

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The instant her words fell, a tremendous blast exploded in the middle of the field, drawing both the seductive woman and the broker to turn and look that way again. They saw a cloud of dust erupt violently upward, mixed with dozens of figures flying through the air… No, those looked more like mangled remains and severed limbs.

“A hard target.” The broker sprang to his feet, snatched up his ledger, and headed for the rear, saying as he went, “Your people caused this trouble. Your people handle it.”

“…” Having just been contradicted by reality right after speaking so confidently, the seductive woman’s expression turned quite ugly as well. She first took a deep breath, then her body dissolved into pinkish-purple mist, like a streaming ribbon of vapor winding toward the battlefield. As she flew, she silently evaluated the enemy’s strength.

It probably isn’t the descent of an Exalted One…

At this point, however, she no longer dared to be careless. Instead, she forced herself to consider even the worst possibility.

If it really were the descent of an Exalted One, that person would not have begun with such “primitive methods.” The moment she arrived and opened her divine pool, every other Exalted One currently in this world would sense it. She would be invited over by those few directly. Why would she end up down here in this dust?

And even if an Exalted One did make a move, it should not look like this. They should not be personally using fists and feet.

To say nothing else, if she truly had that ability, then by simply sitting in the void and opening the Three Flowers, would anyone here still dare raise a hand against her?

So that woman was, at most, in the Lightning Tribulation or Dao-Origin realm. There was no need for their side to fear her.

Once she had reasoned that through, the seductive woman relaxed and continued driving her mist forward, slipping into the dust cloud to seek out Bai Xiang.

But although she thought it through beautifully, halfway there she was suddenly struck by a deep sense of unease, as if something utterly terrible was about to happen. That feeling of fundamental incompatibility was so unbearable that she nearly coughed up blood.

How could this be?

The woman was greatly alarmed.

She had only ever experienced this feeling once before… when she had schemed against her master.

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That time, her master had thrown her into the River of Thunder as punishment, and she had nearly lost half her life. How could a similar feeling now be coming from this woman?

Before she could react, an invisible ripple burst through the dust cloud and spread outward.

Every action aimed at Bai Xiang in that instant, whether it was the soldiers, the weapons and gear in their hands, the streaking lights, arrows, throwing blades, and long spears, or even their own charging bodies, was without exception hurled away by an immense force.

Yet strangely enough, this time there was no explosive roar at all.

The sounds of explosions, impacts, shrieks, and screams… every sound vanished for a brief moment. And to their horror, they discovered that their Dao-Void Methods cultivation seemed to have frozen solid inside them. They could not muster the slightest bit of strength.

What—?

The seductive woman’s mist-formed body was also blasted apart by the vibration wave. Her spell formula was forcibly broken, and her body was shaken out of midair, her face filled with panic and terror.

At last, she realized she had made a catastrophic mistake!

That kind of vibration wave… it was the mark of “order” and “rules”!

But why… why would an Exalted One come meddle in mortal trifles, and in such a primitive way?

She could not understand.

She could not make sense of it.

All she could do was watch helplessly as Bai Xiang drew a gold-patterned longsword from her waist and casually swept sword qi toward her, while she herself seemed trapped in slow motion, incapable of resisting, with even her movements moving unbearably slowly.

Splurt!

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Boom—!

In the next moment, the silent domain shattered and dispersed, and cries of alarm and the sound of explosions rang out in succession. The woman’s body was directly shredded into a cloud of blood by the raging Qi-Origin, leaving not even the slightest scrap of flesh behind.

Without Feixiang Heaven, using all kinds of techniques really was restricted…

Bai Xiang raised the Tianxuan Sword and examined it, very dissatisfied with its effectiveness.

All sword moves and divine abilities were restricted. Quite a few of her bigger moves could not be used at all. If she ran into an Immortal Venerable like this, she would probably have to go straight into close-quarters combat.

It did not matter.

She slid the Tianxuan Sword back into its sheath, and only then did her hair slowly drift back down. With cold eyes, she surveyed the devastated battlefield.

Good timing to test the skill in her hands.

To test the Void-Imagination Divine Sword Scripture that she had only recently created.

——————–

Approximate correspondence table for the three cultivation systems (only approximate, and not meant to imply equal combat strength):

Path of Qi – Dao-Void – Sword Dao Origin Realm – Immortal Venerable – Sword Lord Gathering the Medicines – Dao-Origin – Sword Lord Golden Core – Lightning Tribulation – Innate False Core – Body Nine – Divine Fetus Refining Nine – Body Nine – Nine Turns Refining Eight – Body Eight – Core Tribulation Refining Seven – Body Seven – Embracing the Core Refining Five – Body Five – Purple Blood Refining Three – Body Three – Purple Qi Refining Qi – Body Tribulation – Condensing the Aspect Enter the Dao – Stain-the-Body – Forge the Sword