Volume 4, Chapter 78 – Background

Oh?

So they only rank as hired muscle?

Bai Xiang was a little surprised.

With the Jade Spirit assisting her, it might have looked as though her attention was mainly on the outside, on questioning Zhu Canghai, but in truth she had already begun receiving and digesting the information provided by Shenquan’s remnant soul.

Shenquan had been an Immortal Venerable-level figure and had also cultivated soul arts. Talent like that was rare even in the Void World. He had probably thought he would never end up in a situation like this, and had therefore never bothered preparing any self-destruction secret art. That was why Bai Xiang had been able to profit from him so easily.

And according to some of the vague information within those fragments, even if the three of them could not be counted as major figures among the Venerable ranks, calling them somewhat famous or minor experts would still have been fair.

If the three joined forces, even some long-renowned Venerables might not necessarily be their match. Based on their combined strength alone, they would count as backbone figures in almost any faction.

Yet a group like that was used by this so-called Cloud Tower as mere muscle, and they were not even told what purpose lay behind being sent here?

Neither Zhu Canghai nor He Xian knew that Bai Xiang could read souls. Since that was the case, she did not expose anything. Instead, she used some of the truths she had already glimpsed from Shenquan’s remnant soul to continue pressing the two of them, wanting to see whether either still had any thought of resisting.

The result was acceptable.

He Xian had already reverted to human form. Most likely because his true spirit had been controlled, he did not dare resist Bai Xiang in the slightest, and everything he said was truthful, real information.

Zhu Canghai was even more direct. On everything Bai Xiang asked, he could truly be described as holding nothing back and saying all he knew. Coupled with the fact that he had also been the most loyal of the three, Bai Xiang’s killing intent finally thinned, and her attitude softened somewhat.

According to the two of them, the organization called Cloud Tower presented itself on the surface as “a famous merchant in the Void World.” It controlled countless Illusory Realms and flying vessels, excelled at moving back and forth between different realms, handling the circulation of goods, and profiting from price differences.

But in reality… although there were no rumors of it outside, the three of them had worked for Cloud Tower long enough to make out some of its roots. They had long suspected that this organization had ties to Blood Soul Heaven, and was very likely subordinate to the Blood Soul Heaven Intelligence Department, supplying it with resources and information.

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“How did you figure that out?” Bai Xiang demanded of He Xian.

He Xian said resentfully, “Before I knew of this matter, I once accepted a bounty outside to hunt down a major criminal from Blood Soul Heaven. After catching up to him and exchanging blows, he lost out to my arts and abandoned his body-form to flee. But later, during another mission, I caught sight of him again and was shocked to find that he was mixed in among the people of an allied department…”

He left the rest unsaid, but the meaning was obvious enough.

He was not a fool. The merchant caravan leader who had been in charge of that mission had refused to let him ask further and only said he had seen wrongly. Of course He Xian had found it suspicious.

And things like that had not happened only once. In particular, Cloud Tower had also realized that they might know something. Before this current assignment, it had specially summoned the three of them for a talk and hinted that it really did have ties to the Blood Soul Heaven Intelligence Department.

At that point, what else could the three of them say?

If they did not kneel on the spot and swear loyalty, then forget being sent out on any mission. There was no guarantee they would even be allowed to leave the stronghold alive. So they had no choice but to stumble aboard the pirate ship.

After that, they were sent here to suppress Shenwu Heaven. On one hand, they were to plunder resources from the local area and suppress Wu Emperor. On the other, they were to search for certain specific treasures. Aside from a portion that they were allowed to intercept and consume themselves, everything else had to be gathered up and handed over to Cloud Tower.

So this was an organized clearing operation.

Bai Xiang nodded inwardly. This did resolve one of her doubts.

Shenwu Heaven was not some especially powerful small world of the Illusory Realm. After its defeat at Maozhou, it should have become prime meat in the eyes of a pack of wolves. Yet when she had earlier asked people like Sun Yaoming for information, none of the major powers such as Tianfu Mountain or Taixu Monastery seemed to know much about the matter. At best, they could only vaguely guess that “Shenwu Heaven had fled in fear of punishment,” and none of them could say anything definite.

Now it seemed that someone had been blocking the flow of information behind the scenes, leaving the benefits only to the forces they directly controlled, letting them act as black gloves while they themselves hid in the back and enjoyed the rewards.

That meant when Wang Li of Purple Soul Monastery had originally betrayed Shenwu Heaven’s intelligence, the people he contacted should have been related to Blood Soul Heaven.

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There was even a strong chance that he himself had been one of Blood Soul Heaven’s planted pieces inside Purple Soul Monastery and inside the Shenwu Immortal Dynasty from the start.

But with things like this… no matter how slow Bai Xiang might have been to react, she should have realized it by now. If these people were going to such lengths to block the news, then they had clearly concluded that Shenwu Heaven contained some enormous profit. The whole point of sealing the matter off was to swallow it themselves.

Thinking of that, Bai Xiang asked Zhu Canghai, “Aside from biological resources and mineral resources, what exactly is the specific treasure Cloud Tower wanted you to find?”

“It may be some kind of jade,” Zhu Canghai said. “They described it as ‘something like yellow-essence jade soul, shape uncertain, size uncertain, but the moment you see it, you’ll know it’s the thing.’”

What kind of nonsense description is that.

What is this, are you filming The Hobbit?

Seeing Bai Xiang frown, and realizing she might be displeased, Zhu Canghai hurriedly added, “Well… to be honest, we did not understand it that clearly either. During our time here, we did collect some jade essence and jade souls, but we do not know whether any of them are what our lord wanted.”

Bai Xiang pressed her lips together. “Did I say I wanted it?”

Then why did you specifically ask about it…

Zhu Canghai met her gaze and held his breath, not daring to say a word.

“Well… Exalted One?” He Xian dropped to his knees before her again. “We sincerely submit to you. Might you have further arrangements for us?”

Zhu Canghai also came back to himself and knelt with He Xian, saying, “Please, my lord, give us a clear answer.”

Plainly, after losing to Bai Xiang and then spilling information, if Blood Soul Heaven ever learned of it, they would never know peace again. They would probably face endless assassination attempts.

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Although they still could not see through Bai Xiang’s roots, they could at least be certain that she was not from Blood Soul Heaven, and was very likely connected to the Sacred Court.

Other than relying on her and seeking her protection, they had no other road left.

These two were still very useful.

Bai Xiang’s gaze passed over their faces, and she had already made her decision.

Shenquan’s true form was a demon beast called a Turtle-Shell Spirit Python. This kind of demon was born with a spiritual sensitivity toward the turtle shells left behind after others of its kind died. And because those leftover shells had usually been nourished for a much longer time, shedding one’s own shell and replacing it with an inherited shell could increase one’s cultivation in one stroke. Most Turtle-Shell Spirit Pythons spent their whole lives running about in search of shells to exchange.

Shenquan had been lucky. He had found the shell of a Venerable, and from that shell had obtained a soul scripture called the Shed-Spirit Rebirth Scripture. That was how he had achieved the Venerable rank in one leap and acquired all the status and opportunities that followed.

And the Shed-Spirit Rebirth Scripture itself was rather strange. It taught that all things in the world were born from mire, and that the fleshly body-shell was likewise stained by mire, unable to attain purity and unable to transcend.

Only by cultivating this scripture, tempering the soul, and striving one day to completely cast off the shell of flesh could one be said to transcend the bitter sea. Only then would “lifespan no longer rest in Heaven’s decree, and the soul no longer return,” attaining a great fruition and enjoying great freedom.

If Bai Xiang were asked to judge it objectively, she would say this was an evil art mixed with all kinds of doctrines and methods.

There were traces of Buddhism in it, traces of Daoism too, and even traces of On the Five Worms. Only the fundamental root of the path had landed in the wrong place. In any case, Bai Xiang absolutely did not believe that casting off the flesh could ever allow one to “verify the Dao.”

But in the end, with the help of this evil art, Shenquan was most likely not dead despite such grievous injury. His life-bound tortoise shell should be hidden somewhere else. At the moment Bai Xiang chopped him to pieces, he had probably shifted a considerable part of his soul over to it. The information she had glimpsed from him was incomplete.

That was where the usefulness of He Xian and Zhu Canghai became apparent.

On one hand, they could fill in the missing pieces. On the other, investigating Shenwu Heaven’s foundations would also depend on the two of them.

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And they really were different from Shenquan.

That man was selfish, cold-blooded, and utterly ruthless. Even while fleeing, he had still entertained the thought of letting his two companions draw Bai Xiang away, which formed a sharp contrast with the way those companions had come back to save each other.

Taking everything together, Bai Xiang decided not to kill them for the time being.

She planned first to order them to bring her to the imperial palace pit. Once she had inspected the treasures they had gathered, met Wu Emperor, and dealt with the rest of the matters there, she would decide according to the circumstances whether or not to leave them a path to live.

Faced with Bai Xiang’s attitude, He Xian and Zhu Canghai were naturally overjoyed. The two of them bowed again in succession. Zhu Canghai, seemingly afraid that Bai Xiang might change her mind, even hurried to open up his true spirit and let her leave a mark. Only then did his expression finally relax somewhat.

“You are not afraid I might simply trick you and kill you anyway?”

Bai Xiang looked at them curiously.

“We accept that too,” Zhu Canghai said bluntly. “At least it is better than living alongside uncanny people.”

“Uncanny people?”

“That would be Meng Tian,” He Xian added. “That man is treacherous. His cultivation in soul arts is unfathomably deep. He belongs to the category of monstrous prodigies who are exceptionally skilled in the path of the soul. On that basis alone, he is enough to suppress the three of us. We truly do not dare contend with him.”

When Shenquan mentioned the loss of his soul seal, the reason the two of them had said they would come help was, on one hand, because the three had always been close. On the other hand, it was also because they wanted, at least for a while, to keep their distance from Meng Tian.

That man was the direct superior overseeing this mission.

The resources and treasures mentioned just now were all in Meng Tian’s hands.