Volume 4, Chapter 97 – The Backdoor (Two-in-One)

After reading through Wang Xiu’s profile, Bai Xiang confirmed that he was a core disciple specially cultivated by Taixu Monastery.

He had entered the Venerable ranks at the age of twenty-eight, and his battle record was dazzlingly brilliant. He himself also possessed three-fifths human blood, styled himself as the current heir of Taixu Monastery, and had an arrogant nature, allowing the sect to focus its resources on no one but himself.

Then that explains it.

Bai Xiang once again felt a sense of understanding.

Just from that “three-fifths human bloodline,” it was obvious that Wang Xiu had not begun his cultivation in Taixu Monastery from the start. More likely, he had originally mixed among other lower-tier Illusory Realms, then climbed step by step to his current position by joining one faction after another.

Clearly, it was because his own experiences had caused him to project himself onto the treatment Taixu Monastery was giving Bai Xiang. He had seemingly seen another version of himself and feared that if Bai Xiang joined Taixu Monastery in the future, she would divide up the cultivation resources that should have gone to him alone.

In that case, it had nothing to do with temperament or natural disposition. It was purely a conflict of interests. He had simply chosen a mode of expression that did not look especially clever.

Bai Xiang touched the “Taixu Monastery” entry, checked the details, then touched the “Heaven’s Pride List” entry. She confirmed that among the current generation of Taixu Monastery disciples, only Wang Xiu had made it onto the rankings.

The man really was relying on his backing without fear.

Having nothing else to do, Bai Xiang simply sat in the cabin and surfed the Venerable Net all the way, starting with the major front-page headlines.

[Massive shift in the Heaven’s Pride List rankings. Chang Hongyuan finally reaches the top after six years of trying.]

[Chang Hongyuan takes first place. Yang Chen’s six-year dominance of the Heaven’s Pride List comes to an end.]

[Daoist Luo Ying: The Heaven’s Pride List has little reference value. Yang Chen lost his throne only because he could not be bothered with it.]

[Zhengtian Dojo holds grand celebration solely to honor its disciple reaching the top of the Heaven’s Pride List.]

[The Dao-Void Martial Tournament is about to begin. The proud sons of the heavenly seas race to attend.]

[Mysterious main-world newcomer parachutes into second place on the Heavenly Fragrance List. Fairy Guxi remains unmoved in first.]

Interesting…

Bai Xiang read through a pile of news and found that the headlines here were still relatively honest. They had not even discovered the “shocking” style yet.

As expected of something only recently invented. They were still quite backward in that area.

And not every article had tags appended below it. Some of the terms she wanted to know more about were absent, so she had no choice but to return to the home page and type into the suspicious-looking search box in the middle.

Simply put, the Venerable Net was an imitation of the internet from the main world.

Its content was fairly rich too. It not only had all kinds of news pages, but the refresh rate was also decent.

Of course, Bai Xiang was not sure whether that was only because she had just learned how to use the Venerable Net and had not yet exhausted the backlog of stored news, allowing her to keep refreshing endlessly.

Still, its content extensions did include chatrooms, very much in the style of the ancient early days of the internet. And considering that the minimum requirement for accessing the Venerable Net was Immortal Venerable cultivation, there was no need to ask: every person speaking there was an Immortal Venerable.

After reading enough news to grow somewhat bored, Bai Xiang went into the public chatrooms to gather information.

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[Only I Reign Supreme Smile]: Chang Hongyuan’s just a petty man puffed up by success. Yang Chen clearly doesn’t care about the rankings at all and who knows where he went off to cultivate. He’s been missing for over a year, and only then did Chang Hongyuan barely snatch first place. And he still has the nerve to let his sect throw a feast for it.

[Only I Reign Supreme Smile]: Bah. Absolutely shameless.

[Zhengtian Dao Number One Under Heaven]: @Constant Battle, Ever Aspirant, Hongyuan-ge, someone here is talking trash about you!

[Zhengtian Dao Number One Under Heaven]: @Only I Reign Supreme Smile, where did you crawl out from, you rat? Dare you report your name?

[Only I Reign Supreme Smile]: This Venerable walks without changing his name and sits without changing his surname. I am none other than Chang Xiaojin of Crooked Heaven Dao~

[Zhengtian Dao Number One Under Heaven]: Is there really no law anymore? Is there nobody to deal with scoundrels like this?

The moment she entered the chatroom, Bai Xiang was drawn in by the cursing match between those two.

Even their insults were this civilized. The online environment here really was primitive.

Still, this quarrel also made one thing clear: all Immortal Venerables spoke anonymously here. The Venerable Net only required one to choose a substitute name, or rather, a username. As for who you really were, unless you chose to reveal it yourself, no one here cared.

Clearly, the Sacred Court had not been running the Venerable Net for very long. There were not even any moderators set up for it yet. Amid the flashing information, one could constantly see people insulting each other from every direction. Sometimes one side was unwilling to accept something, sometimes the other side had a loose tongue. Occasionally, when two people cursed each other into real fury and then suddenly both went silent, they had almost certainly moved to private messages.

The two who started the exchange were no exception. Within a few short seconds, that “Zhengtian Dao” user stopped talking, and then after a few more seconds, the “Supreme Smile” one popped up again, saying: “That Zhengtian demon-dao brat is really overbearing. He actually private-messaged me and tried to pay me to shut up!”

[Zhengtian Dao Number One Under Heaven]: Didn’t you take the money already?

[Only I Reign Supreme Smile]: You delivered it right to my door. Why wouldn’t I take it?

[Zhengtian Dao Number One Under Heaven]: You actually told everyone about something like that! Do you have any professional ethics at all?

[Only I Reign Supreme Smile]: You’re the one who didn’t make yourself clear. Who told you to send a red envelope first? How is that my fault?

The two kept cursing each other back and forth. The Zhengtian Dao user was already furious beyond measure, openly demanding a duel, saying things like “Let’s settle this at the Dao-Void Martial Tournament” and “I’ll make you, Chang Xiaojin, learn your place,” and so on. The chatroom at once filled with a merry atmosphere.

That one’s probably a little girl.

The onlookers all crowded in to tease her, and Bai Xiang herself smiled as she watched.

So easy to provoke, and so immature in both speech and conduct. At a glance, it was obvious she was someone from a great dojo who had been too well protected since childhood and had only just learned how to use the net, only to be immediately frustrated.

Still, this kind of information had no real value. Bai Xiang looked at it for a bit, then stopped paying attention. Instead, she noticed several specialized chatrooms off to the side, with names like “Ranking Upheavals,” “The General Situation Under Heaven,” and so on.

There was also a dedicated section called “Dao-Void Martial Tournament,” and the display showed that each chatroom had over a hundred people currently browsing.

Bai Xiang first entered “Ranking Upheavals,” and the very first thing that filled her view was an ink-black demon dragon.

The demon dragon circled once across the screen, then descended to the top of a hanging scroll and transformed into the two characters “Venerable List.” Beneath it, line after line of names arranged themselves.

Each individual name had an underline below it, marking it as an entry that could be clicked for detailed information.

Ranked first was “Immortal Venerable Canglan.”

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Below that was a short introduction.

[Immortal Venerable Canglan, true name Yue Canglan. He burst onto the scene three hundred years ago and single-handedly suppressed countless heavenly prides of his generation, then founded the Canglan Sword Sect and sat in command of a domain. Fully worthy of first place on the Venerable List!]

Second was “Immortal Venerable Longxi.”

[Immortal Venerable Longxi, true name unknown. Their recorded period of emergence dates to four hundred and twenty years ago. They once suppressed the heavenly prides of their generation, but were later defeated by Immortal Venerable Canglan. Their activity has sharply declined over the last ten years, and they may be removed from the rankings at any time.]

These should all be figures qualified to be called “Dao Master.”

Bai Xiang looked through some of the names and records and found that this ranking list was just like every other ranking list she had ever seen. It had a certain reference value, but could not be taken too seriously.

The reason was simple: the lifespan of Immortal Venerables was limited.

At the shortest, they lived two or three hundred years; at the longest, no more than four or five hundred. During the final hundred years before their ordained limit, most Immortal Venerables and Venerables would abandon this sort of struggle over fame and prestige and instead dedicate themselves to traveling and seeking ways to extend their lives.

If they fell silent for a while, then naturally they would be removed from the rankings and step down.

But that did not mean their strength had suffered any damage whatsoever. Once one also counted those who deliberately concealed themselves, and the inevitable margins of error in evaluation, it was hard to say how authoritative this ranking really was.

Just like that Yang Chen who had dominated the Heaven’s Pride List for six years. He clearly never cared about such things in the first place, and disappeared into seclusion the instant he wished to. Plainly, he had seen through these matters very thoroughly.

Bai Xiang first browsed the Venerable List, then the Heaven’s Pride List.

Only after fixing a number of names and records in her mind did she click into the Heavenly Fragrance List, where she immediately saw her own name in second place.

One thing worth mentioning was that among all the ranking lists of its kind, the Heavenly Fragrance List was the only one that actually provided portraits for the candidates.

[Immortal Venerable Shenming, true name Bai Xiang, Dao name Zhixing. Entered the Venerable ranks at only eighteen years old, with terrifying talent. Particularly skilled in the path of “shattering the void,” excelling at large-range tidal assaults. Distinguishing facial traits: snow-white hair and golden eyes. Possesses a bearing so cold and upright as to be beyond violation.]

Below that line of text was an ink portrait of her. It really did capture quite a bit of her spirit.

Then what about rank one?

She scrolled upward again and at last found the so-called “Fairy Guxi.”

[Immortal Venerable Yuexi, true name Guxi, Dao name Qingyou. Entered the Venerable ranks at twenty-four, with outstanding talent. Particularly skilled in the paths of “ice qi” and the “luo zither.” Possesses excellence in both talent and artistry, and together with Chang Hongyuan stands among the heavenly prides of Zhengtian Dao.]

The scroll unfurled further, revealing an absolutely beautiful female cultivator with loose black hair. Even Bai Xiang could not help admiring her looks and temperament.

Still, beauty was the sort of thing for which everyone had different standards. Although she did not believe her own appearance fell short of the woman’s, this kind of contest was ultimately nothing more than a minor path. After looking, she simply let it go and chose to exit the Venerable Net.

“Hm?”

Just as she was withdrawing, Bai Xiang’s brows drew slightly together. She discovered that a strand of black mist had been pulled out from the black card and was following her consciousness back toward her Hidden Spirit Orifice, trying to conceal itself inside her body.

Without hesitation, Bai Xiang activated her soul-abilities at once and thoroughly refined that strand of black qi. She immediately felt a pure current of heart-force flow in to replenish her, leaving her refreshed and clear-headed.

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So there’s actually this kind of bonus for going online?

Bai Xiang could not help curling up the corner of her mouth.

One only had to think about it for a moment to know that this strand of black qi was probably the price one paid for logging onto the Venerable Net.

After all, something so broad and all-connecting had always been the darling of ambitious schemers. If they had the ability to leave behind a backdoor in it and thereby try to control every cultivator who used the net, then surely very few people would be able to resist doing so.

But against me, that kind of thing simply won’t work.

From now on, every time I go online, I’ll collect one gift from you. Let’s see how much divine soul power you actually have to spend.

…

At the same time, unimaginably far away beyond the void, within an immortal hall wreathed in white mist, a pale-skinned Daoist suddenly opened his eyes.

In that instant, the immortal hall seemed to flash with a streak of brilliant golden sword-light, and an entire ring of fire pillars placed around him was extinguished.

The Daoist shifted from a reclining posture into a seated one and murmured, “Someone has broken through the backdoor in the Venerable Net again?”

“The direction came through from the Luoyi Sea. Strange. I never heard that any monstrous figure had appeared over there.”

As he finished speaking, he spread out one hand, and at once some amethyst-like dust rapidly condensed there, forming in the blink of an eye the purple-gold black card Bai Xiang had seen.

Only, this black card looked empty. It lacked the black liquid inside it, and possessed none of the same marvelous properties.

The Daoist remained unhurried. He sliced open the skin of his palm with a fingernail, and from the wound there burst a column of black blood that seemed almost alive. Under his control, it drilled into the black card.

Then the Daoist narrowed his eyes, and a pattern of Dao-lines appeared on his forehead. Two additional radiating “fine eyes” opened above his brows, so that all four eyes shone together with golden light.

In the process, his mind and consciousness seeped into the blood. Relying on the bond of common origin, he rapidly searched out the traces of information contained within it. Very quickly, based on the time markers, he found several hundred login and browsing records.

He examined those records one by one, and in the end, it seemed he had found something. His brows drew tightly together.

“Logged in to check the chatrooms?”

“The Venerable List?”

“The Heaven’s Pride List? All sorts of rankings?”

“Behavior like that can only come from someone of the main world. And among the current Venerable ranks of the main world, there are only a few with recorded names…”

“So it was Bai Xiang, Bai Zhixing.”

He fell silent in thought for a moment, then put away the black card and reached to the side, grabbing a pull-cord and shaking it several times. The sound of bells immediately drifted far away.

Not long after, a huge immortal crane flew out of the mists of the immortal hall. Landing before the hall, it spoke in a human voice: “For what reason has Master summoned me?”

“Go and find Hall Master Yu of the Heaven-Watching Hall. Hand him this jade talisman and have him examine it.”

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The Daoist produced a pure white jade talisman in his palm, let the crane take it in its beak, and watched as it flew away again.

“Xuandi’s descendant… the Xuandi Scripture, is it?”

He was still murmuring to himself.

“If so, then that does make sense.”

The immortal crane wove through the clouds and mists, then suddenly passed through a barrier. The scenery before its eyes changed abruptly, and it landed in a great hall dominated by a Bagua formation disk.

In the main seat of the hall sat a Daoist youth in orange robes. Seeing the crane arrive, he finally opened his eyes and asked, “Has this young friend come to verify some matter?”

“Reporting to Hall Master, no. My master has a matter to convey and specifically ordered me to make this trip.”

The crane spoke again in human language and respectfully offered over the jade talisman.

“Oh?”

The young Daoist was mildly surprised. After taking the jade talisman and checking it, he raised his brows even more sharply. “Something like this has actually happened!?”

“Hall Master, I take my leave.”

The crane had no interest in what he found surprising. It gave an oddly human-like bow with both wings, then retreated and flew away.

That left the young Daoist sitting alone in the hall, his brows tightly furrowed as he sank into thought.

“If this Immortal Venerable Shenming really has this kind of ability, then the ranking we previously gave her was too low.”

“Although there are always people accusing the Heaven-Watching Hall’s rankings of lacking detail and fairness, for the gap to be this large is still unacceptable.”

“I’ll have to move her up several places.”

As he spoke, the young Daoist beckoned with one hand. The Bagua formation disk below suddenly lit up with streaks of pale green and white radiance, and many mysterious Dao-pattern talismans floated into the air, spinning around him without cease.

“Previously she wasn’t even within the top hundred.”

“But if she can at least withstand Han Feng’s blood, then I’ll move her to rank twenty.”

“As for the rest, that can wait for her future performances.”

Once the young Daoist had finished speaking to himself, he pressed all the radiance back down, and the great hall fell into silence once more.

And at the same time, the Heaven’s Pride List suddenly changed. The name “Bai Xiang” leapt directly from outside the top hundred into the top twenty, setting off an uproar of commentary across the Venerable Net.

But Bai Xiang herself knew nothing of this.

She arranged herself in the Sword Contemplation posture in midair and began another round of cultivation.