Volume 4, Chapter 110 – Convergence (Two-in-One)

Having gained that insight, Bai Xiang at once felt as though her thoughts had opened up and her horizons had widened.

Indeed, if realizing my wish already requires me to accomplish certain things, then what harm is there in doing some other things along the way as well?

If there are any blind fools who want to keep sowing chaos, then I can simply kill them all.

With that in mind, she no longer paid much attention to the scenery below the mountain and instead turned to look at her dazed younger sister. “Did you come down here specifically to find me?”

Bai Zhuqing slowly nodded, still somewhat woodenly.

After all, they had already shared that kind of intimacy. If this had happened before, then seeing her sister in a state like this, she definitely would not have dared come close. She would only have observed her from nearby. But now…

Gritting her teeth, the girl forced herself to step forward, secretly studying Bai Xiang with her bright black eyes, trying to see whether she minded.

Bai Xiang said nothing. She only looked at her, a trace of amusement in her gaze. Even those golden pupils were half-curved with it.

“Go on.” Bai Xiang suddenly reached out and smoothed the strands of hair the wind had blown loose beside her sister’s face. “What urgent matter made you come down here to find me?”

“It’s this…”

Bai Zhuqing hurriedly explained. It turned out that the Shangqing Sword Dao and Benling Sword Dao parties, which according to plan were only supposed to arrive at night, had already entered the Zhennan checkpoint. She had come to ask Bai Xiang how these people should be settled and dealt with.

“It’s already late. There’s no way an internal competition can be held now,” Bai Xiang said casually, not taking it very seriously. “Naturally, we arrange places for them to stay. If there are rooms on the mountain, then they can stay on the mountain. If there aren’t enough, then put the rest up in hotels.”

“As for Dao Master Li and Dao Master Wang… they can be brought to this terrace, and I’ll receive them personally.”

Though she spoke casually, that arrangement truly was the best possible choice for Shenming Sword Dao at present.

Not splitting up their lodging was to avoid making anyone feel they were being treated differently. And “receive them personally” was not because Bai Xiang was putting on airs, but because she knew perfectly well why the two heads of those Dao lineages had come.

Most likely, just like Yuming Sword Dao before them, they had come to discuss merging their Dao lineages. If they were already planning to merge their own lineages into your dojo and become one of its peaks, then if you still hurried to heap excessive respect on them, it would immediately make Yuming Sword Dao look unimportant instead.

And that was still Xiang Xian’s lineage. As her master’s lineage, and the first lineage to choose to throw in with them, if even Yuming had not received such treatment, then why should others?

So many people from other provinces say online that Sister Xiang’er only knows how to practice the sword, that she understands nothing of dealing with people, and that that’s why she always looks so cold and aloof. I think that is complete nonsense.

Bai Zhuqing’s understanding of this now ran deep.

If she herself had thought it through, she would not necessarily have failed to see the key point, but she definitely would not have done so as easily as Bai Xiang. That kind of ease came only from at least twenty or thirty years of moving through society.

Thinking of it that way, her admiration for Bai Xiang deepened even further. After using her phone to make the arrangements, the girl looked at her elder sister with eyes so soft they seemed ready to spill over.

“Anything else?” Bai Xiang pinched her little cheek.

Now that the matter had been settled, Bai Zhuqing should be asking whether she ought to arrange for Bai Xiang to eat with those two as well. Why was she standing there looking so unwilling to leave? Had she become addicted to the feeling from before?

Bai Xiang did not mind, but she was doubtful whether Bai Zhuqing’s body could stand it.

“No…” Perhaps having seen the teasing in her sister’s eyes, the girl’s face reddened, and she hurriedly reported, “There are still a lot of miscellaneous matters… all of them need Elder Sister to decide!”

That was because Bai Xiang’s phone had blown up.

It had been destroyed so thoroughly during the fighting on her trip to Shenwu Heaven that not even scraps were left. So after returning, there was no way for her to check what new information had come in, and Bai Zhuqing could only “manually” report it all to her.

“Is that so.” Bai Xiang looked perfectly calm. “The dojo’s funds are getting a little tight.”

This, when you got down to it, had to do with her own willfulness as Dao Master.

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In order to completely spread the path of small margins and high volume and thoroughly crush the competition, she had innovatively introduced a tactic here equivalent to “free nationwide shipping.” In plain terms, it was burning money to seize the market, and the dojo’s resource consumption during this period had been absolutely ferocious.

Even with the injection of a great deal of outside capital, including Lori Aurora bringing over a massive sum after switching sides, Starwater Company obviously could not hand over all of its money to the dojo.

After all, they could hardly spend everything on that and then not even be able to pay wages in the near future, could they?

This whole operation had originally been intended to “win people’s hearts.” If wage issues ended up alienating the people closest to them, that would be putting the cart before the horse.

Not to mention that Zhennan Circuit, and even all of Maozhou, was still in a stage of rapid development. The central districts might already have luxury hotels built, but one only had to look at the cooking smoke rising from the surrounding areas to know that much of the infrastructure was still poor.

All of that required money.

Without money, you could not win people’s hearts. And right now, Zhennan quite clearly had no resources with which to back its currency.

A mere promise of “being allowed to enter the dojo to study” was nowhere near enough to make everyone accept her printing money against it.

On this question, Shenming Sword Dao had still shown itself to be quite capable. Led by Guo Rongzhi, with Bai Guanshan assisting, a group of them had quickly discussed the information Bai Xiang had brought back before leaving and arrived at a theoretically workable plan: intensify the development of the Black Crystal Sacred Venerable.

Hadn’t the envoys from Taixu Monastery all said as much? That kind of black crystal was an extremely precious cultivation material and energy material, and the Black Crystal Sacred Venerable could produce black crystal continuously without end. In effect, it was hardly different from printing money.

The only problem was how they were supposed to spend those black crystals.

Sometimes that was simply how things were. Finding a stable and reliable sales channel was harder than obtaining the resource in the first place.

In truth, everyone knew this had to be done by contacting Void Realm forces, because clearly only they truly understood the value of black crystal and had a need to use it in cultivation.

But the problem was, who dared go?

They all understood the principle that a man is guilty because of the treasure he carries. They lacked the strength needed to protect something so valuable, so this matter had to wait until Bai Xiang returned.

As long as she was present, every difficulty would become easy to solve.

Whether she negotiated with the other side personally or simply sent some reliable person to do it, the other side would not dare harbor crooked intentions.

“Not a bad idea.” Bai Xiang approved after hearing her sister’s account.

“You can send someone to contact Taixu Monastery. I’ve heard their station is in Qizhou. We can also ask along the way what exactly has been happening there recently, and why Lord Fang has gone completely silent.”

“And then there’s your father’s matter.” She paused before continuing, “Coordinating and distributing resources is also exhausting on the mind. And without assistants close at hand, it’s even more tiring.”

“On my earlier trip to Luohou, I brought back a group of Shinu people. Among them were remnants of Tiger-Subduing Temple. There’s one called Guangyuan among them. He can be transferred over and tried out.”

Master Guangyuan was the only surviving eminent monk of Luohou’s Tiger-Subduing Temple.

He was a man of immense benevolence. Even after acknowledging Bai Xiang as his immortal master, he never forgot to rescue the monks who had suffered such abuse. Later, he had even asked Aurora to get body-checking machines from Starwater Company. One could tell from that alone that he was a man with a strong sense of responsibility.

And during the months after Bai Xiang rushed back to Maozhou, it had also been Master Guangyuan who coordinated many of Tiger-Subduing Temple’s affairs, all of which he handled in excellent order. So he should be a capable man as well.

“All right!” Bai Zhuqing nodded.

“I’ll go deal with it right away!”

…

At the same time, on the other side, two parties that had now joined up and were moving side by side were looking around Zhennan with baffled eyes.

One party was led by Leng Qiu and naturally belonged to Shangqing Sword Dao.

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The other was led by Xia Ran and naturally belonged to Benling Sword Dao.

The Shangqing Sword Dao party was far larger in number, because this time they had almost moved out in full. They had completely abandoned their holdings in Zezhou and had even given up their mountain gate dojo.

In Abbess Li Sheng’s words, land was dead while people were alive. If they stubbornly clung to dead ground, they might end up getting everyone killed. It was better to seek change. It was not as though there would be no chance in the future to retake that place.

With all of Shangqing Sword Dao, plus the instructor staff from Qingze University, this huge mass of people made for a rather imposing sight.

If it were an ordinary Dao city, it really would have been hard to accept so many people at once. But Zhennan was different. This place frequently had to deal with “a great wave of refugees pouring in.” Everyone in every position had a wealth of experience, and they were continuously clearing the route and guiding them along.

The residents of Zhennan Circuit were also looking at these people with curiosity.

At first glance, there were so many of them that it looked as though another wave of refugees had arrived.

But they had not heard that any nearby place had suffered a disaster.

And then if one looked more closely, these people were all wearing high-quality fabrics, and the styles of their clothes resembled those of sword students. Every one of them also carried a sword. No matter how one looked at it, this had to be some major dojo sending a delegation to visit…

Without knowing the details, more and more onlookers gathered. People discussed the inside story behind the matter, not caring in the least that they might be punished for doing so.

Maozhou. Zhennan Circuit…

How is it that everyone here looks like they’ve never been bullied in their lives?

As the residents of Zhennan observed these dojo disciples, the latter were also observing them.

In truth, the disciples ought to have been deeply dejected.

Though Abbess Li Sheng’s words had given them some comfort, being driven from their ancestral ground by force and ending up in such a posture, like stray dogs that had lost their home, was never going to leave much spirit in their hearts.

Especially because minor rumors had been spreading all this time among the crowd, saying that the Dao Master had led everyone away this time for the very purpose of seeking refuge with Shenming Sword Dao.

It wasn’t that they looked down on Shenming Sword Dao. The issue was that one year ago, one side had been a lofty Mountains-and-Rivers-ranked dojo, one of the Nine Daos, and one year later, their positions had completely reversed. The Nine Daos no longer had any prestige, like stray dogs by the roadside, while Shenming Sword Dao’s reputation had only grown stronger, advancing ceaselessly under the leadership of that genius sword cultivator.

That was truly ruinous to one’s own pride, so everyone’s spirits were low.

And yet, because the atmosphere among the common people of Zhennan Circuit was so “bizarre,” it diluted that grief instead.

Many disciples of Shangqing Sword Dao and Benling Sword Dao were inwardly astonished, wondering how these people dared to gather in groups and openly discuss things in loud voices.

In any Dao city of Zezhou or Qizhou, if anyone dared do such a thing, inspectors or members of some Void Realm sect would immediately appear from who knew where and break up the crowd.

If it were the former, that would at least be tolerable. But if it were the latter, they would probably grab a few people from the crowd and take them away, and no one would know whether they lived or died afterward.

The common people feared gatherings as though they feared tigers. Pedestrians on the road all hurried along with tense expressions, not daring to linger and talk. The atmosphere there was far more strained than here.

But look at Zhennan.

Along the way, all they saw were orderly streets and markets, with vendors and administrators in neat order.

The inspectors here did not even look very fierce. Though when clearing the route for them they also pulled out electric batons to drive away the surrounding crowd, judging from their manner, they clearly had no intention of going too far.

The common people here also cooperated exceptionally well. They opened up a broad road of their own accord without needing much driving back. Apart from some who stood watching them, more people were simply busy with their own affairs at the same time.

Closing up their stalls.

Asking prices.

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There were even fortune-telling booths. How had they not been dragged away as charlatans?

Meeting those pairs of eyes, frank and plain yet carrying a trace of curiosity, the disciples of both Daos fell silent.

No one who could become a disciple of a great sect was stupid. Most of them could see that the reason the atmosphere among the common people of Zhennan was like this had everything to do with who was governing this region.

“Senior Brother Xu.”

Partway through the route, Leng Qiu finally could not hold back anymore and called to Xu Shu, who was leading the way at the front. “This Maozhou of ours… can it really be true, like the rumors say, that no Void Realm sect dares enter?”

Leng Qiu had been to Zhennan before. She and Xia Ran had once spent some time here as exchange students, so she used “ours” here.

But even so, the changes in Zhennan Circuit were far too great for her.

Never mind the many more buildings. Even the atmosphere among the common people had changed enormously.

It looked as though the problems affecting most of the refugees had actually been resolved.

But how had that been done? Hadn’t even one of those Void Realm sects dared move against Maozhou again?

“You must not have heard what Abbess said about what happened on Jing River Plain,” Xu Shu said with a smile over his shoulder. “If you had, you wouldn’t be asking that.”

Leng Qiu frowned.

In truth, she did know.

It was just that she still genuinely lacked any real concept of what level “Dao Master Bai” had now reached, and what sort of standing she now possessed.

“It’s not that no one came,” Xu Shu said, shaking his head as he looked at the people who were very likely to become his junior brothers and sisters in the future. “It’s that every demon who dared invade died.”

The words were light, but the killing intent and baleful force behind them would move anyone who heard them.

It sounded simple, but how much strength was actually needed to accomplish such a thing?

Did Shenming Sword Dao truly possess that kind of martial power? Were those rumors actually true?

For the first time in their lives, the disciples of both Daos found themselves thinking, Maybe joining Shenming wouldn’t be so bad.

Look at how they had been bullied by those demonic lineages in Zezhou and Qizhou.

Then they came to Zhennan, and everything felt reversed, as though the local Mountains-and-Rivers-ranked dojo was now the one bullying the foreign enemies.

Putting themselves into that scene, they felt as though they had drunk down a mouthful of ice-cold beverage in the height of summer. The comfort almost seeped into their bones, and they clenched their fists, trembling slightly.

From this matter alone, many of them gained an extra measure of approval for Shenming Sword Dao.

For some, that approval had already turned into a sense of belonging.

Because at the very least, all of them had once belonged to Mountains-and-Rivers-ranked dojos, and all of them had represented the face and reputation of Great Yu Sword Dao.

The way Shenming Sword Dao handled itself now was no different from reclaiming that dignity for them in the strongest possible way. How could they not feel close to it?

Of course, those were the shallower thoughts. There were also some disciples, mostly older instructors, whose thoughts ran deeper.

What they were chiefly doing was observing the customs and daily life of Zhennan Circuit all along the way. And the more they observed, the more complicated their expressions became.

Their faces held both yearning and guilt.

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They too had hoped to make Zezhou and Qizhou look like this.

But they had failed, and had only been able to tuck their tails between their legs and flee in disgrace. Wasn’t that a betrayal of those common people?

“Senior Brother Xu!”

Another disciple behind them frowned and pointed toward the crowd by the roadside as he asked Xu Shu, “From what I observe in the streets, citizens and servant-status people walk side by side, with no distinction of rank whatsoever… please enlighten me, why is that?”

“Naturally because they have already redeemed the sins they committed,” Xu Shu replied with complete ease.

He did not even turn his head.

“These people,” he said, sweeping his hand toward the crowd as well, “some of them once worked for gangs, yes. But far more of them are just ordinary people who were contaminated by calamity. What crime have they truly committed? Why should such terms be used to divide them?”

“So the servant-status people and slave-status people you see… those with the outward traits of demon-people, remember this in the future. You must not casually discriminate against them, and you must not use such labels to divide them any longer.”

“Hm?” That disciple was shocked. “But they are, after all…”

“Let me ask you something.” Xu Shu suddenly turned back around. “If one day demonic disaster runs wild and Loss of Order descends, causing you yourself, or someone close to you, to be contaminated by demonic power so that your appearance changes into something like that, would you rather be treated as usual by other people, or would you rather everyone lump you together with monsters?”

That…

The man stammered and could not say another word.

It was not merely that he too did not want to be discriminated against. It was also that the implications in this exchange were, in his view, too shocking.

It could be called outright treasonous.

“Silence!” Leng Qiu rebuked him, sending him to the back of the formation, then stepped up closer to Xu Shu and asked this senior brother in a low voice, “This kind of practice… completely violates Great Yu law…”

As mentioned earlier, Great Yu law divided the people into four ranks.

If Zhennan Circuit acted like this, no one would pursue it while chaos still reigned. But if the turmoil ever subsided, they would be the very first to be made an example of and accused of harboring rebellious intent.

In response to Leng Qiu’s worry, Xu Shu said nothing at all.

In the face of facts, words were pale.

The longer he followed Bai Xiang, and the longer he observed this Zhennan land, the more sharply he felt the difference between regions governed under different ideals. And the more he felt it, the more certain emotions within him, those old resentments he had long buried deep down and directed specifically toward the Court, piled up higher and higher.

Has it always been this way?

And because it has always been this way, does that make it right?

Does that make it something that cannot be reversed or changed?

It seemed these newcomers needed to understand more deeply what kind of chaotic age they were living in.

With that thought, Xu Shu suddenly changed the route and chose first to take these people to the mixed-residence district, so they could see more demon-people, as well as the many monks of Tiger-Subduing Temple who had migrated over from Luohou.

Dao Master would probably approve as well.

That was what he thought.

Some things were inconvenient for Dao Master herself to do. They had to be upheld by disciples like them instead, by those who had received her grace.