Volume 4, Chapter 129 – Swindling

Not long after Bai Xiang left, Zhu Qingluo was still barely able to catch the traces of aura she had left behind. She followed the direction all the way to Wuqiu Mountain, only to discover that the old beggar had somehow arrived before her.

That old thing… did he have some bizarre method for tearing through space and traveling through it?

Recalling the scene she had glimpsed while secretly observing earlier, Zhu Qingluo’s expression grew grave, yet no matter how she tried, she could not remember whom this man resembled.

As for Bai Xiang, from high in the air she could see lights lit all over Wuqiu Mountain. The entire Qizhou University campus was ablaze with lamplight. The many student disciples were roughly split into two groups, and more than sixty percent of them seemed to be hurriedly packing up, apparently intending to leave together with Wang Ran.

That meant there was nothing below that required her concern. So she chatted with the old beggar in a loose, casual way, and the two of them looked thoroughly at ease.

Their conversation went roughly like this:

“Do you know Zhu Qingluo?” Bai Xiang asked.

“What Zhu Qingluo, what Niu Qingluo… don’t know her!”

“Then can you remember who you are?” Bai Xiang asked again.

“If I could remember that, then why would I be asking you for treasure to cure my illness?”

Oh?

Bai Xiang could not help turning back to look at him.

So you even know how to answer a question with a question. Your little logic is pretty smooth, isn’t it?

She had originally planned to use the same method she used on Zhu Qingluo to draw information out of this old man, but instead she found that because there was something wrong with his head, he actually had even better confidentiality than Zhu Qingluo.

“What illness do you think you have?” Bai Xiang asked again.

“I don’t know!” the old beggar said with complete confidence. “I only know that every single moment, I can smell the stink on my own body!”

Just then Zhu Qingluo happened to arrive by flight. He saw her and immediately pointed at her as well. “And other people too! Me, other people, and lots of other things! They’re all stinking! Irreversibly stinking!”

Zhu Qingluo had already been in a poor mood, and hearing this instantly darkened her face. She was nearly unable to hold on to that smiling expression of hers.

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But the old beggar was clearly one of those great fools who were wise in their own way. Since he believed the root of his cure still lay with Bai Xiang, Zhu Qingluo’s opinion simply did not matter, so there was no reason for him to be polite to her.

“Oh?” Bai Xiang was a little surprised, then asked him, “So I don’t have any smell on me at all?”

“None!” The old beggar shook his head like a rattle drum. “You smell so good… unbelievably good!”

Bai Xiang raised a brow. “Are you sure it’s me that smells good, and not the treasure in my arms?”

The old beggar nodded first and then shook his head. “You both smell good!”

Then the “fragrant” he recognized should refer to behavior like preserving order?

Bai Xiang was not certain, but that really was the most reasonable explanation.

The little yellow jade was a fragment of the primary order. It existed for the sake of preserving order in the first place.

As for the Path of Qi, its interference with the primary order, or at least its interference with the external world, was indeed not great. One might even say it had none at all.

But not necessarily.

Bai Xiang thought of On the Five Worms, which the Feathering Sect revered, and then of the Buddhist scripture On the Five Decays of Heavenly Beings.

On the Five Worms taught that all sentient beings were worms, and that one had to slough off mortality and feather into transcendence in order to attain the Dao and ascend to immortality. Mixed into it was a passage similar to the explanation in On the Five Decays of Heavenly Beings.

The so-called heavenly beings referred to the Buddhist devas.

According to the scriptures, heavenly beings mostly lived in the heavens among the Six Realms. Each one wore clean and splendid garments, had hair like silk, skin like congealed cream, and a wondrous fragrance on the body, living in peace and contentment.

Their lifespans were also extremely long. A single day and night for them was equal to fifty years for a mortal, and five hundred such days and nights made up the life of one heavenly being.

But heavenly beings also had five decays. That meant that when their lifespan neared its end, five signs would appear: their clothes became filthy, the flowers on their heads withered, sweat flowed from their armpits, their bodies gave off foul smells, and they no longer took joy in their seats.

In some more obscure Buddhist texts, there were even cases recorded in which heavenly beings, because of this, gave rise to anger and fell directly into the demonic path.

On the Five Worms borrowed that line of argument and, in what could only be described as a threatening tone, warned the world that if even heavenly beings had a limit, then the great demons of ancient times and the gods and buddhas of myth likewise had a limit, and ordinary sentient beings even more so. If one could not truly awaken before the coming of the five decays, and thereby complete the process of feathering, then one would never again escape this bitter sea of mortal existence and could only continue struggling bitterly in reincarnation.

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Of course, much of it now seemed to be fantasy.

There were no heavenly beings, no Six Realms, and no reincarnation.

But the description of the five decays in that account, the description of clothes becoming filthy, flowers withering on the head, sweat under the armpits, the body turning foul, and no longer delighting in one’s seat, really did fit the old beggar’s present state.

So what if one simply understood it as “old-age stink”?

The bodies of the elderly found it difficult to metabolize certain biomatter, and when it accumulated, it turned sour and foul. The ancients did not understand the reason, so they decided this was a sign of the five decays.

If that were the explanation, then I may be the only person who does not stink.

This had to be understood in two ways.

First: I have soul-abilities. No matter whether I ultimately obtain the Great Dao of longevity or not, before my death and Dao-dissolution I can forcibly keep my body in its strongest state through my thoughts. That means I can minutely control even the birth and death of my cells. As long as I wish it, there will naturally be no metabolic waste, and thus no so-called smell.

Second: In this world, I should be the only one who has broken free of life and death and truly lived a second life. No matter whether others are weaker or stronger than me, as time passes they will inevitably begin to give off the “stink of age.” Yet only I, only I have broken through that destined heavenly fate. So perhaps that is why he judges me to be “not foul.”

Bai Xiang looked at the old beggar in astonishment, wanting to determine exactly what he was thinking.

If his standard of judgment was not contamination by Demonic Power but lifespan, then wouldn’t this man be able to smell out the heavenly fate carried by others using only his nose?

What kind of ability was that? Could Divine Pool rules do something like this too?

This could be turned into an experiment…

The old beggar was still chattering away, talking about how he had jumped into magma, into blazing fire, into frozen seas, trying to bathe and wash away the stink on his body, only to find that no matter how much he washed, it would not come off, clinging to him like a shadow. But Bai Xiang had already narrowed her eyes and begun planning to teach him the Path of Qi.

After all, the nose was on his body, so he had his own standard for judgment.

If he cultivated qi-force and then felt that his body was no longer foul, then the standard was contamination by Demonic Power.

If he still felt foul, then the standard was lifespan, heavenly fate.

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And if that still did not work, she could always take out the little yellow jade and brush him with that yellow light. One way or another, there ought to be a method.

“You may follow me. If there is a chance, I will treat your illness.”

With that thought, Bai Xiang gave the slovenly old man his instructions, then turned to Zhu Qingluo. “There is no need for him to keep washing himself… Go get him some clothes to wear.”

?

A huge question mark seemed to appear over Zhu Qingluo’s head.

Excuse me.

I, of all people… and you, an eighteen-year-old little girl, are actually ordering me around now!?

And so naturally, too!

As if you were ordering a maid around!

Zhu Qingluo was furious. She had just been about to refuse when Bai Xiang added, “The jade tokens of both you and me should only contain women’s clothes. You can’t very well let him go out wearing those.”

“And from the looks of it, you’re planning to stay here and mooch for a while anyway. Perhaps if you perform well enough someday, I’ll agree to lend the thing to you.”

That calm expression she wore while saying such infuriating nonsense was maddening. Zhu Qingluo’s chest rose and fell again, but then the old beggar fanned the flames. “Still standing around here?”

“Why don’t you hurry up and go!”

Zhu Qingluo glared furiously at the old thing, while the old beggar grinned at her and flashed an extraordinarily bright, sunny smile.

“You’re here for the treasure too. Why not join me and beat her up together? Once we get the treasure, we can share it.”

She could not help questioning him, no longer caring whether Bai Xiang was standing right there or not.

The result was that the old beggar immediately switched to a look of deep contempt.

“If I can get cured without fighting, then why would I hit the doctor?”

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“I’d waste all that effort and still have to fight you over the treasure. I’m not stupid!”

Then he changed expressions again, and it was almost as though the sentence “I misjudged you. Turns out you’re even sicker than I am” had been written across his face.

I’ll endure…!

Zhu Qingluo’s fists clenched until they crackled. She kept silently reciting scripture and incantations in her heart.

Even one-on-one, she could not be sure she would win steadily. Against two, she had no chance at all.

Once I find a way to steal the treasure, then I’ll settle accounts with these two bastards!

With a bang, she exploded into a cloud of blue-green smoke and vanished.

“I’m going to keep an eye on her! To stop her from escaping!”

The old beggar raised his hand toward Bai Xiang in demonstration, then stabbed it downward and drew it across. A crack opened in space, and with a whoosh he jumped inside. The crack closed again behind him.

At the sight, Bai Xiang could not help curling her lips upward.

Being able to swindle these two was an unexpected delight.

And with the Dao-Void martial exercises approaching, this was perfect.

Even if one ignored the combat strength of the two of them and regarded Zhu Qingluo only as an encyclopedia to be questioned, she would still be even more useful than Zhuye.

So then, it was time to go back.

Bai Xiang took out the Returning-to-Origin Immortal Gourd from inside her sash, and her eyes gradually turned cold.

First, deal with this.

See what effect it actually has.