Volume 4, Chapter 134 – Gains

Outwardly, everything was calm, but inside Bai Xiang, waves were surging.

The moment she fully absorbed the jade sword, it was as if a gate of yellow light had opened before her eyes. The gate was ring-shaped, sweeping at high speed through the area around her, and what it brought with it were countless overlapping fragments of time.

She saw falling stars.

Enormous meteors, like a rain of fire, dragged their tails across the sky.

She also saw storms.

Across the entire main world, one gigantic tornado after another rose up. All the storms gradually converged and fused together, forming a single colossal hurricane more than ten thousand kilometers in diameter.

There was also freezing, tsunamis, and world-destroying floods.

In the most outrageous scene of all, she even saw a gigantic crimson eye. That eye was like the “neutron star” described in science fiction films. The instant it appeared, it displayed terrifying gravity. Under its pull, the entire main world, all the soil on its surface, was torn apart and stripped away, drawn in that direction, and turned into one fragment among the enormous fragment belt circling around it.

So this is… the little yellow jade’s memory?

As she continued witnessing those scenes of catastrophe, Bai Xiang came to a realization.

The little yellow jade had once been tightly connected to the main world. It had accompanied the main world through no one knew how many Void Tribulations, and the scenes displayed by every single Void Tribulation, the form in which it manifested, were always different.

That made sense too. After all, the Void Tribulation was the very expression of disorder.

Something unseen and ungraspable like that, even if it only produced a natural phenomenon or weather change with a tiny sliver of its power, could never present itself in exactly the same way every single time.

After observing those scenes of disaster up close, Bai Xiang came back to herself and felt that her soul power had increased again by another measure.

Not by much, but one had to remember that soul power was the hardest of the Three Flowers to improve. A gain at this level was already highly significant. It could also feed back into the other two paths of cultivation.

And she could also feel that the short yellow-jade sword she had taken into her wrist had not remained there. At some unknown point, it had darted deep into her Inner Body-scape and was now slowly revolving around her Golden Core like a satellite.

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It looks rather obedient… Has it been completely subdued?

For the moment, she paid no more attention to that and turned her mind back outward. Raising her eyes, she found that the group around her were all staring at her with different expressions.

That was it?

Compared with the bewilderment on everyone else’s faces, Zhu Qingluo was clearly far more shocked. She stared dumbfounded at Bai Xiang, completely unable to understand why, after the treasure entered Bai Xiang’s body, nothing happened at all.

The answer was naturally because of soul-abilities.

This was a higher authority, at the very least higher than the little yellow jade. The jade sword formed from the fusion of the little yellow jade and the Jade Phoenix Sword had inherited some of the Jade Phoenix Sword’s functions and could likewise be taken into the human body. Bai Xiang had tried using the “range of the body” to restrain it, and judging from how things had developed, she had won that gamble.

Through this method, she had successfully turned this fragment of the primary order completely into her own possession. The deeper mysteries of it would have to wait until later to be tested.

So with that, this disciple no longer needed to die.

She lifted her sleeve and examined the wrist where there was not the slightest wound on her skin, while glancing sidelong at the sleeping Liu Yong.

After all, he was only a tool.

If this measure had failed, she would not have been unwilling to give up Liu Yong’s life.

At that moment, Liu Yong’s brows twitched, as if he were about to wake. Bai Xiang gave Xiang Xian a look, and Xiang Xian immediately understood. She led Zhu Canghai and the other two back into the clouds, vanishing completely from sight.

Bai Xiang then looked at Zhu Qingluo. Seeing the other woman curl her lip and give her a look that plainly said, You had better remember that I helped you, Bai Xiang watched as she too exploded into a streak of green light and disappeared.

Immediately after that, Liu Yong woke up. Faced with this blue sky, white clouds, green mountains, and clear waters, he felt that everything looked fresh, clean, and pleasing. He had no idea whatsoever that he had just taken a walk through the gates of death.

His whole body was tingling and numb. Unable to restrain himself, he leaped to his feet on the spot. As he moved, cracking sounds erupted from his bones, and the functions and strength of his body were clearly improved compared with before.

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Liu Yong had not seen any purple qi. He assumed all of it was Bai Xiang’s doing, and immediately bowed and knelt, saying, “Many thanks, Dao Lord!”

Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes and stared fixedly above Liu Yong’s head.

She was not sure whether others could see it too, but through her golden pupils, she could clearly glimpse a violet-gold lotus floating there.

The lotus was so vivid, so close, that it practically seemed within arm’s reach.

Bai Xiang thought of the little yellow jade, looked at the clear blue sky above, and then, sensing that connection in the void between herself and the violet-gold lotus, came to a new realization.

If she wished, she could pluck the lotus right now and draw all that Returning-to-Origin Purple Qi into her own body, and it would not provoke rejection from heaven and earth.

Because heaven and earth had already rejected it once.

Something had tried to resist, but she had resolved it by exploiting a kind of bug.

Now that Liu Yong had completely come under the Path of Qi, under the rules founded by Bai Xiang, that meant Liu Yong’s purple qi also belonged to her. From this moment on, that heavenly fate would be governed by her alone.

Without hesitation, Bai Xiang reached out and plucked the lotus directly.

The lotus immediately dissolved into a stream of violet-gold mist. It was absorbed by the Qi-Origin winding around her body, and in the next instant appeared inside her Inner Body-scape, revolving around her Golden Core together with the short yellow-jade sword like a ring of stars.

There was no direct improvement.

But in her thoughts, regarding certain difficult problems and stubborn ailments in cultivation and in creating new methods, Bai Xiang now found herself giving rise to quite a few novel ideas, and every one of them seemed fairly workable.

Liu Yong had just finished bowing and looked up. When he looked at Bai Xiang again, he could not help going slightly dazed.

He did not know whether his eyes were playing tricks on him, but he only felt that the Dao Lord before him was wrapped in hazy immortal light. Her entire bearing seemed far more majestic than before, enough that one did not dare look directly at her countenance.

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“You did well.”

Seeing Liu Yong’s blank expression, Bai Xiang finally offered him a word of praise.

Even if he was only a tool, he had still produced enough value.

She was not that kind of cold and heartless person. She was still willing to offer the corresponding compensation.

“Go back and make your preparations.”

Bai Xiang instructed him.

“On the day we depart, come to me and perform the disciple’s rite.”

That order was so explosive that even as he left, Liu Yong still looked dazed and muddled.

Bai Xiang, however, paid no attention to such minor matters. She told the others that she would return to seclusion again, then flew back to the Listening-to-Rain Tower and landed on the viewing terrace.

Very good. No one followed her.

Naturally, Master would not make things difficult for me, and Zhu Canghai and the others would not dare.

The old beggar’s mind was not clear, so he could be set aside. But Zhu Qingluo was unexpectedly perceptive. Earlier, she had even gone to the trouble of helping me block the thunder tribulation, and that really had been beyond my expectations.

So is she really what I guessed she was, one of the thirty-three halls of the Demon Court, the master of the Rebirth Hall?

Would a hall master really be that weak?

Or was that not her true body, but only an incarnation?

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Frowning slightly, Bai Xiang had originally not intended to have any entanglement with her.

But now she had accepted the other woman’s favor, and that karma would need to be repaid at some point.

She was just about to step into the cultivation room when Feixiang Heaven at her waist suddenly began to tremble, transmitting a hungry desire to her.

It was hungry.

It was expressing interest in both the short yellow-jade sword and the violet-gold mist, hoping Bai Xiang would feed them to it.

Because Feixiang Heaven counted as Bai Xiang’s other self, that intention was simultaneously conveyed into every corner of her Inner Body-scape.

The violet-gold mist did not react, but the short yellow-jade sword began to tremble, looking extremely frightened.

“In that case, it seems I really haven’t let you improve in some time.”

Bai Xiang raised a hand to the sword hilt and stroked it as though caressing a lover.

Compared with her own rapid advances in cultivation, Feixiang Heaven’s strength truly had begun to fall behind.

In intense close combat, whenever it had to block an opponent wielding a sacred weapon, Feixiang Heaven would suffer a certain amount of damage. Its quality urgently needed to improve.

“Don’t worry.”

With those scenes of catastrophe flashing before her eyes, Bai Xiang gently soothed her Dao sword.

“If I’m to rely on you to cross through eighty thousand great tribulations, then naturally I won’t shortchange you.”