Volume 4, Chapter 136 – Setting Out

On the other side, atop the blasted summit of Lingyun Peak, Daoist Fengxu stood amid the ruins, his face full of sorrow.

Lingyun Peak had several summits. The area under his charge was not on this side, so he had luckily escaped the disaster.

But while he and Wang Xiu had never gotten along, it was not as if he had wanted the man dead.

Now Wang Xiu’s aura was completely gone, and the odds were high that he was more doomed than fortunate. Daoist Fengxu immediately found himself in a bind, unsure how he was supposed to report this matter to those above him.

He did not know that in this battle Wang Xiu’s body and spirit had both been utterly annihilated, that Bai Xiang had completely severed and destroyed everything. He merely assumed Wang Xiu had managed to let a remnant soul escape and could still rebuild a body and be reborn elsewhere.

As for where that might be… for every Venerable, that was a secret among secrets, a matter directly tied to one’s own life. Wang Xiu naturally could not have told him in advance, so Daoist Fengxu neither knew nor thought much about it.

“It’s just that the martial meet is right around the corner. Wang Xiu was long since listed by the Monastery as one of the seeded contenders, even the strongest seed, yet the moment he arrived here he was struck down. Even if he recovers, he won’t make it in time.”

Thinking of the blame the Monastery would inevitably place on him, Daoist Fengxu could not help sighing again and again, feeling that he truly was unlucky.

Having to wait on Wang Xiu in the first place had already displeased him enough, yet the man himself had also failed to live up to expectations. Just because he had gained some fame on the Heaven’s Pride List, he had refused all advice and insisted on making an enemy of Bai Zhixing.

Ai!

If you were determined to go looking for pain and force-feed yourself suffering, why did it have to happen in my territory first?

Daoist Fengxu grieved for a while and had more or less accepted his fate. Then, at that moment, a servant came to report that Shenming Sword Dao had sent over a handwritten letter from the Dao Lord.

After receiving the letter and glancing over it, Daoist Fengxu’s brows immediately knit together, a sharp light flashing in his eyes. His expression turned extremely grave.

“Colluding with the Blood Soul Heaven Reports Division, secretly making contact with the Class-A felon ‘Shao Gongzi’… such a thing actually happened?”

Hearing such an accusation so suddenly, Daoist Fengxu’s first reaction, from the standpoint of Taixu Monastery, was naturally disbelief.

But Bai Xiang had not merely made accusations. She had also enclosed a forging blueprint for the Seven-Meridian Demon Dragon Spear and the full cultivation method for the Seven-Meridian Demon Ascension Transformation.

Rеαd оո КatRеadiոɡCаfe

With those two items as proof, anyone with even a little discernment could tell there was a major problem with Wang Xiu’s cultivation method.

It was true that Dao-Void methods did tend toward refining demonic power, but they certainly did not advocate cultivating yourself until you no longer looked human.

If anything, their overall direction was toward taking on a human form. A method that made even one’s outward appearance drift toward Loss of Order was, beyond any doubt, Blood Soul Heaven!

Only those madmen would choose a road like that!

Had their reach already stretched this far?

Thinking of how Wang Xiu had been brought back by the Monastery Master Ji Bu since childhood, Daoist Fengxu felt all the more that this matter was of enormous importance. He hurriedly ordered the servant who had delivered the letter, “Go prepare a communication array disk for me at once!”

He had to report the full sequence of events immediately.

After all, losing a genius seed and losing a traitor planted by Blood Soul Heaven were two entirely different matters.

As for Bai Xiang’s side, however, the following stretch of days seemed unusually peaceful.

Things were lively down the mountain instead. The fervor around the Dao-Void martial meet kept growing more intense, to the point that even the elderly had begun paying attention. At the same time, construction had started up in several places again, with plans to merge the personnel brought by Qingze University and Qizhou University and establish a new Maozhou University.

That was something that had to be done, because although Qingze University and Qizhou University had been uprooted, their names had not disappeared completely. Some faculty still remained behind in their original regions.

Even without the backing of two Mountains-and-Rivers-ranked Dojos, those names would likely not last much longer. Still, Shenming Sword Dao was not so overbearing that it would seize even the names as well, so a new academy naturally had to be founded.

Rumors of this had long been circulating among the people, and most already understood what was going on. Along the way, there was no shortage of Maozhou residents and netizens from Ze and Qi comparing notes on social platforms. The latter had originally been guided into outrage, furious that Shenming Sword Dao had stooped to poaching from others. Only after comparing accounts did they finally realize that the two schools had actually been forced out. This matter could not be blamed on Maozhou at all.

Then, as exchanges deepened between both sides, netizens from those two regions were astonished to discover that Maozhou possessed both an open social atmosphere and the inherited Yu ideals of loyalty, filial piety, ritual, and propriety. Two traits that looked contradictory had somehow been fused together in Maozhou, producing an astonishing cultural unity.

After that, an even bigger stir was caused when Xu Ling, the prized disciple of Liu Haoran, “Mr. Cijing,” and a former official in Jiangnan, published an article titled On the Enlightened Nation. In it, he argued at length that “ritual law and distinctions of rank are not the restraints of backward custom, but the natural manifestation of an enlightened populace that has reached a certain stage of development.”

On the Enlightened Nation very quickly drew enormous attention across the entire Nine Provinces internet, and many circles of public opinion were thrown into an uproar.

Rеаd οn КatReαⅾinɡСаfе

Scholar commissioners immediately stepped forward to denounce Xu Ling, insinuating that the article concealed rebellious ideas and demanding that Yujing send people at once to arrest him and hold him to account.

Yet a considerable number of scholars and literati also expressed high approval of On the Enlightened Nation, arguing that the article sharply criticized certain current social phenomena, that its intent was good, and that it aimed to set people’s thinking back on the right track.

The two sides went back and forth, sentence for sentence, even engaging in fierce public debates on certain programs. Countless netizens watched with delight. They had never imagined that the online atmosphere could become this open.

Yujing, the residence of Chancellor Liu.

Liu Xi, dressed in splendid brocade robes, sat in the seat of honor with his head lowered over a cup of tea, while his eldest son, Liu Gongyuan, sat to the side, watching the screen with him.

The screen was showing a debate over On the Enlightened Nation. Although the host was doing his best to mediate, both sides had still nearly come to blows.

“Father.” Liu Gongyuan could not help looking toward his father in the seat above. “We’re just going to let this spread?”

“What else are we supposed to do?” Liu Xi shot him a glance.

“With the Void Demons invading, one region after another across the Nine Provinces is slipping out of central control. Do you think the imperial house enjoys letting them argue?”

The contradictions had already grown so severe that they had to be guided somehow.

At the thought of this, Liu Xi’s feelings were also complicated.

To be fair, he naturally looked down on Maozhou’s development and believed that Bai Xiang’s actions were utterly outrageous.

Expelling imperial officials and refusing the will of the throne.

In ancient times, what kind of behavior would that have counted as?

A textbook case of commanding troops independently and intending rebellion.

Reaⅾ on КatReαԁіngСаfе

But now, that really did not count for much, because some people were doing things even worse than she was. They were already rebelling. The only thing they had not done yet was raise a rebel banner and publicly announce that they wanted autonomy.

Qianyu Palace was surely suffering one headache after another as well…

After all, quite a few of those people were members of the imperial clan. They could not be punished openly without further shaking public sentiment.

As for the conflict itself, the coming of the Void People had thrown some places into utter disorder. Cases of impropriety among the common people had increased drastically, and that had indeed aroused the disgust of many scholars.

Perhaps the imperial house was using this as a chance to guide things a little?

Or perhaps Qianyu Palace understood in its heart that if they could not survive the coming trial of the martial meet, then no amount of strict control over public opinion would save them from destruction?

Though all kinds of thoughts crossed his mind, Liu Xi still could not make sense of it.

Liu Haoran was probably delighted, was he not?

Back then, in order to prevent that branch of the family from following his lead and spouting nonsense, they had specifically placed them under house arrest. Yet he still had managed to create an influence this great.

Shaking his head lightly, Liu Xi felt for the first time that the realm of the Nine Provinces was slipping out of the Court’s control.

Carried along by this blazing tide, time advanced to early August.

On this day, whether on Shenming main peak or Qingwu Peak, Yuming Peak, Benling Peak, or Shangqing Peak, all disciples and servants rose early and hurried to the mountain gate square to assemble in ranks.

By now, Shenming Sword Dao had already fully digested its second merger of sword lineages, and the total number of disciples gathered in the square was close to ten thousand.

With that many people standing in ordered ranks, all bearing swords, the sheer presence alone was astonishing.

The first thing Bai Xiang saw after stepping out was that grand spectacle. Dressed in a white skirt with a black robe draped over it, she stood there with a cold expression. Bai Shengju, Xiang Xian, Li Sheng, and Wang Ran, the four peak masters, stood in staggered formation at either side. Farther down on the left were Monk Zhuye, Zhu Canghai, and He Xian. On the right there was also Zhu Qingluo… she had been dragged over by the old beggar to join in the excitement.

Farther down still stood Guo Rongzhi, Bai Lianzhou, Bai Zhuqing, and the instructors absorbed during the merger process. After them came Xu Shu, Ma Yue, Hu Hu, Lian Feng, and the others from the first generation of inner sect disciples, standing together with Leng Qiu, Xia Ran, and the chief disciples of the side peaks.

Rеαⅾ οn КаtReаԁiոɡCαfе

With such a group lined up on both sides below her, matching the momentum of the crowd in the square while all turning their heads to look toward her, there was truly an air of strict order and stern, killing solemnity.

And if one came up from the mountain gate steps and caught sight of Bai Xiang standing at the great hall at the very end with a single glance, the sense of astonishment would be even greater.

It was exactly as the poem said:

Fierce demon winds rose high,

Clouds rolled in and pressed low upon the city.

A blazing azure wheel of sun

Lit the urgent soldiers on the peaks.

The world again moved in chaos;

Once they left, there would be no date of return.

Ten thousand honed their gleaming blades

To respectfully send off the woman in snowy white.

Liu Yong came hobbling up the path, and the sight that met his eyes was exactly this grand scene.

He was nervous beyond words. Under who knew how many jealous stares, he made his way up and completed the full set of rites, bowing three times at the lower landing, the middle landing, and the upper landing of the stairs. Only then did Bai Xiang wave a hand, signaling for him to join the crowd.

At that point, the departure process was fully complete.

Led by Bai Xiang, the several dozen members of the expedition boarded a flying vessel and shot away through the air amid a clamor of “Safe travels, Dao Lord!”