Volume 4, Chapter 141 – Balance It Out

Bai Xiang paid no attention to the “juniors” in the back.

She had Zhu Qingluo, Xiang Xian, and the others keep an eye on the old beggar so he would not go running off, while she herself, together with her grandfather Bai Shengju and her younger sister Bai Zhuqing, went to find the airport official and explained what sort of group they were.

There had been no hint of it, but Bai Xiang had lived two lives and had plenty of experience. She figured that, lately, every transportation hub in Tongyun Circuit should have officials assigned to receive and guide participating teams, so naturally she decided to test the waters first.

And the facts proved she was right. Once the official confirmed her identity, he not only sped up the processing of the group’s procedures, but also had three luxury coaches brought over from the garage. Those vehicles would take them to a hotel or mountain estate reserved specifically for participants.

As for whether they would go to a hotel or a mountain estate, that was decided by random draw. Only if someone expressed a strong preference for a particular type of lodging, and the official verified it, would their accommodations be arranged according to that preference.

Bai Xiang herself did not care either way, but Bai Shengju insisted strongly on choosing a hotel in the city center.

The old man, after all, still had some awareness of what counted as rebellion. He felt that what Bai Xiang and Shenming Sword Dao had done in Maozhou had been somewhat taboo, and worried that if they stayed in one of those mountain-estate villa districts out in the suburbs, the Court might send people to assassinate them. So he absolutely insisted on choosing a hotel.

Somewhat taboo?

It was blatantly, wildly taboo, all right?

Watching Bai Shengju negotiate with the official in a perfectly serious, methodical way, Bai Xiang found it both amusing and touching.

She knew exactly what he was thinking. It was not hard to guess. He was simply trying to use the “busy downtown district” as a kind of hostage, believing that a prosperous city center would make certain people wary of striking recklessly and keep them from trying anything underhanded.

To that, she could only say… Grandfather had placed far too much faith in some people’s moral bottom line.

If the Court truly wanted to make a move, it would not matter how many hostages you held. After all, the current imperial house was made up of “peerless talents” capable of loathing the people of an entire province for the sake of private selfishness and strategically abandoning it. There had been tens of millions of people around the Qi region, and they had still abandoned it the moment they wanted to.

Still, this was ultimately the good intention of an elder. And considering that Bai Xiang herself did not care, but the disciples under her might indeed harbor such concerns, she said nothing and let Bai Shengju continue negotiating.

The route and lodging were quickly settled. Everyone boarded the vehicles and was transported according to procedure to one of the hotels reserved for the event: Wangyun Hotel, located in the center of Tongyun City.

Wangyun Hotel.

It stood at the intersection of Tianquan Road and Baisheng Road, the busiest crossroads in all of Tongyun Circuit.

Tianquan Road was a steep slope. Back when this place had still been part of the mountains, spring water had flowed down along the incline. After the urban redevelopment brought the area into the city proper, the builders had not cut off the spring. Instead, they had deliberately left two spring-water channels running along both sides of the road—right through the middle of what resembled the green belts.

Reαԁ оո КαtRеаdіոɡСαfе

Baisheng Road, meanwhile, got its name from an old tale. Seven hundred years ago, it was said that a Demon Kingdom had run rampant in the mountains nearby. At the time, however, the Court lacked the manpower to come and suppress it promptly, so the locals selected a sixteen-year-old youth and made him their general, placing him in command of a group of militiamen and swordsmen to go into the mountains and exterminate the demons.

The young general won victory after victory in a hundred battles, and when he returned, it was by this very road. That was how Baisheng Road got its name.

Tall buildings crowded this intersection. Including the seventy-story Wangyun Hotel, a large number of structures had been built on a steel-and-concrete framework and then given antique-style facades, with glazed roof tiles on the eaves and carved redwood pillars beneath the hall roofs. The moment many of the disciples got off the buses, they were dazzled by the sight and almost could not tell virtual from real.

Th-this was even more impressive than Jinhua Plaza, the most prosperous place in all of Chilong Circuit!

Bai Maoxu was especially shaken.

Because Maozhou’s political stance was “rather ambiguous,” Bai Guanshan had used all sorts of maneuvering to rope in quite a few foreigners and get them to bring over technology and investment. Bai Maoxu had benefited a little from that as well. When he went down the mountain, he could often pick up games from the foreign employees working at those companies and institutions.

Some of those games, well, were supposedly “cyberpunk” in style. Their depictions of Great Yu’s urban districts were strikingly similar to the scene before his eyes.

Ancient in flavor, yet very modern.

It carried a distinctly fantastical feeling.

There was still plenty of time left in the day, so Bai Xiang had the instructors and the sword-heads of each peak lead the disciples off to find their rooms and settle in, while she herself planned to make a trip to the Tongyun Circuit Sword Dao Association before dark.

That was because, when they were nearing arrival, she had checked the schedule online. It showed that Shenming Sword Dao had been assigned to the Tongyun competition zone, but the follow-up arrangements would not come out for another twelve hours.

And just now, when she had asked the official on the bus, the man had told her it would be best if she went to the Association grounds in person. He had also said that representatives from the other participating teams would gather there that night as well.

Presumably they were going to discuss the schedule arrangements. Bai Xiang had no objection to that.

“Xiang’er.”

When only a few people were left at the end, Bai Shengju came over to Bai Xiang again and said in a low, grave voice, “If anything happens… don’t worry about me. Get back to Zhennan as soon as you can.”

“Grandpa!” Bai Zhuqing immediately objected from the side, stretching out the final syllable as she came over to tug him away. “Listen to what you’re saying… how could Sister ever do such a thing!”

“What do you know? This is called preserving the greater whole!”

Bai Zhuqing wanted to say that if the situation really deteriorated to the point where Bai Xiang needed to abandon everyone and flee alone, then hiding back in Zhennan would not do a damn bit of good.

Reаⅾ оո ΚαtRеаԁiոɡCafe

Unfortunately, that could not be said.

Ritual propriety mattered.

Ritual propriety mattered.

By the time everyone had finally been arranged, and Bai Xiang had even, in the gaps between tasks, found Liu Yong—who was standing there at a loss, unsure whether he ought to keep watch at the hotel entrance waiting for his master to come in—and given him pointers on several sword formulas, more than two hours had already passed. After lunch, it was already afternoon.

On this point, it had to be said that the Sword Dao Association—that is, the Court—was actually quite generous. Once participants entered the competition zone, they did not have to pay for their own food, lodging, or transportation. All expenses were covered by sponsors.

Bai Xiang did not join the disciples for their meal. She had not eaten anything at all. During that time, she and Zhu Qingluo stayed in the old beggar’s room the entire while, using the Vibration Art to examine his physical condition.

She had said she would help treat his illness.

She had not acted earlier because she had been observing his temperament first. After spending so many days together, she had confirmed that the old beggar’s problem was mostly that his mind was not right and that he was overly fixated on that particular smell. At other times, he was generally taciturn and unsociable, with no abnormal behavior to speak of. So Bai Xiang intended to start by probing his body and feeling out his bones, laying the groundwork for the treatment to come.

Originally, she had not planned to let Zhu Qingluo in. But Zhu Qingluo insisted on entering, with the kind of determination of a cat worried its owner might drown while squatting on the toilet—she absolutely had to stay there and keep watch.

That level of willfulness was still not enough to develop into a life-or-death fight. Bai Xiang gave her a sidelong glance and let her watch.

For this first assessment, she did not plan to use Little Yellow.

“Take this.”

Pulling out a thread-bound book from her storage jade token and tossing it to the old beggar, Bai Xiang instructed him in a low, stern voice.

“Spend some time reading it. If you can manage to learn it, all the better.”

After they came out, Zhu Qingluo finally could not hold back and sent her a voice transmission in that alarmed, jumpy tone of hers. “At a time like this, you actually dare let him cultivate a new method?”

Zhu Qingluo was genuinely astonished.

Though she had not said it outright, she felt that she and the old beggar could at least barely be counted as Bai Xiang’s allies.

Reаԁ оn ΚаtRеadiոɡCаfе

Could Bai Xiang really not see how formidable she and the old beggar were?

They were top-tier combat power of extraordinary value!

So why suddenly have him start over and recultivate?

Wasn’t that just crippling his own strength for no reason?

“Weren’t you the one saying other people would read it and fail to cultivate it anyway?” Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes, a trace of contempt showing in her golden pupils.

Oh, so when it suited you, you said my new method was useless.

And now you’re saying my new method is too effective—effective to the point of excess.

You’ve already said every good thing and every bad thing yourself. What is there left for me to say?

Ignoring Zhu Qingluo, Bai Xiang planned to go find her younger sister and practice.

When she reached the elevator entrance, she paused for a moment, then turned to look toward the Tongtian Gate above and to one side—the specially modified platform entrance of the hotel, reserved for powerful cultivators arriving by flying vessel—just in time to see a group of people in splendid robes being led in by Sword Dao Association officials.

One of them had sunken cheeks, a long pointed chin, deep-set eyes, and a cold gleam in his gaze. He wore a purple-black Daoist robe, carried an array disk and a sword case on his back, and held a horsetail whisk in his hand. Faintly, he stood near the center of the group.

With features like that, Bai Xiang recognized him at once. This man was none other than Immortal Venerable Ningyuan, Li Qianhe.

Li Shuxin, the one who had orchestrated the “head shop,” was this man’s daughter. They came from a faction out of Ningming Heaven, and seemed to have formed an alliance organization with other small worlds as well, called the Seven Illusory Heavens Alliance.

Though some time had passed, Bai Xiang, with the Jade Spirit, was effectively incapable of forgetting what she had seen. Her eyes flashed at once, and the gaze of her Illusory God pupils pierced toward Li Qianhe through the air, immediately drawing his attention.

“Hm?”

Li Qianhe looked down and saw a white-haired female cultivator in a white robe-skirt with a blue haori draped over it, gazing back at him.

That head of white hair and those golden pupils were simply too eye-catching. He frowned and stopped in place, then asked her in a dark tone, “You are Bai Xiang… Bai Zhixing?”

The others reacted a beat slower. They had already taken a few steps forward before turning back as well, all of them sending their gazes toward Bai Xiang.

Rеαⅾ оո ΚαtReаⅾinɡСafе

This was Bai Xiang?

Bai Zhixing?

That “Immortal Venerable Shenming” everyone had been talking about like mad?

Bai Xiang had not just become a topic on the Nine Provinces internet. Thanks to her sudden ranking on the Heaven’s Pride List, her name had also stirred up a storm of blood and wind on the Venerable Net.

Naturally, most people had refused to accept it. But the Venerable Net was also made up of people, and wherever there were people, there were factions and grudges. Many might not have liked seeing Bai Xiang ride over their heads, but if they could use her ranking to disgust their enemies, then they were even happier to do so.

Some had brandished her ranking everywhere to mock this one and belittle that one, and had even used Bai Xiang’s portrait on the Heavenly Fragrance List to drag quite a few female cultivators into the fray.

All in all, those days on the Venerable Net could practically be described as heaven and earth darkening, sun and moon losing their light. Afterward, the Immortal Engineering Hall had issued an enormously long muting list. One could easily imagine how fierce the battle had been.

So although Bai Xiang had not actually done anything earthshaking in the Upper Realm, she had still already become something of a major celebrity.

But that was clearly not what Li Qianhe cared about.

His expression dark, he questioned Bai Xiang in a heavy tone. “My daughter led people to your Dao as guests, yet to this day no word has come back from them.”

“Dao Lord Bai, I believe you should give me an expl—”

“There is no explanation.”

Bai Xiang cut him off directly. Her gaze shifted from Li Qianhe to the large crowd standing at his side, and a faintly amused curve touched her lips.

“When your daughter died, she felt it was a pity.”

“A pity that you couldn’t attend her funeral.”

“I can help her balance that out.”

“So she won’t attend yours either.”