Volume 4, Chapter 147 – The Martial Exercises Open (2-in-1)

The next day, at dawn.

As the sky was only just beginning to brighten, Bai Zhuqing, mumbling “sister, sister” in her sleep, reached to the side in a half-dreaming haze, only to touch a warm hollow space.

That immediately startled her. Her first instinct was that everything that had happened last night had only been a dream. She jolted awake, sat bolt upright, and let the covers slide from her body.

Then she saw her sister.

Bai Xiang seemed to have just bathed. At this moment, she was sitting at the bedside wearing only a bathrobe. Her two long yet full, shapely legs were bare of shoes and crossed together, one foot even tilted up at the toes with the rise and fall of her mood.

“Your food is on your left, in the left bedside cabinet.”

Bai Xiang was looking at her phone. With the Jade Spirit, she could naturally divide her attention across several things at once, so she had already noticed that her younger sister was awake. “Pull open the drawer and there’s a folding tray inside. Eat first, then go downstairs to wash up.”

Still groggy, Bai Zhuqing did exactly as Bai Xiang said and, sure enough, found the tray and the lunch box.

Did Xiang’er really go out and buy this specially for me?

Her head was still not quite clear.

It was not until the first bite entered her mouth that the girl’s eyes widened. At once, she shifted into that soft, moist look as she turned toward Bai Xiang, so moved she nearly started crying.

“I heard you haven’t been eating much since coming here, so I got up early and borrowed the kitchen to make this for you.” Bai Xiang still did not look up at her. “Stop tearing up like a cat. Finish eating early and come with me to make an appearance at the opening ceremony.”

Honestly, sister…

Bai Zhuqing sniffed hard, feeling both touched and aggrieved.

Beneath that cool exterior, there was always the kind of thoughtful care that only I get to enjoy… How could a Xiang’er like this possibly not make me sink deeper? That was simply impossible.

As she ate and thought, the lingering, intimate sensations of last night kept replaying in her head.

Some were what she herself had felt, and some were what she had experienced on her sister’s body.

Turning off the light would only leave ordinary people with a so-called sense of touch. But Bai Zhuqing was a cultivator, so nighttime did not render her completely unable to see. That meant that in certain moments, the allure and style her sister displayed, so completely different from her usual waking self, really were impossible not to savor again and again.

It was only because she herself was so hopeless that the savoring was not especially precise.

Ah, what had I been thinking back then?

So soft?

So warm?

So smooth?

I just never imagined Xiang’er would be that much more developed than me. We’re not even a full year apart…

With a slice of fish in her mouth that was soft, warm, and smooth, Bai Zhuqing kept stealing glances at Bai Xiang without meaning to.

Especially under Bai Xiang’s bathrobe, especially at the rounded curves the short hem of the robe could not hide. She stared and wolfed down her food at the same time.

Bai Xiang shot her a cool sidelong glance, but did not open her mouth to criticize anything.

Because for a girl Bai Zhuqing’s age, once this sort of thing began, it usually meant sinking into it and finding it hard to extricate oneself.

When young people were in that sort of passionate phase, one could not simply go wild once and then stop. Judging from the stories Bai Xiang had read in her previous life, there were more than a few cases where desire led to multiple rounds of battle, with even a local war escalating into more than ten engagements.

So comparatively speaking, Bai Zhuqing was actually already being fairly restrained.

Bai Xiang could feel that the little girl had already begun actively circulating the Clear-Heart Formula to suppress distracting thoughts. That state of mind was something Bai Xiang found fairly satisfactory.

And Bai Xiang did not feel she was losing out either.

When facing her, Bai Zhuqing could be a little dazed, so much so that people often mistook her for a child. But strictly speaking, she had already come of age, just like Bai Xiang herself.

As for her supposedly lacking development, that was only by comparison to Bai Xiang. If one compared her only to girls her own age, or to the students in the academies, then the girl was immediately revealed as slender and graceful, already beginning to show her own charm.

Hadn’t she heard there were even disciples from the other peaks looking at her eagerly during the merger?

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Thinking back to certain blurred moments, especially the weight she had once felt in her palm, Bai Xiang could not help glancing toward her younger sister, staring at the curve of her ankle and the lines accentuated by the way she was sitting.

Mm…

Usually it was hard to tell when she wore skirts, and during cultivation they had always been facing each other directly. Even when using soul-vision of the Body-scape, Bai Xiang had not really paid attention.

And yet she had not expected her to be this rounded and this pert too.

Like a little peach.

Amused by the thought, Bai Xiang’s lips curled slightly, and a different kind of charm immediately appeared on her face. That once more made Bai Zhuqing, who had been staring at her, stop eating and gaze blankly in a daze.

After finally finishing breakfast, the two of them helped each other dress and groom. Bai Zhuqing helped Bai Xiang change into a soft robe-skirt of deep black trimmed with gold, then fastened the golden cicada earrings for her. Only then did she look at the mirror in satisfaction, a pleased smile spreading across her face.

The opening ceremony really was just a formality.

But she had no intention of treating it carelessly.

Thinking back to the last time Bai Xiang had fought publicly, that life-and-death duel with Chengfeng Sword Dao in Chilong Circuit, and how every camera in the arena had captured her sister’s face from every possible angle, Bai Zhuqing felt that today she absolutely had to show those arrogant people what true, breathtaking beauty looked like.

“Go put on your stockings.”

Bai Xiang gave the plump little peach of her rear a light slap and said in a calm tone, “Hurry up. You still have time to put my shoes on for me.”

Bai Zhuqing cast her an aggrieved look, but in those soft, watery eyes, Bai Xiang caught a faint trace of longing.

This really is…

A slight frown rose in Bai Xiang’s heart.

Because of the long-standing weight of her authority, and the guiding role she had taken in every matter, all of that piled together had actually given Bai Zhuqing this sort of inclination… Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

Forget it.

Too troublesome to think about.

Qing’er likes it, that’s enough.

Just as she always insisted on putting Bai Xiang’s shoes on for her, with this sort of thing, so long as she liked it, that was fine.

Once they were done, Bai Xiang directly set out with Bai Zhuqing. They crossed half of Tongyun city and looked down from the air at the arena they had visited yesterday.

Its name was Yongming Hall.

From above, the structure looked like a thick oval ring of bread. Yet at its upper right corner, a narrow slash had torn through it, and that slash stretched all the way to the edge of sight, even passing through two streets visible to the eye.

“That’s the sword mark Aunt left yesterday, isn’t it.”

Bai Zhuqing spoke softly in a tone full of admiration.

Judging from what people were saying online, it seemed that traces of her sister’s qi were still carved into it. And her sister had even demanded that all the remaining meetings be held in that reception room. There was no need to ask why. It was so every competitor who registered later would first have to view her sword qi.

That was a true display of force. With that slash mark sitting there, anyone would have to weigh whether it was really worth rising in resistance just because they felt offended by her sister’s “order.”

Before Bai Xiang had dragged her back last night, Bai Zhuqing had chatted at length with Ma Yue and Chen Shi. She had even watched a short video uploaded by what seemed to be some arena employee. In it, one entered the reception room from the corridor, and the moment the door opened, that gigantic slash mark could be seen stretching outward, tearing through the ceiling, walls, and floor, and even splitting the entire conference table in two.

To skillfully borrow the momentum of the world, to achieve one’s purpose through a method that looked radical, and then to withdraw unscathed afterward.

Bai Zhuqing admired Bai Xiang’s methods beyond measure. In her eyes, that kind of ability was no less impressive than Bai Xiang’s overwhelming martial strength, and perhaps even more unfathomable.

“Let’s go.”

Bai Xiang released the girl’s arm.

“Can you skim through the air by yourself?”

“Yes!”

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Bai Zhuqing nodded hard.

In truth, with that sword-pellet technique, which demanded far more precise micro-control than ordinary qi-force, she had already been able to skim briefly through the air back when she was only at the eighth or ninth layer of qi refining. Now that her False Core had formed, soaring through the air was no longer a challenge at all.

Since this really was only a formality, and since the main attention needed to remain on the representatives of the two divisions, Bai Xiang had not intended for Bai Shengju, Xiang Xian, and the others to accompany them this time. She had specifically told them to rest well and remain at Cloud-Gazing Wine House to watch over the disciples.

As for Zhu Qingluo,

before subduing the little yellow jade, and even before breaking through through dual cultivation, Bai Xiang would not have dared claim she could avoid her perception and slip out in secret.

But now, if Bai Xiang wished, then not only would Zhu Qingluo fail to sense her taking someone out like this, she would also fail to hear certain kinds of sounds that occasionally came from the room.

The two descended and, on the way down, discovered that a vast number of cultivators had already arrived.

Although it was still early, the arena, which could hold nearly forty thousand people, was already packed to overflowing. As Bai Zhuqing descended, she paid special attention to the streets and the little plaza outside the arena, and found that both were filled with a dense press of people.

Some of them had sharp eyes. Catching sight of the white hair streaming out behind Bai Xiang as she descended, they pointed upward and cried out in shock.

That cry then drew in swarms of people gathered around camera flashes, and the tide of bodies rushed forward, desperately trying to push closer and snap a few more good-angle photographs.

Bai Xiang and Bai Zhuqing were both protected by qi-force. They could easily twist the moisture in the air and create white mist and cloud to veil their figures, so they had no fear of being offended while wearing skirts. They landed directly on the high platform of the arena.

Like the high platforms at the wine houses, this one had been newly built to receive cultivators. The moment Bai Xiang landed, she saw Dong Sheng hurrying over. He first bowed and apologized over and over, then quickly invited the two of them to take their seats.

He looked a little more spirited than before.

Bai Xiang’s eyes swept over Dong Sheng, and she felt that he was noticeably more vigorous now.

So my actions did not drag down a fringe figure like him. They even brought some benefit to people like him.

In other words, the court still does not intend to tear the veil away yet…

When Bai Xiang left that sword mark and committed what could be called an act of provocation, there had actually been multiple reasons for it.

The deepest of them was to cast a stone and ask the road, to use this as a way to test Great Yu’s attitude toward her.

Of course, if one wanted to put it in more subjective terms, it was about letting one’s thoughts move freely. Ideas like if you can endure hardship, then endure more hardship, or if you are responsible, then bear more responsibility, simply did not work on her.

If no one was willing to give her fairness, then she would become that so-called fairness herself.

For Dong Sheng personally, the process of leading the two women to their seats was quite torturous.

Part of it was that he feared Bai Xiang.

Another part was that this demon woman’s appearance was so distinctive, and her looks so extraordinary, that the moment she appeared, she drew countless eyes.

Those seated, those Venerables,

they were all looking over now.

The changes brought about by Bai Xiang’s arrival manifested almost immediately in every direction.

It was not just the audience stands inside the arena that stirred, with people gasping in excitement and waves of commotion rising everywhere. Even those “great figures” who had been dissatisfied at having to be watched like animals by ordinary people and their flashing cameras, upon seeing that terrifying demon woman arrive, quietly reined in their presence.

Take, for example, the person who had just a moment ago been loudly berating a maidservant. The instant he saw that white hair and golden eyes approaching at a steady pace, it was as if his throat had been pinched shut. At once, he switched into a soft-spoken, refined demeanor, leaving quite a few maidservants completely baffled.

“Venerable Lord Bai.”

A tall young man walked over head-on. It was Meng Qiaosheng of the Silver Sea Merchant Guild, the very same man who had traveled alongside Bai Xiang on the return journey from the Void Realm.

He called her Venerable Lord?

The expressions of quite a few loose Venerables changed.

Although Bai Xiang had already proven her strength with that slash mark, and was at the very least unquestionably qualified to sit at number twenty on the Heaven’s Pride List, that title was not something to be used lightly.

It was an honorific, proof of status. Mere personal strength was not enough for it. Normally, one also had to command some major force in one’s hand, the kind that could make loose Venerables fearful.

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Shenming Sword Dao definitely did not count as a “major force.”

Yet Meng Qiaosheng still addressed her that way. Which meant only one of two things. Either the Silver Sea Merchant Guild wanted to recruit her and raise her up, or they simply believed, believed that by strength alone she already deserved the honorific.

At a time when the Void Tribulation was pressing close, heaven itself exuded killing intent, and tribulation struggle could erupt at any moment, was another great power now about to rise?

The eyes of the loose Venerables flickered. Each of them secretly focused on that direction, trying to analyze the hidden currents of the times through Meng Qiaosheng’s attitude toward Bai Xiang.

That was only natural. The position of a loose Venerable was, after all, rather awkward. In the eyes of those below, they were lofty Immortal Venerables, Venerables. But in the eyes of the great powers, they amounted to nothing more than slightly higher-grade hired hands. They were badly lacking in information channels.

No one would explain the secrets of such things on the Venerable Net.

Unfortunately for them, Meng Qiaosheng seemed unwilling to attract too much attention. He only exchanged a brief nod and greeting with Bai Xiang before moving past and taking a seat at the opposite corner.

There are so many people.

Bai Zhuqing could feel many eyes settling on her. She guessed that those people were unable to find anything on her sister, and so were trying to probe for information by peering at her instead. She could not help feeling a little nervous.

She kept circulating the Clear-Heart Formula, telling herself to calm down, calm down. At the same time, she recalled the sensation she had whenever she issued orders as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Gradually, that soothed the abnormality in her emotions.

Then she turned her attention to the surrounding grounds, trying to analyze the crowd distribution in reverse.

This was the elevated platform of the arena. The entire seating area was arranged in tiers, and nearly five hundred seats had been prepared for the competition representatives.

Some dojos had brought more than two representatives for the two divisions, so naturally the seats could not hold everyone. That meant the people present this morning should all be高手 of some sort.

Hm, there’s also a group of female cultivators over there?

Men and women mixed together, rather than a purely female sect, and yet still qualified to bring this many people.

Bai Zhuqing frowned.

That was no ordinary great dojo.

As Bai Zhuqing studied them, they too were sizing her and Bai Xiang up.

“Sister Xi! Sister Xi! Look, look! It seems Young Master Meng knows her…”

A lively, impish-looking girl clung to another female cultivator’s arm, practically leaning most of her body against her as she whispered with a grin.

“I’ve no interest in Young Master Meng.” Gu Xi rubbed her brow, looking a little exasperated. “So why are you telling me this?”

“Oh, nothing much. It’s just… well, in the language of the main world, I’m giving you a heads-up, right?”

Seeing that their senior sister had no intention whatsoever of competing in beauty with the other woman, Xu Shaolian smiled in a rather sinister way and kept waggling her brows at Gu Xi.

“Sister Xi, you really can keep your composure… Aren’t you afraid senior brother might set his sights on her too? Aren’t you afraid all the attention will be snatched away in the end?”

“Xiao Lian.” Gu Xi immediately straightened her face. “There is something very wrong with that way of thinking.”

“We cultivate the Dao in order to transcend the destiny set by heaven, in order to place our fate in our own hands.”

“You care far too much about reputation and gain. It must be because you’ve spent too much time reading all sorts of online nonsense. It seems I’ll need to report this to Master and have him take back your Black Venerable Card…”

“Ah? Sister Xi, no, don’t!”

Listening to the commotion nearby, quite a few disciples of Zhengtian Dao angled themselves as though glancing sideways, when in truth they were casting the corner of their eye toward the senior brother from their own dojo seated at the very top, their team leader for the Peak group, their senior brother Chang Hongyuan.

The winds had shifted fast.

Knowing that if they discussed anything openly, every word would be caught by senior brother’s hearing, many Zhengtian disciples only dared to sigh inwardly.

Just a few days ago, no, even just over ten days ago, the biggest question in the Tongyun division had still been who would take first place in the division.

After all, their own senior brother and the monster Yang Chen of Qianyuan Sect had been contending against each other for years. And Chang Hongyuan had even seized the top position on the Heaven’s Pride List in one blow after Yang Chen went missing.

Although there were still many rumors saying Yang Chen had only disappeared because he did not care about empty reputation, and that when he reappeared it would surely be after some breakthrough in secluded cultivation, the dominant opinion still held that the two were fated for a clash of dragons and tigers, with the betting line nearly even.

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Originally, all that fervent attention should have been directed over here.

But in less than a day, everyone had turned to worshipping Bai Zhixing instead.

Would senior brother be affected?

It was said that top experts of this kind had to deliberately gather and solidify their “momentum” before major battles, and that if the process was disturbed or interrupted, everything could collapse at once. They truly hoped Chang Hongyuan would not be disrupted.

Those little bastards. Do I really look that fragile to them?

Chang Hongyuan could naturally sense those concerned glances. When he discovered that even Gu Xi had cast him a worried look, he immediately felt irritated.

No, seriously, she’s only number twenty on the Heaven’s Pride List… I’m the top-ranked one. The top-ranked one!

Before, I couldn’t beat Yang Chen, and he held the top rank, so fine, you all paid attention to him.

But now you’ve shoved me into the background again?

Was I born with the fate of being scenery for others?

From far away, Chang Hongyuan watched Bai Xiang, already impatient to meet her first and give that demon woman a taste of something harsh.

He had gone to see that sword mark yesterday too. The standard really was high. In terms of Sword Dao cultivation alone, he could not match that demon woman.

But if people thought that alone meant she could defeat him,

heh…

He would not even need to use the killing move he had specially prepared for that dog Yang Chen. He could suppress her soon enough.

While muttering to himself, Chang Hongyuan kept searching the crowd for the trace of his “destined rival.”

He understood Yang Chen.

The man cultivated a strange technique that caused others to unconsciously ignore his concrete presence.

But at a time like this, Yang Chen should not be absent.

He had to be hiding.

And Chang Hongyuan intended to drag him out first.

“Qing’er.”

At that moment, Bai Xiang suddenly took her younger sister’s hand.

“Focus. Still your mind.”

“Let your breathing follow my rhythm.”

Huh?

Bai Zhuqing did not understand, but Bai Zhuqing chose to listen to her sister.

She did as instructed, and suddenly a strange sensation gradually arose. It was as if she had stepped out of the atmosphere of the entire arena at once. Her soul seemed to float into midair, joining Bai Xiang in looking down below.

And then, in utter shock, she realized that the crowd inside the arena, every person, all of them, every single one of them, their behavior and bearing seemed to contain some kind of pattern.

They’re being controlled?

When?

“Three breaths ago.”

Bai Xiang stated it flatly, and at the same time looked upward, just in time to catch sight of a seemingly somewhat thin boy standing at the very peak of the arena, looking back at her from afar.