Volume 4, Chapter 149 – Permission to Blood the Blade (2-in-1)

The length of the opening ceremony was not fixed. It varied depending on who you were.

For example, the Venerables Bai Xiang saw seated here right now only needed to sit for an hour or so, show their faces, and then they could leave. The event on site would not end there, though. After they left, the empty seats they left behind would be given to other competitors, namely those with lower strength and status.

Even so, anyone invited to the morning session could hardly be called some tiny sect or minor school. For instance, Jingzhu Sword Dao and Red Dust Sword Dao, both of them among the Nine Dao alongside Shenming Sword Dao, were nowhere to be seen here. They had most likely been pushed to a later session.

The order in which people were invited to sit in on the meeting directly reflected how much importance the event organizers attached to them.

Bai Zhuqing had noticed that as well. In her view, judging from the reputation her own dojo had built up online recently, if Bai Xiang had not shown her hand yesterday, they might not even have qualified for this early session.

Wasn’t Qingping Dao on the list issued by the division too?

After the gathering ended, Bai Zhuqing stayed seated as Bai Xiang had instructed, instead of getting up and leaving at once. The two of them remained in the corner and quietly observed, watching as quite a few people rose to their feet and either went out through the passageways with interested expressions, or simply flew away with cold faces.

Bai Zhuqing kept searching through the crowd. She had thought Qingping Dao would also be qualified to appear in the first batch.

That was not because she had any prophetic intuition. It was simply because, no matter what, Qingping was still one of only two mountains-and-rivers-ranked dojos that possessed a Sword Lord.

Sword Lord.

Those two words had once put an enormous amount of pressure on Shenming. It could be said that everyone who knew the truth behind her little aunt’s tragic death had felt deeply worried, because if Bai Xiang had not managed to use her newly advanced cultivation to contend against a Sword Lord, then what future would there have been for the entire dojo, for the entire Bai family?

So yes.

Bai Zhuqing herself had been frightened for quite a long time. Even now, after learning many more things from Bai Xiang, things like the Void Tribulation, fragment belts, the Thirty-Three Heavenly Seas, Immortal Venerables, and Divine Pool arts…

Her reason told her that Bai Xiang no longer feared a Sword Lord, and that in theory, a Sword Lord ought now to stand beneath Bai Xiang.

But the fear she had built up over so many years toward Sword Lords still remained.

That term, those two words, were practically one of the symbols by which the Yu Emperor Sacred Dynasty maintained its rule. It was a symbol. There was no way she could truly ignore it.

“Chu Weiping isn’t here,” Bai Xiang suddenly said beside her. “He is qualified to come, but I don’t think he will.”

Chu Weiping?

Wasn’t it Qin Wuyang?

Bai Zhuqing was a little surprised. She knew that Qin Wuyang was a soul avatar severed from Chu Weiping, but in her mind, Chu Weiping cultivated Emotion-Forsaking Sword Dao, so his true body ought not to be good at social exchanges. If anyone were to come to an event like this, it should have been Qin Wuyang. Why would her sister make that judgment?

“Qin Wuyang…”

She looked at Bai Xiang, only to find her squinting, and in the way she repeated that name there was a faint trace of regret.

“If he came, then he would still be alive.”

“But he didn’t come. You won’t see him again.”

“Let’s go.” Bai Xiang stood up and swept her gaze across the hall. “I only came to wait for him in the first place. This farce is terribly dull.”

The two of them returned to Cloud-Gazing Wine House. Bai Xiang gathered the various peak lords together, including Bai Shengju, and finalized tomorrow’s lineup for the Aspiring-to-the-Clouds group, that is, the juniors’ group as Zhu Qingluo called it.

“My Benling Peak can field two people,” Wang Ran said. Naturally, those two meant Xia Ran and Bo Lu.

The two Tiger-Subduing Temples had originally been one body. Even the methods they practiced were the same.

Back then there had been a villain plotting and manipulating things behind the scenes, even remotely controlling Bo Lu by lodging a soul fragment in him. But now Bo Lu had already submitted to Bai Xiang, so he naturally fell under the authority of Benling Peak. It was said that old Wang Ran had even taken him in as a disciple.

“My Shangqing Peak is the same,” Abbess Li Sheng followed at once. Those two required no explanation. One was the former top sword disciple, Zhao Jinyan, and the other was the new top disciple, the widely famed Purple Lightning Sword, Leng Qiu.

“That leaves six more people.” Xiang Xian looked toward the disciples below. “Qing’er will serve as the lead. Kainian, you will act as her deputy.”

“Yes.”

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A disciple immediately rose from below and bowed deeply. It was Xu Shu.

Xu Shu, styled Kainian. Bai Shengju had recently given him that style name. The old man believed Xu Shu had many strong points of character, but that he was too restrained and not ruthless enough. He feared this might obstruct his prospects in Sword Dao, so he had specially given him a new style name in hopes of pressing him onward through it.

The remaining four slots were opened to volunteers among the disciples. This was a test of how much the various peaks now recognized one another.

If disputes broke out, that would mean their cultivation of the heart was not sufficient. Not only would they fail to secure a slot, they would also catch punishment when they got back.

Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened. The disciples of the various peaks traded courtesies for a bit, and in the end the final four were set as Shenming main peak’s old inner-circle veterans: Ma Yue, Chen Shi, Hu Hu, and Lian Feng.

Wouldn’t that leave Jingjing out?

Once the result came out, Hu Hu and the others looked worriedly toward Chen Jing.

They were all old inner-circle disciples. She alone had been left out. Would she be unhappy?

“Why are you all looking at me?” Chen Jing blinked. “It’s not as if there’s only this one match. Are you really worried there won’t be opportunities later?”

That was true.

At her reminder, the others finally came around.

Unless Shenming Sword Dao was battered into a field of injuries in the very first match, so badly that they could not even fill the roster later on, then as the second round and third round went on, if they encountered weaker teams, Chen Jing would definitely get her chance.

Then there was nothing to worry about.

Once the disciples sorted through the logic, the look on their faces changed again.

Each of them became visibly more serious, and all of them seemed eager for tomorrow’s match.

Good.

Bai Shengju was extremely satisfied when he saw that.

When people grew old, they thought about more things. To him, harmony within the clan and harmony among the disciples mattered more than results.

If this competition had not been of such great importance, he might not even have accompanied the team.

After dismissing the disciples and sending them back to their rooms to rest early, Bai Xiang discussed the Peak group lineup with the peak lords, or as Zhu Qingluo jokingly called it, the old-timers’ group.

Ridiculous as it sounded, the great dojos were all troubled because ten slots were too few to fit everyone they wanted, but Shenming Sword Dao could not even scrape together enough names. At present, only Bai Xiang and Xiang Xian actually had the qualifications to participate in a battle of the Venerable ranks.

In theory, Li Sheng and Wang Ran, as qi cultivators, could both have gone to the juniors’ group. But doing that would have thrown seniority into complete disorder, and neither of them could bring themselves to stoop that low. So Bai Xiang casually placed both of them into the Peak group, purely as nominal names for the sake of form.

She was not counting on them to score points anyway.

There were so many teams in the tournament that sooner or later they would run into some main-world force that could not even field a full lineup. At that point, those two could go up and get some practice. As for the demon people of the Illusory Realms, Bai Xiang would handle them herself.

Once everything was arranged, the day of the competition arrived in a blink.

The venue Shenming Sword Dao had drawn was in the western outskirts. Early in the morning, the entire group came over neatly dressed in Association buses. Before they even got close, they saw a towering and imposing concrete building standing ahead of them.

Its shape looked rather like an arena from ancient civilization.

Once they entered, everyone discovered something new. This damned place had only one advantage at all, that it was big. The rough concrete floor, the rough concrete walls… even the seating was just concrete terraces stacked in tiers.

This was way too careless, wasn’t it?

They had thought it would be a place even more luxurious than Yongming Hall, and this was it?

Were they really just going to sit on the ground later?

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“Perfectly normal.” Bai Shengju stroked his beard leisurely. “Why would anyone spend effort repairing a place that is fated to be destroyed?”

So that was it.

Quite a few disciples nodded inwardly.

It did seem that Dong Sheng had said the audience here watched the matches through holographic glasses.

Since they were not physically present, that probably meant the organizers were worried there might be casualties if people watched on site.

“People are gluttons for punishment,” Bai Maoxu muttered in a low voice.

He followed online information the most, and probably knew the situation in more detail than even Bai Shengju.

The matches in the Peak group were fought at an extremely rapid pace, beyond what ordinary eyesight could even track. A single clash could easily send an aftershock spreading outward. Whether the audience could understand what was happening was one thing, but if they were caught in the effect, the fright from a first-person perspective would not be small.

On one hand, they could not really follow it. On the other hand, there was the element of fear. By all logic, the audience ought to prefer the Aspiring-to-the-Clouds group, but in reality, most people were far more interested in the Peak group.

They did not care in the slightest how crude the facilities of the great arena were, nor did they care that a first-person perspective might expose them to aftershocks and fright.

Some people even enjoyed precisely that, feeling it gave the matches “immersion,” and that only then could they count as having truly experienced a peak-level battle.

“This isn’t a sporting event.” Bai Shengju promptly rapped him on the head so hard that Bai Maoxu bared his teeth in pain. “How could you analyze it according to old habits?”

In sports, it was true that if people could not understand what they were watching, the level of attention would plummet.

Take men’s volleyball, for example. Because the ball moved too quickly through the air, the audience could not really see it, so in terms of spectacle it fell far short of women’s volleyball and received less attention.

But martial combat was different.

They were both forms of confrontation, but the hunger for battle was something buried in the instincts of every sentient being.

Killing.

Collision.

Winner takes all.

Loser eats dust.

These things were too direct. So direct that even if people could not understand the details, most could still easily distinguish which side was stronger and which weaker.

And that was already enough.

Add to that humanity’s fascination with and yearning for supernatural power, and all of it together was more than enough to explain this kind of frenzy.

Bai Xiang stood at the front of the team and saw that two Association buses had arrived at the tunnel on the opposite side of the venue as well. People kept filing out of them, and at the front was the same Lian Changru they had seen yesterday.

“People from Wentian Dao,” the clingy tag-along Zhu Qingluo remarked flatly, once again perfectly serving as a narrator.

Beside her, Bai Zhuqing gave a cold snort.

Last night, after Zhu Qingluo would not stop asking, Bai Xiang had finally told her Wentian Dao’s rough background. She now knew what standing Wentian Dao held in the Void Realm. They ought to be like Tianfu Mountain, forces seeking to establish the human path.

But.

But yesterday she had clearly seen Lian Changru run over to greet and pay his respects to the likes of Qianyuan Sect, so deferential that he was almost ready to stick out his tongue and lick their boots.

Bai Zhuqing was not stupid. She could tell that Wentian Dao had decided the human path had no future, and that at this critical moment when the Void Tribulation was drawing near, they wanted to change masters and place Dao-Void Methods above all else.

Traitors were despised wherever they went.

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Bai Zhuqing held no affection for Tianfu Mountain, but because of the existence of people like Sun Yaoming, she did not dislike the idea of the human path itself.

After all, she too was human.

The races could not stand together. For someone who had grown up immersed in such ideas, to abandon the human path and throw oneself into the demon path was no different from the old Demon-Immortal Dao crowd.

As the time drew near, Association staff guided both sides’ disciples into their designated sections.

They had to be designated sections, because although the venue looked empty, with no one physically present, those concrete terraces were actually covered in filming equipment. At the very least, tens of thousands of people were watching the match through holographic glasses or internet livestreams, and the atmosphere in those streams was already boiling over.

“They’re here, they’re here!”

“Dao Lord Bai’s first match!”

“How do we bet, how do we bet?”

“Do you even need to ask? Of course you bet on Dao Lord Bai to win!”

Netizens were simple, even if dull.

If Bai Xiang had been facing off against a local star dojo, people genuinely might not have known who to support.

But now she was fighting Void People, those monsters.

What more was there to say? Of course they were going to support her with everything they had.

“Dao Lord Bai.”

At the large round arena in the center of the venue, Lian Changru stepped forward to greet Bai Xiang.

This was the opening formality. After it came the Aspiring-to-the-Clouds group match, and once that finished, the Peak group contest would follow.

Lian Changru had intended to go through with the handshake etiquette. It had nothing to do with coveting anything. He simply wanted to probe Bai Xiang’s progress in body cultivation.

But Bai Xiang ignored the gesture.

She did not even draw her sword to perform a swordsman’s salute. She simply stood there as she was, her eyes fixed coldly on Lian Changru.

To slight me like this?

Lian Changru was struggling to keep himself together.

“Dao Lord Bai.”

Even so, this was one of the few opportunities the two sides would have to get close enough to exchange words. Facing a dangerous star like her placed immense pressure on him, and so he could only continue with a stiff upper lip and transmit his voice.

“…Are you truly unwilling to consider abandoning the new law?”

“Dao Lord Bai, please do not take offense. This old Daoist is not asking you to throw away your hard work… only that you could completely choose another form through which to realize it.”

Lian Changru’s tone and expression were earnest and sincere, as if he were truly speaking for Bai Xiang’s sake.

“I’ve also heard of the friction between Dao Lord Bai and Tianfu Mountain.”

“Given the current trend, Dao Lord Bai’s new law will not succeed, and the human path will not receive the support of a new law either. We will only continue to be divided up by those demon people and pressed down forever without any hope of turning things around.”

“But if Dao Lord Bai were willing to dedicate the new law, perhaps even yield the Divine Pool seat of that new law…”

Lian Changru’s gaze began to flicker.

“Then the human path might truly flourish!”

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“Once the demon methods are suppressed, the human path would have enough strength to contend with the Demon Court, and Dao Lord Bai would also gain a highly honored position… What does Dao Lord Bai think of this proposal?”

Just as expected, they’re trying to use the “greater cause” to press me.

Looking at Lian Changru’s hopeful expression, Bai Xiang felt only boredom inside.

Meng Qiaosheng could see the problem, so how could she have no suspicions at all?

In the end it only went in a few directions. For a force like Qianyuan Sect, which held to an ideology of demon-race purism, the only value Lian Changru and Wentian Dao still possessed was their former stance, namely that they had once strongly upheld the human path.

Yes, Bai Xiang herself could tell that their minds were no longer upright.

But what people like them said did not count in the Void Realm.

The power to define things did not lie in their hands. For the majority, Wentian Dao would still be viewed as a human-path force, an unquestionable power of the human race.

The human race ought to unite internally against the oppression of the demon race, against the cruel rule of the Demon Court. That was something valid both in the main world and in the Void Realm. That was what people called the “greater cause of the human race.”

Wentian Dao was a sacrifice.

They intended to use Wentian Dao first to establish that “greater cause,” and then to use it to force Bai Xiang into submission.

The idea

was a bit

too naive.

Bai Xiang paid Lian Changru no mind. She did not even nod. She simply turned and walked back.

Lian Changru’s face immediately flushed red.

Naturally, he knew that at this very moment, countless unseen spectators were watching this scene, and that he had undoubtedly made a complete fool of himself.

“Arrogant little wretch!”

he cursed inwardly.

“Refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit. Just because you think you can beat me, you think courtesy isn’t needed?”

“She hasn’t understood the danger in any of this at all!”

“The harder I lose, the worse her reputation becomes!”

Hmph.

With a sweep of his sleeve, Lian Changru returned to his own side.

The match began. Xu Shu had been about to go up first when Bai Xiang suddenly called him to a halt.

“Let Qing’er go first.”

Bai Xiang’s tone was extremely cold.

And what she said next made everyone, Bai Zhuqing included, go still inside.

“There are ten of them in all.”

“I permit you to blood the blade.”

“If you can do it, it would be best not to leave a single one alive.”