Volume 4, Chapter 153 – Another Kind of Declaration

In Bai Zhuqing’s impression, Bai Xiang rarely smiled.

Even when she was in a good mood, she seldom expressed her happiness by “curling up the corners of her mouth” like this. More often, it came through her eyes. After staring at those golden pupils for so long, the girl could already distinguish some of the clearer emotions in them.

And whenever Bai Xiang did use “curved lips” to express a smile, every such scene left an extremely deep impression on Bai Zhuqing. In her memory, those images were all extraordinarily beautiful. She often used the Jade Spirit to reconstruct them and admire them by herself when no one else was around.

But one kind of smile was not the same as another.

Some came purely from joy and pleasure. Others revealed cruelty and killing intent.

Bai Zhuqing had never seen Bai Xiang wear a smile like the one she showed today. She was clearly smiling, yet the feeling it conveyed was one of indifference, one of solitude. There was not the slightest trace of warmth in it.

And in truth, that was exactly the case.

Having lived two lives, there were not many people Bai Xiang would grant her respect to. Chu Weiping was one of them.

She did not care how Qingping Dao’s orthodoxy had originally come to be. She only knew that here and now, in the present age, Chu Weiping was the person who had achieved the greatest results on the path of Taishang Slaying-Emotions.

He too was someone full of proud isolation. Because Qingping Dao had always been passed down through a single line, Bai Xiang guessed that for a very, very long time, before Chu Weiping had managed to sever out his “evil corpse,” there had been no one in the world who could understand him.

Suzhen Dao?

For all their talk of sharing the same roots, Suzhen Dao had even wanted to wipe out Qingping Dao’s lineage.

Before Shenming Sword Dao, the greatest “traitor” among the Mountains-and-Rivers-ranked Dojos, had burst onto the scene, that title, and roles like it, had always belonged to Qingping.

So Bai Xiang felt a little moved, a little wistful.

Memories surfaced of her peak battle with Qin Wuyang, and of the two of them sitting together afterward to discuss the Dao.

There were already not many people she regarded as fellow Daoists. Chu Weiping’s rise meant that Qin Wuyang had made the same choice Chu Weiping had just made.

He had not passively returned to the original body. He had chosen to do it himself.

It seemed that their promise to fight again would now be fulfilled in another way.

So now that Qin Wuyang was gone, was there really no one left in the world, other than someone like me, who could understand the Sword Lord of Qingping…?

These feelings lasted only a short while, because Bai Xiang had never liked lingering in intense emotions for too long.

But the depth of the realization and the force of the impact were astonishing. She herself had not even noticed that while thinking these thoughts, she had also unconsciously projected herself into them.

Because she was the same…

Looking across the world, no one knew where her life had come from, and so no one could truly understand what lay inside her.

In that respect, she was even lonelier than the Sword Lord of Qingping.

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When she sank into that realization, brief though the moment was, her whole person, her expression, her bearing, her temperament, gave others the feeling of “utter transcendence,” as if she had suddenly become a banished immortal in truth, no longer belonging to the mortal world, detached from all earthly things, as though in the very next moment she might drift upward like a celestial maiden who had strayed into the human realm, severing all ties with the mundane world.

And when Bai Zhuqing recognized that feeling, an overwhelming panic descended on her heart.

“Hm?”

Bai Xiang’s realization was forcibly interrupted, because someone had suddenly wrapped her arms around her from behind.

“Elder Sister, don’t go!”

The girl buried her head in the fabric of Bai Xiang’s robes, and her choked words came out muffled.

This time, she had truly thrown caution to the wind. The image of “losing Bai Xiang” was too strong. In that moment, she cast aside all ethics and morality, and also cast aside the awe she had always held toward Bai Xiang. Her arms locked around Bai Xiang like chains, pinning both her arms and her waist in place.

She can actually feel my emotions…?

Bai Xiang was startled. Her first thought was that perhaps this was Aunt Bai Nianchan’s bloodline power manifesting once again in her younger sister.

Extraordinary perception. Extraordinary control. More than once, the little girl had relied on this ability to detect demonic trouble. Her skill really was remarkable.

But…

At that thought, Bai Xiang lowered her eyes halfway.

If she did not truly pay attention to me, if she did not truly care about me, then she should not have been able to see any of this.

So that was it…

Even if no one knew where my life came from, at the very least, from the moment I was born into this world, one person had appeared by my side.

In my previous life, I was utterly alone. In this life, she grew up with me.

She was cared for by me, yet she also pitied me, loved me, and clung to me.

And with Grandfather and the others as well, I… am not as alone as I imagined myself to be.

This is enough.

I do not want this road to end with only me walking it. That is not cowardice. It is arbitrariness. That is also why I want to spread the Path of Qi. Since this world is not the “cultivation world” I once imagined, then I will personally reshape it into the form I want.

With certain convictions reaffirmed once more, Bai Xiang had already returned from her emotions.

She could feel that some eyes were watching her.

While Chu Weiping had still been here, those people might not have reacted in time. But so much time had already passed. At this very moment, there were surely some people peeking this way, and among them were some gazes familiar to her.

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But she did not push her younger sister away. Instead, she turned around, pressed the girl’s head against the center of her chest, and, with a touch of release and a touch of mischief, hugged her tightly in return.

Eeh—

Just a moment ago, Bai Zhuqing had still had tears in her eyes. Being locked up like that by Bai Xiang left her directly stunned.

Did this way of expressing emotion mean Elder Sister was very happy?

Forget it, who cares…

That feeling just now had been far too frightening. She did not dare think about any other possibilities. She only clutched tightly at Bai Xiang’s robes and, in the night wind, buried her face in that soft, fragrant warmth, breathing greedily… and that alone already made her feel deeply satisfied.

But what happened next could only be described as dreamlike.

She felt a hand lift her chin, and Bai Xiang’s face came into view again before her eyes.

That face she dreamt of night and day.

That face she longed for morning and night.

And then, without any warning at all, it lowered toward her, and that soft warmth entered directly between her lips and tongue.

Mm…

It was not only Bai Zhuqing who sank into that experience. Bai Xiang herself was equally moved.

They had long since bared their hearts to each other.

And since crossing the forbidden line, they had done no shortage of improper things.

But a kiss like this… it seemed she and Qing’er had not shared many.

Especially one filled with such intense affection. They had never had one like this at all.

Savoring the pleasure of it carefully, Bai Xiang only pulled the girl in her arms even tighter.

Since it had been seen, then they might as well treat it as “half-public.”

Same rules as always.

I will be the one to declare it.

“…”

Jerking his head sharply back from the window, Bai Shengju stared wide-eyed into the empty air ahead of him, his expression as horrified as if he had just seen a ghost.

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I knew the feeling from before was off.

So that was it…

No wonder they were always cultivating in seclusion.

“Grandfather, what are you doing?”

Bai Maoxu, who was sharing the room with him, had just finished showering and come out of the bathroom. The moment he entered, he saw his grandfather standing blankly by the window.

That was very strange.

Even if he was spacing out, shouldn’t he at least be facing the window?

Why was he standing with his back to it?

What had he seen outside?

“You don’t understand.”

Bai Shengju shook his head with a sigh.

“In all the history of our Bai family… there has never been such a precedent…”

“But Xiang’er… Xiang’er has already established so many achievements. She does, in truth, have the right to be that precedent…”

“But behaving in this way is still…”

???

Bai Maoxu was completely lost.

He felt that his grandfather had become strangely unfamiliar, a bit like the fortune-telling swindlers he had seen as a child at the street corner in Chilong Circuit.

“Grandfather, are you all right?”

He could not help going over to try and support Bai Shengju.

What on earth was he even thinking about?

“I’m thinking, well…”

Bai Shengju did not even notice the shift in his grandson’s attitude. He obediently let himself be helped over to the bed and sat down.

“I’m thinking about some marriage proposals that have piled up in the sect.”

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“At the very least, the ones aimed at those two can be burned directly once we get back.”

In the room on the other side, Abbess Li Sheng stood by the window with a livid face, looking outside in silence for a long time.

“What is it?”

Her “roommate,” Xiang Xian, was the opposite. Dressed only in a thin nightgown, she lay on the bed scrolling through tournament news on her phone while letting out a teasing laugh. “I think this may be the first time I’ve ever seen you look this embarrassed.”

“They’re like this…”

“Like this…”

“The two people who contributed the most getting to enjoy some special privileges is nothing unusual.”

Xiang Xian cut her off.

“And besides, we don’t actually know the truth of the matter.”

“Maybe that’s just a rather unique cultivation method. Don’t you think?”

What unique cultivation method, my ass!

Li Sheng’s fist clenched involuntarily.

Damn that Xiang Xian!

She’s ended up in the same situation as me, and she still treats me like a fool to be deceived!

“How truly astonishing~”

At this moment, Zhu Qingluo too was fiddling with the curtain and letting out a sigh.

“Such pure and sincere feelings… for me, they are rather nostalgic.”

“Mmph, mmph, mmph!”

A muffled sound came from the side. The old beggar had been tied up with strands of green light by Zhu Qingluo and gagged as well, leaving him able to make only such noises.

“You’re saying you were like that too?”

Zhu Qingluo froze.

“Oh…”

“Then I really am a little curious what kind of person you were before you went stupid.”