Volume 4, Chapter 157 – Inside the Demon Court

“The Hall Master of the Immortal Works Hall is surnamed Han, Han Feng. He looks like a fair-skinned middle-aged man. Aside from tinkering with inventions, he likes to do the ‘Arhat Recline’ and lie in his hall sleeping his life away.”

“The Hall Master of the Heaven-Monitoring Hall is surnamed Yu, Yu Daoyong. He looks like a boy of twelve or thirteen. He has a lively, jumpy temperament, and you could even say he’s a bit lecherous—but don’t let his appearance fool you. That guy is unbelievably sinister.”

In the bustling arena, Bai Xiang and her group sat in their competitors’ seats. As she watched Bai Zhuqing lead the team in beating up “little children” on the stage, she also listened to Zhu Qingluo describe what she knew about the Demon Court’s Hall Masters.

Their luck was good today. They had drawn a Sword Dao sect from the primary world of Great Yu.

The other side was clearly too weak, yet had not withdrawn from the tournament. Most likely they assumed Bai Xiang would not be too ruthless toward a fellow primary-world sect, while the opportunity itself was too rare to pass up, so they wanted to “test themselves” against Bai Xiang’s side.

That was actually a perfectly normal line of thinking. With martial arts, divine abilities, and sword arts, if you did not truly compare them in the arena, who could tell just how great the gap really was?

It was just that these people had chosen the wrong opponent. The gap was too enormous. Comparing themselves at all would only crush their enthusiasm.

Bai Xiang knew that many other primary-world sects were also paying attention to this match. Most of those sects had not yet drawn a Void People sect. Though they had seen how savage the Void People could be, they still held onto a sliver of wishful thinking.

They wanted to use Bai Xiang’s side as a benchmark, to see what level Shenming Sword Dao had reached after racking up more than ten consecutive victories and smashing Void People sects one after another. Then, based on what they observed, they would decide how to proceed afterward.

That made this a rare opportunity. Bai Xiang immediately realized that if these people were discouraged badly enough, they would most likely trigger a wave of withdrawals.

After all, once most people saw reality clearly, whatever fame and honor they had been chasing would not matter nearly as much as their own lives.

Then Kong Tianbao’s group and Chen Yuchan’s group could mix in among them and withdraw together.

If they withdrew on their own, the effect would not be good. They themselves might not care, but their disciples would inevitably harbor resentment. If they were truly going to merge sects, such alienation would not be easy to erase. Better to avoid a problem now than have to solve one later.

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Bai Xiang only bothered to muse over even this level of trifling detail because she cultivated the Jade Spirit Mingxin Method.

Otherwise, going by her actual temperament, she would simply have let those overconfident disciples be naturally eliminated.

This match was not interesting anyway.

Bai Xiang withdrew her attention from the arena.

A primary-world Sword Dao sect that was not Mountains-and-Rivers-ranked meant there was not even a single Divine Fetus earthmaster within it. The Sword Dao Divine Fetus realm roughly corresponded to the Path of Qi’s False Core stage. That meant she did not need to act at all. One Bai Zhuqing plus one bargain-bin master would be enough to solo the entire opposing side.

“You deny that you’re the Hall Master of Rebirth Hall, so how do you know all these internal secrets?”

So Bai Xiang devoted most of her attention to Zhu Qingluo instead, listening to her “spout nonsense.”

“Hmph.” Zhu Qingluo bared her teeth in a smug grin. “And how do you know I’m not lying to you? How do you know all this isn’t false information?”

If you could still fool me, I might as well start cultivating from scratch all over again.

Bai Xiang had her own way of dealing with Zhu Qingluo. She sent a voice transmission to her and said, “Then I understand. Your original body works as a maid in the Demon Court. Normally she just tends the fires and refines pills for those Venerable Saint Hall Masters, and sometimes moonlights as a farm girl, tending their medicinal fields for them.”

Zhu Qingluo froze. Anger rose visibly on her face.

“Do I really look that much like a servant?”

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“No.”

“Then why do you suspect I’m a servant?”

“Because you refuse to admit you’re the Hall Master of Rebirth Hall.”

Zhu Qingluo was a very interesting person. Sometimes she and the old beggar did things so foolish they completely failed to match their status and strength. Over this stretch of time, they had become one of Bai Xiang’s chief sources of amusement.

“We’re not talking about this!” Zhu Qingluo glared at Bai Xiang in a huff. “…Do you still want to know more Demon Court intelligence or not?”

“If you’re willing to speak, I’ll listen.”

Zhu Qingluo hated Bai Xiang so much her teeth itched.

She swore that if it weren’t for this spl—if it weren’t simply that she really couldn’t beat Bai Xiang, she would absolutely make this little girl understand what it meant to respect one’s elders!

“Do the halls of the Demon Court each have specific functions assigned to them?” Bai Xiang suddenly turned her head and asked.

“…They do.” The instant Zhu Qingluo met those golden pupils, she blurred for a moment and spilled the answer. “The Immortal Works Hall is in charge of craftsmanship and construction. It’s somewhat similar to the Yuming Peak in your household. And the Heaven-Monitoring Hall is responsible for observing the world. Yu Daoyong has a secret treasure, and he often uses it to peep—”

“To peep at what?”

“At me—you used that trick on me again?”

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Zhu Qingluo had already come back to her senses from the Illusory God, and she widened her eyes to accuse Bai Xiang, wearing the expression of someone saying, I treat you so well and this is how you repay me?

What a pity.

Seeing the Illusory God broken, Bai Xiang shook her head inwardly in regret.

Against someone as strong as Zhu Qingluo, and outside of active combat, taking advantage of a moment when the other side’s mind was relaxed and striking by surprise—

Even then, it only worked for two or three seconds. In real battle against an opponent of the same level, she still could not truly count on it.

As for whether Zhu Qingluo was angry, Bai Xiang did not care.

In fact, she had already seen through it. As long as her words and actions did not go too far and touch on some of Zhu Qingluo’s past or old sorrows, the other party generally would not become genuinely angry.

If anything, Zhu Qingluo seemed to enjoy it a little.

Bai Xiang did not know whether Zhu Qingluo herself had realized it, but that was the way she behaved.

It was probably also born of loneliness…

Bai Xiang had her suspicions.

Loneliness was the sort of thing that could be easy to bear and hard to bear at the same time.

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Exactly how it manifested depended entirely on the individual. Different people had completely different levels of tolerance for it.

A proper old antique cultivator would at least be a hundred years old, with enough life experience as a foundation that loneliness would not show itself on the surface.

But this split body of Zhu Qingluo’s had clearly been imprinted and filled with the thought patterns of her youth. At that stage of life, she had not truly experienced certain things. Even if she had seen the original body’s memories, it would only be like viewing flowers through mist; the realization would not run deep.

On top of that, the things she was plotting could not easily be told to outsiders. After finally finding someone like Bai Xiang to talk to,

then perhaps, in Zhu Qingluo’s eyes, maintaining that relationship mattered more than occasionally being offended a little.

And sure enough, Zhu Qingluo first sulked and refused to speak to Bai Xiang, but she lasted less than half a day before edging back over again.

“Do you want to know what Yuanxu Hall, Guangze Hall, and Luochen Hall are in charge of?”

In the grand hall of the wine pavilion they had rented out, the disciples over there were surrounding Bai Zhuqing and celebrating victory, while Zhu Qingluo stared at Bai Xiang like a cat and sent another voice transmission to ask her.

Bai Xiang said nothing. She merely continued eating.

Wangyun Tavern was famous for far more than just its decor and location. The food here was also exceptional, and she was naturally happy to appreciate it.

Grandfather Bai Shengju was also discussing the matter of merging sects with Dao Master Chen Yuchan. None of that miscellaneous business required her attention.

She had all the time in the world to enjoy life.