Volume 4, Chapter 164 – Ripe Fruit

The Ten-Extremes Daoist’s real name was Zhou Yuan.

He had never taken a style name. From childhood, he had practiced the sacred methods in Zhengtian Dao. He crossed the lightning tribulation at nineteen and entered the Venerable rank at twenty. His pool arts were powerful, strange, and ever-changing. In the great wars to suppress the rebels of the human path and Blood Soul Heaven, he displayed ten different pool arts in succession, and it was from that that the title “Ten Extremes” arose.

After taking charge of Zhengtian Dao, he applied himself diligently to governance, annexed several fragment belts, and named his own dojo the Great Luo Heavenly Sea.

Steady in temperament, broad in friendships.

Compared with many Void People sects, this man was still considered relatively friendly toward the human path.

Bai Xiang ran through the information she had read in her mind once more.

All she could say was that there was nothing much to be seen from these materials alone.

Zhou Yuan. Zhou Yi.

They seemed to share the same surname, but adopted disciples taking their master’s surname was far too common.

At most, she could conclude on one side only that someone wanted to detonate the contradictions between her and Yao Yu, and between her and the Demon Court, ahead of time, forcing those people to join hands and eliminate her first. And the Ten-Extremes Daoist was highly suspicious.

Following that line of thought, Bai Xiang would also consider Qianyuan Sect suspicious.

Qianyuan Sect was different from Zhengtian Dao and Taixu Monastery.

The latter two were still relatively friendly in their attitude toward the human path and the human race, but Qianyuan Sect had never concealed its malice toward the human path.

They believed that anyone whose demon-blood concentration was less than half did not count as demonkind and was unworthy of enjoying the status of demonkind.

They also believed that the human race and the human path were always thinking about defecting, always thinking about overturning the current order led by the Demon Court. In that respect, they were a major hidden danger, and the iron-blooded methods of many years ago should be fully carried through, exterminating all humans in the Void Realm.

So if one divided things purely by racial ideology, there were actually four factions in the Void Realm.

The first was headed by the Demon Court and included Zhengtian Dao and Taixu Monastery. These people wanted to preserve order to a certain extent.

The second was represented by Qianyuan Sect, which believed the human path should simply be exterminated and demon rule and demon supremacy should be carried through to the end.

The third was the human-path forces represented by Tianfu Mountain and Wentian Dao.

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The fourth was Blood Soul Heaven.

Sun Yaoming told me last time that Blood Soul Heaven are complete lunatics. They believe that “changing from human into demon” is still not enough, and in pursuit of a further “ascension,” they even want to actively embrace the power of the Void Tribulation.

In truth, Blood Soul Heaven’s actions really did have a certain logic behind them.

Take Li Huiran, for instance.

If one has already decided that changing from human into demon counts as evolution, as ascension, and that this transformation is reasonable, then there is no reason to declare that changing from demon into something even more demonic is not reasonable.

You cannot only accept that reasoning when it benefits you.

It was just that this organization’s style had always been too vile and underhanded, and on top of that, they still had not produced effective evidence proving that the path they walked was correct. So for now, Blood Soul Heaven remained an infamous evil sect force.

Then, could it be Blood Soul Heaven?

There was ideological conflict between Qianyuan Sect and Zhengtian Dao. Bai Xiang did not believe Daoist Luoying had the ability to manipulate his old enemy, the Ten-Extremes Daoist, and plant a hidden piece like Zhou Yi at his side without being discovered.

On the contrary, the whole matter did indeed resemble Blood Soul Heaven’s style.

Especially the abnormalities on Zhou Yi’s body when he went berserk. They looked so strange and evil that they once again reminded Bai Xiang of Wang Xiu, and of the Seven-Meridian Demon Ascension Transformation he had cultivated.

According to Qing’er’s description, Zhou Yi’s Golden Light Sword Seal had not been able to overpower the sixteen sword pellets she split out. In that collision, he had suffered more heavily, and one of the ricocheting sword pellets had even sliced off his left arm.

But when I intercepted him at the time, his left arm was perfectly intact.

Combined with the bamboo branches and leaves that had grown from his head, as well as the bamboo-staff weapon that completely vanished from the scene afterward… can I take it that the bamboo staff was also an “evil-method sacred weapon”?

“Evil-method sacred weapon” was Bai Xiang’s collective term for all weapons similar to the Seven-Meridian Demon Dragon Spear, in other words, weapons forged through Blood Soul Heaven’s evil methods.

Such sacred weapons truly were bizarre. After killing Wang Xiu before, she had collected the two broken halves of the spear he left behind. But when she later intended to study them, she found no trace of the broken spear inside the storage jade token. All she found instead was some already-rotted organic powder, suspected to be what the spear had decomposed into after collapsing.

Bai Xiang had also spoken of this matter to Xiang Xian, because when it came to the craft of construction and creation, her master was the true expert.

Xiang Xian’s reply to her had been this:

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“This is a very unusual material. If you insist on asking me, all I can say is that I’ve never seen it before. It’s not even included in the materials those Void People provided.”

“From what you’ve described, weapons forged from this kind of material can merge into the human body. In that respect, it is somewhat similar to Yu’er.”

“But Yu’er itself is bone jade.”

“It’s already the transformed form of organic tissue to begin with.”

Lacking information, Xiang Xian could not see too much. She only explained the crucial point to Bai Xiang: a weapon forged through this method and this material could no longer, strictly speaking, be regarded as a dead object. It was more like an intelligent spirit that had been enlightened into being out of thin air.

“An immortal strokes my crown; my bound hair receives long life.”

An old and mysterious Daoist allusion. Yet because of the interference of demonic power, such things often really did happen in the world.

After all, before many demons attained intelligence, they were only the most primitive animals. Either they were enlightened by human hands, or they were naturally invaded and tainted by demonic power. If they endured it, they transformed into demons, their strength greatly increasing and their lifespans lengthening.

It was more or less the same meaning as that line.

The two of them had discussed that topic for an entire night at the time. But because Wang Xiu was already dead, and the Seven-Meridian Demon Dragon Spear was, for the moment, still only a single case, even Bai Xiang had not paid it too much attention.

Looking back on it now, there was a considerable chance that Zhou Yi’s bamboo staff also belonged to this kind of “demon weapon.”

Only that could explain the changes in his body. Most likely, the “demon weapon” had fused with him midway through, healing the injuries he had suffered from the sword pellets, which was why he still had the strength to rise up and attack.

All of the above thoughts were analyzed in an extremely short span of time. In reality, Bai Xiang had not even changed her sitting posture.

It was only when a warm, soft body, naked and smooth, slipped under the covers and wrapped itself around her waist from within, pressing against her, that Bai Xiang returned to awareness.

She lifted one corner of the blanket, and Bai Zhuqing’s little head immediately popped out from underneath.

Simply hugging Bai Xiang was not enough for the girl. She swung one leg over and sat astride her entirely, looking down at Bai Xiang from above.

Oh…

Bai Xiang’s brows rose slightly.

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That kind of aggressiveness was not common from her.

“Aunt.”

She only heard her younger sister murmur while lying on top of her.

“I want Aunt to heal my injuries.”

The little girl had indeed been hurt today. Her arm had been shaken and several bones in her ribs had been injured.

None of those were injuries that damaged her foundation. After taking medicine and applying ointment, she was already able to move about without difficulty.

So when she spoke of healing here, she obviously did not mean something as simple as asking Bai Xiang to rub and massage her.

She meant it in the form of “dual cultivation.”

And not just that, but the sort of “dual cultivation” mixed with indecent acts. It would not count unless Bai Xiang poured her soul into her body and used her soul-abilities to restore her completely.

Qing’er doesn’t know the full truth of my ability, but she remembers that under that feeling, it can help repair hidden injuries in her body.

Bai Xiang reached out and pinched her younger sister’s chin, only to find that this time the little girl did not go limp obediently into her arms, but instead looked at her stubbornly like this.

Choosing this method on purpose… what is she trying to show me?

Bai Xiang deliberately gave no response.

One minute passed.

Two minutes passed.

Bai Zhuqing gradually lost control of her expression. Not only did mist begin to spread in her eyes, even her lips were starting to crumple into a wavering line.

Seeing that if she teased her any further the little cat would start crying, Bai Xiang suddenly reached out, grabbed hold of [redacted], [redacted] [redacted] once, and [redacted]ly [redacted].

!?

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Bai Zhuqing’s face turned red and her eyes flew wide. A soft sound escaped her lips, and in the next instant, she felt her lower back tighten as Bai Xiang pulled her back into her arms.

“Feeling a sense of crisis?”

She heard Bai Xiang tease softly into her ear.

“Do you think someone else looks prettier than you, and is stronger than you too, so now you’re panicking and want to make it up to me this way?”

She knows everything!

She was just deliberately leaving me hanging all that time!

Grinding her teeth, the girl gave Bai Xiang a soft little punch on the shoulder.

“Sister, you’re mean!”

“You’re not calling me ‘Aunt’ now?”

Bai Xiang laughed softly again.

She had noticed it long ago. Her younger sister distinguished those forms of address with great care.

But “Aunt” alone held a special meaning for the little girl. It symbolized not only her earlier persistence and her earlier trust, but also the little secret between the two of them. It represented that almost pathological possessiveness she felt toward Bai Xiang.

But there were some things Bai Xiang had long wanted to make clear.

Possessiveness was not something only other people had.

“I was originally planning to give you a reward for winning five straight matches.”

Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes and looked at the younger sister who was already blushing and had gone completely soft in her arms.

“But to show so little trust in your aunt…”

“Aunt is going to have to punish you…”