Volume 4, Chapter 169 – A Strange Situation

In the afternoon, Bai Xiang stayed alone in the room, still facing that computer screen.

Shenming Sword Dao still had matches over the next few days, but all their opponents were Yu lineages that stubbornly refused to withdraw even though they knew they would most likely lose. So she sent Xiang Xian to lead the team in dealing with them, while she herself remained at Wangyun Wine House to continue verifying information on the “demon-weapon” matter.

With Zhu Qingluo guarding the Dao, she was not worried the team would be ambushed by ill-intentioned people. At the very least, they could hold out until she arrived.

As for her own side, she had made progress as well. Over the past few days, including information from the Venerable Net, she had gradually found 181 news reports definitely connected to the matter, plus another 306 reports that were uncertain, all using the phrase “mysteriously disappeared.”

Disappeared meant the bodies had not been found at all. Whether they had fused with metal objects was therefore impossible to determine, so those cases could not be used as evidence.

Judging from the progress so far, Bai Xiang felt that Blood Soul Heaven really was plotting something major. They were nothing like the arrogant Demon Court and the Void People sects under its rule. They had not kept their eyes only on Great Yu. At the same time, they were paying attention to overseas countries as well, realizing that those federations and those nations in the gray zones could be exploited to accelerate the completion of this plan.

If they really succeeded, then this matter would definitely affect the entire world. Naturally, that made it a major event. Bai Xiang even suspected that Blood Soul Heaven might be planning to use this “demon-weapon method” to forge a Heavenly Dao divine tan, one that could crowd out Great Yu Sword Dao, which currently occupied the tan-seat of primary order.

“I’ve only ever heard that some tan-arts from the same source, or things like artifact-dao, repel others of their own kind. But as for whether primary order also has something like ‘tan-seats,’ and if it does, exactly how many Heavenly Dao divine tans it can accommodate, no one has ever explained that to me.”

Bai Xiang ate noodles while staring at the screen in thought. On the table beside her sat a large stack of empty instant noodle bowls, most of them finished off by her and Bai Zhuqing together.

At her current level of cultivation, eating was no longer especially necessary. But with the Jade Spirit having been deployed at high intensity for several days in a row to mobilize and store brain resources, the energy consumption was not small either.

So she dissolved different pills into the noodle broth and ate them that way. It had a flavor all its own.

“If Master knew that the pills she worked so hard to refine for me had ultimately become bonus seasoning for instant noodles, her expression would surely be priceless.”

After finishing the broth rich with medicinal power and refining all the herbal essence within it, a trace of amusement appeared on Bai Xiang’s face.

She checked a few web pages, then entered Shenming Sword Dao’s match livestream. The moment she entered, she saw Bai Zhuqing standing proudly onstage with her sword held upright behind her back, wearing a cold expression that plainly said, Sorry, you’re too weak.

Looking at the record again, sure enough, the little girl was already on a seven-win streak.

Among these Yu lineages that were still just practicing martial arts, there was not a single one worthy of making her use sword pellets.

With the battle situation like this, Bai Xiang was reassured. She temporarily closed the extra web pages so the livestream could load more smoothly, then turned up the computer volume and got up to tidy the room.

She threw the empty bowls into the trash, took another shower, and after coming out used the Vibration Art to shake the moisture off. Then she was about to change clothes.

But as she came out, she paused, quickly stepped back two paces, and returned to stand before the sink mirror for a careful look. She discovered that the woman inside it, her features had changed somewhat compared to before.

It was a very subtle change, roughly that there was a touch more ease in her brows and eyes, and a slight difference in the flowing charm of her gaze.

But in Bai Xiang’s eyes, it was still far too obvious.

She immediately tried pinning her loose white hair up behind her head, leaving only a few strands hanging down.

Looking in the mirror again, she felt that compared with the impression the woman in the mirror had previously given the outside world, the current her seemed to have aged upward by another few years. She had already begun to reveal some of the allure and charm of what people called a mature woman.

These past few days I was so busy teasing and toying around with Qing’er that I never expected it would affect me too.

So this also counts as a kind of ‘following the Dao and letting nature take its course’?

Frowning slightly, Bai Xiang stared at herself in the mirror for a long time, then narrowed her eyes and gave up on using her soul-abilities to alter the change back.

It was not as though she had stayed cooped up in the room the entire past few days without going out. Since she had gone out, then in outsiders’ eyes this would simply count as a gradual change in appearance, not something likely to arouse much suspicion.

On the contrary, if she changed it back now, it would be noticed when the team returned that evening.

“Let it take its natural course.”

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Touching her smooth forehead, Bai Xiang stopped dwelling on the matter.

She returned to the room and glanced at the livestream, only to find that it was already Xiang Xian’s turn to go on.

Xiang Xian seemed to know the old Daoist opposite her. From reading his lips, Bai Xiang could tell that he was furiously denouncing Xiang Xian, saying that by betraying the imperial house and throwing in with the “rebel Shenming,” she had proven herself disloyal, and that because of her actions the remnants of Yuming Sword Dao left behind in Yujing had been punished, making her unrighteous as well. He said that in all his life he despised most women like her, demon women who possessed both disloyalty and unrighteousness in full, and that today he would act on behalf of the court, and on behalf of all the people of Yujing who still harbored resentment over the matter, to uphold justice for Heaven.

It was one fine-sounding speech after another, yet before Bai Xiang had even finished pulling on her stockings, the man had already had his head exploded by a furious sword strike from Xiang Xian. Only a mutilated corpse remained to crash to the ground.

Bai Xiang smiled.

Judging by the richness of his facial expressions, he probably had not taken the court’s “sacred pill.” Even at a time like this, there were still old fools who could not see the shape of the situation.

Whatever.

Even if a person like that did not die by Xiang Xian’s hand today, he would still die in the turmoil that followed once everything was torn open.

Once her clothes and appearance were in order, Bai Xiang instinctively manipulated Tianyuan to condense a long water mirror in front of herself and carefully examine the full effect.

Her snow-white hair was pinned up with a gold hairpin, revealing most of her face while also drawing attention to the golden cicada earrings hanging on either side.

Her robe-skirt was a slightly modified black Daoist robe, the collar embroidered with purplish-black edging.

The broad sash at her waist also used a purple-edged design, and there was an additional waist cord that was both decorative and practical. It could be used not only to hang a sword, but also to attach small ornaments.

Bai Xiang lifted her robe-skirt a little and confirmed that the color of the stockings on her feet had not shifted back and visually overwhelmed the clothing in reverse. Only then did she lower the fabric in satisfaction.

When the outer robe was black, the black of the stockings could not be too heavy.

She had chosen a pair with a lighter shade. Under the pressure of the robe’s color palette, they even looked a little close to skin tone, and the contrast they created was fairly striking.

But ordinary people would never have the chance to see that kind of striking contrast. Naturally, this sort of matching was only prepared to tease the little girl tonight. Bai Xiang could already simulate the steam-blast expression her younger sister would wear upon seeing this image.

After putting on her boots, Bai Xiang sat back at the table and logged in to the Venerable Net, only to find that the major chatrooms had all grown much more cautious. Even the more heated discussions were only about the matches themselves.

“The effect of the wave of bans…”

Bai Xiang pondered.

Earlier, the Demon Court had issued two contradictory decrees. One ordered a thorough investigation into the current state of the sacred weapon method, while the other ordered everyone to ignore the matter entirely. Not long after that, a batch of banned-account lists appeared inside the Venerable Net, and every account that dared discuss the matter openly was finished.

She had deliberately waited so many days to see the aftershocks, yet this was all there was to it, not even enough to count as a ripple.

From that, it seemed that the “progressive faction” held the upper hand inside the Demon Court.

Bai Xiang was not naive enough to believe that Blood Soul Heaven’s little tricks could deceive the Demon Court’s upper ranks. She was more inclined to think these people were knowingly doing it on purpose, intending to carry out this plan together with Blood Soul Heaven.

All of them intended to treat the masses as pieces on a board, yet none had ever considered how much damage their actions would actually cause.

Chapter 170: Encirclement

Narrowing her eyes slightly, Bai Xiang switched pages on her phone and checked the final settled sales for Yuming Workshop’s free-shipping plan.

The sales were good.

Good to the point of being a little too good.

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In two months, they had sold a total of more than 286 million swords. That was no longer just a matter of dominating the domestic market in Great Yu. They had also managed to export overseas.

Ordinarily, there was no way they should have sold so many. But the influence of the Dao-Void tournament was unprecedentedly great, and in truth it had stirred up the desire in quite a lot of people to practice the sword and train in martial arts. Once that impulse arose, naturally they had to buy swords.

Then there was the matter of productivity.

Yuming Workshop’s production capacity had originally been seriously insufficient. Even with orders in hand, they could never have shipped so much at their initial efficiency.

The only reason they had managed to do this was because Guo Rongzhi had changed the smelting process. He had carefully asked Bai Xiang about her needs, and once he learned that “this batch of swords doesn’t actually need that much practical value,” he chose to cooperate with Starwater Company and switch from “fully manual” smelting to an “industrial assembly line.” Their shipping efficiency immediately increased by hundreds and thousands of times over.

There was only one problem, and that was cost.

In theory it was small profits and large sales, but because of the free-shipping plan, the workshop did not actually make much money.

Outside there was the impact of Loss of Order. Inside there were political upheavals.

And internationally, refined iron ore was not cheap either.

Guo Rongzhi had complained to her about this more than once, saying that if not for her, that living advertisement whose recent performances had been so eye-catching and had driven many orders for swords, the final accounting might well have left the workshop operating at a loss.

That was not really a problem.

There were only two matches left in the Tongyun competition zone worth paying attention to, one against the Qianyuan Sect and one against Qingping Dao. After that would come the finals.

So there was still time.

Try to spread it even wider before that day arrives.

Just as she was calculating her future plans, suddenly, Bai Xiang lifted her head and looked outside through the wall.

She felt an extremely strong sense of being watched, and there was something vaguely familiar about it.

Taking up her sword, she went out and first found the old beggar, who was lazily sleeping in his room.

“I’m going out for a while.” Bai Xiang poked him awake with her scabbard and instructed him, “Stay here. If any riffraff try to make a move, tear them apart.”

“You’re allowing me to kill people?”

A moment ago, the old beggar had still been full of aggrieved resentment. The instant he heard that, he became spirited at once and thumped his chest loudly.

“Don’t worry! However many stinking people come, I’ll kill that many! I absolutely won’t let them contaminate us!”

His cultivation…

Bai Xiang inspected him with her golden pupils and discovered that, without her noticing when, this fellow had already stepped onto the Golden Core Great Dao.

His cultivation had risen far too fast. Just who had he been before?

Still a little uneasy, Bai Xiang said, “I taught you a new method. Doesn’t that make me your master?”

Hm?

The old beggar’s eyes had been darting around, clearly plotting something. At those words, they widened at once.

Ha. A mere little girl of eighteen wants to be my master!?

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But the little girl really did teach me a new method…

Eh, then if she says she’s my master, I suppose that works too…

“Let’s make a deal. Lend me a bit of your true spirit for now.” Bai Xiang continued coaxing him. “It isn’t to control you. It’s so I can sense if you’re in danger… If anything changes on your side, I’ll return immediately.”

“Fine!”

The old beggar nodded and immediately pinched out a thread of true-spirit light from between his brows.

Bai Xiang was taken aback.

She had thought she would need to waste a lot more words, but she had not expected it to go so smoothly.

If this was an act, then his acting was terrifyingly good.

“I’ll return it to you.”

She put away the true spirit, gave the old beggar a long look, hung her sword properly at her side, and went out.

The moment she jumped down from the terrace and exposed herself to visible range, Bai Xiang immediately felt that sense of surveillance intensify several times over.

Some of it came from ordinary scouts, but she could tell that one strand among them held intense hostility toward her, to the point that the killing intent in it was almost overflowing.

Someone who believes he has a grievance with me…

Bai Xiang frowned, running through names like Cui Yuanhao, whom she had defeated and disarmed, Zhang Dai, the top figure of Tianfu Mountain, Daoist Luo Ying of the Qianyuan Sect, and Ten-Extremes Daoist of Zhengtian Dao. Yet she still could not tell exactly which of them it should be.

Just then, the other side began moving toward the outskirts.

She glanced at the crowd of idlers gathered below the building, sped up her movement technique, and followed.

Flying as she gave chase, the two sides quickly left the urban district and entered the wild mountains at Tongyun’s outer edge.

By then Bai Xiang could already make out the other party’s figure. Seeing that the man was slowing down and descending toward a hilltop, she landed as well and faced him from several dozen paces away.

Looking more closely, the newcomer was actually a monk.

He had kind eyebrows and kind eyes, with burn scars on his shaved head. He wore a standard dark orange kasaya, beneath which could be seen a blue-gray monk’s robe. His appearance was utterly orthodox.

How did I end up provoking these bald monks?

Wasn’t Mingyuan Temple supposed to have no intention of getting involved in these matters?

Puzzled inwardly, Bai Xiang spoke directly in challenge. “Who are you?”

“Amitabha.” The old monk pressed his palms together and declared a Buddhist invocation before answering, “Female patron, please do not ask me. This matter is secret, and it would not be convenient to tell you.”

Bai Xiang frowned. “Even after leaving the world behind, you still hide yourself like this. Then you’re definitely not from any temple with a proper name. You’re either from Blood Soul Heaven or some remnant of an outlawed heresy. The moment your real name is revealed, people will hunt you down.”

The old monk’s expression changed slightly. The killing intent over his body could no longer be concealed and immediately poured through his eyes toward Bai Xiang.

He had intended to test Bai Xiang’s depth that way. But instead, the moment he glared, he met a pair of eerie golden pupils. His consciousness was instantly dragged into a cosmic illusion, and he was just about to be ground to pieces by a pair of golden stellar vortices.

“Moo!”

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Realizing something was wrong, he let out a low shout and broke the illusion. Yet in the next moment, Bai Xiang was already close at hand, her right arm raised as Feixiang Heaven slashed downward.

Such tricks…

Disdain appeared on the old monk’s face. A layer of golden light instantly spread over all his exposed skin. Grimacing fiercely, he bared his teeth and threw a punch. He was actually planning to rely on his fleshly body to take Bai Xiang’s sword head-on.

Clang-scrape!

At the instant the two collided, the old monk’s expression changed beyond all measure.

Under his disbelieving stare, Feixiang Heaven’s blade scraped through the gaps between his fingers, cut along the spaces between the joints of his right hand into the bones of his forearm, and with a flick of the sword, chopped most of his arm off from the shoulder.

What kind of sword was this?

Combined with her sword qi, its strength had actually reached a level close to a higher-grade sacred weapon?

The old monk was shocked and enraged, unable to understand how such a weapon could possibly appear in Bai Xiang’s hands.

“Jinguang Temple?”

Bai Xiang pressed the advantage without relenting. As she closed in and swung her sword, she spat out the name of a faction.

She had been watching the old monk’s expression the whole time. When she saw his face change again, she knew that this was Zhengtian Dao’s, or more precisely, old Ten-Extremes Daoist’s backup move.

This man should be a legitimate inheritor of Jinguang Temple.

Jinguang Temple’s origins were extremely mysterious and ancient, even involving ancient great demons. A power like that could not possibly have left inheritance only in the main world. There should also still be some inheritance in the Void Realm.

If she had guessed correctly, Ten-Extremes Daoist had used Zhou Yi’s connection to draw this group in.

After all, Zhou Yi’s talent, judged on its own, truly was extraordinary beyond compare: dual Origin Realms. Even Chang Hongyuan, Zhengtian Dao’s senior brother disciple, could not achieve that.

Zhou Yi had probably been cherished by these people as some kind of “Buddhist heir,” a “living Buddha,” and the secret art of Jinguang Temple, the Great Hand Seal of Golden Light, had likewise been learned through that channel.

Bai Xiang had killed Zhou Yi. Naturally, they had come to trouble her.

Fweeet!

Having fallen into a disadvantage in close combat, the old monk could only seize an opening and blow a whistle, sending ripples through the void.

Calling for reinforcements?

Bai Xiang cast a sidelong glance at the ripples, shook her sword, and sent an invisible wave spreading outward. All sound was sealed away.

Yet joy appeared on the old monk’s face as he looked up toward the sky above.

Bai Xiang first smashed him down into the mountainside with a sword strike. In the very next moment, she suddenly raised her sword crosswise to block and felt an enormous force slam into it, so great that the mountain rock beneath her feet collapsed and shattered under the impact.

Through the smoke and dust, she raised her head into the distance and saw a handsome Daoist in white robes seated in the sky.

“Zhang Dai?”

Then she looked again at Cui Yuanhao beside him, and at the monk soldiers who had somehow appeared around them at some unknown moment, and finally bared her teeth in a faintly amused curve.