Volume 4, Chapter 174 – Fox Demon (2-in-1)

The large party from Tianfu Mountain numbered a total of one hundred and nine people, including Zhang Dai. Add the hundred or so monks led by Deng Hai, and there was no way this group had entered Great Yu through regular channels. They could only have ridden a flying vessel in by cutting through the void.

The reason was simple. The “human path” was an extremely sensitive topic in the Void Realm.

This was now an age ruled by demons. If a bunch of humans gathered together talking about the human path, what was that supposed to mean? Were they trying to rebel? Or assemble a force to carry out assassinations against some demon clan?

So human forces like Zhang Dai and Tianfu Mountain usually did not openly call themselves “the human path,” and every large-scale mobilization had to be reported to the Demon Court.

If they failed to report it and outsiders found out, they would very likely be surrounded and slaughtered by the demon-side human-path factions.

Following that logic, Bai Xiang inferred that there had to be a hidden “troop transport ship” nearby, the means by which these people had crossed the void and infiltrated this place. There were certainly remnants still aboard it, and it was most likely in the direction Cui Yuanhao had come from.

After a brief search, she did indeed find traces of it.

Amid the rolling mountain ranges wound a river of mist. The mist-river floated completely in midair and obscured much of the scenery below.

Bai Xiang first broke through the mist-river and searched the forests beneath it, but found nothing.

Then the Taishang Response technique sent her a warning. She plunged back into the mist-river and flew along its winding course for a while. Sure enough, she sensed fluctuations from the void ahead, and the closer she got, the stronger they became.

As she drew nearer still, she could even sense auras tinged with fear and panic.

The flying vessel clearly had some way of monitoring the outside world. Even if the people left behind could not see the details, they could still tell from the general course of the battle that their side had lost.

Then, all at once, the mist dispersed, and Bai Xiang saw an extremely long, narrow void flying vessel ahead of her, flat and sleek like a ribbonfish.

Silver light radiated from the vessel as it tried to cut open the void and escape inside.

Boom!

Bai Xiang rushed up and drove a kick into the outer edge of the vessel.

That stomp was also a move from the Void-Imagination Divine Sword, developed by combining it with the Divine Movement chapter of the Sun-Chasing Scripture. It was called the heavy-cleaving foot slash. One kick tore a long gash across the vessel’s surface, blasting it out of balance and sending it reeling down toward the forested mountains.

“Abandon ship!”

“Run!”

Faint cries and arguments came from inside. In Bai Xiang’s perception, several dozen auras split into four groups, each choosing a different direction to break out.

These people were crafty. They even knew to flee in different directions.

But Bai Xiang did not enter the vessel the way they expected.

She merely hovered above it, with the enormous God-Slaying Sword Array revolving behind her. Every sword in the array moved like a circling, prowling piranha. The instant anyone showed themselves from any corner of the vessel, the nearby blades would swarm over in a roar and mince them in the shortest possible time.

Whine, whine.

Feixiang Heaven had already been returned to the sheath at Bai Xiang’s waist. At that moment it gave two dissatisfied tremors.

“What are you in such a hurry for?” Bai Xiang rebuked it, pressing a finger lightly against the hilt and knitting her brows.

“You’ve already gotten an entire sword array, more than a hundred low-grade sacred weapons. You should be thinking about whether you can even digest all that next.”

Bzzz, bzzz.

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Feixiang Heaven vibrated twice more. It seemed to realize that Bai Xiang could not possibly mobilize all these swords herself, and that most of them would probably be fed to it through the Little Yellow sword. Satisfied, it finally settled down and stopped pestering Bai Xiang for another chance to drink blood.

“Good.”

Bai Xiang rubbed the hilt twice and looked coldly toward those hungry flying swords.

The God-Slaying Sword Array was destined not to remain in her hands.

After absorbing Zhang Dai’s memories, she knew that the full array required far more than simply forging one upper-grade sacred weapon, four mid-grade sacred weapons, and one hundred and four low-grade sacred weapons.

Those were only the basic prerequisites for giving the array form. At its core, the God-Slaying Sword Array was an inherited pool art, akin to the Yuling Dragon-Gathering Constellation Grand Array.

To master it, one first had to accept the founder’s entire ideological system. One had to first “hypnotize oneself,” to “revere the human path above all,” and to “swear an oath, establish one’s resolve, and devote the rest of one’s life entirely to the human path.” Only then did one even earn a chance to begin.

Zhang Dai had only mastered it through tremendous effort.

That was also because Tianfu Mountain’s leading lineage was passed down through a single heir, and the one who had created the God-Slaying Sword Array was Zhang Dai’s own ancestor. The principles of the pool art were naturally close to him.

Without that pool art to support it, using the God-Slaying Sword alone to forcibly control the array would only produce an empty shell of the real thing. It could be used to bully the weak, and nothing more.

Bai Xiang had no need of such a method. For her, the most practical course was still to feed these swords to Feixiang Heaven through the Little Yellow sword and further strengthen her natal Dao sword.

So she trapped the entire flying vessel there and used the sword array to kill three or four waves of people. After waiting a while longer and seeing no one else emerge, she decided to act.

Keeping her guard up, she released the God-Slaying Sword in her hand and let it continue serving as the array core, commanding the sword array from outside and sealing the exit shut. Then, with only her natal Dao sword at her waist, she entered the vessel through the gash she had kicked open and began searching within.

Her reason for doing this also came from Zhang Dai’s memories.

Zhang Dai and the others had gone to enormous lengths to cross over here, and their greatest objective had been to capture Bai Xiang. But that did not mean this was the only thing they had done.

Zhang Dai’s plan had been to take Bai Xiang hostage, use his influence to spread Qi methods and rally the human path. Since such a complete falling-out would surely bring a swift strike from the Demon Court afterward, he had simply acted in advance, ambushing and looting quite a few human-path factions of the Void Realm on the way here.

The inheritances and treasures left behind by those factions were now piled up inside the vessel.

Now that Bai Xiang knew about it, there was no reason for her not to take them.

There was also a large batch of metal ore veins among the spoils, perfect for taking home for Senior Brother Guo to study before refining and selling them.

The thought that Guo Rongzhi would soon have more work to do immediately lifted Bai Xiang’s mood. She felt certain her senior brother would be deeply grateful to her.

Unlike Master, who kept saying things like, “Be more considerate of your Senior Brother Guo. Don’t tire him out.”

But Guo Rongzhi was obviously the sort of research maniac who went berserk at the sight of good materials. If she gave him this haul, he would be delighted before anything else. Blame her? Impossible.

After checking several storage holds and finding the jade tags placed inside them to collect the goods, Bai Xiang swiftly looted the entire vessel clean.

When she reached the last cabin, she paused and turned toward a corner.

“Are you coming out on your own, or should I invite you out?”

Under her narrowed gaze, the scene of empty space in that corner twisted, gradually revealing a young girl curled up there.

“Immortal Venerable, spare my life!”

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The girl looked terrified and dropped to the ground in a kowtow to Bai Xiang.

“This little girl’s surname is Li, given name Yuan. I was also seized by these thieves and brought here as a slave. I would never dare show disrespect to Immortal Venerable. I beg Immortal Venerable to spare my life!”

She was small and delicate, with pretty features. A golden collar was locked around her neck, and behind her trailed a white fox tail, seeming to prove that she was not lying.

Bai Xiang stared at her indifferently. “Raise your head.”

The girl, “Li Yuan,” looked up in surprise and instinctively met a pair of golden eyes.

Boom!

Her consciousness blurred. Instantly she took on a dull, vacant look, like a puppet.

“Who are you?” Bai Xiang asked at last.

“Li Changyuan,” the girl said blankly.

“Where do you come from?”

“The Thirty-Three Heavenly Seas… Douyun Sea.”

“How old are you this year?”

“Eighteen.”

“Why are you on this ship, disguised as a captured demon slave?”

“My master thinks highly of Zhang Dai’s prospects and intended to provide shelter for the people of Tianfu Mountain after this operation to abduct Bai Zhixing. But my master was not certain Zhang Dai and the others would succeed, so my master instructed me never to reveal my identity…”

“Your master did his calculations well,” Bai Xiang could not help commenting.

If they succeeded, she could reveal herself and begin investing in them.

If they failed, she could quietly slip away. No one would care if a demon slave escaped.

What a loud little abacus that was. Those old monsters in the Demon Court were each more calculating than the last.

Bai Xiang was just about to ask a few more questions when a rune of ice and snow suddenly appeared between the girl’s brows, jolting her back to full awareness.

“You… you can control my soul?”

She clearly remembered what she had just done. Shocked and furious, she glared at the ground, not daring to meet Bai Xiang’s eyes again.

“What a pity,” Bai Xiang said.

“…What’s a pity?”

“Your master clearly doesn’t understand. Without that rune, you might have lived.”

“You…”

Slash!

Without another word, Bai Xiang severed the girl’s head with a single sword stroke, then used Feixiang Heaven to take in her remnant soul.

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She did not refine it immediately. Instead, she raised the blade wreathed in the fox demon’s remnant soul before her and said while staring at it, “Just now, you deliberately moved outward a little.”

“So are you truly that stupid, not knowing that would make me notice you faster?”

“Or were you covering for something…?”

“No!”

A moment ago, the fox demon’s remnant soul had still been glaring at Bai Xiang with venomous hatred. Hearing this, it turned horrified at once and began pleading through tears.

“I beg Immortal Venerable…”

“Immortal Venerable can do anything to me… I beg Immortal Venerable… Immortal Venerable, please don’t…”

Shhk!

Bai Xiang said nothing. She let Feixiang Heaven shred and absorb the remnant soul, then closed her eyes and quickly skimmed through the memories left within it.

About three seconds later, she opened her eyes and walked to the corner where the girl had been hiding. Cutting away several metal plates with her sword, she found something that looked like a storage capsule hidden in an extremely concealed compartment.

This thing had clearly been specially treated. Her perception could not penetrate it.

Bai Xiang already knew what was inside and did not open it. She simply took it in hand. After sweeping the rest of the cabin clean, she exited the vessel and once more drove her Qi-Origin at full force.

Riiip!

A rising slash carved a pitch-black sword scar across the vessel. The scar completely ruined its structure. Its hull began to tremble and shatter, and before the sword scar could close and recover, the vessel was gradually torn apart and swallowed by the void. Nothing was left at the scene apart from a few impact pits.

She added another slash to shave those pits away as well, thoroughly erasing all traces. Only then did Bai Xiang put away the God-Slaying Sword and the entire sword array into a jade tablet and accelerate back toward Tongyun City.

On the way, she kept the Taishang Response active and even went out of her way to kill several scouts she discovered. At last, she returned to the hotel before nightfall.

When she landed on the terrace, Bai Xiang glanced downstairs. The streets were exceptionally lively, and buses from the Shenming Sword Dao were being escorted through the crowd amid cheers. She knew at once that her timing was just right.

“For the moment, this is still a bit troublesome…”

She weighed the “storage capsule” in her hand, about the size of a delivery parcel, and sank into thought with a slight frown.

But after testing the force-stacking method today, she had gained a much clearer understanding of where exactly she stood in the food chain.

Zhang Dai was also a veteran Immortal Venerable. With the God-Slaying Sword Array added on top, his strength, in her estimate, had already approached that of a weaker Venerable Saint.

If things really developed the way she expected, then her own strength…

In that case, keeping it might not be impossible.

Then I’ll take it one step at a time.

With that thought, Bai Xiang returned to her room, set the capsule on the table, quietly sat down in a chair, took out her phone, and started replying to messages.

She had only answered a few when a howling gust came from the corridor.

Then the door banged open and flew off its hinges. Bai Zhuqing first poked her head in with a face full of worry, calling out, “Sister!” But the instant she saw Bai Xiang sitting there perfectly fine in the chair, looking as though she had been calmly waiting for her return, her eyes immediately misted over. She threw herself forward and wrapped Bai Xiang in a tight hug, calling out again, “Auntie!”

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“Auntie… you, you didn’t answer my calls!”

The girl held Bai Xiang tightly as she spoke. “And then I saw messages people were posting, and photos too… saying it looked like you were chasing someone and had run off into the wilderness somewhere… so I got worried… I was afraid something had happened to you.”

Bai Zhuqing was truly afraid.

Her relationship with her sister had only just taken another step forward, and she had even come to understand Bai Xiang a little more deeply. She truly was afraid something would happen to her.

Even though she knew perfectly well that if Bai Xiang could not deal with a problem, then she herself would be even less able to solve it over there, and that staying beside Bai Xiang would not help at all, she still worried. She was still afraid.

She simply could not stop herself from thinking that way.

Now that she finally saw Bai Xiang sitting here perfectly safe and sound, her heart at last settled back into place. But at the same time, she could not suppress the lingering fear and grievance in her chest.

Then, suddenly, the girl loosened her hold on Bai Xiang and looked her up and down again. Her gaze fell on Bai Xiang’s right foot.

There were no injuries anywhere on Bai Xiang’s body. The battle had ended too quickly, and no one had ever had the chance to close with her. Even the hem of her dress had not been damaged.

But there was one place.

The boot on her right foot.

It had failed to withstand the force when she kicked the flying vessel down and had exploded on the spot.

So from the time she entered the vessel from the rear to search it, to the time she returned, to the moment she sat here waiting for someone, Bai Xiang’s right foot had remained bare. Even the stocking on that foot was badly torn, leaving the whole foot exposed.

Here it comes again…

Bai Xiang felt helpless. Seeing her younger sister’s eyes begin to moisten again, she thought that becoming too close to someone really was troublesome.

She herself admitted that the battle ending so neatly did not mean Zhang Dai had really been weak. She had indeed had to go all out to achieve such a result.

But even after she had deliberately controlled the “battle damage” to this extent, the girl still felt miserable, still pained by the losses Bai Xiang had suffered in the fight. Bai Xiang really had no good answer for that.

At that moment, she spotted the capsule on the table beside them and quickly pointed to it. “No crying now.”

“Go open it and take a look.”

“It’s a present I brought back just for you.”

A present?

Bai Zhuqing froze and turned to look at the capsule on the table.

Casting Bai Xiang a doubtful look, she picked it up in both arms, turned it over, fiddled with it for a while, and finally, with Bai Xiang’s help, pressed the switch. With a click, the lid popped open.

Th-this is!?

The instant she saw what was stored inside, Bai Zhuqing went utterly rigid.

Because it was not some stiff, lifeless object.

It was a living, fluffy miniature white fox, looking as though it had just woken up and rubbing its eyes with its little paws.