Volume 4, Chapter 181 – Impending

The episode of World Sword Forum featuring Sword Sage Liu as a guest was a very famous sword-match commentary program. As the show aired, Bai Xiang’s popularity exploded completely.

This was not to say that all the major things she had done in the past had gone entirely unnoticed. Rather, because of Shenming’s rebelliousness, and because of the fire Xiang Xian had set on Baishan, very few media outlets or commentators had ever dared give Bai Xiang, or Shenming Sword Dao, anything close to an objective evaluation.

Much less face-filling close-ups like these. Many media outlets had deliberately blurred Bai Xiang’s features whenever they filmed her, because before receiving orders from Qianyu Palace, they did not dare help praise and promote an “enemy.”

Even on the relatively open Nine Provinces internet, aside from people in places like Qizhou, Maozhou, and Zezhou who knew some of the inside story, most others, even if they could find close-up photos of Bai Xiang and feel admiration or astonishment toward her, could only suppress those emotions for the time being. The broader environment still leaned heavily toward not accepting her, so they did not dare express those feelings openly.

But suppressed emotions do not die.

Especially not among the young. Rebellion is in their nature. The weakness and decay of the Great Yu Court stirred many young hearts, forcing them to turn back and reexamine Shenming Sword Dao, and to reexamine its iconic figure: Bai Xiang of Shenming.

Once again, Bai Xiang’s deeds were dug up and brought back into the light.

From her rise in Chilong Circuit, to defeating Chengfeng Sword Dao, to killing demonfolk and saving Benling disciples, and then later standing against a demonic disaster with sheer force, venturing alone into the wilderness with only a sword while the court stayed put and sent no aid, slaughtering countless crazed demons by herself… for the first time, her life, her family background, and her origins began receiving this degree of attention on the stage of the Nine Provinces and the world.

A great many young people were shocked to realize that she was not merely beautiful. She was also this responsible, this willing to shoulder burdens. It could even be said that she had saved hundreds of millions of people across three provinces.

“The first time we reporters saw her from a distance, we were stunned.”

“Really, it wasn’t just because of that face… it was also because of her bearing.”

“She was clearly just standing there, and yet it felt as if the sky had cast down a beam of light, a beam that existed for her alone. In that instant, it was as though, in the eyes of the world itself, every other sight except her had faded into dullness.”

“She is unquestionably Heaven’s favored child, with what may be unprecedented talent in the Sword Dao.”

“Her character is a sword. She is destined to cut open this era and carve away all that rotten old flesh.”

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“She is the brightest star to rise from Chilong Circuit.”

“She is Great Yu’s future, the hope of the Sword Dao!”

For the first time, discussion of Bai Xiang spread without any restrictions at all. People no longer obsessed, as they had in the past, over whether the new methods she had created were truly useful. Instead, they shifted from doubt into hesitation, and from hesitation back into doubt.

Only, the earlier doubt had been doubt in Bai Xiang. The later doubt was doubt in themselves.

So many experts, commentators, and even Sword Sages and earthmasters were giving Bai Xiang such high praise. If my opinion runs counter to theirs… could it be that I was the one who had been wrong all along?

People’s hearts were changing, and the most direct and obvious sign of that change was that Yuming Workshop’s sales exploded once again.

“Projected sales are up by at least double, and as much as eighty percent of the orders are coming from overseas.”

Xiang Xian was full of emotion when she described it to Bai Xiang.

“The court suppressed you in public opinion for so long, and in the end they still couldn’t stop this.”

She had actually had a premonition about this long ago.

To put it bluntly, people are naturally biased in favor of beautiful faces. As long as Bai Xiang’s face was not treated differently, as long as the major media outlets dared give her close-ups, then the momentum she had built up exploding like this was only a matter of time. No one could have stopped it.

Abbess Li Sheng was less optimistic. “There may have been some unexpected factors, but for this to have blown up this much in the end, we have to suspect someone is building you up only to bring you down.”

After all, they were about to face Qingping Sword Dao.

If Bai Xiang’s public image was raised to these heights at a moment like this, then if she lost, or if anything happened to her personally, the blow it would deal to their side’s momentum would be nothing short of devastating.

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Bai Xiang, however, took it in stride.

When it came to understanding modern society, and especially understanding the internet, she could say without the least false modesty that in the Nine Provinces, or even the whole world, there were very few who understood it more deeply than she did.

At a glance, she could tell that even if there was some intention here to build her up only to bring her down, it would not be all that strong.

The court had very obviously been caught off guard. They had not expected Sword Sage Liu to go against the ban and say something like that in praise of her during a live broadcast.

And by the time half an hour had passed and they finally realized what had happened, the tide of public opinion had already spread completely across the internet.

It was like a wildfire spreading through dry grass. Other than waiting for it to burn itself out, there was no longer any normal way to stamp it out.

It was a kind of retribution, really.

Because of the restrictions of the past, Great Yu had never truly understood the power of the internet.

To suddenly impose public-opinion controls in this sort of situation, react too slowly, and then suffer the backlash—if that happened, they had only themselves to blame.

With outside public opinion burning hotter and hotter, the area outside Wangyun Wine House had been packed with news vans these past few days. There were even people coming in from other places every night, gathering downstairs and shouting up toward the upper floors, wanting Bai Xiang to come out and let them pay their respects.

It was practically a recreation of the scene from the second day after they first checked into the hotel, the one caused by the effect of Bai Xiang’s Imperial Daughter Order.

The space below was a sea of people, and even hotel staff who went outside would be surrounded and interviewed by countless reporters.

Bai Xiang paid no attention to any of it.

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She ordered everyone to calm their minds, and over these past few days she had continued the high-intensity sparring with them, raising their combat experience as much as possible and preparing for the transformation that was about to arrive.

Time passed quickly in cultivation, and soon it was the final day before the match.

Bai Xiang stopped the sparring arrangements two days in advance and gave everyone a day and a half off, allowing them time to rest and adjust. Then, after breakfast the next morning, she personally led the team, following the convoy all the way to the suburban arena.

As they neared the venue, Bai Zhuqing lifted the curtain and could not help widening both eyes.

There were so many people on both sides of the road.

There had to be around ten thousand of them, a dense black mass piled up along both sides. The Sword Dao Association had no choice but to dispatch even more vehicles to clear the way. Otherwise, Shenming Sword Dao’s bus might not even have reached the designated arena in time.

After finally arriving at the venue, Bai Xiang led the others inside.

The moment she stepped out of the passageway, she caught sight of two figures already waiting on the great central platform in the middle of the grounds.

One of them looked familiar. It was Senior Sister Qin, Qin Yuchen, whom she had met once before.

And the other…

was the white-browed old man who had come to challenge her that night: Chu Weiping.

Narrowing her eyes slightly, Bai Xiang looked across the hundred-meter distance and met Chu Weiping’s gaze. In her mind, all kinds of legends about him rose and sank.

She could feel that from the moment they saw Chu Weiping, the emotions of the people around her had turned subdued and restrained.

He was, after all, the Qingping Sword Lord.

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He had lived for a century.

He was still at his peak.

He had even drawn on the Path of Qi and made another breakthrough on the road of the Sword Dao.

He was a mythic figure of the Sword Dao. Even Xiang Xian, Li Sheng, Wang Ran, and the others had to lower their heads. They could not summon the force of spirit needed to face a man like him.

“Dao Master Bai.”

“The day I have awaited most has finally arrived.”

Chu Weiping was the first to speak.

Even across such a distance, his voice was resounding, like a sharp sword cutting through the air and reaching directly before the crowd.

Bai Xiang said nothing. She merely met his gaze with her Golden Pupils. Each of them could see the battle intent hidden in the other’s eyes.

“Let’s begin as soon as possible.”

She finally spoke.

“I’ve been looking forward to it as well.”

“To the future of the Sword Dao in your eyes.”