Volume 5, Chapter 9 – Stance

Carrying Shen He in one hand, Bai Xiang flew openly through the air the whole way.

Once one reached the Spirit Palace Realm, qi-origin could be transformed into qi force. It bore both the fierce hardness of the unfinished ancient methods and the softness of spring wind and fine rain. Wrapping her whole body in qi force, Bai Xiang could not only use it for defense, but also distort light and shadow and deflect illumination, producing an effect much like holographic invisibility.

Shen He was profoundly shocked by this.

Many times, Bai Xiang very clearly swept straight past people with her right in front of them, yet they simply saw nothing at all. To Shen He, this was no different from immortal magic, and she no longer dared doubt Bai Xiang’s identity.

The great demons among the voidfiends were intelligent. No matter how brazen those vile things were, they would never dare venture deep into the heart of the circuit capital.

So she really had to be Empress Ancestor Xia. There was no mistake!

Shen He was both excited and nervous.

The excitement came from this stroke of fortune, and from what Bai Xiang had said before… that karma had become entangled between them.

The nervousness came from her own attitude. After all, she had shown all sorts of disrespect toward the Imperial Venerable before. If the Imperial Venerable held grudges, then if I ask to take her as my master… will she reject me outright?

Shen He herself was also wrapped in qi force, unable to move an inch. While letting her thoughts run wild and feeling the gale-force winds howl past her ears, she opened her eyes again and saw a broad road ahead. At the end of the road stood a seven- or eight-story building roofed with red tiles.

Lamps hung from the eaves, and parts of the outer edges were lit with electric lights. In the night, the whole structure gave off a hazy yet imposing feeling.

Then Shen He looked again at the sentry post by the main gate and caught sight of numerous Dao Army guards standing watch with loaded guns. Only then did it dawn on her that Bai Xiang had actually brought her straight to the Roads Directorate residence of Wangchuan Circuit.

This was the political center of the circuit capital! Could it be that the Imperial Venerable intended to meet the Watchman directly?

Shen He wanted to speak, but though her throat moved, no sound came out. She could only watch helplessly as Bai Xiang flew over the gate and drifted down onto the roof of the Roads Directorate building.

What was she doing?

Shen He slanted a glance at Bai Xiang, only to see her close her eyes and loosen her body into a relaxed posture, as though quietly listening for something.

And that was indeed the case.

Now that her cultivation had reached the Spirit Palace Realm, Bai Xiang’s ability to sense the world-origin had advanced by a massive step as well. Compared with before, the range over which The Taishang Response Method could observe and gather information had expanded more than tenfold. She could now stand motionless in one place and let every sound wave within several kilometers fall onto the tip of her heart through the vibrations of the world-origin, then use the Jade Spirit to recalculate and model them, sorting and organizing whatever information she wanted.

Bang!

At the same time, under her manager’s guidance, Wang Muyu shut the car door and walked from the Roads Directorate residence’s parking lot toward the office building.

“I know you were supposed to be enjoying a three-day vacation, but the situation has changed.” Her manager — the woman in glasses — instructed and warned her as they walked.

“Someone the station absolutely cannot afford to offend has specifically asked to see you. No matter what you see later, don’t be surprised.”

Coming to a place like this, and being told it was someone the station could not afford to offend.

Reаԁ оn ΚаtRеaԁiոɡСαfе

Wang Muyu curled her lip, feeling the other woman might as well just say outright that she was being taken to see Watchman Qiao Wen.

Granted, there were a great many people in this office building whom the station could not afford to offend. But the fact that this person could decide the station’s stance and direction, especially regarding closeness to mechanized-arms technology, narrowed the field of suspicion almost at once.

Her manager took her upstairs. After entering the corridor, she was subjected to a body search by female soldiers. After turning the corner, she had to undergo a full-body scan by a blue-light device. Only then were they allowed into the inner rooms.

At the door, her manager was stopped. Wang Muyu had no choice but to enter alone, and sure enough, behind the desk she saw a familiar figure.

Qiao Wen, the Watchman of the Roads Directorate in Wangchuan Circuit — effectively the top regional administrator, and also a remarkably rare female official.

Wang Muyu did not know Qiao Wen personally, but the latter appeared in the news often. Everyone in Wangchuan Circuit knew that their newly appointed Watchman liked wearing a military overcoat paired with a peaked cap; the scar on her face and those dark glasses were even more of a signature. Once seen, they could never be forgotten.

“Host Wang.” Qiao Wen was leaning against the desk, gazing at the floor-to-ceiling window. Even after hearing movement behind her, she did not turn around, but continued to watch the night scene outside as she said, “I need your full cooperation in helping me promote mechanized-arms technology.”

Wang Muyu frowned. Her lips moved, but she said nothing.

She truly did not know what to say.

“What, do you, like Li Chengtang, think I am colluding with the enemy and betraying the country?”

Qiao Wen suddenly turned around. Yet beneath the brim of her cap, she was not wearing her sunglasses. Her ruined eye socket and remaining single eye were fully exposed.

Her gaze brimmed with killing intent and baleful force, making Wang Muyu’s pupils contract. She was instantly jolted into a cultivator’s combat state and bent her knees as she retreated half a step.

So this was… the bearing of a soldier-cultivator who had survived the front lines?

Cultivators were divided into two kinds: soldier-cultivators and civil cultivators.

In truth, the difference between them was not especially great. It had nothing to do with sects or cultivation methods, and everything to do with personal aspiration.

When a cultivator advanced to the Refining Qi Realm, if they chose to head for the front lines, then they were a soldier-cultivator.

Conversely, if they chose to stay behind and take up an administrative post, they were a civil cultivator.

There had originally been no distinction between the two. The expression had gradually spread only after cultivators who came down from the front line and took administrative posts began criticizing some of the prevailing tendencies in that environment.

Wang Muyu was inwardly aghast. Just now, Qiao Wen had done nothing at all, yet had suppressed her using sheer presence alone. The gap between them was simply too great.

She was at least at the fifth layer of Refining Qi herself. If this had just been a fight to the death, she would already be dead.

“My eye was gouged out alive by a great demon on the front lines.” Qiao Wen’s tone was utterly flat, as though she were not speaking of something that had happened to her own body.

“Beneath that canopy of blood and fire, I saw too much life and death.”

Rеaԁ оո KatRеаⅾіnɡСαfе

“That is precisely why I loathe all empty formalities. They are simply a waste of time, a waste of life.”

She’s laying groundwork?

Wang Muyu frowned. She had the strong sense that Qiao Wen was setting the stage for the subject she was about to raise.

Then Qiao Wen abruptly changed tack. “Wang Shouchuan, Lord Wang — is he in good health?”

Wang Muyu’s face changed drastically. “How do you—”

“How do I know?” Qiao Wen sneered. “When Wang Shouchuan was fighting demons in Tianji Circuit, I was the one leading the force that held his flank. How do you think I know?”

Wang Muyu still remained cautious. “Grandfather never mentioned this connection to me.”

“He wouldn’t dare mention it.” Qiao Wen waved a hand.

“Once we came down off the fire line, everyone went their separate ways. He couldn’t be sure which side I was on now, so naturally he would never let you come looking for me.”

“Then.” Wang Muyu steadied herself and looked directly at Watchman Qiao Wen. “Would Lord Qiao care to tell Muyu exactly which side you are on?”

Silence.

Their gazes crossed in midair for a full five or six seconds at least.

“Li Chengtang opposes the introduction of mechanized-arms technology. He says it amounts to colluding with the enemy and betraying the nation, that Eastern Xia territory has no need for protection from barbarian outsiders.”

Qiao Wen asked, “Which side do you think Lord Li is on, then?”

Wang Muyu frowned and paused before answering, “Since the founding year, Lord Li rose to prominence in Qiyun and became another major statesman of Qi after Lord Fang Xiaochun. Naturally, he is wholeheartedly loyal to the Imperial Court.”

“Ha!”

Qiao Wen barked out a laugh. “Then how do you explain the fact that he contacted Northern Yu this very evening?”

“What did you say?”

Wang Muyu was stunned, unable to believe what she had just heard.

Northern Yu… the remnants of the previous dynasty!

Li Chengtang had been personally recommended by Fang Xiaochun and had once served as Watchman of Qiyun. It was precisely because of those credentials that he had been transferred to Wangchuan Circuit to assist Qiao Wen — or, one could say, to keep her in check, to act as a “supervisor.” How could he possibly have any connection to Northern Yu?

“This is the email Lord Li — Inspector Li — sent using a Silverflow gear.”

Rеаԁ oո КatRеaⅾinɡCafe

Qiao Wen picked up a projection pen from the desk, pressed the switch, and unfolded a small screen.

“See for yourself.”

Wang Muyu took the screen, squinting and poring over it for quite a while. Then she abruptly raised her head and looked at Qiao Wen with unsettled disbelief.

“He talks endlessly about loyalty to the sovereign and loyalty to the nation, dismisses mechanized-arms technology as worthless, yet in secret he uses this very thing to contact Northern Yu and maintain private dealings!”

Qiao Wen revealed a chilling smile.

“Now which side do you think I am on?”

Locked under that single eye, Wang Muyu felt cold sweat break out all over her body.

This…

If it was true, then that meant quite a few high-ranking officials within Eastern Xia still secretly gave their hearts to Northern Yu and were not sincerely loyal to the Imperial Court?

Then this matter was enormous.

There had to be far more than just Li Chengtang!

So Qiao Wen had deliberately been luring the snake out of its hole?

Her radicalism, her identity as a “reformer,” a “technology faction,” a “progressive” — had all of that been an act? Had she been stirring up stagnant waters on purpose, forcing people like Li Chengtang to expose flaws?

“Mechanized-arms technology can be used. That is my genuine view.” Qiao Wen narrowed her eye.

“Technology has no inherent leaning.”

“Take military equipment, for example… when the war first began, Dao Army soldiers used nothing but broken scrap metal.”

“But once the Regent took power and all the circuits rallied to one heart, the Workshops Directorate immediately increased its research efforts, doing everything possible to combine technology with qi methods. Before long, we had all kinds of new weapons and equipment.”

“For marching, we can use Sky-Evasion Talisman Arrays.”

“For devices, we can use origin-crystal batteries.”

“The profundities of qi talismans can be applied to guns and artillery, and a five-star Qi-Fire Explosive Flame Array can rival even the nuclear weapons of the old age…!”

“Therefore, mechanized-arms technology can also be combined with qi methods.”

Qiao Wen looked at Wang Muyu sincerely.

Rеαԁ оո ΚatReaⅾіոgCafе

“In recent years, the demonic disasters have begun to rise again.”

“If we do not go to extremes, we will not survive.”

Wang Muyu shook her head. “I cannot decide something like this on my own. I have to go back and ask my grandfather.”

At last, she understood why Qiao Wen had specifically asked to see her.

If it had only been her own influence — the influence belonging to the beautiful host Wang Muyu — then she could have made the decision herself. If she wanted to give it, she could have given it.

But it was obvious that Qiao Wen wanted the entire Wang family to support her plan.

Whether that plan was truly to advance the integration of mechanized-arms technology and qi methods, or to use that as a cover to lure people like Li Chengtang into revealing their weaknesses.

A vortex like that was far too dangerous.

She had to go back and discuss it with her grandfather Wang Shouchuan before giving an answer.

Qiao Wen frowned, plainly dissatisfied with her attitude.

I’ve already explained it so clearly. What is there left to hesitate over?

Do I really have to take out the Imperial Court Jade Order, proof of imperial grace, before you will submit?

“So that’s how it is…”

Suddenly, Qiao Wen heard a cool female voice speak from beside her.

“Controlling the board, counterbalancing the pieces, and using one force to strike another.”

“To use people this way — she truly did do an impressive job as Regent.”

“Who?”

Qiao Wen spun half around in shock. Her vision abruptly blurred, and she caught sight of a female cultivator in black robes standing by the window.

White hair and golden eyes.

A face of imperial majesty.

And atop her head, a beaded imperial crown symbolizing absolute power.

In her hand, she held a young girl whose face wore a surprisingly mature look of amazement.