Volume 1, Chapter 68 – Father and Daughter

So that’s how it is.

Cross‑checking everything, Bai Xiang finally understood the causes and consequences of this whole affair.

On the surface, the Shenming Ancestral Ground was the source. In truth, the real source was Daokong Chan Master.

The Shenming Sword and the Cicada Molt Method only came into being because of Daokong’s reincarnated body—Daoist Qu (Huang Ye). The Bai clan’s Patriarch, Bai Muying, played only a limited role in pushing things along.

And Huang Ye—his own account in The Scripture of Returning to Origin and Transforming Qi states that he descended the mountain during the wars of Heaven‑Decreed 938.

“Heaven‑Decreed 938,” not “Great Yu 938.”

She hadn’t noticed before, but this terminology matters. Whenever a document puts it like that, it means Great Yu’s rule had temporarily broken off; the land was in chaos, an era when warlords vied to succeed the orthodox line.

The Imperial House is called so because it receives the Mandate of Heaven.

To continue the orthodox line—naturally, it would be Heaven‑Decreed.

The 938 of history was exactly when the Huang clan and the Luo clan of the Dingbei Circuit usurped the throne… In those war‑torn years, a young Daoist with learning and vision—one who could “write with elegance and cite the classics at will”—no one would believe he wasn’t a scion of a great clan.

A great‑clan scion of that era, and surnamed Huang at that—this almost spelled out that Huang Ye came from the Huang clan.

And Chai Xuan, before so many people, had recommended herself to Huang Qian, saying her old man had once served under the Huang clan’s “Huang Yuxian” of the Zhong’an Army in the Zhong’an Circuit, holding the post of the army’s Bandit‑Suppression Scout.

Her father is Chai Jingyuan, which ties them to the Huang clan again.

The Zhong’an Circuit is in Daizhou, in the upper right of Great Yu’s map—half a realm away from Qizhou down in the lower left.

She’d once wondered why that family would cross half the realm to find the Shenming Dojo. Even if the opportunity had been lost, it should have stayed somewhere near Qizhou—how could it have fallen into their hands so far away?

Now it was clear nothing was coincidence… Since Huang Ye was a man of the Huang clan, his relics after death likely were taken back by Huang clan descendants for veneration—perhaps including documents and scrolls recording the secrets of the Nine‑Tribulation Method.

Serving as a minor officer under Huang Yuxian, Chai Jingyuan either found a chance to glimpse these things, or Huang Yuxian, annoyed by the clutter, tossed them to a subordinate as a “reward”… and so Chai Jingyuan learned the Nine Tribulations’ secret.

There might even have been an incomplete copy of The Scripture of Returning to Origin and Transforming Qi among them!

It’s even possible the Nine Tribulations’ secret was noted in the second compiler’s original manuscript! It all makes perfect sense!

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But that doesn’t explain why the lower ranks of the Demon‑Immortal Dao would be carrying this scripture on them.

Unless…

Thoughts raced; Bai Xiang’s gaze cleared.

“Can you release my companions?” She hadn’t forgotten Huang Qian and the others. Testing the waters, she asked the cicada demon, “You’re not going to eat them, are you?”

“I am not one of those savage demons!” The little cicada demon fumed, then looked a bit abashed. “…If you hadn’t spoken up, they might well have been dissolving.”

“But since you’ve said so, I certainly won’t harm them further.”

“But!” It wrenched free of Bai Xiang’s hand, hovered before her, and met her gaze. “I won’t release them right away, either!”

“Another deal?” Bai Xiang guessed its intent. “Like the one you made with ‘Bai Xuan.’”

“That time I was naive and had no leverage.” The cicada demon nodded. “This time I’ll use these people as leverage… You’ll help me get back the relics (sarira) and the sword embryo! Prove you can!”

I don’t find you naive at all…

Bai Xiang gave it a long, deep look.

Today is Year 2053 of Great Yu—938 was a solid thousand‑plus years ago. In other words, this little fellow is, in essence, an ancient monster that’s lived over a millennium.

Anyone who underestimates it will come to grief.

“Well?” The cicada demon pitched its proposal with gusto. “You’re immune to my demonic‑aura illusions and you fended off my first strike! If I also give you their location, it shouldn’t be hard for you, right?”

“You can provide a location?” Bai Xiang was skeptical.

Wasn’t its true body buried underground, snoring away?

“When the Demon‑Breeding Ground activates, the larvae break the earth and begin to molt,” the cicada demon explained. “If they encounter danger on the surface, they cry out. As those sound waves ripple out and touch things, I can more or less sense it.”

“But not in real time?” Bai Xiang mostly got it.

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“Right!” The cicada demon nodded.

“So we have to move fast!”

……

Elsewhere, Xu Xi had just confirmed in the dark that Liang Wenbo’s body was already cold.

He had died miserably. Someone had thrust a sword in through his forehead; all his vital essence had been drained out through that wound, leaving little more than a human skin—there weren’t even many bone scraps left.

This—this wasn’t human means at all!

Xu Xi was shaking inside.

Junior Sister Chai… no, that wretch Chai Xuan—what kind of demonic art did she learn?

Master Liang’s last words seemed to stress the sword in her hand?

“Eight relics (sarira)… eight sword embryos…”

“Could the one in her hand be the ‘Zhenyuan’ Sword embryo forged in one of Daokong Chan Master’s past lives?”

The thought alone made Xu Xi jump.

The “Zhenyuan” Sword was one of the sacred swords—its status in the history of Great Yu’s Sword Dao rivaled the swords of the Saint Emperors.

How could its sword embryo possibly drink human essence?

And another thought forced its way in—was Chai Xuan sparing them because she planned to keep them as feed for the sword embryo?

A chill steamed up in Xu Xi’s heart.

She no longer meant to stay here. In an instant she rose, scrambling on hands and knees toward the other direction, wanting to get out of this horrific cavern first and find Huang Qian and the others to bring reinforcements.

But just as she went to slip into a hole, a long gleam flashed and appeared at her throat, forcing her back.

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Someone else was here?

Xu Xi all but lost the ability to think.

“Don’t move.”

A figure stepped out of the shadows, bit by bit. It was still dark, but enough to make out the chiseled face of Ao Lin.

“If you want to live, do exactly as I say!”

“No need to make it so troublesome, Ao Lin…”

Yi Tianzhi followed, squeezing out of the opening.

“That girl with the sword embryo isn’t even at Condensing the Aspect. Why bother? Just go take it off her.”

I just wanted to play it safe…

Ao Lin grumbled inwardly.

But since Protector Yi had spoken, he couldn’t say more. He casually knocked Xu Xi out and tossed her aside, when a faint sound pricked his ear.

Who?

Ao Lin ratcheted his vigilance to the maximum, stepping in front of Yi Tianzhi. He reversed his grip on his longsword and quietly rolled up both sleeves.

In the dark, the pores on his forearms opened soundlessly, opening and closing like breath, exhaling black smoke and scorching airstreams.

And he saw the source of the sound—Chai Xuan, the Benling disciple who’d killed earlier!

He’d thought the Sacred Dao had discovered this Demon‑Breeding Ground, but it turned out this girl had orchestrated it in the shadows!

Seeing Chai Xuan and recalling her exchange with Liang Wenbo, Ao Lin was both shocked and enraged.

Good thing Protector Yi had made it here, or the Sacred Dao would’ve handed her everything on a platter!

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“Toss the sword embryo over,” he ordered Chai Xuan, voice ice‑cold. “You should know the gulf between us.”

“A gulf? You’re right…” Chai Xuan seemed to nod.

Backlit by a faint glow, her face was unreadable; from her tone alone he could tell she felt no panic or fear at all.

Wasn’t she only at the Visualization realm?

Doubt pooled in Ao Lin’s heart.

With a gap of two major realms, what trump card could she have?

Squelch!

The next instant, a cold gleam punched straight out through the center of his brow.

It was Yi Tianzhi—holding Ao Lin’s own sword—driving a single thrust in through his back, ramming up along the spine and neck to burst through the crown, piercing his upper body clean through!

“You…”

“Pro… tec… tor… Yi…?”

Ao Lin’s eyes bulged. He tried to look back, teeth clenched, but his spine had been jammed and severed by the blade—he could only rasp a hoarse roar from his throat.

“He’s not your Protector Yi~”

Strolling forward, Chai Xuan’s face came into focus; she was smiling.

“Well done, Dad.”

In Ao Lin’s ears, her voice seemed to drift from very far away.

“The Demon‑Immortal Dao’s power is completely wiped out.”

“So—everything is ours now……”