Volume 1, Chapter 71 – Jade Phoenix

After dealing with the last conscious headache, Bai Xiang made a quick half‑circuit of the cavern, confirming that the remaining Benling disciples truly were in a faint close to death.

When she came to Xu Xi, she half‑furrowed her brows.

This woman had seen the Chai father and daughter. If she were allowed to leave alive, the secret of the Nine Methods would surely reach Benling, and they would also suspect why Daokong’s relics (sarira) and sword embryo were stored in the Shenming Ancestral Ground.

If this wasn’t handled well, the veil over the Shenming Sword Dao would be torn away. People would no longer think them a fallen Sword Dao, but one that had hidden the Nine Methods from the very start.

This might even implicate her.

Why had Bai Xiang of Shenming changed so drastically over a single summer break?

People would immediately have an excuse—they’d insist she might well be Daokong reborn.

Then the Bai clan’s fate would likely be the same as the ‘Fuwei Escort Agency’—endless suspicion, endless accusations, a storm of blood and knives rushing at everyone of the Bai clan. What awaited them would be “no grave for the dead.”

You say you were truly fallen before and not just hiding—who would believe it?

Unless guided by a great doctrine, once people grow numerous they become nothing but a huge, crazed mob of fools.

Better to kill her.

Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes.

Kill them all… There can be no risk in a matter like this!

She rolled the iron sword in her wrist and was about to thrust for Xu Xi’s brow when a Buddhist invocation sounded in her ear.

Who?

She stepped back several paces to open distance, frowning as she swept the cavern—yet saw no upright living thing.

Suddenly, as if a thought had dropped into place, her gaze fell to the demonized corpse of Chai Jingyuan, fixing on the lone ‘Zhenyuan’ sword embryo in his hand.

This thing was wicked—very likely housing the remnant soul of Daoist Qu (Huang Ye), Daokong’s reincarnate body. So even with Chai Jingyuan dead, Bai Xiang had no desire to touch it.

She didn’t believe everything the cicada demon had said, but she was certain of one thing: anything the cicada demon disliked—indeed feared—could not be good.

Before the cicada demon, Chai Xuan had specially asked to leave the sword embryo. From that gesture alone, Bai Xiang could infer quite a lot.

For instance, the reason the cicada demon disliked the sword embryo was that it knew the legends of the Nine‑Tribulation Method were false.

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It knew Daokong’s repeated “revivals” were not reincarnation at all—but remnant‑soul possession, with Daokong’s remnant soul in the sword embryo.

Nine Methods… Nine Swords… relics (sarira)…

Most likely all blinders, all lies.

These items were nothing but “soul vessels.” So long as someone believed the legends of the Nine Methods and sought these items out, the Daokong remnant soul attached to them could seize their body—and thus become the so‑called “reincarnation.”

Thinking that way—why would the Shenming Ancestral Ground seal away a Startling‑Spirit Cicada that could not leave?

And why would this Startling‑Spirit Cicada, after two “collaborators,” still try to use concealment—even deception—to get Bai Xiang and Chai Xuan to take the ‘Zhenyuan’ sword embryo?

It clearly knew these things, yet it would not tell Bai Xiang.

Bai Xiang felt that, eight or nine times out of ten, it was because the cicada demon knew why it was trapped here; it knew the mission that man had imposed and nailed in place—that once Daokong’s possession succeeded, it would serve as tonic feed for his sword‑sacrifice breakthrough.

So of course it had its own ulterior thought.

That thought wasn’t hard to guess—remove Bai Xiang as a variable, and the cicada demon’s original plan was to have Chai Xuan use the Cicada Molt for a second forging, choosing the ‘Zhenyuan’ sword embryo as the material.

It seemed flawless—but don’t forget Chai Xuan had already converted the Demon Pool it had gifted her.

What it said—that it could not leave the Illusory Realm—was likely true.

So might it be trying to refine away Daokong’s remnant soul by that method, and swap in itself to seize Chai Xuan’s body?

A demon can’t leave—but what about a human?

This wasn’t the auspicious ground the Chai family thought it was at all…

Each time she traced these possibilities, a chill crept over Bai Xiang’s heart.

So treacherous was the cultivation road; beneath the seeming splendor of civilization, such mind‑murdering secrets lay hidden…

All these threads looked complex, but tracing them through took less than two seconds in the real world.

The ‘Zhenyuan’ sword embryo stayed motionless in the corpse’s grip—yet the corpse began to change.

Chai Jingyuan’s demonized body had been robust and massive; now it began to shrivel… like Hao Chengzhuo earlier, turning into skin bagging a skull as the sword embryo absorbed his essence‑blood in this fashion.

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Truly an evil thing.

Bai Xiang dared approach even less. She gathered her spirit‑soul power into her eyes; golden light flared in her yellow irises, and in another angle of vision she saw—the more essence the sword embryo drew, the denser the monk’s phantom around it became, until it opened its eyes and woke.

[You can see me?]

The monk met Bai Xiang’s gaze—startled at first—then engaged her in a mental exchange.

A variable…

Bai Xiang clutched the wound on her shoulder, giving the monk’s remnant soul a cold look.

Chai Jingyuan’s essence‑blood had restored its awareness.

Bai Xiang said nothing. The monk smiled and went on: [Another of Muying’s line, inheritor of the Shenming Sword. You have also cultivated my Scripture of Returning to Origin and Transforming Qi, with a proficiency surpassing Chai Jingyuan—you can, in combat, infer his Heart Flow paths to anticipate him in advance, even flood him with Qi to throw him into disorder…]

[All told, it marks you as my rightful successor.]

Bai Xiang still said nothing, unmoved by his praise.

At last the monk frowned, glancing at the iron sword in her hand, and asked: [Why grasp base iron and abandon a treasure sword?]

“Because I’m afraid you’ll eat me, you bald donkey!”

A mocking voice came from behind. Bai Xiang turned her head and saw Chai Xuan striding quickly out of a tunnel on the other side.

She moved fast, yet her steps were stumbling—as if not used to walking on two legs—her body kept pitching forward and she forced it back with effort.

Her whole bearing was wrong as well.

Normally, Chai Xuan’s face was either cold and unsmiling, or like a thawed glacier, showing that gentle, shallow smile.

Never like now, grinning with such wanton ferocity.

“Cicada Ancestor?” Bai Xiang tested.

“Correct!”

“Chai Xuan” nodded.

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“It’s me!”

“You actually took down this bastard’s old man! That really exceeded my expectations!”

“But I didn’t let you down either, did I?”

“Look! This little liar’s body is mine now!”

[Amitabha…]

The monk’s remnant folded his hands and voiced a Buddhist name.

[Cicada, you are as brutal and cruel as ever.]

[Descendant of Muying, do not let it deceive and bewitch you. Come to the sword embryo at once, and I will shield you from the Demon Pool’s harm…]

“Who’s bewitching who?”

The cicada demon cut him off with a snarl, then looked to Bai Xiang, arms opening to her.

“He’s the one you can’t trust, this bald donkey!”

“Come here!”

“It’s true this old ancestor is cruel to others—but I’ll absolutely protect Muying’s descendants!”

Two uncanny beings, on two sides, crowding Bai Xiang—each trying to draw her to its side.

[Young benefactor, there is something you do not know.] The monk lowered his head. [If a Demon Pool is not destroyed over a long time, and in the process devours enough essence‑blood and souls, it can reach the legendary ‘extreme of wisdom.’]

[A Demon Pool that reaches the ‘extreme of wisdom’ awakens intellect. Not only does it inherit eerie arts of the aberrant path, it becomes more devious and sly than before. If released back into the world, it will bathe it in blood.]

“I will repay many with vengeance, yes—but that does not include Bai Muying, who saved me!” The cicada demon glared at the monk. “You, on the other hand… you could butcher—without a blink—the woman who loved you most. And you still think you’ve got the standing to advise others?”

[Amitabha.]

The monk chanted softly again.

[You bewitched Muying. She thought you had turned over a new leaf, would harm no more, and wanted to release you into the world. I killed her in helpless necessity.]

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“High‑minded nonsense!” the cicada demon cursed, pointing at the monk as it looked to Bai Xiang. “You hear him?”

“How can you trust that sort?”

“If you don’t want to end up like Bai Muying, get over here. Hurry!”

The two tore each other down, each claiming to be the better choice.

But Bai Xiang gave no response.

No matter how they tried to wheedle, she was unmoved.

[The young benefactor is one who sees the greater good.]

The monk frowned, as if finally losing patience.

[Forgive what offends.]

With that, his remnant shade drifted toward Bai Xiang out of thin air.

He could leave the sword embryo!

And the cicada demon, seeing this, clenched its teeth in hate and worked Chai Xuan’s body into a run, staggering as it came this way.

So, in the gloom of the stone cavern, a remnant ghost and a demon riding a human shell both closed in, like gods and ghosts showing themselves in a real‑world tale. An ordinary person would have been scared witless.

All the more so when Bai Xiang was wounded and far from peak fighting form.

Facing the threat, Bai Xiang did only two things.

First.

She tore off the pocket at the front of her vest, dumped a handful of tablets into her palm, and shoved them all into her mouth.

Second.

She half‑crouched, palm sheathed in a layer of invisible distortion, and forced it down through the corpse of Ao Lin underfoot—out of the dissolving flesh she drew a white‑jade short sword.