Volume 2, Chapter 5 – Courtesies

In the late afternoon, riding the gold light, Bai Xiang was dropped off by the news van at the foot of the dojo.

“This is my number… want it?”

As she was about to leave, Wang Limu reluctantly took out her phone, looking like she wanted to leave a trace in Bai Xiang’s phone but didn’t quite dare.

If at first meeting she’d thought… this girl only looked cool and sharp and did things cleanly—now, Wang Limu felt she’d already seen a part of Bai Xiang’s inward nature.

She really pays back every slight, and goes straight for the sorest spot. Wang Limu had a hunch that befriending someone like this meant she’d never lack heavyweight exclusives in the future, but she still couldn’t gauge Bai Xiang’s attitude toward the media industry.

Judging by her willingness to wear a “tech combat suit,” she wasn’t the hidebound type.

Right—how would the old guard ever borrow my car? They even refuse to take any transport; whatever they do, they insist on walking…

So she decided to probe, or she wouldn’t be able to let it go.

Bai Xiang stepped out of the news van and turned back, first sweeping a glance at the 《Xianglong News》 on the van’s body, then fixing on the female reporter and meeting her gaze head-on.

“I’m not some bottom-feeding scum with no bottom line,” Wang Limu didn’t shy away in the least as she spoke. “I’ve always been committed to exposing hidden social problems. You can look me up online—‘Wang Limu,’ or just ‘Limu.’ You should see I exposed several food-safety scandals, and even one where a pharma company bribed hospitals to overprescribe.”

Bai Xiang’s brows knit slightly.

She’d had no interest in this person at first, treating her purely as a tool. You could say that in Bai Xiang’s mind, Wang Limu herself and the news van she sat in were on the same level.

But now she changed her mind, because she suddenly realized—this kind of reporter wouldn’t stand out in the open society of her previous life, but in Great Yu… this place, in essence, isn’t open at all…

“You’re not afraid of dying?” She voiced the first question that surfaced.

It wasn’t an exaggeration.

In a feudal dynasty, who but princes and nobles could run food-processing firms or pharma companies?

Though Great Yu had stepped into modern society—enlightening the people, with media and the internet and information flying far faster than in ancient times—those nobles still had ten thousand ways to slip past the law and crush a small outlet, a small reporter.

“‘When the sages do not die, the great thieves never cease.’”

To her surprise, the woman grinned and dropped a line from the sages.

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“Oh…” Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes, only to feel even more puzzled inside.

She wasn’t surprised this world had that saying; she’d long noticed that many famous lines of classical prose from her past life had their echoes here, this world coincidentally shaping similar contexts for them to be born.

What puzzled her was that a reporter with a Western-style name could produce such a line offhand—not only answering her question, but hitting it just right.

“What it means is: many people brand themselves as kind, as righteous, and from that righteous perch they denounce evil. But once that kind of power is born, it’s destined that innocent people will be labeled ‘great thieves’—that is, evil.”

Wang Limu tucked a loose lock behind her ear and went on: “My mom originally used it to mock me… She says media people ‘do evil’ by branding themselves as ‘sages,’ and she doesn’t approve of my path.”

“But I don’t fully agree with her,” she nodded. “That line follows ‘wuwei,’ that is, ‘born of Heaven, natural.’”

“By that theory, ‘sages’ are also part of nature, including even a ‘sage’s evil,’ so I think we can look at the problem more openly.”

“We too have times when we act the ‘sage’ and commit a ‘sage’s evil.’ That’s true.”

“But we’re also supervising the other ‘sages,’ aren’t we~”

“Those ‘sages’ who look grander than us, perched even higher—if they lacked the channel of the media to oversee them, who could guarantee that ‘sacred evil’ wouldn’t run even more rampant?”

A reconstruction after taking in new thought?

Bai Xiang had no interest in that philosophy, but she did note down this distinctive reporter named “Wang Limu.”

She saved the other’s number and turned up the steps. She found that compared to before, the onlookers around had thinned out drastically.

Especially the media—there wasn’t a single one left. Even the wreckage of equipment she’d smashed in the little grove had been obediently cleaned away; not a trace remained.

The doubt was answered when she knocked open the door to the house, only for Bai Leying to pounce at her with eyes shining: “Waa! It’s Big Sis—”

Bai Xiang slipped aside to avoid the flying tackle, snagged her by the collar so she wouldn’t fall, and asked, “So it already aired?”

“Huh?” Bai Leying blinked up at her. “You can still watch a recording?”

Talking to Bai Leying was always more of a chore.

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After quite a bit of back-and-forth, Bai Xiang finally learned how wide the ripples were from the stone she’d thrown.

“You can’t find the footage anywhere now.”

Inside the dojo, Bai Xiang walked ahead while Bai Leying followed behind, gesturing as she talked.

“But there’s live text! They said you cut down seven dojos in one go!”

“People didn’t want to believe it at first! But even Chilong News covered it! Now they have to believe!”

“Big Sis, you’re savage!” She even punched the air at the end, thrilled.

“Those bastards! They should all be killed! Then stomp their brick-and-mortar underfoot and humiliate them hard!”

As she shouted that slogan, the two of them happened to step into the Shenming Audience Hall behind the training arena.

Bai Shengju sat ramrod-straight in a grand armchair, hand on his teacup, a pair of seemingly cloudy eyes sweeping straight to Bai Leying. Below, Bai Guanshan, Bai Lianzhou, and the rest of the Bai clan sat in two rows.

Bai Leying instantly deflated and scurried to Bai Zhuqing’s side.

She was just about to stick her tongue out at Bai Xiang when her mother Zhu Ying reached over, pinched her ear, and gave her a thorough scolding.

Even Xu Shu is here?

Bai Xiang’s gaze first went to Bai Zhuqing, seated at the far left with head down, pretending to be demure; then she spotted Xu Shu standing to the right, thinking what a full house this was.

Xu Shu had already changed into the white practice uniform of an inner-sect true disciple. Seeing Bai Xiang, he immediately stepped forward to salute her.

“Disciple Xu Shu.”

“Welcomes the First Seat.”

“Everyone up!” Bai Shengju suddenly slapped the table, startling everyone into standing at once.

Even he himself trembled as he rose, and along with Xu Shu raised his fist-and-palm, trying to offer Bai Xiang the same salute.

That she could not accept.

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Before he could bow, Bai Xiang strode over and supported him, shaking her head lightly. “Grandpa, that’s enough.”

“I owe Shenming a debt of rebirth. Treating me like an outsider isn’t right.”

The other Bai family members, however, had already finished saluting her per the old man’s instruction.

For elders to salute a junior, no matter the reason, felt awkward. But hearing her words now, even face-proud Bai Guanshan felt that awkwardness ease.

“You’ve done such a great thing! And you still won’t let me bow?”

Bai Shengju bristled his beard and glared.

“You think just because you’re blocking me I can’t bow? Just you wait—I’ll find a chance to bow to you in secret!”

“Dad—”

Down below, Bai Guanshan couldn’t listen anymore.

Wh-what kind of talk is that?

Leying and the other youngsters were still here; even if you have to say that, you can’t say it here!

To save his father’s face, he shot looks at his wife Zhu Ying and his younger sister-in-law Shen Xuelan, signaling them to hurry and take the two sisters, along with Bai Mao and Xu, away.

Then he himself met Bai Lianzhou’s eyes, grabbed Xu Shu, and as the second wave slipped out too.

Bai Guanshan wasn’t stupid.

He’d seen the words “Cicada Song” in the live text.

Ever since the old man had summoned them to the hall to await Bai Xiang’s return, none of them had said much.

But everyone understood in their hearts what those two characters might portend.

This concerned the Path and the lineage—nothing in the Bai family right now could outrank it.

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Nothing, including the Sword Dao bout looming at the door.

So leave space for the two of them.

Let them have a proper talk.

As for Bai Xiang… she was still nursing a headache over Bai Shengju’s stubbornness.

But Bai Shengju had his own reason.

“Did you really bring the thing back?”

He fixed on Bai Xiang and asked only that.

His voice trembled; he didn’t dare blink.

“Yes, but…”

Bai Xiang had already told him over the phone; Bai Shengju knew about the Demon Kingdom’s entanglement with the Bai family’s ancestral ground. She knew exactly what Grandpa was asking about.

But that wasn’t a reason for her to accept his bow.

Bai Shengju was stubborn; so was she.

Bai Shengju didn’t care and cried out, “Then I’m bowing to that thing! Not you!” He moved to keep bowing to her.

Helpless, Bai Xiang finally stirred her Qi and Condensed the Aspect, manifesting beside her a phantom of the Startling-Spirit Cicada to redirect Grandpa’s “aggro.”

“Uh…”

Bai Shengju froze a moment at the sight.

Then, stiffly straightening his attire, he trembled to the floor and offered the proper prostration to the phantom.