Volume 2, Chapter 6 – Night Visitor

Night fell, and the Circuit City lit up with ten thousand lights.

Bai Xiang had already moved with Bai Shengju to his small courtyard and had just finished recounting the events of her trip.

Of course, the ‘edited version,’ roughly the same as what she’d told Huang Qian and the others. It was to keep anyone in the Bai family from letting something slip later and bringing a death sentence down on themselves.

As for the ‘Cicada Molting Method’ hidden within the orthodox practice of the Startling-Spirit Cicada, she was in no hurry to teach that.

She had just tested it: her Qi still couldn’t enter another’s body without harm, but she could transmit vibration into someone else through the sword-vibration formula within the Shenming Sword.

If she could do that, the follow-up became easy.

She at once had Bai Shengju sit outside, took his pulse, and kept sending tiny vibrations through her fingertips, while summoning a spirit phantom before her to reconstruct, within a soul model, the ‘echoes’ her fingers sensed.

In this way, Bai Shengju’s Heart Flow map emerged.

She could then use that picture to aim the ‘vibration’ at the stubborn chronic lesion between his heart and lungs. The principle was much like using a massage gun to break up fatty and blood-stasis nodules.

A few rounds of treatment like this, and Bai Shengju’s condition would surely improve markedly—fulfilling her original goal.

“So that was Chai Jingyuan’s scheme.”

“And this is the true Shenming Sword?”

Savoring both her story and the unique treatment, Bai Shengju sighed with feeling: “They plotted and schemed, only to complete you in the end—evil destroying itself, Heaven opening its eyes!”

At last he added, “Patriarch Muying is a true genius—to derive such technique just from observing a cicada demon’s resonant chamber!”

Bai Xiang had explained to him the essentials of the sword-vibration formula, the wrist-vibration formula, the leg-vibration formula, and the like. Thinking back, many were plainly indicated in the old-style sword arts—almost obvious at a glance.

That I failed to see them shows how dull and clumsy I am—nowhere near the Patriarch.

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“False transmission is ten thousand books; true transmission is one line.”

Noticing his dip in mood, Bai Xiang offered comfort.

“Some things are straightforward—like paper over a window that tears with a poke—but not knowing is not knowing, and not understanding is not understanding. I only grasped it after receiving the Patriarch’s legacy.”

“You’re right!”

Bai Shengju loved hearing her talk principle; at that he beamed.

When other youngsters lectured principle, he disliked it, taking it as posing and overreaching; with Bai Xiang, he was the opposite—a double standard to the hilt.

Not convinced?

Not convinced—go adopt one yourself!

But what realm was she at now?

At that thought, Bai Shengju widened his eyes at Bai Xiang.

Forge the Sword, certainly—she’d just said it was forged from the sword embryo of “Zhenyuan.”

Visualization realm… with the Patriarch’s legacy engraving the scroll straight into her mind, she’d skipped it outright.

Divine Union is the melding of Qi and spirit—Heart Flow must marshal and ride demonic power until the six harmonies are complete, truly taking command of the sword’s Demon Pool and condensing an Outward Aspect with divine abilities.

Bai Xiang could already condense a cicada-demon phantom; the more he thought on it, the more it shocked him.

Wait—what I couldn’t cross in eighty years, you crossed in under eight days?

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Bai Shengju was shocked, then settled; thinking it through, it wasn’t all that outrageous.

Never mind that Forge the Sword has three sub-stages and Condensing the Aspect has three more—jumping six stages in all sounds impressive.

Strictly speaking, he knew there were only two real realms here.

Forge the Sword, and Condensing the Aspect.

He’d been out; he’d seen the world. He knew cultivation wasn’t what the mass messaging to the lower ranks made it out to be—that “Know the Self” alone made you formidable.

For some great schools, Condensing the Aspect was just the baseline for entry.

Especially in antiquity, when eminent dojos sent disciples out, the first metric was Condensing the Aspect.

If you couldn’t even condense an Outward Aspect—didn’t have a single Outward Aspect divine ability—you wanted to go down the mountain? Go play at roaming, at tempering yourself?

Sounded to him like delivering food to monsters!

Why was that?

Why such a gulf between past and present standards?

Because that bar wasn’t set by people; it floated with the environment.

In ancient times, even random beasts could wield Outward Aspect arts—a weasel could call the wind, a rat spirit could fling stones. Without Condensing the Aspect you weren’t even qualified to fight; at first contact you’d be swatted to paste.

So back then, the threshold was Condensing the Aspect.

Modern times are different.

Monsters and the like—modern firearms handle them.

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Only Demon Pools truly require Sword Dao; as the environment grew safer over time, Sword Dao’s status waned, and the standards slid with it.

Seems I underestimated Xiang’er’s talent.

Stroking his beard, the more Bai Shengju looked at Bai Xiang, the more satisfied he was.

Condensing the Aspect at seventeen—talent to rival the legends in the gazetteers.

She could go into the Chilong Circuit gazetteer right now; she absolutely had the standing!

Xiang’er’s talent is second to none; then her future…

Bai Shengju narrowed his eyes, sinking into thought.

“Grandpa.”

Seeing the main matters covered, Bai Xiang finally advanced the topic: “I want you to pass the position to me.”

She was currently Shenming’s First Seat.

But with tomorrow’s duel, she meant to cut in and take the field in his stead; she needed a more persuasive identity—namely, inheriting the Dao Lord’s seat.

She’d thought this was only natural; after all, recovering the ancestral method surely outweighed the knot in Bai Shengju’s heart back then.

It was, if anything, the greater knot!

Bai Xiang believed that once Bai Shengju fully digested the Startling-Spirit Cicada scroll, he could take another step—push from barely six harmonies complete to Condensing the Aspect—and maybe even nurse his body back.

If he could break through, then his reason for holding on would be gone.

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This shouldn’t have been hard.

But to her surprise Bai Shengju shook his head: “You can fight the duel in my place, but the Dao Lord… that I cannot pass.”

Bai Xiang paused. “Please instruct me, Grandpa.”

She didn’t understand.

At worst he could pass it back after; otherwise, a First Seat challenging Liu Mengqing the Dao Lord would draw gossiping tongues.

Explaining the whys cleanly was troublesome; call it the downside of rites and protocol.

“Because he wants you to continue cultivating with me—he doesn’t want a Dao Lord’s title shackling you.”

A woman’s voice drifted in from beyond the wall, and a stately lady in a pale-violet antique-style long dress, sword at her waist and a tied-up paper umbrella in hand, floated down into the courtyard.

Yuming Sword Dao?

Bai Xiang frowned.

She could feel it: ever since the woman appeared, the white-jade short sword tucked at her chest had been vibrating like mad.

“Little Xiang, I know who you are~”

The woman gave her a soft smile.

“But before we go deeper into this topic…”

“Could you return Phoenix to me first?”