Volume 2, Chapter 7 – Taking a Master

Bai Xiang went to look at Bai Shengju, but Bai Shengju dragged a small stool over and turned his back to her. “I’m only giving you ten minutes.”

“Can someone go with you and see what you can do?”

With that, he stepped into the house. Whether it was the effect of the treatment or something else, his legs seemed much lighter than before.

“Brother Bai is still the same as ever…” The elegant woman let out a soft sigh, then moved closer to Bai Xiang, circling her once.

Just that one circle, and her gaze dropped straight to Bai Xiang’s chest. She narrowed her eyes at Bai Xiang’s bulletproof vest.

She can even see the exact spot…?

Bai Xiang wondered how she managed that, but since it was someone else’s item after all, she turned around and tugged her vest open a little, pulled down the collar of her tight combat suit, and took out a piece of black silk from between her breasts. Wrapped inside was a short white jade sword.

“Aren’t you very curious how I knew Huang’er was on you, and even knew exactly where it was?”

Seeing the jade sword, the woman’s smile brightened. She took it, shook the silk open, and slowly stroked the sword with her fingers.

Then, before Bai Xiang could answer, she started explaining on her own. “Because it’s not actually ‘jade’ at all, it’s ‘bone’.”

“That’s right. The Jade Phoenix Sword, revered as a holy relic by countless people, is in essence a bone sword.”

There was actually something like that.

Bai Xiang’s curiosity was hooked a little. She couldn’t help probing, “A product of those immortality-seeking types?”

“Eh?” This time it was the elegant woman’s turn to be surprised. She widened her eyes and took another look at Bai Xiang’s cool, delicate face, her brows half-knitting. “You… don’t tell me you’ve already come into contact with some crooked paths of seeking immortality?”

Otherwise how would she jump straight to that? This had nothing to do with IQ or reaction speed; you needed prior experience to even call it by that name.

Thinking of this, the woman’s expression turned urgently serious. “I’m not joking with you. This is a major matter. Tell me in detail about those crooked paths.”

Though she was serious, it was clearly out of concern, not because she wanted to make a big deal of it and pin blame on Bai Xiang.

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Precisely because Bai Xiang could see that, and because of Bai Shengju’s tacit approval earlier, she chose to cooperate. She gave a concise account of how she had been dragged into the demon chaos before this trip, targeted by the Chai father and daughter, chased down by Lü Ran… and what she had gone through in the Shenming Ancestral Ground.

“I see… it was the ‘Transforming Qi Method’?” When the woman finished listening, she finally relaxed, nodding as she thought it over. “The Scripture of Returning to Origin and Transforming Qi, the Transforming Qi Method. I can only say that this scripture does have its unique merits. Some Daos, including even Yuming, have researched it, and they really did make a bit of progress.”

“But in the end it’s hard to put to serious use.” She summed up, “The deeper you cultivate it, the more vicious the damage to the body and the harder it is to save… I’m going to ask you again, carefully now: you truly haven’t practiced the Transforming Qi Method?”

Bai Xiang’s brows knit slightly, but soon smoothed. “I haven’t practiced it, I only inferred that Chai Jingyuan had.”

“If Chai Jingyuan cultivated this demonic method, even if he didn’t die under your sword, he wouldn’t have had many good years left.” The woman nodded again. “He must have known that perfectly well. That’s why he kept breaking taboos.”

“Oh!” She snapped back to herself, turned fully toward Bai Xiang, and straightened up into a very proper posture.

“My name is Xiang Xian.”

“Maybe you’ve heard of me from Bai Shengju.”

So it really was Xiang Xian.

Bai Xiang understood.

Another person from Yuming, acquainted with Bai Shengju, and senior enough to call him “Brother Bai”—there was basically no one else she could be besides Xiang Xian.

After all, Yuming Sword Dao was far away in Yujing, the most powerful Dao-sect in the capital of Great Yu. A sect master of that level normally had nothing to do with some run-down little Dao-sect.

The only link could be her own aunt, Bai Nianchan. And the “quasi-master” Bai Nianchan had acknowledged back then was Xiang Xian.

With that, Bai Xiang understood why Bai Shengju had shown that attitude, and also why Xiang Xian had displayed that kind of concern the instant she saw her.

Most likely it was the same knot in the heart as with Grandfather’s sword duel—everything lumped together as “unresolved regrets”…

More than ten years ago, Xiang Xian had discovered a stunningly brilliant young aunt in Chilong Circuit. But because she wanted to play it safe, she chose to let her stay and temper herself in her hometown for a few more years instead of taking her straight back to Yujing. That led to the later tragedy with the Heir of Nanling.

Bai Shengju had blamed himself, and of course he’d blamed Xiang Xian as well.

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Especially afterward, when Auntie killed the Heir of Nanling and was arrested and thrown into the death prison. You could say the entire hope of the Bai family rested on Xiang Xian. Yet she had hardly been able to make any difference.

Even when the death sentence was finally passed and the Bai family only begged to have the body returned, Xiang Xian still couldn’t even accomplish that. It made her seem like she was of no use at all.

Though from Grandfather’s account, it couldn’t be entirely blamed on her—“even Xiang Xian herself couldn’t get in”—to say there wasn’t even a shred of grievance in her heart would be impossible.

“What happened to your aunt is the regret of my life.”

From the tiny shifts in Bai Xiang’s expression, Xiang Xian had already guessed that she’d heard of her, so she opened the topic up fully and didn’t intend to avoid anything.

“For many years, I never came back here. Because I always felt I’d failed your grandfather, and failed her, who trusted me so much.”

“I always think, if only time could go back, I could jump in before she even left the house and cut everything off at the source.”

“But of course that’s impossible.”

She stood in front of Bai Xiang, looking straight down at her face.

“I thought I would never have the chance to come back here, until I heard that something had happened to Fang Xiaochun’s daughter, and that the key figure who turned things around was a seventeen-year-old Sword-Track student named ‘Bai Xiang’.”

“I won’t hide my wish to reconnect with the Bai family. I believe you can see that.”

She nodded quite seriously.

“But I need you to understand: the reason I came here, while it does include guilt and all that, is mainly because of you.”

“Not because of your talent, but because I was drawn to your character.”

“When I rushed to Chilong, my impression of you only stayed at ‘upholding the greater good,’ ‘precocious wisdom,’ and ‘knowing when to advance and retreat’.”

Upholding the greater good referred to Bai Xiang not retreating in the face of demon chaos, going alone to help.

Precocious wisdom referred to her quickly seeing through the Demon Pool variant “Shenli”—more or less “using keen intellect to defeat a stronger foe.”

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And as for knowing when to advance and retreat, that was definitely pointing to her returning the Dingbo Sword in public after resolving the demon chaos.

That move had seemed minor. At the time almost no one present mentioned it, but in reality it had had a decisive influence on the series of strategies and personnel deployments that followed in Chilong.

This was already beyond what “precocious” could describe. You could even call it political thinking, the kind of knack you only grasp after years of grinding through society and the workplace.

So how could one person be both “fierce and fearless” and “seasoned and steady” at the same time?

Such contradictory traits appearing together in a seventeen-year-old Sword-Track student—this really made Xiang Xian curious about her.

“Coming here to find you, I basically got the door slammed in my face…”

Xiang Xian pouted slightly.

“And then today I saw what you did… all those reports, and what you just told me yourself… That’s when I realized that you’re not only extraordinary in character, even your talent is far beyond what I expected.”

“Seventeen years old, at the Condensing the Aspect realm.”

“Seventeen years old, at the Condensing the Aspect realm, able to slay a Three-Tribulation Great Demon.”

“I want to take you as my disciple.”

“What do you say?”

Having poured out everything on her mind in one breath, Xiang Xian watched Bai Xiang nervously, waiting for her final answer.

Compared to when she “won over” Bai Nianchan back then, this time she was lowering herself far more. Everything she said screamed one word: sincerity.

This was also because, with her experience, she had seen Bai Xiang’s inner nature. She knew this child definitely responded to softness, not hardness. If she wanted to achieve her goal, she could only treat her with genuine sincerity; even the slightest hint of scheming might cause trouble.

And she really had judged correctly.

Bai Xiang had originally not been interested in her. After all, Bai Shengju’s attitude was “I’m only giving you ten minutes,” not “saying nothing and just walking in.”

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Her Dao path was unique, every step she took from here on would be a new road. She didn’t think taking Xiang Xian as her master would teach her much.

But with the other party being so sincere, while she hadn’t been fully moved at first, she gradually began to think… Xiang Xian’s status was Dao Lord of Yuming.

A Dao Lord of one of the Nine Great-level Daos, a sect master—how high must her cultivation be? How many secret classics and hidden truths must she know?

Also, she’d said earlier that Yuming Sword Dao had researched The Scripture of Returning to Origin and Transforming Qi and understood the Transforming Qi Method. By extension, they surely had studied other crooked paths of seeking immortality as well.

For ordinary people, those techniques were undoubtedly crooked paths. But for Bai Xiang, not necessarily.

If she missed this chance to hitch a ride on a passing carriage, was she going to go hunt down those texts one by one on her own?

Not to mention, she had already made enemies outside.

Demon-Immortal Dao, Qingya Sword Dao, and quite possibly Liang Qiusheng as well.

She herself wasn’t afraid, but she had to think of the dojo, of those junior brothers and sisters, of the disciples who had chosen to stay on so resolutely at a time like this.

So after weighing it all, Bai Xiang changed her mind.

She looked straight at Xiang Xian and nodded. “All right.”

Eh?

Xiang Xian froze, her neck jerking forward.

But I’d prepared so many heartfelt lines!

How did it end up… being this easy…