Volume 2, Chapter 9 – Hidden Threat

“Xiang’er, this is the last thing… there’s something I need to explain to you.”

Xiang Xian had been watching Bai Xiang’s face the whole time. When she saw her gaze start to wander later on, she knew there was no point in talking further.

They hadn’t known each other long. If she kept lecturing right from the start, no kid would like that. So she decided to end tonight’s talk here, but she had to leave her with the most important warning for now.

“It’s about tomorrow’s Sword Dao bout,” Bai Xiang guessed what she was going to say.

“You’re quick-witted.” Xiang Xian praised, and her expression grew serious again. “Aren’t you curious why a duel between two second-rate Dao-sects is causing such a huge stir?”

The wording was a bit blunt, but among their own there was no need to speak in riddles—call one one and two two, nothing shameful about admitting it. Before recovering the ancient methods, Shenming Sword Dao really was second-rate, and couldn’t even compare to Chengfeng Sword Dao.

“I can guess a bit.” Bai Xiang nodded. “On my way back, I chatted with Lord Cao, the functionary from the State Chancery. He hinted this was the ‘technology faction’ stirring things up.”

“The technology faction?” Xiang Xian froze for a moment, then nodded. “That fits… The New Affairs faction has a lot of names. Some call it the technology faction, some call it the Westernization faction. But in the higher circles, they basically all call it the ‘New Affairs faction’—that term is more neutral.”

Neutral.

Even the way you say the name has to be so particular.

Bai Xiang’s eyes flickered slightly. She suddenly realized that Great Yu’s current situation might be much worse than she’d imagined.

“Our Great Yu is a sacred dynasty blessed by heaven, with countless scriptures, Daoist canons, paths, and rites,” Xiang Xian said, tapping her chin lightly. “But we must understand this is no longer the ancient age. The spread of firearms and of science has caused great civilizations to leap forward.”

“When some of us are still clinging to old rules, the foreign creeds have not stopped moving.”

“In fact, because their ancient arts are not as comprehensive as Sword Dao, and don’t give them the same control over the Outward Aspect, they simply chose to pour everything into the road of science.”

“It doesn’t take much of a gap. Just a few decades, and the difference in accumulated technology between the two sides can grow very large.”

Xiang Xian was already putting it as gently as possible. Put bluntly, what she meant was this: because some in Great Yu were standing still, thinking that with so many sect scriptures and Sword Dao paths they could go on ruling this new world, they ignored developing New Affairs—namely, science and technology. As a result, Great Yu now lagged far behind the outside nations in this field.

Bai Xiang immediately thought of her Nokia brick phone, her slow internet speed… and the search results that often came back as “content not displayed.”

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It didn’t count as full-on isolationism, but calling it “stagnant and complacent” was not unfair.

“Let me give you an example.” Xiang Xian drew in a deep breath. “To our… south, Luo Hou has already signed agreements with many countries to jointly begin ‘land clearing’.”

Land clearing.

Bai Xiang instinctively recalled what she’d seen in mandatory history classes. This “land clearing” wasn’t about opening up fields for farming, but about large-scale sweeping and even eradication of the wild scrub and forests outside, linking scattered villages into towns, then expanding towns and small cities into large cities.

It was an extremely dangerous undertaking, because there were many demons and aberrations in the wild forests. Without enough mechanized troops, there was no way to achieve such cross-border goals.

Knowing this, Bai Xiang immediately understood Great Yu’s current embarrassment.

Because Luo Hou was no great power.

In ancient times, Luo Hou was also called Shinu, and you could tell from the name alone how low their status had been. That country had once been one of Great Yu’s many vassals. Even now, Great Yu still had a “Shinu Protectorate” set up at the very edge of the southern mountain range of Chilong Circuit. Beyond that lay Luo Hou.

“Luo Hou is having a movement at home, demanding that we change the Protectorate’s prefix from ‘Shinu’ to ‘Luo Hou’, saying the former is too disrespectful to them.”

Xiang Xian pressed her lips together. “The court debated this for a full two months.”

“Some said changing it would violate ancestral law and go against proper rites.”

“Some said changing it would only teach them to push their luck, and the Shinu people would ask for more afterward.”

“In the end, most opposed it, because the ministers who supported the name change had one more proposal: ‘use this to build ties with Luo Hou’s Engineering Institute and invite their scholars to Yujing to lecture’.”

Wouldn’t that be indirectly admitting they were more advanced, and that they were the ones left behind?

The corner of Bai Xiang’s mouth twitched.

No kidding—what court of some feudal dynasty could swallow that kind of humiliation? Of course they’d oppose it.

“So did they change it?” Bai Xiang was curious about the final result.

“They did.” Xiang Xian showed a kindly smile. “The excuse was that Luo Hou had waited too long and lost patience. They directly goaded the Protectorate into a land-clearing competition. The Protectorate lost, the news got back, and for the sake of face they had no choice but to change it.”

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“And the scholar exchange?” Bai Xiang asked again.

“Of course there wasn’t any.” Xiang Xian smiled even more sweetly. “If we had been the ones to propose it first, that might have been different. But with things ending up like this…”

There was no need to finish the sentence.

The Imperial House had to save face.

Bai Xiang could only sigh inwardly at how textbook that ending was.

That was how feudal dynasties worked. The soldiers at the front just had to obey orders; in the rear, the court ministers thought far too much.

“In any case, the Imperial House must have been stung by that incident.” Xiang Xian nodded again. “The New Affairs faction is rising at the moment. Of course, that doesn’t mean they want to abandon Sword Dao—only that some people want to see new possibilities.”

After speaking of this, Xiang Xian specially called out a farewell to Bai Shengju from outside the house, but got no response.

She didn’t mind. She waved to Bai Xiang and left.

Once she was gone, Bai Shengju immediately came out of the house, a little nervous as he said to Bai Xiang, “How about I go up there tomorrow instead?”

Xiang Xian hadn’t spelled things out, but both of them had heard very clearly—she was hinting to the Bai family that tomorrow’s duel involved some struggle between the New Affairs faction and the traditionalists, which was why it was drawing so much attention.

So here was the question: both Chengfeng Sword Dao and Shenming Sword Dao belonged to the traditional side. In theory, this match had nothing to do with the New Affairs faction.

The Bai family definitely wasn’t New Affairs, so that only left the other side.

The Dao Lord of Chengfeng Sword Dao, Liu Mengqing, had probably already thrown in with the New Affairs faction.

Her strength couldn’t be measured as just Divine Union anymore. She might very well have undergone biochemical enhancement long ago.

If Bai Xiang didn’t reveal her true strength and suddenly stepped onto the stage, she might catch them off guard.

But after the uproar that afternoon, anyone could guess that the one stepping into the ring tomorrow would, with high probability, be this seventeen-year-old at the Condensing the Aspect realm. If the New Affairs faction cared that much about the result of this duel, would they really have no contingency plans?

They’d built the stage so grand, hyped it so hard—obviously not to make a name for the Bai family.

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In Bai Shengju’s view, once things involved that kind of larger situation and greater struggle, the power of an individual was just too small.

The best-case scenario might be Liu Mengqing temporarily taking some forbidden drug and her strength skyrocketing.

And the worst-case… might not even come from the ring itself.

“Don’t worry, Grandpa.”

Bai Xiang was never going to let Bai Shengju take the field.

“What I showed wasn’t all my strength.”

“Really? Cough, cough, cough… There’s something like that, cough cough cough…”

Bai Shengju was skeptical, and bent over coughing again.

Why wasn’t this illness getting any better?

Bai Xiang frowned and quickly helped him back to rest.

Meanwhile, in the Inspectorate building shrouded in night, furious shouts were echoing out of its most authoritative office.

“You gave it to them…?”

“How could you give it to them?”

“Worn down? You can guarantee they won’t see anything in the footage?”

“Bullshit! Don’t feed me that crap!”

“I told you this afternoon to send people to get new tapes, didn’t I? Wouldn’t listen, huh? Do you have any idea how many people are watching this right now?”

“If it weren’t that I’m not free to move, you think I’d be sitting here talking to you?”

“A bunch of useless trash!”

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Slamming the receiver back onto its cradle, Zhang Daoming still couldn’t calm his anger. He started pacing circles around the office.

The way he was acting was no different from an ant on a hot pan.

It should have been a bit of a ridiculous scene, but the other person present had no mood to laugh.

“Please don’t be angry, Chief Inspector.”

This man wore the black uniform of the Inspectorate Police, with a square face. It was none other than Inspector Han Li, who had been caught up in the No. 1 High School demon chaos with them before.

“We’ve already stalled them for at least four hours. Even if they got the full tape, there isn’t much time left.”

“You don’t understand those lunatics…” Zhang Daoming’s expression didn’t improve in the slightest.

“To say something utterly heretical, compared to them, I think Demon-Immortal Dao is more human.”

“Chief Inspector, mind your words!”

Han Li’s expression changed.

“You think I’m joking?” Zhang Daoming laughed.

“If you trust me, go home and tell your family this—don’t buy any more of those cold and cough meds for a while.”

“Huh?” Han Li was stunned, not quite following how the topic had jumped here.

“Forget it, forget it.” Zhang Daoming quickly waved his hand.

“Pretend I never said it.”

“Pretend I never said it.”