Volume 2, Chapter 13 – Game of Wits

The car started moving along the road. Bai Xiang and Bai Shengju, along with the other adults, sat in the first car, while Zhu Ying and Shen Xuelan rode in the second with the children.

Xu Shu hadn’t come—not because the Bai family didn’t trust him, but because they’d entrusted him with guarding the dojo for now, which also showed how much they valued him.

No one in the second car spoke. Aunt-in-law Zhu Ying still looked badly shaken, and the Bai family’s third generation were even worse off—Bai Maoxu was outright clinging to the trash bin, still retching.

“Don’t blame her.” Shen Xuelan was the first to calm down and spoke up to the others, stepping in for Bai Xiang. “She didn’t do anything wrong.”

Bai Leying was sitting opposite her, curled up in the leather seat as she tried to fight down her nausea. At those words, her eyes flew wide.

Even if I also think Sis did nothing wrong, Second Aunt’s saying it way too bluntly!

“Blah blah blah… urp?”

Bai Maoxu also stared, lifting his head in disbelief that his own mother would say that.

“The ‘Lord Tao’ he mentioned is Tao Xingxuan, Sword Dao Association, Qizhou Branch President.” Shen Xuelan went on to analyze it for them. “This man’s intent is extremely vicious, because given his post and position, today’s situation should never have happened.”

Today’s situation… was she talking about Bai Xiang killing someone, or about him deliberately sending a subordinate who behaved so rudely?

“It’s the Sword Dao bout!” Bai Zhuqing blurted out. “Grandpa said before that Sword Dao bouts are very hard to get approved, especially now that there are fewer people practicing the sword. The Imperial House even issued the Pacification Law the year before last to restrict these life-and-death arenas!”

“For Liu to apply, it shouldn’t have been approved that fast.” Shen Xuelan nodded, pressing her lips together. “She didn’t apply early… because she couldn’t possibly have predicted ahead of time that Old Master would fall ill during that period.”

Her wording was a bit tangled, and the others had to think it over before they fully understood—this was essentially saying that Liu Mengqing only submitted the application after discovering Bai Shengju’s condition. But instead of getting stuck in normal review procedures, it had practically been approved on the spot.

Oh… then this Lord Tao really was a bit suspicious…

Zhu Ying finally caught up as well, a cold sweat breaking out across her back.

For someone in a position like his, every move carried deeper meaning. He’d deliberately sent a subordinate to receive them, yet deliberately had him act rudely—that could easily be read as a threat.

The arena’s about to start.

Will you choose to lose and earn our friendship, or choose another path and end up dead in a drainage ditch with the truth never known? Time to make up your mind.

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Was that really… what it meant?

Zhu Ying was a little frightened.

It wasn’t that she reacted slowly. It was just that she came from a merchant family, and her way of thinking was completely different from someone like Shen Xuelan, whose father had been in the bureaucracy.

“The only reason Tao Xingxuan pushed the application through is that he already had a deal with some people… including this Liu.” Shen Xuelan continued analyzing the cause. “They’ve formed an interest bloc, and the reason they’re forcing this duel is because there’s a bigger demand in play behind it—something more important than win or loss.”

“And I suspect… Xiang’er has firmly chosen the other side.”

At this point, Shen Xuelan could only sigh inwardly.

With the information she had access to, this was as far as she could go in her analysis.

There were just some things she wouldn’t say—that this might not have been “Bai Xiang’s choice” at all.

Just look at the ads and flyers they’d been putting out these past days—the focus was almost entirely on Liu Mengqing, all about building hype for Chengfeng Sword Dao.

And the Bai family? Old Master Bai?

In the better cases, that woman’s flyers had a silhouette of Bai Shengju printed behind her.

In the worse ones, he wasn’t even there at all. So where was this “choice” supposed to come from?

Without a doubt, whatever those people were after, they’d already chosen Chengfeng Sword Dao and Liu Mengqing as their spokesperson. That meant Shenming Sword Dao—the ones who had to stand opposite that spokesperson on the platform and fight to the death—could only be in the opposing camp, with no room at all for reconciliation.

Without the tacit approval of those big shots, how could there possibly be so many reporters and idlers here, given the network Xiang’er had just from saving the State Governor’s daughter?

Shen Xuelan had long suspected something and had used her father’s connections to inquire everywhere, but came up with nothing.

Having grown up around her father’s ways, she knew: getting nothing was itself an answer.

And the worst one—it meant nearly all neutral forces and channels had chosen to sit back and watch for now.

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Faced with the hostile Tao Xingxuan, the Bai family couldn’t rely on anyone. You could even say they’d reached the brink of life and death.

That was why Xiang’er had to offer blood to the sword.

She meant to use her own power and talent to carve out a path by force—on one hand clearly choosing the other camp, and on the other, cutting herself clean from Tao Xingxuan’s faction.

Very clever…

The more she turned it over in her mind, the more deeply Shen Xuelan was shaken by Bai Xiang’s intelligence.

Because there was an unwritten rule here that a “newbie” would find hard to grasp—when your own chips weren’t enough, the last thing you should do was waver.

Meanwhile, at Jinhua Comprehensive Sword Dao Hall, the designated venue for this duel, in a closed box high above the floor, Tao Xingxuan set his phone down with a dark expression.

He was a square-faced, big-nosed middle-aged man with drooping cheeks.

He wore a black formal Western-style suit, a blue striped tie, and brown-black leather shoes. Even his hair was combed back, slicked into place with hair gel.

He sat in a grand Taishi chair with his legs spread, taking up space boldly. On the side table by his arm lay a stack of documents, a fountain pen, and a set of top-grade black-crystal, cloud-patterned glass teaware.

“Oh… is that so!? She’s got some nerve, doesn’t she!”

“All right, I understand! Behavior like this must be severely punished! Yes, I’ll speak to Lord Tao about it.”

To the left, at the other end of the square table, sat Fang Xiaochun, also on and off the phone.

Today, Fang Xiaochun wore a pure black archaic-style long robe, with gold-edged water patterns along the hem, blue-edged cloud patterns at the cuffs, and retro square-toed shoes. His posture was much more proper than the man on the right.

“Lord Fang…”

Once Fang Xiaochun put his phone away, Tao Xingxuan finally spoke through a stormy face. “Have you thought it over?”

“Mm?” Fang Xiaochun slid the phone into his sleeve, his tone rising slightly. “Thought what over?”

“…Naturally, the Bai family’s application.”

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Tao Xingxuan was straining to hold down his anger. “Changing the format when we’re already at the last minute! Where in the world is there such a thing?”

“Oh…” Fang Xiaochun rubbed his eye sockets hard, looking a little tired. “You mean changing the sect master duel format to a ring system, and adding a chief-seat bout before the duel between Dao Lords Bai and Liu. That, yes?”

“…” Tao Xingxuan fell silent, his face growing darker and darker.

They’d already discussed all this just now—there was no way Fang Xiaochun had forgotten. So if he was repeating it here, it could only mean he had some other point.

“Lord Fang.” Tao Xingxuan softened his tone. “The tides of the world roll on, vast and unstoppable.”

“There are some things you must think thrice about.”

“Since when did Lord Tao start talking like an old-school traditionalist?” Fang Xiaochun laughed. “Thinking about how good the ancestors had it?”

“All right…”

Seeing the other man was about to blow like a powder keg, Fang Xiaochun finally let the topic drop and took up the documents to look them over.

“Regarding this, we’ve hyped it up so much and there’s so much public attention. The common folk definitely won’t want it to be over in a snap.”

“Lord Fang?” Tao Xingxuan’s expression changed.

Before he could react, he saw Fang Xiaochun pick up the fountain pen and, with a few strokes, sign his name at the bottom of the form.

“Young people are the future too.”

Having made this final decision, Fang Xiaochun grinned across the table.

“This is also ‘modern’ and ‘enlightened’.”

“What do you think, Lord Tao?”

“Hmph!”

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Tao Xingxuan couldn’t keep his face straight any longer. He shot to his feet in fury and left on the spot.

“My lord…”

In less than a second, Cao Chuan stepped in from outside, still in his sunglasses, and spoke to Fang Xiaochun. “My lord, have you made your decision…?”

“There was no ‘decision’ to make.”

Fang Xiaochun had a good relationship with him, and rolled his eyes at him at that.

“Some things were nailed in place the moment you stepped onto this road.”

“And you still think you can change them?”

“You can’t.”

He sighed as he said it.

After all, everyone knew what he’d relied on to climb to his position.

How was someone like him supposed to change?

If he really did, wouldn’t that make the Imperial House see him as fickle and hypocritical?

“The only variable…”

As the thought ran deeper, Fang Xiaochun’s gaze dropped again to the document.

Better than nothing, at least.

Shaking his head, he simply let his mind relax and had Cao Chuan fetch his favorite tea from the car.