The Dao Discussion Platform erupted into uproar. The gathered cultivators were dumbstruck. Had the great deity appeared halfway only to retreat again, all in response to Xue Cuo’s invitation?
Bai Xianmei, determined not to lose face, stood with her hands behind her back, as if all this had been expected. Yet her movement as she sat was somewhat heavy. Her expression remained calm, her smile serene, but inwardly she was furiously cursing the heavens.
What an insatiable Gongming Tiansi!
What a shameless two-faced bird god! How much tribute had he taken from her, only to turn his back and deny her existence!
He’d truly swallowed the words “upright and fair” like a dog devouring offal. Is there still justice under heaven? Is there still law?
Bai Xianmei struggled to contain her wrath, muttering a calming mantra to transform her coarse thoughts into peace.
Xue Cuo stood up, picked up the plate Bai Luoluo had knocked over, cleaned it, and set it back on the table.
At that moment, Kong Yun vaulted up from below. With delicate features, hands clasped behind his back and head held high, he paced the platform in measured steps.
“It’s obvious! It’s you who’ve lost! And Xue Cuo drew his talisman in an instant. Surely he’s far superior!”
Xue Cuo’s cheeks flushed at the praise. I’m not quite that good, he thought.
Wen Renyi and the others cheered, leaping onto the platform. “Yes, Xue-shixiong has won the debate! What else have you to say?”
“No argument, no clarity. No debate, no understanding! Now the victor is clear, what else is there to argue?”
“Who’s true scripture and who’s false is plain as day!”
Bai Luoluo’s face drained of colour as she retreated step by step, staring at Xue Cuo as if she’d seen a ghost. Instinctively, she sought her mother’s aid, but Bai Xianmei remained statuesque, seated high on the cloud, unmoved.
Yes. Mother! Mother is still here.
And with her mother present, what could Xue Cuo possibly do?
Sword Immortal elusive as ever, was rumoured to have taken a cherished disciple by his side. Xue Zhenzhen was the sect’s fearsome Mighty Killing Elder, rarely present in the sect. Xue Cuo was just an egg without a shell, a bird without feathers.
How could he possibly compare?
Besides, possessing such talent at so young an age. Surely he’d resorted to some vile trick!
Bai Luoluo’s breathing grew rapid, her anger swelling. Recalling her own invitation to the gods, her mother had clearly arranged everything beforehand. She had failed to invite them, so how had Xue Cuo succeeded?
He had stolen her chance! Suddenly, fury boiled over. “It was you!”
She raised her voice: “I was the first to summon the gods! What kind of petty rubbish can you call upon?”
Xiaofeng, previously stunned by divine might and longing to ascend alongside such benevolent gods, now snapped back at Bai Luoluo’s prompt, leaping forward to join the chorus: “You used tricks to snatch our senior shijie’s prize!”
A female cultivator on Xue Cuo’s side brandished a sword and cursed: “What utter nonsense!”
A riot of shouts and insults broke out among the cultivators, with accusations flying about each other’s Dao and ancestry. Without restraint, the conflict might well have spilled from the Dao Discussion Platform all the way to Fei’e Palace.
But Xue Cuo remained unruffled. First, his sore bottom hindered his jumping. Second, his mind was elsewhere, unignited by anger. He turned his head, slipped an arm over Kong Yun’s shoulder, and whispered.
“She’s truly riled, refuses to admit it.”
Kong Yun sneered. “I thought so. Hey, what are the chances your parents will show up?”
Xue Cuo clenched his fists, shrugged helplessly.
After a moment’s silence, Kong Yun said, “Then for now, we make a fuss, vent this anger first. Better to get it out before that woman from the cloud moves. Otherwise you’ll get the short end again.”
Having learned from their loss to Bai Luoluo, the two grew more wary.
Xue Cuo scratched his chin and nodded. “Good plan.”
Their whispered talk lasted only moments before they parted.
Xue Cuo prepared to leap three feet in anger, but Kong Yun, more gifted, jumped five feet and shouted:
“You’re rude!”
Wen Renyi’s fury flared as well: “You twist truth and lies! Shameless! Disgusting! Reeking like a stink bug!”
Kong Yun glared at Xiaofeng. “I’ve long wanted to thrash you, disgrace of cultivators!”
Golden Feather Sword flashing, Xiaofeng immediately charged: “Afraid of you?!”
Blades clashed, sword shadows danced, and Kong Yun pressed Xiaofeng fiercely.
Xue Cuo played the calm observer. Arms crossed, he looked up: “Seems Bai-jiejie isn’t ready to admit defeat.”
Bai Luoluo received a whispered message from her mother, and all her gloom vanished. Confidence surged through her. Hands behind her back, a sly smile playing on her lips, no hint of hesitation or panic in her eyes, she declared loudly and firmly: “Admit defeat? Not a chance. I will also interrogate you!”
“Xue Cuo, you’re quite the schemer. Such cunning at such a tender age. I burnt yellow paper, made offerings, three sacrificial animals, everything proper. Plus the Qiankun Merit Incense Burner, and thousand-year-old sacred woods and herbs. The God only appeared because he first recalled my kindness, yet you somehow stole him away!”
“You are utterly despicable!”
Her words stirred confusion among the onlookers. Summoning gods wasn’t unusual in Wendao Palace.
Especially for those from wealthy families whose ancestors were disciples of great sects, everyone carried a few life-saving talismans.
They knew well the importance of pleasing the gods during the summoning process.
Sacrificial animals, immortal herbs, fairy mushrooms—none could be missing.
Xue Cuo, with just some fresh rice and half a cup of thin wine, couldn’t even command a grass god. How then had he summoned the mighty Huode Junshang Gongming Tiansi?
Had he really relied on some nefarious trick to steal Bai-shijie’s chance? If so, he was indeed ambitious and ignoble.
Bai Xianmei sat on her cloud and sighed in relief. Her personal instruction of her daughter had not been in vain.
Refreshed, with a kindly smile, she prepared to offer Xue Cuo some guidance at this crucial moment. All of a sudden, the child suddenly revealed a mocking sneer.
His hair tied in a bud, a red rope binding it, short and stout in stature, with a clear, crisp voice and eyes like twinkling stars, he said: “I stole from jiejie?”
Xue Cuo shook his sleeves, stood before the desk, picked up his brush, and gathered his spirit.
At first, a few cultivators still murmured, but once Xue Cuo began to draw the talisman head, all fell silent.
The Dao was something they often encountered, yet could never grasp.
Cultivators were sensitive to the Dao’s rhythm, image, and spirit. As soon as Xue Cuo took up his brush, a strange, harmonious, utterly natural Dao rhythm emerged—like the growth of all things, the rotation of the four seasons, the rise of sun and fall of moon—ancient and pure.
The quill was as green as crystal and bright as stars and moonlight.
Dipped in golden ink, held by a small white hand, it touched the white talisman paper.
Flowing and vivid, the brush danced like a dragon or snake, completing the talisman in one breath.
The talisman’s beauty was strange and captivating. Xue Cuo set down his brush; the talisman paper soared up, bursting into ash with a whoosh.
In the Zhibiao Hall, a new official letter was dispatched to the Guangming Hall of Huode Junshang. The immortal in charge of sorting gasped: “My l-l-lord, another official letter with a red header!”
All the immortals exclaimed in unison: “Hurry and deliver it!”
The steward plucked a whisker from his beard, snatched up the letter, and hastened off without touching the ground to seek His Lordship Gongming Tiansi.
Gongming Tiansi was resting in his mansion, just about to study the letter when the steward slid in on one knee, holding the letter high.
“Report! Grandpa Tiansi, another official letter has arrived!”
Huode Junshang snatched up the letter addressed to Gongming Tiansi, scanned it, then commanded his attendants, “Quick, fetch more fairy dew! This Lord has matters to attend!”
Lord of Literature protested, “My Lord, the number of divine manifestations this month is down to just two. If you use them up now, you’ll have to wait until next month to descend again.”
Gongming Tiansi slapped him sharply, sending the Lord of Literature coughing up blood from his mouth and nose. “I said go when I said go! No more noise!”
On the Dao Discussion Platform,
Bai Luoluo laughed scornfully, “What a farce! Xue Cuo, you even got the words ‘drawing the talisman to summon the gods’ wrong! Still, you dare to argue? Now the truth is plain to see!”
Her expression twisted suddenly as she pressed forward, closing the gap step by step. “You stole my opportunity and tarnished my reputation! I won’t tolerate it!”
Xue Cuo snorted, ready to fire back.
At that moment, the sky suddenly churned with rolling red clouds and gathering golden light. The cultivators looked up in astonishment. The clouds parted to reveal a narrow slit, petals fluttered, and celestial music floated on the breeze.
A vigorous god in red robes appeared, his jade belt fluttering, divine radiance blazing. Riding a white cloud, he descended mid-air, showered Xue Cuo with sweet rain and dew, then nodded kindly before ascending once more.
Only moments passed.
Nearly a thousand cultivators on the Dao Discussion Platform fell utterly silent.
Someone whispered in bewilderment, “A… again?”
Bai Luoluo’s face turned as pale as paper, her breath shallow. Her trembling fingers pushed her back; this was beyond anything she could comprehend.
High above, Bai Xianmei nearly choked in frustration, itching to storm forward wielding her Ice Soul Sword to confront that crude god. Damn that crude god. Utterly intolerable!
She hurriedly sent a message to her daughter, not wishing to seize the moment for double gain. She aimed to reduce a major issue to a minor one, to smooth things over lest she spoil her own plans. So she let Xue Zhenzhen’s son steal the spotlight.
The disciples behind Bai Luoluo turned ghostly pale, silent as if fearful of heavenly thunder striking them down.
Senior shijie… how could Senior shijie be like this?
Xue Cuo pressed her to admit defeat himself. Sitting calmly on his meditation cushion, he enunciated clearly, “Bai-jiejie, do you admit defeat or not?”
Bai Luoluo’s tone had lost its earlier sharpness, now sounding weak, but she gritted her teeth and said, “No! Who said I lost? I think you summoned the gods this time, I did last time! We each have one turn. How can there be admission of defeat? Xue Cuo, this is a draw.”
Her words came faster, full of reluctance, even contradicting her mother’s wishes as she added, “In my view, you should return the treasure bestowed by the gods to me. That’s the just course, and then we’ll be even. How about that?”
Wen Renyi gasped, unable to hold back: “How thick is Bai-shijie’s skin?”
A female cultivator put down her blade and added, “Enough to mend the sky itself.”
Others who had stood behind Bai Luoluo quietly distanced themselves, asking themselves:
Is this truly the immortal sect’s senior shijie?
The genius who emerges once in thousands of years from Wendao Palace?
Xue Cuo showed no anger. He nodded thoughtfully, casually lifting a brush in one hand and drawing talismans with the other.
The talisman was completed swiftly, roughly scrawled but still brimming with Daoist charm.
In Huode Junshang’s Grand Guangming Hall, a little immortal raised his head from the desk and shouted hoarsely, “Find the steward! Another official letter has arrived!”
The immortals chorused, “Find the steward quickly!”
“Is there an immortal-demon war in the mortal realm? Why are these red header letters coming nonstop?”
“Hasn’t the great calamity yet begun?”
“No one knows.”
The steward hurriedly presented the letter to his Lordship Huode Junshang Gongming Tiansi, who immediately summoned the little immortal and manifested his divine presence once more.
By now, Wendao Palace cultivators had grown somewhat numb.
They still reached out to receive the celestial dew, but the awe and fear had considerably waned.
After his divine manifestation, Gongming Tiansi sighed in relief. The steward couldn’t help but ask, “My Lord, why today…?”
Gongming Tiansi smiled and glanced at him. “What do you know? This is a red header official letter. If handled well, it’s a chance to show face before the Great Emperor, and get promoted to immortal rank!”
The steward hastened his praise. “My Lord, your insight is profound!”
Gongming Tiansi laughed heartily. “Hahahahahahaha!”
“But which Great Emperor is it, My Lord?”
Gongming Tiansi replied, “I forgot to check. I shall look into it later.”
Stroking his beard, smug, he opened the letter and read carefully. The steward leaned in, unfamiliar with the Daoist name, fearing his own ignorance, and asked, “My Lord, which Great Emperor is this ‘Butt Pain’?”
Gongming Tiansi: “……”
Meanwhile, Bai Luoluo had no strength left to argue.
Bai Xianmei rose from the cloud, secretly applying her divine-level strength to suppress Xue Cuo, ready to wield her seniority, “Young friend!”
Suddenly—
A cloud drifted in on the wind.
Standing on it was a thin youth in a black robe. His eyes were cold as stars, his face expressionless, as if born without a smile. An ancient sword hung on his back, and in his arms he held a plain-looking bamboo sword. Unhurried, he positioned himself before Bai Xianmei.
“Bai-shibo.”
