Chapter 57: Bai Hu Da Zong!

Li Guanyi was gone.

After Xue Daoyong and General Yue Qianfeng drove off that assassin ranked tenth in the world, they rushed here at once—or rather, that assassin withdrew of his own accord; he was no death warrior, and once he realized that even while resting and waiting at ease, wielding a divine weapon, and clad in a precious armor, he still could not do anything to these two old fools,

and that there was even a chance they would beat him to death on the spot, he gave up the target without the slightest hesitation.

He turned and left.

Still, General Yue Qianfeng landed a fist on him; Yue Qianfeng hooked back with one hand and tore off part of the Black Dragon precious armor from his body, and then the old gentleman shot an arrow clean through him, making him spurt fresh blood and leave while coughing violently.

Don't pursue a cornered foe, and what's more, Li Guanyi was still being hunted. After this incident, General Yue Qianfeng and Xue Daoyong no longer had any heart to fight each other. When they rushed over, all that met their eyes was a scene of utter devastation. General Yue Qianfeng crouched low, swept his palm over the bodies of those assassins, and said:

"…He died under the blade of the Eight Breaking Army Blades."

"Five or six assassins surrounded and killed him. He fought as he fled, was bound here by chains that locked his weapons, and someone killed his horse—he couldn't run. Five men closed in for the kill; his spear broke, his bow broke. From the traces here, he was hit by crossbow bolts—three of them…"

General Yue Qianfeng's voice was calm.

His voice grew colder and colder.

He stood up and said: "Alive, I must see him; dead, I must see his corpse."

"Old thing, I'm not going to fight you first. It's the splinter branch of the Mohist school. I'll go find their lair. You're the local snake—search here."

Divine sense could not detect Li Guanyi's aura here.

The Crimson Dragon's roar surged skyward. General Yue Qianfeng's eyes were full of killing intent as he went straight ahead to continue searching.

Xue Daoyong took a deep breath. He bent down and pressed his palm over the warhorse's eyes.

He let it close its eyes.

Seeing the bloodstains all around and knowing how fierce the recent fighting had been, he gripped the broken Rainbow Bow, hurried back to the city to bring men. But he had only traveled halfway when he already saw the Xue family's guest ministers rushing over. These guest ministers breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly saluted, and said: "Old Master!"

Xue Daoyong said: "Why are you here?"

The truth was that after Li Guanyi left, Xue Shuangtao had also ridden hard straight for the Xue family.

The girl, dressed in an elaborate skirt, galloped along the main road into the Xue family compound, then dismounted without a care for anything, tumbling to the ground. The old master ruled his household with extreme strictness; to protect the Xue family, without the family head's token, no one could mobilize the entire body of Xue family guest ministers.

Xue Shuangtao pressed a dagger against her own throat—blood already flowing—forcing these guest ministers to disregard the family head's token and rush out in full force.

Xue Shuangtao, together with Changsun Wuchou and several renowned scholars, went to the Guanyi City General's Residence to ask the defending general to dispatch troops outside. In the short span of time the old master had been fighting, everyone in the city had already gone out, swept clean those wanted fugitives, and clashed in several waves with the scattered, routed assassins.

The guest ministers who arrived were all stained with blood and breathed a sigh of relief:

"It's more than enough that you're unharmed."

He paused, then said: "Where is Guest Minister Li?"

The old man did not answer. He only gripped the broken Rainbow Bow. Grief flickered in his eyes. He stretched out a hand, pointed outside, and said: "Find him."

The guest minister didn't catch on: "What?"

Xue Daoyong's face twitched, and he said:

"Even if it means spending every last coin the Xue family has—dig three feet deep all across the land outside Guanyi City!"

"Tell everyone in Guanyi City: whoever finds him, I'll give him a whole street of shops, ten thousand taels of gold, a lifetime of wealth and glory he could never finish enjoying!"

"Alive, I must see him; dead, I must see his corpse!"

"Find him for me—NOW!!!"

……………………

Yaoguang carried Li Guanyi back, and using the secret arts of the Eastern Lands' Star-Gazing School, she communicated with the abilities of Bai Hu Da Zong from five hundred years ago and the previous generation's Yaoguang, concealing the aura of this mountain stream. Like a stubborn rock, not to mention martial artists unaccustomed to perception, even another branch of the Star-Gazing School coming here would find it hard to glimpse this place.

That assassin's eyes went wide as he stared at this place, as if realizing something.

Starlight—white hair?

Yaoguang rummaged through the pouch on her back and pulled out a black sack.

She pulled it over the assassin's head.

Then, holding Li Guanyi, she looked at the mountain stream, stepped lightly out, and plunged into the water. Her qi circulated in a manner different from a martial artist's, parting the water; the water became streams that circled around her, flecked with specks of starlight.

In the water she swam along, holding the youth by the wrist, starlight scattered all around.

Yaoguang's silver-white long hair swayed gently in the water, her gaze calm and serene, like a water deity. Only Li Guanyi was asleep and did not see this scene. Yaoguang brought him into the cavern behind the waterfall. She went ashore first; her clothes were not wet. Then she turned, gripped Li Guanyi's hands with both of hers, leaned her body back with force, and pulled the youth up onto the shore.

Expressionless, she braced her knees and gasped for breath several times.

She raised her head and saw the radiance of the stars rising, point by point. Her stamina was poor; having reached this place, she could only stand behind Li Guanyi, grab him with both hands, and slowly shuffle him toward the center. Xue Shen sat cross-legged there, still seeming to wear a faint smile.

At the very center of the cavern, the rock above split open; though it was clearly daytime, it seemed one could glimpse starlight through it.

Yaoguang straightened her plain clothes, took off her hood, and quietly knelt forward beneath this starlight. She pressed her palms together, lowered her eyes, and softly chanted the maxims of the Eastern Lands' Star-Gazing School. Starlight gathered, and beside the god-general who sat cross-legged, calm and at ease, the gathered starlight coalesced into another woman.

Black hair hung down; her appearance was plain, serene, and quiet.

Between her brows was a golden mark, the same as Yaoguang's.

The radiance of the stars descended here. The phantoms of the past and the young people of the present sat in the positions of the Four Symbols. This was the True Mystical Realm—the contingency Xue Shen had prepared for the world of later generations. Only when a true Bai Hu Da Zong appeared, and the Yaoguang who assisted Bai Hu Da Zong also came to this place, could it be fully unfolded.

In the records of the Eastern Lands' Star-Gazing School, the radiance of the stars flowing across the sky must cross the years. The streaming light that left the White Tiger Seven Mansions five hundred years ago, after a long passage of time, arrived in the mortal world and fell here, forging this bond of inheritance across those five hundred years.

The black-haired woman lowered her eyes, pressed her palms together, and softly chanted in the ancient language of the star-gazers.

Hazy starlight gathered.

Within Li Guanyi's body, qi finally dispersed outward, connecting heaven and earth with the human body.

Though it was clearly broad daylight, the starlight in the sky blazed bright.

Streaks of flowing light descended, falling upon the quietly sleeping Li Guanyi. The flowing light that lit up in all corners of the cavern gathered, and beneath Li Guanyi it transformed into layer upon layer of intricate characters and patterns. Li Guanyi's entry into the realm was complete; the aura belonging to him burst forth from his body, linking with heaven and earth.

This heart without stain, this body tempered by a hundred battles.

It was the most superior of foundations.

Stars gathered; the streaming light of the White Tiger Seven Mansions descended.

Beside the youth, the White Tiger Dharma Idol revealed itself beneath the starlight.

Still just a tender young cub, it bathed in the starlight, raised its head and roared. Then, nourished by the power of the stars, it began to transform—its form, once no larger than a great cat, gradually stretched out; lifting its head to roar again, it grew into a normal white tiger over seven chi in length, poised to howl and complete this breakthrough into a new realm.

The Bronze Tripod hummed softly.

Chi Long and Xuan Gui greedily devoured the aura from Bai Hu.

They forcibly slowed Bai Hu's transformation.

But starlight was endless, available for the taking.

As if encountering a capacity unmatched by any Bai Hu Da Zong in the past three thousand years.

Li Guanyi absorbed four times the stellar power.

Only when the scales of Chi Long became truly solid and the patterns on Xuan Gui's shell grew clear, and another aura remained behind, did he finally cease drawing in energy—Bai Hu finally lifted its head with a mighty roar, the tiger's howl piercing the heavens, while the Seven Stars of Bai Hu in the sky, pulled by starlight, blazed four times brighter than before.

To those who watched, it appeared as if the Seven Stars of Bai Hu had suddenly blazed forth.

…………

On the desert beyond the oasis, a young man rode a camel, his back laden with a massive bundle, a jade flute at his waist; ahead, an old man rode his own camel and sighed:

"Not him either?"

The young man smiled and said: "No. The Turkic prince is heroic and mighty, with ambitions to conquer the steppes—but he is not yet a true hero. His words carry grandeur, yet only because he stands at the summit."

"Like climbing high to see farther; when one is wealthy and noble, one naturally cultivates aura—but the hero I seek must be one who, though crouched low, still roars with fury."

"His sworn brother, however, possesses the true spirit of a hero."

"They say that at his birth, his right hand clenched a stone-like clot of blood; people sang that he was a celestial calamity star fallen to earth, born to bring blood and slaughter. His name, translated into Central Plains script, is 'The Essence Within Steel.'"

"But he is not the one I seek either."

The old man frowned: "This one isn't, that one isn't!"

"Then who exactly are you looking for?"

The young man took down his horsehead fiddle and played idly, replying: "I seek the one fated to me—I fulfill an ancient pact to find him, aid him in igniting the fires of chaos, and burn this age to ashes. Of course, it sounds mystical, but others are searching for him too."

"My kindred."

"That lineage's ideals are too naive—they hope to ease chaos through peace. But the smoke of war has already risen; it will not end until every so-called hero and sage is dead."

"So we must find the strongest hero, aid him to end chaos with the swiftest speed. The one I seek must be the tyrant of chaos—his destiny pierces heaven, his youth was infamous, his ferocity beyond words; within the Five Phases and Four Symbols, he claims Jin and Bai Hu."

"Bai Hu Shen Jun."

"Ohhh, Bai Hu Shen Jun—you mean those stars rising in the west?"

The old man understood, pointing to the western sky, smiling: "In our tales, they are the weapons in the hands of the Heavenly Gods—keen-edged, meant to sweep away all injustice in this world."

"In this, they resemble Central Plains culture very much."

The young man opened his mouth to reply—but froze. Beneath the dim sky over the vast steppe, seven stars blazed abnormally bright. The youth, calling himself Po Jun, slowly widened his eyes:

"... The Seven Stars of Bai Hu?!"

Behind him, the bundle suddenly shrieked violently. In that instant, as if blood had exploded in the air, the camels—unshaken by desert storms and sand—buckled their legs, collapsed to the ground, and spat blood from their mouths, dying outright from terror.

The old man's scalp prickled, his heart nearly stopped: "You—what is this?!"

This young man came from the Central Plains.

Elegant and handsome, eloquent—he seemed a strategist from Ying State of Zhongtu. The warlords of the Western Regions welcomed him eagerly; every night, different women left his tent, eyes soft with affection. But before, this man had fled from the Xiang people's sacred site at night, and since then, this massive bundle had appeared behind him.

He turned and ran—damn it, he dragged the old man along all night, nearly vomiting from exhaustion.

The Xiang people chased him three hundred li.

Only when he reached Turkic territory did he slow down, then detoured back through the desert toward the Central Plains.

Suddenly, the old man heard a muffled roar like thunder.

He shuddered, raised his head—and saw the heavens and earth turn gray.

A colossal storm advanced from afar. The old man's face drained of color. It was a sandstorm—the most dangerous thing on this vast land, the roar of the Heavenly Gods. His scalp prickled; he was superstitious, and screamed: "What did you bring out from the Xiang people's sacred mountain?!"

With camels, hiding behind them, one might survive a sandstorm.

But the camels were terrified to death!

Was this truly the wrath of the Martial God?

The old man knelt and bowed his head, begging for forgiveness—but the storm rushed closer with terrifying speed. The old man confessed even the secret he'd taken to his grave: how, at age seven, he'd peeked at his neighbor's sister bathing, pleading to the Heavenly Gods.

A resonant hum exploded. The old man lifted his head—and saw the sandstorm torn apart.

It veered around them, as if retreating from something. Only dry sand stung his face. He turned—and froze.

The massive bundle was shrieking.

As the sandstorm swept over it, the blood-red cloth wrapping it tore apart completely. A weapon, entirely black, faintly etched with golden patterns, appeared between heaven and earth, crashing heavily to the ground.

Its fanged tiger-head pommel, its spear-blade's edge—though sealed for five hundred years—still radiated chilling menace.

Pointing at the heavens.

The desert wind howled past the weapon—and the spear emitted a roar like Bai Hu. Even the desert sandstorm parted before it. The storm surged through the sky, swirling as if a thousand giants from the Northern Regions hammered bronze war drums. The heavens trembled. The old man's heart quaked with fear.

He could not stand—he collapsed to his knees, his heart trembling.

But the young man's eyes blazed with brilliant fire. The old man turned—and saw the youth kneeling half-bowed before the colossal spear. Starlight fell from the sky, the sand parted before him. All resembled the epic scenes passed down through oral tradition: the first man receiving divine guidance. Po Jun's eyes burned with fervent solemnity:

"Lord of the West, Master of Arms."

"Endless heavens, the primal force of the tyrant."

Beside him, the divine weapon—passed down through generations, yet sealed five centuries ago by the Xue family's divine general on the sacred mountain—roared.

In the Xue family's quiet chamber, the Po Yun Zhen Tian Bow hummed, its string's vibration barely contained.

Beside Li Guanyi, the silver-haired girl gripped his hand, helping stabilize his aura. Yao Guang's gaze fell gently as she softly chanted the ancient honorific title:

"Lord of the West, Sovereign of Gengjin."

"The Four Celestial Spirits, upholding the Four Directions."

Two divine weapons, one in Jiangnan and one in the desert, rejoiced together as that aura appeared in heaven and earth. Above, the Seven Stars of Bai Hu shifted, glowing brighter than ever before—four times brighter than before, visible even in daylight—proclaiming one single truth.

Since the first divine weapon appeared, in three thousand years:

The strongest Bai Hu Da Zong has emerged.

…………

And Li Guanyi, within the 'dream' of entering the realm, saw something different.