Chapter 71: Truth and Falsehood, Our Fate

I wonder if it’s due to the peculiar nature of the Eastern Land’s star-observing school.

When Li Guanyi reached Jiang Yaoguang’s side, the inner qi turbulence caused by the stellar configuration quickly calmed; Jiang Yaoguang’s gaze fell upon the roasted bun—hard and dry as expected, dipped in honey, its texture surely complex.

Jiang Yaoguang’s gaze lifted from the roasted bun, and she sat quietly.

She concealed the honey jar and milk behind her wide cloak-like garment.

Her hands rested on her knees, her voice calm, unruffled:

“Your realm breakthrough came earlier than anticipated.”

Li Guanyi pretended not to notice her small gesture.

He sat cross-legged before the bonfire.

He informed Jiang Yaoguang of his suspicions and the letters he had sent; she regarded him thoughtfully and said, “You truly possess the bearing and deeds of a White Tiger Grand Master.”

“Human warfare has disturbed the celestial patterns, and these patterns are tied to your method.”

“The White Tiger, immersed in dreams of slaughter, has influenced your qi’s fluctuations.”

“It doesn’t matter. Close your eyes—I will stay by your side until your qi settles.” Jiang Yaoguang rose and sat beside Li Guanyi, her hands clasped, her qi long and steady, as threads of starlight rose around them.

Li Guanyi closed his eyes and sat cross-legged.

The Crimson Dragon, the Black Tortoise, and the others dispersed, leaving the White Tiger unbound; it raised its head and roared, shaking the earth, silencing all beasts in the night. Starlight fell upon the White Tiger’s form, smoothing its agitated aura.

Li Guanyi breathed quietly.

The White Tiger’s agitation and deadly aura calmed under the starlight.

A melody of a zither rose in Li Guanyi’s heart, and with its aid, it gained the upper hand.

He controlled the flow of his inner qi, circulating it according to the Jade Arm Divine Bow Art, slowly permeating his body to strengthen tendons, bones, muscles, and blood vessels; each full cycle slightly enhanced his physical strength.

The changes in the Western Regions shifted the celestial patterns, yet the stars’ radiance never ceased, flowing endlessly.

Purified by the Eastern Land’s star-observing school and transported by Li Guanyi’s inner qi, this starlight continuously refined his body; after entering this realm, the [Body Casting] stage is the first great hurdle for martial cultivators—ordinary warriors merely toughen their bodies with stone weights and herbal baths.

Noble families use secret techniques paired with rare medicinal herbs.

Only those blessed with the highest fortune may access celestial substances.

Even such fortune reserves these celestial substances for critical breakthroughs alone—never as lavishly as Li Guanyi, who uses starlight even for basic body refinement.

Such extravagance would make even a noble heir sigh in awe.

Under the starlight’s refinement, Li Guanyi’s body-casting progress surged.

His inner qi flowed through his meridians, refined by a special method until his body could withstand the explosive force of his current realm’s qi—then it slowed, signifying the completion of the [Body Casting] stage; yet the starlight still flowed endlessly, now accelerating the Jade Arm Divine Bow Art.

The White Tiger roared, standing tall, inhaling and exhaling toward the starry heavens.

Starlight turned to silver radiance and sank into its throat.

The White Tiger’s fur bristled, each strand glowing brilliantly, as if woven from starlight.

The Crimson Dragon, the Black Tortoise, and the Bronze Cauldron showed no restraint.

They harnessed the White Tiger’s consumption of celestial starlight.

The Xue family’s secret art—the Jade Arm Divine Bow Art, famed for unmatched explosive power—advanced at an astonishing rate; vast starlight enveloped Li Guanyi; the boy breathed steadily, his awareness growing ever calmer, as if merging with the Seven Stars of the White Tiger.

It was as if he had returned to the fetal state—though refining his body, his breath grew softer.

Outer hardness, inner softness; his physique like adamantine, his breath like an infant’s.

This is the Way of Yin and Yang.

Slowly, even his awareness sank into dreams.

As if he had become the Seven Stars of the White Tiger.

Following heavenly fate, walking the path of war and slaughter to quell chaos.

Li Guanyi continually strengthened his absorption of this starlight; his awareness became a fish, swimming upstream along the river of falling starlight, toward its source—until, at a certain point, he suddenly felt a tug.

He sensed the starlight that had naturally settled upon him being drawn away, flowing toward another direction—not himself.

Li Guanyi instinctively “looked.”

The wailing of swords and spears erupted!

The deadly aura of weapons surged into the sky.

The boy immersed in starlight suddenly felt a sharp, chilling edge rise—he snapped awake, breaking free from that mystical state; just before leaving it, he saw a vision.

He “saw” a vast night, heard the thunder of galloping warhorses, “saw” ten thousand iron cavalry encircling one man—no older than thirty-five or thirty-six, his brow sharp, clad in black armor, draped in a black cloak edged with white tigers.

As the horses galloped, the cloak stretched taut, swaying slightly in the wind.

Like a white tiger sprinting through the night.

Beneath the night, heavy cavalry marched in unison; the man gripped a massive spear.

The surging iron riders flowed like liquid mercury, their aura unified, their only sound the thunderous pounding of hooves—like rolling thunder across the heavens—yet in that silence, an overwhelming pressure arose naturally.

The man seemed to sense something.

He lifted his head—brow like twin blades, eyes like stars, his gaze blazing with fire.

The Seven Stars of the White Tiger blazed brightly in the sky.

A tiger’s roar echoed through the air.

Li Guanyi grunted, as if pierced through by a sword, pain flaring.

Then, as if falling from starlight, he returned to his body.

He opened his eyes; the Bronze Cauldron hummed, qi swirling in his gaze; he looked up at the starlight, as if watching its glow descend upon the mortal world—the White Tiger’s starlight, falling not only upon him, but also upon another direction.

And the feeling was: that man, was he also in the Western Regions?

Another being capable of drawing the White Tiger’s starlight—was he truly stirring chaos in the Western Regions, hence the White Tiger’s fierce reaction?

Li Guanyi suddenly understood—

The world is vast; heroes exist everywhere.

The White Tiger’s starlight is not drawn to him alone.

The Yin-Yang sect’s Si Ming never told Li Guanyi his fate wasn’t the White Tiger Grand Master, but a dark vortex devouring the White Tiger’s starlight—yet even so, he instantly grasped the present situation.

After a moment of shock, an instinctive repulsion rose in Li Guanyi’s mind—a fierce possessiveness, unrelated to good or evil, born purely of instinct.

Like a tiger claiming its territory.

“Is the White Tiger Grand Master not unique?”

Li Guanyi gazed at the stars above.

A premonition stirred deep within him.

In the future, he would surely meet this man.

Both bathed in the White Tiger’s starlight, following the same path, sharing similar dispositions—if fate truly exists, they are the same kind of hero.

The world will not permit two white tigers stirring storms.

As long as they climb higher, crossing battlefield after battlefield, they will meet!

And when they do, relations will likely be anything but good.

For just now, when that man lifted his head, Li Guanyi clearly felt a terrifying killing intent—like a thief being watched.

What thief?!

The fury in that gaze was as if the man himself were the White Tiger Grand Master.

As if glaring at a rival stealing his starlight.

Li Guanyi raised a hand to his forehead, thinking deeply.

That man’s strength seems immense—I cannot possibly defeat him now.

Jiang Yaoguang opened her eyes, her voice calm:

“What’s wrong?”

Li Guanyi paused, then asked: “Is the White Tiger Grand Master’s fate not unique?”

Jiang Yaoguang had never considered this question.

She thought a moment, then shook her head, her voice calm:

“I don’t know.”

Li Guanyi smiled: “You don’t know either?”

Jiang Yaoguang: “Mm.”

“But the world is vast, the star patterns infinitely mysterious—perhaps two people may share the same starlight, gaze upon the same moon. So even the most impossible scenario must have occurred somewhere in history?”

“What did you see just now?”

Li Guanyi described what he had seen, sighing: “His aura was immense—he had thousands of heavy cavalry. His strength surpasses mine. Do you think he might be the true White Tiger Grand Master?”

Li Guanyi smiled and asked: “What if you’ve chosen the wrong person?”

Jiang Yaoguang looked at the young man before her.

Li Guanyi sometimes felt his own nature contradictory.

Sometimes he was confident, believing he could accomplish great things, seeing no obstacle too great ahead; other times he doubted himself, wondering if his current ease was merely because there were no tigers in the mountains, and monkeys ruled.

These two emotions—confidence and self-doubt—swirled within him, neither dominant; now, seeing the general’s majesty, sensing his strength, and realizing he too was blessed by starlight, Li Guanyi naturally sighed.

Jiang Yaoguang looked at him, her voice calm:

“Do you know what fate is?”

“Not everyone blessed by the Seven Stars of the White Tiger will quell chaos.”

“It can only choose the one most aligned with the White Tiger’s spirit, then send him into chaos—to meet enemies, rivals, friends—to be broken or to reveal his edge in the furnace of war, until he reaches his destined end.”

“Could there not be someone else better suited to the White Tiger Grand Master’s path?”

Li Guanyi pondered, then said:

“You mean it’s not that those favored by the Seven Stars of Bai Hu become the Bai Hu Grand Master and quell chaos—it’s that only those who achieve the feat of quelling chaos are favored by the Seven Stars of Bai Hu and become the Bai Hu Grand Master.”

“It is not that one is chosen to become the hero who quells chaos.”

“But rather, he is favored by the starlight because he quelled chaos?”

Yao Guang seemed surprised by Li Guanyi’s capacity for association.

She tilted her head, thinking.

Her expression remained serene; she rose and moved closer to Li Guanyi, kneeling beside him.

She reached out and removed her hood.

Silver hair fell to her waist, glinting in the firelight; the girl spoke in a calm voice:

“Might I ask you to give me your hand? Do not worry—it will not take long.”

Li Guanyi was already familiar with the girl’s habits.

He extended his hand and smiled. “Another secret prayer incantation?”

“No.”

“Just an answer.”

The girl clasped Li Guanyi’s hand in both of hers; her voice, tranquil, said: “What you said is not what I meant. My concept of Mandate is not a forced attribution of legend based on final outcomes—it means this—”

She lifted her head, her expression serene and sacred, gazing at the boy before her, her voice calm:

“Even if the stars do not favor only one person, even if heroes bearing the Bai Hu destiny are not singular, I have met you.”

“And you found me.”

“Two drops of rain may fall upon the same petal—who can say it is mere coincidence?”

A strand of silver hair at her temple stirred slightly.

She said: “At the moment you and I met, our Mandate began.”

“Even if there are countless heroes across the land, even if the radiance of the Seven Stars of Bai Hu does not shine upon only one, the one destined for me is already before me.”

“This is what I mean by Mandate.”

Then she smiled faintly.

Beneath the moonlight, for the first time, that face—too beautiful to belong to any mortal—broke into a smile. “Does this bring you a little peace?”

Li Guanyi opened his mouth.

“...Yao Guang, you are truly wise.”

The girl released his hand, rose, and drew her jade-white palm from his grip.

She placed her hands before her, her voice tranquil:

“Have you completed your cultivation technique?”

Li Guanyi clenched his fist; the Jade Arm Divine Bow Art had reached Minor Attainment.

He had achieved the Body Casting stage—the stage that normally takes three years for ordinary cultivators—and nodded. Yao Guang pulled her hood back on, pointed to the stream ahead, and said: “Then please come with me—we shall seek the secret realm left behind by the Greatest General of the World and the ancient Yao Guang from five hundred years ago.”

“It is what they left behind—perhaps the key capable of changing the world.”

Li Guanyi stared at the stream.

What Xue Shen had painstakingly preserved could not have been meant merely to train a mere martial cultivator entering the realm.

The Greatest of the World, leaving behind something with such effort.

Only with Yao Guang of the Star Gazing School present, after entering the realm, could one enter the true secret realm.

What exactly was it?

He exhaled. “Alright.”

Yao Guang gazed at the water, turned her head to look at Li Guanyi, thought for a moment, then extended her right hand:

“I can part the water with starlight—we may enter the secret realm together.”

“Follow me.”

Li Guanyi reached out; Yao Guang seized the cuff of his sleeve.

Together, they stepped into the stream of the secret realm.

The water parted beneath the glow of starlight.

They walked toward the power left behind five hundred years ago by the Greatest of the World—power capable of altering the age of chaos.

Li Guanyi thought to himself.

What exactly was it?