Universal Knowledge of the Dao - Chapter 79

Fu Xue put down her hammer to the side, releasing it from the magical grey lines. The massive rock formation crumbled into pieces.

She had won the fight fair and square. Bai Xuengen was torn when he awkwardly lifted himself from the ground to return to his seat. His legs were barely holding on but his mind was in a worse shape.

“I was too careless and let her discover the fact that I can’t control my wind blades. She even took care to not use the hammer closer to me. The closer it is the easier I can deflect it but here… There was nothing I could do.”

Elder Purple Cloud was smiling internally, looking at the young man barely walking on his own. Next to him, Elder Crimson Cloud asked “I take it you’ve found a good disciple, Brother Purple?”

“He will do perfectly, indeed.”

Far from the Elders who were now taking a brief intermission to repair the damage Fu Xue had done to the arena, the girl who had just fought found her seat next to Yan Yan.

“You were right in being confident, you’ve beaten Bai Xuengen pretty easily it seems” said Yan Yan.

“No Sister Yan, you were right. It was harder than I anticipated. I even had to use one of my trump cards, my Fu Clan’s Earth Shattering Spirit technique.”

Shin Sumi turned silent for a moment. Despite her victory, Fu Xue’s eyes had a strange depth to them. She was looking in the distance, peering through people and buildings, lost in her own thoughts.

She suddenly turned her head towards Bai Xuengen who was just now reaching his seat. Shin Sumi didn’t attempt to stop her when she stood up and started walking. She was curious.

“Bai Xuengen. I want to ask you something.”

Bai Xuengen looked up and locked eyes with the girl who had just very nearly crushed him to death. But he could tell she wasn’t seeking trouble. She was not one of these people who held a grudge after a scheduled fight.

“Are you related to Bai Fulong?”

The unusual question startled him a little bit. Why was she asking him about his ‘Senior Brother Bai’ who had helped him and saved his life many times in the Rising Star Tournament.

Bai Xuengen answered negatively, pausing for explanations. Fu Xue hesitated a few seconds but turned on her heels instead.

Bai wasn’t an usual surname in East Seaside Country and Blue Fire Country. So more specifically, why would Bai Xuengen and Bai Fulong be from the same Bai Clan?

Shin Sumi had conflicted feelings, looking at both her friends interacting. She had heard Fu Xue’s question to Bai Xuengen but didn’t know what to make of it.

“That Bai Fulong has made quite an impression on you, hasn’t he?”

“I have some unresolved business with him, that’s all. Judging Bai Xuengen’s progress since the Rising Star Tournament, I thought if they were related that would give me an idea of how strong Bai Fulong might be now…”

Slightly uncomfortable about talking about her other personality, Shin Sumi was relieved when the next fight started, cutting short on the conversation. Besides, she had other things to think about.

Her fight was coming next and she was intent on dropping out of the competition.

“How to look like I’m weaker than my opponent without the Elders realizing that this isn’t the case?”

Shin Sumi knew she sounded arrogant when she spoke to herself, but she also knew who her opponent was. Gen Lao was a promising Liquid Realm disciple but he was definitely not on par with the likes of Fu Xue, Chu Erlong, Bai Xuengen and the others.

When time came for them to step on the platform, Shin Sumi still had no idea how to lose her fight with credibility.

“I’ll just have to improvise then. Come at me Gen Lao.”

During the entirety of the fight, Shin Sumi did her best to react a bit late to Gen Lao’s attacks. The techniques she used often lacked precision and her power was restrained to sixty percent of what she was capable of.

And yet she couldn’t avoid using her reflexes at times. The same fighting reflexes she had honed for years while in the Dark Sky Starry Sect and she now had to forcefully stop.

How could that fool the Elders and Master Cloud, trained experts who were intently watching the round?

Even Master Cloud himself had lifted an eyebrow under the shadow that obscured him.

When the fight ended with Yan Yan on the ground and a panting Gen Lao holding a sword on her throat, even Chu Erlong and Fu Xue were perplexed.

Elder Azure Cloud who was to announce the issue of the fight cleared his throat, his angry face about to ask for an explanation.

Shin Sumi, as she was awkwardly getting up, thought “how is it so hard to appear weak?!” She looked towards the Elders’ seats feeling the growing pressure of their divine sense on her, wondering what to do now when she froze in place.

Nevermind the intimidating pressure of twelve Cloud Elders that were noticing her lack of fatigue and injury, what made her heart skip a beat was a pure white speck of dust landing on Master Cloud’s open hand.

All eyes on her, nobody had seen the briefly visible white glow before Master cloud closed his hand, except her.

“Wait, Elder Azure Cloud” said Master Cloud in a soft and hypnotizing voice, “This fight belongs to Gen Lao. Next fighters please.”

His face wasn’t visible from where she stood, but Shin Sumi knew while speaking he had been looking at the White Crane’s feather in his palm.

Shin Sumi glanced briefly up at the ceiling despite knowing she wouldn’t be able to see the White Crane anyway. In a quiet manner she returned to her seat under the cheers from Gen Lao’s friends.

Even if she had not deceived the Elders, most of the fighters hadn’t seen her semi-obvious attempts at losing.

It wasn’t the case for Fu Xue though as she stomped the ground angrily with her foot.

“Care to explain what that was, Sister Yan?! You’re a very bad actor, you know that?”

“Sister Fu… I am sorry but I can’t explain. I didn’t want to participate in this ranking anyway. I’m not interested in the Cross Branch Arena.”

Having fully given up on pretending, Yan Yan told her friend in a low voice so the other fighters wouldn’t hear, especially the poor Gen Lao who fully believed in his victory.

“So what? You’re afraid, that’s it? You’re scared of meeting stronger opponents and getting hurt?” Fu Xue was trying to grasp Yan Yan’s intents without success.

“And you, aren’t you relieved we won’t have to fight each other?” answered Shin Sumi.

Fu Xue grew silent for a moment. She looked at her friend with clenched teeth, her cheeks flushed a light red “But… but…”

“It’s too late anyway. Master Cloud has decided to let it slide and give Gen Lao the victory” Shin Sumi closed the debate before adding, in order to not raise more suspicion, “I don’t know why he decided to let me off the hook though.”

Still not convinced but unable to do anything, Fu Xue crossed her arms and turned to the ongoing fight on top of the platform.

Chu Erlong won easily. Despite her original talent that had been deemed only to be orange when she was in the Shinsoo Gathering Realm, she had the advantage of her grandfather being the Dark Sky Starry Sect’s Great Elder.

Hence, her resources and her importance in the eyes of others had always been way above average. Using this appeal to the masses, she had gathered a large group of followers that proved useful in the Rising Star Tournament.

She had even grown closer to Jun Qian in order to ask him for help in killing Shin Sumi and Bai Fulong, unaware that both were the same person.

In exchange for his service, Chu Erlong had allowed Jun Qian to make her his dual-cultivation partner. Ever since then and despite their failure in their first objective, the two of them had remained close.

Dual-cultivation had also allowed them to intimately grow stronger, mixing their Yang and Yin type Shinsoo, to the point that both had made impressive progress.

Of course since she was the weaker one in the couple, Chu Erlong had been the one to benefit the most from these sessions.

She now stood proudly as number two of the Cloud-Formation Pavilion, right below Jun Qian who was Master Cloud’ direct disciple.

At the end of the day, there remained only eight Liquid Realm disciples. According to the lineup, Chu Erlong was almost certain to end up in the final, opposing only the two strongest.

What interested Shin Sumi more was what would happen on the other end of the bracket. If everything went right, the semi-finals would oppose Jun Qian and Fu Xue.

It didn’t matter in terms of the Cross Branch Arena selection, but could Fu Xue really take on the number one disciple of the Pavilion?

Shin Sumi would have to wait in order to know the answer. She had succeeded in getting out of the competition, thanks to the mysterious White Crane, and now wasn’t allowed to watch further matches.

“Senior White Crane was here. There is no other way. But I thought they lived in the Floating Continent, in the sect’s pocket dimension!”

Her mind was torn by different ideas and interrogations. What was the White Crane doing there and why did it help her?

***

Without the need to fight anymore, be it for the Cloud-Pavilion Pavilion or the Star-Sword Pavilion because she ‘lost’ in one tournament and had a place ensured in the other, Shin Sumi spent some time for her cultivation.

It had been a long while since she last was able to completely immerse herself in meditation, not bothered by the events of the outside world.

“I’ve been cultivating for six days straight” she realized while opening her eyes. Her sight instantly fell between her crossed legs, where a brilliant white light illuminating the whole room came from.

“The Moon Stone still isn’t running out of Shinsoo it seems… So Nuan’s refining proved useful in the end?!”

Shin Sumi was overjoyed. Ever since Nuan had tried to refine the stone by eating it, no change had seemed apparent, which had troubled Shin Sumi a little bit.

Usually the strength of whatever object Nuan had ingested was doubled or more, but the Moon Stone had shown no such thing. Could it be that this time it was its longevity that had been increased by the Lion Bat’s mysterious powers?

“The Moon Severing Ephemeral Shadow can be trained almost only with the Yin Shinsoo from the moon. I was worried I would need to find another way to harvest the moon’s Shinsoo but it seems like it’s not the case anymore.”

“Good little Nuan” she patted the Lion Bat’s head, “what would I do without you?”

The small fighting beast with beady black eyes playfully licked the tip of her finger and folded her wings, curled up against her leg.

By feeding almost exclusively on spirit stones and other resources with plenty of energy, Nuan had grown quite a bit since she accompanied Shin Sumi. She was almost twice her original length, now spanning from Shin Sumi’s wrist to her elbow and still with a tail to spare.

Nuan could even fly for short distances, even though she preferred to run and jump around like an excited rabbit when she wasn’t asleep.

Because she and Shin Sumi had bonded deeply ever since Nuan was still an egg, Shin Sumi’s divine sense was especially powerful when it came to things related to her spirit beast.

She was able to probe Nuan with a single thought, no matter where she was, judging accurately her physical condition and her spiritual power. After eating her fill of expensive resources every day, Nuan was now close to reaching the Liquid Realm as well.

Shin Sumi had also noticed that the reach of her divine sense seemed to be enhanced by a few meters in radius when she was standing close to the Lion Bat and the latter was outside the leaf pattern on her wrist.

Somehow Shin Sumi had the feeling that when Nuan would reach the Liquid Realm, the divine sense linking the two would undergo some sort of transformation, also it was only conjecture.

Looking lovingly at the fierce but small beast by her side, Shin Sumi stood up and stretched. Even after reaching the Liquid Realm’s second step, not needing to eat or sleep anymore, Shin Sumi’s mortal body still needed to wake up after being immobilized for an extended period of time.

“Little Nuan, what do you say we go visit Brother Lan today? It’s been a while, right? Maybe today he’ll give you a spirit flower to munch on!”

Nuan jumped in place once, Shin Sumi unsure if she had understood or if she was just happy as usual.

“Alright then, let’s go!” Shin Sumi extended her arm for Nuan to jump onto. As soon as the little wings flapped and Nuan had climbed onto Shin Sumi, she ran all the way along her arm, ending right between the girl’s c.h.e.s.t, under the folds of her robes.

Nuan’s little furry head was the only thing sticking out of the light green robes Shin Sumi had donned today.

Shin Sumi, for once, was walking the upper valley paths as herself. It had been a long time since she had not used another appearance in the sect grounds. If she remembered correctly the last time was more than a month back, when she last visited Lan Hui.

“Lan Hui, it’s me Sumi, are you here?”

“Sumi! Just a second, I’ll dispel the barrier first.”

Following the young man’s words, the invisible barrier blocking Shin Sumi’s divine sense from entering his small house broke open, allowing the reveal of Lan Hui’s presence.

“It’s been a while, I guess you were pretty busy with the fighting and stuff” started Lan Hui after saluting his friend, instantly crouching to pet Nuan who had jumped out of Shin Sumi’s robes.

“I should be fine for now, I don’t expect anybody to challenge me for my rank in the Star-Sword Pavilion.”

“Don’t you want to fight Sui Lin for the place of number two behind Xiao Yue?”

Shin Sumi thought in silence for a while, mindlessly stirring the tea Lan Hui had offered her.

“I’m not looking for recognition and I would like to avoid pointless fights if I can, I-” she started answering before Lan Hui cut her abruptly.

“I meant to ask, do you think you would win?”

Shin Sumi knew why Lan Hui would ask her that. After the Rising Star Tournament had ended for Lan Hui, a few weeks after her breakthrough to the Liquid Realm, he had told her how he found out she was Bai Fulong.

She had revealed to him her second identity but still kept Yan Yan as a secret. Lan Hui thus became aware of the fights leading to her and Xiao Yue’s victory over Jun Qian and Chu Erlong, especially the fight against Sui Lin.

After spending a long time with Bai Fulong and Bai Xuengen, Lan Hui had come to admire Shin Sumi for her strength and fighting spirit. He knew that Sui Lin was the only person to ever beat her in a fight.

“I don’t know, to be honest. Her strength has grown by quite a lot and I’m sure she hasn’t revealed all of her true power during the fight against Mua Lin.”

“And what about Xiao Yue?”

Lan Hui knew of Shin Sumi and Xiao Yue’s special friendship, knowing full well that the two of them would avoid fighting at all cost. But he of course still wanted to know who was stronger.

Because of Elder Zhu’s experiments on Lan Hui and his barely passable talent, Lan Hui was lucky he had even reached the Liquid Realm in terms of cultivation.

Only his control of Shinsoo was really good, allowing him to find a place in the Shinsoo-Medicine Pavilion and keep cultivating while avoiding fighting altogether.

Because he didn’t have the power to judge for himself, Lan Hui was trying to learn about the strength of people in the same generation as him.

Shin Sumi thought for a long time about his question. She hadn’t seen Xiao Yue fight for a long time due to her position as Master Sword’s direct disciple and she realized that even if she was Xiao Yue’s closest friend, she had no idea about her true strength.

Lan Hui and Shin Sumi talked for hours about the sect, cultivation and their respective Pavilions. As always when two good friends were reunited, time passed quickly and the day turned into the night for a short while before the sun appeared again above the clouds.

They were talking about Nuan who was gently munching on a spiritual plant Lan Hui had picked from his medicinal garden especially for her when Shin Sumi perked up her head.

Her divine sense had picked up a very familiar aura still quite far away.

Without bothering explaining pointlessly, Shin Sumi prompted Nuan to hide as the Copper Bell rang in her head.

Not two seconds later, Bai Fulong was sitting in Shin Sumi’s place, looking intently at Lan Hui.

By the time Lan Hui also picked up the newcomer’s aura he had already guessed who it was.

“Well well well, if it isn’t the full trio reunion! Brother Bai, Lan Hui, good morning to you two!”

Bai Fulong turned his head to look at the young man in the doorframe, sighing loudly “Xuengen, how many times have I told you to call me by my name?”

“Sorry Brother Fulong, I can’t get used to it!” Bai Xuengen laughed out loud.

“Xuengen, why don’t you sit down with us? I’m about to prepare some fresh Hazy Green Ginseng tea I’m sure you will enjoy.”

“Thank you for the offer. I actually came to you because I have good information for you my friends… The lineup for the Cross Branch Arena has just been decided this morning.”