Chapter 58: Bai Qian
A girl sat at her desk, her eyes looking over the staves as her ears sprang to listen to a sound that couldn’t be heard. There was this ambient energy around her, as everything could be seen turning to become something of a symphony. She could feel herself sinking deeper into her art as she scribbled down notes, feeling the harmony and rhythm in all things, yet living and blending into the music, living through it vicariously.
But when she was done, there was this sense of something that felt missing.
It was a loss of something that she couldn’t remember. A thing that just eluded her.
That was when a faint memory came back to her.
Who was she?
Where was she?
A cropping of a memory of when she was dressed in red, a moment that was supposed to be in joy, cropped up as her pen began to scribble again. She could feel the emotions deep down, and that emotion needed to be told.
Her ears sprang up once again, ready to listen to that mysterious tone, to listen to that unknown melody and rhythm. To not disgrace the gift that she had been given, only for it to continue fading.
She could not get out of that world before she had understood the Dao rhythms of the world, to recognise the life she had lived that seemed to not be her own. But before she could do anything, before she could understand that mysterious sound of the universe, before she could contain its essence in her music, her consciousness faded.
She slowly felt her body leave that mysterious world, her mind and soul reclaiming its rightful seat in her own body, in her own story.
She was once again Bai Qian.
And she was being whisked away by an unfamiliar person.
No.
It was a familiar person.
She wasn’t sure anymore.
He looked like her younger brother, yet at the same time, he was not.
There was this dancing of things around her that she couldn’t describe. She could feel the spiritual energy around her being clear and pure in one second, like the breath of the mountain or the light of the moon, only to become murky and vile the next, full of wickedness, darkness, and corruption.
She wasn’t sure what was happening, and as such, didn’t waste any time. She flew off the back of the man that had been carrying her.
As she landed on a tree, her icy Qi flowing through the entirety of her body, covered with it, as her sword took its place in her hand. She turned its sharpness toward the man who had been carrying her.
"Who are you?"
The words couldn’t have come at a worse time.
"Calm down, Noona," the man said as he tried to calm her.
The words leapt from his mouth in an anxious way, one that couldn’t be explained, as they reached Bai Qian with a foreignness she couldn’t explain. She didn’t know how or why, but even though it was different from the language she was familiar with, somehow, she could make out what it meant.
"Noona?"
She said the word as if she were trying to taste it.
But before she could properly digest it, a splitting headache suddenly attacked her as foreign memories started to intrude themselves into her.
One fragment was of her sitting down to write those same notes she was just doing in her dream.
Another was one where she was dressed in glorious attire that seemed quite unfamiliar to her as she performed wedding rites in customs that felt both familiar and unfamiliar to her.
"What is happening?"
The words flew out of her mouth before she could understand anything.
"Noona!"
The man spoke up with concern, yet Bai Qian was not giving him an inch.
Was this a mental attack that had been placed on her?
She grasped her sword with all the strength she could muster as she began channelling her spirit arts, ready to attack the man whether he truly was Bai Chen or an old monster that had just taken his face and body.
Suddenly, during this altercation between Bai Qian and the supposed Bai Chen, the forest suddenly went quiet as a domineering energy—one that didn’t feel like spiritual energy—suddenly engulfed the space.
"Was this another Nascent Soul attack?"
Bai Qian couldn’t help but ask.
But before she could get an answer, the ground started to rumble as the trees swayed.
The night sky grew brighter.
As powerful words suddenly descended.
"Floating clouds conceal the distant peaks," a voice began chanting with majesty.
"Yet the green mountain is not merely green."
The second line followed as a mountain that had initially not been seen glowed with a vibrant green, its peaks stretching to the endless sky.
"Still waters hide a thousand fathoms."
Suddenly, a grand river spilled from the mountain as the water continued to flow through it.
"And the bright moon illuminates the human heart."
The moon that had been crimson suddenly turned to be majestic white, with the energy washing over everything as it seemed all that was being hidden away was slowly being peeled back.
Bai Qian, who had initially been struggling with her mind, felt her mind become a bit more clear as she began to register a threat.
Was that the power of the Laws?
One could only borrow the power of the Laws if they had grazed upon the Deity Transformation Stage. Had she just come into contact with such a powerful opponent?
She thought of people who had claimed to have reached that pinnacle to be rumors or exaggerations, because just being a Nascent Soul was already enough to make one a powerful entity not to be messed with.
But here was a Deity Transformation master that could call upon Laws.
How was she supposed to even put up a fight?
She could see her body flicker too, as soon she found her strength leaving her body. Even though she struggled with all her might to run away, she found she couldn’t.
"Do not ask only of the flowers’ colors;"
The poem continued as flowers bloomed towards a certain direction.
"Listen for the sound beneath the stone."
The stones around Dan Woo and Kim Soo Won started to sing, as if they had always had words.
"If one only observes the outer form,"
The mask that was clinging to Dan Woo’s face suddenly collapsed as the World Overlay skill disappeared with it.
"How could one ever see its true shape?"
The poem ended.
The middle-aged man was now hovering around the duo like a poetic immortal, dressed in Daoist robes.
"Fellow Daoists, I see that you are well versed in the illusion arts. Might I learn of your names and schools?"
The man asked as he scrutinised Dan Woo, releasing a bit of his Domain and using it as if it were Divine Sense.
Dan Woo was confused by the man’s inquiry, as what he was channeling wasn’t spiritual energy or anything of such a sort. It was purely Meaning, and there was some kind of resonance with him.
Was his ability one that required him to cosplay an immortal cultivator?
"I see that you are a profound master of the Dao. I am glad to have met another practitioner of the Dao. My sister and I are but rogue cultivators. We have no school or sect to speak of and were only able to escape some people from the Devil Dao who were chasing us thanks to your help, Senior. We are very grateful to have received your assistance."
Dan Woo said this as he cupped his hands like one from a wuxia or a xianxia would.
"Surely I did no such thing. If you aren’t too bothered with anything else but cultivation, would you like to follow this Great One to his sect? It isn’t every other day that you come into contact with another practitioner of the Dao."
The man said as his eyes locked onto them, with deep profoundness locked within them. There was this subtle shift in energy that told Dan Woo that if he dared refuse, he wouldn’t be able to see tomorrow.
Dan Woo wasn’t sure how powerful the man before him was, but he felt that he had much richer Meaning and potent spirituality, one that he could easily use to harm him.
Dan Woo wasn’t afraid that he could be hurt by him, as he still had his mist, and if anything went wrong, he could escape into it.
But what about his sister?
If he made any wrong moves and couldn’t get to his sister in time, maybe the man would kill her in anger.
So he wanted to take his time, slowly trying to coax him so that he could jump into his mist whenever the opening came around.
But just as he was about to reach for his sister—
"Fellow Daoist, I see that your sister is heavily injured. What if I use this treasure to help escort her?"
As he said this, suddenly, a palanquin made its appearance as he whisked her body into it.
"Let me help you take her for her recovery."
Dan Woo was left helplessly watching as all this happened.
Before he shifted into Bai Chen and decided to play along.
He wasn’t sure why the man had taken quite an interest in them and hadn’t outright tried to end them.
He could only hope to play it by ear.