A Will Eternal

“I want to live like this too!!” Xu Baocai wailed inwardly as he watched Bai Xiaochun leave.

A moment later, Master God-Diviner rose from his bow, cleared his throat, and said, “Brother Xu, it’s been a few months. How did you end up in such a bad situation?”

Xu Baocai’s wrath was immediately aroused. After all, it had been the goading of Master God-Diviner that had convinced him to leave Bai Xiaochun to begin with. However, he knew that now was not the time to give voice to his anger. All he could do was put a bitter expression on his face and curse Master God-Diviner inwardly.

Master God-Diviner actually felt a bit bad. Sighing, he said, “Don’t blame me for all this. Even I had no idea that our junior patriarch would rise to such shocking heights…. In Sky City, not everything depends on cultivation base, you know.” With that, Master God-Diviner arranged for a place for Xu Baocai to stay, and even gave him some merit points as pocket money….

As Master God-Diviner led Xu Baocai to his new accomodations, Xu Baocai came to realize that Master God-Diviner also occupied a lofty position within the Azure Dragon Society; all the cultivators in the immortal’s cave who saw him gazed upon him with expressions of deep respect.

Xu Baocai was starting to get more and more excited….

That night, he found it hard to sleep. The next morning at dawn, he walked bleary-eyed out of his room, uttering another oath under his breath.

“I have to become more important to the junior patriarch than Master God-Diviner is!”

With Xu Baocai back, Bai Xiaochun now had one more of his original group of Dao Protectors.

Xu Baocai immediately began to go above and beyond the call of duty when it came to his work, gathering information and propagating rumors. Under his direction, the Azure Dragon Society wasn’t just able to quell some of the bad rumors being spread about them, they were actually able to fight back with increasing effectiveness.

Xu Baocai was going all out, using every trick in his book to achieve the best results possible.

Bai Xiaochun had plenty of spare time on his hands. Master God-Diviner took care of day-to-day operations, Xu Baocai was responsible for handling intelligence, and they had a few dozen orange-robed disciples to act as sub-bosses. The Azure Dragon Society was growing more and more stable.

Their expansion hadn’t slowed in the least, and in fact, they were still growing. As a result, their Fantasy Pill business grew with shocking speed.

The Celestial Sky Society had been doing plenty of plotting and scheming, but it did little good. They were very capable of handling problems with individuals, but when it came to other large organizations in the city, they fell short. The rise of the Azure Dragon Society had come too quickly and unexpectedly, and because of that, the Celestial Sky Society was completely incapable of dealing with them.

The matter with the rumors had been one part of their initial plan, and although it had started out well, in the end, it fell flat. As their other strategies failed, the Celestial Sky Society grew increasingly enraged by the Azure Dragon Society.

One reason was that everything they did had to be accomplished from the shadows. Eventually, their research into the Fantasy Pill revealed that the boss of the Azure Dragon Society was none other than the very same Apothecary Bai who had created the Ultra Fasting Aid Pill.

Unfortunately, when they tried to investigate Bai Xiaochun’s past, they came up with nothing. Not even their agents in the Azure Dragon Society itself could come up with any information. Apparently, very few people within the Azure Dragon Society even knew the level of his cultivation base. Thanks to the training provided by Master God-Diviner, the original members who did know a bit about Bai Xiaochun were circumspect and kept their information to themselves.

Although the Celestial Sky Society was a bit apprehensive that Bai Xiaochun seemed to have come out of nowhere, it wasn’t completely unheard of for people in the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect to be so secretive. As far as looking into the origins of the Fantasy Pill, it might have seemed like a good idea, but the truth was that they had come across the pill completely by accident, and had no idea where it came from. Besides, the eastern cultivation world was a huge place, and the things that went on in the Lower Reaches were of little interest to people upriver.

As the days marched by, the Celestial Sky Society watched the Azure Dragon Society growing larger and larger. Eventually, the Azure Dragon Society’s Fantasy Pill sales surpassed the Celestial Sky Society’s, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The Celestial Sky Society’s headquarters was in the central district of Sky City, and currently, a meeting was going on there to try to decide what to do about the Azure Dragon Society. Some were in favor of continued plotting and scheming, with the eventual goal of breaking the Azure Dragon Society apart. However, a plan like that would take some time to be effective. At one point in the meeting, a cold snort echoed out.

“We can’t wait any longer. It’s not that our Celestial Sky Society can’t use force to solve the problem, it’s that we can’t afford to break any rules. These people from the Azure Dragon Society are just too stubborn. Look, what’s the point of having endless meetings about this? Have you people forgotten how powerful the Celestial Sky Society is? Let’s just go kidnap that Apothecary Bai!”

“But we don’t know the level of his cultivation base!” someone protested. “Without that bit of knowledge, trying to do something like that….”

“There are plenty of things under heaven that we don’t know. Is that a good reason to just back down? No matter how impressive his background, can he match up to the Celestial Sky Society? We come from a deva clan! As for his cultivation base, there’s no way he’s a Nascent Soul expert. It’s even highly unlikely that he’s at Core Formation. If he were, why wouldn’t he have been promoted to the rainbow district? Why would he waste his time here concocting medicine?!”

The person making these arguments had a relatively high position in the organization, and as such, no one was willing to go against him. Although most of them weren’t quite convinced that it was a good idea, they merely exchanged glances and then held their tongues.

Soon, the Celestial Sky Society was stirring. They didn’t have any Core Formation cultivators, only people in the great circle of the Foundation Establishment stage, and a few quasi-Core stage experts. After all, there were only red- and orange-robed disciples in their organization. Those who had reached the yellow-robed level had already left, and couldn’t easily be called back.

In order to handle Bai Xiaochun, they gathered ten quasi-Core cultivators, as well as a few dozen in the great circle of Foundation Establishment, plus even more who were in late Foundation Establishment.

After night fell, they headed straight into the north district, toward the immortal’s cave that was the headquarters of the Azure Dragon Society.

A group that powerful was strong enough to dominate any other organization in the entire city.

They didn’t hold anything back in terms of speed. After all, this was a surprise attack, and the success of their plan hinged on clinching victory in the first move. Although the main plan was to kidnap him, if worse came to worst, they were also prepared to kill him, and deal with the consequences later.

It was a dark and windy night, and Bai Xiaochun was just preparing to settle down cross-legged to start cultivating his Frigid School Will-Evolving Incantation. After all of his recent cultivation, he was nearing the peak of the Frigid Acolyte level.

The frigid qi which swirled around him would be shocking to anyone who could see it, and caused layers of frost to slowly cake the walls of the room. Thankfully, his cultivation was mostly focused inwardly, because such intensely frigid qi could freeze even Foundation Establishment cultivators to death.

He had just settled his qi and cleared his mind when, all of a sudden, his eyes widened. Looking up, a strange expression appeared on his face. But then, he merely cleared his throat, and then closed his eyes to meditate.

Meanwhile, numerous shadowy figures were approaching the immortal’s cave. After exchanging glances, they charged forward, which caused the Azure Dragon Society’s defensive spell formation to spring up.

Immediately following that, thunderous booms filled the air as the Celestial Sky Society cultivators unleashed all of their most powerful attacks, blasting the spell formation shield to pieces. The Azure Dragon Society responded immediately, the cultivators inside shouting at the tops of their lungs and unleashing magical techniques in all directions.

“Beat it!” But then the ten quasi-Core cultivators waded into the fight, and no matter how well-prepared the Azure Dragon Society cultivators were, they couldn’t deal with such power. They were immediately put on the defensive. By this point, the sub-bosses of the Azure Dragon Society realized what kind of people they were fighting.

“Quasi-Core stage!” Gasps rang out as the ten quasi-Core cultivators stomped everything in their path as easily as dried weeds.

In almost the exact same instant, the spies that had infiltrated the Azure Dragon Society appeared. “Boss Azure Dragon’s room is right there!”

Arrogant expressions could be seen on the faces of the ten quasi-Core cultivators as they shot toward Bai Xiaochun’s room. Six of them were faster than the others, and it was with complete disdain that they crashed into his room.

As for the other four, they remained outside to prevent anyone from entering.

“After tonight, the Azure Dragon Society won’t have any boss at all!” one of the quasi-Core cultivators said loftily.

The Azure Dragon Society cultivators were getting very nervous, and the cultivators from the Celestial Sky Society were chuckling coldly, convinced that their mission had been accomplished, and that once a boom rang out from that room, they could flee.

However, instead of a boom, their ears were met with silence. After the six quasi-Core cultivators charged into his room, no sounds of combat emerged. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop!

Expressions of shock began to appear on the faces of everyone in the crowd, with the exception of Master God-Diviner and Xu Baocai, who were looking on with disdain.

“What happened…?” someone whispered. Something definitely seemed off about the situation. The door to the room looked like a black mouth ready to swallow up anyone who entered it. Many people present felt chills running down their spine just at the sight of it.

The four quasi-Core cultivators exchanged glances, and then gritted their teeth to take action. They couldn’t just leave now and return with no information to report! Joining their power together, they moved to enter the room. However, before they could reach the door, a blast of frigid qi erupted from the room, filling the area.

As the frigid qi filled them, it felt like they were being frozen in place, causing their eyes to go wide with disbelief. One of the quasi-Core cultivators suddenly began to emit red light as he burned a paper talisman in defense. With the power of the flames assisting him, he managed to stagger backward a few paces, his face ashen. Eyes wide with shock and terror, he cried, “Core Formation!!”