Bai Xiaochun’s eyes sparkled as he continued to stare at Bai Qi and wait for him to make his point. Whatever he said would reveal the true nature of his relationship with Bai Hao.
“Unfortunately,” Bai Qi continued in a cool tone, “you pushed things a bit too far, Bai Hao. Nobody else here knows you very well, but as your older brother, I do. How could you possibly accomplish something like this on your own? Clearly, you used some underhanded method to cheat! How very disappointing of you.” With that, Bai Qi extended his right hand to reveal a command medallion, which he waved at the stone stele.
Instantly, Bai Hao’s name on the ranking list faded away and disappeared. Shockingly, Bai Qi had used his status as crown chief to simply remove Bai Hao’s name!
At first, everyone in the area was shocked, but then, they broke out into a hubbub.
“Cheating?”
“See, I told you so! Bai Hao was always weak and cowardly. How could he suddenly rise to prominence like that? As it turns out, he was cheating....”
“Interesting. Well, nobody will ever be able to say for sure whether he was actually cheating or not....”
Meanwhile, Bai Qi was looking coldly at Bai Xiaochun, doing nothing to conceal the disdain and contempt in his eyes.
It was almost as if he were using his gaze to tell Bai Xiaochun that no matter what he did, he could reduce him to nothing with the single slap of a palm!
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Chapter
588: Exposing The Malefactor!
Bai Xiaochun stood there looking quietly at Bai Qi. For some reason, he wasn’t angry at how he had wiped away Bai Hao’s name from the stone stele, and presumably, the stone steles for spirit enhancement and soul medicine.
In fact, there wasn't even a need for Bai Xiaochun to ponder the matter. He instantly realized that news about him supposedly cheating would fill the entire clan.
The fact that Bai Qi had taken the initiative to wipe out Bai Hao’s rankings without even investigating the matter was extremely telling. This was Bai Hao’s older brother, and clearly, he treated him just as coldly as the stories had indicated he would.
“He didn’t even give me a chance to explain....” Bai Xiaochun thought with a sigh. He wasn’t angry, just sad for Bai Hao.
“Well, considering that this is how Madam Cai and Bai Qi treat Bai Hao, I can be fairly certain of his father’s attitude....” As he stood there quietly, Bai Qi’s voice could once again be heard.
“Because of the status father and I hold in the clan, most others would feel uncomfortable chiding you, Bai Hao. But not me. You’re a bastard son, and have no right to put your name on the clan’s ranking steles.
“As your older brother, I’d always hoped you would be able to make a name for yourself, and actually came here to congratulate you. Unfortunately, though, you turned out to be nothing more than a huge disappointment.” Shaking his head, Bai Qi turned to the crowd and clasped hands. “Fellow clan members, I, Bai Qi, would like to apologize to all of you for what Bai Hao has done.”
After bowing deeply, he ignored Bai Xiaochun, turned, and became a bright beam of light that shot off into the distance.
Bai Xiaochun stood there silently, feeling all of the gazes upon him. After a moment passed, he smiled faintly, then turned and walked away.
“It seems I underestimated Bai Qi. Apparently he can do a bit of scheming.” After returning to his hut in the north district, he sat down cross-legged to think.
“Well, this was a fishing expedition, that’s all, and my line has been tossed out. Bai Qi can erase Bai Hao’s name from the rankings, but he can’t make everyone forget what happened. Right now, I should probably give the killer a chance to make a move.” He considered going out for a walk immediately, but after looking up to check the time, he decided to close his eyes and work on his Undying Live Forever Technique instead.
As evening fell, an afterimage appeared as a clone stepped out from Bai Xiaochun, who quickly headed outside of the clan.
Simultaneously, Bai Xiaochun’s true self masked his own aura; unless someone opened the door of his hut and stepped inside, they would have no way of knowing he was there.
Outside of the Bai Clan, his fire clone sped along with an expressionless face, making sure to keep his cultivation base at the Foundation Establishment level as he headed in the direction of Giant Ghost City.
Before much time passed, his expression flickered, and he stopped in place. Turning, he saw a beam of light shooting toward him at top speed.
Within the beam of light was a black-robed man who fairly burst with a murderous aura. A wicked grin covered his face, and his eyes flickered with killing intent. Surrounding him was a cloud of vengeful souls, and soul fluctuations that instantly identified him as a necromancer.
This was the very same man whom Bai Xiaochun had spotted talking to Madam Cai in the pagoda when he first arrived at the clan.
“I’ve been waiting for you for a while now,” Bai Xiaochun said loudly. “It’s about time you showed up.”
When the man in black saw Bai Xiaochun standing there as if he were waiting, he seemed surprised. The truth was that he had been waiting this entire time for a chance to get at Bai Hao, but hadn’t dared to make a move inside the clan itself. Eventually, the enraged Madam Cai had finally convinced him to do just that, and had even guaranteed his safety. However, just when he had been about to attack Bai Hao inside the clan, to his surprise, he discovered that he had left.
At first, he had been delighted, and had immediately given chase. But now, when he saw the frigid look in Bai Xiaochun’s eyes, and heard his words, he suddenly felt strangely shocked.
“You....”
Bai Xiaochun waved his finger at the man, which caused frigid qi to spring up all around him.
Before the man in black could react, he was completely surrounded, causing his face to fall. He wanted to flee, but quickly realized that he was frozen in place.
“Impossible!” he shrieked, looking like he had just seen a ghost. His mind was reeling, filled with an intense sensation of imminent crisis. Biting his tongue and spitting blood out of his mouth, he caused the souls he had brought with him to all detonate.
However, that wasn’t all he did. His goal was to break free from the frigid qi, and because he didn’t trust the power of the soul detonations to do that on their own, he also resorted to detonating part of his own body!
A boom rang out as his lower half exploded, sending his upper torso speeding backward, face pale and filled with intense terror.
“You’re not Bai Hao!!” Trembling, the man in black prepared to flee. However, that was when Bai Xiaochun took a step forward, appearing directly in front of him. Reaching out, he placed his hand on top of the screaming man’s head.
“Fellow Daoist, please forgi--” Before he could finish, his body went stiff, and his eyes bulged out. His mind began to reel, and the last thing he heard was Bai Xiaochun saying one word.
“Soulsearch!”
The majority of cultivators had soulsearching techniques of one sort or another. Most such techniques didn’t even count as divine abilities. They were simply ways of sending divine sense into the mind of another person and rifling through their memories in domineering fashion. Although there were certain tricks and methods that differed between techniques, most of them were used as a way to prevent the target’s soul from being harmed in the process.
Unfortunately for the man in black, Bai Xiaochun wasn’t adept with soulsearching, and didn’t possess any tricks or special methods. Furthermore, he wasn’t doing the soulsearch for himself, but rather, for the sake of Bai Hao.