Having accomplished these things, he felt comfortable enough to go into secluded meditation. As for Bai Hao, he changed his appearance and then left.
Bai Hao had long since burned Bai Xiaochun’s name into his memory; he would never forget it for the rest of his life. However, even more unforgettable were the things he heard people talking about after leaving Bai Xiaochun’s side. Virtually everything he heard… caused his anxiety to build….
“Hey, keep your voice down. Don’t let Bai Hao hear you. Bai Hao is completely shameless. He’s vicious and merciless, to the point where he killed his own father and reviled his own clan!”
“That’s nothing! I have a good friend who’s a guard at Devil Penitentiary. He told me that back when Bai Hao was a guard there, he was the number one dark inquisitor in Devil Penitentiary! You don’t know what dark inquisitors are? They’re normal inquisitors whose hearts have turned to darkness! The prisoners that Bai Hao interrogated in Devil Penitentiary all ended up screaming with indescribable bitterness!”
“Heh heh. Majordomo Bai? Yeah, he's like a bolt of lightning that can shake heaven and earth. It’s been years since a freak like him has appeared in the world. He had a Core Formation cultivation base, and yet he actually kidnapped his highness the king!”
“Bai Hao is completely vicious! He even likes to take the wives of other men…. In order to get his hands on Mrs. Chen, he killed the chief of the Chen Clan! I heard that he keeps her in his residence even now, and ravishes her a hundred times a day! Completely outrageous!”
“All of that is nothing! The most important thing to know is that Bai Hao is a complete and utter daredevil. Only recently, he kidnapped the chosen and heirs apparent of almost all the nobility and aristocracy in the Wildlands! I saw with my own eyes the horrid state all of those chosen were in. It didn’t matter if they were guys or girls, they had all been tormented to the point of being skin and bones! It was completely terrifying!”
When Bai Hao heard such things, he was at first puzzled, but soon left completely flabbergasted. The realization that his Master had done so many shocking things left him feeling more than a bit jumpy.
He began to make some discreet inquiries of his own about the things which had occurred, and soon learned that it was absolutely true that his Master had kidnapped the Giant Ghost King while only in the Core Formation stage. Plus, there were other things which had occurred. After his rapid rise to prominence in the city, he shook down all three of the great clans. He was so well-known in the city that his name could be used to stop children from crying!
“How fearless…. I can hardly even imagine it!” Bai Hao eventually reached the point of being speechless. However, during his time making inquiries, he also heard people talking about the Bai Xiaochun whose name was listed on the Hell-Emperor Stele, and soon learned that there was a bounty on his head. It was at that point that he realized that the fact that his Master had revealed his true name to him showed a deep level of trust.
Although Bai Hao was a Wildlander, he had already died once, and didn’t care as much about things from his previous life. It wasn't important to him who exactly Bai Xiaochun was; he was his Master to whom he had kowtowed nine times!
Eventually he returned to Bai Xiaochun’s secluded meditation chamber. By this point, he was convinced of how incredible his Master was. Smiling wryly, he returned to the soulhoarding pagoda in Bai Xiaochun’s bag of holding. At that point, Bai Xiaochun opened his eyes, looked down at the bag of holding, and then smiled faintly. The entire reason he had revealed his true name to Bai Hao was because he trusted him. Perhaps such an expression of trust was very sudden, but it came from Bai Xiaochun’s heart. Based on everything Bai Hao had said and done so far, Bai Xiaochun truly approved of him.
On the same evening that Bai Hao returned from exploring the city, while Bai Xiaochun was still working on getting back into top shape, the Giant Ghost King sat on his throne in the royal palace, frowning at his transmission jade slip.
He had just received a message from the imperial palace in Arch-Emperor City. The message had not been worded very strongly. In fact, it had taken the form of a single question.
Why hasn’t Chen Manyao been returned yet?
It was a simple and calmly worded message, and yet it caused the Giant Ghost King’s mind to reel. After all, the person who had sent the message was none other than… he who controlled the Son of Heaven! He who could issue orders to everyone in creation…. The Grand Heavenmaster!
The Giant Ghost King would rather offend all three of the other kings than provoke the Grand Heavenmaster. Part of that was because the Grand Heavenmaster was in a far higher place in the Demigod Realm than any of the four heavenly kings. But the bigger reason was that the Grand Heavenmaster was a profound schemer, the type that could strike dread into the heart of anyone with whom he dealt.
“Chen Manyao….” the Giant Ghost King murmured. He had heard that name before, and knew that she was one of the Grand Heavenmaster’s personal apprentices, and a top rate beauty.
However, Chen Manyao had not been among the chosen whom Bai Xiaochun had handed over to him. It only took the briefest of moments for the Giant Ghost King to come to a conclusion about what was going on. Not sure whether to laugh or cry, he immediately began to curse.
“Brat bastard! I’d bet money that he’s entranced with her good looks. Considering his age, it's definitely time for him to have a Daoist partner…. But definitely not Chen Manyao!” Although the Giant Ghost King felt a bit of a headache coming on because of his fear of the Grand Heavenmaster, he actually wasn’t angry at all about Bai Xiaochun keeping Chen Manyao in custody. In contrast, he actually felt a bit of admiration. Because of all of the things which had happened between the Giant Ghost King and Bai Xiaochun, the level of formality which might have once existed between them had long since vanished. After all, he had said earlier on that if Bai Xiaochun helped him win the ghost king fruit, he would come to view him as his son and heir.
As far as the Giant Ghost King was concerned, Bai Xiaochun was the most outstanding and daring individual in his generation in the entire Wildlands. Furthermore, the more he learned about the way Bai Xiaochun thought, the more the wily old fox in him approved! Bai Xiaochun could be daring, crafty, and adaptable, but also knew when to back off. Such a combination in one person was hard to come by!
Were it not for that admiration, he would surely have gone completely mad because of the way Bai Xiaochun kidnapped everyone in order to screw him over.
At the moment, the Giant Ghost King was right in the middle of laughter and tears. Sighing, he realized that Bai Xiaochun was actually acting in much the same way he himself would…. With such thoughts on his mind, he cursed inwardly a few more times, then rose to his feet and vanished from within the royal palace.
When he reappeared, he was outside of Bai Xiaochun’s secluded meditation chamber. After looking around, he snorted coldly, but refrained from doing what he had last time and simply entering unannounced.
“Bai Hao!” he said, filling his voice with plenty of cultivation base pressure. Inside, Bai Xiaochun was performing some breathing exercises. Upon hearing the Giant Ghost King’s voice, a tremor ran through him, and his eyes widened. Before he could do anything else, though, the Giant Ghost King sensed that he had opened his eyes, and entered the meditation chamber.