A Will Eternal

A whole slew of dramatic events had just occurred. After Mistress Red-Dust left, the crowd finally began to thin out, and people went on their way, various thoughts running through their heads.

None of them would be able to forget what had occurred. Whether it was the success with the spirit enhancements, the terrifying bet that ended up reaching a sum of 800,000,000 portions of soul medicine, the arrival of Mistress Red-Dust, or the sight of Bai Xiaochun making his solemn and yet domineering monologue, they were scenes that would be branded into the memories of everyone present.

Everybody knew that from this day on, the name of Bai Hao… would become very important throughout all of Arch-Emperor City!

Before long, everyone was talking about the news of what had happened to the qilin son of the Heavenly Duke Chen’s clan, Chen Xiong. Of course, word soon came back to all of the various chosen, and they gasped in shock.

“This Bai Hao… is too vicious!”

“800,000,000 portions of soul medicine… that’s ridiculous!”

“I heard that it wasn’t just the soul medicine. He also drained Chen Xiong’s life force! He ended up nothing more than skin and bones….” Little Wolfgod, Li Tiansheng, Miao Lin’er and many of the other chosen were all taken completely aback. Although none of them had been completely convinced that Chen Xiong would be able to get rid of Bai Hao, they had at least harbored some hope. After all, they were in Arch-Emperor City, not the Necromancer Kettle.

As they heard the news about how things had played out, they trembled with fear. The mere thought of Chen Xiong’s fate made them all think back to the Necromancer Kettle, and the brutality they had experienced. The entire group still shivered with fear because of those lingering memories.

That vicious face, those coldly brutal eyes, and the nightmarish draining of their life force, were things that Little Wolfgod and the other chosen could never forget. In fact, many of them even cut ties with Chen Xiong. It was a bitter decision that they weren’t happy with, but they knew they had to abandon any ideas of trying to cause problems for Bai Hao.

“Dammit, losing to him in the Necromancer Kettle was one thing, but how could the same thing happen in Arch-Emperor City?!”

“It’s all the fault of that Chen Xiong. No skill whatsoever. But what do we do next? This Bai Hao is incomparably vicious! We definitely need to come up with a good plan, and must avoid any rash decisions!”

Of course, now that everyone was talking about Bai Hao, it didn’t take long before stories about what had occurred in the Necromancer Kettle began to spread again, until everybody was talking about the matter.

Soon enough, tales about the Bai Clan and Giant Ghost City also began to spread. Before long, everybody in the city had heard about such matters.

As for Mistress Red-Dust, in the end, she decided not to demand the 800,000,000 portions of soul medicine, and instead, asked for Heavenly Duke Chen to owe her a favor.

Bai Xiaochun was definitely no ordinary soul cultivator. He had a very impressive background, and because of that, the noble and aristocratic chosen were not easily able to do anything against him. They could only plot against him within the bounds of the law. Just as they had mentioned earlier in their discussion, they had to take their time to come up with a good plan.

After the incident, The Number One Spirit Enhancement Shop Under Heaven became very famous. In the following days, soul cultivators came from all over Arch-Emperor City and lined up to get spirit enhancements and soul medicine. Others came to merely get a glimpse of Bai Hao, and see whether he was really as superhuman as everyone claimed him to be.

Borough 89 was more of a bustling place than ever. Business for the other shops in the area began to pick up because of Bai Xiaochun’s shop. It was a welcome development as far as Bai Xiaochun was concerned, but Bai Hao felt nervous about it.

Worried, he said, “Master, showing off too much isn’t really going to help us with our master plan….”

Clearing his throat, Bai Xiaochun put an anxious expression onto his face, sighed, and said, “Ai, Master didn’t want things to turn out this way either. You just need to get used to it. The thing is, no matter where your Master goes, he always ends up rising to prominence and becoming a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering figure. I really am just too outstanding. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

A strange expression appeared on Bai Hao's face as he looked at his Master, unsure of how to respond. Finally, he simply smiled wryly and shook his head. Aware that discussing the matter was useless, he began trying to come up with his own plan about how to resolve any dangerous situations. After a bit of time passed, he came up with an idea and started to make plans.

Before long, people were talking about this Bai Hao’s impressive background. Certain people were very emphatic about how important Bai Hao was to the Giant Ghost King, and how good their relationship was. Other people would emphasize his cultivation base and battle prowess. In this way, people began to get a more rounded view of him.

Bai Xiaochun was very pleased to be such a center of attention. He would often leave the shop and stroll about with his hands clasped behind his back, enjoying all the people looking at him. However, after a few days of such showing off, he got bored and went back to continue working on seventeen-colored flame.

After the incident with Chen Xiong, nobody came looking to start trouble. Everyone knew that Bai Hao was the type of person who was not to be trifled with. When he lost his temper, not even a heavenly duke clan could do anything about it, let alone more ordinary people.

Rumors spread like wildfire. However, for Bai Xiaochun, life just got calmer and calmer. He immersed himself in researching seventeen-colored flame, and even began to perform some experiments, although he would immediately abort them if unexpected problems cropped up. After all, if he caused fire to rain from the heavens in this area, or sent black smoke out everywhere, his comfortable life would definitely become anything but comfortable.

Because of that oath, nothing particularly dramatic occurred. However, because of how much time he was devoting to seventeen-colored flame, his understanding and control of sixteen-colored flame improved.

It also helped a lot that Bai Hao would give good ideas here and there, and would help with his own augury. Together, they made slight adjustments to the formula for sixteen-colored flame. As time went on, Bai Xiaochun continued to struggle with seventeen-colored flame, and at the same time, improved his success rate with sixteen-colored flame. By this time, he had roughly a thirty percent success rate.

Actually, anybody who heard that he had achieved a success rate that high would be completely incredulous. Virtually no formulas in the world were so successful, and it was all thanks to the help provided by Bai Hao.

“Master, this specific augury technique was designed for fifteen-colored flame. If I want to succeed with seventeen-colored flame, then we really need to improve the sixteen-colored flame first.” Bai Hao had been working very hard lately. Even when he had time off, he would sit around thinking about seventeen-colored flame, and even the future formula for eighteen-colored flame.

He had a few ideas, one being to use multiple seventeen-colored flames to deduce the formula for eighteen-colored flame. The other was to spread a seventeen-colored flame out into a sea of fire, add another color to it, and pull the fire back into a tongue of flame afterward. All of the thinking and discussions about the matter left Bai Hao feeling very drained mentally.

It would have been very difficult for Bai Xiaochun to accomplish these things on his own. Even if he had succeeded, it would have taken an unimaginable amount of time.

As Bai Xiaochun and Bai Hao were focusing on their research on flame conjuring, the rumors in the city continued to rage, and Little Wolfgod and the other chosen continued taking their time coming up with a plan. However, as all of that happened, there were two people whose sinister gazes came to be locked on Bai Xiaochun’s shop in Borough 89.

“Little Wolfgod and the others are complete morons. How could they bungle things up dealing with one trifling Bai Hao!?” In Borough 3, there was a particularly towering pagoda in which the heir of the Nine Serenities King, Prince Zhou Hong stood, staring off into the distance.

He normally spent his time in Nine Serenities City, but after hearing that Bai Hao had come to Arch-Emperor City, he had hurried over. After all, he simply couldn’t let the matter of the Necromancer Kettle rest. Almost immediately upon arrival, he heard about the wretched fate of Chen Xiong.

Standing next to Zhou Hong was a handsome, middle-aged man dressed in luxurious clothing. His facial features looked much like Xu Shan's. Upon hearing Zhou Hong's words, he chuckled and replied, “You’re exactly right, Brother Zhou. This Bai Hao… is relying completely on the Giant Ghost King. Maybe he does have some pretty good battle prowess, but he’s only one person, and he’s not the actual heir of the Giant Ghost King. Zhou Zimo hates him too. I think dealing with him… shouldn’t be much of a problem at all.”

Turning to look at the middle-aged man, Zhou Hong said, “Brother Xu, I heard that Xu Shan actually likes this Bai Hao. Is that true?”

“My little sister is a bit naïve. She said a lot of nice things about this Bai Hao after she got back, which cooled father down quite a bit. Anyway, she just doesn’t get life. As her older brother, I simply cannot allow this insult to Spirit Advent City to stand. That is why I was more than happy to accept your invitation to come here, Brother Zhou!” This middle-aged man was one of the sons of the Spirit Advent King, Xu Peng.

“Brother Zhou,” he continued, “do you happen to have already come up with a plan on how to deal with him?” The truth was that Xu Peng didn’t really feel any enmity toward Bai Xiaochun. However, in the Wildlands, the position of king wasn’t exclusively passed on to sons. It could also go to daughters. And the Spirit Advent King had many, many sons. It was also common knowledge in the Wildlands that all the princes and princesses in Spirit Advent City feared Xu Shan the most.

After coming to find that Xu Shan had a good impression of this Bai Hao, and then having received the invitation from Zhou Hong, Xu Peng decided that it was the perfect opportunity to better his own position. Of course, since he had never met this Bai Hao before, he was also prepared to back out of the situation if Zhou Hong’s plan was too dangerous.