Volume One: The Wild Child Chapter Five: Suffering Like the Commonfolk

In ancient times, there were sayings about the difficulty of unity, the mutual creation and restraint of all things. After a long epoch, when barbarism ended and civilization began, no one could quite clarify what these doctrines meant any longer.

...

Did the Transcendents come to Qin to recruit newcomers? To the mundane world, a mass awakening is a rarity unseen for millennia, but in the eyes of the Transcendents, who long ago surpassed the ordinary, it is merely fledglings attempting flight, not yet grown, unworthy of their notice. Their true purpose was... to defend against some uncontrollable, unknown catastrophe from Bohai?

And why did Yu Baili come here? Was it for revenge, or to find someone?

After all, Baili Pavilion went up in flames overnight. Yu Baili fought through the encirclement to return to the Central Plains, spreading word of the pavilion’s destruction and the broken border. Yet the Transcendents of the Central Plains, bolstered by modern civilization and confident in their thousand-year heritage, scoffed at the news. Had it not been for the mass awakening and the world’s sudden transformation overnight, the Transcendents would still be gazing down from above, dreaming of becoming immortals and Buddhas.

Yu Baili had spent some time in the land behind the lines. The noble Transcendents valued him highly, seeking to win him over and send him to guard Bohai on their behalf. Yu Baili, whose demeanor was utterly out of place amid the revelry and decadence of the nobles’ paradise, gladly agreed and went alone to Qinhuang.

It seemed fate was at play. Yu Baili, having found nothing but disappointment among the elite and preparing to die in battle at Bohai’s shore, to follow his northern predecessors, encountered in the humble Qinhuang a youth who could inspire even the cautious Yu clan to cling to life.

Thus, Yu Baili no longer wished to die. He wanted to leave a spark for the northern border.

For a warrior, the pride of slaying enemies is not the only cause to sheathe one’s blade; there is also the duty that cannot be shirked.

...

Lin Changtian silently kept record in his mental notebook—Yu Baili had dragged him out of bed and the dormitory countless times, ever since their first meeting in the forest behind the mountain. Along the way, they attracted numerous stares; Yu Baili’s face was expressionless, while Lin Changtian’s was dark with frustration.

At last, the long ordeal ended. Lin Changtian struggled to his feet, leapt up, and shouted at Yu Baili, “All I did was look at you a little longer that day! Why must you drag me out at dawn every day? How many days has it been? Countless junior students who once admired me now avert their eyes out of pity!”

“She doesn’t look at you because, well, let’s just say, you really ought to change your habit of sleeping naked. Also, today you got up two seconds faster than yesterday—progress,” Yu Baili said with complete seriousness, watching Lin Changtian choke in anger.

If not for seeing Yu Baili single-handedly lift a car and then beat up the local strongman, Lin Changtian would have already challenged him to a fight. Regardless of Lin Changtian’s fury, Yu Baili walked over, grabbed him, felt his bones, and studied the now hopeless Lin Changtian for a long while before speaking slowly, “Your talent is one in ten thousand.”

Lin Changtian’s face lit up with excitement, swaying in Yu Baili’s grip, and said mysteriously, “I knew it! While others awakened, I didn’t—surely because my talent is unique. Come, bow before my status as the chosen one!”

Yu Baili glanced at the cloudless sky. If Lin Changtian was the chosen one, then heaven must be blind. Yet, with this explanation, he finally understood why so many fools could become Transcendents before the era of awakening.

Not wishing to wound Lin Changtian’s pride, Yu Baili mulled over his words for a long time before gently saying, “Your talent is pretty rubbish, honestly. I’ve spent ages at the northern frontier—if I taught you blade skills, it’d be better to toss a bone to the dogs in the pavilion. They’d wield it better than you ever could.”

Lin Changtian stopped swaying, fixed Yu Baili with a wolf’s glare, cold and unyielding—his kingly aura enhanced by the darkening sky. Of course, if not for the drool dripping onto Yu Baili’s hand, the Yu clan tiger might have believed he truly was the chosen one.

Taking the food Yu Baili handed him, Lin Changtian devoured it, asking between bites, “Is that dog really so fierce?”

Yu Baili considered and answered seriously, “Aside from its poor manners in the latrine, it’s the fiercest beast of the northern border.”

“Oh, then my defeat is no shame,” Lin Changtian said, focused on his meal. Yu Baili patted his head and asked, “Do you want to learn northern blade techniques?”

Lin Changtian, enjoying the pat, squinted and muttered, “Didn’t you say my talent isn’t good?”

Yu Baili yawned, “It’s not all about talent. In the past, yes, lack of talent meant no hope in the way of the blade. But now, in this so-called era of awakening, hmm, how to explain the difference... Do you know the distinction between Transcendents and the newly awakened?”

“Are all Transcendents like you—wielding a blade but acting obnoxiously?” Lin Changtian asked curiously.

“Not quite,” Yu Baili replied, pressing Lin Changtian’s head into the dirt as he continued, “Transcendents used to be heirs of great clans, inheriting secret arts and breathing techniques, requiring extreme talent. Few were born able to cultivate qi. Now, the awakened arise entirely by chance, with much lower thresholds for talent before becoming a Transcendent. And do you know why we came to Qin?”

Lin Changtian nodded vigorously, aggrieved, “To kick open dorm rooms and forcibly abuse pure, kind, handsome youths who moved all of China, dragging them in public to flaunt your strength?”

Yu Baili’s expression revealed nothing. He deeply regretted ever speaking to Lin Changtian in a question-and-answer style. He continued, “Bohai is about to face a great calamity; Qinhuangdao will bear the brunt. But with every disaster comes opportunity—perhaps this is your chance.”

...

Lin Changtian finally finished eating and looked at Yu Baili seriously, “If disaster is coming, why don’t the Transcendents move us to the rear? If there’s opportunity, wouldn’t fewer people mean less interference with fate? You’re powerful—you can’t be so shortsighted.”

Yu Baili gripped his blade tightly, unable to speak. Those words should not have come from him.

“You know a lot?” Yu Baili said coldly.

“Not much,” Lin Changtian shook his head, licking the last crumbs from his fingers. “But it’s easy to guess.”

Yu Baili pressed his blade, staring for a long time.

“You’d best give me an answer I like, or today you’ll die here.”

“I’m no swine. I haven’t forgotten what became of ancestors who were ‘eaten.’”

He sheathed his blade, sat cross-legged.

His voice remained icy: “I’ll speak, you listen.”

For a while, that was all.

Frankly, even among the white-clad Transcendents who have come to Qin, some of these secrets may still elude them.

Ancient legend tells that disaster descends upon the world due to humanity. In other words, if these hundreds of thousands were moved elsewhere, who knows where calamity would strike next? And the opportunities coveted by the nobles would vanish. These swine are held in the palms of the lofty Transcendent aristocrats, their fates manipulated as pieces on the board, with ambition disguised as righteous cause. Their reluctance—what can it change?

After all, even the swine themselves forget the fate of their devoured companions.

There are three thousand white-clad figures in the sky; when they descend to earth, they are inevitably covered in dust.