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[fic] A fish of a small stream leaping out, seeing countless branches (Part 2)
Fandom: Cultivation Chat Group (novel)
Characters: White Two, Senior White, Song Shuhang, Lady Onion
Rating: T
White Two has a few interesting dreams. Set during some vague time after chapter 1535.
A fish of a small stream leaping out, seeing countless branches
Part 2: The Ninth Cultivator of True Virtue
White Two stared at him. “Huh?”
Song Shuhang slowly smiled and said, “Senior White, I won. The new Wielder of the Will is a little nineteen-year-old university student named Song Shuhang.”
He held out a hand. A stream of extremely pure, evil energy of the Netherworld Realm condensed into a black mass above his palm, then it blossomed into a delicate black lotus flower.
He had used his authority as a will of the Netherworld to create this black lotus. As another will of the Netherworld, White Two could easily tell when that authority was being used.
The Song Shuhang in front of him really was a ruler of the Netherworld Realm!
If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he would have had trouble believing it.
Even after seeing it with his own eyes, he was having trouble believing it!
“You won?” White Two finally said.
Song Shuhang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Senior White, can you not sound so incredulous...even if it was kind of a long shot, is it really so hard to believe that I won?”
...In truth, White Two was only so incredulous that it was Song Shuhang because he had just experienced a very different outcome. But he didn’t feel like explaining that to Song Shuhang right now.
“Actually, you’re not really wrong,” Song Shuhang said with a weak laugh. “It’s only because of the main world’s Senior White that I’m here. When it was just the two of us left and he was about to take it, he decided at the last minute that it wasn’t the right time, so he let me have it instead.”
He smiled and waved his hand. The black lotus turned to smoke and dispersed.
“...” White Two.
Were they always going to do things this way...?
...Given their personality, the probability of that was very high.
“Did he say why?” White Two asked curiously. When it had been him, he had only felt that the timing wasn’t right, but there hadn’t been any particular reason for it.
However, his intuition had always been excellent, and at that time it had been even further enhanced by the Heaven’s Will. Therefore, even though he had no particular reason for it, he was certain it had been the correct choice.
“Not really. Just that it wasn’t the right time.” Song Shuhang thought for a moment and added, “But he was also concerned that if he became the Wielder, the new Senior White that appeared in the Netherworld Realm might just overwrite the old one, instead of there being two of you. So that might have been part of it.”
“Hm, I guess that’s possible,” White Two said. He hadn’t really given it much thought. His counterpart had seemed confident that White Two would be getting a companion if he fought to become the Wielder again. White Two had just experienced that version of events, too, so he was inclined to think that was what would have actually occurred.
But now that he thought about it, the idea that he might have just been replaced was also very reasonable.
Song Shuhang said, “Senior White was going to look into it to see if there’s anything he can do about that, but he also said he has a few things he needs to discuss with you first. So I’m supposed to tell you that he’ll try to contact you in a couple days.”
White Two said, “Oh? What is that guy planning to do, barge into the Netherworld Realm directly?”
With Song Shuhang either also here or up in some Wielder-only realm of the Heavens, White Two was assuming that Shuhang’s Inner World was no longer in play, at least for now.
Other than through Song Shuhang and his Inner World, the main world ‘White’ had no way of contacting him directly.
“Hahaha.” Song Shuhang laughed weakly. “Even though that would be very Senior White-like...Actually, I figured out a way to transfer the Inner World over to him. So he should be able to just to call you like I do—did.”
White Two raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Oh, really?”
Song Shuhang said, “Hehe. So we can still go out and play in the main world whenever we want. The other me won’t mind.”
“Even if he did, it wouldn’t matter. We’ll just sneak out anyway,” White Two said with a smile.
Probably, Wielder Shuhang really would just look the other way.
For one thing, they could be considered friends, and for another, he owed White Two an awful lot of favors at this point.
But even if it turned out that Wielder Shuhang had no choice but to follow the rules—White Two wasn’t the Wielder and knew very little about what it entailed, but it wouldn’t surprise him if there was some kind of restriction like that—it wasn’t like White Two cared about that any more than he’d cared about being on the previous Wielder’s blacklist.
“However, what are you going to give me in exchange for using the world of the black lotus to go out and play?” White Two asked. “Don’t think you get to use my world for free just because you’re also a ruler of the Netherworld.”
The look of dismay that crossed Song Shuhang’s face was exquisite.
But it was also short-lived. Then, Song Shuhang smiled mischievously and said, “Senior White, I don’t need to use the world of the black lotus.”
He waved his hand again and a second Song Shuhang appeared next to him.
“Hello, Senior White.” Song Shuhang Two cupped his hands in greeting. Then he gave White Two a little wave and disappeared.
White Two felt a very familiar fluctuation in space when the clone disappeared. He frowned and shifted a part of his consciousness over to one of his clones in the world of the black lotus. From there, he took a peek through the tunnel connecting his world to Song Shuhang’s—no, the other ‘White’s’ Inner World.
Sure enough, there was now a Song Shuhang standing in the middle of it. Song Shuhang Two looked up when he noticed White Two’s presence and gave another little wave.
“I really did transfer the Inner World over to Senior White,” said Netherworld Song Shuhang. “There was definitely no problem there. But when I woke up here, I discovered that I was still connected to it. As long as my main body stays in the Netherworld Realm, I don’t think I’ll have any trouble using it to go play in the main world.”
“This one thousand percent counts as cheating,” White Two said.
“Hehe,” said Song Shuhang.
White Two smiled and got to his feet. “All right, we’ve been sitting around long enough. Shall I give you the grand tour? I can show you where to find the entrance to the world of the black lotus and some of the places I fought that fall ball—Oh, right, what about the metal ball? Have you seen it around?”
“Okay!” Song Shuhang said, and he scrambled to his feet. “I haven’t seen that fat ball at all...but it should have already disappeared, right?”
“Mm-hm, it should have,” White Two said.
Even so, he felt oddly disappointed. His nemesis and only real rival for millenia...gone, just like that.
Good riddance, of course, it wasn’t like he was sorry to see the back of that metal bastard.
Still...it was going to be a lot quieter around here from now on...
“Then in honor of that stupid fat ball, let me show you something especially fun first,” White Two said, and he opened a spatial gate with a wave of his hand. “You should recognize it. It’s the place where I blew up those bombs and that horrific virtuous golden diamond right in that metal ball’s face. We won’t be able to get too close, though, because that whole place ended up completely uninhabitable. Any demon weaker than Ninth Stage would be instantly vaporized if they got within a hundred miles of it. Of course, you and I will be fine, but it’s still pretty uncomfortable...”
“Wait, Senior White, there’s one more thing—”
Song Shuhang grabbed his arm to hold him back. White Two paused with one foot in the space crack and looked curiously back at him.
“Ah, I just wanted to say that I’m going to look into it too,” Song Shuhang said, and he clenched a fist with determination. “Finding a way to let you—and me, I guess—leave the Netherworld Realm and not be bound to the existence of the Wielder anymore. We’re all going to look into it—me, Senior White, and the other me.”
White Two raised an eyebrow. “Of course you are. Every ruler of the Netherworld Realm has tried to find some way to leave. You should have seen with the metal ball that it isn’t that simple to defy the natural order.”
“Yes, but I know something the metal ball didn’t know,” Song Shuhang said with a smile. “Actually. there’s another senior I know who also used to be a ruler of the Netherworld, only his counterpart came up with a way to let him escape the Netherworld Realm and live until now. That senior also kind of owes me a favor. It might take some time to find him again, but I think talking to him about it is the best place to start.”
“...” White Two.
Another former ruler of the Netherworld?
Since when was that something so common?
And how come hadn’t he ever heard of there being anyone else? He hadn’t heard a single rumor, within the Netherworld Realm or without.
Actually, that wasn’t so strange. As someone who continued to exist where they shouldn’t, it was better to keep a low profile and not attract the attention of the Wielder of the Will—particularly during the era of the last Wielder. White Two had gotten away with it only because the previous Wielder had been in an extremely poor state when he’d started sneaking out of the Netherworld Realm to cause trouble.
Which one could it be...?
Although he didn’t know much about the previous rulers—and most of what he did know came from what he knew of their Wielder counterparts—if he had to guess...the Third Wielder of the Will seemed to have been particularly preoccupied with finding a way to [escape]. The various small worlds that bore his traces—the worlds of the black and golden lotuses and the Wielder’s small black rooms—all pointed toward this conclusion.
White Two had no way of knowing whether the Third Wielder had managed to free either himself or his Netherworld counterpart in the end, but it wasn’t an unreasonable possibility.
Then there was the Sixth Wielder of the Will, Fellow Daoist Virtue.
According to Wielder of the Will White, many of the things which Fellow Daoist Virtue had created were also part of an escape plan. In the end, however, he wasn’t able to escape successfully and simply disappeared, leaving all those things behind for Wielder White to inherit.
White Two was personally familiar with Fellow Daoist Virtue and knew his character well. He had a benevolent heart and a deep sense of fairness. If he felt that the position of Wielder was a trap and he needed to leave it, he would naturally look for some way to keep his other self from disappearing when the time came.
Ruler of the Netherworld Virtue was already gone when White Two came into existence. Whether that was because he’d simply disappeared, or because Wielder Virtue had managed to spirit him away, White Two had no way of knowing.
He had always assumed Netherworld Virtue had just disappeared, but...
“You don’t need to concern yourself so much with getting me out of here,” White Two said eventually. “As long as we can use the world of the black lotus, I’m content with the situation as it is for now. Besides, I’m sure your other Senior White has it handled. But when you go to talk to this other ruler of the Netherworld, I want to go with you.”
“Sure!” Song Shuhang said. “Actually, I think the two of you would really get along. He seemed to really like Senior White when they met. That senior also really likes sleeping, and you can both be kind of grouchy...”
“...Do you think that just because you’ve gotten a little stronger, I won’t dare to beat you to death?” White Two said grouchily.
Song Shuhang slowly smiled. “You can try. But I wonder how you’ll ‘beat to death’ a fellow ruler of the Netherworld?”
White Two said, “Would you care for a demonstration?”
As he said this, his favorite sword appeared in his hand.
Song Shuhang laughed and abruptly moved through space to get behind him.
“You’ll have to catch me first, Senior White~!” he declared as he dove into the spacial channel.
Three seconds later, Song Shuhang stumbled back out of the space gate, coughing and gasping for breath.
“Shiet, you really weren’t kidding about how noxious that place is,” Song Shuhang sputtered out between coughs.
“Hehe.” White Two lip curled in a smile.
He had secretly switched the exit coordinates of the spatial channel so it would dump Song Shuhang out in the middle of the contaminated area.
This kid thought he could insult the ruler of the Netherworld Realm and then run away without any consequences?
Too naive!
“Come on, let’s get going before that death-seeking disease of yours gets even worse,” White Two said.
He shoved Song Shuhang back into the space gate (after changing the exit coordinates back, of course), then followed him in as well.
“Senior White Rabbit! Senior White Rabbit, wake up! Senior White Rabbit!”
This time, someone was shouting at him.
It also sounded like they were choking back tears between sentences? And he could vaguely smell something extremely delicious...
White Two slowly opened his eyes and sat up, looking around. His gaze fell on the person sitting next to him and he frowned slightly.
This new arrival turned out to be a girl. This girl had long green hair pulled back into twin-tails and wore a tight black cheongsam that nicely accentuated her lovely figure. However, he could see with a glance that the true form of this girl was actually a green onion stalk.
“Senior White Rabbit, you’re finally awake!” the little monster onion girl exclaimed happily.
Then she suddenly burst into tears.
The delicious smell in the air immediately became several times stronger. It seemed the origin of this rich fragrance was the tears flowing freely down this little onion’s face.
“???!” White Two.
But why did she suddenly start crying? Even if he was the ruler of the Netherworld, this much crying was a bit overkill, wasn’t it?
“Sob~ Senior, don’t mind me...sob~ it’s just because of my cultivation technique...”
White Two pinched his chin and fell into thought.
This scent and this girl seemed familiar...
“You’re...Song Shuhang’s monster pet...? That little onion girl who’s terrible at telling jokes...”
“Sob~ That’s right, Senior,” said the onion girl. She seemed to be getting her tears back under control. “My name is Lady Onion. Sniff~ We’ve met a couple times before...It’s good to see you again...”
“Then what’s with all the crying?” White Two was bewildered.
If she was scared of him, he could understand it. She would hardly be the first to be reduced to tears just by existing in his presence.
But she didn’t seem scared at him at all? In fact, like Song Shuhang, this girl had never seemed to be affected much by his aura. So what was there to cry about?
Lady Onion sniffed and wiped the last of her tears away. Although it had been quite a lot of crying, she had gotten it back under control pretty quickly.
“I was just so relieved you woke up that I couldn’t help it,” she explained. “Senior White and Shuhang said you should still be here even though I’m here now too, so maybe you could help me get settled. But I was calling you for such a long time and you wouldn’t wake up, so I got worried something was wrong. My cultivation technique makes me cry if my mood fluctuates a lot, it doesn’t matter if I’m happy or sad...”
“...” White Two.
What a weird cultivation technique.
Wait.
“!!!” White Two.
What did she just say? He should still be here even though she’s here?
He’d been so alarmed by the weird crying that he’d nearly forgotten the most important thing here.
“You’re the new ruler of the Netherworld?” White Two said incredulously.
This silly little onion monster became the Wielder of the Heaven’s Will???
Lady Onion grinned and clenched her fists. “Yep! The Wielder of the Will is Lady Onion~! The Ruler of the Netherworld is Lady Onion~! From now on, no one will ever take my onion sprouts ever again!”
“...” White Two.
He felt like his understanding of the world had been shattered.
The other White, he could accept.
Song Shuhang, he could accept.
But Lady Onion???
He didn’t believe it!
White Two got to his feet, slowly rubbing his temples. “Okay, that’s enough. These have been very interesting dreams, but I think it’s about time I woke up. See you around, little onion. Maybe we’ll meet again in another one.”
“Huh?” Lady Onion scrambled to her feet. “Meet again? Where are you going?”
“To see if I can figure out what’s really going on here,” White Two said.
Lady Onion’s eyes were looking suspiciously wet again. “But Senior, I really am the Wielder of the Will! I’m not lying, it’s really me!”
White Two looked her over again and said, “No, I believe you really are a will of the Netherworld, and therefore, you really did take the position of Wielder...in this place. I just don’t believe that this place is reality.”
“Of course it’s real!” Lady Onion protested fiercely. “Why can’t I be the Wielder? Why does me being the Wielder mean it isn’t real?”
“Then why don’t you tell me how Lady Onion suppressed all the Immortals under the Heavens to take the position of Wielder?” White Two said. “When I fell unconscious, Fellow Daoist White and Song Shuhang were still in the lead, but I wasn’t able to see the really important part.”
“Hehe, obviously I was conserving my strength in secret while those guys beat up all the competition, then I swooped in and crushed them once they were the only ones left and exhausted from all the fighting!” Lady Onion said, proudly patting her chest.
“Now that I could believe,” Senior White Two said, “except that exhausted and cornered is exactly when it’s most dangerous to try to fight those two.”
“Haha, yeah, their luck at those times is super scary! I’d never be able to beat them in a million years,” Lady Onion said with a laugh.
Mid-laugh, she froze.
“Hey, you tricked me!” Lady Onion exclaimed with a stomp of her foot.
“Sure, you can think that if it makes you feel better,” White Two said.
Lady Onion cutely blew out her cheeks and stomped her foot again. “Senior White Rabbit, you’re so mean!”
White Two smiled. “I’m the ruler of the Netherworld. Did you think I was all sunshine and rainbows? Now, tell me what actually happened before I decide to show you how ‘mean’ I really am.”
Lady Onion crossed her arms and looked away in a huff. For a long moment she only stood there, silently chewing on her bottom lip.
“Okay, so I didn’t win it. They let me have it,” Lady Onion said eventually.
“...” White Two.
“Oh, you Senior Whites are all the same!” Lady Onion said fiercely. “And Shuhang, too, you’re all so silly. It’s the Wielder of the Will! Why would you just give it up like that? Even if there’s something wrong with it, you’re still the Wielder! Surely it’s better to be the Wielder and have to deal with whatever the problem is than it is to just give it up!”
“Well, that’s something only the Wielder can answer,” White Two said, though he couldn’t keep his voice completely free of sarcasm.
Certainly, his counterpart had been rather adamant on that point.
There was a problem with the position of the Wielder, something which made every Wielder eager to escape it. However, White Two couldn’t fully wrap his head around it because he was not a Wielder of the Will.
Then again, his counterpart had been more than willing to try for the position again, so perhaps whatever was so bad still didn’t surpass the glory of the position itself.
White Two suddenly frowned thoughtfully at Lady Onion.
She was the next ruler of the Netherworld...and also a girl...
Lady Onion didn’t seem to notice the scrutiny.
“Exactly! And that’s why it’s better to to be the Wielder!” Lady Onion said fervently. “After Senior White and Shuhang beat that scary guy from the scholarly faction, they were the last ones left standing, so they got to decide who would get to be the Wielder. Shuhang said he didn’t want it, so Senior White was going to take it. But then Senior White decided he didn’t want it either! ‘It’s not the right time’ or something silly like that—like I said, you Senior Whites are all the same. But someone has to be the Wielder, and I was the only other person there, so they asked me if I wanted it.
“Of course I said yes! And that’s how I, Lady Onion, became the Wielder of the Heaven’s Will, and those two are going to be sorry they didn’t take it when they had the chance, because I’ll never give it up in hundred million, billion, trillion years!” Lady Onion finished off this hearty declaration with a few sinister laughs.
Well, she probably thought it was sinister. She seemed to be imitating some supervillain she had seen on TV, with her hands on her hips and her head thrown back like that.
But it was really just very silly. A silly evil laugh for a silly little monster onion.
Who was also the ruler of the Netherworld.
White Two could already feel his head start to ache.
“Haha, Senior White, you were right! They’re over here!”
A familiar voice suddenly cut through the air.
Lady Onion froze mid-laugh. Very slowly, her hands fell back to her sides and she turned around.
A pair of sword lights came streaking toward them through the sky. A moment later, Song Shuhang and the other ‘White’ landed next to them.
The two of them were shrouded in a faint golden light which warded off the filth and evil of the Netherworld Realm.
“Yo, Eighth Cultivator of True Virtue, you’re already here!” Song Shuhang said.
He gave Lady Onion a cheery wave.
Lady Onion gritted her teeth and said, “Hello, Ninth Cultivator of True Virtue. I didn’t think I would be seeing you again. I see you’ve already found time to regrow your hair.”
Indeed, the last time White Two had been able to spy on the battle, Song Shuhang had been bald again, his hair the victim of some battle-related mishap. But now he had a head full of glossy black hair which fell past his waist.
“Haha,” Song Shuhang said, sheepishly scratching the back of head.
“And hello to you too, Nine Virtues Phoenix Saber,” Lady Onion said more kindly as a saber, which appeared both real and illusory, flew away from Song Shuhang and over to her.
The Nine Virtues Phoenix Saber flew around her once, twice, paused to let her stroke its blade a couple times, then it flew back over to Song Shuhang and disappeared.
“What are you two doing here?” White Two asked.
“That’s right, I thought you were going to go wander space for a while,” Lady Onion said.
“It won’t be too late to go to space later,” the other ‘White’ said with a smile. “I was curious about the method by which a new ruler of the Netherworld is created. Unfortunately it seems we’ve arrived too late. We had some trouble getting a spatial channel to bring us directly here.”
“Well, we’ve also been thinking for a while that it might be fun to come to the Netherworld Realm to explore a bit,” Song Shuhang said, although the glance he gave the other ‘White’ made it clear that this was more his idea. “So since we wanted to see how you guys were doing anyway, we decided we might as well come now.”
Lady Onion grumpily crossed her arms. “Hmph. Well, too bad you wasted a trip just for that. As you can see, we’re doing great! In fact, I was doing even better before you decided to barge in here uninvited.”
Song Shuhang laughed and patted her head. “It’s great to see you’re doing so well, Lady Onion.”
Lady Onion huffed again, but she didn’t try to move away from Song Shuhang’s hand.
“Anyway, who said I was here to see you?” Song Shuhang said. “Obviously, I’m here to visit Senior White. He’s the one who just got a new roommate to put up with for a million years.”
“He doesn’t believe I’m the Wielder of the Will!” Lady Onion complained.
“Actually, I have no trouble believing the story you just told me about them giving it to you,” White Two said. “I’m just surprised there really wasn’t anyone else around.”
“Haha, nope, it was just us,” Song Shuhang said.
“Everyone else seemed extremely keen on eliminating the two of us,” the other ‘White’ said. “So by the time we got through everyone who came to challenge us, there was no one left.”
“Even though I kept telling people I didn’t even want it in the first place,” Song Shuhang said with a sigh. “Still, it’s kind of a shame you didn’t realize you didn’t want it either until after we beat everyone, Senior White. I feel bad for Senior Daozi; he really wanted it, and we could’ve just let him have it.”
White Two furrowed his brows. That ‘scary guy from the scholarly faction’ had been Daozi, huh...
◁◁ Part 1: Two Whites vs one liquid metal ball
Part 3: The very tired Senior White Two ▷▷
Characters: White Two, Senior White, Song Shuhang, Lady Onion
Rating: T
White Two has a few interesting dreams. Set during some vague time after chapter 1535.
Part 2: The Ninth Cultivator of True Virtue
White Two stared at him. “Huh?”
Song Shuhang slowly smiled and said, “Senior White, I won. The new Wielder of the Will is a little nineteen-year-old university student named Song Shuhang.”
He held out a hand. A stream of extremely pure, evil energy of the Netherworld Realm condensed into a black mass above his palm, then it blossomed into a delicate black lotus flower.
He had used his authority as a will of the Netherworld to create this black lotus. As another will of the Netherworld, White Two could easily tell when that authority was being used.
The Song Shuhang in front of him really was a ruler of the Netherworld Realm!
If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he would have had trouble believing it.
Even after seeing it with his own eyes, he was having trouble believing it!
“You won?” White Two finally said.
Song Shuhang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Senior White, can you not sound so incredulous...even if it was kind of a long shot, is it really so hard to believe that I won?”
...In truth, White Two was only so incredulous that it was Song Shuhang because he had just experienced a very different outcome. But he didn’t feel like explaining that to Song Shuhang right now.
“Actually, you’re not really wrong,” Song Shuhang said with a weak laugh. “It’s only because of the main world’s Senior White that I’m here. When it was just the two of us left and he was about to take it, he decided at the last minute that it wasn’t the right time, so he let me have it instead.”
He smiled and waved his hand. The black lotus turned to smoke and dispersed.
“...” White Two.
Were they always going to do things this way...?
...Given their personality, the probability of that was very high.
“Did he say why?” White Two asked curiously. When it had been him, he had only felt that the timing wasn’t right, but there hadn’t been any particular reason for it.
However, his intuition had always been excellent, and at that time it had been even further enhanced by the Heaven’s Will. Therefore, even though he had no particular reason for it, he was certain it had been the correct choice.
“Not really. Just that it wasn’t the right time.” Song Shuhang thought for a moment and added, “But he was also concerned that if he became the Wielder, the new Senior White that appeared in the Netherworld Realm might just overwrite the old one, instead of there being two of you. So that might have been part of it.”
“Hm, I guess that’s possible,” White Two said. He hadn’t really given it much thought. His counterpart had seemed confident that White Two would be getting a companion if he fought to become the Wielder again. White Two had just experienced that version of events, too, so he was inclined to think that was what would have actually occurred.
But now that he thought about it, the idea that he might have just been replaced was also very reasonable.
Song Shuhang said, “Senior White was going to look into it to see if there’s anything he can do about that, but he also said he has a few things he needs to discuss with you first. So I’m supposed to tell you that he’ll try to contact you in a couple days.”
White Two said, “Oh? What is that guy planning to do, barge into the Netherworld Realm directly?”
With Song Shuhang either also here or up in some Wielder-only realm of the Heavens, White Two was assuming that Shuhang’s Inner World was no longer in play, at least for now.
Other than through Song Shuhang and his Inner World, the main world ‘White’ had no way of contacting him directly.
“Hahaha.” Song Shuhang laughed weakly. “Even though that would be very Senior White-like...Actually, I figured out a way to transfer the Inner World over to him. So he should be able to just to call you like I do—did.”
White Two raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Oh, really?”
Song Shuhang said, “Hehe. So we can still go out and play in the main world whenever we want. The other me won’t mind.”
“Even if he did, it wouldn’t matter. We’ll just sneak out anyway,” White Two said with a smile.
Probably, Wielder Shuhang really would just look the other way.
For one thing, they could be considered friends, and for another, he owed White Two an awful lot of favors at this point.
But even if it turned out that Wielder Shuhang had no choice but to follow the rules—White Two wasn’t the Wielder and knew very little about what it entailed, but it wouldn’t surprise him if there was some kind of restriction like that—it wasn’t like White Two cared about that any more than he’d cared about being on the previous Wielder’s blacklist.
“However, what are you going to give me in exchange for using the world of the black lotus to go out and play?” White Two asked. “Don’t think you get to use my world for free just because you’re also a ruler of the Netherworld.”
The look of dismay that crossed Song Shuhang’s face was exquisite.
But it was also short-lived. Then, Song Shuhang smiled mischievously and said, “Senior White, I don’t need to use the world of the black lotus.”
He waved his hand again and a second Song Shuhang appeared next to him.
“Hello, Senior White.” Song Shuhang Two cupped his hands in greeting. Then he gave White Two a little wave and disappeared.
White Two felt a very familiar fluctuation in space when the clone disappeared. He frowned and shifted a part of his consciousness over to one of his clones in the world of the black lotus. From there, he took a peek through the tunnel connecting his world to Song Shuhang’s—no, the other ‘White’s’ Inner World.
Sure enough, there was now a Song Shuhang standing in the middle of it. Song Shuhang Two looked up when he noticed White Two’s presence and gave another little wave.
“I really did transfer the Inner World over to Senior White,” said Netherworld Song Shuhang. “There was definitely no problem there. But when I woke up here, I discovered that I was still connected to it. As long as my main body stays in the Netherworld Realm, I don’t think I’ll have any trouble using it to go play in the main world.”
“This one thousand percent counts as cheating,” White Two said.
“Hehe,” said Song Shuhang.
White Two smiled and got to his feet. “All right, we’ve been sitting around long enough. Shall I give you the grand tour? I can show you where to find the entrance to the world of the black lotus and some of the places I fought that fall ball—Oh, right, what about the metal ball? Have you seen it around?”
“Okay!” Song Shuhang said, and he scrambled to his feet. “I haven’t seen that fat ball at all...but it should have already disappeared, right?”
“Mm-hm, it should have,” White Two said.
Even so, he felt oddly disappointed. His nemesis and only real rival for millenia...gone, just like that.
Good riddance, of course, it wasn’t like he was sorry to see the back of that metal bastard.
Still...it was going to be a lot quieter around here from now on...
“Then in honor of that stupid fat ball, let me show you something especially fun first,” White Two said, and he opened a spatial gate with a wave of his hand. “You should recognize it. It’s the place where I blew up those bombs and that horrific virtuous golden diamond right in that metal ball’s face. We won’t be able to get too close, though, because that whole place ended up completely uninhabitable. Any demon weaker than Ninth Stage would be instantly vaporized if they got within a hundred miles of it. Of course, you and I will be fine, but it’s still pretty uncomfortable...”
“Wait, Senior White, there’s one more thing—”
Song Shuhang grabbed his arm to hold him back. White Two paused with one foot in the space crack and looked curiously back at him.
“Ah, I just wanted to say that I’m going to look into it too,” Song Shuhang said, and he clenched a fist with determination. “Finding a way to let you—and me, I guess—leave the Netherworld Realm and not be bound to the existence of the Wielder anymore. We’re all going to look into it—me, Senior White, and the other me.”
White Two raised an eyebrow. “Of course you are. Every ruler of the Netherworld Realm has tried to find some way to leave. You should have seen with the metal ball that it isn’t that simple to defy the natural order.”
“Yes, but I know something the metal ball didn’t know,” Song Shuhang said with a smile. “Actually. there’s another senior I know who also used to be a ruler of the Netherworld, only his counterpart came up with a way to let him escape the Netherworld Realm and live until now. That senior also kind of owes me a favor. It might take some time to find him again, but I think talking to him about it is the best place to start.”
“...” White Two.
Another former ruler of the Netherworld?
Since when was that something so common?
And how come hadn’t he ever heard of there being anyone else? He hadn’t heard a single rumor, within the Netherworld Realm or without.
Actually, that wasn’t so strange. As someone who continued to exist where they shouldn’t, it was better to keep a low profile and not attract the attention of the Wielder of the Will—particularly during the era of the last Wielder. White Two had gotten away with it only because the previous Wielder had been in an extremely poor state when he’d started sneaking out of the Netherworld Realm to cause trouble.
Which one could it be...?
Although he didn’t know much about the previous rulers—and most of what he did know came from what he knew of their Wielder counterparts—if he had to guess...the Third Wielder of the Will seemed to have been particularly preoccupied with finding a way to [escape]. The various small worlds that bore his traces—the worlds of the black and golden lotuses and the Wielder’s small black rooms—all pointed toward this conclusion.
White Two had no way of knowing whether the Third Wielder had managed to free either himself or his Netherworld counterpart in the end, but it wasn’t an unreasonable possibility.
Then there was the Sixth Wielder of the Will, Fellow Daoist Virtue.
According to Wielder of the Will White, many of the things which Fellow Daoist Virtue had created were also part of an escape plan. In the end, however, he wasn’t able to escape successfully and simply disappeared, leaving all those things behind for Wielder White to inherit.
White Two was personally familiar with Fellow Daoist Virtue and knew his character well. He had a benevolent heart and a deep sense of fairness. If he felt that the position of Wielder was a trap and he needed to leave it, he would naturally look for some way to keep his other self from disappearing when the time came.
Ruler of the Netherworld Virtue was already gone when White Two came into existence. Whether that was because he’d simply disappeared, or because Wielder Virtue had managed to spirit him away, White Two had no way of knowing.
He had always assumed Netherworld Virtue had just disappeared, but...
“You don’t need to concern yourself so much with getting me out of here,” White Two said eventually. “As long as we can use the world of the black lotus, I’m content with the situation as it is for now. Besides, I’m sure your other Senior White has it handled. But when you go to talk to this other ruler of the Netherworld, I want to go with you.”
“Sure!” Song Shuhang said. “Actually, I think the two of you would really get along. He seemed to really like Senior White when they met. That senior also really likes sleeping, and you can both be kind of grouchy...”
“...Do you think that just because you’ve gotten a little stronger, I won’t dare to beat you to death?” White Two said grouchily.
Song Shuhang slowly smiled. “You can try. But I wonder how you’ll ‘beat to death’ a fellow ruler of the Netherworld?”
White Two said, “Would you care for a demonstration?”
As he said this, his favorite sword appeared in his hand.
Song Shuhang laughed and abruptly moved through space to get behind him.
“You’ll have to catch me first, Senior White~!” he declared as he dove into the spacial channel.
Three seconds later, Song Shuhang stumbled back out of the space gate, coughing and gasping for breath.
“Shiet, you really weren’t kidding about how noxious that place is,” Song Shuhang sputtered out between coughs.
“Hehe.” White Two lip curled in a smile.
He had secretly switched the exit coordinates of the spatial channel so it would dump Song Shuhang out in the middle of the contaminated area.
This kid thought he could insult the ruler of the Netherworld Realm and then run away without any consequences?
Too naive!
“Come on, let’s get going before that death-seeking disease of yours gets even worse,” White Two said.
He shoved Song Shuhang back into the space gate (after changing the exit coordinates back, of course), then followed him in as well.
“Senior White Rabbit! Senior White Rabbit, wake up! Senior White Rabbit!”
This time, someone was shouting at him.
It also sounded like they were choking back tears between sentences? And he could vaguely smell something extremely delicious...
White Two slowly opened his eyes and sat up, looking around. His gaze fell on the person sitting next to him and he frowned slightly.
This new arrival turned out to be a girl. This girl had long green hair pulled back into twin-tails and wore a tight black cheongsam that nicely accentuated her lovely figure. However, he could see with a glance that the true form of this girl was actually a green onion stalk.
“Senior White Rabbit, you’re finally awake!” the little monster onion girl exclaimed happily.
Then she suddenly burst into tears.
The delicious smell in the air immediately became several times stronger. It seemed the origin of this rich fragrance was the tears flowing freely down this little onion’s face.
“???!” White Two.
But why did she suddenly start crying? Even if he was the ruler of the Netherworld, this much crying was a bit overkill, wasn’t it?
“Sob~ Senior, don’t mind me...sob~ it’s just because of my cultivation technique...”
White Two pinched his chin and fell into thought.
This scent and this girl seemed familiar...
“You’re...Song Shuhang’s monster pet...? That little onion girl who’s terrible at telling jokes...”
“Sob~ That’s right, Senior,” said the onion girl. She seemed to be getting her tears back under control. “My name is Lady Onion. Sniff~ We’ve met a couple times before...It’s good to see you again...”
“Then what’s with all the crying?” White Two was bewildered.
If she was scared of him, he could understand it. She would hardly be the first to be reduced to tears just by existing in his presence.
But she didn’t seem scared at him at all? In fact, like Song Shuhang, this girl had never seemed to be affected much by his aura. So what was there to cry about?
Lady Onion sniffed and wiped the last of her tears away. Although it had been quite a lot of crying, she had gotten it back under control pretty quickly.
“I was just so relieved you woke up that I couldn’t help it,” she explained. “Senior White and Shuhang said you should still be here even though I’m here now too, so maybe you could help me get settled. But I was calling you for such a long time and you wouldn’t wake up, so I got worried something was wrong. My cultivation technique makes me cry if my mood fluctuates a lot, it doesn’t matter if I’m happy or sad...”
“...” White Two.
What a weird cultivation technique.
Wait.
“!!!” White Two.
What did she just say? He should still be here even though she’s here?
He’d been so alarmed by the weird crying that he’d nearly forgotten the most important thing here.
“You’re the new ruler of the Netherworld?” White Two said incredulously.
This silly little onion monster became the Wielder of the Heaven’s Will???
Lady Onion grinned and clenched her fists. “Yep! The Wielder of the Will is Lady Onion~! The Ruler of the Netherworld is Lady Onion~! From now on, no one will ever take my onion sprouts ever again!”
“...” White Two.
He felt like his understanding of the world had been shattered.
The other White, he could accept.
Song Shuhang, he could accept.
But Lady Onion???
He didn’t believe it!
White Two got to his feet, slowly rubbing his temples. “Okay, that’s enough. These have been very interesting dreams, but I think it’s about time I woke up. See you around, little onion. Maybe we’ll meet again in another one.”
“Huh?” Lady Onion scrambled to her feet. “Meet again? Where are you going?”
“To see if I can figure out what’s really going on here,” White Two said.
Lady Onion’s eyes were looking suspiciously wet again. “But Senior, I really am the Wielder of the Will! I’m not lying, it’s really me!”
White Two looked her over again and said, “No, I believe you really are a will of the Netherworld, and therefore, you really did take the position of Wielder...in this place. I just don’t believe that this place is reality.”
“Of course it’s real!” Lady Onion protested fiercely. “Why can’t I be the Wielder? Why does me being the Wielder mean it isn’t real?”
“Then why don’t you tell me how Lady Onion suppressed all the Immortals under the Heavens to take the position of Wielder?” White Two said. “When I fell unconscious, Fellow Daoist White and Song Shuhang were still in the lead, but I wasn’t able to see the really important part.”
“Hehe, obviously I was conserving my strength in secret while those guys beat up all the competition, then I swooped in and crushed them once they were the only ones left and exhausted from all the fighting!” Lady Onion said, proudly patting her chest.
“Now that I could believe,” Senior White Two said, “except that exhausted and cornered is exactly when it’s most dangerous to try to fight those two.”
“Haha, yeah, their luck at those times is super scary! I’d never be able to beat them in a million years,” Lady Onion said with a laugh.
Mid-laugh, she froze.
“Hey, you tricked me!” Lady Onion exclaimed with a stomp of her foot.
“Sure, you can think that if it makes you feel better,” White Two said.
Lady Onion cutely blew out her cheeks and stomped her foot again. “Senior White Rabbit, you’re so mean!”
White Two smiled. “I’m the ruler of the Netherworld. Did you think I was all sunshine and rainbows? Now, tell me what actually happened before I decide to show you how ‘mean’ I really am.”
Lady Onion crossed her arms and looked away in a huff. For a long moment she only stood there, silently chewing on her bottom lip.
“Okay, so I didn’t win it. They let me have it,” Lady Onion said eventually.
“...” White Two.
“Oh, you Senior Whites are all the same!” Lady Onion said fiercely. “And Shuhang, too, you’re all so silly. It’s the Wielder of the Will! Why would you just give it up like that? Even if there’s something wrong with it, you’re still the Wielder! Surely it’s better to be the Wielder and have to deal with whatever the problem is than it is to just give it up!”
“Well, that’s something only the Wielder can answer,” White Two said, though he couldn’t keep his voice completely free of sarcasm.
Certainly, his counterpart had been rather adamant on that point.
There was a problem with the position of the Wielder, something which made every Wielder eager to escape it. However, White Two couldn’t fully wrap his head around it because he was not a Wielder of the Will.
Then again, his counterpart had been more than willing to try for the position again, so perhaps whatever was so bad still didn’t surpass the glory of the position itself.
White Two suddenly frowned thoughtfully at Lady Onion.
She was the next ruler of the Netherworld...and also a girl...
Lady Onion didn’t seem to notice the scrutiny.
“Exactly! And that’s why it’s better to to be the Wielder!” Lady Onion said fervently. “After Senior White and Shuhang beat that scary guy from the scholarly faction, they were the last ones left standing, so they got to decide who would get to be the Wielder. Shuhang said he didn’t want it, so Senior White was going to take it. But then Senior White decided he didn’t want it either! ‘It’s not the right time’ or something silly like that—like I said, you Senior Whites are all the same. But someone has to be the Wielder, and I was the only other person there, so they asked me if I wanted it.
“Of course I said yes! And that’s how I, Lady Onion, became the Wielder of the Heaven’s Will, and those two are going to be sorry they didn’t take it when they had the chance, because I’ll never give it up in hundred million, billion, trillion years!” Lady Onion finished off this hearty declaration with a few sinister laughs.
Well, she probably thought it was sinister. She seemed to be imitating some supervillain she had seen on TV, with her hands on her hips and her head thrown back like that.
But it was really just very silly. A silly evil laugh for a silly little monster onion.
Who was also the ruler of the Netherworld.
White Two could already feel his head start to ache.
“Haha, Senior White, you were right! They’re over here!”
A familiar voice suddenly cut through the air.
Lady Onion froze mid-laugh. Very slowly, her hands fell back to her sides and she turned around.
A pair of sword lights came streaking toward them through the sky. A moment later, Song Shuhang and the other ‘White’ landed next to them.
The two of them were shrouded in a faint golden light which warded off the filth and evil of the Netherworld Realm.
“Yo, Eighth Cultivator of True Virtue, you’re already here!” Song Shuhang said.
He gave Lady Onion a cheery wave.
Lady Onion gritted her teeth and said, “Hello, Ninth Cultivator of True Virtue. I didn’t think I would be seeing you again. I see you’ve already found time to regrow your hair.”
Indeed, the last time White Two had been able to spy on the battle, Song Shuhang had been bald again, his hair the victim of some battle-related mishap. But now he had a head full of glossy black hair which fell past his waist.
“Haha,” Song Shuhang said, sheepishly scratching the back of head.
“And hello to you too, Nine Virtues Phoenix Saber,” Lady Onion said more kindly as a saber, which appeared both real and illusory, flew away from Song Shuhang and over to her.
The Nine Virtues Phoenix Saber flew around her once, twice, paused to let her stroke its blade a couple times, then it flew back over to Song Shuhang and disappeared.
“What are you two doing here?” White Two asked.
“That’s right, I thought you were going to go wander space for a while,” Lady Onion said.
“It won’t be too late to go to space later,” the other ‘White’ said with a smile. “I was curious about the method by which a new ruler of the Netherworld is created. Unfortunately it seems we’ve arrived too late. We had some trouble getting a spatial channel to bring us directly here.”
“Well, we’ve also been thinking for a while that it might be fun to come to the Netherworld Realm to explore a bit,” Song Shuhang said, although the glance he gave the other ‘White’ made it clear that this was more his idea. “So since we wanted to see how you guys were doing anyway, we decided we might as well come now.”
Lady Onion grumpily crossed her arms. “Hmph. Well, too bad you wasted a trip just for that. As you can see, we’re doing great! In fact, I was doing even better before you decided to barge in here uninvited.”
Song Shuhang laughed and patted her head. “It’s great to see you’re doing so well, Lady Onion.”
Lady Onion huffed again, but she didn’t try to move away from Song Shuhang’s hand.
“Anyway, who said I was here to see you?” Song Shuhang said. “Obviously, I’m here to visit Senior White. He’s the one who just got a new roommate to put up with for a million years.”
“He doesn’t believe I’m the Wielder of the Will!” Lady Onion complained.
“Actually, I have no trouble believing the story you just told me about them giving it to you,” White Two said. “I’m just surprised there really wasn’t anyone else around.”
“Haha, nope, it was just us,” Song Shuhang said.
“Everyone else seemed extremely keen on eliminating the two of us,” the other ‘White’ said. “So by the time we got through everyone who came to challenge us, there was no one left.”
“Even though I kept telling people I didn’t even want it in the first place,” Song Shuhang said with a sigh. “Still, it’s kind of a shame you didn’t realize you didn’t want it either until after we beat everyone, Senior White. I feel bad for Senior Daozi; he really wanted it, and we could’ve just let him have it.”
White Two furrowed his brows. That ‘scary guy from the scholarly faction’ had been Daozi, huh...
Part 3: The very tired Senior White Two ▷▷