Chapter 490: Madmen and Fools
"Daoist Bai, the young mistress has already arranged a VIP private room for you downstairs."
"Xiao Hong, Xiao Cui, show the esteemed guest the way."
"Yes."
...
After seeing off Lu Yuesheng, who had inexplicably gotten drunk and was still babbling nonsense, the Lu family's Grand Steward instructed the servants to lead Bai Mo to a room within the Reed Pavilion.
As Lu Yuesheng's most trusted confidante, the Grand Steward knew perfectly well that her mistress would never lose composure like that in front of outsiders, especially someone she was meeting for the first time. Perhaps the serene-faced youth had been pulling some tricks.
Of course, this was merely the Grand Steward's private conjecture. Bai Mo was, after all, a distinguished guest personally invited by her master. Without irrefutable proof, she couldn't overstep her bounds and say anything.
The female Grand Steward could only temporarily whisk Lu Yuesheng away under the pretense of intoxication, to prevent her from inadvertently spilling more of the Lu family's secrets.
...
Yet, hidden within this ostentatious display of a nouveau riche's wealth were things that transcended the civilization of this era.
Features like a small tap water system capable of pumping pressurized water to higher floors, and the flush toilets indispensable for modern people with their hygiene standards, were all masterpieces of that transmigrator hero.
After acquiring wealth, she immediately ordered people to recreate, as much as possible according to her memories, the convenient and comfortable world she remembered.
At the same time, by providing these exquisite comforts, she generated even more wealth for herself.
The air in the guest room was permeated with a faint, ubiquitous incense, awakening some distant memories within Bai Mo. He recalled the crude Spirit Stone candles he had fashioned back then, used to curry favor with the upper echelons.
In the past, he had no choice but to be a "good person."
He played by the rules of the game, diligently acting out the role on his mask, climbing to the upper crust to become one of those who sliced the cake, because he knew very well that those who distributed the cake always took more than those who baked it.
But once he gained the power to overturn the table, he immediately tore off his mask of disguise, directly twisting the operating rules of the entire human world, reshaping it into the state he found most comfortable.
Why bother with troublesome upper and lower classes? Becoming a system that arranged everything, leaving only the concepts of "I" and "others," was already sufficient.
Bai Mo even once speculated, almost as a joke, that perhaps it was precisely because of his extremely self-centered nature that this world had inflicted upon him the insidious curse of Daoization, which culminated in the loss of one's self.
...
"Twilight Fire? It seems to be a blade with its own soul." After reminiscing for a while, Bai Mo recalled the sword Lu Yuesheng had mentioned at the banquet, the one that had chosen him at a glance.
Compared to the ambitious plans of that transmigrator empress, the sword in her hand left a deeper impression on Bai Mo.
"Why would it choose me?
Was an external consciousness implanted into it, like with Xiao Xun, or did the sword itself give birth to its own primordial spirit?
If it's the latter, then its value is extraordinary."
Lu Yuesheng's drunken indiscretions just now were actually a result of Bai Mo's subtle mental guidance, whether intentional or not. Of course, whether she deliberately revealed certain information while playing along remained known only to herself.
The Twilight Fire in her hand had been consciously protecting Lu Yuesheng, its master.
The power contained within the sword was nearly equivalent to Bai Mo's current strength, roughly at the Fifth Tier according to Earth's standards.
It was precisely because of this inexplicable protection that Bai Mo, without overexerting himself, couldn't directly read the other party's information, and had to resort to roundabout methods to obtain intelligence.
...
"Life truly is the greatest miracle in the universe."
Ever since he understood that world assimilation would proceed by eroding one's self, he had paid particular attention to anything with self-awareness.
The treasured sword Twilight Fire, which he perceived as having a soul, was a key object of Bai Mo's focus.
However, until he fully understood the sword's original master, he wouldn't reveal his intentions too directly.
Even if he ended up realizing he was just scheming against thin air, it was still better than stepping directly into a big problem.
He had come to this world for a trip, and only incidentally to see what gains he might acquire. As for the strenuous calculations and schemes, he'd leave those to the time-traveling players who were accustomed to plundering everything.
"Without some cheat-like 'golden finger' ability, achieving this level in little more than ten or twenty years is indeed quite impressive."
Bai Mo, combining all available information about Lu Yuesheng, asked himself if he, in her position and without the aid of supernatural power, could have built such a massive commercial empire.
Essentially, he was not a social creature, because he simply didn't understand how to use various interpersonal skills to better survive in a group, let alone lead a team.
Apart from issuing commands and demanding absolute obedience, he was too lazy to consider any other methods. And relying solely on such an approach, it was clearly impossible to cultivate a qualified team.
Of course, he was definitely not the only one suffering from this "cultivation solitude syndrome."
Within the Human Federation, there were also some ascetic cultivators who, on a daily basis, were almost entirely immersed in their own worlds, rarely interacting with ordinary people, and only finding common ground with a select few fellow practitioners.
Ordinary people saw them as madmen, and they saw ordinary people as fools.
"But it's also possible that the sword provided her with considerable convenience. Many things have different outcomes with and without power, especially in chaotic times like these."
...
"Hua Ling was rude yesterday while intoxicated." The following afternoon, in the Lu family's training grounds, Lu Yuesheng, still clad in men's attire, gave Bai Mo a slight fist-and-palm salute, an apology.
Hua Ling was the courtesy name she adopted after her rise to prominence, following the customs of the upper echelons of this world.
After their exchange last night, she no longer harbored any thought of "Bai Wu Sheng" being just a youth. This was surely some ancient monster pretending to be young.
"Miss Lu, do you know what a Bloodline House is?" Bai Mo paid no heed to her apology, instead asking with a calm expression.
"Aren't you from a Bloodline House yourself? You might even be an old ancestor of one! If Twilight Fire never lied, this old lady would have blasted you away long ago." Lu Yuesheng ranted frantically about Bai Mo in her mind, but on her face, she maintained an exceedingly polite smile.
"Calling me Miss Lu is too formal. Since we are already allies, you can just call me Hua Ling."
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