After the unexpected interruption of the Sword Fighting Tournament, with the support of the Sect Leader, Wang Jiu once again attempted to persuade Xiao Bai to carry out his plan for improving the human species in Xiangzhou.

In Wang Jiu’s view, the matter had great potential, and Xiao Bai’s objections were merely due to a lack of understanding and fear of the unknown, rather than any serious and detailed consideration of pros and cons. If she could change her mindset and think rationally, she shouldn’t reject his proposal, so he proceeded to persuade her earnestly.

Firstly, although Xiao Bai’s name suggests youth, her actual age had nothing to do with the word "small." Even by the standards of cultivators, she was in the midlife stage, and by mortal standards, she was elderly. But on such a long road of life, she had never experienced the beauty of romance, which was undoubtedly a great regret.

However, Xiao Bai forcefully refuted this view: "The beauty of romance, have you experienced it?"

The Nameless Sword God, who spent fifty years in solitude like snow, certainly had never been in a relationship with anyone, but to Wang Jiu, this issue was hardly significant.

Despite never having fallen in love with a person, Wang Jiu had loved the Sword Dao almost since birth and spent his entire life pursuing it. The taste of love, he had savored for over fifty years.

However, Xiao Bai straightforwardly said, "If the object of love isn’t confined to humans, that’s manageable. I’ve loved my carefree single life since I can remember, and now you’re insisting I find a boyfriend, which is equivalent to stripping away my decades-old love... By the way, stop bringing up age, or I’ll get angry!"

After careful consideration, Wang Jiu found Xiao Bai’s words reasonable and had to abandon this argument.

Secondly, Wang Jiu attempted to entice Xiao Bai with the pleasure of physiology.

The pain of childbirth, for mortal women, is nearly the greatest suffering in the world, and the long recovery period after childbirth is extremely torturous for those who love beauty. Many women are deterred by this and develop an aversion to the biological nature of reproduction.

Objectively speaking, Wang Jiu deemed such aversion as perfectly justified because the essence of biology is to seek benefits and avoid harm. Putting oneself through such pain and risking one’s life to bear offspring is less appealing than enjoying one’s own life, which he considered normal thinking for normal people.

But this thinking is only at the mortal level. At the cultivator level, they can fully utilize technical advantages to adjust their bodies to highly adapt to the needs of childbirth. By then, not only will childbirth be free of pain, but it will be accompanied by great pleasure, making it irresistible. By then, women can willingly and happily sustain superior offspring, continuously advancing the human race and forming a win-win situation. There are already many artistic works that imagine such a beautiful future and receive widespread acclaim from readers. Wang Jiu corresponded with Xinyu, an expert in this field, and selected the best-reviewed works like "Demon-Fighting True Master" and "Super True Master" to gift to Xiao Bai, hoping to change her stubborn views.

However, minutes later, Wang Jiu received a return gift from Xiao Bai—a complete signature collector’s edition of "Dark Scripture," a complete set of early limited edition "Self-dog Work," and hand-copied works by the authors of "Demon-Fighting True Master" and "Super True Master."

Compared to the amateur collector Li Xinyu, Xiao Bai’s professional level showed a crushing superiority. Since Xiao Bai clearly knows the potential pleasure from childbirth yet continues to stubbornly refuse, it can only indicate her personality, not to be coerced.

Finally, Wang Jiu had no choice but to try persuading through the Sect Leader’s channels.

According to common logic, the Sect Leader saved her life, and thus his words would carry more weight.

Yet this logic rendered ineffective on Xiao Bai as well.

"Did you save me back then just to one day turn me into a breeding sow? If this gets out, who would dare let you save them in the future? Dying at sea would be an end to it all, but being saved by you could bizarrely turn into a breeding sow—why not just die happily."

Faced with Xiao Bai’s questioning, the Sect Leader was speechless, and after a long silence replied, "I only hoped you would live well."

"Then stop persuading me to be a breeding sow! You’ve been celibate for too long, letting lust cloud your judgment! If one day you woke up as a woman, would you accept body modification and proceed to engage in constant childbirth?"

The Sect Leader furrowed his brows, unable to speak.

Wang Jiu then assisted, saying, "The Sect Leader isn’t merely the head of a family but the master of the world. Every word and action is for the world’s welfare, so if that opportunity truly arose, I believe he would undoubtedly commit to the childbirth endeavor."

The Sect Leader was practically sweating coldly, replied reluctantly, "Well, Dean Wang overly praises me. Although my aim is indeed the welfare of the world, there are limits to being human after all..."

Wang Jiu said, "If there are limitations, it indicates the modification isn’t thorough enough. We need to continue perfecting the transformation technology. Such technological advancement must occur through extensive practical implementation, so I suggest that Saint Sect can lead this, selecting superior lineage envoys and elders for collective modification as exemplars to the world."

The Sect Leader briefly envisioned that future: the Saint Sect, ruling Xiangzhou for two thousand years, suddenly declaring that from the Sect Leader on down, all would become women and delight in childbirth—the imagery was truly...

The Sect Leader’s face went pale, saying, "Dean Wang, I’m not feeling well, I’m going to take a rest."

Wang Jiu was utterly amazed. The opponent was the Sect Leader of the Saint Sect, currently the number one in the Immortal Cultivation Realm of Xiangzhou. How could he possibly have a stomachache?

Could it be that some hidden injury occurred during cultivation and damaged his internal organs?

However, this might actually be a good thing, because as long as a transformation into the female form could be performed, the five internal organs would undergo corresponding changes. Especially the abdominal organs would undergo large-scale modifications, and at that time, even heavy hidden injuries would heal, and there would definitely be no more stomach discomfort.

But when Wang Jiu reported this suggestion to the Sect Leader, his face turned from pale to black, unable to utter a single word, only waving his hand before suddenly spitting out a mouthful of blood and fleeing in panic.

——

The Sect Leader’s mid-way escape rendered all three of Wang Jiu’s persuasion channels ineffective, and ultimately, he had no choice but to reluctantly abandon this plan.

After that, he could only turn his attention back to the Sword Fighting Tournament.

However, this duel that originated from a wager by the previous academy dean did not end with a clear and definitive result.

Although Cyan Lotus Academy achieved absolute advantage in both the junior and advanced groups, the mixed group, which held more than half of the weight, was indefinitely postponed due to external factors before the competition even started.

Since the competition was not completed, naturally there was no outcome to discuss, so Wuxiang Sword Academy, which had already been destined to lose, was kept in the competition by simply hanging on.

Wang Jiu himself was not bothered by this. He came leading the team to compete, not for the hundreds of thousands in wagers, but to see if he could use the opportunity to further establish the status of Sword Dao within the academy, allowing those book-loving scholars to let go of their aversion to Sword Dao and sincerely dedicate themselves to sword cultivation.

And from the results, this goal was basically achieved, although in a slightly different way than he had anticipated...

After the Sword Fighting Tournament ended, scholars who had witnessed the whole event burst out laughing: "Haha, it seems Wuxiang Sword Academy isn’t that great either. We used to think they were decades ahead of us, but now it seems it’s mostly exaggerated rumors. They’re not nearly as scary as we were made to believe!"

"Wait, how did you arrive at that conclusion? Did you even watch the event? Isn’t the Sword Academy’s lineup terrifying? I won’t even mention the Celestial Deformed Sword or the Mad Sword Cultivator who didn’t even make a move, but take the junior group’s Lu Qun for instance. Your cultivation realm is higher than his, yet are you certain you’d win against him?"

"You’re thinking about it the wrong way." The scholar shook his head repeatedly, explaining, "If I were to fight him now, of course I wouldn’t win, but that’s not because the opponent is strong, it’s because my skills are lacking. Think about it, their junior representatives couldn’t beat a mildly mentally challenged youth from Cyan Cloud City spur of the moment. The advanced group participants couldn’t beat a 20-something rookie who debuted less than two years ago, and the Mixed Group sent out some Mad Sword Cultivator, hyped up before the battle, who turned out less competent than a creature reformed from a corpse."

This analysis was so logical and reasonable that the rebutter was left speechless.

The scholar felt triumphant: "So? Doesn’t it seem quite reasonable?"

"Whether it makes sense or not, for now... that mildly mentally challenged youth from Cyan Cloud City you mentioned is right behind you..."

Wang Jiu’s team returned to the academy one member short, and regarding this unexpected casualty, Wang Jiu could only express his regret, then entrusted the Sword Academy’s emergency team to quickly bring him out of life-threatening danger.

——

Despite the boastful scholar’s somewhat tragic end, his words began to resonate with many.

Many people, upon returning to the academy, couldn’t help but think: Over the past decades, the academy’s continual defeats by the Sword Academy might not solely have been because the Sword Academy was too strong, but perhaps because the academy itself strayed from the right path, failing to exhibit its true potential.

Just looking at this Sword Fighting Tournament alone, the academy’s lineup wasn’t perfect. Besides Wang Jiu himself being deeply mysterious and intriguing, the advantage in the junior and mixed groups didn’t stem from the academy’s inherent strength: Although Shen Qingming was the champion of the Cyan Cloud Competition and her personal power was undeniable, her intellectual shortcomings were equally undeniable. Moreover, her cultivation talent wasn’t among the best—she achieved today’s accomplishments purely through expert guidance. And the bio-engineered Zhang Lan from the Mixed Group was relying on numerous yet-to-be-fully-matured technologies, a long way from theoretical perfection. But even so, Zhang Lan’s strength was enough to crush the Mad Sword Cultivators of the Sword Academy.

So, this time the academy merely hastily mobilized yet defeated the opponent, clearly because the opponent was too weak.

And losing to such a weak opponent was naturally due to the academy’s own past issues. Hereafter, as long as they train rigorously under the new dean’s guidance, today’s victory will only be the beginning, and a glorious future lies ahead!