Bu Wei

Feng Zizhang held Ning Xiu, pinching his little face, and said to Jiang Yizheng, “As soon as Senior left, why do I feel so uneasy?”

Jiang Yizheng sat cross-legged on the bed, wiping her sword, “Stop being a jinx.”

“It’s not that I think something bad will happen,” Feng Zizhang pondered, “It’s just that I feel we might encounter something we can’t resolve.”

“Senior went to find Xiao Shan’s mother.” Jiang Yizheng held her sword with a face full of gossip, “And judging by Senior’s demeanor, he doesn’t seem familiar with that fairy maiden. Could it be that he abandoned her after a brief fling?”

Feng Zizhang stared in shock, “Is Senior that kind of person?”

Jiang Yizheng touched her nose, “Hiss, doesn’t seem like it.”

“But considering how handsome Senior is, he must have quite a few romantic debts,” Jiang Yizheng stated confidently.

Feng Zizhang was puzzled, “How would you know?”

“You male cultivators don’t understand our female cultivators’ hearts,” Jiang Yizheng said. “If Senior were five hundred years younger and appeared before me with that face, I’d be willing to pay spirit stones just for an extra glance.”

“But Senior still has the same face now; why don’t you pay spirit stones?” Feng Zizhang teased.

Jiang Yizheng waved her hand in distress, “You don’t understand. When Senior stands before me, his presence makes me want to kneel and call him ‘father’, wishing he were my real father.”

Feng Zizhang twitched his mouth corner, “I really don’t understand.”

Perhaps hearing someone calling for ‘father’, the sleeping Ning Xiu slowly opened his eyes. Seeing Feng Zizhang in front of him and not Ning Buwei, he let out a soft “ah” with sleepiness.

Where’s Father?

“Ah, Xiao Shan, you’re awake?” Feng Zizhang shook him gently. “Do you want some rice paste?”

“Ah~” Ning Xiu had just woken up and looked at him and Jiang Yizheng who came closer, with tears swirling in his eyes.

Where’s Father?

“Could he be looking for Senior?” Jiang Yizheng reached out to take him from Feng Zizhang’s arms, “Don’t cry, don’t cry, your father has gone to find your mother.”

Ning Xiu blinked again, his tears welling up even more, “Ah~ Ah~”

Where’s Mother Bai Bai?

I want Father~

Unable to find his father or reach his mother, feeling as if both parents didn’t want him, Ning Xiu finally couldn’t hold back and burst into tears.

Feng Zizhang and Jiang Yizheng were in a flurry trying to comfort him.

“Are you hungry? I’ll cook some rice paste for him!” Jiang Yizheng started to cook rice paste on the spot with spiritual power.

After a while, the two of them, one holding a spoon and the other a floral bowl, tried to feed Ning Xiu the rice paste.

“Thank goodness Senior left Xiao Shan’s eating utensils behind.” Feng Zizhang looked at the little yellow dog on the spoon and noticed it was shedding tears.

He thought he was seeing things and blinked hard.

Ning Xiu clenched his fists and wailed loudly, refusing to eat the rice paste and only wanting his father.

A golden light flew out from his forehead and landed on the little yellow dog on the spoon. To Jiang Yizheng and Feng Zizhang’s astonishment, a large yellow dog with a height of over five feet appeared with a “bang” on the ground.

This big yellow dog was glossy with smooth fur and bright black eyes, instantly filling up the entire small room.

Feng Zizhang held Ning Xiu in horror as he came face-to-face with the dog’s sharp teeth, panicking, “What kind of monster is this!?”

****

Traveling through the teleportation array without spiritual power was not pleasant. Worried that he might not be able to attend to any issues that arose, Ning Buwei left Ning Xiu at the inn and gave Feng Zizhang and Jiang Yizheng each a piece of Suzaku knife fragment, which should have been foolproof.

He came tonight only to probe the other party’s strength, not to fight. So even though the twisted space in this teleportation array made him irritable, he tried his best to remain calm.

If he happened to meet his child’s mother, he wanted to leave her with a good impression of being stable and serious.

A flash of light passed by, and Ning Buwei landed on the mid-mountain slope of Yijian Peak.

Although through that junior disciple’s description, he had anticipated before coming that his child’s mother might not live in great conditions, he didn’t expect it to be this bad.

Calling it a peak was already flattering this small broken hill.

Everywhere were rugged, strange rocks, not even a blade of grass to be found. The cold moon hung high, and a chilling wind blew through. This place, let alone spiritual veins, didn’t even have a trace of spiritual energy.

It was… impoverished to such an extent.

For a moment, Ning Buwei wavered. Leaving his son with the child’s mother, they would probably have to live in hardship.

He stood up, patted the dust off his sleeves, and walked around on the broken stones. Not to mention people, he didn’t even see a bird.

Then Ning Buwei took out the one-way locator symbol left by the other party, trying to find someone on Yijian Peak, only to discover that the person was very close, just tens of meters away.

Ning Buwei, surrounded by stones: “…………”

Was his child’s mother a stone spirit?

****

The bamboo forest was dark green, and the lake reflected the moonlight.

Chu Jun stood at the entrance of his cave dwelling, looking at the uneven vines on the opposite shore.

Although he was supposed to leave seclusion on the fifteenth of next month, he came out early. Firstly, he didn’t really want to participate in any grand ceremony, and secondly, regarding his mysteriously originated child, judging by the other party’s way of doing things, they might not come to Wushi Sect as stated in the letter.

Thinking of this, Chu Jun flipped his palm over and a locator symbol appeared in his hand.

He paused for a moment.

It showed that the other party was very close, just tens of meters away.

Could it be blocked outside by the illusion?

With this thought, Chu Jun walked to the lakeside and waved his sleeve. The calm water surface shimmered with golden light and soon revealed the scene outside the bamboo forest.

A field of rugged strange rocks; no human figure was seen.

Outside the illusion.

Ning Buwei tossed a small stone in his hand a couple of times and then threw it at the central rock. Under the moonlight, those strange rocks showed some extremely subtle spiritual energy fluctuations.

Indeed there was something fishy.

A cultivator who could repair his dantian and meridians must possess some skills. It was somewhat interesting to use a method to completely conceal the spiritual energy of this peak.

Just as the spiritual energy fluctuated for a moment, the Suzaku knife handle and broken blade that had always been in his sleeve suddenly vibrated. Although it was very subtle, Ning Buwei keenly perceived it and immediately frowned.

Could there be a fragment of the Suzaku knife here?

Before he could ponder further, a burst of black mist suddenly emerged from the Suzaku knife handle and shot into the formation of strange rocks.

It was Dulu’s remnant soul!

Ning Buwei’s gaze sharpened, and he decisively chased after it, entering the stone formation alone.

These days he had been busy traveling and had almost forgotten Dulu’s remnant soul. Logically, the only outcome for it in the Suzaku knife handle should have been to be refined. Unexpectedly, it was not completely dead and took the opportunity to flee when he couldn’t use his spiritual power.

The remnant soul was on its last breath and not fast. Ning Buwei couldn’t use his spiritual power, and this stone formation was extremely peculiar. He nearly lost track of it several times. Every time he wanted to use his spiritual power, he forcibly held back, which made the great demon quite irritable.

Inside the illusion, Chu Jun naturally noticed the disturbance outside. Moreover, he saw on the locator symbol that the other party’s position was constantly changing, as if chasing something.

After pondering for a moment, Chu Jun formed a hand seal with one hand and summoned an avatar.

The avatar was almost indistinguishable from him, except that he had never shaped its face, so it had no facial features. At first glance, it looked somewhat terrifying, but its movements were exceptionally agile. Chu Jun had been used to using it before, so he released this one now and imbued a wisp of his divine consciousness into it.

A white-robed figure who resembled him by seven or eight parts then left the bamboo forest.

Ning Buwei casually pulled out a long sword from his storage ring. He carelessly cut his finger with the broken blade and quickly drew a soul-binding talisman on it. Then he slapped the remaining spiritual power in the broken blade onto it, instantly erupting in a burst of bright light.

“Scum, die!”

His boots stepped over the broken stones and climbed onto the rugged strange rock. The dark-colored long robe swept through the air with a sharp arc. The handsome man with clear brows held the sword in one hand and leaped down under the full moon with a chilling killing intent.

Chu Jun, controlling his avatar, looked up and saw a cloud of black mist coming towards him, followed by Ning Buwei, who was murderous with a long sword in hand.

He casually caught the eerie black mist with his hand, slightly sidestepped, and neatly dodged the blood-tinged blade.

Ning Buwei knelt on one knee, plunging his long sword heavily into the broken stones, scattering small pebbles all around.

A swath of snow-white robe swept before his eyes. His sword missed its mark, and in the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a slender and fair hand casually holding Dulu’s remnant soul. Ning Buwei lifted his head with a sinister gaze and said maliciously, “Hand over the person!”

With just one look, Ning Buwei realized that the other party was using an avatar. This reminded him of Dulu’s trick of using avatars before, which immediately filled him with disgust. He turned his long sword in his hand.

Chu Jun was about to hand over the black mist when the person kneeling on the ground suddenly burst forth, his long sword carrying a fierce wind as it charged straight at him.

Chu Jun had recognized early on that this person was indeed the true body of the child’s father in his sea of consciousness. However, he did not expect the other’s ferocity to be so great. Holding the remnant soul, he dodged his attack.

Considering that Ning Buwei couldn’t use spiritual power, Chu Jun also had to suppress his own spiritual power to fight.

Ning Buwei’s swordsmanship was fierce, aiming for the opponent’s vital points with every move. Yet, the opponent handled it with ease. It was just a rough avatar without even a face, but it managed to be as agile as a real person.

The person behind this avatar must not be underestimated.

No matter what kind of demon or ghost the other party was, since they were associated with Dulu, there was only one outcome: death.

The broken blade was unsheathed and charged straight for the opponent’s brow. Taking advantage of the moment, Ning Buwei again used blood as a guide, inscribing a talisman on the sword. He poured all the spiritual power from the broken blade into the sword. The moves were confusing but aimed straight at the heart.

Attacking two vital points at once, this avatar could dodge one but not the other. Ning Buwei’s move was extremely vicious; it was clear he intended to put his opponent to death.

Who would have expected that in an instant, that white avatar moved like a ghost? He didn’t even see clearly how it moved when suddenly he felt a chill on his back.

Chu Jun stood behind Ning Buwei, sweeping away the sharp sword with his long sleeve. With a flip of his hand, he precisely grasped Ning Buwei’s wrist at a vital point.

With his vital point seized, Ning Buwei’s eyes flashed fiercely as he tried to forcibly use spiritual power. Seeing this, Chu Jun immediately released his wrist and switched from seizing to blocking, pressing him against a nearby rock and quickly stuffing the remnant soul into his hand.

Ning Buwei, who had been prepared to continue fighting, paused in surprise.

Chu Jun, seeing that he no longer had a murderous aura, controlled his avatar to release its grip and stood silently aside.

Ning Buwei frowned and said coldly, “Who exactly are you?”

The faceless avatar: “…………”

Chu Jun behind the illusion: “…………”