Bu Wei

After Ning Buwei finished speaking, the father and son looked at each other speechlessly for a while.

 

The child obviously didn’t understand, and stuck out his tongue at him, his chubby little face quivered and trembled.

 

“This name is too smelly. For the sake of your good looks, father will change it for you.”

 

In his son’s generation, there should be others who share the same name, however Ning Buwei himself did not adhere to generational hierarchy, and he wouldn’t let his son be law-abiding either. He held the child in his arms, feeling the cold wind blowing by the Endless River for a long time, contemplating for a while.

 

“Single character, Xiu.” He stretched out his hand and pinched the child’s soft cheek flesh, “You can make do with it for now, when you grow up and don’t like it, you can change it yourself.”

 

Finally having a name, Ning Xiu looked very excited. He kicked up his clothes with his little feet and moved around with his arms, “Ah~ahhhh~”

 

Ning Buwei lifted him up to his eye level and stared, “Like it?”

 

“Ah!” The child bent his eyes and smiled at him, his ‘Ah!’ sounding clear and joyful.

 

“Then you call ‘father’, I’ll listen.” Ning Buwei lifted him up and shook him.

 

“Ah~” The child opened his mouth, drooling on his chin.

 

“Can’t even speak, little good-for-nothing.” Ning Buwei, both scorned and mocked at the same time, picked up the handkerchief that was specially torn off to wipe his saliva and wiped it on his mouth a few times, “Fortunately your father is me.”

 

Ning Buwei was used to living alone. When he’s alone, there were times that he wouldn’t speak a single word for ten days to half a month. Normally, if he spoke, he would inevitably take someone’s life, and blood would flow like streams. But at this moment, facing alone against a baby who didn’t know anything, on the contrary, he became more talkative.

 

Ning Xiu could only shout loudly with ‘ah ah’, and when his demon father babbled a sentence, he would  just ‘ah’. When he was not happy, hungry, and had peed, he would cry loudly with a ‘waah waah’, and would just laugh when his father lost his temper. So angry that he would often want to throw him into the Endless river.

 

Ning Buwei’s face darkened in anger. The little baby stared at him with big, watery eyes, looking at him timidly, exceedingly innocent, that sometimes it made Ning Buwei wonder if it was him who was too irritable.

 

The great demon who always thought he had a calm and quiet personality had never had such outrageous suspicions until he had Ning Xiu.

 

A few days later, Ning Buwei squatted on the ground and drew a formation, holding the child in one hand and the three broken blades of the Suzaku Sword in the other.

 

Although he had lost all his cultivation, there was still some residual spiritual power in the fragments of the Suzaku Sword, unfortunately, there were only few fragments. He had searched around the area in the past few days but had not found other fragments, thus he could only temporarily make do with these three pieces for now.

 

“This is a teleportation array.” Ning Buwei showed Ning Xiu what he had drawn, “Your grandfather taught this, but he wasn’t very good at drawing and often scolded by your grandmother, thus I changed a few strokes for him.”

 

“Ah~” Ning Xiu stared at the bright red blood on the formation, and kicked his feet with greed, trying to hold Ning Buwei’s hand.

 

Ning Buwei, holding the broken blade, placed the back of his hand against his forehead, “Can’t drink anymore. Drink too much and you will turn into a little devil. After finding a town, father will buy you delicious food.”

 

Ning Xiu was so hungry that he smacked his lips and pointed at the blood on the ground to indicate to Ning Buwei. His intention was very strong, “Ah~ah~”

 

“…..Okay, for the last time.” Ning Buwei sighed and stuffed his bleeding finger into Ning Xiu’s mouth.

 

Ning Xiu grabbed his hand and sucked it hard. It hurt a little, but it was very subtle. Ning Buwei didn’t take it to heart. He changed his hand and continued to draw the formation. He picked up a few branches from the side, broke them, stained them with some blood and placed them in the formation.

 

“Let’s go to the nearest teleportation array and see where it is.” When Ning Buwei saw that he couldn’t suck out blood anymore, he simply took out his hand and said, “You have too much good appetite.”

 

Ning Xiu, still not having enough, smacked his lips that had some blood on the corners.

 

Ning Buwei stretched out his hand and wiped away the blood, took him into his arms, and said, “Let’s go.”

 

“Ah~” Ning Xiu responded, holding on to his father’s hand and not letting go.

 

“Insatiable thing.” Ning Buwei gave him a different hand while the other started to cast a spell.

 

Sharp blade fragments were sandwiched between his slender fingers, and the wounds on them were criss-crossed. Because his spell was too relatively rough, bright crimson blood flowed from his palm to his slightly thin wrist, and dripped down onto Ning Xiu’s face.

 

A sudden red light burst in the array, and the nearby river water suddenly condensed. Then waves surged and fierce wind howled. The surrounding trees were broken in half, and the originally sunny sky suddenly became gloomy.

 

At a mountaintop somewhere more than ten miles away.

 

Several cultivators in green robes looked in a certain direction in unison. One of them looked to be no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, with sharp eyebrows and a handsome countenance. With a solemn expression, he conjured a translucent glass ball from his palm. It had intricate patterns of flowing clouds and immortal cranes carved on its surface, and at the center of the glass ball floated a tiny azure ladle.

 

Inside the glass ball was an overflowing of colors and lights, refracting multicolored rays, then the ladle’s handle incessantly trembled, pointing at a specific location.

 

“An evil formation!” Feng Zizhang’s expression changed, “Nineteen miles to the northwest, north of the Endless River.”

 

“Zisong, Zichen, you both stay here and wait for the flowers to bloom. Zizhang, come with me!” The leading youth, with a stern expression, was none other than the Senior Brother Han Ziyang of the Yunzhong Sect. He summoned his natal magic weapon and turned into a streak of cyan light, heading straight towards the northwest direction.

 

“Senior brother, wait for me!” Feng Zizhang threw his own natal sword into the air and jumped up, almost falling down when he lost his balance. He then chanted an incantation and transformed into a green light, following Han Ziyang away.

 

The two people who stayed behind looked at each other, had a teasing smile, and continued to squat and wait for the flowers to bloom on the cliff.

 

Han Ziyang arrived at the Endless River one step ahead of Feng Zizhang. He hovered over the river and summoned his natal magic weapon, the Xuantian Mirror. The Xuantian Mirror trembled crazily in his palm, as if it was both fearful and excited. Han Ziyang frowned and looked around warily.

 

“Senior Brother——” Feng Zizhang came a step later than him. He could not control the force of the flying sword under his feet and charged straight out from beside him. Han Ziyang was unable to save him in time, he could not even catch a corner of his clothes.

 

Boom!

 

With a burst of teeth aching crash, Feng Zizhang crashed straight into a dead tree, lay head down on the ground, and ate a mouthful of dirt.

 

Han Ziyang: “…………”

 

Feng Zizhang got up from the ground and awkwardly picked up the flying sword on the ground. He ‘ptew ptew’ spat out the dirt in his mouth while his face was scratched by a stone. With a disheveled and dirt-smeared face, he looked up at Han Ziyang and asked, “Senior brother, what are you doing up there? Come down.”

 

Han Ziyang stared closely at the Xuantian Mirror in his hand, “There’s something wrong with this place, you come up.”

 

“Okay.” Feng Zizhang had always listened to his words and was about to fly up when he caught something under his feet from the corner of his eye and was suddenly taken aback. He jumped to the side immediately and held out the glass ball in his hand. As expected, the ladle inside started to spin wildly, “Senior brother, this is indeed an evil formation! The blood hasn’t dried up yet!”

 

The veins on Han Ziyang’s forehead jumped, “Come up!”

 

Feng Zizhang behaved himself, flew to Han Ziyang’s side with his sword, and found that his sleeves were stained with the blood from the array. He cursed ‘what bad luck’ then performed a minor cleaning spell, and the robe stained with dust and blood suddenly looked as clean as new.

 

Han Ziyang gathered his spiritual power and prepared to use Xuantian Mirror to break the array. Spiritual light greatly surged around, with the righteous and destructive power that must eliminate all evil emanations. However, he stopped halfway through and put away his mana.

 

Feng Zizhang was puzzled, “Why stop?”

 

Han Ziyang’s expression was indescribable. He took back the Xuantian Mirror to his sea of consciousness and said, “This is just an ordinary teleportation array. Your fall just now has already broken the array. Have you not seen those few broken branches?”

 

Feng Zizhang, who was stabbed in the butt by those few branches just now, nodded and said, “Hmm.”

 

“…That’s the eye of the array.” Han Ziyang frowned.

 

Feng Zizhang asked in confusion, “It’s just an ordinary teleportation array, why create such a huge formation? This overwhelming evil energy makes it seem like Ning Buwei has returned from the dead.”

 

“Although this array is ordinary, there is something that is not quite right about it. It doesn’t seem like it was done by someone of a righteous path either.” Han Ziyang landed on the edge of the river bank with his sword.

 

Before he could finish his sentence, Feng Zizhang threw the glass ball directly into the sky above the teleportation array, “It’s better to just get rid of this teleportation array with such evil energy.”

 

“Wait a minute——” Han Ziyang was about to stop him, but his impatient junior martial brother destroyed the array completely, causing dust and gravel to fly all over him.

 

Feng Zizhang, who was unable to hold back. “…Senior brother, if I said I didn’t mean it, would you believe it?”

 

Han Ziyang gritted his teeth and glared at him.

 

“Which bastard touched my formation!” Ning Buwei, holding the child tightly in his arms, angrily scolded. Ning Xiu was crying loudly, while everything around them turned pitch black, and the world seemed to spin.

 

When a teleportation array was disrupted, it wouldn’t necessarily send people to a specific location. Moreover, it could cause damage to the cultivators within it, ranging from minor loss of cultivation to severe injuries. For those with lower cultivation levels, it’s even normal to be crushed to death by the twisted spatial forces inside.

 

Therefore, the teleportation arrays in the seventeen states generally have special cultivators to protect the array. Cultivators could simply pay with spirit stones to use them, ensuring a safe journey. Ordinary cultivators, if traveling alone, typically would not set up teleportation arrays because without someone to maintain them, unexpected accidents could occur.

 

However, Ning Buwei had never had such worries before. He had always drawn formations wherever he went. Not drawing a formation upon arriving at a place, it would be like he came in vain. Now, even if his cultivation was completely depleted, he could still draw the formation accurately with a broken blade. He generally wouldn’t get into trouble within the formation, but he had forgotten that Ning Xiu couldn’t handle it.

 

In his desperation, Ning Bwei cut his palm and used his own blood to draw a formation symbol on Ning Xiu’s body, barely protecting him, and then started drawing another formation within the formation.

 

If the situation was not critical, Ning Buwei generally didn’t like formations within formations. Any slight carelessness could lead to a backlash. His formations were wild and casual, and the taste of its backlash was not very pleasant.

 

Ning Xiu was probably extremely uncomfortable, with the mark on his forehead constantly shining and was crying uncontrollably, gasping for breath. Ning Buwei was a little anxious when hearing this, fearing that he wouldn’t be able to hold on, thus while drawing the formation, he had to divert his attention to coax him, “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine in a moment.”

 

Ning Xiu cried like tearing his lungs and heart apart, then a slightly cool hand reached out and took him into its embrace.

 

In his meditative state, Chu Jun was once again disturbed in his sea of consciousness. When he opened his eyes, he saw the child’s spiritual consciousness that was about to disperse, and frowned slightly.

 

At this moment, Ning Xiu’s body was covered in chaotic symbols drawn with blood by Ning Buwei. His originally fair and tender little face was stained with blood, and the clothes wrapped around him were also in tatters. Every time his spiritual consciousness was about to disperse, he would be gathered up by the bloody symbols like a dog crawling, but it was obvious that the person who drew the symbols did not have enough spiritual power. That person seemed to know this as well, and could only rely on quantity to win, barely protecting the child’s spiritual consciousness, but it was obvious that they were somewhat struggling.

 

What danger did it encounter?

 

While Chu Jun was puzzled, he placed his fingers between the child’s eyebrows. Subtle spiritual power was slowly injected, turning into a thin transparent film protecting the child’s spiritual consciousness.

 

Chu Jun used very little spiritual power, just enough to protect the child’s spiritual consciousness without being noticed by others – although it seemed that the child’s mother was entangled in some difficult matter.

 

Ning Xiu’s body no longer hurt, and he slowly stopped crying. He opened his eyes and looked at the strange man in front of him. There was a hint of confusion on his face, obviously not recognizing Chu Jun.

 

He instinctively turned his head, trying to find Ning Buwei. When he found that he couldn’t find him, his mouth shriveled and he was about to cry with tears in his eyes. However, although this person’s embrace was cold, it made him feel at ease, even more comfortable than when Ning Buwei held him.

 

Chu Jun, seeing the baby wanting to cry but couldn’t, became somewhat surprised.

 

Did he just actually detect a hint of conflict in the child’s eyes?

 

Ning Xiu looked at Chu Jun with watery eyes and shouted to him, “Ah~ah~”

 

Where’s father? Where’s father?

 

Chu Jun couldn’t understand what he was shouting, he stretched out his hand to wipe away the blood on his face. Seeing that the blood symbols on his body were still continuously glowing, he knew that their crisis had not been overcome yet.

 

After Ning Xiu’s spiritual consciousness stabilized, Chu Jun retracted his hand and his eyes fell on the intricate blood symbols that resembled dragons and snakes, which caused his eyes to hurt for a moment.

 

The child’s mother’s drawn symbols are really… extremely bold and unrestrained.

 

Ning Xiu was held in his arms and remained well-behaved for a moment, probably feeling hungry, he grabbed his finger and wanted to stuff it into his mouth.

 

Seeing the symbols on the child’s body glowing intensely, he knew that the woman likely couldn’t handle it anymore. He gently withdrew his hand and manipulated his spiritual power to make some modifications to the terrible symbols, and a touch of crimson spiritual power wrapped around the child’s wrist.

 

“Ah~” When Ning Xiu saw something on his wrist, he opened his mouth to bite it, but Chu Jun gently pinched his little mouth.

 

Chu Jun reached out and poked his cheek, “This is for your mother.”

 

“Ah~ah~ah~” Ning Xiu looked at him confused.

 

What mother? Where’s father? Where’s father?

 

Seeing his dumbfounded appearance, Chu Jun sent him out of the sea of consciousness with a wave of his long sleeves.