“Ah~Ah da~Ah~” Ning Xiu excitedly called out towards Chu Jun’s direction, struggling in Jiang Yizheng’s arms.
Mother~ Mother mother~
After not seeing Chu Jun for three months, Ning Xiu clearly missed him very much.
Chu Jun’s calm and cold gaze withdrew from Ning Buwei, and in the next instant, he appeared in front of Ning Xiu, reaching out to take his son.
Ning Buwei: “……”
He won’t even look at me, what does he mean?
I haven’t even questioned him about faking his death and disappearing for three months, it’s just a little flower demon, yet he’s so angry he won’t even look at me?
Ning Buwei looked very displeased, which appeared as murderous intent in the flower demon’s eyes. He looked towards Chu Jun’s direction and said in a mournful voice, “Venerable Jinghe! I am Huaran who received your care five hundred years ago, please save me!”
Chu Jun, holding Ning Xiu, looked at the flower demon wearing his face and remained silent for a moment before saying, “Don’t remember.”
Huaran was dumbfounded and stammered, “I stayed with you at the top of Xiaoqiu Mountain for a whole year.”
Ning Buwei, who was originally just displeased, now had his face turn dark at these words.
“Huaran.” Chu Jun nodded. “So it’s you.”
Feng Zizhang, Jiang Yizheng, and others: “……”
You don’t look like you actually remembered at all, Venerable!
However, Huaran was overjoyed and, emboldened by Chu Jun’s presence, stood up and said with a shy expression. “The days and nights accompanying you, Huaran never dared to forget, and has always remembered your teachings, waiting here for your return.”
Ning Buwei placed a knife against his throat, the force directly pressing this little flower demon back to the ground, and stared at him with a forced smile, “Oh? Then why don’t you tell us, how did you accompany him day and night? And what teachings did you receive?”
Huaran turned pale with fright and looked to Chu Jun for help with his eyes, but seeing that he had no intention of saving him, he could only whimper pitifully. “I…..I accompanied the Venerable day and night, waiting for Chengfeng to come.”
Ning Buwei’s knife-holding hand froze, then heard Huaran continue. “Five hundred years ago, I hadn’t yet gained consciousness and was just a nameless wildflower on the mountaintop. The wind broke my stem, and the Venerable helped me up, even teaching me to be strong.”
Ning Buwei: “……”
Chu Jun held the noticeably chubbier Ning Xiu with a completely calm expression.
Feng Zizhang’s gaze was bewildered as he softly said, “This is so complicated.”
Just as Huaran saw that the terrifying man before him was losing his killing intent and was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he heard the Venerable Jinghe suddenly ask, “What were you doing just now?”
Submitting to Ning Buwei’s intimidation, Huaran didn’t dare to openly accuse, and could only hesitate before saying, “Nothing…nothing at all.”
His demeanor couldn’t have been more guilty, and he even tugged at his tattered outer robes with reddened eyes.
Ning Buwei thought this little demon truly deserved a beating.
Unexpectedly, Chu Jun merely gave him a faint glance before looking back at Huaran and saying, “I’ll come find you later tonight.”
Huaran instantly became overjoyed, “Huaran will definitely wait here for the Venerable!”
Chu Jun nodded slightly and, while holding Ning Xiu, said to Ning Buwei, “Chengfeng.”
Ning Buwei let out a cold snort and put away his Suzaku knife.
An hour later, at Banyuan Town.
Cui Yuanbai held Feng Zizhang’s hand and asked softly, “Brother, did Dad do something wrong?”
Feng Zizhang looked at Ning Buwei’s righteous appearance and lightly coughed: “Probably not…”
Ning Xiu was very happy being held by Chu Jun. He eagerly showed Chu Jun his newly emerging baby teeth, opening his mouth and pointing at them, “Ah ya~ ya~”
Mother look, I’ve grown teeth~
Chu Jun looked carefully for a moment and praised him generously. “Very good.”
“Ah~ya~” Ning Xiu excitedly pointed them out to Ning Buwei as well.
Ever since Ning Buwei had rarely praised him once, the little one had been proud of it, showing everyone his baby teeth tirelessly every day.
Although Ning Buwei wasn’t in a good mood, he still had patience for his son. He looked and said, “I see, some more have grown out.”
“Da!” Ning Xiu excitedly clapped his little hands, his chubby little face quivering.
“Tsk.” Ning Buwei sneered. “You’ve only grown two teeth, let’s hear you try calling me Father.”
Ning Xiu opened his eyes wide, looked at him then at Chu Jun, still smiling, “Dai—”
Both Ning Buwei and Chu Jun were stunned.
“It’s Father.” Ning Buwei cleared his throat, trying to demonstrate the correct pronunciation to his son, emphasizing, “Father.”
“Ha! Eh!” Ning Xiu grinned at his father.
Ning Buwei: “Are you asking for a spanking?”
“Ah ya~” Ning Xiu looked at him innocently, appearing like a soft, tender little rice ball.
Ning Buwei: “…forget it.”
Chu Jun lowered his eyes to look at Ning Xiu in his arms, “Say Father.”
“Dai!” Ning Xiu said loudly.
Chu Jun felt that his son, as a Golden Core cultivator, had strong comprehension abilities and unconsciously followed Ning Buwei’s old path, “Father.”
“Eh! Heh~” Ning Xiu tilted his head and happily kicked his legs in his arms.
Chu Jun: “……”
Ning Buwei silently turned his face away.
Chu Jun turned to look at his slightly shaking shoulders and said, “If you want to laugh, then laugh.”
Ning Buwei turned back to face him with an expressionless face and stared at him without saying a word.
While pulling his sleeve out of Ning Xiu’s mouth before he could stuff it in, Chu Jun calmly explained, “That little flower demon was a Wufang flower seed that I happened to bring out from the Floating Sky Realm and casually planted on the mountaintop. The Floating Sky Realm moves unpredictably through the seventeen states, but the Wufang flower can locate it at any time. It was just a coincidence that the day before I went down the mountain, this flower gained consciousness and became a demon.”
“With his help, entering the Floating Sky Realm will be much easier.”
Chu Jun rarely spoke such a long explanation, clearly trying to explain Huaran’s origins to him.
Ning Buwei, naturally not being a petty person, said frankly, “He was putting on airs while wearing a face that’s seventy percent similar to yours, which made me quite sick. I wanted to skin him alive.”
Chu Jun fell into an odd silence for a moment, quietly staring at him.
Ning Buwei: “…I didn’t mean you were sickening.”
Chu Jun continued to remain silent.
Ning Buwei cleared his throat and said, “Your face is extraordinarily beautiful, naturally very pleasing, it’s just that flower demon’s pretentious behavior degraded your face’s dignity…”
He was trying his best to explain, but when he met Chu Jun’s eyes, his old problem suddenly surfaced – his breathing hitched and he didn’t know where to look, even running out of words.
Chu Jun looked at him and smiled.
Ning Buwei abruptly turned his head and kicked open the courtyard gate, “We’re here.”
The “bang” was quite impressive.
Feng Zizhang and the others following at a distance were startled, even Big Yellow tucked its tail in fright.
Cui Yuanbai said with certainty. “Dad is indeed very angry.”
Jiang Yizheng patted his head, “No, our father seems more like he’s feeling guilty.”
After the main gate closed, Ning Buwei turned to look at Feng Zizhang and Jiang Yizheng, “Not only did you fail to dig up wild vegetables, you were even fooled by a minor demon with barely any cultivation. Go back to your rooms and copy books.”
Jiang Yizheng and Feng Zizhang simultaneously looked toward Chu Jun, their faces pleading for help.
When they stayed with the Venerable, not only did they not have to climb mountains to dig wild vegetables or constantly copy books and practice techniques, they could eat, drink, and play freely, as happy as if they were with their own father.
Ning Buwei sneered. “What’s wrong? Did flowers grow on his face? Or are you hoping he’ll plead for you?”
Chu Jun, who was about to speak: “……”
Jiang Yizheng and Feng Zizhang immediately scurried into their rooms.
Ning Buwei then looked at Cui Yuanbai.
Cui Yuanbai hugged Chu Jun’s leg tightly, looking pitifully at Ning Buwei, “Dad, I miss Mother, please don’t replace him.”
Chu Jun: “?”
After a short while, Cui Yuanbai also hung his head and returned to his room to refine his Purple Mansion.
Big Yellow, being very observant, took on the task of watching the child, lying by the bed and allowing Ning Xiu to climb up and down while pulling its tail.
Ning Buwei looked at Chu Jun sitting opposite him – his arms and legs were intact, he hadn’t gone mad or lost his mind, and his aura was still stable and peaceful – only then did he barely feel relieved.
Chu Jun took out a pearl from his sleeve and placed it on the table. The pearl was crystal clear, but inside was a small, exquisite red lotus, its petals layered and blooming, appearing as if about to burst into flames.
“Lotus Flower Pearl?” Ning Buwei had seen this item in the spiritual treasure catalog. It was said to be forged from the core crystals of ten thousand demons, an excellent treasure for nurturing one’s dantian and meridians.
And not only was killing ten thousand demons no easy task, but the strange and complex refinement process was time and energy consuming. It would take several hundred years to complete, and its uses were limited, making it quite inefficient.
But now the actual item was right before his eyes.
Ning Buwei stared at the pearl and asked. “Did you refine this?”
“Yes.” Chu Jun pushed the pearl toward him.
Ning Buwei raised his eyes to look at him. “For me?”
“For you.” Chu Jun’s tone was calm, as if it were natural.
Years ago, he had secluded himself on Xiaoqiu Mountain for half a month. After emerging from his tribulation, he had waited on the mountaintop for someone – someone who had been injured in the swamp, their dantian shattered. Although he had helped repair it, it still couldn’t be fully restored.
The swamp wilderness lacked everything except demons. He waited for a year, killed demons for a year, collected nearly ten thousand core crystals, planning to refine the Lotus Flower Pearl.
Later, when he recovered his memories, he forgot who he was waiting for and left Xiaoqiu Mountain, but he still continued refining the pearl, though progress was extremely slow.
Three months ago, after the battle at Dao Discussion Mountain, he remembered the pearl still needed something, so he came to Xiaoqiu Mountain to complete its refinement.
“How long did it take to refine?” Ning Buwei asked.
“Five hundred and one years.” Chu Jun paused. “Plus three months.”
Ning Buwei picked up the pearl to examine it and cleared his throat. “You remember everything now?”
Chu Jun slowly said, “After I went into qi deviation and lost my memories, we met in the swamp wilderness. You were severely injured. You named me Wanli, would only sleep while holding me every day and night, and even wanted me to be your dao companion—”
The pearl nearly slipped from Ning Buwei’s hand as he looked shocked. “When did I ever ask you to be my dao companion?”
“Only a dao companion was allowed into your sea of consciousness.” Chu Jun said calmly. “Later you let me enter your sea of consciousness to repair your dantian.”
“You said you liked me very much.”
Ning Buwei coughed lightly, “I was young and ignorant then.”
Chu Jun said. “I understand.”
Ning Buwei narrowed his eyes unhappily. “Then why are you still giving me this pearl?”
“It was always meant for you.” Chu Jun’s typically gentle and calm gaze showed rare ripples, carrying an indescribable meaning. “Do you want it?”
The Lotus Flower Pearl was tossed up and caught, then held in a palm.
“Yes.”
