Chapter 60
Chapter 60: Going to the Academy
Hua Wu Sheng gave a soft, surprised “Ah,” and understanding settled over his face. “So this is the Gu Clan’s heirloom.”
Once, the Gu Clan had been counted among the greatest immortal families. Of course their ancestor would leave a safeguard behind—something that ensured the Clan Secret Art would not be lost even if the family declined.
Bai Meng Jin folded the Yin-Yang Umbrella shut and drew it back into her inner palace to nourish it. “Yes.”
Ling Bu Fei listened without interrupting. He glanced from Hua Wu Sheng to her, his eyes narrowing slightly in thought.
Hua Wu Sheng snorted. “Fine. Since you have a proper lineage, I won’t meddle.”
Then he turned on Ling Bu Fei like a blade. “You. Bring me your recent assignments!”
Ling Bu Fei’s expression collapsed. “Martial Ancestor…”
“Stop dragging your feet.” Hua Wu Sheng held out his hand. “The scolding you’ve earned is still coming.”
Crude, but not unfair. Ling Bu Fei shut his eyes as if facing execution and handed over the stack.
Hua Wu Sheng flipped through it, faster and faster, until his brow twitched. Then he started in, merciless. “You understand everything your master taught you, but you only understand it on the surface.
“Other people are constrained by their cultivation. Their comprehension can’t help but be shallow. You?” Hua Wu Sheng tapped the page with a finger. “You’re sitting on a cultivation base most people would kill for. You have no excuse to stop here.
“Go back. Rewrite this. Bring it to me again in 10 days.”
Ling Bu Fei lowered his head. “Yes.”
Hua Wu Sheng didn’t stop there. He used the very pages he’d just torn apart to explain every point Ling Bu Fei had missed, pulling threads apart, then weaving them back together with impatient clarity.
The longer Bai Meng Jin listened, the more her astonishment grew.
No wonder Ling Bu Fei had climbed to the peak in her past life. He couldn’t cultivate, but he had memorized countless secret techniques. Give him a way to remove the limits of his body, and he could reach the summit in a single leap.
Martial Ancestor Hua had truly put his heart into it. He didn’t know Ling Bu Fei’s Severed Meridians could be treated, but he was laying down an unshakable foundation anyway.
And Old Sect Master Jiang…
Even in death, he had left preparations dense enough to shelter his grandson.
Bai Meng Jin’s thoughts slowed, sharpened. Someone like Old Sect Master Jiang—brilliant, far-sighted, ruthless when necessary—how could he have died so easily?
If that death hadn’t been simple…
—
After they returned from Mirror Flower Water Moon, Bai Meng Jin asked Ling Bu Fei about it.
He didn’t hesitate. “Of course it wasn’t simple.
“My mother died in battle. My father vanished. Outside the sect, rumors spread that he’d colluded with the Devil Realm and tampered with the Devil-Sealing Barrier—that it was his fault Devil Creatures invaded.
“My maternal grandfather knew something was wrong, so he went to the Ming River to investigate.” Ling Bu Fei’s voice tightened. “Instead, he walked into an ambush. He barely made it back to the sect. He died not long after.”
Bai Meng Jin frowned. “Someone was targeting your family.”
“Martial Ancestor said the same.” Ling Bu Fei’s eyes cooled, killing intent pooling like ice. “I only hate that I can’t cultivate. I can’t avenge my parents. I can’t avenge my maternal grandfather.”
In that moment, Bai Meng Jin understood why he had been so eager about this marriage.
He was desperate, too.
He wanted his Severed Meridians cured. He wanted to drag the mastermind into the light.
And she couldn’t help imagining it: in her past life, without ever meeting her, what desperate corner had Ling Bu Fei been forced into? What price had he paid to carve out a way to live?
After he took the Sect Master’s seat, he had barely stepped out of Limitless Sect for a thousand years.
She would likely never know what that cost him. Those answers were buried under the dust of her past life.
—
In the Purple Sky Hall, Ling Yun Gao was handling official affairs.
A sect this vast ran like a living organism—no matter how many people were assigned to each task, there were always matters that required the Sect Master’s decision. Spend too much time on them, and cultivation suffered.
Old Sect Master Jiang’s solution had been to divide authority among the halls. Elders shared both power and responsibility. He trained a group of clerks skilled in daily administration; they sorted the day’s reports into neat piles so that, in an hour or two, he could handle everything and move on.
That time wasn’t wasted. It cleared the mind. It steadied the mood.
Ling Yun Gao, after taking over, preferred to do things himself. He spent more hours on affairs, and because of it, his grip on the sect was tighter.
“Sect Master.”
A young disciple entered to report. “Elder Hua sent a message.”
Ling Yun Gao looked up. “What did he say?”
“He said Junior Sister Bai has already looked into it. It really will benefit the Young Sect Master, so she agrees to the marriage.
“And… there’s no need to find another master. She will teach him herself.”
Ling Yun Gao didn’t speak for a long moment.
The disciple waited, then asked carefully, “Sect Master, how should we reply?”
Ling Yun Gao set down his brush with quiet precision. “Tell him I understand.”
“Yes.”
The disciple withdrew.
A moment later, Qiu Yi Nong came in with a teapot. She refilled his cup and, as if chatting, said, “Master, you really can’t judge Junior Sister Bai by her looks. She seems gentle and weak, yet she won Martial Ancestor Hua’s favor.”
Ling Yun Gao took a sip. “You said the other day that she broke through all four of Martial Ancestor Hua’s Mirror Flower Water Moon formations?”
“Yes.” Remembering it, Qiu Yi Nong’s bitterness rose. “Junior Brother Ling must have told her the methods. He might’ve even given her talismans and tools.”
Ling Yun Gao’s tone remained light. “Martial Ancestor Hua uses those four formations to test disciples. They aren’t particularly high-level, but if you tried them, it would still take you effort, wouldn’t it?”
Qiu Yi Nong’s lashes flickered. She didn’t dare admit she hadn’t passed last time, so she answered vaguely.
“Even if Bu Fei told her the method, breaking formations still requires quick thinking.” Ling Yun Gao set his cup down. “If she cleared four in a row, she truly has skill.”
“Yes…” Qiu Yi Nong didn’t want to admit it, but she couldn’t deny it.
Ling Yun Gao considered. “Martial Ancestor Hua won’t teach hands-on. He’ll likely toss her into the academy and have her attend lessons with Bu Fei. Make some arrangements. Find out what she’s really like.”
Qiu Yi Nong lowered her head, obedient and satisfied. “Yes, Master.”
Ling Yun Gao’s guess was correct. The next day, Hua Wu Sheng sent over a schedule and instructed Bai Meng Jin to go to the academy as well.
The academy’s full name was the Dao-Seeking Palace, where Limitless Sect taught its disciples.
New disciples studied the Dao Arts here and tempered their will. Once they learned enough and performed well in examinations like the disciples’ assembly, they might catch an elder’s eye and become an inner disciple.
But elders had their own cultivation to maintain. They couldn’t manage every little thing, so even those with masters still attended academy lessons.
Ling Bu Fei glanced over the schedule and snorted. “Those lessons will be easy for you. Just listen casually.”
Bai Meng Jin hummed, only half listening as she rummaged through a storage pouch.
“What are you doing?” Ling Bu Fei leaned closer.
“Picking out useful things for my elder sister,” she said, matter-of-fact.
Bai Meng Lian and Bai Meng Xing had already settled into the dorms. With You Yan keeping an eye on them, there was no need to worry about bullying.
Still—Bai Meng Lian was a brand-new disciple. Resources mattered. The items Martial Ancestor Hua had sent were perfect to pass along.
As for Bai Meng Xing… talent aside, his bad habits needed tempering. That would take time.
“I’ve got more.” Ling Bu Fei vanished into the back room, then returned like a thief proudly showing his loot. One storage pouch after another appeared—rows of them, stacked and bulging, as if he’d been hoarding for years.
“Take a look,” he said. “Anything useful?”
Bai Meng Jin opened two. Then she closed them and shoved them back like they might explode. “Forget it. If we send these over, my elder sister won’t need to cultivate. She can just swallow pills and ascend!”
Bottle after bottle—if a Qi Refining Stage cultivator swallowed half of this, their body would probably burst on the spot.
Ling Bu Fei watched her expression… and then watched her calmly tuck the entire pile into her own bag.
His brows lifted. “Weren’t you just saying they’re useless?”
“They’re useless to her.” Bai Meng Jin flashed him a bright grin. “They’re useful to me.”
Ling Bu Fei stared.
“What’s yours is mine,” she added, shameless as daylight. “Any problem with me keeping it?”