Chapter 61

Chapter 61: Night Flare-Up

Late at night, Bai Meng Jin sat cross-legged on the bed. The Yin-Yang Umbrella floated out from her inner palace, silent as a shadow.

Stirred by demonic qi, the umbrella opened on its own and hung in midair. Under the canopy, mist gathered. A woman in fitted clothes slowly took shape.

Compared to when she was alive, Second Lady Hu’s face was blank. Her eyes held no focus. Her movements were stiff, like a puppet forgetting how to be human.

“Senior,” Bai Meng Jin called softly.

A long beat passed. Then Second Lady Hu answered, slow and distant. “I’m here.”

The Ice Toad Poison had shredded her primordial spirit. Only after days of nourishment inside the Yin-Yang Umbrella could she maintain a stable form at all.

Bai Meng Jin didn’t waste words. “In your condition, the only way to survive is to turn to ghost cultivation. Do you know the matching methods?”

Second Lady Hu’s lashes lowered. For the first time, a trace of emotion surfaced—weariness, like a bruise. “I know some.”

“Then I won’t interfere.” Bai Meng Jin’s voice softened. “The Yin-Yang Umbrella is best for nourishing yin souls. Senior, cultivate well inside it.”

Second Lady Hu nodded faintly, the gesture wistful.

A Divine Transformation Stage cultivator, schemed against by someone at the Nascent Soul Stage, driven to this state.

Worse—her daughter had died because of a thankless wretch like Fang Xu Cheng.

Now Fang Xu Cheng was dead. The debt was paid, and yet nothing was repaired. Only regrets remained, sharp and useless.

Bai Meng Jin’s chest tightened. She spoke slowly, evenly. “That day, when I told you I would go to the Ming River, I wasn’t lying.

“The deaths of the Young Sect Master’s relatives are all connected to the Ming River. One day, we have to go and get to the bottom of it.”

Second Lady Hu’s voice stayed flat, but the words came without hesitation. “I know.

“I watched A Chou fall into the Ming River with my own eyes. Even knowing her chance of survival was tiny, I still wanted to go and see. And Immortal Lord Ling is missing—how could the Young Sect Master, as a son, accept that?”

“It’s good that you understand,” Bai Meng Jin said. “But we’re still too weak. It may take a long time.

“You need time to recover, too. Let’s be patient. We’ll wait for that day.”

Second Lady Hu didn’t object. After a pause, she asked, “My Sumeru Ring—did you bring it back?”

“Yes.”

The elders of Limitless Sect wouldn’t fight the Young Sect Master over such things. Second Lady Hu’s ring, along with Fang Xu Cheng’s personal belongings, had all ended up in Bai Meng Jin’s hands.

Second Lady Hu recited the incantation to open it, then said, almost like an apology, “I’m borrowing your treasure as shelter. Take these things as repayment.”

Bai Meng Jin inclined her head. “Thank you, Senior.”

Resources weren’t her greatest concern now that she stood inside Limitless Sect, but Second Lady Hu had been a Divine Transformation Stage cultivator. Her treasures weren’t something money could buy.

Second Lady Hu retreated back into the Yin-Yang Umbrella. The canopy turned once, then stilled.

Bai Meng Jin exhaled, planning to end her cultivation and sleep. No matter how high one’s realm, sleep was still the best rest.

She had barely lain down when a rapid, frantic jingling of bells tore through the quiet.

Bai Meng Jin snapped upright, flashed forward, and shoved open the door connecting to the main room.

A single lamp burned low. In that dim light, she saw Ling Bu Fei collapsed beside the bed.

He was curled tight, body trembling, forehead slick with cold sweat. His eyes were shut. He was completely unconscious.

A heartbeat later, Bai Li Xu and the attendant boy rushed in.

“Young Master!”

With Bai Li Xu’s help, Bai Meng Jin hauled Ling Bu Fei back onto the bed.

“His demonic qi is flaring up?” she asked, already reaching for his wrist.

Bai Li Xu nodded, worry written across his face. “The demonic qi in Young Master’s body stirs once every month or so.”

“What did you do before?”

“We notify the Sect Master, have an elder come watch over him, feed him pain pills, and wait for the Devil-Suppressing Cauldron to press it back down.”

So… they let him endure it.

Bai Meng Jin’s gaze sharpened. Bai Li Xu had already pulled out pills and forced them into Ling Bu Fei’s mouth, one after another.

“All right,” Bai Meng Jin said. “Stand guard outside. Leave this to me.”

Bai Li Xu hesitated. “Miss Bai…”

“You can’t help anyway.”

It was blunt, but true. Bai Li Xu’s jaw tightened. In the end, he bowed and withdrew.

Bai Meng Jin sat behind Ling Bu Fei, pressed her palm to his back, and sent her true qi into him.

Inside, demonic qi raged—violent, chaotic—clashing against the Devil-Suppressing Cauldron as if trying to tear itself free. The power in his meridians was terrifying. Bai Meng Jin didn’t dare confront it head-on.

She moved like someone soothing a storm from the edges, guiding rather than forcing.

Under her steady control, Ling Bu Fei’s true essence began to circulate. The vast reserve inside him shifted, reinforcing the Devil-Suppressing Cauldron until, inch by inch, the demonic qi was pressed down.

Ling Bu Fei stirred. His lashes fluttered.

“Meng Jin?” he whispered, uncertain.

“It’s me,” Bai Meng Jin said, not breaking her focus. “Do you feel better?”

“Mm.”

For a heartbeat, the power in his body felt unbound. The cultivation he’d once possessed—Divine Transformation—seemed to flare awake. His divine sense surged outward, sweeping past their room, covering Startling Swan Reflections, brushing the main peak—

In the Purple Sky Hall, Ling Yun Gao snapped his eyes open. Before he could even rise, that foreign divine sense had already retreated, as if it had never been.

Then he sensed Yang Xiang Tian’s escaping light land on the Moon-Viewing Terrace and angle toward Startling Swan Reflections. Halfway there, Yang Xiang Tian seemed to notice the same ripple and slowed.

Outside, Bai Li Xu met him and explained the situation.

Back inside, the demonic qi shrank, settling back into each corrupted acupoint.

Bai Meng Jin didn’t stop.

She summoned the Yin-Yang Umbrella and opened it.

The canopy began to spin. Spiritual qi and demonic qi braided together, the air turning strangely cold. Little by little, thin threads of demonic qi were drawn from Ling Bu Fei’s acupoints—so fine they were almost invisible.

Ling Bu Fei’s breath caught.

He remembered what Bai Meng Jin had said before—that she could try to pull the demonic qi out. That maybe, just maybe, she could make him a normal person again.

But after drawing out only a tiny fraction, Bai Meng Jin closed the umbrella and returned it to her inner palace.

Ling Bu Fei couldn’t hide his urgency. “What’s wrong? Is there too much demonic qi in my body?”

Bai Meng Jin’s voice turned careful. “There’s something I need to make clear to you.”

“What?”

“I can draw the demonic qi out,” she said, choosing each word. “But your acupoints have already been corrupted. They can’t store and circulate true essence like a normal person’s, so…”

Ling Bu Fei’s expression froze. “So I can’t be cured?”

The understanding hit fast and heavy. His heart sank in slow, brutal increments. “No wonder. When I brought you back, none of the elders mentioned this.

“If I could be cured, the balance of Limitless Sect would shift. How could they stay indifferent?”

If he recovered—with the Devil-Suppressing Cauldron supporting him—then the Sect Master’s seat would be unavoidable.

But he could never recover…

The thought left him hollow.

He had lived so long with no hope that he’d stopped thinking about it. Then she appeared, and hope returned like a blade of light in a sealed room—and now…

“No.” Bai Meng Jin cut him off before his thoughts could swallow him whole. “Of course you can be cured. It just takes special methods.”

“Huh?” He was halfway into grief and couldn’t even keep the feeling straight.

Bai Meng Jin rolled her eyes, irritated at his melodrama. “There are two paths. First: replace your acupoints with something else—like prosthetic limbs.

“Second: use medicine to stimulate your corrupted acupoints to grow again.”

Ling Bu Fei stared at her.

“The materials for either method aren’t ordinary treasures,” Bai Meng Jin continued. “They’re extremely hard to find. I’m telling you now so you’ll learn patience. What were you thinking?”