Chapter 83

Chapter 83: Fight for It

Bai Li Xu returned before long.

“What did he say?” Ling Bu Fei asked.

“He asked how your injury is, and whether your body has recovered.” Bai Li Xu’s mouth curved with quiet mockery. “At the end of the day, he’s just afraid your cultivation will return. That’s why he ran over to cling to you.”

Ling Bu Fei leaned back, unimpressed. “And what did you tell him?”

Bai Li Xu laughed. “I told him that because you used your cultivation, your injuries worsened. As for whether you can recover later—I said I didn’t know.”

His eyes gleamed. “After all, you have the Devil-Suppressing Cauldron in your body. That’s the sect’s mountain-guarding treasure. Who knows what special effects it might have?”

Ling Bu Fei burst out laughing. “You really know how to hedge.”

Bai Li Xu took out two storage pouches. “He only planned to give one at first. After I said that, he hurriedly offered the second too.”

Ling Bu Fei opened them.

The first held spirit herbs of decent quality—respectable, but hardly impressive for the Ling Family.

The second was genuinely valuable: a pile of spirit stones and assorted resources.

“The Ling Family’s things,” Ling Bu Fei said, tossing both pouches to Bai Li Xu, “if we don’t take them, we’re fools. Go deal with it.”

“Okay.” Bai Li Xu caught them easily, already thinking through what could be refined into pills and what could be used for forging.

Over the years, the Ling Family had gone from cautious protection to complete indifference. Taking their things now carried no burden at all.

On the other side, Venerable Ku Mu received a message talisman.

After reading it, he chuckled. “An old shopkeeper wants to invite me for tea, Senior Sister. Isn’t that interesting?”

Hua Wu Sheng smiled faintly. “They don’t dare come to me, so of course they come to you.”

“This is truly rare.” Venerable Ku Mu crushed the talisman between his fingers. It dissolved into wisps of smoke. “Ever since Senior Brother passed away, I thought the two of us had retired for good.”

“Now it seems Heaven kept us for a reason,” Hua Wu Sheng said quietly.

Ling Bu Fei caught the implication and felt something heavy shift inside his chest. “Martial Great-Uncle…”

Venerable Ku Mu glanced at him. “Scared?”

Ling Bu Fei shook his head. “With you here, what is there to fear?”

What he felt wasn’t fear. It was realization.

A single extra Divine Transformation cultivator wasn’t a big deal to a major sect like the Limitless Sect. But that cultivator being the Young Sect Master?

That changed everything.

Right now, how many people were wondering if the Limitless Sect was about to turn? How many were waiting to see which way the wind leaned? In a few days, when the news spread beyond the sect, what waves would it stir up?

Ignorance made people anxious. It also made them hungry.

Some things, whether he wanted them or not, had already begun to move. The gears of fate didn’t ask permission.

“Good child,” Hua Wu Sheng said gently. “When there was no hope, we only wished you could live this life in peace.”

She leaned forward, her gaze steady. “But now you have hope. No matter what, your Martial Great-Uncle and I will fight for you.”

Bai Li Xu stayed a little longer, then returned to Startling Swan Reflections. Gift-givers would keep coming for at least another day or two, and someone had to host them.

As for Ling Bu Fei, Hua Wu Sheng ordered him to stay and recover properly first.

“If you go back now, you won’t get a single day of peace.”

Ling Bu Fei nodded obediently. “Got it.”

*

Late at night, Bai Meng Jin finished smoothing Ling Bu Fei’s meridians.

“All right. The devil qi in your body is pressed down,” she said. “You’ll be fine for a while.”

Ling Bu Fei flexed his arms and legs and smiled, relief loosening him from the inside out.

He was about to speak when Bai Meng Jin pushed open the back window and stared out at the Cloudmist Marsh. The night was still; the water reflected faint starlight like scattered??.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “You were distracted even during the day.”

Bai Meng Jin turned, looked at him, and suddenly smiled. “You’re pretty attentive.”

Ling Bu Fei’s ears burned. He turned his head away. “Didn’t you say it yourself? From now on, we’re one. If you’re well, I’m well too.”

Bai Meng Jin’s smile deepened. “Right. From now on, we’re on the same boat—sharing weal and woe, fortune and disaster together.”

She said things like that often, but tonight her words landed differently, as if they carried weight beneath the surface.

She drew a slow breath, like someone stepping toward an edge. “There’s a question I want to ask you.”

“Go ahead.” Ling Bu Fei’s heart tightened. He suddenly felt like he was being tested.

“When the devil heart self-destructed,” Bai Meng Jin asked, eyes steady, “why did you rush in? Did you know you might die?”

Even with Divine Transformation cultivation, without enough protection he couldn’t withstand a Nascent Soul Stage Devil Creature’s self-destruction. If she hadn’t helped him cast the barrier in time—if he’d relied only on defensive talismans—he might have managed nothing more than leaving behind a whole corpse.

Under her gaze, Ling Bu Fei answered honestly, “If I didn’t go, everyone would’ve died.”

“So you’d rather die yourself so others could live?”

She didn’t let him retreat.

Ling Bu Fei went quiet. Then, slowly, he said, “Back then, you all went in, and I was left outside alone.”

He stared at the floorboards, remembering too clearly. “To avoid getting in the way of the formation, I could only stand off to the side. When disciples passed by, they even told me to back up more.”

A bitter smile tugged at his mouth. “I was moved. But I also felt… useless.”

His voice roughened. “They don’t have feelings for me as the Young Sect Master. Some of them might even dislike me. But in that moment, they still protected me.”

Bai Meng Jin nodded, listening without interruption.

Ling Bu Fei continued, the words coming more easily now. “So I wanted to do something for them. Everyone thought the Devil Creature was dead, but I sensed its devil heart still had a trace of life. I didn’t think too much. I just wanted more people to survive.”

He swallowed. “If I really died, at least it would mean something.”

Bai Meng Jin’s expression softened. “You deserve their gratitude.”

She’d deliberately built the story so everyone believed Ling Bu Fei had paid an enormous price to save them. She’d wanted to change his weak position in the sect, to make the disciples remember their Young Sect Master.

But hearing him now, she realized she hadn’t only done nothing wrong—she’d underestimated how sincere he was.

Ling Bu Fei looked a little embarrassed. “The biggest credit should be yours. Without you, I couldn’t have done anything.”

He hesitated, then added, quieter, “But you pushed all the credit onto me. No one even knows what you did.”

Bai Meng Jin shook her head, seriousness sharpening her features. “No. It’s yours.”

To her, it had been nothing more than lifting a hand. The cultivation was his. The desire to save people was his, too.

The night outside remained peaceful. The water lapped gently against the shore rocks, a steady sound that soothed the day’s lingering tension.

Bai Meng Jin turned back from the window and asked, almost casually, “If you had a chance… would you want to become someone like Ning Yan Zhi?”

Ling Bu Fei blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Someone as gifted as him,” she said, voice calm, “admired by tens of thousands. Recognized as the future leader of the immortal sects.”

“Of course I do.” Ling Bu Fei’s smile turned self-mocking. “Who wouldn’t want the Heavenly Dao to favor them? To be born a winner from the start?”

Bai Meng Jin smiled—small, sharp, satisfied. “Fine. I can help you achieve that dream. But you have to promise me one condition.”

“What?” Ling Bu Fei frowned, confused.

Bai Meng Jin stared at him, eyes bright as fire. “I want you to become the World’s Number One Sword Cultivator.”