70: Su Changfeng

When Jiang Xun opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was an old wooden beam.

The beam was coated in faded yellow paint, which had peeled off in some places to reveal the blackened wood underneath.

Fine dust fell from the cracks in the beam, floating slowly in the shafts of light streaming through the window lattice.

He turned his head.

An earthen wall.

The surface of the wall was pitted and uneven, with a tattered straw hat hanging on it.

He looked at the other furnishings in the room.

An aged table with a kettle on it, and two bamboo chairs polished to a shine.

The furniture was old, but everything had been scrubbed very clean.

There was a faint, bitter, fishy scent of herbs in the air, which was coming from his own body.

Jiang Xun's body was smeared here and there with green medicinal paste.

It seemed he had been saved by some Mortal and brought into their home.

He tried to move his fingers.

"It hurts!"

His flesh ached, and pain also radiated from the gaps in his bones and deep within his Meridians.

It felt as if countless thin needles were wandering through his blood vessels; with every movement, the needles stabbed deeper.

He took a deep breath and inspected his internal state.

His spiritual sea was as depleted as a dried-up lake bed, with only a few wisps of thin Spiritual Qi wandering slowly.

Most of his Meridians were broken; some parts were barely connected but were covered in fine cracks.

The most critical issue was his skin; he could feel large areas of burns on his body, stinging with a fiery pain.

His memories slowly returned.

Cangwu Secret Realm.

Three seconds.

Spatial rift.

At that time, after he transmigrated through the rift, only three seconds remained, and his mind held only one thought: "Get as far away from Yan Qingning as possible."

He had torn open the rift and dived inside, unable to care about the direction; he only knew that the leap had exhausted all his remaining strength, and the distance through the torn space should be very far.

But as for where exactly... he didn't know.

What was clear, however, was that once time ran out, all the injuries he had suppressed came rushing back.

After all, that power wasn't his own; it was merely borrowed. Once he left the world Origin within the Cangwu Secret Realm, he immediately reverted to his original state.

Three seconds later, he had fainted.

Fortunately, he had the ice phoenix bone, so he wasn't killed by the fall after exiting the spatial rift.

Just as he was thinking, a soft "ding" sounded in his head.

The System notification sound, silent for so long, rang out:

[Detected that host has left a high-risk environment.]

[Control perception of high-risk target "Yan Qingning" has been blocked.]

[Current Status: Safe.]

[Can continue to expand further below.]

He was safe.

Jiang Xun closed his eyes and let out a long, slow breath.

When that breath left him, his whole body relaxed, and the corners of his mouth curled up uncontrollably.

He was finally free; he could take a good look at this world as an ordinary practitioner.

No longer constrained by others.

No longer controlled by others.

Then he began to tremble.

Starting from his fingertips, to his arms, to his shoulders, and finally his entire body was shaking uncontrollably.

He wanted to laugh, to cry, to scream at the top of his lungs, to vent all the suppressed emotions from the past year.

But as soon as he moved—

"Hiss—!"

Sharp pain exploded from all over his body!

His muscles tore due to excessive tension, his wounds burst open again, and warm blood seeped out from under the bandages.

He furrowed his brows and gritted his teeth, barely managing not to cry out.

It was too painful.

That woman, Yan Qingning... was too ruthless.

She had used Ice Phoenix Fire to burn herself, and he, connected to her by bone and blood, had to endure the same pain.

If he hadn't used his Ascension Realm cultivation to forcibly suppress it at the time, he probably would have turned into a living charred corpse right then.

"Creak—"

The wooden door was pushed open.

Jiang Xun opened his eyes and looked toward the doorway.

A middle-aged man walked in.

He wasn't thin, but quite sturdy, wearing a decent coarse cloth tunic with sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing two bronze-colored arms.

His face was covered in stubble, there were deep wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, and his gaze was very gentle when he looked at people.

A little girl followed behind him.

The girl was about five or six years old, only reaching the man's thigh. She had two crooked pigtails, and her eyes were large and bright as she timidly poked her head in to peek into the room.

"Daddy," she said softly, pointing her finger at Jiang Xun on the bed. "He really did fall from the sky, I didn't lie to you."

The man patted her head. "Go out and play."

"Oh..." The girl pouted and turned away reluctantly, glancing back at Jiang Xun one last time before running off in fear.

The man walked to the bedside. Seeing Jiang Xun with his eyes open, he was startled for a moment, then smiled.

"Is the Young Master awake?"

Jiang Xun wanted to speak, but his throat was dry and parched. It took two tries before he could squeeze out a sound.

"Where... is this?"

His voice was incredibly hoarse.

"Outside Qinghe County, the Huangshan Forest Farm," the man said. He turned to pour a bowl of water from the table and handed it over. "Drink some water first."

Jiang Xun wanted to lift his hand to take it, but his arm went limp halfway up.

Seeing this, the man simply sat on the edge of the bed, supported Jiang Xun's head with one hand, and held the bowl with the other, carefully feeding the water to his lips.

The water was very cool and had a slight earthy taste, but to the current Jiang Xun, it was like nectar from heaven.

He took small sips. After finishing the bowl, his throat finally felt a bit better.

"Qinghe County..." He searched through his memories, but it was completely unfamiliar.

The middle-aged man noticed Jiang Xun's confusion.

He said with a smile:

"It's a small place; it's normal that the Young Master hasn't heard of it."

The man put the bowl back and sat on the bedside again. "But as for you, Young Master... where did you come from? How did you end up so badly injured?"

Jiang Xun didn't answer immediately.

He carefully observed the man before him. His face was honest, his eyes were cloudy, and his hands were covered in calluses from hard work.

He didn't look like a Cultivator; he looked like a genuine peasant farmer.

But the more this was the case, the better.

Jiang Xun felt slightly relieved.

An unfamiliar place, unfamiliar people.

This meant he could finally escape everything brought by the identity of "Dao Xun"—the Xuanxiao Immortal Sect, Yan Qingning, the ice phoenix bone, and all those tangled, messy, ill-fated connections.

He could finally... start over.

Enduring the pain, he tried to sit up in bed, wanting to first thank his savior.

In his current state with a depleted spiritual sea, it might actually be dangerous to be left outside.

"Thank you, benefactor, for saving me. I..."

"Hey, hey, don't move, don't move!" The man quickly pressed him down and helped him lean back against the headboard.

"Don't go calling me a benefactor! I just carried you back from the forest and applied some pain-relieving herbs.

It's mainly that the Young Master himself is blessed with great fortune; to survive such heavy injuries is a miracle."

As he spoke, he pointed outside the door:

"If you really want to give thanks, thank my daughter. She was the one who found you first."

Jiang Xun followed his pointing finger.

Through the crack in the door, a pair of large eyes was peeking in secretly.

Seeing him look over, the owner of those eyes ducked back in a flash, and after a few seconds, half a head peeked out again.

The man laughed and shouted toward the door, "Tianyu, come in."

There was no movement outside.

"Come in, quickly!"

"I won't!" the little girl's voice came from outside, crisp and clear. "I'm scared!"

The man laughed awkwardly and said to Jiang Xun, "My name is Su Changfeng, and this is my daughter, Su Tianyu. Children are sensible, please don't take offense, Young Master."

"Jiang Xun," Jiang Xun gave his name, then raised his voice toward the door, saying playfully, "Many thanks to the little heroine for saving me."

He thought the little girl was just shy, which was why she was afraid to be seen.

So he wanted to tease the child a bit.

The outside went quiet for a moment.

Then the little girl's excited voice rang out: "You're welcome!"

The door was pushed halfway open, and Su Tianyu poked half her body in, her eyes shining as she looked at Jiang Xun.

"Then tell my daddy, did you really fall from the sky!"

Jiang Xun was momentarily speechless.

"This..."

To admit he fell from the sky would be to admit he was not a Mortal.

A heavily injured Cultivator with no power to resist.

To Mortals.

Often meant a massive Treasure Trove.

Su Changfeng waved his hand. "Don't mind her, children say whatever comes to mind."

Su Tianyu curled her lip and muttered softly, "But it's clearly true..."

Then she turned and ran away, the sound of her footsteps pitter-pattering into the distance.

The room fell silent.

Su Changfeng looked at Jiang Xun, observing him for a while before slowly speaking:

"Brother Jiang is a Cultivator, isn't he?"