Chapter 700: Chapter 701: Gazing at the Moon

Lin Luoyu was naturally present as well. Compared to others whose trust carried a hint of worry, she appeared far more composed.

This wasn’t because she didn’t care about Li Yingling—rather, Lin Luoyu had absolute confidence in her eldest senior sister.

Li Yingling had polished her cultivation at the peak of Nascent Soul for a long time, so this breakthrough to Spirit Transformation was only a matter of course.

The person who felt Li Yingling’s cultivation accumulation most intimately wasn’t Chu Xingchen, but Lin Luoyu.

Beyond her own cultivation, Li Yingling had also taken over some of the duties Chu Xingchen used to handle, while simultaneously being responsible for monitoring Li Junzi’s current situation.

After all, the Sub-Sage Path would inevitably touch the interests of existing power groups.

Lin Luoyu had naturally been working alongside Li Yingling on these matters, which also allowed her to receive news about Li Junzi immediately and make arrangements.

Besides Li Junzi being familiar with Lin Luoyu, Lin Luoyu was also familiar with Li Junzi and understood better how to handle things.

During this period, Lin Luoyu had spent long stretches of time together with Li Yingling, personally experiencing how her senior sister’s Nascent Soul cultivation rose step by step.

Apart from sensing Li Yingling’s spiritual energy fluctuations growing increasingly subtle—to the point where, toward the end, you’d almost unconsciously overlook them unless you specifically searched.

There was also the Dao resonance on Li Yingling’s person.

Lin Luoyu couldn’t quite describe what kind of elevation that was.

If she had to put it into words.

It easily reminded Lin Luoyu of her own breakthrough to Nascent Soul a few years ago.

Back then, nearly everyone in the sect who could come had shown up. Her master hadn’t displayed much outward emotion at the time—just ordinary words of encouragement and praise, followed by a grand celebration banquet.

But what left the deepest impression on Lin Luoyu was the heart-to-heart talk her master had with her at the very end.

——————————

Five years ago, after Lin Luoyu broke through to Nascent Soul, just as the sect-wide gathering was about to wrap up.

"No way, no way! This is nothing! It’s not even dawn yet, why are we breaking up! Lingyu! Lingyu! Let’s keep going... don’t leave!"

Qinghe’s reluctant cries to stay were both loud and clingy.

Lin Luoyu turned her head slightly to see Qinghe standing bolt upright, his feet practically digging into the dirt, both hands gripping Xie Lingyu’s arm tightly.

The fact that Xie Lingyu was their master’s wife was common knowledge. If the master’s wife didn’t want the party to end, naturally no one else would leave either.

But clearly, Xie Lingyu wasn’t easily swayed—and besides not being soft-eared, her methods were also quite firm.

"Ow! That hurts, that hurts! Qinghe’s ears are going to fall off!"

Xie Lingyu’s technique was crisp and efficient—she grabbed Qinghe’s ear with one hand, seized his horn with the other, and applied force together, naturally rendering Qinghe’s shameless tactics useless.

Naturally, Qinghe wasn’t the only one making a scene.

After the fun times came the reckoning.

"Cui Hao! Have you been slacking off in your cultivation lately?"

Li Yingling’s voice was only slightly quieter than Qinghe’s clingy wailing, and her tone carried plenty of frustration at his lack of progress. As for whether there was any score-settling involved, perhaps only the eldest senior sister herself knew.

"How would I dare, eldest senior sister! It’s just that my talent is far inferior to yours, plus my missions are heavy—but I guarantee I’ve been cultivating every spare moment! I wouldn’t dare delay at all! Eldest senior sister! You have to believe me!"

"Believe what! Luoyu is already at Nascent Soul, you two joined the sect on the same day, and you’re still hovering around mid-to-late Golden Core! I think you really need some proper tempering! Let your eldest senior sister teach you a lesson!"

Facing the interrogation, Cui Hao seemed to catch the unspoken meaning in Li Yingling’s words, so he unleashed his ultimate move:

"Master! Save me!"

Lin Luoyu then heard her master’s slightly exasperated tone from beside her:

"Yingling, that’s enough. Your junior brother is out on missions—slow progress in cultivation is normal. Isn’t his previously unstable aura much more solid now?"

Master was master after all. Li Yingling’s tone softened:

"For Master’s sake, I’ll let you off this time. But if Yun Li reaches Nascent Soul and you still haven’t, don’t think you’ll have any excuses left!"

Watching Cui Hao express endless gratitude and promise everything was fine, Lin Luoyu couldn’t help but smile lightly.

Chu Xingchen’s voice was calm and gentle:

"Let’s go."

"Yes." Lin Luoyu nodded softly.

After the gathering dispersed, Master called her aside separately, saying he had some things he wanted to discuss with her.

Lin Luoyu naturally had no reason to refuse.

She followed her master, who didn’t walk far—not even leaving the Peak of One Big Happy Family.

He simply found a cliff face illuminated by moonlight.

Master sat down on the cliff first, gazing calmly up at the bright moon while gently patting the spot beside him.

Lin Luoyu took a seat beside him.

Master spoke in a teasing tone:

"At Nascent Soul, in the old Southern Zhanbu Continent days, you could’ve founded your own sect and become an ancestor."

"Yes." Lin Luoyu smiled and nodded. "Thanks to Master’s guidance."

"I didn’t guide you much. Everything you’ve achieved, you earned through your own talent and hard work."

Lin Luoyu gazed at the moon, breathing out softly:

"Master, at first I worried I was a cultivation idiot, that I’d never set foot on the immortal path in my life. Before I met Master, before I met Teacher, I was just a kid who wanted a full meal."

"Meeting the right people is actually very hard, so... I’m very fortunate."

"I met Teacher, and I met Master."

"Both treated me so well, and both guided me through my most lost period."

Hearing this, Chu Xingchen looked at Lin Luoyu, whose expression was filled with reminiscence:

"Missing your Teacher?"

Lin Luoyu nodded straightforwardly:

"Even though I know she’s doing well, I still worry her path won’t be smooth."

"Sub-Sage... Teacher originally hoped I would be the one to try walking that path."

Chu Xingchen neither agreed nor disagreed, instead asking:

"I’ve spoken with Teacher Li before. She’s found her answer—now she’s just verifying it."

"As for the Sub-Sage Path, Teacher Li naturally hoped she’d be the one to figure it out, not you. She just thought her abilities weren’t enough. But as it turned out, she underestimated herself."

"Besides that, I also talked with Teacher Li about your childhood."

"Lin Family Gully... your parents don’t seem to have been from Lin Family Gully, which is why you had no relatives there. That’s why you were bullied as a child with no one to stand up for you."

Lin Luoyu paused at this, gazing at the moon in a daze. After a moment, she slowly said:

"Mm... but I’ve forgotten what Father and Mother looked like."

"What I remember is that the wind was cold, the rain was heavy, I was hungry, and every day we went somewhere different."

"Mother always told me to be quiet—sometimes gently, sometimes urgently."

"Thinking about it carefully, they were probably fleeing famine, or something had happened."

"The thing Mother said most often—no matter what happens in the future, don’t steal, don’t rob, try not to do bad things."

"There seems to have been a reason Mother specifically told me that, but I can’t remember what it was."

"Later, I don’t know how I ended up in Lin Family Gully, and I don’t know how Mother left me."

"As for Father..."

Lin Luoyu’s voice paused. After a moment, she still couldn’t speak, only her eyes grew slightly red.

Chu Xingchen asked gently:

"Do you dream about them?"

Lin Luoyu nodded softly: "I do."

"Nightmares, right?"

"They’re nightmares, which is why I didn’t remember them so deeply back then." Lin Luoyu smiled lightly. "Even though in the dreams, sometimes I know I’m a cultivator, but I still can’t change anything."

"But dream after dream keeps reminding me."

"To do my best to do the right thing."

"I don’t hate those nightmares, even though sometimes they’re really scary."

"Maybe it’s because Mother is in those dreams."

"Maybe Mother still worries I’m not doing well, so she keeps visiting me in dreams."

"Maybe I want to tell Mother that I can’t be bullied anymore."

Chu Xingchen fell silent for a moment after hearing this, as if reminiscing about something himself.

The two of them gazed at the moon together for a while.

[

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