Chapter 66

“Is that a sickness? That’s my medal for hard work!” Old Bai insisted.

Old Bai’s daughter ignored him, snatched his phone, and studied it closely: “Is the Second Hospital this unreliable? How could they mess this up?”

After a moment, she looked up and asked: “This person has the same name as you, and the same age? Could that really be a coincidence?”

“Maybe the reports got mixed up…”

“Could they all be mixed up?” Old Bai’s daughter frowned. “Blood tests, urine tests, CT scans—how could all of these be wrong?”

Old Bai froze, thought for a moment: “From a probability standpoint, it’s not impossible…”

“...Your body’s healthier than mine!” Old Bai’s daughter gave up on arguing with the old man, reading the report with astonishment.

Old Bai immediately puffed up, shouting to his daughter: “I told you so—I’m in great shape!”

“Yes, yes, yes, I’m thrilled you’re healthy,” his daughter replied more gently, though curiosity crept in: “Have you been eating immortal pills? Are you turning young again?”

At these words, Old Bai and Tang Lingwumin both glanced at Zheng Fa.

Old Bai scratched his curly hair, thought a while, then said: “Lately, I’ve been watching square dancing. I met a nice old lady.”

His daughter snapped her head up, staring at him: “...At my age, am I getting a stepmother?”

“No, what I mean is—my body’s had a second spring, just like my love life. Good mood, good health.”

His daughter stared at him, speechless, as he spun more lies.

“It’s all the power of love. Understand?”

“I’m over forty—I don’t get your old folks’ romantic nonsense,” his daughter said flatly.

“Enough. I’m perfectly fine,” Old Bai, unable to explain further, shooed his daughter out: “Go tend to your own business. I’ve got to tutor these two.”

“Dad!”

“I’m in great shape—what’s there to worry about?”

Old Bai waved his hand.

Seeing his demeanor, and recalling the report, his daughter could only leave reluctantly.

As soon as the door shut, Old Bai spun around, eyes gleaming, fixed on Zheng Fa.

“Is our sect’s martial art really this miraculous?”

Tang Lingwumin beside him also studied Old Bai’s report with curiosity.

The physical exam report wasn’t flawless—some indicators had small arrows beside them, signaling they fell outside normal ranges.

But for a man in his sixties or seventies, it was remarkably healthy.

“I’ve got fewer issues now than I did at forty,” Old Bai murmured in awe, then turned to Zheng Fa: “Zheng Fa, you don’t blame me for covering for you, do you?”

“You’re doing this for my sake,” Zheng Fa shook his head.

“I can’t be sure what might happen if this gets out. Someone might target you. You might gain fame, wealth—great fortune. But whether good or bad, you’re not ready to handle it yet. Do you understand?”

“I understand.”

Who was he? An orphan. A high school student still months from adulthood.

Aside from his martial-trained body, he had almost nothing.

The Song Crane Stance’s effects couldn’t possibly be this strong.

But the Spirit Crane Body was different.

Though Old Bai progressed slowly and still had months before mastering the Spirit Crane Body, that didn’t mean his body hadn’t benefited.

On the contrary, cultivating the Spirit Crane Body seemed to be repairing his aging frame, preparing it for transformation into a Dao Body.

“I just had to make you tell a lie, and sacrifice your reputation,” Zheng Fa felt a twinge of guilt.

Old Bai had even invented a twilight romance to hide for him.

“What lie?”

“The second spring,” Zheng Fa recalled Old Bai’s lie to his daughter.

“Who said I lied to her?” Old Bai widened his eyes, puzzled.

“?”

“What, only young people get to pair up and cuddle in front of me? Can’t I have a little old-man romance?”

“...”

After asking Old Bai all the questions he’d accumulated over the past few days, Zheng Fa remembered Zhang Shijie’s request.

“I have a friend…”

“Oh, a friend…” Old Bai nodded, looking knowingly.

“She loves problems with complicated calculations—those sadistic examiners’ nasty, torturous puzzles,” Zheng Fa objectively described Zhang Shijie’s tastes: “Do you know where I can find lots of these kinds of problems?”

“You like these too?” Old Bai’s eyes lit up.

“No, it’s not me,” Zheng Fa blinked: “Wait—what do you mean, ‘you too’?”

“Wait here!”

Old Bai rushed to the bookshelf behind him, pulling out several thick binders: “I love collecting these hard and weird problems.”

Zheng Fa saw that behind him, a cabinet taller than a man was crammed with identical binders.

This was… Sister Zhang’s joy cabinet?

“You… also like solving these problems?”

Zheng Fa was stunned. How had he ended up meeting two such maniacs?

“Oh, I don’t like solving them—it’s too torturous,” Old Bai waved his hand.

Good. The old man wasn’t that terrifying.

“I’m the kind of sadistic problem-setter you described.”

“?”

“Didn’t I used to write Olympiad problems for a while? These are all ones I collected or came up with myself.”

“All of them in the cabinet?”

“Not all—different types, of course. We problem-setters have to accumulate these. Every time I try to submit one, the exam committee tries to stop me,” Old Bai sighed regretfully. “They say people will complain if we use these.”

…

Xuanwei Realm.

Zheng Fa walked toward the small courtyard where Zhang Shijie was staying at Zhao Fu—just a few dozen steps from the eldest daughter’s residence.

As he entered Zhang Shijie’s courtyard, the eldest daughter stepped out of her own.

She frowned at Zheng Fa’s back, a flicker of thought crossing her face, then headed toward her mother’s pavilion.

“Mother, I saw Zheng Fa go to see Zhang Shijie.”

She told her mother.

The Lady nodded, saying nothing.

“Mother, Zhang Shijie is a quiet person. Isn’t it rude for Zheng Fa to bother her like this? What if he angers her?”

The Lady shook her head: “Zheng Fa isn’t reckless or disrespectful. If he went to see True Person Zhang, he had her permission.”

The eldest daughter frowned, skeptical of her mother’s judgment: “How could that be? Hundreds in the Hundred Immortal Alliance want to befriend Zhang Shijie—she’s never been kind to anyone. I got her here only because my ancestor had ties to her master.”

“You said True Person Zhang told you Zheng Fa’s talisman talent rivals hers?”

The Lady suddenly asked.

“Yes. Zhang Shijie said it herself.”

The Lady fell into long silence. Then, she looked at her daughter with solemn expression: “Lan’er, I have something to discuss with you.”

“Mother?”

“I intend for Zheng Fa to become our Zhao family’s son-in-law. What do you think?”

“Son-in-law? Mother, you value him this much? It makes sense—given his talent, marrying him into our family is a good way to bind him,” the eldest daughter mused: “Mother, which sister do you plan for him to marry? Will Father agree?”

She frowned, mentally weighing which of the many junior sisters might suit.

“You.”

The eldest daughter froze, pointing at her own nose: “Me?”