Chapter 122: Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Two

122. Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Two

Guan San is currently stroking the server, please complete your subscription to defeat him! The servant's face fell at once. "Reporting to Madam, the Immortal Elder only lingered at the door for a little while, said he still had matters to attend to regarding the Ascension Ceremony, and then he left!"

"Ah!"

Unsure whether it was disappointment or relief, Lady Bai sat back down in her chair upon hearing this, her brows furrowing.

Finishing the chicken drumstick in her bowl at a leisurely pace, Atian deliberated, but still did not reach out her chopsticks to take a second one—now was absolutely not a good time to draw Lady Bai's attention.

"How could he just leave like that?" Lady Bai muttered. "I was planning to have a proper chat about Xin Li's situation."

"Give it up. It's perfectly obvious he doesn't want any entanglement with us," Master Bai, who had finally caught his breath, was quite philosophical about it. "Once that brat stepped through the doors of the Beihai Sword Sect, he has nothing to do with us anymore—no amount of worrying will do any good. Besides, haven't we still got Atian?"

Upon hearing the two words "Atian," Lady Bai, who had been looking displeased a moment ago, instantly brightened. She turned her head to look at the quietly seated girl, took the maiden's hand in hers, and said in a sorrowful tone, "Atian, Mother only has you now."

Atian's spirit jolted at these words—she knew whether she could eat another chicken drumstick hinged on this very moment—so her eyes immediately brimmed with spreading tears, and she called out "Mother" in a voice that wound through a hundred turns.

Master Bai rubbed the goosebumps on his arms.

Lady Bai, however, was thoroughly satisfied and served her another chicken drumstick, feeling this little daughter-in-law simply could not be more considerate.

Yes, a little daughter-in-law.

Master Bai and Lady Bai were not Atian's parents. The only reason the three of them could sit together eating in such domestic harmony was that Atian was the Bai family's daughter-in-law—in name.

To explain this properly, one has to bring up the Beihai Sword Sect and the "brat" Bai Xinli, who had stirred up Lady Bai's emotions.

As an ordinary merchant family in Qixia Kingdom, even though they knew there existed in this world a group of people who pursued longevity and possessed heaven-shaking, earth-shattering powers, the Bai couple had never imagined that such a heaven-defying stroke of luck could land on their own household.

Becoming an immortal was a story found only in storybooks.

Immortal Elders were otherworldly figures beyond reach.

That said, one of the foremost immortal sects on the entire Yuanguang Continent—the Beihai Sword Sect—was in fact located within Qixia Kingdom. Every fifteen years it would fling open its mountain gates to harvest a crop of disciples, and even the Bai family in their remote little town could hear news of the Ascension Ceremony.

And the Bai family's only son, Bai Xinli, happened to be five years old when the Ascension Ceremony opened.

Master Bai, who had been wholly intent on steering his son down the path of the imperial examinations, had originally not planned to join in the excitement. People with cultivation talent in this world were one in ten thousand; his ancestors for generations had all been ordinary folk, and he had no intention of daydreaming. But he couldn't withstand how relatives and friends all yearned so desperately for that so-called Ascension Ceremony, willing to bankrupt themselves to send their own children to try their luck.

Master Bai mulled it over. In such a frenzied atmosphere, his family's single-minded intention to raise a scholar was downright eccentric. What if people started spreading rumors that they looked down on the Immortal Elders—wouldn't that bring disaster? Moreover, Bai Xinli had never been good at mixing with others since childhood. What if, in the future, his peers gathered to reminisce about their Ascension Ceremony experiences and he alone had nothing to say—wouldn't that make him even more of an outcast?

Don't doubt it—boasting about which round one made it through in the Ascension Ceremony was an evergreen topic of small talk in Qixia Kingdom.

Having imagined the tragic scene of his own son being ostracized by his peers and left to cry alone at home, Master Bai, after discussing it with his wife, decided to take his son to participate in the Ascension Ceremony as well. In any case, the family was not short on money, and they absolutely could not leave any regrets in their child's childhood.

Thus, Master Bai set out on the journey with his son, who was only five years old. And when he returned, not only was he escorted back by cultivators of the Beihai Sword Sect, but the son holding his hand had also been replaced by an even younger little girl.

Bai Xinli had entered the Beihai Sword Sect and formally embarked on the path of Xiuxian, while the little girl Master Bai brought back was Atian.

According to Master Bai, Atian was an orphan girl he and his son had picked up around the Beihai Sword Sect.

"Our brat, the moment he saw that little girl, his eyeballs didn't even turn," Master Bai complained to his wife while drinking. "I thought, if he liked her, bringing her back as a little daughter-in-law wouldn't be a bad idea. But who would have thought—he actually got chosen!"

He poured himself another cup. "I figured, on this trip I lost my son, so I absolutely couldn't come back empty-handed! So I brought the daughter-in-law back with me."

Lady Bai was stunned by her husband's divine logic and wanted nothing more than to rush over and scratch up his old face. Fortunately, her reason still held, and knowing this matter had absolutely nothing to do with the little girl, she did not take out her anger on the innocent Atian.

Once chosen by an immortal sect, a disciple had to sever all mortal ties, meaning that his parents would completely exit Bai Xinli's life. For him personally, this was an immense immortal fortune; yet for the Bai couple, it was hard to call it a blessing.

Fortunately, just as Master Bai had said, losing a son still left them with a daughter-in-law. The couple truly did raise Atian as their own daughter, and they had done so for fifteen years. Since Lady Bai had not conceived again in all those years, they had even made up their minds to take a son-in-law into the household for Atian.

The daughter-in-law was on the verge of becoming a sworn daughter, and the three of them were living quite contentedly.

However, this did not mean Master Bai and Lady Bai had forgotten they still had a biological son. The Beihai Sword Sect would periodically send someone to check on the families of these disciples, and this was the only way they could get news of Bai Xinli.

This was also the reason Lady Bai had been so agitated earlier.

"It's Ascension Ceremony time again," Lady Bai set down her chopsticks. "Fifteen years have passed in the blink of an eye."

She brought up the previous topic no more, as if she were simply discussing this once-every-fifteen-years grand occasion.

On the Yuanguang Continent, cultivators were not some vague legend. Setting aside the Beihai Sword Sect, even common folk knew there were three other immortal sects that rivaled it. As for the scattered minor sects, they were too numerous to count, though their influence was far more modest—mostly only locals knew their names.

The ability to shake the entire continent merely by opening one's mountain gates to take in disciples was a distinction only the Four Great Immortal Sects could claim. Each sect's disciple-recruitment timing differed, but for the people of Qixia Kingdom, the other three great immortal sects were too far away, so the Beihai Sword Sect was naturally the first choice.

"Does Atian want to go participate in the Ascension Ceremony?" she asked with a smile. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime event—once you pass twenty, you won't get another chance."

"That's right, that's right," Master Bai chimed in. "We're not short on money anyway, so just think of it as broadening her horizons."

Thus two pairs of eyes turned together toward the silent girl, awaiting her answer.

They could not leave any regrets in their child's childhood. Even with their son as a cautionary tale, the Bai couple still held fast to their parenting philosophy, even though at Atian's age it was rather hard to call it a "childhood" anymore.

Atian was in the bloom of her youth. She had been born with delicate features, and every smile and frown carried a captivating charm of its own. Coupled with her tall figure and slender waist, nearly every young man in town had done the foolish thing of leaning on the Bai family's courtyard wall to steal glances at her.

And then, they got beaten into a complete rout by the beauty they were peeping at.

Bai Tian, eighteen years of age, beautiful as a flower, had kicked the constables north of town and punched the butcher south of town, sweeping the entire town unbeaten. Even the number one wastrel of the town would take a detour to avoid this young lady.

Lady Bai had spent all these years devoted to cultivating Atian into a proper lady. Though the results were debatable, she had long since mastered a steady, unflappable general's composure, and she explained her little daughter-in-law's unbelievable martial prowess with breezy nonchalance: "Probably takes after her birth parents."

The moment these words were spoken, Lady Bai became the spiritual idol that other ladies vied to emulate.

In all fairness, when Lady Bai said she wanted to take Atian to the Ascension Ceremony, she wasn't merely speaking off the cuff. She genuinely believed, from the bottom of her heart, that her little daughter-in-law might actually have some hope of being chosen. If Atian could truly ascend in a single step, it would also serve as a recompense for fifteen years of companionship. If she failed, Lady Bai would simply act as though she had never had a son and treat Atian as her own daughter from then on.

As it happened, Master Bai thought exactly the same.

The much-watched Atian, bearing the hopeful gazes of her two elders, lowered her head shyly—a picture of perfect ladylike decorum, showing not the slightest hint that only yesterday she had kicked two of Wang Laowu's ribs clean through.

"Father, Mother, please don't tease your daughter," her voice was like a babbling brook, and hearing it brought an inexpressible comfort. "The Ascension Ceremony is about to begin; there is no way we can make it in time."

The couple exchanged a glance at her words and immediately deflated. Since the Beihai Sword Sect's name contained the two characters "Beihai," the location was practically self-evident—utterly at the opposite ends of Qixia Kingdom from Guangkai Town, where the Bai family lived. At the pace of ordinary people, it would take a month or two to get there.

Lady Bai's spontaneous impulse was dispelled, and she felt somewhat guilty toward Atian. When they had sent off Bai Xinli, they had begun planning half a year in advance. Even though Atian was unaware of this, it did not stop Lady Bai from feeling ashamed of her own favoritism.

Master Bai saw through his wife's thoughts and opened his mouth to smooth things over, but before he could utter the first word, he was interrupted by the servant who came bursting in.

The servant charged through the door and, like a hotheaded youth, shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Master! Madam! That Immortal Elder is back—he's back again!"