Chapter 85: 85. Chapter 85

85. Chapter 85

Guan San is currently stroking the server; please complete your subscription to defeat him! Lady Bai, who had been smiling and urging her to eat more just a second ago, threw down her chopsticks and jumped up the moment she heard the report. She excitedly patted the back of Master Bai beside her, successfully causing the head of the Bai Fu to choke on a mouthful of hot soup and spray it out directly.

"Oh my, Old Master, why are you so careless?" While helping the incessantly coughing Master Bai catch his breath, Lady Bai handed him a handkerchief, a look of disdain appearing on her face.

Master Bai, who was coughing until he was nearly out of breath, silently rolled his eyes.

Lady Bai did not notice her husband's small gesture; all her attention was now focused on the servant who had come to report, "Why haven't you invited the Immortal Elder in yet!"

The servant's face turned bitter upon hearing this, "Replying to Furen, the Immortal Elder only stayed at the entrance for a moment, saying he still had to be busy with the Ascension Ceremony, and then he left!"

"Ah!"

It was hard to tell if it was disappointment or relief, but upon hearing this, Lady Bai sat back down in her chair, her brows knitting together.

Slowly and methodically finishing the chicken leg in her bowl, Atian thought for a moment, but still did not reach out with her chopsticks to grab a second one; now was definitely not a good time to attract Lady Bai's attention.

"Why did he just leave like that?" Lady Bai muttered, "I was still planning to ask properly about Xin Li's situation."

"Forget it, it's clear that he doesn't want to have any entanglements with us," Master Bai, who had finally caught his breath, was quite open-minded about it, "Once he entered the gates of the Beihai Sword Sect, that brat has nothing to do with us anymore. No matter how much you pine for him, it's useless. Besides, don't we still have Atian?"

Hearing the two words "Atian," Lady Bai, who had previously looked displeased, instantly became joyful. She turned her head to look at the quiet girl, reached out to hold the young girl's hand, and said in a sorrowful tone: "Atian, Mother only has you now."

Atian felt a jolt of spirit upon hearing this, knowing that whether she could eat another chicken leg depended on this one moment, so her eye sockets were immediately filled with spreading tears, and she called out "Mother" in a tone that turned a hundred times.

Master Bai rubbed the goosebumps on his arms.

Lady Bai, however, was very satisfied and gave her another chicken leg, feeling that this child bride could not be any more thoughtful.

Yes, a child bride.

Master Bai and Lady Bai were not Atian's parents, and the only reason the three of them could sit together happily eating a meal was that Atian was the daughter-in-law of the Bai family—in name, at least.

To explain this issue clearly, one must mention the Beihai Sword Sect and the "brat" Bai Xinli, who had caused Lady Bai's emotional fluctuations.

As an ordinary merchant family in the Qixia Kingdom, even if they knew that there was a group of people in this world pursuing immortality and possessing heaven-reaching and earth-shattering abilities, the Bai couple had never thought that such a heaven-sent pie could fall on their own heads.

Becoming an immortal is a story found only in books.

An Immortal Elder is an unreachable master of the world beyond.

That said, the Beihai Sword Sect—a top-tier immortal sect that is among the best in the entire Yuanguang Continent—is actually located within the Qixia Kingdom. Every fifteen years, they open their mountain gates wide to harvest a crop of leeks, and even the Bai family, living in such a remote town, could hear news of the Ascension Ceremony.

And the Bai family's only son, Bai Xinli, happened to encounter the opening of the Ascension Ceremony when he was five years old.

Master Bai, who was single-mindedly cultivating his son for the path of the imperial examinations, originally did not intend to join in the fun. People with cultivation aptitude in this world are one in ten thousand, and his ancestors had all been ordinary people; he did not intend to daydream. However, he could not withstand the fact that relatives and friends were all yearning for that so-called Ascension Ceremony, willing to go bankrupt just to send their own children to try their luck.

Master Bai pondered for a moment. In such a fanatical atmosphere, his own family's idea of focusing on cultivating a scholar seemed simply too unconventional. What if rumors were spread that he despised the Immortal Elders? That would be disastrous. Moreover, Bai Xinli had been unsociable since he was young; if his peers gathered together in the future to reminisce about the past of the Ascension Ceremony and he was the only one who didn't say a word, wouldn't that make him even more unsociable?

Don't doubt it; bragging to each other about which stage of the Ascension Ceremony they reached back then is a perennial topic of small talk in the Qixia Kingdom.

Having imagined the tragic scene of his son being ostracized by colleagues and having to cry secretly at home, Master Bai, after consulting with his wife, decided to take his son to participate in the Ascension Ceremony once. Anyway, his family was not short of money, and he was determined not to leave any regrets in the child's childhood.

Thus, Master Bai embarked on the journey with his five-year-old son, and when he returned, he was not only sent back by a cultivator from the Beihai Sword Sect, but the son he was holding by the hand had also turned into a younger little girl.

Bai Xinli was admitted into the Beihai Sword Sect and officially stepped onto the Xiuxian path, while the little girl Master Bai brought back was Atian.

According to Master Bai, Atian was an orphan girl the father and son found around the Beihai Sword Sect.

"That brat of ours, he didn't even turn his eyes away when he saw that little girl," Master Bai complained to his wife while drinking, "I thought if he liked her, it wouldn't be bad to bring her back as a child bride, but who knew! He actually got selected!"

He poured himself another cup, "I thought, since I made this trip and lost a son, I couldn't just come back empty-handed! So I brought the daughter-in-law back."

Lady Bai was shocked by her husband's magical logic and wanted to go up and scratch his old face. Fortunately, she still had her reason and knew that this matter had absolutely nothing to do with the little girl, so she did not vent her anger on the innocent Atian.

Once selected by a Xiuxianmen, a disciple must sever worldly ties, which means the parents completely exit Bai Xinli's life. For him personally, this is a heaven-sent opportunity, but for the Bai couple, it is hard to say it is a fortunate event.

Fortunately, just as Master Bai said, if there is no son, there is still a daughter-in-law. The couple really did raise Atian as their own daughter, and they raised her for fifteen years. Since Lady Bai had not been pregnant again in these years, they even had the idea of recruiting a son-in-law for Atian.

The daughter-in-law was on the verge of becoming a foster daughter, and the three of them lived quite happily.

However, this did not mean that Master Bai and Lady Bai had forgotten they still had a biological son. The Beihai Sword Sect would periodically send special personnel to check on the situations of these disciples' relatives, and this was their only chance to get news of Bai Xinli.

This was also the reason why Lady Bai was so excited just now.

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

She did not bring up the previous topic again, as if she were simply discussing this grand event that happens once every fifteen years.

On the Yuanguang Continent, cultivators are not ethereal legends. Setting aside the Beihai Sword Sect, even the common folk know there are three other immortal sects of equal fame. As for other scattered sects, they are countless, but their influence is quite lacking, and mostly only the locals know their names.

Being able to shake the entire continent just by opening the mountains to accept disciples is a special honor that only the Four Great Immortal Sects possess. The time for each sect to accept disciples is different, but for the people of the Qixia Kingdom, the other three immortal sects are too far away, so the Beihai Sword Sect is naturally the first choice.

"Does Atian want to go participate in the Ascension Ceremony?" she asked with a smile, "This is a major event that one can only participate in once in a lifetime. Once you pass twenty, there will be no chance."

"Yes, yes," Master Bai chimed in, "Anyway, our family has money, just consider it going to see the world."

Thus, two pairs of eyes looked at the silent girl, waiting for her answer.

Not wanting to leave any regrets in the child's childhood, even with their son as a cautionary tale, the Bai couple still insisted on their parenting philosophy, even if at Atian's age it was really hard to call it a "childhood."

Atian was at the age of a flower; she was born with beautiful features, and every smile and frown had a moving charm. Coupled with her tall figure and slender waist, almost all the young men in town had done the foolish thing of peeking at her by lying on the Bai family's courtyard wall.

And then, they were beaten black and blue by the beauty they were peeking at.

Bai Tian, eighteen years of age, beautiful as a flower, kicked the town's northern bailiff, punched the southern butcher, swept the whole town without a rival, and even the town's number one playboy had to take a detour when he saw this great-aunt.

Lady Bai had been dedicated to teaching Atian to be a refined lady all these years. Although the results were debatable, she had long since developed the composure of a general, and she explained the incredible combat power of her child bride with indifference, "It's probably from her biological parents."

Once these words were spoken, Lady Bai became a spiritual idol that other ladies scrambled to imitate.

In all fairness, when Lady Bai said she wanted to take Atian to participate in the Ascension Ceremony, it really wasn't just empty talk; she truly believed from the bottom of her heart that her child bride might really have a chance to be selected. If she could really ascend to the heavens in one step, it would fulfill the fifteen years of companionship. If she didn't succeed, she would just pretend she never had a son and treat Atian as her own daughter from then on.

As it happened, Master Bai thought the same.

The center of attention, Atian, bore the expectant gazes of the two elders and shyly lowered her head, looking every bit the refined lady, completely unable to tell that she had just kicked and broken two of the neighbor Wang Laowu's ribs yesterday.

"Father, Mother, please don't tease your daughter," her voice was like a murmuring stream, sounding indescribably comfortable, "The Ascension Ceremony is imminent, and we won't be able to make it no matter what."

The couple looked at each other upon hearing this and were immediately deflated. Since the Beihai Sword Sect has the words "Beihai" in its name, the location is self-evident. It is at the north and south ends of the Qixia Kingdom from Guangkai Town where the Bai family lives. At the walking pace of ordinary people, it would take at least a month or two.

Lady Bai's whim was dispelled, and she felt a bit sorry for Atian. When they sent Bai Xinli away, they had started planning half a year in advance. Even though Atian didn't know about this, it didn't prevent her from feeling ashamed of her favoritism.

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