Chapter 553: Truth and Healing

Xu San and Xu Si also looked at Zhang Jie with complex expressions.

To conceal Feng Baobao’s secret of immortality, they replaced her true identity every few decades,

and with their utmost efforts to hide it, no one had ever discovered this secret.

Yet Zhang Jie deduced this secret purely from analyzing the nature of Feng Baobao’s Qi.

I should never have let Feng Baobao interact with Zhang Jie.

The only thing that now slightly reassures them is that Zhang Jie has deep ties with them,

and he is not the kind of person who would stop at nothing for immortality—he is trustworthy.

“Uncle Xu, Brother San, Brother Si, don’t worry—I won’t reveal Ba’er’s secret.”

Zhang Jie, knowing what the Xu family cared about most, assured them.

“Good.”

Xu Xiang’s weary expression finally eased slightly.

“Chulan, come here.”

Xu Xiang waved Zhang Chulan over.

“Director Xu.”

Zhang Chulan hurried to the bedside, stopping less than three or four meters away.

“Don’t call me Director Xu—it’s too formal. Just call me Uncle Xu, like Ah Jie does.”

“Yes, Uncle Xu.”

Zhang Chulan, quick to adapt, bowed respectfully and called him that.

“I’m about to die—it’s time to tell you about Baobao.”

Xu Xiang looked around at everyone present and spoke slowly.

Zhang Chulan immediately perked up—this was an earth-shattering secret.

Xu San and Xu Si also focused intently, for though they knew Feng Baobao was immortal,

they knew no further details—such as how she had met their father.

Even Zhang Jie settled his mind; though as a book-walker transplanted into an anime world,

he had already learned many secrets, yet since this one world had evolved into a grand, intricate realm,

the information within could no longer be fully captured by any single manga or anime.

“That was seventy years ago. I was still a child then,

living with my parents in a small village in Sichuan, leading a simple life of rising with the sun and resting at its setting.

But one day, as I went as usual to play in the hills, I saw a girl wearing an embroidered dress…”

Xu Xiang sank into memory.

‘That girl must be Baobao/Ba’er.’

Xu San, Xu Si, and Zhang Chulan all fell into thought.

“I found my parents and told them. They came quickly,

spoke with the girl, and discovered she had lost her memory—she didn’t know how she got there,

didn’t know where her home was or who her family were, and could only recall her name—Feng Baobao.”

Xu Xiang recounted step by step how he met Feng Baobao.

How he brought her back to the village; since she remembered only her name, they called her “Ah Wu”;

how bandits came to rob them, his father was killed by their knives, and the bandits were slain by the enraged Feng Baobao.

After realizing Feng Baobao was an anomaly, his mother, terrified, lured her into the forest,

saying, “Stay here quietly, we’ll come back after we finish,” then fled the village with the young Xu Xiang.

Their next meeting came decades later,

when he had already cultivated True Qi and become an Immortal, joining a secret state agency.

On a mission to Hong Kong,

he unexpectedly discovered Feng Baobao, kidnapped by traffickers.

Speaking of Feng Baobao’s pitiful state then, even after all these years, Xu Xiang could not hide his raging fury:

“I found a local crime boss who owed me a favor,

and made sure those traffickers got the fate they deserved!”

“Yeah, traffickers deserve to die!”

Without any discussion, Xu San, Zhang Chulan, and the others unanimously agreed.

Zhang Jie’s stance was different: traffickers are still human—how can they be sentenced to death?

What about their parents and children?

Won’t the parents grieve? Won’t the children suffer? Won’t they grow up and seek revenge?

So he suggested executing the entire families of traffickers, so their relatives, parents, and loved ones wouldn’t suffer.

“After that, I took Ah Wu back to the mainland.

At the time, Zhao Fangxu was gradually building the Nandatong Company under state support—he invited me.

To conceal Ah Wu’s immortality, I chose to join the company,

and steadily rose to become head of the North China region.

Time flew by—decades passed. I am now near death, yet Ah Wu remains as youthful as ever.”

“Ba’er really is an immortal!”

After hearing Xu Xiang’s words, Zhang Chulan, though finding it hard to believe, could no longer deny the truth.

“About your grandfather…”

After speaking of Feng Baobao, Xu Xiang began recounting how Zhang Huaiyi died.

“Ba’er didn’t lie to me.”

Zhang Chulan carefully compared Xu Xiang’s account with Feng Baobao’s—every detail matched:

which Immortals had died, and the shocked yet familiar words his grandfather Zhang Xilin had spoken upon seeing Feng Baobao.

“Cough—cough, cough…”

After speaking, Xu Xiang burst into violent coughing, as if tearing his lungs out.

“Father!”

Xu San and Xu Si immediately seized his hands, ready to repeat their old trick.

“It’s useless—I know my body better than anyone.”

Xu Xiang refused their offer to transmit True Qi to prolong his life.

“Ah Wu, I have no regrets in this life—except that I can’t let you go.”

Xu Xiang looked at Feng Baobao, his cloudy eyes filled with reluctance.

“Doggy, are you leaving me too?”

Holding Xu Xiang’s emaciated, bony hand, Feng Baobao wept uncontrollably.

“Brother Jie, do you…?”

Zhang Chulan turned to Zhang Jie.

“Ah Jie, you…”

Xu San and Xu Si also looked at Zhang Jie with hopeful eyes.

Among all those present, if anyone could still prolong Father Xu’s life,

it could only be the unfathomably powerful Zhang Jie.

“Let me take a look.”

Zhang Jie thought for a moment and replied.

His adoptive father in North China had survived thanks to Xu Xiang’s help,

and even when he went to Longhu Mountain to study, Xu Xiang had lent him support—these debts he acknowledged.

“Ba’er, may I examine Uncle Xu?”

Zhang Jie stepped beside Feng Baobao, who clung tightly to Xu Xiang’s hand, and spoke softly.

“Yes.”

Feng Baobao, her face streaked with tears, nodded fiercely.

“Uncle Xu.”

Zhang Jie took Xu Xiang’s hand.

“Ah Jie, I’m already a dying man—do whatever you can!”

Xu Xiang smiled with detachment.

“Alright.”

Zhang Jie smiled faintly, closed his eyes, and sent a thread of True Qi into Xu Xiang’s body,

letting it flow through his extraordinary meridians and every bone and sinew.

Under the influence of his potent, vibrant True Qi, Xu Xiang’s aged body seemed to regain a second youth.

“Phew!”

Xu Xiang exhaled deeply, his complexion turning ruddy, filled with wonder:

“I haven’t felt this good in a long time.”

"It's working! Zhang Jie's healing is working!"

Xu San and Xu Si wore expressions of joy.

Even Feng Baobao’s cold, composed face broke into a faint smile.

"Jiege is still Jiege."

Zhang Chulan was not at all surprised. Even if Zhang Jie now told him,

that he himself, not just Feng Baobao, was truly immortal, he would believe it without doubt.