That's My Son

The cry "My son!" was mournful and piercing, like a cuckoo spitting blood, filled with genuine grief and loss. It echoed through the empty street, shaking everyone present.

The middle-aged man who rushed out had disheveled hair and his brocade robe was covered in dust, nowhere near his usual dignity. He was Qin Miao, the sect master of the "Imperial Spirit Sect," the number one sect on the Imperial Spirit Continent. The black divine beast Xuan Ming lying on the ground was not only his battle companion bound by a blood contract but also a "family member" he had nurtured with countless efforts and treated as his own child.

At this moment, Qin Miao stood stiffly beside the fallen giant, staring at Xuan Ming's closed eyes and motionless chest, feeling as if the sky had fallen. He suddenly turned his head, his tiger eyes bloodshot and the corners even cracked with fine blood vessels. He fixed his gaze on Lin Qi, who had just gotten up from the ground and was still dusting off her clothes. His eyes seemed ready to turn him into an Asura, tearing apart this reckless woman limb from limb and devouring her alive.

"It's you! You killed my Xuan'er!"

With this roar, an overwhelming pressure, like a mountain collapse and tsunami, radiated from Qin Miao in all directions. This force was far beyond what the previous Zhang steward's thugs could produce; even the air crackled with faint explosions—this was the true spiritual pressure of a top-tier powerhouse.

The bystanders screamed in agony, unable to bear the pressure, falling to their knees like wheat blown down by a gale. Lin Qi bore the brunt of it, feeling her chest tighten as if an invisible steel hand was strangling her throat. Breathing became difficult, and her bones creaked under the strain.

But she did not retreat.

Not a single step.

Instead, she straightened her slender and frail back, faced the murderous gaze, and rolled her eyes in a vivid, exaggerated manner.

"What are you shouting for? Mourning?" Lin Qi's voice was not loud but exceptionally clear amidst the howling pressure. She rubbed her shoulder, which ached from the earlier roll, her tone filled with the extreme exhaustion of having just completed a high-intensity surgery and undisguised impatience. "It's just asleep. If you keep shaking it like that, you'll give it a cervical dislocation or concussion, and then it really will never wake up."

Asleep?

Qin Miao's fury and murderous intent instantly got stuck in his throat, and he stood frozen on the spot. The surrounding Imperial Spirit Sect disciples looked at each other, doubting if their ears were playing tricks.

A thin "hidden weapon" of unknown material pricked its butt, and it could make a divine beast that had gone berserk and couldn't be subdued by over a dozen high-level beast tamers fall "asleep"?

This was an absurd fabrication, preposterous!

"Blasphemy!" After a brief daze, an older spirit doctor with a goatee was the first to react. He stepped forward, pointing at Lin Qi and shouting harshly, his fingers trembling. "The divine beast's spiritual power has dissipated, its life force severed. I can tell with my eyes closed that it's clearly dead! You witch, you used some insidious sorcery to kill the divine beast, and now you dare to spout nonsense here. You deserve to die ten thousand times! Sect Master, seize this woman at once, extract her soul, and refine it!"

"Yes! Sect Master, never let her off!"

"Kill her to avenge Lord Xuan Ming!"

Facing the raging crowd and countless insults pointed at her nose, Lin Qi didn't even raise her eyelids. Like a chief physician making rounds, ignoring the unreasonable complaints of the patient's family, she walked straight to the massive black beast body. Completely ignoring Qin Miao's still murderous gaze, she calmly crouched down and began a routine physical examination.

Her movements were extremely professional and rapid, smooth and efficient, with no wasted motion.

First, she reached out to feel Xuan Ming's warm breath, sensing the airflow's strength; then, with her thumb and index finger, she deftly pried open its heavy, iron-like eyelids to observe the dark golden pupils' light reflex; next, without any hesitation, she pressed her ear against its cold, scale-covered broad chest, closed her eyes, and listened intently for a moment.

Throughout the whole process, the Imperial Spirit Sect members stood as if paralyzed, none daring to stop her, completely cowed by her unconventional and composed demeanor.

"Respiratory rate: twelve breaths per minute, steady; heart rate: fifty beats per minute, strong and rhythmic; pupils constrict normally to light. All vital signs are completely normal."

Lin Qi stood up, casually patted the dust off her hands, and said flatly, as if announcing the weather, "I used a potent central nervous system sedative that effectively suppresses abnormal excitatory discharges in the cerebral cortex. The effect lasts about half an hour. Once the time is up, it will metabolize naturally, and it will wake up."

She paused, looked past Qin Miao, and coldly glanced at the goateed old spirit doctor who was still jumping and shouting. The corners of her mouth curled up in a unmistakable sneer.

"As for you quacks, while it was in a state of status epilepticus with highly abnormal neuronal discharges, you kept forcefully pouring spiritual power into it. Did you think you were saving it? You tried to suppress one rampaging energy with another high-intensity energy. That's not treatment; it's adding fuel to the fire, accelerating its death!"

Lin Qi's voice suddenly rose, carrying the sternness of medical authority not to be challenged: "Had I not intervened decisively to block neural conduction, within half an hour it would have died from brain edema, cerebral hypoxia, and subsequent multiple organ failure! So instead of barking at me like dogs, go back and read a few basic physiology books to understand what 'energy antagonism' means and what 'treating the right symptoms' means!"

This barrage of professional reprimands, delivered with her full authority like a head teacher scolding students, directly left the old spirit doctor red-faced and fuming. He stammered, pointing at Lin Qi and going "You, you, you" without being able to utter a single retort.

Because terms like "epilepsy," "brain edema," and "energy antagonism" were words he had never even heard! But she spoke so confidently and clearly that it made him, a senior practitioner with decades of experience, look like an illiterate ignoramus.

Qin Miao was also completely stunned.

He stared blankly at this slender, almost malnourished young girl. Her face was pale as paper from the earlier collision, and she seemed as if a gust of wind could blow her over, yet her bright eyes shone astonishingly, devoid of any fear of power, filled only with absolute, unquestionable confidence and the authority of one in a superior position.

That expression and demeanor, unflappable even before a collapsing mountain—Qin Miao had only seen them in reclusive old monsters who had lived for thousands of years.

Most importantly, her series of "touchy-feely" examination methods, which seemed childish to him, inexplicably gave a strange sense of peace and confidence.

Could it be... Xuan'er really isn't dead? Just... asleep?

Once this thought arose, it grew like weeds. Half-believing, Qin Miao swallowed his saliva, suppressing his excitement and fear. He tremblingly reached out his broad hand, imitating Lin Qi's earlier gesture, and carefully probed toward Xuan Ming's huge nostrils.

The next second, a faint but regular and sustained flow of warm air gently brushed his fingertips.

Warm, living breath!

Qin Miao was thunderstruck, frozen on the spot, tears welling up instantly. He wanted to probe further to confirm, but Lin Qi impatiently slapped away his large, paddle-like hand.

A sharp "smack" rang out clearly in the silent street.

"Don't touch! Do you know what aseptic technique is? The patient needs absolute quiet rest now. Do you know how many bacteria are on your hands?" Lin Qi scolded unceremoniously. "And what's the use of just staring? Don't you see the secretions at its mouth? Clean the white foam around its mouth, turn its head to the side to keep the airway open. If it gets aspiration pneumonia from vomit, even a god can't save it!"

This bossy, even disdainful tone made it seem as if she were the lofty sect master of the Imperial Spirit Sect, and Qin Miao was merely a lowly medicine boy unqualified even to assist.

Yet, this first sect master, renowned across the continent, was utterly cowed by her. Not only did he not get angry, but he subconsciously responded like a schoolboy corrected by his teacher: "Oh! Oh! Okay! I'll wipe it right away!"

Saying that, he actually tore off his priceless outer robe made of ice silkworm snow silk without hesitation, crumpled it, and clumsily yet carefully began to wipe away the disgusting blood foam around Xuan Ming's mouth.

The elite disciples of the Imperial Spirit Sect around them were nearly popping their eyes out. Their jaws dropped to the ground, impossible to pick up.

Was this still their dignified, authoritative, iron-blooded sect master who could make millions fall with a single word?

If this got out, the entire cultivation world of the Imperial Spirit Continent would be shaken!

Time ticked by. The setting sun cast long shadows on the bluestone road. Every second of waiting was an extreme torment for Qin Miao. He stayed by Xuan Ming's side without moving an inch, his eyes unblinking, afraid of missing any slight movement.

Finally, after about the "half an hour" Lin Qi had mentioned.

The divine beast Xuan Ming, lying on the ground like a small black mountain, its huge, heavy eyelids trembled extremely faintly.

"It moved! It moved!"

A sharp-eyed young disciple screamed first, his voice cracking.

"Sect Master, look! Lord Xuan Ming really moved!"

Under countless gazes filled with surprise and joy, holding their breath, Xuan Ming let out a low, thunder-like snort and slowly opened its eyes.

Those dark golden beast pupils, once bloodshot with madness, now held no trace of murderous intent, but had returned to the profound, cold, and lively look of a top-tier divine beast. It seemed still a bit dazed, the lingering sedative making it feel lazy. It shook its huge head, capable of smashing a city wall, snorted out a puff of white air, then, using its limbs, turned over lightly, stood up steadily, and shook its jet-black, gleaming scales.

It was alive!

And completely unharmed!

Just as that woman had said, it had simply slept quietly!

First came dead silence, then an earth-shattering cheer erupted!

"It's alive! Lord Xuan Ming has shown his spirit!"

"Heaven bless the Imperial Spirit Sect!"

Qin Miao was even more moved to tears. The eight-foot man now cried like a two-hundred-pound child. He rushed over recklessly, hugged Xuan Ming's thick neck tightly, buried his face in its cold scales, laughing and crying, like a child who had regained his most beloved toy. Xuan Ming snorted in slight disgust but ultimately didn't shake him off.

After the brief and frenzied joy, the crowd's noise gradually subsided.

Everyone's eyes, as if drawn by some mysterious force, simultaneously and unanimously focused on the young girl who had been standing by, watching coldly.

The slender girl in coarse linen—Lin Qi.

This unremarkable girl, who moments ago was denounced as a "quack" and a "witch" deserving death, had casually solved an impossible problem with a single inconspicuous needle—a problem that the entire Imperial Spirit Sect had been helpless to solve, only waiting for death.

This could no longer be described as "superb medical skill."

In the eyes of these cultivators accustomed to explaining everything with spiritual power, it was a true miracle!

Qin Miao finally calmed down and let go of Xuan Ming. He turned around, took a deep breath, straightened his slightly disheveled robes, and strode quickly to Lin Qi.

His expression at this moment was extremely complex. There was gratitude for survival, shock at the subversion of his understanding, awe for unknown power, but more than anything, a fanatical desire like discovering a peerless treasure and witnessing history.

He stared at Lin Qi with burning eyes, his chest heaving violently, and then made a move that left everyone present—including the thugs still groaning on the ground—wide-eyed and unforgettable.The supreme leader of the Yuling Sect, the number one sect on the Yuling Continent, a grandmaster revered by all.

Without a second thought, right in front of the entire city and hundreds of his own disciples, he knelt straight down before an unknown little girl, both knees hitting the ground.

"Thump!"

A dull sound echoed as his knees struck the hard bluestone slab, solid and sincere, without any pretense.

"Master above! Please accept this disciple, Qin Miao, with a bow!"

Qin Miao's voice was loud and clear, full of vitality. This shout exploded in midair, making everyone around feel their eardrums tingle.

This kneeling, this bowing, this sudden address of "Master" caught Lin Qi off guard, even though she was used to life-and-death situations.

She felt her scalp tingle and instinctively took a big step back, avoiding Qin Miao's formal salute as if fleeing from a plague. Frowning deeply, her face showed resistance and disgust: "What are you doing? I warn you, I'm broke as a joke. I have no money for you. Find someone else to scam!"

"No, no! Master, you misunderstand!" Qin Miao thought she was testing him and quickly looked up, his tiger-like eyes burning with fanatical and devout light, as if he wanted to rip out his heart to show her. "Your disciple has no ulterior motives. I am sincerely impressed by your heaven-defying medical skills! I want to become your apprentice and learn the miraculous 'one needle to control beasts' and resurrection technique! Please, Master, have mercy and grant your disciple's sincere desire!"

Lin Qi: "…"

She rubbed her forehead in speechlessness.

She finally understood why, in the original host's memories, people in this world valued spirit beasts above all else, almost to a pathological degree.

Turns out these people really treated these fluffy and scaly creatures like ancestors and parents! To cure a beast, they would throw away even centuries-old dignity and the authority of a sect leader.

She ignored Qin Miao's tearful and moving apprenticeship plea. Her gaze bypassed the old man still kneeling on the ground and landed with interest on the divine beast Xuanming, which had fully regained its majestic appearance and was coldly looking down at them.

She looked over the giant beast, her eyes lingering on its streamlined muscles, broad back, and long, powerful limbs. The look was not the awe for a revered deity, but more like appraising a commodity on a scale at a farmer's market.

"You want to be my apprentice?" Lin Qi rubbed her chin and raised an eyebrow, saying casually, "It's not entirely impossible."

Qin Miao's heart leaped with joy, almost as if he'd heard celestial music. He nearly kowtowed: "Master, do you agree?! Your disciple will prepare the apprenticeship ceremony immediately!"

"Stop, hold on, don't call me Master yet. I haven't agreed." Lin Qi waved her hand to interrupt him like shooing a fly. She pointed her slender index finger without hesitation at the imposing Xuanming and proposed a shocking condition in a tone as casual as discussing 'braised pork or steamed fish for dinner':

"Want me to teach you? Fine. As a token of apprenticeship, you first need to neuter this cat of yours."

At that moment, the air seemed to lose all warmth.

Frozen.

Dead silent.

Even the wind stopped flowing.

Everyone's eyes bulged, jaws dropped, wondering if they were having a collective auditory hallucination from the earlier shock.

Qin Miao's ecstatic expression instantly froze, twisted into an absurd angle. He stared blankly at Lin Qi, his brain stalled for a full five seconds before he stammered in disbelief: "Wha—what… what surgery?"

"Neutering. Don't understand Chinese?" Lin Qi sighed and patiently explained, as if teaching a kindergarten kid with developmental delays, "In layman's terms, castrate him, cut off his tools. I see he's well-built, shiny coat, good nutrition. But his mood is extremely irritable, uncontrollably aggressive—typical symptoms of excessive male hormone secretion and endocrine imbalance. As long as you remove the gonads, you can fundamentally reduce male hormones, effectively improving his manic aggression. Moreover, it can greatly prevent a series of reproductive system diseases in his old age, like prostate enlargement or testicular cancer. In short, it's for his own good, a one-time fix. Get it?"

Castrate?

Remove gonads?

Perform neutering... on the sect's guardian divine beast?!

The nearby Yuling Sect disciples felt a roar in their minds. Their worldviews, built since childhood on the supreme reverence for divine beasts, were being ground into dust by this woman, trampled, and scattered in the wind.

Qin Miao's pupils experienced a magnitude-10 earthquake; his eyeballs almost popped out.

His old face changed colors unpredictably. First flushed bright red, then pale as paper, and finally purple-black like pig liver, a spectacular show. His lips trembled violently, his hands clenched into fists with whitening knuckles. Finally, he squeezed out words from between his teeth, one by one.

His voice completely lost its usual calm and depth. It sounded like a cat stepped on its tail, or a rooster choked by its neck—sharp, shrill, full of extreme frustration, collapse, and indescribable rage.

"Shut up! You insane witch!!!"

He pointed at Lin Qi, trembling all over like a sieve, forgetting his previous reverence. In a cracked voice, he roared out the line destined to go down in Qingyu City's bizarre history:

"That's my damn son!!!"

This deafening roar still echoed in the air.

As the words died down,

Xuanming, who had been standing quietly nearby, watching everything with a gaze as cold as death, suddenly erupted with towering black light from its massive body!

The black light was dense as ink, seeming to devour all light, instantly enveloping its huge form.

Amid the gasps and retreating cries, strange sounds of bones stretching and reshaping came from within the light. The mountain-like black beast shrank, elongated, and deformed at a visible speed within the black light.

Seconds later, the light receded like a tide.

Where the massive divine beast had been, there was no trace.

In its place stood a young man with a tall, straight figure like a pine, wearing a dark black robe with golden cloud patterns. He was about twenty-five or twenty-six, with a face so handsome it was almost demonic. His brows were sharp as cold blades, nose high and straight, thin lips pressed into a bloodless line. His ink-black long hair was not tied up, casually draped over his broad shoulders, fluttering slightly in the night breeze, adding a touch of wildness and arrogance.

What caught the eye most was his cold, icy face. Only below the corner of his left eye was a vermilion mole as red as blood. This splash of red did not ruin his overall coldness; instead, it added a deadly, bewitching touch to his icy, ascetic aura.

The moment he appeared, even without deliberately releasing his aura, a pressure more restrained but also more terrifying, enough to make souls tremble, silently enveloped the entire scene like an invisible, tangible shackle.

This was the true form of the ancient divine beast Xuanming Pixiu after taking human form—Xuan Su.

Xuan Su did not pay attention to the fearful gazes around that almost wanted to kneel, nor did he look at his adoptive father Qin Miao, who now appeared embarrassed for shouting "son."

His cold, narrow, peach-shaped eyes, as if they could freeze souls, passed over the crowd and landed accurately on Lin Qi.

His gaze had no warmth, no fluctuation, like a scalpel tempered in extreme cold, slowly, inch by inch, scraping across Lin Qi's pale but unconcerned face.

After a long time—so long that the air seemed about to freeze—

His tight, thin lips parted slightly, and slowly uttered a few words to Lin Qi.

His voice was low and magnetic, without Qin Miao's hysterical madness, but with a bone-chilling coldness from the depths of the underworld, word by word:

"You... what were you just planning to do to my body?"