Qing Yun

At the entrance of the Medical Clinic, the once sparsely populated street was now packed with people.

Xiao Ling'er's Medical Clinic happened to be near the city gate, so the flow of people was immense.

"Make way, make way..." Xiao Feng squeezed through the crowd for quite a while before reaching the front.

"What kind of young man has no manners at all?!" An elderly man whom Xiao Feng had shoved aside cursed angrily, but the moment he recognized Xiao Feng, his tone immediately changed.

"Xiao Feng! It really has been so long since I last saw you. Come, come, stand in front of me." After speaking, he did not forget to shout, "Divine Doctor Xiao is here! Why aren't you all making way?"

Everyone looked toward the source of the voice. Once they saw that it was Xiao Feng, most of them stepped aside to clear him a path.

"Divine Doctor Xiao, long time no see."

"Indeed, Divine Doctor Xiao is still as handsome as ever. He has the air I had back in my day."

"Thanks to Divine Doctor Xiao, this leg of mine was saved. I wanted to thank you in person, but your sister just wouldn't let me see you."

"Haha, Boss Wang, there's no need to thank me. I'm a healer. Saving people is my duty." Xiao Feng smiled.

"Ah, don't call yourself a healer. You're practically a Medical Saint. If you ask me, even that woman from the Vermilion Bird Empire... that..."

"Immortal Doctor Bai Ling'er," someone nearby chimed in to remind him.

"Yes, yes, her! That so-called Immortal Doctor. I think she's nowhere near as good as you."

"But speaking of it, they say that Immortal Doctor is as beautiful as a celestial maiden, and her medical skills are even more incredible, practically miraculous. But apparently there has been no news of her for over a decade. They say she's in secluded cultivation, and many people seeking treatment have returned disappointed because of it."

"Tch! She's just trash who doesn't even dare break through the God Tribulation Realm. What good are superior medical skills? I could crush her with one hand!" Seeing Xiao Feng receive such admiration, a bystander mocked disdainfully.

"Who said that? Come out and spar with me if you've got the guts!" Before Xiao Feng could react, the others had already lost their patience and angrily fired back.

"That's right! Come spar with us first and let us see just how capable you are!" With one person taking the lead, the crowd began to jeer along.

Seeing so many people speak up for Xiao Feng, that person immediately wilted like a dying flower and fell silent...

Xiao Feng knew all these people... Most of them had once come to the Medical Clinic for treatment. Many had been injured for one reason or another and lightly contaminated by Abyssal Dust, so they had come to the clinic to have their wounds treated.

Hearing so many people defend him, Xiao Feng said nothing, but his heart felt warm.

Even if most people in the Abyss would stop at nothing for the Mystic Dao, they were still flesh-and-blood humans. How could they be worse than beasts that knew gratitude?

Amid the crowd's "courtesy," Xiao Feng arrived at the very front. At this moment, the central avenue had been completely cleared, seemingly reserved for someone.

"Brother Xiao~" A child's tender voice rang out. Xiao Feng looked in its direction and saw a little girl of about nine running toward him.

"Yao'er! Why are you here?" Xiao Feng crouched down and asked with a smile.

A burly man then appeared beside her and said, "It's all thanks to Divine Doctor Xiao. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have known what to do with our child. When she was eroded by the Abyss, those quacks all said her arm had to be cut off. Fortunately, Divine Doctor Xiao saved Yao'er's arm."

"My Yao'er kept insisting that she wanted to see you, but your sister always turned us away. I heard that Qing Yun was coming back, and since you two were so close back then, I figured you would definitely come too. Haha, looks like I was right."

"I've been in secluded cultivation recently, so perhaps that was why my sister didn't allow visitors." Xiao Feng explained.

This burly man was Situ Hao, the head of the Si Family, one of Flowing Wind City's four great families. His Mystic Dao cultivation was at the Peak God Lord! That was why Situ Yao could come outside, because Situ Hao was currently releasing mystic power to help her resist the erosion of Abyssal Dust.

Flowing Wind City's four great families were the Qi Family, Si Family, Wang Family, and Ximen Family.

Speaking of cultivation, Situ Hao sighed. "Sigh, all sorts of rumors have been spreading these past years. It can't have been easy for you either, right? Your Mystic Dao talent was clearly even higher than that little girl from the Qi Family, yet now you... Pah, what bad luck."

...Xiao Feng knew that the Si Family head had always been straightforward. He had only become family head because his Mystic Dao cultivation was powerful enough.

"Yao Yao, you've seen Xiao Feng now. We can go home, right? If your mother finds out I brought you out, she'll scold me to death." Situ Hao asked in a bargaining tone.

"No, no, I want to look at Brother Xiao a little longer~"

Situ Hao looked helplessly at Xiao Feng, silently asking for help.

Looking at Situ Yao, Xiao Feng gently coaxed, "Yao'er, be good and listen. Go home for now. I'll come visit you at your house later, alright?"

"Okay~" Situ Yao replied in a childish voice. "Then you have to play with me for a while. Cultivating every day is so boring."

"Sure, but you also have to cultivate properly. Once you break through to the God Soul Realm, you can come out to see me on your own. When that time comes, I'll take you out to have fun. That's our promise, alright?"

"Okay~"

After watching the Situ father and daughter leave, Xiao Feng heard a familiar voice again. "Brother Xiao, Brother Xiao..."

Hearing that familiar voice, Xiao Feng's face twitched involuntarily. He quickly recovered, then looked toward the voice and feigned surprise. "Brother Qi?"

"Hahaha... Brother Xiao came to welcome my sister too?" As he spoke, Qi Panjian walked toward Xiao Feng.

"Yes... Since Qing Yun went out to gain experience, I haven't seen her in a long time. I thought I'd come see her." Xiao Feng spoke as though reminiscing.

"Hehe... I knew Brother Xiao would never give up on my sister. After all, my sister is so beautiful and talented. But it won't be easy for you to compete now. These past few days, the Ximen Family, Wang Family, and Si Family have practically worn down the threshold of my Qi Family."

"A favored daughter of heaven should naturally receive such attention." Xiao Feng replied calmly, as if they were merely chatting about gossip. Qi Panjian carefully studied Xiao Feng's face. Seeing no emotional fluctuation whatsoever, he found it terribly boring and did not even know how to deliver the words he had prepared.

After pausing for a moment, he sent Xiao Feng a sly voice transmission. "Hey, I'm serious. If I had to pick someone to be my brother-in-law from among them, it would definitely still be you."

"Oh? Why?" Xiao Feng looked puzzled.

"I'm very good at judging people. Though you've got a loose tongue and a dark heart, at least you've got a conscience."

Xiao Feng...

Whenever we were bullied as kids, you were always the first to step in and help us bully them back. You treated me better than my own father did.

And when you were young, you never looked down on us just because your Mystic Dao realm was so high. Unlike that idiot from the Ximen Family. He looks like a proper gentleman, but he's one person in public and another behind the scenes. He spends all day looking down his nose at everyone, as if having higher cultivation is something so amazing.

Xiao Feng... He had been a fine young man shaped by compulsory education, so of course he had not shown off before a bunch of children.

"Hey, hey, look! Look! That's that idiot." Qi Panjian tugged Xiao Feng's sleeve, his excited voice transmission reaching him as he signaled for Xiao Feng to look to the left.

Xiao Feng turned his head and happened to see the person Qi Panjian was pointing at. That person was also looking at him at that very moment...

He wore a white robe threaded with golden patterns and held a folding fan in his hand. His features were refined, and he carried himself like a graceful young gentleman.

"His name is Ximen Qing. He's the eldest son of the Ximen Family head. He's already at level six of the God Spirit Realm, and he's the same age as you, eighteen. He faced a fourfold Lightning Tribulation back then! He's the one the Ximen Family wants to marry my sister!" Qi Panjian conveyed the information through voice transmission.

When he saw Xiao Feng looking over as well, he did not seem embarrassed. He merely smiled faintly at Xiao Feng and the others, then turned his head to look toward the city gate.

"Pah! What a disgusting smile. What an idiot, pretending to be a gentleman again..." Qi Panjian's contemptuous voice transmission reached Xiao Feng once more.

Xiao Feng...

However, Xiao Feng also became wary. For Qi Panjian to hate him so much, this man was clearly not simple.

"Look! Look! Qi Qingyun is here!" Someone at the city gate was the first to spot Qi Qingyun's arrival, and the news quickly swept through the entire city with the cries.

"Where? Where is she?!"

"There! There! Look, she's so beautiful..."

"Gasp! Her... her cultivation... She's already at the Peak God King Realm, just one step away from becoming a God Lord!" A God King Realm expert cried out in shock.

"What did you say?"

"Is that real? She's only eighteen!"

As more and more people confirmed that the Mystic Dao aura Qi Qingyun was releasing was indeed level ten of the God King Realm, everyone accepted that terrifying fact. An eighteen-year-old God King... What terrifying Mystic Dao talent.

"Even in a divine kingdom ruled by True Gods, she would surely be a peerless genius!"

Yet Xiao Feng turned a deaf ear to all of it. He merely watched the white-clad woman approach slowly. After several years apart, she had become more mature... and more grown up.

"..."

Qi Qingyun walked forward slowly in white robes. Her black hair cascaded like a waterfall over her fragrant shoulders. Her features were exquisite, yet she exuded a chilling coldness, like an unstained celestial maiden from Moonfrost Palace. Her slender figure accentuated the full curves of her chest.

Her starry eyes swept over the crowd before finally settling on Xiao Feng.

They looked into each other's eyes.

At that moment, time seemed to stop. Even the world's clamor seemed to vanish. There was not a trace of impurity in their eyes, which reflected one another like flowing clouds upon water...

If only life were always like our first meeting...