Xu Miaoyin

Song Changsheng had long anticipated that he would pull something like this. Merely letting out a wisp of his aura froze Xu Yunhe's movement in midair, leaving him unable to move.

He said unhappily, "What are you doing?

"After facing life and death together time and again, after a century of friendship, you and I can entrust our lives to each other. Your wife is my sister-in-law; your daughter is as my own daughter. How could I possibly stand by with my hands tucked in my sleeves?"

Xu Yunhe lowered his head without speaking, tears already streaming down his face. A man's most helpless moment was no more than this. Even the toughest man had a tender side.

He was still alive and had not gone to Shadow Pavilion to risk his life because all his hopes rested upon his wife and daughter. If that day truly came, his heart would follow them westward.

"Look at you—why are you acting like this when everything was fine? Do you not trust Changsheng's character?" Zhu Yiqun spoke thus, yet his hand unconsciously settled on Xu Yunhe's shoulder, as though he could pass his own strength to him that way.

"It was Xu Yunhe's lapse in composure." Xu Yunhe straightened up. Though his eyes remained bloodshot, he had regained his former calm.

"If there's a next time, I won't let you off so easily."

"There will absolutely be no next time."

"Enough. I know your heart is anxious—how could I truly hold it against you? Bring me the Human-Faced Spirit-Waking Flower."

Xu Yunhe hurriedly took a jade box from a Storage Bag kept close to his body. Breaking the Restriction upon it, he carefully opened it.

Inside lay a delicate, blood-red spiritual flower. A ring of peculiar black patterns ran across its pistil