Ninth Restriction

The Wen Family had come for Wen Xinyun?

Lin Jiufeng asked in surprise, "How did her family know she was here?"

Bai Yunfei nodded. "Back in her family, anyone could bully her, so she ran away and met me. I took pity on her and brought her back to the Feather Transformation Sect. No one knew about this. I have no idea how her family found out."

"How many came, and when did they arrive?" Lin Jiufeng asked with a frown.

"They arrived this morning. There were more than a dozen of them, led by four Eighth Forbidden experts," Bai Yunfei said.

Lin Jiufeng looked at Wen Xinyun. She was not in anguish, but tears streamed down her resentful face. She stared stubbornly at Lin Jiufeng, her fists clenched so tightly that veins bulged on her wrists.

"Martial Uncle, the Feather Transformation Sect is my home. I'm not leaving," Wen Xinyun suddenly said, wiping away her tears with one hand.

Lin Jiufeng asked strangely, "Who said you had to leave?"

Wen Xinyun froze and stared blankly at Lin Jiufeng.

Lin Jiufeng smiled. "Silly girl, did you think that because four Eighth Forbidden experts came, we would make you go with them?"

Wen Xinyun immediately shook her head. "I didn't think that. I just don't want to leave, but I also don't want to become a burden to the Feather Transformation Sect."

"You are the Feather Transformation Sect's eldest senior sister, the one who will lead its next generation. How could you be a burden? Stop filling that little head with nonsense all day long." Lin Jiufeng reached out and ruffled Wen Xinyun's lovely hair, his voice gentle.

Warmth filled Wen Xinyun's heart. Her eyes reddened, and tears threatened to spill again.

Lin Jiufeng promptly changed the subject. "Tell us about your past. You've always said your family was very large, but we never knew just how large."

Bai Yunfei said as well, "That's right. You never wanted to talk about it before, so I never asked. Now, you can tell us."

Lin Jiufeng sat in his chair, looking at Wen Xinyun with encouragement in his eyes.

Bai Yunfei took Wen Xinyun's hand and led her to sit down, letting her speak slowly.

Yue Dashan and Zhou Tianzi watched silently from the side.

Bai Ling leaped onto Lin Jiufeng's back, draping herself over his shoulder as she watched in silence.

She simply thought that such a beautiful woman as Wen Xinyun looked far too lovely when she cried.

Wen Xinyun took several deep breaths to steady herself, then slowly said, "I come from one of the Ancient Eight Great Families, the Wen Family."

"My father was the most outstanding member of the previous generation of the Wen Family. But perhaps because he was too exceptional, he died young. When my mother learned of it, grief shattered her. She accidentally fell, suffered massive bleeding, and died."

"At the time, I was still in my mother's womb, but no one in the family wanted me to be born. They buried my mother directly."

"Inside the coffin, my mother unexpectedly came back to life. She used every ounce of her strength to give birth to me in that coffin."

Wen Xinyun lowered her head, speaking one sentence at a time.

Her voice choked with sobs, tears striking the floor drop by drop.

The surroundings were deathly quiet. No one had expected Wen Xinyun's life to have been so twisted and tragic.

Even Bai Ling, who had no interest in human emotions, stared at Wen Xinyun in surprise.

Compared to Wen Xinyun, she felt that she herself had been very fortunate.

Lin Jiufeng and Bai Yunfei exchanged a glance, seeing the shock in each other's eyes.

No one spoke. They continued listening to Wen Xinyun's account.

"I cried in that coffin for an entire day before someone found me. They dug up the grave and opened the coffin. When everyone saw me, it was as though they had seen a ghost. They were frightened out of their wits."

"I remembered that scene clearly, even then."

Wen Xinyun gave a self-mocking laugh. She raised her head to look at everyone, and her eyes suddenly turned white—a transparent, pure white. Her distinct black-and-white pupils vanished, making the sight deeply unsettling.

"No one knew that I was born with a Unique Eye. From the moment I was born, I could see everything and remember everything."

Lin Jiufeng silently watched Wen Xinyun's eyes change from pure white back to clear black-and-white pupils. He let out a breath and said nothing, merely looking at the little girl with pity and affection.

"I was brought back to the Wen Family. Given my father's contributions to the family, I should have been treated as a young lady. But they said I had caused my mother's death, that I had been born in a coffin and was inauspicious by nature. They said I was unworthy of being a young lady. If I wanted to remain in the Wen Family, I had to start as the lowliest maidservant."

"So from the age of three, I learned to serve others. I was always careful, terrified of making even the slightest mistake. But even so, many people still pointed fingers at me behind my back, deliberately picked fights with me, beat me, and humiliated me."

"So ever since I was little, I never felt any sense of belonging to the Wen Family. My only thought was to escape it."

"But the Wen Family was one of the Ancient Eight Great Families. They had their own Mystic Realm. If the gates of the Mystic Realm did not open, escaping was very difficult. Even if I left that great courtyard, I still could not escape the Wen Family's grasp. So I endured and kept gathering information."

"Until one day, I discovered that the Wen Family had a batch of goods to send out. I hid among those goods and slipped out in secret. Then I met Master and came to the Feather Transformation Sect."

Wen Xinyun recounted it calmly. Apart from weeping when she spoke of her mother exhausting her final shred of strength to give birth to her, she remained calm throughout.

The humiliations of the past, the beatings and abuse of the past, everything from the Wen Family—those were all painful memories too unbearable to revisit.

Ever since coming to the Feather Transformation Sect and feeling the warmth of family, Wen Xinyun had known that she would never be able to leave the Feather Transformation Sect in this life.

Yet she had never expected that after only a few years of good days, the Wen Family would come looking for her, demanding forcefully to take her back.

At that thought, Wen Xinyun could not help clenching her fists with all her strength. Her nails sank into her flesh, yet she did not notice.

Even if I die, I will die in the Feather Transformation Sect. I will never return to the Wen Family, Wen Xinyun swore fiercely to herself.

After Wen Xinyun finished, Yue Dashan finally burst into tears. This hulking man, built like a small mountain, wept until he was a mess. "Wuwuwu, Eldest Senior Sister has suffered so much. She absolutely cannot go back to the Wen Family."

Zhou Tianzi nodded firmly. "Right. Why go back to a family like that? Senior Sister, don't worry. With Master, Martial Uncle, and all of us here, we will definitely protect you."

Lin Jiufeng looked at Bai Yunfei and asked, "Where are the Wen Family people?"

He had just swept the area around the Feather Transformation Sect with his Primordial Spirit, yet he had found no one else.

"They came to negotiate with me this morning. They said they were grateful that I had taken Wen Xinyun in, but that I was not worthy of being her Master. They told me to hand Wen Xinyun over at once, or there would be no need for the Feather Transformation Sect to exist." Bai Yunfei snorted coldly. "After saying that, they left. They gave me one day to consider it and said they would come take Wen Xinyun away tomorrow morning. What a fool's dream."

Hearing this, Lin Jiufeng smiled instead. "Then we'll meet tomorrow morning. I'd like to see just how capable these people from one of the Ancient Eight Great Families really are."

"They opened their mouths and declared that my Feather Transformation Sect had no need to exist. What nerve!" Lin Jiufeng snorted.

"Martial Uncle, they have four Eighth Forbidden experts. You and Master must be careful," Wen Xinyun said worriedly.

"Four?" Bai Yunfei smiled disdainfully and pointed at Lin Jiufeng. "Do you know how many Eighth Forbidden experts your Martial Uncle killed not long ago?"

Everyone looked at Lin Jiufeng together, then shook their heads.

Bai Yunfei held up eight fingers. "Eight Eighth Forbidden Dao Ancestors of the Supreme Dao Sect. Your Martial Uncle killed every last one of them from three thousand miles away."

"These four Eighth Forbidden experts do not even require your Martial Uncle to act. Your Master alone can handle them." Bai Yunfei spoke with cold pride.

Wen Xinyun, Zhou Tianzi, and Yue Dashan all stared at Lin Jiufeng and Bai Yunfei in astonishment. They had not expected Master and Martial Uncle to be so powerful now.

"Is that so?" At that moment, an indifferent question drifted out of the void, accompanied by a pressure like a towering tsunami that came crashing down. With a boom, Bai Yunfei's expression changed drastically. The chair beneath him was crushed directly into powder, and he staggered, nearly dropping to his knees.

"Ninth Restriction..."

Bai Yunfei turned his head in horror, looking beyond the Scripture Pavilion at a figure standing amid the mountains.