Awaken, My Teacher!

Awaken, My Teacher!

The morning sunlight fell gently over the Xiao Family's rear courtyard.

Han Feng looked at the young man and woman standing side by side outside the door. One had a resolute gaze, while the other wore a determined expression. He understood.

Before he could speak, the girl in the purple dress gathered her courage, stepped forward, and bowed deeply to him.

"Senior." Xiao Xun'er's voice was crisp and firm. "I know this request is presumptuous, but... could you take Brother Xiao Yan and me to the Black-Corner Region together?"

Han Feng looked at her and could not help complaining inwardly.

What did she mean? She wanted to follow along too? Achievement unlocked: kidnapping the Ancient Clan's young lady from the Xiao Family?

Keeping his expression unchanged, he turned to Xiao Yan beside him and deliberately raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Junior Brother, she's coming too?"

Xiao Yan looked a little embarrassed under his gaze. He raised a hand to rub his nose, his eyes wandering.

"Well... Senior Brother, if it's convenient... then I'll have to trouble you."

"Convenient? Of course it's convenient."

Han Feng agreed at once. Internally, he found it convenient as hell.

Looking at how determined this little girl was, she was clearly afraid he had designs on her precious Brother Xiao Yan. Even if he did not take her along, she would probably find a way to make her way to the Black-Corner Region herself within three days. Rather than let her go alone, he might as well pack her up and take her with him. It would save him the trouble.

"Since you've decided, go say goodbye to your father," Han Feng said to Xiao Yan.

The three of them went to the Xiao Family's main hall together. Xiao Zhan had already been waiting there, his eyes red-rimmed. Clearly, he had not slept all night.

Words of farewell were always brief and heavy.

After Xiao Zhan's repeated reminders and instructions, Han Feng did not linger any longer. With a flick of his finger, two ancient-looking scrolls landed steadily before Xiao Zhan.

"Patriarch Xiao, my Junior Brother has received the Xiao Family's care for many years. These two matching cultivation methods and Dou Skills—one low-grade Earth Rank and one high-grade Profound Rank—are a small token from my sect. They are enough to ensure the Xiao Family's survival and prosperity."

Leaving behind this generous gift, enough to shake the Jia Ma Empire, Han Feng led Xiao Yan and Xiao Xun'er away under the complicated yet reverent gazes of the Xiao Family members.

The group left Wu Tan City on foot.

On a deserted slope outside the city, Han Feng stopped. He turned, his gaze passing over Xiao Xun'er and landing on a patch of shadow not far away.

"I'm taking them with me," he said calmly.

"To the one hiding in the shadows, are you planning to go to the Black-Corner Region alone, or come with us?"

Xiao Xun'er's body stiffened slightly before she smiled bitterly and shook her head.

"As expected, nothing can be hidden from you, Senior."

She softly called to the shadows, "Elder Ling, come out."

As soon as she spoke, a black phantom silently emerged and bowed to Han Feng with utmost respect.

"This junior, Ling Ying, greets the Saint."

"Come with us." Han Feng waved a hand as though it were a trivial matter.

He said nothing more. He merely raised his right hand and lightly tore at the empty air before him.

Rip—

Space was torn open as easily as fragile cloth, revealing a pitch-black rift several yards long. Violent spatial turbulence surged within, but under the suppression of Han Feng's Dou Sheng aura, it was as docile as a house dog.

"Let's go."

He stepped in first, with Xiao Yan following close behind.

Xiao Xun'er took hold of Ling Ying, who had yet to recover from his shock, and stepped into that unknown void as well.

For Xiao Yan, traveling through the spatial passage was an experience that overturned everything he knew.

He felt no spatial pressure at all, as though he were merely walking down a flat road. Through the walls of the passage, he could see mountains and rivers flashing past outside. That speed far exceeded the full-force flight of a Dou Huang expert.

When light appeared at the end of the passage, an aura completely unlike that of the Northwest Continent rushed toward them.

When the group stepped out of the spatial rift and floated above the Black-Corner Region, Xiao Xun'er was utterly stunned by the sight before her.

This... was the legendary Black-Corner Region, where chaos and disorder reigned and bloody slaughter unfolded every day?

There was none of the cruelty and bloodshed she had imagined, nor were corpses scattered everywhere.

Before her stretched a meticulously organized land. Broad official roads connected city to city, while squads of uniformed enforcers rode flying magical beasts along fixed aerial routes, patrolling to maintain order both in the skies and on the ground.

Caravans traveled endlessly across the land. Although everyone carried a fierce aura, no one dared to casually start a fight on the main roads.

Whenever a few foolish mercenaries clashed, patrol squads would almost immediately descend from the sky, suppress them with thunderous force, and drag them into prison wagons.

The entire Black-Corner Region resembled a vast, precise, and merciless machine, operating efficiently beneath an iron-blooded order.

"How... how is this possible..."

Ling Ying muttered to himself. He had come to the Black-Corner Region before to carry out missions and knew firsthand how chaotic it had once been. The scene before him made him wonder whether he had gone to the wrong place.

Xiao Xun'er said nothing. She merely looked toward the majestic city standing at the center of the land, crouching there like an ancient beast—the Sacred City.

At last, she understood what the Ancient Clan elder's annotation meant by the Black-Corner Region's sole ruler.

This was not merely conquest. It was a complete, earth-shaking transformation!

After arriving at the Sacred City, the first thing Han Feng did was ask Xiao Yan for that ring.

"Teacher needs an absolutely quiet environment to recover. I'll take him to my meditation chamber first."

Afterward, he gave instructions to Mo Shan, who had long been waiting there.

"Mo Shan, take Junior Brother and Miss Xun'er around, help them familiarize themselves with the place, and arrange accommodations for them."

After settling everything, Han Feng held the warm ring and entered the cultivation chamber at the deepest part of the City Lord's Manor alone. It had been sealed for decades.

The chamber was completely empty.

Han Feng waved a hand and laid down a spatial barrier that isolated everything, ensuring that not even the slightest fluctuation could leak out.

He sat cross-legged and placed the ring flat in his palm. Suddenly feeling playful, he broke into a bright, childlike smile.

He took a deep breath and shouted at the ring with all his strength:

"Awaken! My teacher!!"

The moment his words fell, an illusory figure abruptly floated out of the ring, beard and hair bristling as though he had been badly startled.

"Brat! You're already this old, and you're still playing this game!"

Yao Chen's phantom floated in midair. Looking at Han Feng, he was so angry that his beard trembled and his eyes widened.

"What are you shouting for? You scared your teacher half to death!"

Seeing his teacher so full of vigor, Han Feng smiled even more happily.

He stood and walked before Yao Chen, saying naturally, "No matter how old I get, aren't I still a child before you?"

Those words—aren't I still a child—instantly dispelled all of Yao Chen's anger.

He looked at the disciple before him. Han Feng was now taller than him, his aura as deep as the sea. He had long become one of the continent's strongest experts, and Yao Chen felt countless emotions well up within him.

Yes, no matter how strong Han Feng became, he would always be the child Yao Chen had raised with his own hands since infancy.

Yao Chen smiled. His illusory figure slowly sat down in the chamber, his gaze becoming incomparably gentle.

"Sit down, Little Feng."

"Tell your teacher... how you've lived these years."

Han Feng nodded and sat down across from him.

Within the chamber, there was no longer any noise from the outside world, nor the majesty of a Dou Sheng.

There was only a disciple slowly telling his story to the teacher from whom he had been separated for over thirty years.

From the shock of learning the news after emerging from seclusion at eighteen.

To returning to Falling Star Pavilion and joining Uncle Feng in repelling Yellow Springs Pavilion and Wind-Lightning Pavilion.

Then to entering the Black-Corner Region, sweeping through all opposition with thunderous methods, and establishing the Sacred City.

He spoke calmly, as though he were telling someone else's story.

Yao Chen simply listened in silence.

At the perilous parts, his soul body would tremble slightly; at the moments of achievement, a gratified look would flash through his eyes.

Who knew how much time passed? When Han Feng finally finished his story, the chamber had fallen into a long silence.

At last, Yao Chen slowly extended his illusory hand, unable to touch anything tangible, and gently placed it on Han Feng's shoulder.

"These years..."

"You've suffered, child."