Half-Step East Wind Sky-Splitting Palm (3000, Please Follow, Please Vote)

"Wait..." Xu San immediately grew anxious. How could Zhang Chulan be taken away so easily? Wouldn't that make all their efforts go to waste?

"San, don't chase him." Xu Si suddenly called out and stopped Xu San.

"Don't chase him?" Xu San frowned, a glint of cold light appearing in his eyes. "Why?"

They had worked so hard for so long, and Bao'er had waited all these years. Were they really just going to let him go?

Xu San wouldn't let this go unless Xu Si gave him an explanation today!

Xu Si did not answer. His eyes burned with fervor as he said gravely, "Zhang Chulan was the process. Now, the result is already here."

"The result?"

Xu San froze, then seemed to realize something. He looked toward the only outsider present—Lin Xian.

At that point, only Xu San, Xu Si, Lin Xian, and Feng Baobao remained inside Nadutong.

What exactly had happened?

Xu Si took a deep breath, forced what he believed was a dazzling smile, and asked softly, "Bao'er, do you know someone named Feng Yao?"

"Feng Yao?"

Feng Baobao murmured the name. It was as though an alarm clock had been pressed, and she instantly froze. Then her face turned pale. With a thud, she collapsed onto the floor, clutching her head and crying as though she were desperately trying to remember something.

"Bao'er, Bao'er..." Feng Baobao's reaction immediately frightened Xu San. He spun around, grabbed Xu Si by the clothes, and shouted, "Who the hell is Feng Yao? Why is Bao'er like this?"

"Feng Yao may be the family member Bao'er has been searching for all these years."

Xu Si took a deep breath and looked at Lin Xian. "Senior Lin told me that Feng Yao is Feng Baobao's father. Is that true?"

"Of course it's true. What would I gain from lying to you?" Lin Xian spread his hands. "And I'm not the only one who knows. Some of the Thirty-Six Thieves from the Jia Shen Turmoil knew as well."

"Who is Feng Yao?"

"The Thirty-Six Thieves?"

The two brothers, Xu San and Xu Si, had asked entirely different questions.

Then they exchanged a glance and spoke in unison, "Why?"

"Because Feng Yao was Wugensheng's real name." Lin Xian curled his lips into a smile and revealed the answer without any concealment.

Xu San and Xu Si might never have heard the name Feng Yao before, but the name Wugensheng was thunderous in their ears. He had been Quanxing's previous leader.

The Eight Extraordinary Skills had begun with Wugensheng, and Wugensheng could not escape responsibility for the Jia Shen Turmoil either.

"This... this is impossible." Xu San stared at Feng Baobao in shock, unable to recover for a long while, until his phone ringtone jolted him awake.

If Feng Baobao was Wugensheng's daughter, then how long had she lived?

Her appearance had remained unchanged through the long years, and she still possessed the heart of a child.

This... this was terrifying!

"I knew not how many years had turned within my dreams, forgetting my dark hair and worldly thoughts. Looking back, past events surfaced once more..." Music suddenly began playing. Someone was calling.

"Hello, who is this?" Xu San instinctively raised his phone and asked in a daze. Then, in the next instant, he sprang to life. He jumped up as though performing a carp leap, his expression grave. "President Zhao... what?! You're coming here personally?"

"Even the Ten Elders and the Eight Extraordinary Skills shouldn't require you to..."

Xu Si was equally astonished upon hearing that, because the person on the other end was none other than the company's chairman, Zhao Fangxu. He possessed immense prestige, considered matters from every angle, and regarded maintaining stability in the world of outsiders as his duty. He was the true stabilizing pillar of the outsider world.

If the old Celestial Master was the strongest person in the outsider world, then President Zhao was an existence beyond comparison.

With his ultimate technique, the Half-Step East Wind Sky-Splitting Palm, Zhao Fangxu had reached the pinnacle of mastery. Before such a divine skill, Mount Wudang, Mount Longhu, and even the Ten Elders all had to bow their heads and get to work.

"The influence of the Eight Extraordinary Skills may not be that great." Lin Xian suddenly smiled, his tone faint and eerie. "But what if it is Immortality?"

"What?!"

At that moment, Xu San and Xu Si were no longer merely shocked. They felt an inexplicable chill, an instinctive rejection of the unknown. The Eight Extraordinary Skills were still within human understanding, but what the hell was immortality?

Countless kings, nobles, and generals had sought immortality without success, yet it had appeared in Bao'er.

How was that possible?!

Xu San instinctively hung up, wanting to prevent any information from leaking out. Yet an aged voice still came from the other end.

"Don't hang up. I'm an outsider too. I can hear you."

"President Zhao, let me explain." Xu San's hands trembled as he forcibly suppressed his fear. "Things aren't what you think..."

This was immortality.

Compared to it, the Eight Extraordinary Skills were less than shit.

Unexpectedly, President Zhao cursed from the other end, "You two bastards, stop trying to hide it. I knew a long time ago."

Xu San and Xu Si were stunned in an instant. A long time ago? How long ago?

So everyone knew except the two of them. They were the only clowns.

"Back when Old Xu first joined the company, I knew something was wrong." Zhao Fangxu's aged voice echoed throughout the room. "But the company's goal was to maintain stability, not investigate the truth. So I allowed Old Xu to keep dragging it out."

"Now, it seems he can't drag it out any longer."

"If it can't be dragged out any longer, then solve it all at once." Lin Xian suddenly spoke, smiling. "President Zhao, let's meet somewhere."

Zhao Fangxu fell silent for a moment before slowly asking, "What solution do you have?"

"Let immortals return to immortals, and dust return to dust." Lin Xian said calmly. "Let those who should come, come. Let those who should leave, leave."

"Good." After a long while, Zhao Fangxu delivered that single word heavily. Before hanging up, the faint sound of helicopter rotors could be heard from the other side.

Xu San and Xu Si looked at each other, their expressions complicated as they could not help but sigh.

Bao'er was like this, and so was that old monster—his appearance had never aged either. What had happened to this world?

It had suddenly become something they no longer recognized.

Wasn't this supposed to be a world of superpowers? How had it suddenly switched to an immortal cultivation channel?

"Immortality is difficult. Knocking upon Heaven's Gate, ages pass in haste without sight of immortals; ruthless years temper the Dao Heart."

Lin Xian slowly stepped forward and touched Feng Baobao's head, helping regulate her breathing. Then he looked into her eyes, their divine radiance hidden within, and could not help asking and answering himself, "You possess a pearl, long locked away by worldly toil. When will the dust be gone and its light emerge, illuminating the myriad flowers of mountains and rivers?"

On the path to immortality, what was most precious? Immortal artifacts, immortal bodies, immortal power, immortal souls? No. It was a brilliant immortal heart.

How many supreme beings had allowed their Dao Hearts to gather dust because the road ahead was uncertain, only to fall upon the road to immortality?

Before the gate to immortality lay a sacrificial ground!

One slash of self-severance did not merely cut away one's realm, cultivation, and Heavenly Heart Imprint. It also carved a slash into one's own Dao Heart, a denial of one's first lifetime.

Only with an immortal heart could one avoid falling into darkness and cross the Sea of Bitterness of mortal existence.

Feng Baobao was such a miraculous existence. Having passed through the boundless mortal world, her immortal heart had remained unchanged.

In Lin Xian's eyes, Demon Emperor Little Pine, who possessed a heart as pure as a child's, was like a lesser version of Xiao Nannan. Her Dao Fruit was extraordinary.

The immortal road was long, and the Dao path was endless. Romance between men and women was but fleeting. In the blink of an eye, flourishing flowers became nothingness, leaving only a handful of yellow earth. When one looked back again, people and things had long changed beyond recognition.

That was why Lin Xian was unwilling to form bonds lightly.

Only those who lived forever could support one another on the Great Dao, bear witness to the changes of time, and temper their immortal hearts together.

Those of like mind were true comrades. Those faithful unto death were Dao companions.

"Dao friend, wake up." Lin Xian gave a soft shout. His eyes, as clear as an infant's, met those pupils with divine radiance hidden within, striking directly at the depths of her soul and sensing that trace of sorrow.

With the soothing of the Qi-State Origin-Flow, Feng Baobao regained her mobility and slowly raised her head. Yet her face was filled with confusion and unease.

Where had she come from? The question that had troubled her for so long had now been answered. Her father was Feng Yao.

Then there were still two questions left.

"Who am I? Where am I going?"

Feng Baobao voiced a philosophical question that struck directly at the soul. Everyone had a place of origin, as well as a place to return to. Names were given by one's parents.

"Bao'er, you are Feng Baobao!" Xu San and Xu Si said anxiously, their eyes filled with worry.

"I am Feng Baobao. I am Awu..." Feng Baobao said instinctively. She paused, then said, "I want to find my memories. I want to find my family."

"You've already found them."

Lin Xian spoke softly. "Feng Yao is your father. You were born to Wugensheng. This is where you came from."

"But... but I can't remember..." Feng Baobao lifted her head. Tears glimmered in her grape-like eyes, filled with pain. She could not remember who Feng Yao was, nor who Wugensheng was.

"Then who do you still remember?" Lin Xian asked.

"Gou Wa... Gou Wazi." Feng Baobao wept, carrying a sorrow she could not put into words.

Her soul was like a bright mirror, unstained by the mortal world and pure beyond flaw. That was why she could approach immortality.

Only a rare few could leave their reflections upon that bright mirror and be remembered by her.

She could not remember Xu Xiang, Nadutong's former head of the North China Region, yet she remembered Gou Wazi.

"Then go see Gou Wazi one last time." Lin Xian touched Feng Baobao's head, then pulled her weak body to her feet. The otherworldly twelve-year-old boy supported the woman in white as they walked out through the door toward the rosy light.

Divine Runes flashed, and the River Chart unfurled. The golden-and-silver Immortal Bridge crossed through the void, gleaming with the radiance of sun and moon. It stretched all the way beneath their feet. Standing hand in hand beneath its halo, they resembled a pair of golden boy and jade maiden, immortals among mortals.

The immortal hummed a little tune as he stepped onto the Immortal Bridge, chanting as he strolled, "The world knows well that immortals are good, yet none can forget fame and rank. Where are the generals and ministers of old? A mound of grass-covered graves is all that remains."

"The world knows well that immortals are good, yet none can forget gold and silver. They lament each day that they have too little, but when they have much, their eyes close."

"The world knows well that immortals are good, yet none can forget lovely wives. While you live, she speaks daily of devotion; once you die, she follows another."

"The world knows well that immortals are good, yet none can forget children and grandchildren. Devoted parents have existed since ancient times, but where are the filial children and grandchildren?"

"The world knows well that immortals are good, yet none can forget family and friends. Today's gatherings and partings are all dreams; beneath the setting sun, only waters flow eastward."

"The world knows well that immortals are good, yet none can forget anger and obsession. Wine, lust, wealth, and pride are four walls, and everyone hides within them."

"The world knows well that immortals are good, yet none can forget intellect and wisdom. Cultivating only ancestral nature and not the elixir, yin spirits can never enter sainthood through endless kalpas."

"The world knows well that immortals are good, yet none can forget the fleshly shell. Like one who views a face without a precious mirror, he may live as long as heaven and earth, yet remain a fool."

"The world knows well that immortals are good, yet none can forget inheritance. Four hundred and eighty temples of the Southern Dynasties—when the song of the jade tree ended, royal fortune faded away."

"..."