Chapter 16: Old Codger, I Really Will Thank You

“Master, master, come, come, look at this.” Bai Qianzhou suddenly stood up, took a few steps forward, and with a wave of his hand, a golden barrier appeared. “A barrier.”

“It’s the very barrier you set to trap me. Sixteen years, master, I haven’t stepped outside even once. I hid in my senior brother’s suitcase, he went out, but I was pulled back by the barrier. And now you say I can leave the mountain? Are you kidding me?”

Back then, Bai Qianzhou was still a child; from the moment he could remember, he had never left. Naturally, he longed for the outside world. When senior brother came back to visit the old man, he took the chance to hide in senior brother’s suitcase. But while senior brother went out, the suitcase and he were both sent back by the barrier.

Bai Qianzhou was so furious he cried out loud. It was only after senior brother repeatedly promised that he would bring delicious food and fun things to see him that he was comforted.

From that moment on, Bai Qianzhou decided never to leave the mountain again. He would completely give up and enjoy the life of a salted fish here.

Though unlucky, at least his life remained. When the time came that he had lived enough, he could just charge into the barrier and be done with it.

“Ah, Qianzhou, your master doesn’t want to trap you here either. You must understand my intentions. You have been so unlucky even within a barrier that conceals the heavenly way. If you went out, how much worse would your misfortune be? Now that you have the strength to protect yourself, naturally, you may leave the mountain.”

Xuan Yu’s expression was as serious as could be. Bai Qianzhou was silent for a moment. “Are you sure I can really leave the mountain now?”

“Of course I’m sure. But remember, this time you leave the mountain with a heavy responsibility.”

“A heavy responsibility? What responsibility? Can I refuse?” Bai Qianzhou rolled his eyes, thinking to himself that sure enough, his master wouldn’t be so kind as to let him leave easily.

“You cannot refuse. You must reclaim your rightful fortune and destiny to survive, and also save your family.”

“Save my family? Old geezer, I really should thank you. They abandoned me in the wilderness when I was just born, left me to fend for myself. I only survived because you appeared in time to save me. Now you want me to save them? Dream on!”

Upon hearing Xuan Yu say he wanted her to save her family, Bai Qianzhou instantly bristled, her gaze seeming to blaze with anger.

Xuan Yu felt as if, were he not her master, she would have sent him away forever, never to return.

“Qianzhou, have you forgotten? Besides that black-hearted father, you still have a biological mother.” Xuan Yu looked at the resistant Bai Qianzhou helplessly, a wave of melancholy rising in his heart.

“Biological mother?” Bai Qianzhou forced himself to calm down. He had nearly forgotten he even had a biological mother.

He counted his fate as nothing, having never seen her, and so knew nothing of her situation over the years.

“Sigh, your destiny and fortune were stolen from you. Over all these years, misfortune has followed you like a shadow. Some truths I dare not tell you fully, fearing you would run off for revenge.

When I retrieved you, I cast a divination. You were stolen right after birth by that scoundrel father and his mistress.

It turns out, they intended to steal your destiny and fortune to boost the luck of their illegitimate daughter.

You were mercilessly abandoned in the wilderness, while that scoundrel father lied to your biological mother, saying you had been kidnapped. Furious, she divorced him.

Though she has a new family now, her maternal love remains undiminished. She continues to search tirelessly for you, aided by her new relatives.

But her health is failing; her days are numbered. The family you must save is your mother and her kin—they are people of great virtue, yet have been framed by malicious villains.”

As Xuan Yu droned on, Bai Qianzhou was like a tranquil lake—silent and still, turmoil stirring within but unwilling to voice it.