He Miaojun felt a sudden urge to beat her son.
However little she understood of cultivating immortality, she knew that her son's rate of progress was utterly absurd.
"Mother, how did you know I nearly broke through to the True Intent realm?" Lianshan Xin asked, puzzled.
"Your father told me."
"Father, you're that incredible?"
Lianshan Xin looked at his father with renewed awe.
Lianshan Jingcheng sighed in resignation. "Medicine relies on observation, auscultation, interrogation, and pulse palpation. How many times must I tell you? I am at least a well-known physician in Jiangzhou and have treated countless martial artists. Would I lack even that much discernment?"
"Looking at it that way, the divine doctor who saved your life back then must be even more remarkable than I thought."
Lianshan Xin grew thoughtful. "Father, I will look into that divine doctor. If we truly find our benefactor, we must express our gratitude generously."
Hearing him say this, He Miaojun nodded in agreement. "Indeed, we must reward him handsomely. A life-saving grace can never be repaid enough."
Lianshan Jingcheng shook his head. "The realm of a divine doctor is beyond our imagination. Back then, he cared nothing for fame or fortune. Over his lifetime, who knows how many patients like me he has saved? He won't care for our gratitude; otherwise, he wouldn't have departed without even leaving a name. That is the true bearing of an expert who does good deeds without seeking reward."
"Father, whether the divine doctor cares is his business. We cannot think that way ourselves."
He Miaojun sided with her son. "Little Xin is right. If not for that divine doctor, our family wouldn't exist today."
"Very well. Little Xin, use Nine Heavens to investigate, then."
Lianshan Jingcheng certainly had no reason to object.
"Little Xin, is your body all right?" Lianshan Jingcheng steered the topic back to his son.
"Huh? What could be wrong with my body?" Lianshan Xin was surprised.
Lianshan Jingcheng furrowed his brow. "Your cultivation broke through far too quickly. Just yesterday you were merely a martial artist of the Body Tempering realm, yet today you nearly stepped into the True Intent realm. Other martial artists at the peak of Qi Condensation arrived there through countless trials and relentless tempering. Can you adapt in a single day? Cultivation that is not earned through painstaking effort is inherently inferior, and problems easily develop in one's foundation."
Lianshan Jingcheng possessed solid medical expertise and vast experience treating martial artists. His words were entirely sound, and He Miaojun nodded repeatedly.
Yet Lianshan Xin didn't care in the slightest.
"The Qi Condensation Pill I took was concocted personally by the Celestial Master, and I had the assistance of an absolute prodigy like Tanhua Qi. Ordinary martial artists rely on their own practice—how could they possibly compare to me? It's their foundations that are unstable."
Lianshan Jingcheng pointed at Lianshan Xin, at a complete loss for words.
He Miaojun also wore a strange expression, rendered speechless.
Both felt that Lianshan Xin was spouting pure nonsense.
Yet woven into that nonsense was a shred of logic that left them unable to refute him.
As one of the Nine Heavens and the realm's most renowned grandmaster of alchemy, the Celestial Master's reputation was indeed towering.
"Father, Mother, you are ordinary mortals. You don't understand cultivating immortality at all."
Lianshan Xin said solemnly, "I am the definitive standard for cultivating immortality. No one understands cultivating immortality better than me."
"Get out of here."
Lianshan Jingcheng could bear to listen no longer.
He Miaojun, finding words inadequate, deserted her son's side and joined her husband. "Little Xin, you... go to the academy and review your books."
Distance lends enchantment, but familiarity breeds contempt.
He Miaojun suddenly realized that sending her son away to study wasn't necessarily a bad thing after all.
Lianshan Xin made no haste to leave.
"There is one more matter I need to report to you both." Sincerity and filial piety were Lianshan Xin's foremost virtues. "Master Dai and Dai Yueying have also been verified as Demon Cult fiends lurking in Jiangzhou City. They have now committed suicide to escape punishment."
"What?!" both parents exclaimed at once.
He Miaojun and Lianshan Jingcheng felt as if they had experienced more shocks over the past two days than in the preceding half of their lives.
"Master Dai was also from the Demon Cult?"
"Dai Yueying too?"
"Little Xin, you didn't frame them, did you?"
"Are there really that many Demon Cult fiends in Jiangzhou?"
Their reactions matched Lianshan Xin's expectations.
"I was shocked at first as well. I never imagined so many Demon Cult fiends were hiding in Jiangzhou City, and most of all, right by our side. Once their identities were confirmed, even I broke out in a cold sweat. Mother, please don't hit me, but for a moment I even began to suspect you were the Demon Cult Leader."
Before his parents, Lianshan Xin rarely concealed anything. He believed his conduct was upright and open, with nothing that could not be shared with them.
Of course, killing a princess was a bit too taxing on their hearts, so he kept that tucked away for now.
He Miaojun was rendered speechless once more. "...If I were the Demon Cult Leader, Little Xin, how could you possibly have grown up in this medical hall?"
"True enough. It was only because the Demon Cult Leader needs a Thousand-Year Snow Lotus to heal injuries, and you need one as well. Combined with having so many cult fiends around us, my thoughts ran wild for a moment," Lianshan Xin admitted frankly.
Lianshan Jingcheng scoffed. "Across this realm, who knows how many critically ill souls need a Thousand-Year Snow Lotus for treatment? It's just that the world only knows of the Demon Cult Leader and the Crown Prince. Who cares about the life and death of ordinary commoners?"
Lianshan Xin nodded slightly. "Father speaks the truth."
This was an accurate view of history from the perspective of the common people.
Reading historical records, people always lamented the tragic ends of emperors, generals, scholars, and beauties. Yet they forgot that in every era, the most tragic common folk never even left their names upon the page.
"In any case, the evidence proving the Dai father and daughter were Demon Cult fiends is ironclad. Just keep it in mind. Father, Mother, because I joined Nine Heavens, our household will likely be targeted by the Demon Cult in the future. However, Nine Heavens possesses immense power, and the Demon Cult won't dare touch you, so there's no need to worry excessively. Just exercise a bit more vigilance toward visiting friends and patients. The number of Demon Cult fiends in Jiangzhou City... is indeed somewhat excessive."
Nine Heavens held intelligence on the families of numerous Demon Cult high-ranking figures. With such strategic deterrence in hand, Lianshan Xin was not worried about his parents' safety.
Even so, he refused to keep them in the dark.
He had a mouth, so why hide things under the guise of protecting them?
He Miaojun and Lianshan Jingcheng quietly processed this monumental news.
"Little Xin, if our safety is assured, what about you?" He Miaojun asked with concern.
Lianshan Xin remained candid. "Mother, wealth and glory must be sought amidst danger, as you well know. If I spoke pretty words, you wouldn't believe them anyway. But there's no need to worry too much. I cultivate immortality, and I am exceptionally gifted at it. Cultivating immortality is something you don't understand; all you need to know is that your son will soar to the heavens before long. Ordinary Demon Cult disciples are no match for me at all."
Gifted once again with the verdict that she "did not understand cultivating immortality," He Miaojun reached her absolute limit. "Scram, right this instant!"
Lianshan Xin strutted off proudly.
Yet the moment he stepped outside the main gate of Huichun Hall, his footsteps halted.
He saw someone.
An acquaintance who had hung over their family's heads like a dark cloud for over a decade.
Chapter 38