Hearing Ning Suyi’s question, Yu Chengyan remained silent for a long moment.
If he weren’t a cultivator but an ordinary person, his face would probably be burning red with embarrassment.
“I—I am a proper sword cultivator!” Yu Chengyan stammered, his words faltering. “How could I possibly… do that kind of thing… I don’t have a daughter!”
It was the first time Ning Suyi had seen him so flustered and incoherent. He looked like a boy again, which made her smile slightly.
“You don’t have one, so you don’t. Why the fuss?” Ning Suyi said slowly, “If she isn’t your daughter, she isn’t. I was just asking casually.”
Yu Chengyan glared at her. The instant she said that audacious thing, he felt sweat run down the back of his neck.
If Ning Suyi weren’t his godmother, he really might have… But she was, and in the piercing gaze of the girl, he couldn’t help recalling the fear he felt as a child under her and Yu Wei’s rule.
Later, Ning Suyi had a partner, yet she devoted herself fully to her family affairs and bore no children. Instead, she liked to find Yu Wei to tease the young Yu Chengyan. Over time, he deeply remembered that a frightening aunt had been his godmother, and that his mother and godmother were on the same side.
Yu Chengyan didn’t dare to scold her. He glared a while, his Adam’s apple moving, then turned his head away.
“…Can you just say whatever?” he mumbled quietly, sounding a bit aggrieved.
Ning Suyi really couldn’t understand this youth. Sometimes he appeared cold and courteous, measured in every move. Other times, he seemed young, like someone her own age.
Perhaps that is how reclusive cultivators are, distant from the world yet still carrying the innocence of youth.
Ning Suyi laughed softly. “Alright, I know you’re a chaste, upright man. Can you stop joking like that? So what do you think your relationship is, siblings? Uncle and niece? Looking at you, you two do look a bit alike…”
“I’m her son,” Yu Chengyan said irritably.
Ning Suyi assumed he was still sulking and didn’t believe him, but she didn’t rush to uncover the truth. She thought it plausible, they truly had a blood connection, and any chance relation made sense.
When there was time, a blood test could confirm it. How they were related, or whether there were other relatives, would be their private matter.
Ning Suyi had never planned to stay long at Xuantian Immortal Sect. She had come to the outer gate to lie low, not expecting to meet the little cat.
She had been torn over what to do with Yu Wei upon leaving. Taking her along was impractical and unsafe, but leaving her alone was worrisome.
If the youth was the girl’s relative, that was good news. He had a good personality, skillful hands, and strong abilities—someone worthy of her trust.
Yu Chengyan had no idea he had Ning Suyi’s approval. When she said, “In short, you two can’t continue like this. You need to find a way to reconcile,” he felt his mood, just improved by her earlier intervention, sink again.
“And what about her training?” he asked quietly. “To make Yu Wei obedient, she must feel respect—or fear. If we reconcile, I won’t be able to control her temper…”
For a long moment, both were silent.
Finally, Ning Suyi said seriously, “I’ll talk to her first. Wait for my news.”
By afternoon, the heavy rain had stopped, and the sky began to clear.
Though the rain ceased, the air remained damp, the smell of rain lingering.
When Ning Suyi returned to the dorm to fetch Yu Wei, the girl was in good spirits, only to hear she was to go to the stream. The little cat immediately covered her head with the quilt, pretending to play dead.
Hating the rain and someone she didn’t like, she refused to go outside.
Ning Suyi sat beside her, sighing softly. “Yu Wei, do you really dislike Ling Xiao?”
The quilt shifted, and a muffled voice replied, “He took my things and was cold. I don’t like him anymore.”
“But you know, deep down, he had no choice,” Ning Suyi said gently. “His task is to train you. He has taken care of you for a month, preparing delicious food daily, yet you avoid training with every excuse… That puts Ling Xiao in a difficult position.”
The little cat remained silent for a moment, then wriggled out of the quilt, looking slightly aggrieved.
“But he can’t be so mean to me,” she said.
“Would you have trained obediently yesterday if he hadn’t been so strict?” Ning Suyi asked.
The girl’s long, thick eyelashes fluttered. She opened her mouth, paused, then pursed her lips in discontent.
Ning Suyi had hit the mark. If Yu Chengyan hadn’t flipped yesterday, she certainly wouldn’t have trained.
He was so easygoing that Yu Wei always felt fully accepted by him. No matter what happened, he would indulge her.
This unconditional care was entirely different from anything she had experienced.
Ning Suyi also cared for her, but there were limits—guidance, discipline, expectations. Yu Chengyan’s indulgence was boundless, like an ocean without end, without conditions.
Yu Wei, guided mostly by instinct, sensed this difference immediately and began to test his limits. When he retreated a step, she advanced three.
He gave her immense security. Around him, she forgot the rules of Xuantian Immortal Sect, teasing him for a month without training even a single day.
Thus, when Yu Chengyan turned cold, she felt betrayal multiplied.
With Ning Suyi’s reminder, she realized he had a mission…
Seeing the girl’s clear eyes darting as if deep in thought, Ning Suyi sighed. “It’s not that Ling Xiao wants to be harsh. He has no choice. Xuantian Sect sent him to train you. If you disobey, he cannot complete his task. Have you considered that the sect might punish him?”
Her words were a bluff, shifting the conflict upward to the sect. She knew Yu Wei, wild yet protective. Previously, when an instructor tried to hit Ning Suyi, Yu Wei reacted strongly.
Sure enough, upon hearing the sect might punish the youth, her eyes widened.
“Why would the sect care about my training?” she asked in confusion. “Is that in the rules?”
Seeing Yu Wei taking the bait, Ning Suyi cleared her throat and said seriously, “I don’t know, but Xiao Wei, would you let Ling Xiao be punished?”
“Of course not!” Yu Wei immediately replied, though a bit downcast. “But… I really don’t want to train.”
“I know you don’t like it,” Ning Suyi said, stroking the girl’s black hair, “but just think of it as doing it for Ling Xiao, alright?”
The little cat hesitated, then finally nodded weakly.
She flopped back onto her pillow, thinking gloomily how strange the sect was. Were these really rules?
Damn Xie Jianbai, why write so many sect rules!