Long Xingyu felt speechless, but he could only painstakingly maintain a balance—neither harming himself nor injuring Bai Xi—as he parried her furious sword strike.
Hurting himself would be humiliating.
Hurting Bai Xi would mean losing his wife.
He had finally found his wife after so much effort; he couldn’t afford to lose her now.
At this moment, Long Xingyu was only thinking about avoiding humiliation and losing his wife.
It wasn’t until much, much later that he felt grateful he hadn’t lost his son and daughter today.
If he had truly harmed Bai Xi, not only would he lose his wife, but his precious children would also despise him.
“You are powerful, but I will grow stronger too.”
After still failing to injure Long Xingyu, Bai Xi realized the insurmountable gap between them and spoke coldly.
Having used the Spirit Furnace to unleash her furious sword strike, Bai Xi had already reached her limit.
She knew deep down that Long Xingyu had no intention of harming them; otherwise, given his strength, they would have been dead long ago.
But the way Long Xingyu looked at her made her deeply uncomfortable.
Moreover, the fury in her heart was still raging, and her fighting spirit hadn’t diminished in the slightest.
Add to that Bai Yue’s tearful glare at Long Xingyu and Long Haochen, who had collapsed behind her from exhaustion.
Bai Xi simply couldn’t let go.
Furthermore, she was like a tightly drawn bowstring; if she released it abruptly, she would only hurt herself.
There was no choice but to risk everything.
With a cold glint in her eyes, Bai Xi made up her mind and cut her own wrist with her sword.
She would rely on the Spirit Furnace to fight to the death.
“Xi Xi!”
Long Haochen shouted. Despite having no strength left to even speak, the sight of Bai Xi injuring herself stirred him so much that he found the energy to rush forward, trying to stop her.
But not only Long Haochen—even Long Xingyu was shocked by Bai Xi’s move.
“Bai Xi!”
He immediately tried to stop her and heal her wounds, but something unexpected happened.
Bai Xi’s blood had already dripped onto the Spirit Furnace, and a crimson light burst forth, instantly repelling Long Xingyu’s power.
“How is this possible? What kind of Spirit Furnace is this? To possess such immense power.”
Long Xingyu muttered in disbelief, unable to accept that he couldn’t even get close!
Who was he?
He was a man standing at the pinnacle of this continent!
The crimson light repelled everything that approached, though it was far more brutal toward Long Xingyu, while it was gentle and affectionate toward Long Haochen.
When the red light enveloped Long Haochen, he felt as if the energy he had expended in the earlier fierce battle was instantly restored to its peak, and his courage to fight was reignited.
But Bai Xi didn’t let him act. She used the same method to restrain Long Haochen, a technique strikingly similar to how Long Xingyu had restrained Bai Yue.
“He is powerful. If you go up, you’ll only be cannon fodder.”
Bai Xi spoke, her voice completely transformed.
The soft, sweet tone from before had now turned icy and devoid of emotion, as if she had become a different person.
“Though I can’t defeat him either, I want to try.”
As she spoke, Bai Xi smeared the still-wet blood from her hand onto her light sword, and the originally clear, white blade grew even redder.
Long Xingyu, who had driven Bai Xi to injure herself, frowned deeply, his expression tense enough to crush a fly.
“She really doesn’t seem like my child. My child could never be this powerful.”
“But she can’t die by my hand either. Yue would hate me.”
“For Yue’s sake, I think I can try to learn what it means to love the crow for the sake of the nest.”
Long Xingyu thought to himself, meeting Bai Xi’s sharp sword with a gentle approach and speaking up to soothe her.
“Bai Xi, calm down. I have no intention of harming you. I just wanted to take this opportunity to test the results of your training over the past year. I never meant to hurt you, so there’s no need to fight so desperately.”
His explanation was well-put, but Bai Xi already knew all of this.
The reason she had persisted until now was entirely due to the look of disgust that Long Xingyu had inadvertently revealed.
Long Xingyu simply had no intention of killing her with his own hands—it certainly didn’t mean he had no intention of harming her.
Of course, Bai Yue’s tearful and furious glare at Long Xingyu was also enough to easily mislead Bai Xi.
“We’ve been fighting for so long, and now you say you never meant to harm us? Who would believe that?”
At the very least, Bai Xi, the Vermilion Bird who lent her strength, and Long Haochen, who couldn’t speak, didn’t believe it.
To have pushed Bai Xi to this point and only now claim no ill intent—what took him so long?
Moreover, even if Long Xingyu truly had no ill intent and only meant to test them, his methods had gone too far. After all, he was the one in control. He could have stopped long ago and had the means to do so, but he simply chose not to.
Bai Xi still held too little weight in his heart.
He could accept Bai Yue, and he could even accept Long Haochen, but the moment he saw Bai Xi’s face, he would think of that man and simply couldn’t bring himself to accept her.
“If I wanted to harm you, you wouldn’t even withstand a single move from me. Whether you believe it or not, that’s the truth.”
Long Xingyu kept explaining, yet he automatically avoided the two simplest solutions.
First, release Bai Yue from her silenced state and let her explain and intervene.
Second, reveal the true relationship between himself and Bai Yue.
But he chose neither of these. In Bai Xi’s eyes, without the benefit of an omniscient perspective, this could only mean he had something to hide.
“Who knows what goes on in the minds of you powerful ones? Judging by the attitude of the Hall Master Nalan and your current composed demeanor, you must at least be an Eighth Rank Knight.”
“To come to a small place like ours and teach mere Squire Knights—who would believe there’s nothing suspicious about that?”
“But no matter what your intentions are, I absolutely will not allow you to harm my family or destroy my home.”
The earth-shattering sword, forged from the fusion of three powers, had finished gathering its strength.
“Phoenix Cries Blood.”
A Phoenix only cries blood when on the verge of death, unleashing its strongest attack.
This move did not produce any spectacular display. All that appeared with Bai Xi’s sword was a single drop of blood.
Yet within that drop of blood lay astonishing power.
In Long Xingyu’s eyes, this seemingly insignificant drop of blood could even kill a Fifth-rank Professional.
And the one who executed this move was a ten-year-old child.
Long Xingyu wasn’t belittling himself—he truly didn’t believe he could father such a talented child. This definitely wasn’t his bloodline. Bai Yue must have lied to him, claiming the child was his.
But he also couldn’t let go of Bai Yue, and with proper nurturing, both children could become elites of the Alliance. For the greater good, it seemed he had no choice but to reluctantly acknowledge them as his own and bear the shame of being cuckolded.
Thinking this, Long Xingyu finally came to his senses. As he blocked the Phoenix Cries Blood, he immediately revealed his identity.
“Enough. I am your father. We are family, not enemies.”
“Yue is my lawfully wedded wife. My surname is Long, and Long Haochen takes my surname. You are my children.”
“You also said that I am at least an Eighth Rank Professional. If you were not my children, how could I tolerate such provocation from you.”
Only when Long Xingyu had nearly exhausted Bai Xi did he finally speak, acknowledging his identity.