Moreover, fearing Bai Xi wouldn’t believe him, he explained several more times in a row.
Although Bai Xi still didn’t quite believe it, she immediately turned her gaze toward Bai Yue.
Whether it was true or false, Bai Yue would naturally be able to tell.
Even though Bai Yue still couldn’t speak, she understood Bai Xi’s meaning in an instant—Long Xingyu was telling the truth. He really was her father.
A wave of powerlessness washed over her. Bai Xi felt as if all her strength had been drained away in that moment. The Spirit Furnace and sword vanished simultaneously, and the red light in her eyes faded.
“Xi Xi!”
“Bai Xi!”
Three anxious voices overlapped. Bai Yue, now freed from the Restriction by Long Xingyu, rushed forward instantly and pulled Bai Xi into her arms.
“Mom, I’m so sleepy…”
Bai Xi also hugged Bai Yue tightly, as if only this could give her a sense of security.
“Mom’s here. Be good, Xi Xi. Try to stay awake a little longer, okay?”
Bai Yue coaxed Bai Xi softly, gripping her ice-cold hands—chilled from overexertion—tightly, worried something might happen if she fell asleep.
But Bai Xi still drifted off, her body still emitting a faint, eerie red glow.
“Long Xingyu, look at what you’ve done! Xi Xi is your daughter. She’s been frail and sickly since she was little. How could you test her like this?”
Bai Yue glared at Long Xingyu, wishing she could hit him a few times to vent her anger.
As for Long Haochen, he was completely bewildered by this series of sudden changes. The only thing on his mind now was Bai Xi’s safety.
“Mom, why are Xi Xi’s hands sometimes cold and sometimes burning hot? Will something happen to her?”
Long Haochen was so anxious he was on the verge of tears.
“Let me take a look.”
Driven by a desire to make amends, Long Xingyu also squeezed forward, forcefully inserting himself into the circle of this family of three.
Although both Bai Yue and Long Haochen were angry, this seemed like the best option, so they reluctantly made room for him to examine Bai Xi.
Long Xingyu, who had originally intended to use this opportunity to gather more information, frowned instead.
Inside Bai Xi’s body, there seemed to be a force resisting his probing.
He could gather very little useful information: “Her body is extremely weak right now—so weak it can’t support the power she possesses. That’s why this is happening.”
“It’s nothing serious. I’ll prepare some medicine later to help her recuperate.”
This statement was meant to reassure Bai Yue.
Bai Xi’s current condition was like a shattered clay jar trying to hold an entire lake’s worth of water—it was actually quite dangerous.
“Haochen, what happened to you two yesterday? Why does her body seem as if she’s just recovered from a serious illness?”
It was as if she had been saved from the brink of death with some miraculous elixir. Though she appeared uninjured on the surface, a pulse diagnosis could still detect it.
Of course, with Bai Yue present, Long Xingyu didn’t dare say this out loud.
After all, just last night, he had confidently claimed that nothing would happen to the two siblings.
“We went through quite a lot yesterday.”
Long Haochen, afraid that hiding the truth might affect Long Xingyu’s ability to save Bai Xi, didn’t dare withhold anything. He quickly recounted everything they had experienced the day before.
“But as for what happened to Xi Xi after she fell into the lake, I don’t know. I searched the lake for a long time and couldn’t find her at all. It was like she suddenly vanished and then suddenly reappeared.”
Hearing Long Haochen’s explanation, Bai Yue’s heart ached again, and she began to cry.
Meanwhile, Long Xingyu felt somewhat embarrassed. He truly hadn’t expected that an ordinary mission would lead to so many complications.
After Long Xingyu prepared some medicine, Bai Xi’s condition improved slightly, and she regained consciousness.
Only then did they finally calm down enough to have a proper conversation.
“Mom, is he… really…?”
After what had just happened, Long Haochen found it difficult to utter that title.
But he also knew these matters had to be clarified sooner or later, and it was better for him to ask.
“That’s right, he is your heartless father. To have used such heavy-handed methods against you—how much Spiritual Power do you and Xi Xi have, and how much does he have? He clearly had no sense of proportion.”
Bai Yue’s voice carried a note of complaint, yet she still acknowledged Long Xingyu’s identity.
Long Xingyu smiled bitterly. “I just wanted to test whether they could remain calm at all times during battle, and to see what level Bai Xi, who has always kept her abilities hidden, truly possesses.”
“I didn’t expect them to be so stubborn, refusing to admit defeat or yield even when giving their all.”
“You say they’re stubborn? The most stubborn one is you. They take after you.”
Bai Yue was still shaken by what had happened, so her words to Long Xingyu were tinged with anger.
But when she turned to the two children, her tone softened.
“I’m sorry, Chen Chen, Xi Xi. Mom never told you. A year ago, on the second day Xi Xi also went up Odin Mountain, your father found me. But he was worried that after reuniting, he wouldn’t have the heart to train you strictly, so he asked me to help him keep his return a secret.”
Long Haochen quickly accepted Bai Yue’s explanation. He had never been one to assume the worst in others.
But as for Bai Xi—forgive her for only trusting Bai Yue and not Long Xingyu.
Long Xingyu’s hostility toward her was real. She probably wasn’t the child Long Xingyu had hoped for, and he hadn’t intended to acknowledge them, which was why he kept it hidden.
So she still held to her own view: Long Xingyu was a scumbag father!
“Then why did you separate? I heard Mom gave birth to us in Odin Town, meaning you were already apart while she was pregnant with us.”
Bai Xi asked what concerned her: whether Long Xingyu had truly abandoned his wife and children.
Hearing this question, a pained look flashed in Bai Yue’s eyes, and her explanation was vague.
She only said she had encountered something that caused her great pain, something too painful to look back on. It made her unsure how to face Long Xingyu, and she couldn’t accept it, so she left on her own. It was all her fault.
“Something that caused great pain?”
Bai Xi pondered these words in her heart. She could see that when Bai Yue mentioned this, Long Xingyu’s complex gaze held a faint trace of hatred.
Ten years ago, before they were born, something significant must have happened.
Bai Xi wanted to get to the bottom of it, but Bai Yue clearly didn’t wish to say more. Pressing further felt like it might trigger a relapse of her depression, so Bai Xi didn’t dare ask again.
“It’s fine. I’ll find out eventually.”
“It’s just solving a mystery, isn’t it? I have plenty of time to unravel it slowly.”
Making this solemn vow to herself, Bai Xi ignored Long Xingyu’s gaze, which remained fixed on her.
What a difficult person—wanting to ask but never doing so. Was he waiting for her to speak up voluntarily? It wasn’t as if she was a mind reader who knew what he wanted to ask.
“Bai Xi, who awakened your Internal Spiritual Power? What is your Magic Attribute? How did you obtain your Spirit Furnace? Has your Spiritual Power reached two hundred?”
It took quite a while before Long Xingyu finally asked these questions, though his string of inquiries came out rather stiffly, almost as if he were interrogating a prisoner.