Invincible Dad

Liu Nanwei peeked over, her eyebrows arching. "Hey, is that your Senior Sister calling? Is she pretty? Does she have a good figure?"

The thought of his Senior Sister, who had lived abroad for so long and whom he hadn't seen in ages, made Zhou Feng's heart inexplicably quicken.

He glared at Liu Nanwei. "You gossip!"

Then he cleared his throat and answered the phone. "Hello, Senior Sister. I know it's our mentor's birthday today. What? You've arrived in the East Sea? I'll come pick you up right away! Why wouldn't you let me…"

Just then, the infirmary door was pushed open.

A fashionably dressed young woman with large, wavy curls stood in the doorway. She smiled. "Because I'm already here."

Zhou Feng was stunned speechless.

The woman gave Xu Lai and Liu Nanwei a friendly nod, then turned to Zhou Feng. "I'll wait for you by the door. You can help me pick out a gift for our mentor."

With that, she gently closed the door.

"GASP!" Liu Nanwei sucked in a sharp breath. "Not bad, Old Zhou. You managed to snag your Senior Sister without making a peep? That's quite a figure she has."

Zhou Feng felt a headache coming on. His Senior Sister had studied medicine, but after graduating, she chose to become an entrepreneur and start a finance company, a decision that had nearly driven their mentor mad with fury. Today was their mentor's sixtieth birthday, so she had specially flown back from abroad. He had expected some distance to have grown between them due to time and geography, but her personality was as free-spirited as ever.

Facing Liu Nanwei's teasing, Zhou Feng replied casually, "Is that so? I haven't really paid attention."

"Her chest looks quite big," Liu Nanwei said with a perfectly straight face. "You should go check it out later."

Zhou Feng was flabbergasted. I thought you were my colleague, but it turns out you want me dead!

He quickly packed his things and said apologetically, "Director Xu, I was planning to face those rumors with you at noon, but this..."

"Go on," Xu Lai said with a wave of his hand, teasing, "Your Senior Sister is quite something. You should work on making her your wife."

Zhou Feng grew even more flustered.

The sight of this pure-hearted young man's reaction brought Liu Nanwei to tears of laughter. She continued her gossiping. "Director Xu, during your university days, were there any female upperclassmen or Senior Sisters who left a deep impression on you?"

Xu Lai fell silent.

He had never attended a university. Everything he knew, from how to conduct himself as a person to how to cultivate, he had learned within a small sect known as the Heavenly Court. Besides his Master, there was a Senior Sister and two Senior Brothers.

His Senior Sister loved the snow, and she especially loved eating grapes on snowy days. She would have her Second Junior Brother tell stories and her Third Junior Brother play the qin. As for him, the youngest Junior Brother... his job was naturally to peel grapes for her.

She was the Master's daughter. Though she was the eldest of the four, she possessed none of the gentle grace of a high-born lady, nor any of the arrogance befitting a Cultivator. She often snuck into the mortal world to buy rouge, returning with the most bizarre makeup plastered on her face, and would ask them if she was beautiful. The three of them would lie through their teeth, calling her a peerless beauty of the mortal realm. During that period, what Xu Lai and his Senior Brothers feared most were thunderstorms, terrified they would be struck down by heavenly tribulation for their lies.

The downfall of the Sect Gate was brought about because a disciple from a large, nearby sect took a liking to his Senior Sister's beauty and wanted to take her as his concubine.

She naturally refused. But to ensure her father and three Junior Brothers could live, she chose to compromise. That major sect was Hehuan Valley, the most prominent sect within a ten-thousand-mile radius and home to Nascent Soul Realm Cultivators. The Heavenly Court could not afford to provoke them.

On her wedding day, heavy snow was falling.

Xu Lai peeled grapes for his Senior Sister, his Second Senior Brother told a story, and his Third Senior Brother played the qin. And she, dressed in a white bridal gown, stood before her three Junior Brothers and her father with a sweet smile. Without taking a single bite of her favorite grapes, she turned and walked nonchalantly toward the Sect Gate, leaving a trail of solitary footprints in the snow.

To this day, Xu Lai remembers her words: "There's no need to see me off."

Immediately after, Xu Lai and his two Senior Brothers charged the wedding procession, shielding their Senior Sister behind them. The hands gripping their swords, which had been trembling, grew perfectly still. Their Master, tears streaming down his aged face, threw his head back and laughed at the heavens—a laugh filled with guilt, but also with pride.

In that one battle, the Heavenly Court was annihilated.

Xu Lai, having the lowest cultivation level, was gravely wounded. He was pushed off a cliff by his Senior Sister, whose own white gown was stained as red as a wedding dress with blood. He fell into the raging river below and drifted for three hundred miles before he was miraculously saved.

When Xu Lai awoke, he was being cared for by an elderly woman. Ignoring her pleas, he returned to his sect. He found only a field of blood; the bodies of his Master, Senior Sister, and Senior Brothers were nowhere to be seen.

Clinging to a sliver of hope, he infiltrated the major sect to gather information, only to learn that their bodies had been thrown into the Mass Burial Mound, a place teeming with Corpse Vultures and starving wolves, half a month prior.

Xu Lai searched for three whole years, finding only a tattered scrap of a blood-red wedding dress, torn by Corpse Vultures. It was his Senior Sister's.

He searched for another six years.

Finally, Xu Lai gave up. He left the Mass Burial Mound and vanished into the deep forests and ancient mountains, never to be seen again.

Then, one snowy day years later, the great sect known as Hehuan Valley was exterminated. A tower of human heads was stacked ten thousand feet high.

And in the time that followed, the Heavenly Court was no longer a small sect, but the First Sect of the Universe.

Xu Lai never ate grapes again, and no woman could ever make him peel them for her. He never again met a man who stumbled through his stories, nor one who played the qin so terribly out of tune.

As these thoughts surfaced, Xu Lai's eyes began to redden. All living beings in the Immortal Domain know me as invincible throughout the ages, standing peerlessly at the end of the Immortal Path. But even after becoming an Emperor, I couldn't protect that dilapidated Sect Gate or its shattered stone tablet.

"Director Xu," Liu Nanwei said cautiously, "what's wrong? Did I say something I shouldn't have? I'm sorry, I apologize…"

"It's nothing, I was just reminiscing." Xu Lai shook his head and said softly, "I do have a Senior Sister. She was exceptionally beautiful, a true peerless beauty. And just like you, she loved telling risqué jokes."

Such a pity. His Senior Sister would never tell crude jokes again, and there would be no three blushing boys shouting about indecency, which always made her roar with laughter.

"Where is she?" Liu Nanwei asked excitedly. "If I ever get the chance, I'd love to swap stories with her!"

Xu Lai didn't answer.

His Senior Sister was dead. Not even a body remained; it had long been devoured by Corpse Vultures and starving wolves. Counting the days… their death anniversary is in a few days. It's about time I went back home. Home. For Xu Lai, that word was an immense luxury. Before coming to Earth, he only had one home: the Heavenly Court. The small Heavenly Court within the greater one. But now, he also had Mount Haitang.

"Uh…" Liu Nanwei suddenly realized something and silently cursed herself for being so talkative. She quickly changed the subject. "Director Xu, it's almost noon, isn't it? That rumor-spreader we agreed to meet at the school gate should be here by now."

"Let's go have a look."

Xu Lai stood up, stretched, and walked toward the school gate.

A large crowd of students had gathered at the entrance to Dongli University. Even though exams were over, not all students chose to go home. Many teachers from the school were there as well.

Xu Lai put a hand to his forehead. "Are people always this gossipy these days?"

Liu Nanwei pursed her lips to hide a smile. "Director Xu, you're a celebrity at our school. It's only normal that you're so popular."

Time trickled by, and soon it was twelve o'clock, but the person they had agreed to meet never arrived.

Meanwhile, at the Above the White Clouds company, a man wrapped in black robes approached the front desk. His voice was hoarse as he said, "Hello, I'm looking for Ruan Tang."