Trembling At A High Altitude

"Yingying isn't being good? If Yingying is good, mom will come back, right?" Li Teng felt somewhat helpless.

"Yingying hasn't been bad..." Yingying turned her back to Li Teng, curled up, and lay down, continuing to sob softly.

Li Teng carefully lay down behind her.

"Daddy, before you go to sleep, you have to say: Yingying is mommy's... daddy's good girl, daddy loves Yingying the most, goodnight Yingying." Yingying suddenly made this request to Li Teng.

When Liu Yin was still around, she would say these words every night before going to sleep.

This was to establish a sense of ritual for the child from a young age.

"Yingying is daddy's good girl, daddy loves Yingying the most, goodnight Yingying." Li Teng quickly said as Yingying had asked.

"Where's my teddy bear? I want to sleep with it," Yingying made another request to Li Teng.

"The teddy bear... How about daddy goes to find the teddy bear for you tomorrow?" Li Teng negotiated with Yingying.

"I want the teddy bear now! I want mommy! I want mommy! I want to go home... I want the teddy bear, I want mommy..." In the dark, Yingying suddenly sat up and started crying loudly again.

"Yingying, don't cry, daddy will take you home." Li Teng had no choice but to turn on the light and sit up.

Upon hearing Li Teng say this, Yingying stopped crying and quickly got down by herself, getting dressed.

Li Teng gathered their belongings and picked up Yingying.

Yingying leaned on Li Teng's shoulder, motionless.

Li Teng carried Yingying downstairs, walked out of the hotel lobby, and came outside.

It was a bit windy at night, feeling somewhat cold.

Under the cold streetlights, father and daughter waited a long time before they got a cab.

Just as they were about to get into the car, Li Teng realized that Yingying had already fallen asleep.

After hesitating for a moment, he still carried Yingying into the car and asked the driver to take them to the shantytown where their hut was located.

When they arrived in front of the hut, Li Teng's heart began to beat violently.

Liu Yin, could she have come back?

Mother and daughter connected by the heart, could it be that Yingying sensed something and that's why she insisted on coming back?

He pushed the door open…

The inside was just as cold and empty as when they left.

She wasn't there.

Only the green coat hanging behind the door and the teddy bear by the wall were quietly waiting for them.

Yingying was sleeping soundly.

Li Teng carefully placed her in bed and put the teddy bear into her arms.

After quietly sitting for a while, Li Teng then gathered his Soul Power and invaded her dreams.

"Mommy... Mommy…" Yingying wandered in the darkness, unable to see the streets, unable to see anything.

She just kept calling out, hoping to get a response from her mother.

"Yingying, which bad uncle broke your leg?" Li Teng couldn't bear to make her relive that moment because the dream would make it seem as if she was experiencing it all over again, but he couldn't let the evil person who broke her leg go unpunished.

The dream violently trembled, and after a long time, it gradually became clearer from a chaotic state.

Mother and daughter were walking on the road when suddenly a group of thugs appeared, swinging clubs and brutally beating them.

Even though Liu Yin tried to protect Yingying, Yingying's leg was still struck by the clubs and was broken on the spot!

"If you dare to report us again, next time it will be worse!"

The thugs also made severe threats before departing.

Yingying cried her heart out.

Somewhat comforting was that she had managed to glance at those thugs, allowing Li Teng to clearly see these people's faces.

The dream became extremely unstable, with fierce black fog appearing everywhere in the sky and on the ground, as if wanting to tear everything apart and swallow it…

Li Teng hurriedly used his Soul Power to suppress the fierce black fog, forcefully stabilizing the dream to clarity.

His Soul Power had been exhausted and he was catapulted from the dream.

...

Late at night.

In an urban village.

On the roof of an abandoned house, a man was in tears.

"Ah!!!!"

Moments later, he let out an extremely mournful howl.

The disordered soul aura of a Saint Realm powerhouse rose from within him, shooting up to the clouds.

The entire sky of He City was enveloped in dark clouds.

In an instant, a torrential downpour began!

Bolts of thick lightning struck down from the sky, creating one crater after another on the ground!

Li Teng collapsed on the rooftop.

His soul continued to be in extreme agony.

It was just like every time he made a breakthrough at Dream Star.

Unbearably painful.

...

"Daddy!"

When Yingying woke up, she saw Li Teng sitting by the bed and happily pounced on him.

"Did Yingying sleep well?" Li Teng asked tenderly.

The soul aura disturbance from last night had nearly claimed his life.

Fortunately, his soul will was extremely resolute; he had forcefully endured it and even managed to recover his Skill Power back to the Inner Soul Realm.

"Yes, I did!"

"How about we wash up and then go eat something delicious?"

"Yes, please!"

Li Teng walked around the shack, finding the toothbrush, towel, basin, and other items, but there was no place to get water.

In frustration, Li Teng pointed at the basin. Using the robust Soul Power he had regained at the Inner Soul Realm, he conjured a basin of clean water out of thin air.

In such poor conditions, it was hard to imagine how she and her mother had managed to live here in the first place.

Now that he was back, he needed to find a better living environment for Yingying.

But at night, when it was time for her to sleep, she wanted to return here, treating it as her home; what should he do about that?

Unless he found Liu Yin and reunited Yingying with her mother, maybe then Yingying wouldn't think of this place anymore.

But where could he find Liu Yin?

Her condition was so severe, and with over ten days without any news, he feared she might have already…

Li Teng had to prepare himself for the possibility that he might never find her again.

If it really came down to it, he would just conjure more money, buy this piece of land in the urban village.

Find a way to deal with the Property Bureau, build a house with a courtyard, keep the shack in the yard, clean up the inside and out, leaving a memory for Yingying.

She would gradually grow up. She had to accept the harsh reality that her mother might never come back.

Despite this, Li Teng would not give up on searching.

Even if he was certain she was no longer of this world, that doesn't mean his family couldn't be reunited.

Once he re-entered the Saint Realm on the Blue planet, he could break through the space-time channel and return to before Liu Yin fell ill, forcibly save her and change her fate!

Breaking the time channel could potentially reset his cultivation, causing him to fall from the Saint Realm to the lowest level.

He might even perish in the process.

So what?

You should know, when he originally traveled from Dream Star back to the Blue Planet through the Soul Crossing channel, the remnant soul that crossed over wasn't necessarily able to seize a new body successfully; the failure rate was more than eighty percent.

It was because he had no choice that he took the risk.

If it hadn't been for Liu Yin's unwavering guardianship over the last five years, which kept his body well-preserved, he might have dissipated entirely during the Soul Crossing.

Now, this life was essentially given to him by her.

Compared to her relentless guardianship over these five years, whatever he had done for her, even if it meant giving his own life, was worth it.

...

After breakfast, Li Teng left the house with Yingying again.

They continued to search for Liu Yin.

At the same time, they were also looking for those four men who had beaten up the mother and daughter.

Although he had only seen the faces of the four men in Yingying's dreams, getting their photos was a piece of cake for Li Teng, now that he had returned to the Inner Soul Realm.

Soul Power gathered, thoughts materialized...

Four photos appeared in Li Teng's hands.

They were the faces of the four men.

Crystal clear.

"Excuse me, have you seen them? Do you know them?"

Li Teng went to the street where the mother and daughter had been beaten and asked door to door, holding the photos.

With the help of cigarettes and various small gifts, the questioning went smoothly. Unless no one really knew them, Li Teng believed he could definitely find these four men as long as someone recognized them.

Efforts pay off for those who try.

He asked around the whole day, searching and questioning several streets nearby.

After having dinner and settling the bill, Li Teng typically pulled out the photos to ask the cashier when a man who was also there to pay inadvertently saw the photos...

"Aren't these the boss of Feizhou Bar and a few of his workers?"

"Feizhou Bar?" Li Teng tossed a pack of cigarettes to the man who was paying.

"Yeah, go out and turn left. It's about two stops away from here. Feizhou Bar, right on the street side. Just follow the road, and you'll find it. However, they only open at night." The man who accepted the cigarettes warmly directed Li Teng.

"Thanks, bro."

...

After having dinner, he took a turn around Feizhou Bar.

Li Teng found out that the bar closes at one o'clock at night.

Afterward, Li Teng took Yingying to a nearby large shopping mall's children's amusement park, where they played until 9:30 pm.

After leaving the mall, Yingying, who had played all night, was utterly exhausted and soon dozed off on Li Teng's shoulder.

Li Teng booked a room in an internet-provided hotel.

He settled the sleeping Yingying into the room, then gathered Soul Power to create a camera and installed it, which allowed him to remotely observe every movement in the room from his mobile phone.

When he returned to the Soul-Out Realm, he wouldn't need the camera anymore. By leaving a Soul Seal on Yingying, he could keep up with her status anytime.

After settling Yingying in, Li Teng quietly left the room and took a cab to Feizhou Bar.

The information provided by the man at dinner was correct.

Li Teng saw the four malicious men from Yingying's dreams at the bar.

Li Teng ordered a drink, sat down, and slowly sipped it.

The night unfolded, and the drama began.

"Handsome, drinking alone is so boring! Let me keep you company!" A woman with enticing red lips came over and sat down at Li Teng's table.

"I'm not here to drink; I don't need company," Li Teng shook his head.

"If you're not here to drink, then what are you here to do? Could it be..." The flamboyant woman, not willing to leave just like that, coyly swayed her body.

"I'm here to kill someone; if you don't want to die, stay back," Li Teng said with a smile.

"Ha!" The enchanting woman said with a disdainful tone.

However, when she looked at Li Teng, a tremor inexplicably ran through her, as if she had fallen into an ice cave.

The enchanting woman quickly fled to the side.

The bar had no restroom.

There was an alley next to the bar, leading to a public restroom.

At night, especially after midnight, only a few sporadic patrons from the bar would enter this restroom.

The owner of the bar, Hu Peng, because he loved frequenting bars, had pooled resources with a few friends and opened Feizhou Bar.

Tonight, like other nights, around midnight, he was quite drunk, but still very lucid.

Drinking a lot, naturally, he needed to use the restroom.

While others were still shouting and having fun, he went out the bar alone, crossed the alley next door, and went to the public restroom.

On his way back after relieving himself, Hu Peng encountered a man.

A man wearing a black mask and a black hat.

As they passed each other, Hu Peng noticed that the man's eyes were fixed on him and seemed quite unfriendly.

"What are you looking at? Try staring at me again!" Hu Peng, annoyed, yelled loudly at the man.

This was his turf, where a shout would have his partners and brothers ready with sticks to fight.

On his home ground, Hu Peng had never been afraid of anyone.

"What if I stare at you?"

The man across continued to glare at him fiercely.

Hu Peng wanted to say something, but his mind suddenly blanked, and for no reason, he tripped, causing him to fall to the ground abruptly.

A while later, Hu Peng woke up.

He found himself lying on the ground in the alley, and the black-masked, black-hatted man who had confronted him was nowhere to be seen.

He was not hurt, and his phone and belongings were intact.

"This is really damn weird! I've drunk so many times, but I've never passed out like this!" Hu Peng cursed, feeling very upset.

Mainly because he was in the middle of a confrontation when he suddenly fainted, causing him not to win the fight on his own turf, which was incredibly annoying!

Cursing, Hu Peng walked back along the alley.

Returning to the bar, pushing the glass door open, and seeing everything inside, Hu Peng was a bit stunned.

What the... There wasn't a single person in the bar?

He was the boss and had not announced closing yet, had the customers and staff all run off?

Just a moment ago, there were at least twenty or thirty people in the bar.

Looking at the clock on the wall, it had just passed midnight! They were supposed to be open for nearly another hour, so why had they cleared out early?

Hu Peng took a seat, took out his phone, and called one of his staff members.

"Hello! Rat! Where the hell are you? What time do you think it is? Everyone's gone?" Hu Peng questioned the staff member.

There was no response on the phone, instead, a strange 'clacking' noise came through.

Simultaneously, the bar's lights dimmed and began to flicker.

"Who's there?" Hu Peng suddenly turned around, only to find someone standing outside the glass door of the bar.

A disheveled woman.

The strange 'clacking' noise sounded again, seeming to emanate from the direction of the glass door.

"What the hell is going on?" Hu Peng walked towards the bar's glass door.

Through the glass door, the disheveled woman slowly raised her head.

Her face was pale gray, her eyes were all black without any whites, and blood was dripping from the corners of her eyes and mouth…