The snowy landscape slowly gave way to temperate forests and brown earth.
Su Bai pushed his flying sword to its maximum cruising speed. He completely bypassed the Blackwater City and shot straight toward the southernmost edges of the mortal kingdom.
He was entirely unaware that high above the cloud line, two figures were quietly tracking his spatial wake. They maintained a cautious, professional distance.
Soon, Su Bai spotted the familiar, dilapidated village. He descended silently, then landed just outside the village.
The mont he stepped into the village, a chorus of wailing echoed through the air.
The five orphans he had rescued from the demonic carriage were awake. Surrounded by a few surviving villagers. The children were crying inconsolably. They were terrified, confused, and desperately looking for parents who would never return.
The elderly village chief was doing his absolute best to calm them down, offering bowls of warm water and soothing words, but it was useless.
There was only one exception.
Yan’er.
The six-year-old girl wasn’t crying. Despite her tiny fra and the ragged state of her clothes, she was diligently walking between the other children, patting their backs and offering them water. She was acting as a pillar of support when she herself desperately needed one.
She hadn’t asked anyone where her mother was. Deep down, in that instinctual, heartbreaking way that children often possess, she was terrified of the answer.
But then, she looked up toward the village gate.
When she saw the pale, familiar face of the "Big Brother" who had cured her and walked with her on the dirt road, the heavy facade of bravery she had built up instantly shattered.
The little girl dropped the wooden cup in her hands. Her lower lip trembled violently. She ran as fast as her small legs could carry her, crashing into Su Bai and wrapping her tiny arms around his knees in a desperate, iron-clad grip.
"Big Brother..." Yan’er sobbed. The dam had finally broken. Her tears soaked into his robes. "Where is my mom? I want my mom..."
Su Bai stood frozen. He felt an invisible, crushing grip seize his heart.
He was a rational man who viewed the world through the lens of profits, margins, and survival. But staring down at the trembling, sobbing child, the cold corporate armor he wore cracked.
The shadow of his own past heavily overlapped with Yan’er. In his previous life, he too had lost his parents far too early.
He had been thrust into a cold, indifferent world, forced to raise himself. That trauma had forged him into a hollow corporate slave who ground his life away for a company that didn’t care about him.
He didn’t want this bright, considerate little girl to walk that sa dark, lonely path.
Su Bai slowly knelt in the dirt. He ignored the mud staining his robes. He gently wrapped his arms around the small girl, then pulled her into a warm, secure embrace.
"Your mom... is in a very far place right now," Su Bai said softly. His voice was incredibly gentle.
It was a white lie. But the truth of a hollowed-out corpse in a demonic carriage was a reality far too cruel for a six-year-old mind to process.
Su Bai gently rubbed the back of her head, letting her cry it out against his shoulder. "She asked to take care of you until you are big and strong. If you are good, if you grow up bravely, I promise I will bring you to et her. Okay?"
It was deferred compensation. A goal to keep her moving forward rather than sinking into imdiate, crushing despair.
Yan’er sniffled loudly. She pulled back slightly, then looked up at him with large, tear-filled eyes. "Really?"
"Really," Su Bai nodded. He offered a reassuring smile.
Yan’er wiped her eyes with the back of her dirty sleeve. She took a deep, shuddering breath and nodded bravely. "Okay. I will be good, Big Brother. I will be very good."
She snuggled her face back into his chest, finding a profound sense of safety in his presence.
Su Bai sighed softly, then he gently patted her back.
After the emotional storm passed and the other children were finally settled, Su Bai stood up. He turned to the reverent village chief and waved his hand.
Whoosh.
A massive, sturdy wooden wagon materialized in the center of the village square. It was piled high with sacks of premium rice, dried ats, and warm blankets.
The village chief’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. The surrounding villagers gasped in sheer disbelief. They imdiately dropped to their knees in profound reverence. To these starving mortals, Su Bai had just perford a divine miracle.
"Chief," Su Bai instructed calmly. "Distribute these supplies. Use them to rebuild and ensure these children are fed and clothed until the village fully recovers."
"We will, Lord! We swear it upon our lives!" the chief wept as he bowed his head to the dirt.
Su Bai nodded in satisfaction.
’Excellent,’ Su Bai thought, feeling a literal weight lift off his shoulders. ’The humanitarian aid has been delivered. The Karmic Debt is officially liquidated. The ledger is balanced.’
He was ready to leave. He was eager to return to the Radiant Sky Sect with his crucial geopolitical intel.
But just then, he noticed the village chief fidgeting nervously. The old man kept opening his mouth, then closing it, clearly terrified of offending his benefactor.
"Speak," Su Bai said simply. "What is it?"
"Lord..." the chief stamred. "If... if it is not too much to ask. Would it be alright if you checked on one of the village’s inhabitants?"
Su Bai tilted his head. "One of yours? Why didn’t they co to the square for the supplies?"
"She... she lives in the forest, West of this village," the chief explained, his face twisting with deep, heavy guilt.
"Why is she living alone in the forest?" Su Bai frowned.
The chief sighed, then finally revealed the village’s darkest secret. "That pitiful child possesses a unique constitution. When she was born, her mother died instantly because of it. Her father tried to raise her, but the exposure killed him when she was just five years old. She is about twenty years old now."
The chief’s guilt intensified as he looked at the ground.
"She was labeled a cursed child. Her bodily fluids are like deadly poison. Her very breath is a toxic mist. To protect us, she banished herself to the deep woods. She never shows her face. I would occasionally bring food to her, but when the plague took hold of our village, I failed to do so. I... do not know what has beco of that poor child."
The old man looked up with pleading eyes.
"But I know she isn’t a demon. She is just a child with a tragic, pitiful fate. eting you today, witnessing your boundless rcy... I thought, perhaps, a Lord like you might be able to do sothing for her?"
Su Bai stood completely still. His eyes widened slightly.
A unique constitution?
A girl who passively radiates toxic mist?
Soone whose bodily fluids are literal poison?
For a normal cultivator, this description was a nightmare. It was a walking biological hazard that needed to be avoided or purged.
But for Su Bai?
His heart began to pound violently in his chest. His corporate brain practically short-circuited with sheer, unadulterated excitent.
Su Bai forced his facial expression to remain perfectly solemn and deeply empathetic.
"Point the way," Su Bai said.
After getting the exact directions, Su Bai crouched down and promised Yan’er he would return for her later. He then swiftly departed the village, then headed straight for the western woods.
As he ventured deeper into the forest, the vibrant green foliage slowly began to change.
The leaves turned a sickly yellow, then withered into black ash. The bark of the trees looked blistered and lted. A faint, purplish mist hung low to the ground, killing any insects or small animals that dared to cross it.
To anyone else, this was a terrifying warning sign to turn back.
To Su Bai, the tingling sensation of the toxic mist brushing against his skin felt like a warm, welcoming hug. His Sapling Spirit Root humd happily. It was passively converting the ambient poison into frictionless Qi.
’The environnt is perfectly ruined,’ Su Bai smiled. ’She’s definitely here.’
Soon, he reached a small clearing. In the center sat a dilapidated wooden hut.
Su Bai stopped at the edge of the clearing. He closed his eyes and sent a gentle wave of Spiritual Sense piercing through the wooden walls.
Inside the gloomy hut, resting on a stone bed, was a thin, fragile-looking young woman. Her skin had a strange, ethereal violet hue, and she was currently tossing and turning, groaning in absolute agony as if her entire body was being burned from the inside out.
Su Bai stepped forward.
He raised his hand and politely knocked on the rotting wooden door.
Knock. Knock.
The groaning inside instantly stopped.
A heavy wave of lethal Qi blasted against the door from the inside.
"Begone!" a raspy, pained, and furiously venomous voice shrieked from the shadows. "Leave alone before I lt your bones into puddles!"
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