Volume 4: Hidden Battles – Chapter 232: The Qilin Bloodline

After a pause, Chu Tianyu dropped his teasing tone and continued, “By the way, isn’t Mr. Fernandi’s visit this time just to hold me accountable for this small mistake?”
Fernandi shrugged, tossed his hair carelessly, and imitated Chu Tianyu’s tone, saying, “We didn’t come here for any specific reason; it’s purely for fun!”
After hearing this, Chu Tianyu shook his head in disbelief. He hadn’t expected Fernandi to be waiting for him here. With a self-mocking laugh, he turned to his third master, the Mad Scholar, for help.
The Mad Scholar also tried to ease the tension, saying, “Mr. Fernandi, I’ve encountered immortals during my younger days, but none of them could walk around openly in broad daylight like you. Even though it’s already late in the year, there’s no need for violence. Just from that brief demonstration, your abilities are already extraordinary, and your skills keep emerging one after another. It’s truly eye-opening!”
“Oh, no, no. My skills are merely trivial tricks, not worth mentioning. It’s rather the Mad Scholar who hasn’t given it his all—I feel deeply ashamed!” Fernandi spoke with unprecedented humility.
The Mad Scholar couldn’t help but praise him, “Just a few words, and it’s clear that Mr. Fernandi is extremely knowledgeable. You use Chinese idioms even better than I do…”
Before the Mad Scholar could finish, Fernandi quickly interjected, “Heh, it’s just the power of immortality. I’ve always admired Chinese cultivators for being able to surpass human limits, even those of all other creatures, and reach the highest levels of martial prowess within just a few decades or centuries. This makes us, who have lived for thousands of years, feel ashamed! So, my visit to China is partly to accompany that girl from the Sophy Dynasty, Zhongya, to find her so-called lover, and partly to truly get in touch with Chinese martial arts and cultivators. I also have some questions and hope to receive your generous guidance, Mad Scholar.”
“Great, no problem. Let’s learn from each other. To be honest, with you as a living dictionary of history, I have many historical questions that might be easily answered by you…” he said, feeling a strong sense of rapport.
As the two talked, they found common ground. Meanwhile, Chu Tianyu was left aside. To be honest, he was glad to be ignored. Taking advantage of their lively conversation, he made up an excuse and left to find Ouyang Ziyi and the others.

But just as Chu Tianyu started climbing the stairs, he heard Third Master Kuangru asking in a very low voice, as if pondering carefully, “By the way, Mr. Fei, what’s your view on the issue of love? With your long and rich life experience, you must have quite a lot of insights on this topic. And after such a long life, what’s your current mindset regarding it?”
“Wahaha, Mr. Kuangru, you’ve really asked the right person about this. I’m not bragging—just talking about now, I too…” Fernand said excitedly, as if he had just stumbled upon something crucial.
Chu Tianyu staggered upon hearing this, almost falling to the ground!
“I never expected it—Third Master would have such a question too. Sigh. But unfortunately, it seems Master is in a rather pitiful state now. By boarding Fernand’s ‘shady ship,’ he’s far less lucky than I was back then, as I got to consult a true expert on love. It seems necessary to have Third Grandpa give Master a lesson someday, so he can understand what the true meaning of love is!” Chu Tianyu mused as he turned off his listening device. After all, continuing to listen would be rather disrespectful. To be honest, if he had to listen to a hundred-year-old or a thousand-year-old old man talk about love, he would rather endure Bai Lei’s nonsense or the brothers Tiancai and Dibao talking about food—it would truly be an unbearable torment!
Just as Chu Tianyu was lost in thought, a special audio signal came from his pocket. Surprised, he quickly took out the satellite phone unique to the sect leader of Xuanji Sect. The screen had already automatically connected to the city’s satellite map, with a red dot flashing at an extremely fast rate.
Chu Tianyu was surprised because he knew what that red dot meant. Moreover, the location shown on the satellite further confirmed his surprise, as the flashing red dot was not far from Peking University, right on Qin Nianran’s route home!
In fact, that red dot was sent by the martial arts disciples Chu Tianyu had dispatched to secretly protect Ouyang Ziyi and Qin Nianran. Since Ouyang Ziyi was at home, it must be someone protecting Qin Nianran. And they would only send such a signal directly to the sect leader in times of crisis or when their lives were at stake…

Isn’t the old master too unfair? He and Qin Nianran had gone through so much hardship to overcome their differences and be together, only for such a life-threatening situation to arise now. Judging by the meaning of this signal, Chu Tianyu didn’t even dare to think further! At this moment, Chu Tianyu not only didn’t dare to look back but also had no time to overthink. He dashed out through the window at the corner of the second floor, shouting in a servile tone toward the living room, leaving a message for his master, theCrazy Confucianist: “Master, I have an urgent matter and need to leave for a while. Please take care of things here and stop them from going out—there might be enemies approaching…” While theCrazy Confucianist and Fernando exchanged puzzled looks upon hearing Chu Tianyu’s message, his figure had already disappeared into the darkness. Chu Tianyu’s words weren’t exaggerated, as he had secretly sent several female disciples from the martial arts school to protect Qin Nianran. Their skills were at the pinnacle, and no ordinary person could threaten them. Moreover, each of them possessed unique techniques and a thorough understanding of combat strategies, allowing them to send rescue signals directly to the sect leader—this alone showed just how dangerous and urgent the situation was. Considering the events of the past two days, Chu Tianyu feared it might still be related to Jin Yujie, with assassins following Qin Nianran and her aunt and launching a surprise attack. However, one thing he didn’t understand was that, based on the assassins’ abilities yesterday, they couldn’t possibly pose a threat to the elite of the martial arts school. Nor could the protected disciples have lost their combat strength due to ambushes or surprise attacks; it must have been a direct confrontation they lost in, hence the rescue signal. But this was strange—who could have such formidable skills? Perhaps they were in numbers, but this was in the capital city, and such a large-scale fight didn’t seem very plausible. Along the way, Chu Tianyu kept his mind racing, considering various possibilities, while accelerating to the greatest speed possible, like a black lightning bolt streaking through the bustling city. With the situation so urgent, rescue was of utmost importance. Soon, Chu Tianyu arrived at the scene. It was a relatively quiet open park. With winter approaching and it already being dark, the place was especially serene. It was unclear what Qin Nianran and her aunt were doing there.

At that moment, before Chu Tianyu could think further, he sensed someone leaning against a row of trees in the distance ahead, with another person lying beside them. Chu Tianyu felt a chill in his heart. He quickly gathered his strength, pushed off with his toes, and instantly arrived there, clearly seeing the scene.

The person leaning against the tree was Qin Nianran’s aunt, with disheveled hair. Her face was flushed, her brows tightly furrowed, and blood dripped from the corners of her mouth. She was already unconscious, breathing rapidly, and her entire body seemed to be burning as it trembled from time to time.

The person lying beside her was also a woman, but not Qin Nianran. Yet Chu Tianyu recognized her as one of the disciples secretly protecting them. She was holding a signal device, clearly the one that had sent the signal.

Judging from her extremely distorted body, Chu Tianyu could tell without further inspection that she had long been dead. Facing the corpse of this disciple, Chu Tianyu fell silent, overwhelmed by sorrow—a pain as if someone were suddenly cutting out a piece of flesh from his heart with a knife. Although he had never met this disciple before and didn’t know her well, nor did he have any special feelings for her, at this moment, she represented countless disciples of the Wutang and the members of the Xuanji Sect!

Facing this corpse was like being slapped hard by the sect master Chu Tianyu itself, like having flesh torn from his body. But at this moment, Chu Tianyu could only suppress his grief and quickly go to Qin Nianran’s aunt’s side. Saving people first was crucial. He reached out with both hands, took her hands, and immediately sent his energy into her body, guiding it along her meridians.

As soon as Chu Tianyu’s energy entered her meridians, he felt a wave of scorching heat raging inside. This invading energy seemed capable of burning a person’s blood, leaving behind boiling heat wherever it passed, and the intensity grew worse. No wonder Qin Nianran’s aunt’s face was flushed and her whole body was emitting intense heat.

Without hesitation, Chu Tianyu dealt with this energy. Though it might seem extremely strange and difficult to deal with to ordinary people, for Chu Tianyu, who had already fought against the Illusion Flame, it was nothing more than a small spark. With minimal effort, he completely purified this strange and scorching energy from Qin Nianran’s aunt’s body.

The great-aunt, whose breathing had just become more urgent, instantly calmed down. Her complexion returned to normal, and her body stopped trembling. With Chu Tianyu’s energy infusion to regulate her condition, she quickly regained consciousness, opened her eyes, and her awareness gradually returned.

However, when she saw Chu Tianyu who was infusing energy into her, she was immediately overjoyed. Gathering all her strength, she said urgently, “Tianyu, hurry! Ignore me. Nianran, lure the enemy away for my safety—probably in the southeast direction. Go save her first; don’t worry about me! Hurry…”

In fact, without her saying anything, Chu Tianyu had already sensed two powerful energies fluctuating in the southeast corner of the park. He immediately nodded at Nianran’s great-aunt, said nothing more, and rushed toward the southeast at top speed.

Just as Chu Tianyu was approaching, he felt a massive surge of energy—seemingly from one of the two energies earlier—exploding with infinite power and launching a full-force attack at the other. Chu Tianyu instantly realized that this sudden burst of energy came from Qin Nianran. He felt both joy and concern: joy that she was still fighting and not in mortal danger, but concern that this sudden outburst made it seem like she was giving her all in a last stand, almost to the point of mutual destruction…

Thinking of this, Chu Tianyu grew anxious. He let out a loud cry, unleashing all his strength. His rapidly moving figure became indistinguishable to the naked eye. With a sound of tearing through the air, he arrived at the scene in the blink of an eye.

But before Chu Tianyu could steady himself, he saw Qin Nianran surrounded by a layer of electromagnetic waves, her sleeves flaring as she pushed forward with her palms, clashing head-on with Zhan Zifeng across from her.

A loud roar echoed, and the surrounding air seemed to warp due to the immense pressure from their energies, creating a surreal distortion that would leave ordinary people stunned and incredulous. The massive energy also spread outward instantly, forming a huge circle that rolled outward.

At this moment, Qin Nianran’s body also seemed to twist along with this energy, as if being forced by some external force. In the blink of an eye, she could no longer hold on—blood gushed out violently, and her figure was flung backward due to the fluctuations in the energy. Her body traced an extremely irregular path through the air, surrounded by a layer of red flames that had replaced the original electromagnetic waves, making Qin Nianran appear as if she were burning in fire. Chu Tianyu was shocked and filled with remorse, realizing he had arrived too late. Watching helplessly as Qin Nianran was severely injured, he roared in anger once again and instantly appeared in the air where she was flying. He stretched out his arms and pulled her into his embrace. With a look of pity, he gazed at Qin Nianran, whose eyes were tightly closed and whose face was tinged purple and gold. Without hesitation, he poured the moon energy he had refined into her body to dispel the scorching heat within her and throughout her meridians.

However, after the moon energy entered her body, Chu Tianyu was shocked. It wasn’t so much the intensity of the scorching heat invading her body, but rather the fact that all her meridians were severed, her vital tissue structures were severely damaged, and her internal energy was in complete chaos, scattered randomly in every corner with no connection to her body at all. The severity of this situation was all too clear to Chu Tianyu—for an ordinary cultivator, it meant certain death!

By now, Chu Tianyu’s eyes were blood-red as he stared at the figure in the distance who was regulating his breath—none other than Zhan Zifeng! His overwhelming hatred could no longer be expressed in words. Even his hands, holding Qin Nianran, were trembling, affecting the moon energy being infused and causing further chaos. Chu Tianyu quickly suppressed his grief and anger, focusing all his energy to temporarily sort out, repair, and replenish Qin Nianran’s chaotic bodily tissues. He gathered the scattered energy particles and slowly guided them back into her dantian.

Faced with Qin Nianran’s severe injuries, Chu Tianyu no longer relied solely on his hands to infuse the moon energy. Instead, he unleashed the moon energy from all his body cells, enveloping himself in a faint yellow glow. He also covered Qin Nianran with this glow, allowing it to penetrate through every pore of her body to rebuild its functions.

Soon, under the influence of the massive amount of pure energy from the Chu Tian Domain, the chaotic state within Qin Nianran’s body was quickly stabilized. However, the damaged meridians could not be restored to their original state through such short-term treatment. Although the treatment in the Chu Tian Domain had temporarily saved Qin Nianran’s life, which was already a miraculous feat, Chu Tian Domain felt no joy at all, as her condition remained grim.

That sudden energy explosion must have been due to some cultivation technique Qin Nianran had practiced—she was able to channel her abnormal electromagnetic waves into her vital energy and dantian, thereby unleashing the body’s ultimate energy from within and fully integrating her cultivation skills with her supernatural abilities. This led to that insane attack, which even Zhan Zifeng, who possessed several times greater cultivation skills along with special abilities, was knocked to the ground and forced to close his eyes to recover.

Chu Tian Domain hadn’t expected Zhan Zifeng to suddenly display such formidable strength. He had indeed been in contact with Zhan Zifeng before and had witnessed his battles against Zhou Chongyun and Japanese ninjas, so he knew his strength very well. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have sent those specially selected disciples from the Wudang School—after all, according to his initial estimates, any one of them could match Zhan Zifeng, not to mention their greater experience and combat skills.

But now, with the four disciples from the Wudang School—those who had been lying in the park earlier and the three others who lay dead not far from him and Qin Nianran—serving as living proof, Chu Tian Domain realized his initial judgment was completely wrong. At that moment, he couldn’t help but recall the brilliant red light that appeared when Zhan Zifeng fought against Zhou Chongyun…

As Chu Tian Domain pondered, suddenly a roar that could shake the world erupted from Zhan Zifeng. The red light intensified, like a burst of burning blood, shooting straight into the sky before plunging downward. Around Zhan Zifeng, who sat in seiza, the red light grew denser and gradually formed a vivid blood-colored qilin behind him, howling toward the sky…