Yu Di faced the blade head on, eyes opened. If he was going to die, at least he was going to die staring at his daughter with a smile on his face.

  The sword stopped inches from his nose. Bai Feng held it in place with two fingers. Two very precise fingers as if grabbing a piece of paper with chopsticks.

  “That was not nice, Yu Lin,” Bai Feng said. “You know not to play with swords and knives. Put that back.”

  Yu Lin frowned and pulled the sword back.

  “Okay auntie. I’m sorry.”

  “Say sorry to your Baba. You almost hurt him.”

  Yu Lin looked up, tears already forming at the corner of her eyes.

  “I’m sorry Baba!” she yelled. She dropped the sword and cried.

  Yu Di took a deep breath and opened his arms.

  “Come here.” He braced himself.

  Yu Lin ran at him and almost tackled him to the ground again. This time, he held firm against the rampaging toddler.

  “I’m sorry Baba,” Yu Lin said into his shoulder.

  “It’s okay. Just be careful next time because not everyone is as strong as you are.” Yu Di’s heart calmed down from the warmth and comfort of holding Yu Lin against his chest.

  “You see, this place is too dangerous for my daughter. She’s only four. She doesn’t understand the way the world works.”

  Bai Feng frowned. She got up and brought the cooled cup of tea to Yu Lin’s face.

  “Drink.”

  Yu Lin opened her mouth and gulped the tea.

  “If the next time you’re not there and something happens to her, who is going to give me back my daughter?” Yu Di pushed on. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for her. But wealth, power, and immortality is not what she needs.”

  Bai Feng leaned back on the mat, wrapping an outer shawl around her as if she was cold.

  “Have I ever told you the story behind my gold ring?” Bai Feng lifted the golden ring around her right thumb. “I don’t have many things from when I was living my mortal life, but I kept this. It’s not a spatial ring or anything like that. It belonged to my father.”

  Yu Di pulled Yu Lin off him and sat her down on his lap. He didn’t care for the gold ring. Yet he had a feeling this was going to be a long story.

  “My parents were very rich,” Bai Feng continued. “They had stores and such all over the county. They were planning on expanding throughout the country. You know what they sold?”

  “Buns,” Yu Lin answered.

  “No, quiet,” Yu Di said. “Senior Bai is telling us a story. Don’t interrupt her.”

  “But auntie Bai makes the best buns. She can make sweet ones and salty ones. I love the sweet ones the best.”

  Yu Lin was pointing somewhere along the wall.

  Bai Feng laughed.

  “Fine, fine, you can have some.”

  Without waiting for Yu Di’s permission, little Lin popped up from his lap and raced to the wall. She had a hand inside it so fast and pulled out two buns. They had steam coming off them.

  Yu Lin walked all the way back to Yu Di and sat right back on his lap as if he was her chair. She took large bites from one bun as if someone was going to steal them from her. Her mouth was so full, she had trouble chewing at first.

  “Do you want one?” Bai Feng asked.

  Yu Di shook his head. He just wanted the story done and over with so he can plan his next move to get out of this sect.

  Bai Feng pulled another bun from her storage ring and took a bite herself.

  “I loved my parents. I thought they loved me, but every night they were never home. They worked every day. I never got to see them much. They kept telling me it was for me. I only wanted one thing. I just wanted to be with them.”

  “How did you end up here?” Yu Di asked.

  “To fill my time, my family hired a cultivator to teach me. They weren’t a true Immortal as those who practiced here, but taught me enough to get started. This sect recruited me as they saw my potential.”

  “Why don’t you go back to your mother and Baba?” Yu Lin asked after she finished the first bun.

  Bai Feng smiled ruefully.

  “As I was trying to tell your Baba, my parents are gone. Once you practice cultivation and become a true Immortal, you live a lot longer. I went to their funeral and they left me with their entire business. But all I had was loneliness. I kept the ring to remember them.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “You’re not alone anymore. You have me!” Yu Lin took another massive bite out of her remaining bun.

  Bai Feng’s smile became sweeter.

  “Yes, I do.”

  That was a twist Yu Di didn’t see coming. On his own personal journey to gaining power, he didn’t care for any of the human attachments that others cared about. People were temporary allies or used to help him cultivate.

  As he thought about it, Yu Lin’s mother probably thought the same about the child. She wasn’t useful to her and was in her way so she dumped little Lin onto him.

  Yet, as he thought about it again, Yu Di wasn’t sure he would have been so single-minded on his quest for that next power up if it meant throwing away his daughter. He hugged her against his chest, prompting a small grunt as she chewed, reminding himself of how lucky he was to have this daughter in his life.

  Would he have turned out the way he did if he had someone like Yu Lin to care for?

  Still, this situation was different. Yu Lin was not Bai Feng’s daughter. They had no connection and at most, they might be teacher and disciple. But even that was tenuous at best.

  Yu Di had been the one truly teaching her the real art. Not the crap from the sect.

  “Senior Bai, I appreciate you being so candid with me.” Yu Di got up. “However, if you can’t help me, then I will be on my way.”

  “Wait. Sit down.” Bai Feng twirled her golden ring once before looking back up.

  Yu Di sat back down.

  “I know what you’re thinking," Bai Feng said in a hurried manner. "You probably think I want to keep little Lin like my daughter. I only want to teach her. I used to teach the children of the other disciples, but Elder Li has made that hard. None of them want to associate with me anymore.

  "Ever since little Lin has been with me, I have felt happier. I have a friend who is happy to see me and I don’t have to worry about any of the sect politics with her.”

  Yu Di nodded in understanding. Not only is his daughter easy to love, but that Elder Li was bad news. Every mention of his name had gotten all the servants and disciples either scared or outright panic.

  “Senior Bai, I am glad that you feel that way, but have you thought about what that means for little Lin?”

  Bai Feng didn’t respond.

  “You would force her to be like you, isolated from the other disciples,” Yu Di said. “I will not be around that long to protect her. At least outside of the sect, she’d have a better chance to survive. She’d have a life.”

  Maybe if Yu Di pushed it, Bai Feng would help them and live with them outside of the sect. That wouldn’t be so bad to have a protector for her daughter.

  “But Baba, I want to stay here,” Yu Lin said. She had finished the rest of her bun and moved onto drinking her tea in little sips. “Auntie Bai has a lot of fun toys and all the buns I like.”

  “Don’t you miss your grandpa?” Yu Di asked. “He will not be around forever you know.”

  Yu Lin stayed quiet aside from the slow sipping of her tea.

  “I apologize Senior Bai,” Yu Di said. “I know I am asking a lot from you. I only worry for my daughter.”

  “Would you stay for the growth of your daughter?” Bai Feng asked. “I’ve been teaching her and she’s made remarkable gains in her cultivation. In fact, she’s on the verge of a breakthrough. If she leaves now, she might never overcome that bottleneck.”

  “That’s not possible.” Yu Di peered down at his daughter’s dantian. True enough, she was at the upper limit of Qi Condensation. Another day or two and she would easily hit Foundation Establishment and then be on her way to becoming a true Immortal.

  “Based on my estimates, she wouldn’t reach this stage until six months from now, at least.” Yu Di turned Yu Lin around to face him. “How did you do it, smart girl?”

  “It was auntie Bai,” Yu Lin said. “She has been teaching me since the first day.”

  “But there’s no way that…”

  Bai Feng smiled.

  “How did you do it?” Yu Di asked.

  “I taught her with one of my inner sect disciple manuals. Your daughter took to it like a fish for water.”

  “Could I see it?” Yu Di couldn’t believe that anything from this sect could have improved her daughter so much. No way it could compete with his own cultivation manual that he developed as a demigod.

  “Oh, is a junior asking this inner sect disciple for their secret training manual?”

  Yu Di noticed he was gaping and closed his mouth. That’s right. He wasn’t a demigod anymore. He had no right to ask anyone for anything, especially not someone as strong as Bai Feng.

  “Sorry Senior Bai. I forgot my place.” Yu Di cupped his hands and bowed his head.

  Bai Feng laughed.

  “Don’t worry about it. Besides, I’m sure you have a better cultivation manual than mine, anyway.”

  Yu Di looked up, confused. He didn’t like where this was going.

  “I felt your Qi that first day when you squared off with Elder Li,” Bai Feng said. “You are hiding a massive Qi like one of those hidden masters in a story.”

  Yu Di looked around, waiting for the sect elders to jump out of the walls or an army of disciples waiting to trap him and steal anything off his body. He’s done it plenty of times to others on his own journey to power. It’s one reason he hid in his rural home village.

  But nothing happened.

  “What do you want?” Yu Di asked.

  “Oh my, your tone changed so suddenly.” Bai Feng sat up. “Now, now, don’t flare that Qi of yours. I've been afraid of you ever since that first day. I’m sure Elder Li felt it too, which was why he hadn’t bothered you as much since. I mean you no harm.”

  Yu Di picked up Yu Lin and walked to the house’s window and looked out. Nobody was waiting outside to ambush him.

  “Why are you doing this?” Yu Di asked.

  “I want to fix this sect with your power.” Bai Feng sighed and leaned back on the mat again. “Except other than the first day, you have not shown any of your true strength until now. There has to be a reason you choose to sleep in a jail cell and receive the abuse from the head servant and Elder Li.”

  “I’m cursed.”

  Bai Feng perked up.

  “You were cursed and you chose to join our sect?”

  “Kidnapped, actually. Your recruiters didn’t give me much of a choice. Join them or they murder my village.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” Bai Feng frowned. “I thought you were like the other servants that joined.”

  “That is why I have been trying to escape. I can’t stay here. If another person discovers me, they might kill me for everything I have or worse, threaten little Lin.”

  “I see. I would never want anything to happen to her either.”

  “Let me down Baba.” Yu Lin pulled herself down, out of Yu Di’s grip, now that she sensed the tension was gone between the adults.

  Yu Di hadn’t noticed how hard he held onto her.

  Yu Lin ran away to find a new toy in Bai Feng’s closets again. Probably another sword to finish the job.

  Yu Di sighed. He made sure that Yu Lin was far enough away before leaning in toward Bai Feng.

  “Since you already know this much and haven’t turned me in, let me tell you the truth. I only have a little longer to live. I would hate to use the rest of my power to get out of this sect and abandon my child.”

  “So you are a hidden master,” Bai Feng said.