Xiao Zhanxuan’s spiritual power erupted without restraint. Not caring about anything else, he spun around and shot toward the dense forest behind him like a streak of lightning!

“Trying to run?!”

The Sun family ancestor’s eyes flashed with icy light as he sneered. His withered hand reached out through the air!

Midair, spiritual power condensed into a massive gray hand that struck later yet arrived first, clutching the fleeing Xiao Zhanxuan firmly in its grasp!

Golden Core fourth level against first level—such a gap in cultivation was as vast as heaven and earth.

“Ah—!”

Xiao Zhanxuan screamed as the bones throughout his body groaned under the pressure. Blood sprayed wildly from his mouth as his gathered spiritual power instantly collapsed.

The gray giant hand withdrew, slamming the withered Xiao Zhanxuan heavily at the Sun family ancestor’s feet.

Xiao Zhanxuan lay limp on the ground, his body soaked in blood, the wound on his left shoulder split open again. Only despair remained in his eyes.

The Sun family ancestor stepped on his back and turned his gaze back to Xiao Che.

“The man is yours,” he said coldly.
“Release my grandson.”

Xiao Che’s sword tip didn’t move. His voice was steady and clear.

“The man stays. You retreat one li.”

The Sun family ancestor’s face flushed purple as he forced the words out through clenched teeth. “Xiao brat—are you daring to toy with me?”

Xiao Che’s wrist was steady as a rock. The blade pressed another half-inch into flesh, a line of blood instantly appearing.

“You don’t have a choice.”

At that very moment—

“Hehehe…”

A string of bell-like laughter suddenly drifted down from the air.

“Tsk, tsk—how splendid. Turning the clouds with one hand, overturning the rain with the other. Little brother of the Xiao family, impressive indeed. As expected of a prodigy our academy has already set its sights on.”

As the voice fell, three figures descended lightly from the sky.

At the front was a woman dressed in a simple white rainbow-gauze gown. She looked barely twenty, her features pure and graceful, yet between her brows flowed a natural, alluring charm that was impossible to ignore.

Her cultivation was late Foundation Establishment, fully restrained and not leaking in the slightest.

Behind her followed two elderly men in blue robes, expressions indifferent, auras deep as the abyss—both at early Golden Core.

The Sun family ancestor’s pupils contracted as he demanded sternly, “Who are you? Why are you interfering in the affairs of our two families?”

The woman in white let her gaze wander before finally settling on Xiao Che. A playful smile curved her lips.

“White Deer Academy. Recruitment officer for Cangyun Prefecture—Bai Ling.”

She paused, eyes soft as water, her voice gentle and mellifluous.

“Ancestor Sun, this junior brother Xiao is a prodigy already reserved by our academy. For today’s matter, give the academy some face and let it end here. How about it?”

The two blue-robed elders behind her each stepped forward half a pace, their auras subtly locking onto the Sun family ancestor.

The ancestor’s expression shifted repeatedly, light and dark warring across his face.

White Deer Academy was not an existence the Sun family could afford to offend. After a moment’s hesitation, he shot Xiao Che a vicious glare and forced out a single word:

“…Fine.”

Bai Ling nodded in satisfaction and looked back at Xiao Che, her eyes shimmering.

“Junior Brother Xiao, what do you think?”

Xiao Che withdrew his sword and stepped back.

“Agreed.”

The Sun family ancestor swept up Sun Tao’s mangled body and severed limbs and withdrew swiftly with his people.

Only then did Bai Ling turn back to Xiao Che, speaking softly.

“Junior Brother Xiao, I’m staying temporarily at Listening Waves Court in Cangyun City. Once you’ve settled your family matters, you can come find me with this.”

“Seven days from now, there’ll be a recruitment event in Cangyun City. Come lend me a hand.”

She flicked her finger, and a warm white glow landed in Xiao Che’s palm.

It was a small White Deer jade pendant—only a quarter the size of the exemption token. It felt faintly warm to the touch, with spiritual light flowing within.

Xiao Che closed his hand around the pendant, then shook his head.

“Officer Bai, I’m afraid I won’t be able to help you.”

Bai Ling’s brows lifted slightly. “Oh? Why is that?”

Xiao Che replied calmly, “I plan to enter through the normal examination.”

Bai Ling froze for a moment, then looked at him in surprise.

“You already have an exemption token. Why go through the trouble?”

“I want to leave the exemption slot to my sister. She needs it more,” Xiao Che answered simply.

The smile on Bai Ling’s face didn’t fade—if anything, it grew brighter. Yet within her shifting gaze, there was now something more.

“Oh?”

“So that means… for now, you’re not actually a member of White Deer Academy, right?”

A faint sense of foreboding rose in Xiao Che’s heart, but he still nodded. “Before passing the exam, naturally not.”

“Then things are simple.”

Bai Ling’s smile was radiant, her voice light and soft—yet what she said made Xiao Che’s eyelids twitch.

“Just now, our academy stepped in for you, forced the Sun family to retreat, and resolved your Xiao family’s crisis. We can’t very well have done all that for nothing, can we?”

She extended a slender jade finger and waved it lightly before him.

“How about this—Senior Sister won’t overcharge you. Let’s say you… owe me one thousand contribution points.”

“In the future, once you enter the academy, you can repay me—principal and interest.”

As she spoke, she even sighed, looking like someone who was suffering a loss yet too kind-hearted to complain.

“Sigh… such a loss, such a loss. Being a good person is hard these days.”

Xiao Che: “……”

He’d been latched onto.

“Officer Bai, this—”

“Call me Senior Sister,” Bai Ling interrupted with a smiling correction. “Or… calling me your creditor works too.”

She gave Xiao Che no chance to bargain. Turning around, she waved at the two elders.

“Let’s go, let’s go. If we stay any longer, some junior brother will start feeling heartache over his contribution points.”

Three streaks of light shot off into the distance. Faintly, her amused muttering drifted back on the wind:

“One thousand contribution points… that should last a good while, right? Mm, the interest should be set a bit higher…”

Xiao Che held the jade pendant that had suddenly become rather hot in his hand, staring at the vanishing lights in the sky, speechless for a long moment.

I don’t even know where the academy gates open, and I’m already saddled with such a “huge debt”?

“Che.”

His father’s voice pulled him back to reality.

Supported by Xiao Yuantu, Xiao Zhatian walked over. His face was pale, but his eyes had regained their calm.

He glanced at Xiao Zhanxuan on the ground, pain and resolve intertwining in his gaze.

“Uncle Yuantu,”
Xiao Zhatian’s voice was hoarse, “I ask you to take my clan head token and lead the Disciplinary Hall to thoroughly investigate Xiao Zhanxuan’s faction. His residence, associates, private assets—seal them all. Anyone involved in the rebellion is to be punished severely, according to clan law.”

“Rest assured, Clan Head.”

Xiao Yuantu nodded heavily, a sharp light flashing in his eyes.

Xiao Zhanxuan’s betrayal had crossed the clan’s bottom line. This matter had to be handled with an iron hand, as a warning to all.

Only then did Xiao Zhatian look again at the unconscious Xiao Zhanxuan, remaining silent for a long while.

This was his younger brother, who had grown up alongside him.

At last, he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were cold and unfeeling.

“As for him… cripple his Golden Core, sever the tendons in his arms and legs, and imprison him with black-iron chains at the bottom of the ancestral land’s ‘Repentance Abyss.’ He is never to leave for the rest of his life.”

This judgment was more cruel than an outright execution.

To lose one’s cultivation, have one’s path cut off, and repay one’s sins in endless darkness and solitude—this was the harshest punishment for a cultivator.

But in the end, it spared his life.

Perhaps this was Xiao Zhatian’s final trace of mercy, as an elder brother.

Xiao Yuantu had no objection.

He waved over two clan elders, who dragged the unconscious Xiao Zhanxuan away like a dead dog.

“Father, your injuries…” Xiao Che stepped forward.

“It’s nothing. With some quiet recuperation, I’ll be fine.”

Xiao Zhatian waved it off, then looked at Xiao Qing standing protectively by Xiao Che’s side. At last, warmth surfaced in his eyes.

“Let’s go home. Today, our family is finally reunited.”