Su Bai banked his flying sword sharply, tearing through the clouds as he raced back to Clear Cloud Peak.

As he descended toward his courtyard, he noticed several Elders respectfully departing from the mountain path. They had clearly just finished paying their respects to the owner of the peak.

Su Bai landed smoothly then offered a polite bow to the departing Elders before stepping past the array boundary.

Sitting peacefully at a stone table beneath a gently swaying peach blossom tree was his master, Peak Master Lu Canghai.

He looked like the mortal realm’s quintessential image of a benevolent immortal. He wore a simple, unadorned grey robe. His long white beard was neatly groomed, and his eyes crinkled with a natural, heartwarming kindness. The aura he radiated wasn’t the sharp, oppressive weight of a supreme expert, but the gentle, comforting warmth of a sunlit hearth.

To Su Bai, this old man was the only true father figure he had ever known in two lifetimes. Lu Canghai had scoured the continent for rare herbs and ancient remedies, never once giving up on him.

Seeing Su Bai walk into the courtyard, Lu Canghai set down his teacup and gently gestured with his hand. "Come, sit."

Su Bai stepped forward and bowed deeply. "Disciple greets Master. Welcome back to the sect."

Lu Canghai let out a warm, hearty laugh. He reached out to firmly clasp Su Bai’s shoulder. "I heard the news the moment I arrived. It brings this old man’s heart immense joy to see your cultivation progressing again. Sit down, and tell me what happened."

Su Bai lifted his gaze, meeting his master’s warm eyes. He smiled, then took a seat opposite the old man.

He didn’t want his master to spend the rest of his twilight years endlessly wandering dangerous ruins just to find a cure that wasn’t needed. So, leaving out the existence of the System, Su Bai told him the truth.

He explained the nature of his Reversal Body and the things that transpired these past few days.

As Lu Canghai listened, his gentle smile slowly morphed into profound shock. As Su Bai finished explaining, a sudden, heavy enlightenment settled over the old man’s face.

"Heavens..." Lu Canghai breathed out, shaking his head in disbelief. "It is no wonder... Not even the most ancient medical texts mention such a constitution. It defies the very logic of the Heavenly Dao!"

He looked at Su Bai. His eyes widened with sudden realization. "So that is why you were drinking cheap wine and gnawing on moldy bread!"

"Master, you... you knew about that?" Su Bai coughed. He suddenly felt deeply embarrassed. He thought he had been hiding his "trash-eating" phase perfectly.

"Hohoho!" Lu Canghai chuckled. "Of course I knew. It is a good thing I am your master, brat. What other Peak Master would let a twelve-year-old child drink cheap liquor in the courtyard? I could see it made your stomach full and kept you at peace, so I simply pretended not to notice."

Su Bai felt a profound wave of warmth in his chest. His master had just been incredibly considerate, letting him cope in his own way without judging him.

Lu Canghai’s expression then turned slightly serious. "I must warn you about something. That Iron-Feathered Crane that attacked you days ago."

Su Bai listened.

"Stay away from Silent Orchid Peak," Lu Canghai warned in a low voice. "That old witch, Shen Youran... I suspect she is the one who deliberately let that beast bypass the outer arrays to test you."

Su Bai was stunned. Peak Master Shen of the Law Enforcement Hall? Why would the strictest executive in the sect randomly test a crippled disciple?

Then, Su Bai’s corporate radar pinged. An overly strict female executive testing the disciple of a gentle, wandering manager?

"Master..." Su Bai narrowed his eyes, smelling the distinct scent of a tragic workplace romance. "Could it be... that you and Peak Master Shen have a history?"

Lu Canghai violently choked.

"Absolutely not!" the old man sputtered. His face flushed with offended pride. "I much prefer the fiery miss from the ancient Tang Clan... a venomous mouth, but a heart of gold. Ahem. But enough about that."

Lu Canghai cleared his throat. He avoided Su Bai’s gaze for a moment. He stroked his beard, then his face flashed with a complicated mix of grief and nostalgia.

"You are an adult now," Lu Canghai sighed heavily. "It is time I told you the truth. It is not I who has a history with that old witch. It was your biological father."

Su Bai froze.

His biological father? In the six years he had inhabited this body, he had never once had a single memory or impression of his parents. He had assumed he was just a random genius picked up by the sect leader.

"More accurately," Lu Canghai continued, "it was a tragic, unrequited love from her toward your father. That is why I told you to stay away from her. The Heartless Sutra severs emotions, but knowing the man she loved left behind a child... it might make her act unpredictably, even if only to test your worth."

’...What?’ Su Bai’s mind completely stalled.

"Master," Su Bai said carefully. "Please... tell me more."

Lu Canghai nodded slowly. His eyes gazed far past the peach blossoms into the distant past.

"Decades ago, before this sect was the orderly place you know today, it was unruly and full of chaos," Lu Canghai began. "In that era, there were two supreme prodigies who shook the continent. The world gave them titles. One was known as the ’Most Flirtatious Genius’, and the other was the ’Utmost Gentleman’."

Lu Canghai turned to look at Su Bai. "I am the Gentleman. And your father, Su Qingshan, was the Flirtatious Genius."

Su Bai stared blankly at his master. ’You? A legendary, continent-shaking prodigy? You guys were the original startup founders?!’

"We were brothers in arms," Lu Canghai coughed, hurriedly moving past his embarrassing youthful title. "We fought together to fix this sect. The current Sect Master is from our generation as well. Six years ago, when the Sect Master suddenly brought you here, he told me that your father had personally dropped you off."

Lu Canghai’s gentle eyes flashed with a hint of old anger. "That damned bastard. He drops off his twelve-year-old son, and doesn’t even have the face to come see his best friend! I immediately claimed you as my only disciple. Sigh... if you had a different master, perhaps someone sharper, they might have noticed your Reversal Body much sooner. I failed you, my disciple."

"You never failed me, Master," Su Bai said immediately. His voice was filled with absolute sincerity. Then, he asked the burning question, "But... where is my father now?"

Lu Canghai let out a long, heavy sigh. The weight of the world seemed to settle on his shoulders.

"You have likely heard the rumors that I ’saved’ the cultivation realm decades ago," Lu Canghai said quietly. "I will not speak of the details, lest you attract the karmic gaze of things you cannot fight. But know this: I am not the true hero."

Lu Canghai looked up at the sky. "When the Great Fissure opened, I stayed behind to repair the damage to our realm. But your father... your father had already reached the Void-Shattering Realm. He charged directly into the fissure to fight the calamity at its source."

The old man’s voice cracked slightly. "He never returned. We assumed he perished. But then, six years ago, he quietly dropped you off at the sect. That alone tells me he is alive out there somewhere, fighting a war we cannot see. Although, considering his flirtatious nature, the Heavens only know what supreme entity he mated with to produce someone with a Reversal Body like yours."

Su Bai was completely speechless.

His absentee father wasn’t just some deadbeat. He was a Void-Shattering supreme expert holding back an apocalypse off-screen.

"So..." Su Bai swallowed hard, trying to process the massive lore drop. "What does Peak Master Shen have to do with this?"

Lu Canghai hesitated. A look of profound pity crossed his face.

"Before we marched to the Fissure, your father asked Shen Youran a single favor," Lu Canghai explained softly. "He asked her to watch over the Radiant Sky Sect if he did not return. To ensure it became a place of true merit, free from the corruption of the past."

Lu Canghai shook his head.

"Shen Youran was so full of life back then. Impulsive, fiery, and deeply in love with him. When your father did not return... she willfully crippled her own cultivation base and tore her soul apart to practice the Heartless Sutra."

Su Bai’s eyes widened in horror.

"She didn’t do it for power," Lu Canghai whispered. "She did it to fulfill her promise to your father. She knew that to govern the sect impartially, objectively, and flawlessly, she could not be swayed by grief, anger, or favoritism. She severed her own humanity to become the perfect guardian of his legacy."

Lu Canghai looked at Su Bai. "That is why the Law Enforcement Hall is absolute. That is why our sect values temperament and hard work over pure talent. It is entirely her doing."

Su Bai froze. The autumn wind suddenly felt incredibly cold.

His corporate brain, which had spent the last six years praising the Radiant Sky Sect as the ultimate, flawless corporate utopia, suddenly realized the horrifying truth.

The perfect company culture. The absolute meritocracy. The fair distribution of resources.

It wasn’t the result of a brilliant HR department. It was the result of a woman who had lobotomized her own soul and frozen her own heart, transforming herself into a living, breathing machine just to keep a promise to a ghost.

Shen Youran wasn’t a cold robot. She was the most tragically loyal employee to ever exist.

Su Bai sat in absolute silence. He had no memories of Su Qingshan. He felt no burning desire to seek out a father who had dumped him with the CEO and vanished into the void.

But his heart still trembled.

The cultivation world wasn’t just a place of numbers, realms, and resources. It was a place built on the bones of unimaginable sacrifices.