Immortal Road Worry-Free - Chapter 16:

Bai Yushuang looked at the girl, her eyes carrying an emotion

she had never known before. You do not need to apologize to me.

Her voice was as calm as ever, but at its end, there was a trace of warmth.

This is not your fault.

She lowered her gaze to the basket of herbs and spoke softly.

Tonight I will brew the medicine. Tomorrow morning, we will sell the herbs together.

At that moment, Little Chun’s eyes filled with mist again,

though she forced herself to lift her head and keep the tears from falling.

She nodded, her voice barely more than a whisper. Thank you.

In the days that followed, the little thatched hut was

filled with the fragrance of medicine.

Under Bai Yushuang’s patient guidance, Little Chun boiled decoctions

day and night, feeding her father on time, wiping his forehead, helping him sit up to breathe.

The herbs gathered from the mountain were no divine elixirs,

but Bai Yushuang’s careful combinations drew out their fullest strength.

Day after day, they replenished his bl00d and spirit,

and soon the man’s cheeks began to glow with faint color once more.

On the ninth morning, before dawn had fully risen,

Bai Yushuang sat quietly outside the hut, watching as Little Chun fed

kindling to the fire beneath the pot. From within came a faint, hoarse sound.

Little Chun froze, the ladle slipping from her fingers. She stumbled into the hut.

Father, you’re awake!

The man lying on the straw mat slowly opened his eyes.

Though weak, his gaze had regained its light.

Seeing his daughter’s trembling joy, a faint smile touched his lips. Wangchun.

Bai Yushuang entered the hut and approached the bed with her.

She placed her fingers lightly on his wrist, feeling his pulse.

The illness still ran deep, but the danger had passed.

The man’s eyes turned toward Bai Yushuang, filled with quiet wonder.

Wangchun, who is this young lady?

Little Chun brightened. Father, this is Sister Bai.

She’s amazing at medicine. She’s the one who saved you.

The man studied Bai Yushuang for a long moment before speaking again.

Young lady, you are a cultivator, aren’t you?

Bai Yushuang hesitated. Her brows drew together slightly,

but before she could answer, Little Chun gasped. Father?

You mean Sister Bai is an immortal? The kind that only exists in stories?

The man’s faint smile deepened, his tone steady despite his weakness.

When I was young, I traveled across the lands to practice medicine.

I met many patients and, on rare occasions, a few cultivators.

They are not like us. Their breath moves with spiritual energy,

clear and steady as flowing water. This young lady’s presence is like a mountain

quiet, immovable, yet vast. I may have mortal eyes, but I know what I see.

After a moment of silence, Bai Yushuang nodded. Yes, I am.

Little Chun’s eyes widened until they seemed to sparkle with disbelief.

The man looked at Bai Yushuang thoughtfully, his voice soft with memory.

When I saved your mother, she too was unconscious.

Later, when she awoke, she told me her name was Lin Yao.

She said she was a cultivator from the upper realm,

sent down to temper her spirit. But she had been poisoned

an ambush, a betrayal and fled into these mountains barely alive.

Bai Yushuang’s expression shifted. Lin Yao? Your wife was a cultivator?

He nodded, his tone low and steady. She said her roots were of fire,

earth, and wood, but impure. After much hardship,

she reached only the fifth stage of Qi refinement.

When I found her, she was at death’s door. The poison was strange,

nearly undetectable. I happened to know a little of venom’s nature,

and by chance, I managed to save her life.

Little Chun stared at him, her voice trembling.

Mother… was a cultivator? But she died when I was one year old, didn’t she?

For a long moment, the man was silent. His eyes dimmed.

I didn’t want you to wait in pain. The poison was never gone only suppressed.

We had a few quiet years together. After you were born, her body weakened again.

I could not cure her. I could only watch as she suffered.

Until one day she said she had to go back to the upper realm,

to find a spiritual herb that might save her.

He closed his eyes, a sigh escaping him.

She didn’t let you see her off. She left a message: if she survived,

she would return to find you. If not, then fate between you had simply run its course.

The man’s name was Zhong Tianzheng. He had been born in this border town by the sea,

in a poor family with many brothers and sisters.

Here, life meant either fishing or farming.

But Tianzheng had always felt a restless fire within him.

When he wasn’t working the fields, he would linger near the apothecary,

carrying crates in exchange for lessons.

His diligence caught the eye of an old physician, who took him in as an apprentice.

He traveled the world beside that old doctor, learning the arts of medicine and healing.

After his master passed, Tianzheng carried on his legacy,

wandering from city to city until one day he returned home.

It was then that he met Lin Yao. And together, they had a daughter Zhong Wangchun.

Wangchun—Hope of Spring.

It was not just a name. It was a prayer. A wish that their daughter

might grow with the vitality of spring itself a symbol of waiting,

of faith, of the return of life after the longest winter.

When Tianzheng named her, his heart still carried a single fragile hope:

even if the world was frozen in sorrow, spring would one day find its way back.