"My father?" Hearing those words, Chu Feng's body trembled. A feeling he had never experienced before surged through his entire being.
"As a rule, we servants are not permitted to leave this place. It was Lord Xuanyuan who sought out this old servant and asked him to protect you. That is why this old servant made an exception and left."
"Lord Xuanyuan instructed this old servant to protect you, but only intervene when absolutely necessary."
"Lord Xuanyuan said that certain trials must be faced by you personally. Only by experiencing them yourself can you truly grow."
"So naturally, this old servant could not tell you that he had been watching over you. Lord Xuanyuan said that if you knew someone was guarding you, you would grow complacent — that no matter what enemy or peril you faced, you would never feel fear."
"In truth, this old servant has never truly stepped in to save you. One could say… that Master, you have made it to where you are today entirely on your own."
"I believe this is also what Lord Xuanyuan wished." The blind elder spoke.
Hearing this, the feeling surging through Chu Feng's body only intensified. Even… even his eyes began to redden.
In that moment, he experienced a feeling he had barely known since childhood.
A father's love — love from his own father.
Previously, Chu Feng had always believed that his poor talent was what had caused his father to be cast out of the Chu Family, condemned to suffer in the forbidden grounds within the Heavenly Road.
He had felt he owed his father a debt, and could therefore never expect anything from him. Even back when he had entered the forbidden grounds of the Heavenly Road and his father had refused to see him, Chu Feng had not blamed his father.
The only one he blamed was himself — for being so weak that he had dragged his parents down with him.
Under those circumstances, Chu Feng had truly never dared hope for anything from his father.
But today, after hearing the blind elder's words, after learning the truth—
Chu Feng suddenly realized that encountering the blind elder had not been some twist of fate. It had been his father's arrangement.
His father had not abandoned him at all. On the contrary… he had been sending people to watch over Chu Feng's every move, quietly guarding him all along.
True, over the years Chu Feng had suffered a great deal — endured countless humiliations — and the blind elder had never appeared to help him during any of it.
But still, the blind elder had been there. If Chu Feng had truly faced death, he would have intervened.
Most importantly, the blind elder's protection of Chu Feng had been his father's doing.
"Uncle Blind, did you just say that my father came to find you personally?" Chu Feng suddenly asked in a grave tone, as a thought had struck him.
"That is indeed the case," the blind elder nodded.
"When was this?" Chu Feng asked.
"It was after you were taken out of the Heavenly Road by Huangfu Haoyue," the blind elder replied.
At those words, Chu Feng's heart jolted once more.
By all logic, the Chu Family's forbidden grounds inside the Heavenly Road should have been a kind of special prison for his father. And according to Chu Feng's deductions, his father and the old ape had been enduring torments within that forbidden ground — otherwise their cultivation could not have regressed.
Moreover, the Chu Family seemed to have someone monitoring that forbidden ground at all times, which was why they could not leave.
Under such circumstances, Chu Feng's father should have had no way to leave the forbidden grounds of the Heavenly Road.
Yet now it seemed he had been wrong. His father had clearly left those forbidden grounds at some point — otherwise, how could he have found the blind elder and entrusted him with protecting Chu Feng?