"Father." Upon seeing Chu Yuan, a tidal wave of emotion surged through Chu Feng's heart, rolling and churning.
"Feng'er, are you alright?" Chu Yuan looked at Chu Feng with a warm smile, his eyes brimming with concern.
"I'm fine." Chu Feng shook his head repeatedly.
"Chu Yuan, spoiling Chu Feng like this will only ruin him sooner or later." Chu Nanshan said angrily.
"If I can't even protect my own son, then I don't deserve to be Chu Feng's father." Chu Yuan retorted firmly.
"You—" Chu Nanshan gritted his teeth in fury, but since his strength was inferior to Chu Yuan's, he could only wave his sleeve in disdain and stalk away.
Although Chu Feng knew perfectly well that this was a dream, his eyes had already reddened. And when he heard those words from Chu Yuan, the tears that had been swirling in his eyes burst forth like floodwaters through a broken dam.
Though it was a dream, Chu Feng remembered clearly that this scene had once truly happened.
He was not Chu Yuan's biological son, yet Chu Yuan had always doted on him just like this.
"Feng'er, why are you crying? A man should not shed tears lightly." Seeing Chu Feng in tears, Chu Yuan crouched down and gently stroked his small head with tender concern.
"Father, I've let you down. I've let Grandfather down, I've let the entire Chu Family down. I'm the one who got you all killed—me." Tears and snot blended together across his cheeks.
In that moment, he was no longer the awe-inspiring Chu Feng who commanded the Martial Sacred Land. He was just a boy not yet ten years old.
A boy consumed by guilt.
And looking at Chu Feng like this, Chu Yuan's heart ached deeply. He said:
"Feng'er, don't talk nonsense. The one who should be apologizing is your father."
"It was my own inadequacy that led to my death."
"It was my own inadequacy that I couldn't watch you grow up."
"Feng'er, I hope you won't blame your father. After all, Father was nothing more than an ordinary mortal."
"But you—what you've done for the Chu Family is more than enough. If not for your protection, the entire Chu Family would have been wiped out long ago."
"So, even though you are not my biological son, you are still my pride—my pride, and the pride of everyone in the Chu Family."
"The path of martial cultivation is a difficult one, and there is little we can do to help you. You'll have to rely on yourself."
"But Feng'er, remember—you are a man. No matter what comes, you must stay strong."
As those words fell, Chu Yuan's body began to grow blurry, and everything around him blurred as well.
"Father, don't go. Stay with Feng'er a little longer."
"Father, don't leave Feng'er alone!!!"
Seeing this, Chu Feng grabbed tightly onto Chu Yuan's robes and cried out in desperation.
He knew... the dream was about to shatter. But he didn't want it to end—he wasn't ready to wake up.
Yet no matter how tightly Chu Feng clung, Chu Yuan's robes still vanished from his grasp.
Chu Yuan disappeared soon after, and everything before his eyes faded into nothingness, leaving Chu Feng surrounded by absolute darkness.
When light returned to Chu Feng's vision, he found himself no longer by the stream behind the Chu Family's rear mountain, but inside a comfortable bedchamber within the Divine Domain.
In the end, the dream had faded.
Chu Feng wiped the corners of his eyes—there were real tears there.
Though he hadn't cried as miserably in waking as he had in the dream, the emotions stirred up by that vision had still drawn tears from him.
"Master, what's wrong?" Suddenly, the door was pushed open—it was the blind elder.
"I'm fine." Chu Feng shook his head.