FRGNM -Chapter 321 The Master of the Five Little Devils

“Master…” Unable to hold back any longer, the five youngsters behind them rushed straight into the cave, charging toward the ice bed.

Sensing the disturbance ahead, Baili Yan’s expression changed. The tenderness in her eyes vanished instantly. She instinctively pressed a hand to the long spear beside her, about to sweep it forward—but the five figures were even faster. In the blink of an eye, they reached Ling Feng’s side and firmly grasped his arms.

Yet the man seated there was completely unaware of the outside world. He could hear nothing, see nothing.

“Master, Master, open your eyes and look at us!”

“Master, how could this happen… Why did you melt us down? Don’t you know that our natal essence could have protected you for a lifetime?”

“Master, you’re not dead, right? Why…?”

The little ones seemed wounded by the sight. They quickly sat down in front of Ling Feng, but no matter how they shook his body, the man never opened his eyes. He remained exactly as he was—quietly seated.

Baili Yan frowned and stood up. When she looked at Ling Ruoxi beside her, she paused slightly and asked instinctively, “Ruoxi, you already know? Oh, right—you know now. Who exactly are these five little ones? Why do they call him ‘Master’? I didn’t know he had taken in such youngsters outside.”

“Mother, the five of them are the artifact spirits of the Purple Bamboo Divine Needles. They once belonged to Father.”
Ling Ruoxi took out the five Purple Bamboo Divine Needles. Even after so long, the five pieces of purple bamboo could still sense their master’s aura, and at that instant, they trembled together.

Murong Ming only shook his head, looking at the man seated ahead. A glimmer of light flashed deep in his eyes as he said calmly, “Ruoxi, you’ve studied medicine and know how to save people. Now that all five Purple Bamboo Divine Needles are ready, try using the power of the purple bamboo and see whether you can bring him back from the brink of death.”

“People don’t come back to life once they’re dead—haven’t you heard that?” Although she desperately wanted her father to still be alive, Ling Ruoxi’s eyes were already filled with tears. She took a deep breath and looked calmly at the man ahead.

He no longer had any vitality—how could he possibly be revived?

Those words struck everyone’s hearts like a heavy hammer. What Ling Ruoxi said was the cruelest and most realistic truth: the dead do not return to life. Such a simple principle—why did they still need to be reminded? And yet they all clung stubbornly to hope, believing he wasn’t dead, that he was still alive…

Murong Ming, however, shook his head, his brows tightly knit. “No. Twenty years ago, Ling Feng came to Duanyun Nation and found me. He said he needed to go into seclusion, but after entering seclusion, he didn’t know how long it would take to awaken. I didn’t think much of it and let him cultivate here. I thought he’d come out after a year, but ten years passed without any movement. When I went in, he no longer had any vitality—no different from a corpse. But someone who is about to die wouldn’t say he was going into seclusion. At the time, he carried his Zhan Yue Blade and said something about ‘when the blade moves, the man awakens, and the world will be at peace.’ I didn’t understand it. Now the Zhan Yue Blade has already rusted. I thought only the power of the purple bamboo could save him, so…”

His gaze shifted to Ling Ruoxi. Because of this belief, Murong Ming had waited all these years, constantly searching for purple bamboo—yet he couldn’t even locate it, nor did he understand how to use the compass.

Only later did he learn that Ling Feng had a daughter in this world. He wondered whether giving her the compass might allow her to find the purple bamboo and forge it into Divine Needles. Reality proved him right. In less than a year, Ling Ruoxi found all the purple bamboo—and even forged it into Divine Needles within that same year. Heaven’s timing and earthly advantage were in place. Now all that remained was human effort…

“Father—he’s not dead, he’s just in seclusion?” Frowning deeply, Ling Ruoxi strode to the ice bed and pressed her fingers to Ling Feng’s pulse. A thread of purple Dou Qi flowed along his meridians and rapidly entered his body.

Qingyi did not dare to delay either. He slowly closed his eyes as a trace of purple aura burst forth. When he opened his blue eyes again, he looked toward the man seated cross-legged ahead. Even with his vision, he couldn’t detect anything different.

All of Ling Feng’s meridians were fixed, with no circulation at all—like a living corpse. His body was soft, but his consciousness was gone. Yet he was also like a dead man, because his entire body was ice-cold, devoid of any flow of life energy. He seemed impossible to revive.

Sweat poured from Ling Ruoxi’s forehead as her Dou Qi coursed through every corner of Ling Feng’s body. Still, the man showed no response whatsoever, as though he were eternally asleep. His cold body sat rigidly on the ice bed; even trying to lay him flat was impossible.

Slowly opening her eyes, Ling Ruoxi looked at Qingyi standing before her, an apologetic glint flashing through her gaze. Then she turned to Murong Ming and shook her head. “Father… has already passed. I examined the vital mechanisms in his body—they’ve been completely severed. This isn’t seclusion.”

If it were seclusion, there would at least be perception, some circulation of life force. But the man before them, aside from having a soft body, was no different from a corpse in every other respect.

Baili Yan’s body trembled. She clenched her hands tightly and stared ahead with unwavering determination. Taking a deep breath, she said, “I don’t believe he’s dead. Little Ruoxi, all of you go out. I want to talk to him—to wake him up.”

“Exactly! Ling Ruoxi, you’re the master’s daughter—how can you hope he’s dead?”

“That’s right! The master is so powerful—how could he die?”

“Yes! We’ll combine our purple bamboo power and wake the master!”

“Right! The master never jokes. If he said he was going into seclusion, then it must be seclusion. We’ll use the purple bamboo aura to pull his divine consciousness back!”

Seeing the five figures sitting together, Ling Ruoxi’s heart trembled. A faint realization unfolded within her. She remembered once questioning what life truly was. She had chosen to go with the flow, to follow nature. But now, watching these five youngsters and the people around her, she felt as though something was sprouting within her heart.

She subconsciously closed her eyes and observed the entire cave inwardly. Purple bamboo aura poured into Ling Feng’s body, yet the frozen man showed no reaction. Time passed little by little, until even Ling Ruoxi herself was close to her limit.

Within the purple glow, a faint pale-green light suddenly flickered—just once. But Ling Ruoxi caught it instantly. Her eyes flew open. Just as the five artifact spirits were about to collapse, she suddenly stepped forward, rapidly injecting her Dou Qi into Ling Feng’s body, chasing after that pale-green light.

She was fast—but the green aura was faster. In that instant, it vanished, colliding with the purple Dou Qi. Both were forms of Dou Qi, yet Ling Ruoxi was utterly defeated. Her qi, before that green aura, was like fragile cloth, torn apart in an instant.

At the same time, a vast, powerful aura erupted from Ling Feng’s body. The five figures were all blasted backward. Even Ling Ruoxi lost her footing and staggered back more than ten steps before Luo Mingyu caught her in his arms.

“What’s going on…?” Murong Ming rushed forward, but the man ahead was still seated, showing no reaction at all, as if even he didn’t know what he had just done.

Taking a sharp breath, Ling Ruoxi broke free from Luo Mingyu’s embrace and stared at the figure ahead, saying word by word, “Father isn’t dead.”

That single sentence was enough. The hearts that had been hanging in suspense finally settled. The man seated there truly wasn’t dead—he was cultivating…

Suppressing the turbulent energy within her body, Ling Ruoxi took a deep breath and forced the discomfort back down. Covering her chest with one hand, she frowned and said, “Thanks to the artifact spirits, I discovered how Father’s body differs from ordinary people.”

“How is it different? Tell us—he looks just like a corpse to me…” Feeling the stares around him, Silver Wolf shivered and hurriedly covered his mouth, not daring to speak further.

Ling Ruoxi grabbed Silver Wolf by the ear and glared at him fiercely, then propped her chin with one hand and continued, “The life force within our bodies flows constantly—that’s why we can speak and move. But Father’s life force is different. The speed at which it circulates in his body is only one percent of normal… meaning it circulates once every hundred hours. That’s why he appears no different from a corpse. In reality, Father is in seclusion. There is still life force in his body—it just doesn’t flow during fixed intervals in the outside world.”

One percent…

Even Murong Ming could never have noticed such a thing. Even if he had stayed here for a hundred hours straight, that fleeting moment of circulation was so fast that even Ling Ruoxi had nearly missed it—how could he have discovered it?

“Really?” Baili Yan took a deep breath and moved closer to Ling Feng, gently touching the tip of his nose. She discovered that his body seemed slightly warmer—perhaps because his life force had just circulated. It was different from before.

She had stayed by his side all these days, yet she had truly overlooked these details.

Nodding, Ling Ruoxi looked at her, determination flashing in her eyes as she said in a low voice, “This state can only be resolved by using purple bamboo aura to wake him. Whether it will work or not depends on what happens after we use it. Since this is seclusion, Father will eventually emerge. Mother, you don’t need to be too anxious.”