Chapter 148 - 134: We’ll Talk About It Later

Chapter 148: Chapter 134: We’ll Talk About It Later

"Feng’Er?"

Seeing Yun Feng’s body fall straight backward, Yun Buliu instinctively reached out to catch him. It was an ingrained instinct.

To others, "Yun Feng" was merely a name. He was a simple character, or perhaps a villain rotten to the core. They had no particular impression of him, no emotional attachment. If he died, he died.

But in Yun Buliu’s eyes, Yun Feng was not just a name or an insignificant passerby. He represented over a decade of Yun Buliu’s joys and sorrows. He was a crucial Chapter of his life, as vital as his own right arm. And now, Yun Buliu had personally ended that era, severing a bond that had felt like father and son. His heart was a chaotic mix of emotions. He wasn’t happy; he felt deeply miserable. Behind every unfamiliar, seemingly insignificant name lay someone else’s youth, someone else’s deeply cherished existence. To Yun Buliu, Yun Feng was incredibly important.

Looking at the fallen Yun Feng, a bitter taste filled his mouth. That bloodless, pale, and bruised face of a dead man was still so familiar. It was slightly more mature than the face of the child who used to stumble through his lessons, looking up at him with curious, ink-black eyes. Yet, the contours and lines of this face remained identical. It was as if Yun Buliu were looking at that adorable, vibrant child once again.

Back then... how many times had Yun Feng surprised him? There was a time when Yun Feng would cry, unable to bear the sight of Yun Buliu killing a rabbit. When he saw beggars on the street—even when there was a high chance they were con artists—he would show his kindness, helping them anyway. Yun Buliu would scold him for his soft-heartedness, warning him that such na?ve mercy would end badly, yet deep down, he felt immense gratification.

Yun Buliu supervised Yun Feng’s cultivation and Alchemist studies every day. Despite his strict and harsh teachings, he could never harden his heart enough to ignore his disciple’s pain. At night, he would sneak into Yun Feng’s room to apply medicine to his bruises. In his sleep, Yun Feng would murmur, "Master, I’ll work hard... Please don’t be angry... Master, I love you... You are the closest person to me in this life. I definitely won’t disappoint you... I will work hard..."

How many tears had Yun Buliu secretly wiped away? Whenever Yun Feng achieved something, made a breakthrough, or won a competition... how many times had Yun Buliu boasted to his friends, "Look! That’s my boy! The child I raised with my own hands. He is my pride!"

Scene after scene, those dusty memories—the past that Yun Buliu had nearly forgotten—now surfaced clearly before his eyes. This... was his child!

Yun Buliu had always been confident in his own judgment. Once he acknowledged someone, he gave them his complete trust. Even when Yun Feng later betrayed him, turned his back on his master and ancestors, and fought him to the death, his first thought hadn’t been that Yun Feng’s personality had changed, but rather that he must have some unspeakable hardship.

He had said it before, and he had thought about it seriously. During the time they spent together, the years he accompanied Yun Feng as he grew up, he had never mistreated the boy. He had done his best in every possible aspect. Through his strict guidance and emotional investment, he had a clear conscience. Yun Feng had enjoyed a happy and warm childhood right up until adulthood. Yun Buliu simply couldn’t figure out how such a person could suddenly turn dark. Just because he had been strict with him? Just because of that so-called method to become a Saint Grade Alchemist? Impossible! Given Yun Feng’s past personality, these could never serve as reasons for his descent into darkness.

Subconsciously, he actually believed in Yun Feng, just as he believed in his own judgment. Before Shangguan Xiu’Er, if anyone had asked Yun Buliu who he trusted most in this world, he would have answered without hesitation, "Yun Feng!"

To what extent did Yun Buliu trust Yun Feng? Take a hypothetical scenario, for example. If Yun Buliu had a wife, and one day he came home to find Yun Feng and his wife stark naked in the house, as long as Yun Feng claimed he was framed and nothing had happened between them, Yun Buliu would believe him. Even if the whole world insisted he was a cuckold, as long as Yun Feng said he hadn’t done anything shameful, he would still choose to believe him.

If you met someone in your lifetime who you could truly trust—like the bond between Yun Buliu and Yun Feng—you were incredibly lucky. Of course, the vast majority of the time, such entirely trustworthy people were exceedingly rare, or even nonexistent.

Whenever Yun Buliu used to hear about someone being scammed by a brother, deceived by a woman, toyed with by trashy men and women, or stabbed in the back, he would just scoff dismissively. "Who can you blame for being deceived or betrayed?" he would think. "You can only blame yourself for being blind and having poor judgment!"

Sometimes, the person betraying you had repeatedly shown their sinister true colors. Everyone else saw them for what they were and perhaps even tried to warn you, but you chose to wallow in your illusion of happiness, deliberately ignoring the signs. Even if your subconscious knew the truth, you clung to a sliver of desperate hope, allowing yourself to be toyed with bit by bit. In the end, when you were hurt and devastated... wasn’t that just a natural consequence?

He despised such people the most. Once hurt, they would cry about how the world was evil, how all men were scum, or how there wasn’t a single good woman out there. Idiots! Morons! And they still dared to blame the heavens and everyone else!

Therefore, Yun Buliu didn’t trust others easily. But once someone earned his trust, it meant he truly believed in them—no matter what, he would trust them implicitly. Yet there came a time when Yun Feng’s betrayal—his resolute, unwavering betrayal—made Yun Buliu doubt his own judgment.