Volume 4: Super-Tier Awakening & The Ancient Capital Calamity
Chapter 316
A Family Reunion & The Mother's Hidden Lineage
The small apartment in South Jinghai was bathed in the soft, amber glow of the setting sun pouring through the glass windows as evening settled. After the harrowing days of Lin Feng’s life-and-death secluded cultivation in the remote, perilous expanses of Kunlun—where every inch of soil was soaked in demonic blood and raging magic gales—this tranquil haven suddenly felt like an extravagant paradise.
Laughter and the rhythmic clatter of kitchen knives echoed from the compact kitchen, mingling with the rich, savory aromas of familiar home-cooked meals. There was no oppressive weight of a Major General’s aura, no deafening roars of monarch-class beasts. Here, there was only the warmth of family, a long-awaited reunion that once felt like an unreachable dream through thousands of miles of military campaigns.
Little Mo wore a simple white sweater today, her hair tied up in a lively, high ponytail. She chirped like a small sparrow the moment Lin Feng stepped through the front door. Her wide, round eyes stared unblinkingly at her older brother, brimming with boundless pride and admiration.
“Big Brother! Do you know that while you were away these past few months, the magical broadcast at my school mentioned your name every single day? They said Major General Lin Feng single-handedly wreaked havoc on the Northern Front and lopped off the head of a Great Commander. You were so majestic and imposing!”
Little Mo raised her slender hands into the air as she spoke. Her dainty fingers flicked gently, and a cluster of jade-green Healing Element star dust suddenly blossomed with a brilliant, luminous glow, radiating a cool, revitalizing vitality. Three star particles orbited in an extremely smooth and stable trajectory, entirely free of impurities or fluctuations.
“Hmph, look at that! Under the military medical academy’s dedicated guidance and my own unyielding hard work, I’ve already lit up three star particles! I’m about to step into the threshold of a Intermediate Healer, you know!” She lifted her chin high, looking immensely pleased with herself, though her eyes still twinkled with anticipation for praise from her heroic older brother.
Lin Feng smiled, reaching out to stroke his sister’s soft hair, a rare trace of gentleness flashing in his eyes. He knew full well that for a girl her age to achieve such a milestone required countless hours of sweat and tears behind the scenes, purely so she wouldn’t become a burden to him.
“You’ve done well, you little dummy. Looks like before long, it’ll be you stepping onto the battlefield to protect me,” Lin Feng chuckled warmly, tapping her forehead lightly and causing Little Mo to let out a small squeak of protest before covering her mouth with a giggle.
In the kitchen, Lin Hai emerged wearing a faded loungewear set, holding a soup ladle. The aging father had hair streaked heavily with silver, his eyes and forehead etched deep with the wear and tear of a hard life. His calloused, rough hands—hardened by years of struggling through hardship in the old days of Bo City—shook slightly as he placed a steaming bowl of fish soup onto the dining table.
Lin Hai looked up at his eldest son. The child who once trailed behind him, fleeing from the claws of ferocious beasts during the terrifying catastrophe of Bo City, had now grown beyond all measure. Standing before him was not just a handsome young man, but the youngest Major General in the history of the Divine Continent, a towering pillar shielding an entire realm of rivers and mountains.
Lin Hai’s eyes stung, and a tear of weathered age welled up involuntarily, tracing a path down his hollow cheek. He hurriedly grabbed a frayed handkerchief tucked at his waist, stealthily wiping it away before lifting his head with a hearty laugh to mask the turbulent emotions swelling in his chest:
“Ha ha... You brat, what are you standing there frozen for? Wash your hands and sit down to eat! Today’s spread is full of all your childhood favorites. Sweet and sour fish, lotus root and pork rib soup... I had to head out to South Jinghai’s biggest seafood market at the crack of dawn to pick these. Be a little late and the best catches are all gone!”
“Alright, I’m coming.” Lin Feng stepped forward, resting a hand on his father’s thin shoulder, feeling the tangible weight of age and time pressing down on the man who had raised him single-handedly. A bittersweet pang of pride and sorrow welled up in his chest. In this magical path of cultivation, no matter how high he climbed or how vastly he lorded over the realm, sitting beside this humble, warm dinner table remained the only true sanctuary for his soul.
The dinner unfolded amidst Little Mo’s cheerful chatter and their father’s simple, down-to-earth inquiries. The cramped space of the humble apartment brimmed with the flavor of unadulterated happiness.
When the meal concluded, the wall clock pointed to nine in the evening. Little Mo yawned repeatedly after a tiring day of studies and the overwhelming joy of the reunion. She obediently cleared the table and asked to retire to her own bedroom to rest. Before long, the soft, steady rhythm of her breathing drifted from the small room, signaling she had plunged into a deep sleep.
At that moment, only the father and son remained in the living room. Lin Hai silently cleared away the old tea set, brewed a fresh pot of jasmine tea that released a fragrant aroma, and motioned for Lin Feng to step out onto the breezy balcony.
The fifteenth-floor balcony overlooked the glittering, brilliantly illuminated nightscape of the magical mega-city of Magus City. Streams of traffic flowed back and forth like glowing ribbons winding between towering skyscrapers. The sea breeze sweeping in from the bay carried a salty moisture and the biting chill of early winter, causing the smoke from the cigarette in Lin Hai’s hand to drift upward and dissolve into the empty night.
Lin Hai took a deep drag, his clouded eyes fixed on the dim red ember glowing in the dark. He fell silent for a long moment, heavy sighs escaping his chest as though burdened by secrets buried for decades—secrets he had never dared utter to a living soul, not even when facing the brink of life and death.
“Feng’er... You’ve truly grown up. You’re no longer the child who needed me to shield him behind my back during the beast-filled nights in Bo City. Your current strength... even I can no longer fathom its limits,” Lin Hai spoke, his voice raspy and deep, laced with an indescribable, emotional weight.
Lin Feng leaned casually against the glass railing, holding an unlit cigarette between his fingers. He turned his head to look at his aging father, instantly sensing the unusual demeanor the old man carried tonight. The sharp intuition of a Super-tier powerhouse keenly warned him that the words about to follow would tear away a monumental veil of secrets—one their family had concealed for many long years.
“Dad, is something wrong? If any domestic clan or faction dares to seek trouble with us, a single thought from me is enough to wipe them off the map of the Divine Continent,” Lin Feng raised an eyebrow, his tone calm yet radiating a peerless, murderous intent that could shake the heavens.
Hearing this, Lin Hai shook his head with a bitter chuckle and patted his son’s shoulder gently:
“It’s not about domestic factions, nor any mundane enemy in this country. This matter... concerns the mother who has never once appeared in your memories.”
A sharp, lightning-like flash pierced Lin Feng’s eyes. His mother? As far back as his memories stretched, his mind held only the image of his toil-worn father planting crops to scrape by and his tearful little sister. Lin Hai had never once mentioned his biological mother, as if her existence were an unhealed wound or an absolute taboo never to be touched.
“I always thought... she died in some accident when I was still an infant,” Lin Feng said in a low voice, his tone rippling with an indescribable undercurrent of emotion.
“Dead? Heh, if she were that easy to kill, this magical world wouldn’t have been turned upside down,” Lin Hai laughed coldly, his nostalgic gaze drifting back into the distant past.
He walked back into the living room, opened a mini wall safe tucked in the corner of the wardrobe, and carefully retrieved a black sandalwood box faded by the years. The box was sealed tight with an antique lock etched with magical sealing runes. Muttering a brief incantation, Lin Hai tapped his finger lightly against the lock. With a soft pop, the faint light vanished and the box clicked open.
Inside lay no gold, jewels, or formidable cultivation manuals. Resting quietly amidst a bed of dark crimson velvet was a pure white snow-lotus jade pendant, roughly the size of a palm. Strangely enough, despite drifting from Bo City to Magus City through countless trials, the jade still radiated an aura of pure, bone-chilling frost. Around the jade surface, tiny specks of starlight twinkled like solitary stars across a galaxy, circling an illusory snow-lotus that slowly blossomed.
The moment Lin Hai carried the jade pendant out to the balcony, the ambient temperature plummeted by several degrees. The night dew condensing on the nearby potted plants instantly froze into delicate, fragile ice crystals.
“This is...” Lin Feng’s mind trembled violently. The moment his spiritual power brushed against the jade pendant, a miraculous sensation of bloodline resonance surged straight into his chest. His heart hammered wildly, and the blood within his veins boiled, directly echoing the piercing cold of the snow-lotus.
“Indeed. This is the only token your mother left behind before she departed in a stormy, gale-swept night twenty years ago,” Lin Hai cradled the jade pendant tenderly, his eyes brimming with profound longing and utter helplessness.
He raised his head to look straight into Lin Feng’s eyes, beginning to recount a heaven-shaking tale:
“Your mother is no mere mortal from that tiny town of Bo City. Nor does she belong to any ordinary superpower or mediocre magical faction known to human maps. Her origin... rules over the absolute edge of the world, the coldest and most desolate forbidden zone of all — the Extreme Southern Ice Wilderness!”
“The Extreme Southern Ice Wilderness?” Lin Feng narrowed his eyes. Historical magical texts recorded that place as a lethal dead zone, where even True Lord-class monsters or Forbidden Curse powerhouses dared not casually set foot, for it harbored terrifying secrets dating back to the primordial pre-historic era.
“That’s right. There exists an ancient, sacred magical clan wielding supreme divine bloodlines, reigning supreme over frost and ice for tens of thousands of years — the Ancient Ice Clan!” Lin Hai drew a deep breath, continuing with a voice steeped in dread:
“Back then, your mother fled to the southern lands of the Divine Continent to escape a pre-arranged betrothal forced upon her by the clan and to evade the relentless hunt of cold-blooded elders within the sect. When she was gravely injured and on the verge of death by the riverbanks outside Bo City, I happened to discover and save her. Through life-and-death hardships shared side by side, we fell in love, crossing the boundary between mortal and divine to bring you into this world...”
Lin Hai paused for a beat, his lips twitching as the agonizing pain of a decades-long forced separation surged back to claw at his heart:
“ nhưng short-lived happiness never lasts. On the night you turned one year old, the skies over Bo City suddenly shifted. Pillars of icy frost pierced the blue clouds, and dozens of powerhouses radiating earth-shaking Forbidden Curse pressure descended from the Extreme Southern Ice Wilderness. They forced your mother to return and submit to a millennium of kneeling in the ice and snow as punishment for ‘polluting the clan’s pure bloodline’.”
“To protect the lives of us father and son, and to prevent those monsters from leveling the entire town of Bo City at the time, your mother had no choice but to compromise. She left without a word of farewell, leaving behind only this snow-lotus jade pendant and a vow...”
Lin Hai stared fixedly at Lin Feng, every word dropping heavy as a thousand pounds:
“She said that the bloodline of the Ice Clan is unbearably arrogant. If the son she bore turned out to be nothing more than a mediocre nobody, then you must never, ever seek out the Extreme Southern Ice Wilderness—for the sole outcome would be a tragic death beneath the feet of their holy temple. But... if you possess the true mettle, the capability to rise above adversity and step onto the absolute peak of magical limits—the peak Super-tier realm or even the Supreme Forbidden Curse—then take this jade pendant, stride proudly into the Ice Wilderness Holy Temple, and demand justice for your mother so our family may reunite!”
The night wind howled across the balcony, whipping Lin Feng’s jet-black hair into a frenzy. Deep within his profound eyes, there was neither shock nor fear; instead, a raging inferno of fury ignited brilliantly, accompanied by an invisible pressure that made the surrounding air feel as though it were freezing solid.
The Extreme Southern Ice Wilderness? The arrogant Ancient Ice Clan dared imprison his own flesh and blood, tearing his family apart for twenty full years?
Hmph!
Lin Feng slowly reached out, taking the snow-lotus jade pendant from his father’s hand. The instant his fingers brushed against it, the jade emitted a clear, resonant hum, bursting with a brilliant green-blue radiance that illuminated his sharp, cold features. The warm current of bloodline connection surged into his fingertips, whispering as if calling out to the son who had wandered for so long.
“Dad, rest easy,” Lin Feng gripped the jade piece tightly in his palm, his tone calm yet imbued with a supreme, sovereign authority that caused even the standing Lin Hai to tremble in his soul, as if facing a descending deity:
“I climbed from the ashes of Bo City all the way to the position of Major General today. That towering mountain known as the Ancient Ice Clan... sooner or later, I will grind it beneath my feet! The debt owed to my mother, I will go to the Extreme Southern Ice Wilderness and collect it piece by piece myself!”
As the words fell, an invisible, billowing momentum surged forth, causing the entire atmosphere on the balcony to freeze stiff.
Just as the flames of battle intent in Lin Feng’s heart burned to their absolute peak, preparing to burst forth from his chest...
Ring... Ring... Ring...!
The doorbell inside the apartment suddenly rang frantically, shattering the solemn, tranquil atmosphere of the balcony. Following the ring came a wave of boisterous, boisterously familiar laughter echoing from the dim hallway outside:
“Old Lin! Our great Major General is back, yet the doors are locked tight like this? Open up and see who brought fine celebratory wine for you!”
“Damn it, we traveled thousands of miles to celebrate, don’t you dare tell me you’ve already gone to sleep! Open the door right now or I’m breaking it down!”
Hearing the booming, familiar voices of Zhao Manyan and Mo Fan’s crew, the corners of Lin Feng’s mouth twitched involuntarily. The chilling aura of slaughter melted away instantly, replaced by a helpless smile.
He turned to look at his bewildered aging father, then stepped back into the living room:
“Looks like tonight... we won’t be getting any peace and quiet after all!”
Click.
Lin Feng reached out and threw the front door wide open, welcoming the noisy whirlwind of his life-and-death companions waiting outside, while simultaneously opening a brand-new chapter on his path to conquering the peak of magic and unraveling the shrouded mysteries of his mother’s lineage!