Three months after the tournament, Tranquil Peak had settled into a new equilibrium.
Lin Feng had reluctantly accepted his increased fame and adapted by strengthening his formation's outer layers. Visitors still occasionally appeared at the base of the mountain, but they could no longer even find the forest paths.
Sect Master Tianlong had made his first quarterly visit, bringing four of his most talented elders. They'd spent three hours observing the peak in awed silence, then departed with tears of enlightenment streaming down their faces. Tianlong had sent a thank-you gift of supreme-grade spirit stones, which Lin Feng had accepted politely and then used as garden decorations, thinking they looked pretty.
All five disciples were advancing at terrifying rates. Liu Mei had reached Core Formation. Wei Ling had broken through to Tribulation Transcendence. Chen Bo had achieved the Soul Formation peak. Shen Yue and Zhou Yuan had both stabilised at Soul Formation peak as well, consolidating their foundations before attempting to reach higher realms.
Life was good.
Then, on a crisp autumn morning, Xiao Hong began clucking urgently.
Lin Feng looked up from his morning meditation. "What is it, girl? Another visitor?"
[Warning: Injured cultivator detected approaching Tranquil Peak]
[Status: Critical injuries, near death]
[Age: Approximately 16 years old]
[Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (sealed due to injury)]
[Threat Level: None]
[Recommendation: Your choice whether to intervene]
"An injured child?" Lin Feng immediately stood. "Where?"
He hurried to the edge of the formation and peered through. A young boy was crawling up the mountain path, leaving a trail of blood. His robes were torn, his face covered in bruises, and one arm hung at an unnatural angle.
Without hesitation, Lin Feng opened the formation and ran down to help.
"Don't move," he said gently, reaching the boy. "You're badly hurt. Let me help you."
The boy looked up with dulling eyes. "Please... they're coming... they'll find me..."
"No one's going to hurt you here," Lin Feng promised. He carefully lifted the boy and carried him through the formation into Tranquil Peak.
His disciples immediately rushed over when they saw Master carrying an injured child.
"Liu Mei, fetch the healing herbs from the workshop," Lin Feng instructed. "Wei Ling, prepare a recovery chamber. Shen Yue, check if anyone's pursuing him."
His disciples moved efficiently. Within minutes, the boy was laid on a soft bed in one of the spare rooms, and Lin Feng was examining his injuries.
"System, how bad is it?"
[Analysis: Multiple broken bones, internal bleeding, damaged meridians, and a poison seal on his cultivation]
[Without treatment, survival chance: 2%]
[With Host's treatment, survival chance: 100%]
Lin Feng's jaw tightened. Who would do this to a child?
He spent the next hour carefully treating each injury. He used healing salves made from his garden herbs (each one worth more than a sect's treasury). He set the broken bones with techniques Master had taught him in his previous life (actually, supreme healing methods from ancient medical texts he'd studied). He even used a drop of water from his spiritual spring to flush out the poison.
What should have required teams of expert healers working for days, Lin Feng completed in an hour through methods he considered "basic first aid."
The boy's colour returned. His breathing steadied. The twisted arm straightened and healed.
Lin Feng sat back with a sigh of relief. "That should do it. He'll need rest, but he'll recover fully."
[Emergency Healing Completed!]
[Patient's injuries: 100% healed]
[Patient's sealed cultivation: Unlocked and repaired]
[Additional Effect: Patient's damaged meridians have been reconstructed with superior pathways]
[Patient's potential: Dramatically increased]
[Reward: 15,000 Seclusion Points]
The boy's eyes fluttered open. For a moment, he stared at Lin Feng in confusion, then fear filled his face. "Please don't send me back! I'll work, I'll do anything, just don't—"
"Calm down," Lin Feng said soothingly. "No one's sending you anywhere. You're safe here. Can you tell me what happened?"
Tears began streaming down the boy's face. "My name is Bai Ling. I was... I was a servant in the Crimson Blade Sect. The Sect Master's son liked to use servants as training dummies. When I tried to run away, he..."
The boy couldn't continue, choking on sobs.
Lin Feng felt anger burn in his chest. Using children as training dummies? What kind of sect allowed such cruelty?
"You don't have to go back," Lin Feng said firmly. "Stay here as long as you need to recover. Then we'll figure out what to do."
"Master," Shen Yue said quietly, having returned from her patrol, "there's a pursuit party at the base of the mountain. Crimson Blade Sect members, demanding the return of an 'escaped servant.' They can't find the path up, but they're threatening to report us to sect authorities."
Lin Feng's eyes narrowed. "Let them threaten. That boy isn't going anywhere."
What Lin Feng didn't realise was that his statement, backed by his overwhelming cultivation base, had created a ripple of spiritual pressure that every cultivator within a hundred miles felt as a declaration of absolute authority.
At the base of the mountain, the Crimson Blade pursuit party suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of dread.
"Leader," one cultivator whispered nervously, "I don't think we should stay here."
"Nonsense! That brat is sect property! We'll—"
"LEAVE."
The single word echoed through the forest, carrying weight that seemed to come from the universe itself. It wasn't shouted—it was simply spoken by Lin Feng on top of the peak, expressing his desire for them to go away.
But the word, amplified by his cultivation and the formation, became a command that reality itself enforced.
The Crimson Blade cultivators found themselves running before they consciously decided to flee. They didn't stop until they'd left the entire mountain range.
On Tranquil Peak, Lin Feng blinked in confusion. "Huh. I guess they gave up? Good."
Over the next few days, Bai Ling recovered physically and began opening up emotionally.
He was an orphan who had been sold to the Crimson Blade Sect as a child. He'd spent six years being treated as less than human—beaten during training sessions, starved as punishment, forced to do the most dangerous tasks.
"I just wanted to cultivate," Bai Ling said quietly one evening as they all sat together for dinner. "I know I don't have great talent, but I wanted to try. But servants aren't allowed to practice cultivation. We're just... tools."
Liu Mei's eyes were filled with tears. She'd been an orphan too, and while she'd never been a servant, she understood the loneliness and desperation.
Lin Feng felt his heart break for this child. "Bai Ling, would you like to stay here? Learn cultivation properly, in an environment where you're treated with respect?"
The boy's eyes went wide. "But... I'm just a servant. I have no background, no talent, nothing to offer—"
"I don't care about backgrounds," Lin Feng interrupted. "I care about character and willingness to work hard. You showed incredible courage escaping and surviving long enough to reach here. That tells me everything I need to know."
"You mean... you'd take me as a disciple?" Bai Ling could barely speak through his shock.
"If you want that, yes."
Bai Ling threw himself to the ground in a full kowtow, tears streaming down his face. "Yes! Please, Master! I'll work harder than anyone! I'll never disappoint you!"
[New Disciple Accepted!]
[Bai Ling has become your sixth disciple!]
[Current Disciple Count: 6]
[Reward: 10,000 Seclusion Points]
[Special Note: This disciple arrives with significant trauma. Extra patience and care will be required.]
The other five disciples immediately welcomed Bai Ling warmly, making him feel part of the family.
"I'm the newest senior sister," Liu Mei said with a smile. "Which means you're my junior brother! I'll help you get settled!"
"We're all family here," Wei Ling added kindly. "You'll never be treated as a servant again."
Over the following weeks, Bai Ling slowly adjusted to his new life.
Lin Feng started him on the most basic cultivation exercises, not realising that his "basic exercises" were actually profound techniques that would rapidly repair the boy's damaged foundation.
He gave Bai Ling simple chores—helping in the garden, fetching water from the spring, cleaning the pavilions—not realising that every task exposed the boy to overwhelming spiritual energy and Dao insights.
He treated Bai Ling with casual kindness and respect—not realising that being treated as a person, not a tool, was healing wounds deeper than any physical injury.
Within two months, Bai Ling had advanced from Foundation Establishment to Core Formation.
[Disciple Bai Ling Achievement: Rapid Advancement!]
[Despite previous trauma and damaged meridians, the disciple has achieved a breakthrough]
[This is due to the Host's supportive environment and superior teaching]
[Reward: 5,000 Seclusion Points]
"Master," Bai Ling said one evening, his voice still timid but growing stronger, "why are you so kind to me? I'm nobody. I have nothing to offer you."
Lin Feng ruffled the boy's hair gently. "Bai Ling, cultivation isn't about what you can offer others. It's about growing into the best version of yourself. You're 'nobody'—you're my disciple, and that means you're somebody very important to me."
Bai Ling hugged him suddenly, crying into Lin Feng's robes. "Thank you, Master. Thank you for saving me."
Lin Feng patted his back awkwardly, not good with emotional moments, but deeply moved. "You saved yourself by having the courage to escape. I just gave you a safe place to land."
What Lin Feng didn't know was that the Crimson Blade Sect had reported the "kidnapping" of their servant to several major sects, trying to marshal support for a confrontation with Tranquil Peak.
Every single sect they contacted had the same response: "The Unfathomable Master? You want us to confront HIM? Are you insane? Cut your losses and forget about one servant."
The Crimson Blade Sect Master, realising he'd stepped on a tiger's tail, immediately issued a public apology: "The escaped servant Bai Ling is hereby released from all obligations. If the esteemed Master of Tranquil Peak has taken him in, it is our sect's good fortune that the boy found such an extraordinary teacher."
It was a face-saving measure, but everyone understood the truth: they were terrified of Lin Feng's retaliation.
On Tranquil Peak, Lin Feng remained blissfully unaware of this political manoeuvring.
He was simply happy to have another disciple—one who needed healing and guidance, and who reminded him of why he'd started teaching in the first place.
Not to create powerful warriors or spread his fame, but to help young cultivators grow into good people.
And that, perhaps, was what made him truly unfathomable.