Beauty and the Bodyguard

A Crazy Idea

“This House Sun- they’re a healer house?” Lin Yi asked.

“Yes. Even now, House Sun is still one of the four small noble houses and five great noble houses. The descendants of House Sun can be said to be spiritual practitioners, but aren’t specialized in combat. The qi within their bodies can only be used for healing or strengthening their power!” Uncle Fu said. “But most of the disciples of House Sun, before they break through the first layer of their secret passed-down arts, can only heal one person. After his qi synchronizes with that person, the bond can never be changed! Unless he breaks through the second stage, at which point he’ll be able to heal two people in total, and so on… Currently, the head of House Sun is only able to heal four people, but he’s already chosen three. One spot remains…”

“Oh?” Lin Yi found this interesting. These Suns practiced an art similar to his but were completely different at the same time. Breaking through one stage could only let them heal one more person, while he only needed to stay in the first stage of the Art of Dragon Mastery and yet he was able to heal anyone!

“So, these descendants of House Sun are the best candidates for marriage alliances—after all, which noble house didn’t want an insurance card like that?” A sad look could be seen on Li Fu’s face for an instant. “But never mind, it seems that you don’t have anything to do with House Sun…”

“Naturally, since I’m a Lin, not a Sun, after all.” Lin Yi nodded. “But Uncle Fu, it seems that there’s something you wanted to say? Is there a deep connection between you and this House Sun?”

“Yi, there are some things I’ve never mentioned to Mister Chu since he wasn’t a practitioner and wasn’t part of that world. I didn’t want to give him unnecessary worry.” Li Fu sighed. “But, you and I are in the same martial arts’ world. I’ll just see this as an old man muttering about the old days to a young man, so I’ll tell you just to share. Since… as it seems, it’s impossible for me to regain my strength any more in this lifetime! I’ll just be an old housekeeper peacefully after telling you this tale!”

“Hm… Okay, Uncle Fu. Please tell me.” Lin Yi could tell already that Uncle Fu was a man with a story. There were many times he wanted to say something to Lin Yi but put it aside. This time, however, he was feeling troubled after losing all his strength and wanted someone to talk to. Lin Yi was a nice audience.

“Yi, your guess is correct: My wife is indeed someone from House Sun!” Uncle Fu said, a trace of his youth returning to his eyes that instant. “My real name isn’t Li Fu, either!”

“Oh?” Lin Yi wasn’t expecting Li Fu’s wife to be from House Sun. “Then, before…”

“My identity before, it’s not much to mention… A failure I was!” Li Fu sighed. “It was twenty years ago, I was young and foolish. As the young master of the sect, I gained the strength of a late phase Mystic, considered to be a leader figure among the sects. I’ve also married a woman from House Sun, and, under her help, broke through to the Earth class… You can imagine the flood of confidence that had on me…”

“What! You’re an Earth class?!” Lin Yi’s eyes went completely wide as he stared at Uncle Fu. Uncle Fu was a Mystic class, yet just before all he had was a golden class’ strength…

“Early phase Earth class spiritual practitioner!” Uncle Fu nodded, some trace of pride in his eyes before a bitterness took over. “But misfortune landed, my sect was annihilated, my wife killed, my daughter missing, and our sect’s treasures taken. I don’t even know who the enemy was!”

“What!” Lin Yi’s surprise only increased. If it weren’t for the fact that he’d interacted with Uncle Fu for so long and knew that he wouldn’t lie easily, Lin Yi would be thinking that the man was making up stories!

“I’ve hidden my name for many years, investigating just what had happened… But to no avail. These years, my thirst for revenge dimmed and looking at Miss Chu, I felt like I was seeing my own daughter, so there’s some comfort in that as I took care of her.” Li Fu said in one breath. “It’s a hard story to take in, isn’t it?”

Lin Yi nodded. “So you were a spiritual practitioner?”

“After my nerves were broken, I hid my name and started training as a physical practitioner, aiming to stand at the peak once more and avenge my family and sect, but now I don’t even know who the enemy is, let alone take revenge!” Li Fu shook his head. “I’m telling you this because it’s panful to keep it in, but now that you know this, there’s no need for you to take action, either!”

Li Fu wasn’t expecting Lin Yi to do anything for him—it was just that he’d kept this in his heart for too long, and it was troubling. He finally could let out a breath of relief.

Lin Yi knew too that Li Fu left out a lot of details, only generalizing the entire story. He was confused and had questions, but didn’t ask them. After all, this was a wound of Uncle Fu’s, and asking those questions would only increase his sadness!

If Li Fu wanted to tell him, then in the future he would reveal the story slowly. If he didn’t wish so, there was no point in asking!

“So you were a spiritual practitioner, an Earth class, too?” Lin Yi’s heart thought of something insane.

“Yes!” Uncle Fu nodded. “But that’s all in the past, there’s no point in being fixated on it! You can just treat it as a story…”

“Uncle Fu, if it were possible for you to regain your strength, would you like to try?” Lin Yi said solemnly.

“Regain my strength?” Uncle Fu froze, but a bitter smile appeared. “You want me to train again as a physical practitioner? I no longer have confidence. Yi, I understand that you want me to get myself together, but I really have given up! I thought I could have some breakthroughs through the physical route, but these years I’ve only remained stuck in the golden class late phase peak. Breaking into the Mystic class is too difficult and strenuous! After all, physical and spiritual practitioning are two different things, the higher we climb the harder it gets!”

“Heh, I’m talking about spiritual practitioning.” Lin Yi smiled.

“Spiritual?” Li Fu froze again before a flash of amazement appeared in his eyes. His voice sounded uncertain. “You’re saying… That you can enable me to train as a spiritual practitioner again? But my nerves… I…”

“I can repair them!” Lin Yi nodded before saying it with certainty.

This was the crazy thought that Lin Yi had in his mind. Wouldn’t it be too much of a waste if he didn’t let an Earth class like Uncle Fu regain his strength?