Chapter 6: The Troubles Every Father Faces When Raising a Daughter
Chen Chang'an felt something was very strange—especially strange.
For example, during meals with his daughter, the girl who used to eat without a care, head down and focused on her food, would now suddenly sigh in the middle of eating. "Sigh, it would be nice if there were one more person at the table."
The next day, a grizzly bear sat at the table, trembling and not daring to move its chopsticks, while his daughter puffed her cheeks in rare annoyance. This left him utterly baffled.
Or, when Chen Chang'an took his daughter for a walk in the valley, if they saw two little birds perched together on a branch, she would immediately call out, "Daddy, look, those two birds look so happy together."
Chen Chang'an was not stupid—he had simply lacked real-life experience after nearly six hundred years of being single from birth. Back in the day, he had been a famed keyboard prince on internet forums, a connoisseur of mature videos, and a special guest writer for certain relationship columns.
So, he could tell there was an underlying meaning in his daughter's words.
Could it be that she had grown up? Impossible—she was still just a little girl of barely over six years old.
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't figure out the reason. Still, wanting to be a responsible father, he carefully chose his words, hesitated for a long while, and finally said, "Xing Cai, matters like this are still too early for you…"
He was met with a huge eye-roll from his daughter.
Even at only six years old, her natural intelligence—combined with the "corruption" of her master's book collection—had her genuinely worrying about her father's future.
She had once thought that she didn't have a mother because her mother had passed away, and her father was simply keeping it from her.
But now, she wondered if her mother had actually been driven away by her father…
After such incidents happened several times, even with Chen Chang'an's thick nerves, he began to suspect.
Could it be his daughter was hiding something from him?
As the saying goes: the wise may err a thousand times, but even the fool may be right once.
When it came to his precious daughter, Chen Chang'an couldn't help but be more cautious.
In truth, with his strength, he could sweep his divine sense over the entire valley in an instant, missing nothing.
But it wasn't that he couldn't—it was that he didn't want to. Having been raised with modern education, he firmly believed that even between parents and children, there should be privacy.
So when his daughter occasionally disappeared for an hour or two without reason, he paid it no mind.
As long as he could sense she hadn't left the valley and was safe, he let her do as she pleased.
Of course, it was exactly this Western-style openness that gave his daughter the opportunity to "go astray"…
"This is the place."
Staring at the deep, shadowy cave before him, Chen Chang'an struggled internally.
In truth, he had long noticed his daughter coming here more and more often. At first, he thought she had made a secret base here, but as her behavior became increasingly suspicious, he could no longer resist coming to take a look.
"I'll just take one peek!"
In the end, his worry for her won out. Chen Chang'an concealed his aura and stepped into the cave entrance.
The moment he entered, his breath caught.
This place was truly another world!
From cracks in the dome, daylight poured down like a cascade, scattering into countless specks of starlight among jagged stone pillars, illuminating the cavern as if it were midday.
Though this was deep within the mountain, there was no trace of dampness or rot—it was like stepping into a glass lamp left behind by an ancient immortal, the air itself as clear as polished jade marrow.
He tapped a stalactite beside him with a finger; the crisp, metallic sound rippled through the hollow chamber.
There was no detectable formation here, yet the howling winds outside were completely absent. Even the currents stirred by his sleeves vanished into nothing the instant they touched the cave walls.
From among the stone spires came the sound of trickling water. A thread of silver spring wound its way forward. Chen Chang'an crouched to scoop some up—its icy chill made his eyes brighten—before the stream continued deeper into the cave.
Following the silver ribbon of water for a short while, the ceiling suddenly rose several meters higher.
The cave walls were covered with faintly glowing blue grass, and upon closer inspection, countless jade-marrow mushrooms had pushed through the rock.
These spiritual plants lit and dimmed with his steps, as though the starry river had been shattered and spread across the floor, or as if a fairy from the Moon Palace had spilled her jewel box, scattering pearls of moonlight across the chamber.
The sight was rare and wondrous, and Chen Chang'an couldn't help but admire his daughter's fine taste.
But in the next moment, his pupils shrank sharply—
In a corner of the stone chamber, behind a half-drawn curtain of pale gauze, a woman lay upon a cold jade bed.
She was still asleep. Her skin was as fair as frost and snow, shimmering like pearls; her nose was straight and elegant like a distant mountain in ink; at the corner of her eye, a small beauty mark trembled faintly with each breath, like the resting wings of a phoenix-tailed butterfly.
The faint blue luminescence in the stone chamber coated her long lashes with starlight. Even after a lifetime of seeing countless online beauties, Chen Chang'an still felt shaken—this natural, untainted beauty made all artificial embellishments seem like crude counterfeits.
Her long hair, dark as ebony, was half tied and half loose, bound with a hair ribbon embroidered with silver thread and set with tiny crystals, its tassels falling against the hem of her black gauze dress.
As the fabric shifted, a slender, jade-like calf appeared and disappeared from view; her delicate ankle seemed sculpted from fresh snow, and her bare foot was like a lotus petal carved from pure white jade.
Though her posture was one of deep slumber, it exuded an allure that could steal one's breath.
Chen Chang'an's throat moved unconsciously. He had never imagined that in such a dangerous secret realm, he would stumble upon such a beautiful woman so abruptly.
But cold sweat quickly broke out on his forehead. He didn't need to think to know this woman could not possibly be ordinary.
Who was she? What was her connection to his daughter?
In the end… was she friend or foe?
Fortunately, his aura was well concealed, and even as he silently withdrew from the cave, the woman on the jade bed did not stir. That allowed Chen Chang'an to let out a quiet breath of relief.
He had no intention of making a move against her; in this perilous world, every person or thing had to be approached with the utmost caution.
He decided to ask his daughter first, to find out exactly who this woman was, and only then decide whether to leave.
There were mortals in this world with no cultivation at all—if need be, he could take his daughter to live in a mortal city and live out their days as an ordinary father and daughter.
…
After dinner, Chen Xingcai was just about to slip away. She had borrowed the latest volume of Oh No, She's Trapped by the Cold Holy Lord from her master the day before, and her heart itched like it was being scratched by a cat—she was desperate to know what happened next.
"Xingcai, father has something to say to you." Chen Chang'an put on a stern face, though he instinctively tried to make his tone sound less harsh. When it came to disciplining his daughter, it was hard for him to truly get angry.
Chen Xingcai's heart skipped a beat. Because her father had always been the doting type who gave her whatever she wanted, she could easily tell that this time he was truly upset.
The last time he had spoken to her in this tone had been when she was five and a half, trying to sneak out of the valley in the middle of the night.
Her little face immediately drooped, and she put on a pitiful expression. "Father…" Chen Chang'an admitted he was almost swayed by her cuteness; in most situations, he would already have been smiling despite himself.
But since this concerned matters of life and death, he forced his heart to stay firm.
Uh-oh… Seeing her father unmoved, Chen Xingcai's mind raced, trying to figure out which of her recent misdeeds had been discovered.
Did father find out Big Gray was a demon beast? Or was it because she had been so absorbed in reading these past two days that she had neglected her cultivation homework?
Fortunately for her, Chen Chang'an didn't intend to press her too hard. Instead, he went straight to the point. "Who is that woman?"
"Woman?" Chen Xingcai echoed blankly.
"Yes, the cave you often visit—and the woman inside it. What's the story?"
"Ah, the cave… the cave!" Chen Xingcai's eyes lit up. "Father, you've met Teacher Xiao Hei already?"