As dawn approached, the Su family ancestral home was shrouded in a faint shimmer. Only a few powerful cultivators could see the nine distinct golden dragons, their illusory forms coiling above the central palace.
This was the terrifying fortune generated by the Nine Dragon Formation core, manifesting into physical, yet illusory, golden dragons. The clan’s fortune formation protected the members of the Su family. As the Su family members grew stronger, they, in turn, nourished the golden dragons.
Since the birth of Su Liumeng nineteen years ago, the Su family’s fortune had become increasingly prosperous. This was especially true on the day of Su Liumeng’s wedding, when the golden dragons of fortune reached their most powerful state in history.
The members of the Su family could naturally see these substantial changes. Likewise, this was the reason Su Liumeng was treated with ever-increasing prestige.
At that moment, Su Liumeng was at the sixth formation eye, performing routine maintenance. As the newly appointed Great Elder, she wanted to inspect all the Su family formations upon taking office. How could she master such a large aristocratic family without knowing its overall condition like the back of her hand?
A vague template for the Su family’s reform plan had already begun to take shape in Su Liumeng’s mind. As for how to implement it, how many people’s interests would be damaged, and who would resolutely oppose it—Su Liumeng had already anticipated these things. After all, since ancient times, no one who undertook reforms had ever met a peaceful end.
It was once again the eve of daybreak. Su Liumeng supported her weary body and gazed at the fish-belly white of the horizon. Another figure was reflected in her tender eyes.
She had not been home for two days and two nights, and she suddenly missed her wife. Si Xinyan seemed to have an independent personality, but in her bones, she was clingy in a way others wouldn’t expect. This stemmed from an insecurity in her character.
Fortunately, the two of them now had a daughter. With their daughter constantly by her side, Su Liumeng could feel at ease doing her own work.
She planned to enter the Su family’s First Foundation in three months to seek her future path.
The Nine Source Heavenly Ladder; one source, one heavenly tribulation.
The path belonging to her future would be confirmed during this trial.
***
The Palace.
The maids were not qualified to approach the depths of the sleeping quarters. Instead, they waited outside at a position where they could only see the blurry bed curtains. At this distance, the sounds from the bed could be heard indistinctly.
Chunqiao was the one closest to the bed among all the maids. When she heard her Madam’s voice sounding a bit off, she decisively intervened and dismissed the other maids who were further away. She remained near the bed curtains alone, waiting for orders.
Si Zhiruo had never been this sad before. She had been trying to find a way to make her Mom happy, but in the end, it had backfired right from the start. How could she accept that?
I no longer had any intention of blaming the little one. I reached out and patted her back, suddenly feeling a bit amused.
‘She’s so small, yet she already has her own ideas.’
I wrapped my arms around her soft body. “What were you trying to hide from me?”
Si Zhiruo buried her head even deeper and said shyly, “I can’t tell you yet. Oh, stop asking.”
When in doubt, use the art of acting spoiled.
I had no choice but to give in. Worried she was in a bad mood, I comforted her. “It’s fine now that things are clear. Mom will never blame you for anything.”
“Mm, I know,” the little girl murmured, curling her body up.
How could she not know that? Si Xinyan had only been caught in a moment of conflict and internal turmoil; she had never once thought about punishing her daughter.
I coaxed the little bundle for a while longer. Seeing her crying until she had the hiccups, I couldn’t resist and took a photo.
‘I really want to set this as my wallpaper. What should I do?’
‘It would be theoretically immoral, but this is the first time I’ve captured a photo of my daughter crying, so I must treasure it.’
Si Zhiruo poked her head out a little and saw her cute, tear-stained face in the center of the phone screen, which was nearly out of battery. She had never been so embarrassed, her fingers seemingly having nowhere to rest.
Ha, haha.
This… wouldn’t become a lifelong dark history for her, would it?
“Can you delete it?” she whimpered, trying to gloss over the situation.
“I can’t do that.” I shielded my screen.
“Then… then…” Si Zhiruo’s small face turned red. “Mom can only look at it by yourself. You can’t show it to anyone else, and you definitely can’t set it as your wallpaper.”
This was her final line of defense against shame.
“Alright, I promise you.”
I wouldn’t be able to bear letting anyone else see such a good photo anyway.
Si Zhiruo squeezed her head a bit closer. She was suddenly curious about what else was in her Mom’s photo album. She asked as much.
“This?” I reminisced about the past. “There are many photos of Su Liumeng and me in here, and many more after you were born. Now, the ones of you have almost surpassed the old ones.”
Whenever I had a spare moment, I would habitually take a photo. Over time, it had become a significant number.
“Show me, show me!” Si Zhiruo knew she was photographed often, but she had never seen what those photos actually looked like.
“I didn’t take anything special. Most of them are growth records from after you were born—commemorative days like your first month, your first year, or when you just learned to crawl. I kept a lot of photos for those.” I casually opened the album.
The dense wall of photos made Si Zhiruo a bit dizzy.
“Like this one. This was when you were just one month old. I was busy and didn’t have time to feed you, so I asked Su Liumeng to help. You slapped her in the face twice. She took this photo and sent it to me.” I pointed to one of the images and enlarged it. A tiny tot could be seen biting onto a bottle larger than both her hands, drinking with great relish.
I opened another photo.
“This one was taken when you were about two months old. I was nursing you at the time, and I just picked up the phone nearby and snapped a photo.”
“I was really so small. It looks like my breathing was very weak.” Si Zhiruo looked at her past self. No words could describe the strange sensation of seeing herself as a baby for the first time.
Back then, she hadn’t even awakened her True Spirit. She only knew how to sleep all day. She had grown at least two or three times larger by now.
“And this one…”
“…”
Si Zhiruo leaned against me, staring at the photos on the screen. Before long, she became drowsy, her head nodding repeatedly like she was dozing off while fishing.
I stopped scrolling through the photos and instead gently patted her body.
“Go to sleep.”
“You can still sleep for a few more hours.”
“Mm,” the little one replied, her voice barely audible.
I laughed quietly to myself. Her sleepiness was contagious, and I couldn’t help but yawn as well. After being tossed and turned for nearly half the night, even I, a cultivator who wasn’t much stronger than an ordinary person, was feeling sleepy. I simply held my daughter and decided to take a nap with her.
I reached out and turned off the screen. Too lazy to even put it back into my spatial storage, I tucked it haphazardly under the pillow and lay down.
Behind the slightly open window and the fluttering white curtains, the young woman held the little girl in her arms. It was a beautiful and harmonious scene, one that Chunqiao didn’t have the heart to disturb.