She didn’t even know if the ‘mother’ here acknowledged her as a daughter.
‘Forget it. Just being alive is good enough.’
As they passed the group of playing children, Hua Jian and the Valley Master attracted their curious gazes.
But none of the kids dared to come forward and ask their purpose.
These children obediently stepped back a few steps, none of them displaying the mischief typical of their age.
Maybe the mischievous ones had already been buried in the ground…
Arriving in the valley, Hua Jian saw a very simple small building. In the yard in front of the building, a woman wearing a plain white dress was holding a watering can, bowing her head to water the potted plants in the yard.
The arrival of the two visitors didn’t stop her movements. She continued watering the flowers as if completely unaware of their presence, until the watering can was empty.
“Valley Master has come from afar, and Xinjie failed to welcome you. Please forgive me, Valley Master.” At last, the woman could no longer pretend to be blind.
She set aside the watering can and respectfully bowed to the Valley Master of Wanhua.
Then her gaze fell on Hua Jian’s face. After a brief moment, as if remembering something, she let out a somewhat wistful “ah.”
“This is Hua Jian, your daughter.” The Valley Master of Wanhua didn’t play riddles and directly revealed the relationship between the two. “This is Hua Xinjie, your ‘mother.'”
After introducing them to each other, the Valley Master of Wanhua gracefully turned and left, leaving the place to the mother and daughter who stood facing each other in silence.
Hua Jian was observing this woman, comparing herself to her as she did so.
They really did look alike. Perhaps because she wasn’t a child born in the normal way, she hadn’t inherited half of her father’s features, which made her resemble the woman before her very closely.
Except for the uniquely colorful eyes, she was a smaller version of Hua Xinjie.
Hua Jian wanted to say something, but when the words reached her lips, she didn’t know if she should say them like that.
First, there was the matter of address. What should she call Hua Xinjie?
If she called her “Mother,” would it make Hua Xinjie unhappy? After all, Hua Xinjie didn’t seem to like Wanhua Valley very much.
In her two lifetimes combined, this was the first time she’d encountered the problem of a mother who might not be a mother.
After all, although she was born from Hua Xinjie’s womb, when it came to blood relations, it didn’t seem very close?
And she had never had any memory of this mother figure in her life. Now this sudden family reunion left her truly at a loss.
At this moment, Hua Jian finally understood how Shiqi felt when facing Bai Hua Zun Zhe. And her current situation was even worse than Shiqi’s.
Bai Hua Zun Zhe was at most Shiqi’s adoptive mother, but Hua Xinjie, from every angle, was Hua Jian’s biological mother.
“So many years have passed already… Come inside and have some tea?” Finally, Hua Xinjie spoke first.
“Mm.”
Hua Jian followed behind Hua Xinjie like a little duckling, entering the small house where Hua Xinjie lived.
Though she was a prisoner, Hua Xinjie’s quality of life hadn’t been affected. The small house had everything it needed and looked quite tidy, giving a pleasant feeling.
And unlike other places in Wanhua Valley, there was no cloying sweet fragrance here. Instead, there was a faint bitter scent, somewhat like the smell of medicinal herbs.
Soon, she realized she had guessed correctly. That smell was indeed the bitter scent of herbs, and the tea Hua Xinjie had prepared for her was also brewed with medicinal herbs.
Just smelling it gave a very bitter feeling.
Carefully lifting the teacup, Hua Jian didn’t mind the temperature of the tea and took a sip.
It was very hot and very bitter—truly not pleasant to drink.
Forcing her expression under control, Hua Jian placed the teacup back on the table.
Seeing Hua Jian’s cautious behavior, as if afraid of displeasing her, a genuine smile finally appeared on Hua Xinjie’s calm face.
“Don’t hold it in. Drinking such hot water like that, aren’t you afraid of scalding your tongue?”
If it were Linglong saying this, Hua Jian would have stuck out her tongue at her to show how flexible a plant-person’s tongue could be, splitting into many little tongues.
But the person before her was her own mother. Hua Jian felt she’d better not do something like that to provoke her.
“It’s not too hot, but it’s a little bitter,” she replied, lowering her head.
Heat she could accept, but bitterness was harder to take.
“Pfft, you really weren’t raised by them.” Hua Xinjie couldn’t help but laugh.
In just a few words, she had judged that Hua Jian was not a Wanhua Valley cultivator, which made her mood even better.
The look in her eyes toward Hua Jian softened.
“I grew up in the Central Continent. Actually, I only just learned about my own background…” Hua Jian quietly recounted her childhood, not avoiding the influence Wanhua Valley had on her during those years.
How could she have known back then that the Flower Queen big sister at the place she worked was actually a Ling Emperor of Wanhua Valley!
Having a Ling Emperor protect her closely as she grew up was enough to flatter her.
After listening to Hua Jian’s story, Hua Xinjie was silent for a long time.
She too hadn’t expected Wanhua Valley to raise Hua Jian like this. But this Hua Jian unexpectedly made her not dislike the existence of this child.
If Hua Jian had been a thorough Wanhua Valley cultivator, Hua Xinjie would probably have pretended she never had such a daughter.
After all, this was nothing more than the result of a transaction between her and the Valley Master of Wanhua.
To participate in that experiment with unknown odds of survival. If she managed to survive, Wanhua Valley would not take her life.
In the end, she survived, but she never truly regarded the child she bore as her own flesh and blood.
But this Hua Jian made her truly feel a desire to care for and protect her.
Having overseen so many children in the Flower Valley, now that her own child had appeared, how could she remain calm?
After all, Hua Xinjie was ultimately a soft-hearted person. The hesitation and uncertainty Hua Jian displayed directly stirred the maternal instinct deep inside her.
Having a daughter like this might not be a bad thing, she thought to herself.
Almost instinctively, she reached out and patted Hua Jian on the head twice. By the time she realized what she had done, Hua Jian had already cast a surprised look at her.
Those big, colorful eyes seemed to be asking loudly, “Can I call you Mother?”
Hua Xinjie’s fingers moved downward, finally landing on the tip of Hua Jian’s nose.
Gently tapping Hua Jian’s nose, she opened her arms and pulled Hua Jian into an embrace, whispering softly in her ear.
“Of course you can.”
On the first day of free movement in Wanhua Valley, Hua Jian successfully found herself a mother.
But when she returned home from the Flower Valley, she discovered a little cutie had appeared in her house.
“Xia Hui?”
“Miss Hua Jian!”
Compared to four years ago, Xia Hui had truly undergone a major transformation. Originally shorter than Hua Jian, she hadn’t gone hungry in Wanhua Valley and had now fully grown into a little beauty.
She was half a head taller than Hua Jian, and when she hugged her, her figure was clearly perceptible.
Hua Jian couldn’t help but remark that Xia Hui’s foundation was indeed good.
In terms of strength, Xia Hui had also successfully reached the Ling Wang Realm. It seemed she hadn’t slacked off in her training over the years.
Thinking about it, what else could a girl unfamiliar with her surroundings do here? She couldn’t exactly go out and have fun like the others in Wanhua Valley.
Hua Jian had been trapped in the fruit core for four years of training. Xia Hui wouldn’t have fared much better; she must have been in closed-door cultivation for the full four years.
With such arduous training, reaching the Lingwang Realm was no difficult task.
Behind Xia Hui, a colorful butterfly slowly fluttered over. It didn’t give Hua Jian a hug but instead directly drilled into Hua Jian’s head.
The next moment, A Meng’s slightly aggrieved voice sounded. “You kept me waiting so long.”
“It’s not like I did it on purpose. You could fly outside, but I was locked in here for a full four years!” Hua Jian shot back at A Meng’s complaint.
It was fine for Xia Hui to act spoiled, but you’re A Meng, a big shot at the peak of the Lingwang Realm. What do you have to complain about?
And in these four years, your little butterfly cultivation hasn’t advanced a single bit! Have you not been working hard?
In response to Hua Jian’s reproach, A Meng directly smacked her wing across the face of Hua Jian’s soul.
‘Not working hard? Don’t you know how a Dream Butterfly increases its strength!’
To raise her power, she needed to stay by the Illusory Dream Flower and absorb the Spirit Liquid of the Soul that the flower transformed.
Any other cultivation method was meaningless to A Meng. In other words, once she left Hua Jian, her cultivation couldn’t improve.
Besides, she was already a spirit beast at the peak of the Lingwang Realm. To climb another level, the time needed wasn’t just a few years.
Spirit beasts have long lifespans, so their cultivation speed is relatively slow.
A Meng was only at this stage. For a peculiar spirit beast like her, who wouldn’t die as long as the Illusory Dream Flower didn’t die, the conditions for breaking through were numerous.
The simplest one was that if Hua Jian broke through, she could follow suit. If Hua Jian didn’t break through, it would be very difficult for her to do so alone.
Given Hua Jian’s current cultivation speed, A Meng felt she couldn’t count on that day.
“Is that how a Guardian Spirit Beast behaves? I have to provide your cultivation for you!”
“Hey, I protect you, and you provide me with cultivation. That’s perfectly normal.” As A Meng spoke, she took out many colorful solids from within her soul.
“These are savings I’ve earned from working over the years. Here, take them and eat.”
In the Godsoul Space, Hua Jian poked these solids with her vines and quickly figured out their nature.
They were actually condensed Soul Energy!
Counting the quantity… gasp What exactly was A Meng’s “working”?
After all, low-level spirit beasts have pitifully little soulforce. Could A Meng have been slaughtering spirit beasts?
Then there was only one direction for suspicion: A Meng’s working meant killing people.
“Don’t worry, they’re all souls of bad people. The Northern Territory isn’t as peaceful as the Central Continent. Bad people often rob and plunder, so I killed them and snatched their souls.”
All bad people? Hua Jian still had some doubts, but since A Meng had already placed the souls here, the owners of these souls were surely buried in the snow and wind of the Northern Territory by now.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’ve been moving with the Qian Family. They have some cooperative relationship with Wanhua Valley, and I occasionally go out to help them fight.”
The Qian Family? Hearing that name again, Hua Jian’s heart settled a bit.
The Qian Family held a high status in the Northern Territory. They wouldn’t openly do such great evils. The ones A Meng dealt with were probably really bad people.
Summoning her vines to devour these souls in one gulp, Hua Jian didn’t taste much.
These souls no longer had their original emotions or thoughts—they were merely the purest Soul Energy.
The initial digestion had already been completed by A Meng. Now taking over, Hua Jian felt like a young bird receiving regurgitated food from its mother.
And this Soul Energy was no small amount. After digesting a little, Hua Jian felt her soul strength increase slightly.
If she fully digested it, it should allow her soul strength to rise by a small step.
This result made Hua Jian very satisfied. Truly, having a Guardian Spirit Beast helping made a difference.
She didn’t even need to go out and work herself. Just send the spirit beast out for a sweep, and she could stay home and enjoy rising cultivation.
This feeling was indeed great.
But after enjoying it, Hua Jian had to face reality again. This rapid increase was because A Meng had saved up four years’ worth of Soul Energy for her. After this, she probably wouldn’t have such a good experience again.
Although she had now become the Saintess of Wanhua Valley, she knew that her position as Saintess wasn’t legitimate. In the eyes of those who cared, those so-called merits didn’t belong to her at all.
And her path ahead was hers to choose: stay in Wanhua Valley for the full five years and then run back to the Saint Sect, or accept the pit her past self had dug for her present self and continue staying in Wanhua Valley?
She didn’t know how to choose yet. Fortunately, she couldn’t choose now.
There was still a full year left before the five-year period ended, and she still had things to do during that year.
Hadn’t the Valley Master of Wanhua mentioned that the Qian Family had discovered a Secret Realm and called upon Jade Pool to explore it together? As an ally of the Qian Family, Wanhua Valley joining in wasn’t too much, right?
Since she was going to join in, it wasn’t too much for Hua Jian, as the Saintess, to show her face and get acquainted, right?
With that thought, she might as well spend the next year living off the Qian Family’s hospitality.
As for Wanhua Valley… Hua Jian felt she still wasn’t suited to stay there.
On the surface, the disciples surnamed Hua seemed friendly, but if you looked closely, you could see plenty of hidden tricks.
The hierarchy among disciples was actually quite clear. Low-level disciples might not even be considered human by high-level ones.
And Wanhua Valley was a Demonic Sect.
Even just from what Hua Jian knew, there were many terrifying things lurking beneath the surface— like that Blood Pool, like the disobedient children in the Flower Valley.
Don’t think that just because Wanhua Valley puts on a good front, they’ve truly become good people.
A Demonic Sect is, after all, a Demonic Sect!