Chapter 345: The Adventure

All the words she wanted to use to explain herself were eventually swallowed back down.

“Mom…”

Su Nian’s voice softened instantly.

The weakness and guilt in her tone were things even she hadn’t noticed.

“I… I wasn’t quite used to sleeping in my own bed, so…”

Su Nian came up with a random excuse.

However, as soon as the words left her mouth, she wanted to bite her tongue.

What a terrible reason!

She had slept in that room for several years, yet now she claimed she wasn’t used to it.

It was a blatant lie.

Liu Yue narrowed her smiling eyes, scanning her daughter’s panicked face.

Her gaze seemed to see right through the girl’s secrets.

“I recall you’ve slept in that bed for five or six years, haven’t you? How are you still not used to it?”

‘It’s over.’

She had been caught.

The lie couldn’t hold any weight.

“Uhh…” Her mind raced, “The weather was too cold!” she stammered, waving her hands as her cheeks flushed bright red.

“Oh?” Liu Yue drawled out the sound, her voice thick with understanding.

Her expression was that of an elder indulging and teasing a junior’s little secret.

She crossed her arms, wearing a face that said “I know everything.”

Her mother’s words were light, yet they felt like a hammer striking Su Nian’s sense of shame.

“Ugh…” Su Nian’s tongue was tied.

Her mind was a jumbled mess, and she couldn’t even speak clearly.

She felt her face burning, the heat spreading down her neck.

“It wasn’t… no… it—it was also…”

Under the pressure of the System mission, she didn’t dare deny it completely, but she was too embarrassed to admit it so bluntly in front of her mother.

Her brain’s CPU was essentially overloading.

“Hahaha, I’ll stop teasing you. Hurry up and get ready. It’s time for breakfast.”

Liu Yue finally took pity on her flustered daughter and let her off the hook.

“Mom… you’re mean!” Su Nian stomped her foot.

She didn’t even realize that her outburst was entirely that of a young girl.

It was impossible to imagine she had once been a boy.

At that moment, the door behind her opened.

A tall figure stepped out, carrying an impossible-to-ignore sense of pressure.

The Horned Demon master…

Currently, he was using the alias “Chu Tian” in front of her parents.

Between the gifts and the smooth talk, he had the two elders completely charmed.

He was only wearing a thin shirt with a few buttons casually undone at the collar, revealing a broad expanse of well-defined, tight muscles.

His bronze skin gleamed with a healthy luster in the morning light.

Su Nian quickly looked away, not daring to stare for even a second.

Liu Yue, who was about to head into the room, heard the movement and looked back.

As they passed each other, his possessiveness toward Su Nian practically overflowed from his gaze.

The smile in Liu Yue’s eyes deepened.

She nodded with satisfaction and glanced at her daughter with a look of relief mixed with a bit of teasing.

Her gaze seemed to say: ‘My daughter has good taste. She’s eating well.’

***

After breakfast, the atmosphere in the main room became serious.

The dishes had been cleared away, leaving only a teapot of steaming water on the table.

The smile on Liu Yue’s face faded slightly as her gaze shifted between her husband and daughter with a hint of solemnity.

Su Nian sat upright with her hands on her knees, her fingertips subconsciously curling and uncurling.

Su Zhentian remained silent for a long time.

His eyes, which had regained their spirit, stared at the wood grain on the table for a while before he pulled an ancient map out of a wooden box.

He finally spoke, his voice much steadier than before, each word resonating from his chest.

“Chu Tian, you mentioned before that you came to Hidden Dragon Town for the ‘Energy Gathering Magic Circle.'”

“You weren’t wrong. The Energy Gathering Magic Circle was indeed once in the hands of the Su family ancestors,” Su Zhentian began.

Su Nian was slightly stunned, she had never heard this secret before.

Su Zhentian looked up, looking past his daughter straight at Chu Tian.

He tapped his finger lightly on the rough wooden table.

“The Su family ancestors came from another continent — Dongzhou.”

“It is what you people call the legendary East Continent.”

Liu Yue squeezed Su Nian’s hand.

Her palm was very warm, conveying a silent strength.

Su Nian’s body stiffened.

Dongzhou.

A name she had only heard in ancient legends.

“Our ancestors led a massive fleet across the Endless Sea. That is a sea where even the wind dies. Coupled with the presence of massive sea beasts, no ordinary ship can cross it.”

A trace of awe from the distant past leaked into Su Zhentian’s voice.

“The thing that allowed the entire fleet to pass through that sea of death was the ‘Energy Gathering Magic Circle.'”

“It can turn the tiniest traces of energy between heaven and earth into the wind that drives the fleet.”

Su Nian’s breathing slowed.

An image appeared in her mind: on a vast, deathly silent sea, a fleet cut through despair and sailed toward the unknown under the light of a magic circle.

“When we first arrived on the West Continent, the Su family had a grand ambition.”

A spark of fire reignited in Su Zhentian’s eyes — a pride passed down through his bloodline.

“To gather strength, reorganize, and one day launch a counterattack on Dongzhou!”

“To prevent the Energy Gathering Magic Circle from being lost or falling into the hands of outsiders, the ancestors sealed it in a place called the ‘Locked Dragon Abyss.'”

“The Locked Dragon Abyss is located in a secret realm within the back mountains of Hidden Dragon Town.”

“Only those of Su family blood can obtain the complete inheritance.”

Su Zhentian’s tone was full of bitterness.

He was supposed to be the one to inherit all of this.

He had memorized these secrets long ago but a heavy injury had shattered his pride, his hope, and his future.

He had lost his power and the position of family head.

To protect his wife and daughter, he had been forced to bury these secrets deep in his heart.

Now, things were different.

He looked at his daughter — the one the world called the “Star-Moon Saintess,” the hero who had defeated the demon tide.

Then he looked at “Chu Tian,” the young man who hadn’t even blinked when producing a divine item to heal him in order to fight the Demon Race.

The ambition that had been extinguished for over a decade was finally reignited by a single drop of the Spring of Life and the sword, Frostfall Fang.

As for counterattacking Dongzhou…

Su Zhentian shook his head bitterly.

That was a distant dream now.

“Unfortunately, the current Su family is no longer the Su family of the past.” His voice was weary, “The people’s hearts have scattered, and no one mentions the ancestors’ dying wish anymore.”

“The shipyard built for the counterattack and the fleet capable of crossing the ocean were sold decades ago by Su Changhai’s group for immediate profit. They sold them to a major family named Ma.”

It couldn’t be Matthew, could it?

The boss of Magic Feather Fantasy… his family owned a fleet.

The funding to start Magic Feather Fantasy also came from his family.

What a coincidence.

As for the ancestors’ wish, a fleet might not even be necessary.

Once she gathered 100 million Humiliation Value… she could just ride a Giant Dragon back.

‘Hmph.’

‘Wait!’

Su Nian stopped her fantasy of being majestic.

Regardless, the Energy Gathering Magic Circle still had to be obtained.

The threat of the Demon Race was imminent.

If they attacked again, she needed a trump card.

“Let’s go! Let’s get the Energy Gathering Magic Circle! Let’s go on an adventure!” Su Nian slammed the table and stood up.

That’s right.

She loved adventure too much.

If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have risked going to the Monster Forest alone to train, which led to everything that happened after her defeat.

But now, the Horned Demon was her ally, at least for now.

They were in a party.

They could win!

“Since it’s for the sake of fighting the Demon Race, this Energy Gathering Magic Circle must no longer remain hidden!” Su Zhentian said, having made up his mind.

Even though the circle was sealed for the counterattack on Dongzhou, the demon threat was right in front of them.

He couldn’t worry about that anymore.

Su Zhentian made the decision immediately.

They would set out at once for the Locked Dragon Abyss to find the circle that had been sealed for over 100 years.

Su Zhentian walked to the center of the room.

Frostfall Fang, placed on the square table, was quietly emitting a cold aura.

He didn’t grab the sword immediately.

Instead, he found a clean, soft cloth and began to wipe the deep blue blade with solemn, focused movements.

The chill from the blade seeped through the cloth into his fingertips, but the light in his eyes only grew brighter.

He gripped the hilt and said, “I will lead the way.”

***

Meanwhile, just as Su Nian and the others were planning to depart…

Outside Hidden Dragon Town.

On the dirt road leading to the town entrance, the air suddenly distorted violently, as if touched by a red-hot iron.

Two figures stepped out, appearing as if they were walking through an invisible curtain of water.

One person was incredibly burly.

With every step, the solid ground let out a dull thud and trembled slightly.

Just by standing there, he emitted a mountain-like aura that turned the surrounding air stagnant.

This was one of the Eight Demon Generals, Gareth “The Immortal.”

The other was a woman with a graceful figure.

Her long dress, woven from shadows and starlight, fluttered without any wind, flowing with deep purple brilliance.

Her face was strangely beautiful, and her violet eyes were like vortices capable of swallowing souls.

The “Dreamweaver Demon Queen,” Yousha.

Yousha’s gaze swept across the fields and farmhouses, accurately locking onto a Su family servant who had just finished shopping in town and was humming a tune on his way back.

She made no extra movements, merely looking in that direction from afar.

The servant’s footsteps came to a sudden halt, and his humming stopped abruptly.

His eyes instantly became hollow, his pupils losing focus.

He froze in place like a puppet whose soul had been snatched away.

Everything that had happened at the Su Family Residence yesterday, Su Nian’s return, the mysterious man “Chu Tian,” and even the location of Su Nian’s family in White Emperor Village…

All the information was captured instantly by those purple eyes like an invisible torrent.

The servant’s body shuddered as his consciousness returned.

He scratched his head in confusion, completely unable to remember what had just happened.

Feeling a strange chill on the back of his neck, he quickened his pace and hurried away.

Yousha’s red lips parted slightly, and the voice she let out carried a hint of a playful smile — sweet yet dangerous.