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A doll made of white cloth or paper, hung on the eaves in hopes of a sunny day the next day.
At sunrise, on the eastern mountain, a light rain suddenly arrived, pattering down on the windows and eaves.
Pitter-- patter...
Inside the pavilion with many bamboo curtains, Xiao Yunluo, wearing a purple robe, sat at a table. She held a gold quill in her hand and wrote the word "Verified" on the document in front of her.
The smoke, with a soothing effect in the brass censer beside her, lingered in front of the pillars.
Qiu Shuirou sat at her side with an awkward expression on her face. As soon as Xiao Yunluo finished reviewing one volume of the Black Star Sect's records, she quickly handed over the next volume and encouraged her. "Young Miss Xiao, there are still a few... not much left."
These documents were basically the internal affairs of the Black Star Sect, such as the spirit stones needed to repair the alchemy furnace and the suggestions for improving the food of the young cultivators in the Qi Refining stage...
Normally, it would be reviewed by the Elders or disciples in charge of the disciple pavilion.
Qiu Shuirou couldn't think of any other way to keep Xiao Yunluo here.
But she never expected that Little Miss would not come back even after seven days and seven nights after going to find Ye Anping.
Initially, she thought that three days was already very impressive.
Now, she understood that she might have underestimated Ye Anping's physical strength, or perhaps underestimated her Little Miss' temperament...
A Core Formation-stage cultivator could actually serve a Void Returning-stage cultivator for seven days and seven nights. This was simply unheard of!
After Xiao Yunluo wrote the words "Verified" on the document, she saw Qiu Shuirou handing her a new one. She put the pen back on the pen holder and stared at Qiu Shuirou's face but didn't say anything.
"..."
Under her stare, Qiu Shuirou smiled awkwardly. After pondering for a moment, she asked, "Young Miss Xiao, are you tired? I'll make you a cup of tea and bring you some snacks."
Xiao Yunluo let out a long sigh and asked unhappily, "Aunt Qiu... the sun has risen seven times! At first, you asked me to wait here for my mother to wake up. I waited for a day and wanted to go back. You insisted on not letting me go and used all kinds of pretexts to keep me here. Do you think I'm stupid and easy to fool? I can see that you deliberately want me to stay here!"
---If you are not easy to fool, you should have found that I am deliberately keeping you here when the sun rose for the second time...
Qiu Shuirou complained in her heart but smiled on the surface. "How could that be? I just think that when Little Miss wakes up and sees you seriously handling the sect's affairs, she will feel very pleased. At that time, she might forgive you for sneaking into the Central Region..."
Xiao Yunluo's face became even more gloomy, but she could say nothing else. She stood up from her mat, patted her dress, and turned to walk out. "I'm going back now! When my mother wakes up, let me know!"
Qiu Shuirou hurriedly caught up with her and looked at the drizzle of late winter outside the bamboo curtain, blinking. "Miss Xiao, it's still raining outside. Wait a little longer and go back when the rain stops."
"No! I'm going now!"
"Hey..."
Seeing that she couldn't keep her any longer, Qiu Shuirou glanced at the back of Xiao Yunluo's neck a few times, and her right hand hidden in her sleeve formed into a knife. After a short hesitation, she raised her hand.
---Sorry, Young Miss Xiao! If you go back now and disturb Little Miss, we'll both be sent to the back mountain to face the wall...
Whoosh...
However, just as the edge of her hand was about to land on the back of Xiao Yunluo's neck, a bell rang in the rain outside the pavilion, causing her to quickly withdraw her hand.
Jing-ling-ling---
Finally, it was over...
Relieved, Qiu Shuirou turned around and smiled. "Little Miss, are you awake?"
!
Xiao Yunluo, who was still puffing with anger just now, felt as if she had been electrocuted when she heard the bell ring. Her body suddenly straightened, and she slowly turned around to look.
Si Xuanji, holding an oil-paper umbrella, slowly walked up the steps in front of the pavilion. The ground in the courtyard was covered with mud because of the light rain, but her white bare feet were like lotus flowers stepping on the mud, leaving no trace.
"Yunluo, are you back?"
"Ah... gulp... um, Greetings, mother."
Xiao Yunluo gulped and cupped her hands in salute. She watched Si Xuanji enter the pavilion and put the umbrella into Qiu Shuirou's hands. Then, she came in front of her and raised her hand, gently poking the dragon horns on her forehead.
"Three years of staying hidden in the depths, but once it rose, it became a roaring dragon. This dragon horn is quite beautiful..."
"Mother, Ye Anping told me that I was born from a Black Dragon..."
"Yes, it's true." Si Xuanji nodded. "Yunluo, you are not my biological daughter. It was by chance that you were born from an egg in my hands. Perhaps because of the influence of my Void Returning spirit, you didn't break out of your shell as a dragon. Instead, you took on a form similar to mine."
"Hmm..."
Xiao Yunluo did not show much emotion about it. She only nodded faintly, as if she had been in the Black Star Sect Academy in the past, and silently said these words to remember them.
Si Xuanji shook her head slightly before sighing. "Some things are not recorded in the books in the library but are only passed down orally between Sect Masters.
"In ancient times, human cultivators slaughtered dragons wantonly, and their bone and blood essence made the human race rise to glory in the four regions today. The only remaining Ninth Heavenly Black Dragon, while avoiding the pursuit of human cultivators, accidentally met a young cultivator named 'Xiao Yuan'. This person was the founder of the Black Star Sect and is also the origin of your surname.
"Xiao Yuan was a human cultivator with mediocre spiritual roots. He was bullied in his childhood and hated the human race. That's why the Black Dragon noticed him and made a blood contract with him.
"The content of the blood contract was that the Ninth Heavenly Black Dragon would help him reach the top of the human race, and in exchange, he would help that Black Dragon destroy the current human race."
Si Xuanji sighed and looked at the rain curtain on the eaves with her yin-yang eyes as if she were watching ten thousand years pass in one glance. There was a hint of helplessness in her gaze as she continued, "After that, Xiao Yuan borrowed the Black Dragon's auspicious spiritual energy and spent nearly a thousand years unifying the chaotic human cultivators in the Immortal Heavenly Realm. However, he did not fulfill the blood contract. He returned to the Black Dragon and said:
---"The past and present come and go, and new people replace the old. This is the way of heaven. I promised you a thousand years, and if there is an afterlife, I will definitely repay you."
"After that, because of that blood contract, his soul was destroyed in front of the Black Dragon, and he died.
"The Ninth Heavenly Black Dragon was furious when he saw Xiao Yuan using his spiritual energy to make the human race prosper. Although he tried many methods, he was unable to stop the decline of the dragon race. After that, his life ended and he returned to dust, leaving only a dragon egg to continue the clan bloodline. This is your origin..."
Si Xuanji looked at Xiao Yunluo's purple eyes and narrowed her eyes slightly. "Your biological father has always harbored hatred for human cultivators, and in the end, he placed this hatred on you. This is the fate you were born with. Now, the Black Dragon has appeared in the world, and it must slaughter the current human cultivators to avenge the dragon clan. What are you going to do?"
Looking somewhat dazed, Xiao Yunluo said, "I've never seen my father before, and I don't have any idea about these things... I'll listen to you, Mother."
"I'm just telling you. You don't have to answer now."
Si Xuanji raised her head slightly and walked to the side.
"The Black Star Sect was born from your father's golden shell. I made you the Young Lady of the sect, which means I returned the origin of the Black Star Sect to the Black Dragon. After I ascend to immortality, you will be the next Matriarch. If you choose to follow your father's wishes and kill the human cultivators, then go find the fox in the Central Region, he will be happy to help you. If you don't want to fulfill the revenge your father entrusted to you, then find a way to break the fate star."
Nodding, Xiao Yunluo murmured. "...Yeah, I'll remember it."
Si Xuanji walked a few steps. She pondered for a while, then stopped and turned around. "There is one more thing..."
Xiao Yunluo cupped her hands hurriedly. "Mother, tell me."
"Don't call me mother in the future. I'm not your mother to begin with. We're not related by blood, and I haven't taken much care of you all these years. This mother-daughter relationship, let's end it here."
Yunluo froze for a moment, and her eyes widened. "Mother... you... what did you say?"
"From now on, you can call me master, sister, or elder sister. Anyway, don't call me mother. I didn't write you down in my Si family's genealogy. After all, you're a Black Dragon. The Si family's genealogy can't bear such a fate..."
"But..."
Without answering, Si Xuanji waved toward Xiao Yunluo.
Xiao Yunluo felt that everything in her field of vision was distorted. When she came back to her senses, the rain from the sky had already fallen on her face, and unknowingly, she had already arrived at the entrance of the cave.
A small umbrella appeared above her head. Qiu Shuirou hurriedly followed her out, holding the umbrella to protect her from the rain. "Miss Xiao, do you want me to send you back?"
"Aunt... Aunt Qiu?" Xiao Yunluo turned around mechanically and asked, "My mother just said... Aunt Qiu, did you hear that? She said... she... doesn't want me anymore..."
Qiu Shuirou roughly guessed what Si Xuanji was thinking. Seeing Xiao Yunluo's panic, she comforted her. "Young Miss Xiao, Little Miss didn't say that she doesn't want you. She only said that she is not your biological mother and that you can call her Master."
"But... but... why? Did I do anything wrong?"
"Uh... you didn't do anything wrong. Maybe you will understand what it means in the future."
Because Si Xuanji didn't explain, Qiu Shuirou couldn't explain either. She had to side with Si Xuanji no matter what, so she could only comfort her. "Miss Xiao, don't think too much. This is a good thing, not a bad thing."
"...Good... good thing?"
"Yes, it's a good thing, I assure you. Little Miss will treat you the same way as she treated you before, and maybe even better."
"..."
Xiao Yunluo was a little confused. She looked at Qiu Shuirou's face with pursed lips but said nothing. Only then did she remember what Ye Anping had asked her to do, and hurriedly said, "Aunt Qiu, that... Young Master Ye said he wanted to meet my mother..."
"Meet the Young Master?"
Qiu Shuirou thought about it. Since Si Xuanji didn't tell Xiao Yunluo about it, then...
She shook her head. "No, don't tell Master Ye about Little Miss. If the Little Miss wants to, she will tell him herself... Then, I'll take you back, let's go..."
"Well..."
Xiao Yunluo nodded slightly, then turned around and glanced at the door in front of the cave. She nodded slightly to greet him. Accompanied by Qiu Shuirou, they sped toward Heavenly Cloud Peak on their flying swords.
Through the rain curtain, the sky and the clouds seemed to be covered with a layer of gauze, looking somewhat ethereal from afar.
The two arrived at the three-house compound on the mountainside. Qiu Shuirou gave her the umbrella, saluted, and left alone.
After Xiao Yunluo watched Qiu Shuirou go back, she held the umbrella and slowly walked toward her own courtyard.
Her heart was in turmoil at the moment, and she kept thinking back to the words that Si Xuanji had said to her. However, as she walked to the house, thinking that she would soon be able to play mahjong, her troubled thoughts were swept away.
Although her mother didn't recognize her, she still had Ye Anping...
Although she didn't understand her mother's words, Ye Anping knew everything, so she could just ask him...
Squeak---
Xiao Yunluo took a deep breath, pushed open the courtyard door, and entered.
"An... hiss--"
When she saw the open window of the main house, she gasped in shock, and her face turned pale.
A severed hand with a hint of black mist hung under the eaves like a sunny doll*. It swayed with the breeze of the rain curtain and pinched its own fingers from time to time.
Ye Anping was cleaning the house when he heard the courtyard door being opened. He poked his head out of the door and saw Xiao Yunluo staring at Gu Mingxin's hand. He called out, "Yunluo, you're back?"
"Ah?!" Xiao Yunluo was startled by his sudden voice, and hurriedly ran over with small steps, pointing at Gu Mingxin's hand and asking, "Anping, what is that hand?"
"The hand of a demonic cultivator, with a demonic bloody body. I forgot it was in water for seven days, and it swelled up, so I just hung it there to dry."
"..."
Xiao Yunluo wanted to say something but stopped. Seeing Ye Anping calmly and seriously talking about this matter, she forced herself to accept it. She nodded slightly and then said, "Anping, my mother doesn't seem to agree to you meeting her."
Ye Anping nodded, indicating that he didn't care. "It's okay, forget it."
"Also... my mother said that she doesn't recognize me as her daughter anymore."
?
Ye Anping was shocked to hear this. There was no such plot in the game, but he understood after thinking about it.
Most likely it was because of him...
Pretending to be puzzled, he asked, "Immortal Matriarch wants to kick you out of the Black Star Sect?"
"No... She said I can call her Master, but not Mother." Xiao Yunluo nodded weakly. "Anping, I don't understand."
Ye Anping pretended to think about it before shaking his head in puzzlement. "Well... I don't understand either."
"This... this..."
"Anyway, she is the leader of the Black Star Sect, after all, so she should have her reasons." Ye Anping raised his hand to remove a drop of rain on her forehead. "What do you want to eat? I'll give you something to eat?"
"Eat... eat what?"
Ye Anping explained expressionlessly. "Noodles."
At this, Xiao Yunluo's face turned crimson, and she nodded shyly.
"Ah... oh... well, hehe---"
She pulled Ye Anping's hand and walked toward the kitchen, holding her umbrella.
One person lit the fire, the other cooked noodles...
After a while, the rain stopped and the sky cleared up.
The breeze was soft like silk, the sky was clear, and the hand hanging under the window eaves slowly stretched out, feeling the warmth of the sun...