Playing the Pig to Eat the Tiger

"Grievance? Heh." Bai Lan chuckled lightly. "What's your name?"

The blue-robed cultivator frowned slightly but still replied coldly, "I am Le Qing, a disciple under True Person Qing Xuan. I do not change my name nor abandon my surname."

Qing Xuan? Isn't he Bai Ling's... master or something?

Looks like another one in Bai Ling's harem from my memories, Bai Ling's future senior brother.

She can't afford to offend a backer at the Core Formation stage for now, but she's noted down this name.

Bai Lan withdrew her gaze and looked at Bai Ling. "I heard you want to sever ties with the Bai family?"

Bai Ling's expression was proud. "You all looked down on me, treated me with contempt, but now that I've tested my spiritual roots and become an inner disciple after entering the immortal sect, I am no longer the Bai Ling of the past. Don't even think about getting involved with me anymore."

What a hassle.

Bai Lan sighed inwardly. She just wanted to cultivate properly and didn't want to deal with these troublesome matters.

But...

"Fine." Bai Lan nodded slightly, took a step forward, and pulled Madam Bai, who was beside her, behind her. She glanced at Minister Bai, who had collapsed on the ground. "Come to think of it, Bai Ling's grievances are all due to Father's troublemaking, aren't they?"

Minister Bai had thought Bai Lan would protect him. Seeing her step back now, he was utterly shocked. "Lan'er, you?"

"You like sleeping beauties and sow your wild oats everywhere. You had illegitimate daughters but ignored them, leaving their upbringing entirely to my mother. Now that there's trouble, you can't blame others, nor can you drag my mother into it." Bai Lan's tone was indifferent.

She spoke with a purely business-like attitude.

Then, she looked at Bai Ling again. "If you have grievances, seek revenge. If you have hatred, repay it. Don't go around with indiscriminate area-of-effect attacks like a madwoman."

Bai Ling froze.

"Settle your scores with whoever you want, seek justice from whoever you want. Don't involve the innocent, don't cause any deaths, and don't bother my mother anymore. That's all. Goodbye."

With that, Bai Lan took Madam Bai's hand and turned to leave the main courtyard, her departure swift and decisive.

"Wait!" Bai Ling tried to stop her.

Bai Lan said coldly, "If you want to pick a fight, I don't mind playing along to the end. Of course, I'd prefer to resolve problems more quickly, like..."

As Bai Lan spoke, she turned to look at Bai Ling, a smile in her eyes. "Like the secret of the jade bracelet on your wrist. If that place is revealed, your fate..."

Bai Ling's Portable Spirit Field Space was within that bracelet.

A miraculous item that could open up a separate world. Once the news spread, even a Nascent Soul stage cultivator would become very "interested" in Bai Ling and take direct measures to send her on her way.

This was Bai Ling's biggest secret, and she never expected Bai Lan to know it.

Her heart trembled violently, and Bai Ling's hands began to shake. She instinctively wanted to cover the jade bracelet with her sleeve.

System: "..."

He knew it, he just knew it!

The host wouldn't get too entangled with the destined heroine; her mind was entirely on cultivation.

Madam Bai hadn't expected Bai Lan to act like this. Pulled out by her daughter, she still looked bewildered.

Looking at the young girl striding ahead of her, Madam Bai felt a pang of sadness at her daughter's words, in addition to a sense of unfamiliarity.

"Mother, are you still worried about Father?" Bai Lan's voice came from ahead.

If Madam Bai admitted she still cared about that scumbag, Bai Lan vowed she would turn around and leave, never to be sentimental again.

Madam Bai, however, shook her head. "No, Lan'er is right. This matter was Father's fault. What does it have to do with me, their father and daughter's affairs?"

In the last sentence, there was a hint of suppressed grievance.

Over the years, Madam Bai had managed the Bai family's estate, taking care of her in-laws, accommodating her husband, and looking after the various women Minister Bai had married. After many years of marriage, she had toiled her whole life, and now, besides her daughter, no one seemed to understand her.

"Then, Mother, have you considered leaving the Bai residence?" Bai Lan sighed.

Madam Bai was stunned.

"Mother, your guess that day was correct. Long Aotian and Bai Ling both consider me an enemy, especially Long Aotian, who already harbors thoughts of annihilating the entire Bai family."

Madam Bai exclaimed, "How can this be!?"

"If I go to the cultivation world in the future, I won't be able to look after everyone in the Bai residence. If someone were to threaten your lives and safety then..." Bai Lan said, shaking her head.

As long as the Bai residence existed, someone would use it to grasp her weakness and threaten her using her parents.

Although this might not necessarily be her weakness... after all, they weren't Bai Lan's biological parents.

But at least, she didn't want innocent people to be implicated because of her, to be used as tools to threaten her.

Madam Bai also realized the seriousness of the situation now and said with a trembling voice, "What... what should we do!"

"Listen to me, Mother. Since you are now in charge of household affairs and hold the family's treasury, do as I say. Dismiss all the household staff. Divorce Father, sell off the family assets, and quickly leave the Southern Kingdom." Bai Lan said slowly.

Madam Bai: "???"

System: "???"

Dismissing all the staff at the drop of a hat?

"You, you, you, what are you trying to do?" The system was stunned, not understanding what Bai Lan intended.

Bai Lan chuckled. "Since the problem is very complex, let's change the perspective and solve the problem from the root."

The Bai family was about to be destroyed, and the root cause lay with the Bai family itself.

If they simply disbanded everyone in the Bai household and sent Madam Bai a thousand miles away to live under an assumed name, wouldn't that solve the problem!

System: "??? You truly are a genius!"

"Although the cultivation world is a high-martial world, it doesn't have cameras everywhere, no big data facial recognition, and no internet. If she hides well, lives under an assumed name, and settles in a different country thousands of miles away, who would know she's my mother, Bai Lan?" Bai Lan chuckled lightly.

Solving the problem from the root, without any unnecessary fuss.

The middle-aged woman before her had a blood connection to this body. Thinking of this, Bai Lan wanted to find a way out for this pitiable person.

The fate of the Bai family was utter annihilation, and among them, the most innocent person was Madam Bai before her.

However, Bai Lan didn't want to bring her into the cultivation world. Doing so would entangle too much karma with mortals, which would be too troublesome and unbeneficial for her future cultivation.

After careful consideration, the best course of action was to send her to a safe place.

She didn't want her kind mother to become her weakness after entering the cultivation world.

After letting Madam Bai return to her room alone to process the information, Bai Lan once again buried her head in cultivation.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye. Madam Bai ultimately followed Bai Lan's advice and began secretly preparing to disband the household.

Minister Bai's leg, broken by Bai Ling that day, kept him bedridden. Because he had offended Bai Ling, this matter also reached the ears of the Southern Kingdom's Emperor, who directly stripped Minister Bai of his position. Now a powerless middle-aged man, he had already lost all authority within the mansion.

Only Madam Bai, being kind-hearted, was still willing to care for him at this point.