Old Grudges

"Senior Sister Chen?" Shen Mo heard the footsteps and turned to look. Chen Mengze had followed him out.

"The iron energy in this Mystic Crystal Mine is dense. If a Stone Spirit forms here, it's usually quite powerful."

"You haven't even reached Qi Gathering, so I'm afraid you won't be able to handle one." Chen Mengze said coolly, "That's why I came out to take a look with you, in case anything goes wrong."

"I see. Thanks for looking out for me, Senior Sister Chen." Shen Mo smiled.

The two of them walked side by side, making a circuit of the mine.

"By the way, Senior Sister Chen, your birthday should be coming up soon, right?" Shen Mo suddenly asked. "Have you thought about what kind of birthday present you want?"

"You remember when my birthday is?"

Chen Mengze was taken aback, and a warm feeling rose in her heart.

Over the past few years, she had deliberately kept her distance from him. She had thought their relationship had grown cold, but she hadn't expected him to remember these things so well.

"As for a birthday present... If someone gave me an Azure Wood Sachet on my birthday, I'd be very happy."

Chen Mengze hesitated for a moment before answering.

An Azure Wood Sachet, huh?

Shen Mo quickly made a note of it, intending to pass the hint along to Guo Zhao later.

"By the way, from now on, when we're at the cave abode, if Senior Brother Guo asks me to spend time with him, I'll come find you. Don't just stay in your room making pills and talismans."

Chen Mengze said, "When you're not there, Senior Brother Guo is always trying to say strange things."

"Uh..."

Shen Mo hesitated.

He had taken a reward specifically to create opportunities for the two of them.

If he took the reward but didn't do the job, that wouldn't be very ethical.

"What is it? You don't want to?"

Seeing him hesitate, Chen Mengze grew puzzled. Her brows knitted as she asked, "Did Senior Brother Guo say something to you?"

"Senior Brother Guo did ask me to give him a hand."

Shen Mo didn't hide it from her, briefly explaining that he had accepted a reward.

"You!" Chen Mengze was both embarrassed and annoyed when she found out. Then she suddenly remembered the birthday present he'd asked about earlier. "When you asked me about a birthday present, was that also...?"

"Senior Brother Guo really couldn't make up his mind, so he asked me to find out." Shen Mo scratched his head and readily admitted it.

At his words, the small glimmer of hope and gratitude in Chen Mengze's heart instantly turned to indignation.

I'm never speaking to him again!

Two hours later, Shen Mo and Chen Mengze had finished circling the Mystic Crystal Mine. They found a stone step and sat down to rest for a while.

"Hey, honestly, what do you think of Senior Brother Guo?"

Chen Mengze had held it in for two hours, but in the end, she couldn't help being the first to speak.

"Mm, he's a good person." Out of professional courtesy, Shen Mo still gave him a favorable assessment.

"Back then, my father had wanted you to marry into our family."

"That was just Uncle Chen's wishful thinking. When it comes to feelings, both people have to be willing."

Shen Mo was taken aback that she had brought it up so suddenly, and felt a little confused.

Could Chen Mengze still have feelings for me?

But back then, the original Shen Mo had been eager to go along with the arrangement.

Chen Mengze had been the one to refuse, and afterward, she had grown much colder toward him.

As if she had seen his confusion, Chen Mengze said, "Do you know why I refused back then?"

"Why?"

"You were too weak."

Chen Mengze didn't mince words.

So she thought I was a deadweight.

Shen Mo rubbed his nose, unable to argue.

Before he had transmigrated, the original Shen Mo really had been rather mediocre.

He was already in his twenties, had Uncle Chen looking out for him, and had cultivated for years, yet he was still stuck at the fifth level of Body Tempering with no progress.

He clearly wasn't someone with much potential.

From a practical standpoint, he wouldn't have been a good choice for a husband.

"I bear a blood feud. I can't choose an aimless, ordinary cultivator as my Dao companion."

A blood feud?

Shen Mo raised his brows slightly.

Uncle Chen had gone with his father to River-Facing Sect to seek discipleship. It seemed there was a story behind that, too.

He didn't know much about it, though, and Uncle Chen had rarely told him about the past.

But now, Chen Mengze seemed ready to talk about it.

"Do you want to hear about my Chen Family?"

"If you want to tell me, I'll listen." Shen Mo thought for a moment before answering.

"My father came from a cultivation family in Sishui City, the Chen Clan. The clan's founding ancestor was originally a low-level Rogue Cultivator. By chance, he entered a ruin left behind by a Spirit Sea Realm cultivator, and that gave him the means to rise up and establish a family."

It turned out that the Chen Clan's founding ancestor had gained an opportunity back then, which opened the door to Qi Gathering for him. He then settled in Sishui City, married, had children, and grew his family.

In time, the Chen Clan had flourished.

Thanks to the many treasures in the ruin, the Chen Clan's founding ancestor had risen with astonishing speed.

In a mere hundred years, the small family he had founded had gradually grown stronger through marriages, property investments, and various other means, eventually becoming one of the great clans of Sishui City.

Alongside the Liu Clan and the Wu Family, it was known as one of Sishui City's three great families.

The Liu and Wu families were both long-established cultivation families in Sishui City, with immortal sects backing them.

Naturally, they resented the Chen Clan's sudden rise and its share of the city's resources. They were also puzzled by the fact that no immortal sect stood behind it.

How had it managed to grow so rapidly?

So they sent out spies and used all sorts of means to make inquiries.

The news about the ruin leaked out.

What the Chen Clan's founding ancestor had found in the ruin back then was only a few spirit pills and strange treasures from the outer reaches.

The inner chamber of the ruin, where the Spirit Sea Realm cultivator's supreme treasures were kept, had been sealed by a formation. The Chen Clan's founding ancestor had been unable to open it.

So the true treasures had yet to be taken.

There was nothing new under the sun.

Once they learned of the ruin left by the Spirit Sea Realm cultivator, the two great cultivation families, the Liu Clan and the Wu Family, immediately coveted it.

"To seize the secret key to the ruin that our Chen Family possessed, the Liu Clan and the Wu Family took advantage of the moment when Sishui City was fighting the Outer Realm Heavenly Demons on the immortal sects' orders. They slandered our Chen Family, accusing us of colluding with the Outer Realm Heavenly Demons and plotting to bring disaster upon the world."

The Outer Realm Heavenly Demons were creatures from the lower realms, natural enemies of human cultivators.

The Red Flame Kingdom was now jointly controlled by the Five Great Immortal Sects.

To safeguard the peace of the kingdom, the Five Great Immortal Sects had established rules: all families and factions affiliated with an immortal sect had to obey its orders.

If demons invaded, they had to fight as commanded.

Those who distinguished themselves in battle would receive generous rewards from the immortal sects.

But anyone who dared to collude with the Outer Realm Heavenly Demons was guilty of a grave crime.

Once that accusation was pinned on them, even if the Chen Family were wiped out, no one would dare speak up on their behalf.

"Back then, the Liu Clan and the Wu Family joined forces and slaughtered my entire Chen Family. My mother, An Clan, died in that bloody massacre."

"To protect me, a newborn, my father managed to escape by sheer luck. He was utterly broken, but thankfully, Uncle Shen helped and talked him around. Only then did he preserve his life and join River-Facing Sect, hoping that one day he could avenge our family's blood feud."

So his adoptive father and Uncle Chen had shared such a past.

After hearing this, Shen Mo could understand why Uncle Chen had treated him as if he were his own son.

"Life is full of twists and turns," Shen Mo sighed. "My parents died unjustly, too. But unlike you, even if I wanted to avenge their deaths, I wouldn't know where to look for my enemies."