Qian Renxue Attacks Again

"Teacher, this disciple will return to his room first."

Fang Mo stopped at the entrance to the side corridor and gave a proper bow.

Bibi Dong's steps paused, but she did not turn around.

"Mm. Go back.

You are not allowed to cultivate for the next three days. I'll have the maids prepare things in advance. Eat more nourishing food and recover properly."

"Yes."

Fang Mo watched her figure disappear at the end of the corridor before slowly turning around and taking another path toward his room.

When he reached the corner, he stopped.

Not because he was tired, but because he sensed an aura.

Golden, radiant, carrying an innate nobility and oppressive force.

The aura of the Six-Winged Angel.

Fang Mo's pupils contracted slightly, but his footsteps did not pause as he continued forward.

Someone stood outside his room.

More precisely, a girl.

Qian Renxue.

Today, she was not wearing that snow-white dress. Instead, she had changed into a light-gold casual outfit, her hair tied into a high ponytail that revealed her slender neck and delicate collarbones.

She looked even prettier than last time, but also colder.

The pale golden eyes no longer held that deliberately spoiled innocence from before. In its place was a suppressed, almost frozen scrutiny.

Fang Mo stopped three steps away.

"Miss Qian Renxue."

Qian Renxue said nothing.

She simply stood before the door with her arms folded over her chest, looking down at Fang Mo.

Fang Mo was more than half a head shorter than her. The difference between the builds of a six-year-old and a nine-year-old was made even more apparent in the backlight.

The silence lasted around five breaths.

Then Qian Renxue spoke.

"I saw it."

Her voice was soft, every word seeming to squeeze through clenched teeth.

"This morning, Mother's carriage left the city. I was standing in the pavilion of the Worship Hall, and I saw it clearly."

Fang Mo listened quietly.

"She was wearing battle robes." Qian Renxue's voice trembled slightly. "Those are clothes she only wears when hunting soul beasts."

Her gaze landed on Fang Mo as if she were looking at something incomprehensible.

"She took you with her."

Fang Mo did not deny it and nodded directly. "This disciple obtained his first Soul Ring today."

"I know."

Qian Renxue stepped forward, entering Fang Mo's personal space.

Moisture gathered at the edges of her pale golden eyes, but she forcefully held it back. Not a single tear fell.

"Do you know?" Her voice suddenly became very soft, so soft that she seemed to be talking to herself. "Since I was little, Mother has never taken me anywhere."

"Not even once."

Fang Mo raised his head and met her eyes.

He recalled the original story.

Bibi Dong's attitude toward Qian Renxue was not simple disgust, but a deep, unspeakable avoidance.

Every time she saw Qian Renxue, she remembered Qian Xunji and the harm he had inflicted upon her in that secret chamber.

Qian Renxue had grown up amid that avoidance.

Fang Mo spoke softly.

"The reason she does not take you with her is not because she dislikes you."

Qian Renxue's body stiffened.

"What do you know?"

Her voice abruptly rose, carrying grievance and anger suppressed for far too long. Yet because she was still so young, she sounded more like an angry little kitten with its fur standing on end.

"You came from an orphanage. You're six years old. You have no abilities at all. Why?"

"Why would Mother personally take you to hunt soul beasts? Why is your cultivation room next to her bedchamber? Why does she even have people deliver meals to your room?"

Qian Renxue's chest rose and fell violently, and her pale golden eyes were finally veiled by a mist of tears.

"What about me?"

"I am her daughter. Her biological daughter, yet she will not even look at me."

Fang Mo said nothing.

It was not that he did not want to speak, but that he knew any consolation at this moment would be unnecessary.

What Qian Renxue needed was not comfort, but an outlet for her emotions.

Qian Renxue took a deep breath and fiercely wiped at the corner of her eye with her sleeve.

Then she resumed that lofty posture.

"I'm telling you, Fang Mo."

She spoke one word at a time, her voice like a string about to snap.

"No matter what your Martial Soul is, no matter how capable you are, Mother's side will always be my place."

"You are only her disciple. Disciples can be replaced. But she only has one daughter."

"If you dare take what is mine..."

She paused, seemingly trying to think of a threat intimidating enough.

"I'll make sure you can't stay in Spirit Hall."

After saying that, Qian Renxue turned and left.

Her steps were quick, her golden ponytail swaying in the sunset like a battle flag declaring war on Fang Mo.

She did not look back.

But Fang Mo saw it.

At the instant she turned around, a teardrop slid from the corner of her eye before she swiftly wiped it away with the back of her hand.

Fang Mo stood before the door, watching her departing figure in silence for a long time.

Then he pushed open the door and entered.

He closed it.

Locked it.

Fang Mo leaned against the door panel and slowly closed his eyes.

Something was violently trembling within the Sea of Consciousness.

It was not a fluctuation of Soul Power, but something deeper, seemingly a resonance of souls.

In the darkness, that phantom was trembling intensely.

Spirit Dong'er.

Her phantom was clearer than it had ever been.

Dark red eyes were fully open, and a faint red mist spread around them. That was not the glow of Rakshasa Divinity,

but tears.

A former Rakshasa God, a god-level powerhouse who had died in defeat, was now silently weeping within the Spirit Sea of a six-year-old child.

Fang Mo said nothing.

He merely stood quietly at the center of the Spirit Sea and waited in silence. The phantom continued trembling for a long time.

Dark red eyes stared fixedly above the Spirit Sea, where traces of Qian Renxue's departing aura lingered.

"Xue'er..."

Dong'er's voice was so hoarse it was nearly inaudible, as though squeezed from the depths of her throat, carrying shattered pain that could never heal.

"She has grown up..."

Fang Mo remained silent.

"Exactly the same as in the previous life."

Dong'er's phantom slowly drifted one step closer, and the mist in dark red eyes grew thicker and thicker.

"Jialing Pass."

She suddenly mentioned those three words.

Though Fang Mo was somewhat puzzled, he said nothing.

"Just before the great battle at Jialing Pass... Xue'er came to find me..."

Fang Mo's breathing paused.

He knew that before the battle at Jialing Pass in the original story, Qian Renxue and Bibi Dong had once spoken, but the original story had not described the details.

Dong'er seemed to be struggling to remember, yet also afraid of this memory.

"She said... 'Mother, can I sleep with you?'"

Dong'er's voice cracked.

"Just that one sentence. I..."

Her phantom suddenly shuddered, and something seemed to break within her eyes.

"I agreed. That night, Xue'er slept beside me. She curled herself into a ball and clung to my arm, just as she had imagined when she was little."

"She said she was very afraid—not afraid of tomorrow's great battle, but afraid that when she woke up the next day, I would become cold toward her again."