Mother and Daughter Reunite

Qian Renxue abruptly turned her head.

But found no one behind her.

The canopy cast a vast shadow in the sunset, its silvery-white leaves gently spinning in the wind.

No one.

Qian Renxue's breathing quickened.

She had clearly heard it just now...

"Don't be afraid."

That voice came again.

Not from behind her, but from above?

Qian Renxue raised her head.

Between the branches of the Silver-Leaf Wutong, a faint, nearly transparent purple mist was slowly gathering.

The purple mist was thin, almost blending into the light of the setting sun.

But it was moving.

As though a pair of invisible hands were shaping the purple mist into an outline.

A woman's figure.

She was slender, gracefully curved, with long hair cascading down like a waterfall.

Qian Renxue's pupils suddenly contracted.

That face emerging from the mist...

A high nose bridge, thin lips, violet... no, dark red eyes.

The contours of her features were exactly the same as her mother's.

But her aura was entirely different.

Her mother's gaze was cold and repressed, carrying a distance that made her impossible to approach.

But the way these dark red eyes looked at her was...

Gentle.

With a tenderness that had been suppressed for far too long, one that could no longer be contained and was nearly overflowing.

Qian Renxue's body trembled.

Not from fear, but because she had craved that gaze for nine whole years.

"Y-you... who are you?"

Qian Renxue's voice shook. She already knew the answer in her heart, and mist instantly welled up in her pale golden eyes.

The phantom did not answer.

She merely floated there quietly, staring unblinkingly at Qian Renxue.

Her gaze held countless emotions:

Heartache, guilt, longing...

And a devotion that had crossed life and death, transcended time, and could not be described with words.

Qian Renxue's tears fell.

She did not wipe them away.

"Y-you... are you Mother?"

The phantom's lips curved slightly.

It was an extremely faint arc, but Qian Renxue understood.

Spirit Dong'er slowly spoke. "I am your mother, yet I am not your mother."

Her voice was somewhat hoarse and weak, carrying a warmth Qian Renxue had never felt before.

"I am her from the future..."

Qian Renxue froze.

"Her from the future?"

Spirit Dong'er slowly drifted closer, remaining at a safe distance.

"Xue'er," she said softly, "there are some things I cannot tell you yet."

"But there is one thing I must say now."

Qian Renxue raised her head and looked at her through tear-blurred eyes. Something seemed to shatter within those dark red eyes.

"What I want to say is... I'm sorry."

Three words.

Qian Renxue's body jolted. Tears surged from her pale golden eyes, impossible to stop any longer.

"Y-you... what did you say?"

"I'm sorry," Dong'er repeated, her voice even lower.

"I never truly looked at you, never truly held you, and I wasn't by your side at the age when you needed me."

Qian Renxue bit her lip hard.

At that moment, she desperately wanted to speak, but it felt as if something had blocked her throat, leaving her unable to say a single word.

Dong'er extended a hand.

That hand was translucent, its edges glowing with a faint dark light, as though the wind could scatter it at any moment.

"May I touch you...?"

Qian Renxue looked at that hand, tears streaming down her face, and nodded frantically.

Her fingertips landed on Qian Renxue's face.

There was no sensation, no warmth.

Yet due to the sacred nature of her Angel Martial Soul, Qian Renxue felt it clearly.

A faint chill filled with the aura of death gently brushed across her cheek.

Beyond that, she also felt longing.

Qian Renxue could no longer endure it. She stepped forward, wanting to embrace the phantom.

But her hands passed through it and touched nothing.

Qian Renxue froze.

She lowered her head to look at her empty hands, then tremblingly raised it and met those dark red eyes.

"You can't hold me," Dong'er said softly. "I'm only a wisp of Remnant Soul now..."

After she said that, Qian Renxue's tears fell even harder.

She did not try to embrace her again. Instead, she stood where she was, head raised, looking at Spirit Dong'er through tear-filled eyes.

"Why did you become like this...?"

Dong'er fell silent for a while.

"Because I made many mistakes, and I have already died once."

Qian Renxue's tears crisscrossed her face, her eyes filled with confusion and heartache.

"You... died once?"

Dong'er did not answer that question.

She simply looked quietly at Qian Renxue, the tenderness in her eyes growing ever deeper.

"Xue'er."

"Mm."

"You must remember one thing." Dong'er's voice suddenly became serious.

"Your mother... the current me... does not not love you."

Qian Renxue's body trembled slightly.

"She simply... does not know how to face you."

Dong'er's gaze dimmed for a moment.

"Because every time she sees you, she thinks of some painful things. Those things are not your fault, but she cannot control herself."

Qian Renxue lowered her head. Tears dripped onto the bluestone, making the faintest sound.

"Mm, mm, mm... I understand."

Qian Renxue nodded, keeping her voice low. "I don't hate her. I just want her to look at me."

Spirit Dong'er fell silent.

After a long while, she slowly spoke again.

"She will. One day, she will say it to you herself: Xue'er, I'm sorry."

Qian Renxue raised her head in confusion, looking at the phantom through tear-blurred eyes.

"Why is that?"

Dong'er's lips curved slightly, that arc carrying a certainty that spanned time.

"Because... I have already said it."

Qian Renxue did not understand those words.

Nor did she need to.

"Xue'er, give me some time, and give her some time as well. We will see each other again very soon."

After saying that, Dong'er's phantom began to slowly dissipate. Qian Renxue nodded through her tears.

That evening.

Qian Renxue sat beneath the Wutong Tree. She stared blankly, weeping until, at last, her tears stopped.

Fang Mo looked at the scenery beyond the window.

He sensed Dong'er's spiritual fluctuations: trembling, soft, a maternal instinct breaking free from its frozen shell.

He also sensed Qian Renxue's soul fluctuations, violent and soaked in tears, as the emotions she had suppressed for nine years were finally released.

The two souls met beneath the Wutong Tree, like two rivers finally converging.

Deep within the Spirit Sea, Dong'er had already returned.

Her phantom gradually became transparent. Maintaining the form of a spiritual body was a tremendous drain on her, and it had also caused intense emotional fluctuations.

Fang Mo waited for her in the Spirit Sea.

"You're back?"

Dong'er said nothing. She floated silently in the darkness for a long time.

Then she spoke.

"Fang Mo."

"Mm."

"Thank you."

It was the first time she had said those three words, and there was no hesitation in her tone.

Fang Mo looked at her quietly.

"No need to thank me."

As Dong'er slowly sank into the darkness, she left Fang Mo with one sentence.

"Next time... let me see her again."

Fang Mo nodded.

"Alright."