Mo Li looked utterly stunned. This was nothing like what he had imagined.
Liu Erlong had taken in every flicker of his reaction. In the firelight, her usually cool, striking face seemed much softer, and her bright eyes rested on him.
"I've never told anyone about what happened in the past. But after seeing you like that today, I spent the whole day torn over whether I should tell you."
Liu Erlong looked at Mo Li and smiled helplessly.
"How could I not know what you're like? If I don't tell you, you'll find some way to do everything you said you would today. But I don't want you to do that."
Mo Li scratched his head, a hint of embarrassment crossing his face. He really had been furious earlier, and in his heart, he had already marked the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan as a target.
But before he did anything, he still wanted to know Liu Erlong's true feelings. As a transmigrator, destroying the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan would not be difficult for him. He might not even need to reach any particular level of strength; with the right plans, he could achieve it without bloodshed.
But what would happen after that? What would become of Liu Erlong? Her father, her clan—all of them would meet their end by his hand. She might be left with no family in this world. He did not want Liu Erlong to be trapped in such a miserable state, pitiful and alone, with no one left to turn to.
That was why he had made that agreement with Yu Luomian. Even if he had to use his strength to bring the clan to heel and fulfill what Sister Erlong wanted, that would still be better than wiping out the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
Seeing that Mo Li did not argue, Liu Erlong continued, "Apart from my mother, you're the only person I've ever told about my past."
"Li'er, are you willing to listen?"
Liu Erlong's eyes brimmed with hope. Under her gaze, Mo Li let out a slow breath, then nodded firmly. "I am."
"Listen to the whole story first. If you still have questions afterward, you can ask me."
Liu Erlong's eyes trembled. She smiled, but the expression was steeped in bitterness.
"The man you saw today was my biological father, Yu Luomian. He's a direct descendant of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, and he now holds a position of great power within the clan. My mother, on the other hand, was once a woman of the pleasure quarter. Their union must sound unbelievable, doesn't it?"
Mo Li did not respond. He seemed to have heard the faint mockery in Liu Erlong's voice, and listened on, holding his tongue.
"Back then, not long after Yu Luomian came of age, he left home to travel and gain experience. My mother had been an orphan. When she grew up, because she was somewhat pretty, the people who had taken her in sold her to a brothel."
"She became an entertainer who sang and danced but never sold her body." Liu Erlong bit her lower lip, pain flashing across her face. "I'm sure you know what sort of place that was."
Mo Li fell silent. What could he say about something that had already happened? Anything he said would only add to Liu Erlong's pain.
Liu Erlong quickly composed herself and continued, "In a place like that, entertainers were at the very bottom, the most lowly of all. They had to do every dirty, exhausting task. Since they couldn't bring the brothel much profit, they were constantly harassed and pressured to become the sort of women who did."
"My mother was quite pretty, so she couldn't help attracting attention. But time and again, she threatened to take her own life and endured countless hardships. The people in the brothel were so shaken by her resolve to die rather than give in that they finally backed off."
"After all, if someone died there, it would hurt their business, too."
"If she hadn't met Yu Luomian, my mother's life might have gone on that way forever."
Liu Erlong lowered her eyes slightly, her lids reddening. "He came to the city where my mother lived. No one knows why he went to a place like that, but fortunately, he fell in love with my mother at first sight. After going through many twists and turns, he was willing to pay a great deal to buy her freedom. At first, my mother didn't trust him, but after spending a long time with him, she chose to go with Yu Luomian."
"For a woman like her, that may have been the best choice."
"But no matter what, my mother was still a woman of the pleasure quarter. No one cared what she had done in that place; they only saw her as lowborn. My mother rarely argued with them, though."
"Back then, I couldn't understand it. I angrily asked my mother why she didn't refute those people. She gently told me that she had long since stopped caring about the world's judgment. She only needed to have a clear conscience, and then she could live with her head held high."
As the memory stirred her heart, the tears brimming in Liu Erlong's eyes finally spilled over, one after another, tracing her cheeks. Her voice grew hoarse, but she did not stop.
"After my father bought her freedom, he settled her in a house in the city. They spent some time together, but later, he left her a sum of money and went away to deal with clan affairs."
"But by then, my mother was already carrying me. I don't know how she got through that time alone." Liu Erlong wept as she spoke. "After I was born, I had no father, only my mother. She raised me, and I always thought I had no father."
"There were many nobles living near our home. They had been to places like that and had seen my mother. Whenever they ran into us, they humiliated us because I had no father. My mother endured so much because of it, but I couldn't bear it."
"Later, once I had gained some strength, I personally wiped away those grudges."
Tears still streaked Liu Erlong's face, but her words were vicious. Mo Li stared at her in surprise, then remembered that the infamous Corner of Slaughter had not earned its fearsome name for nothing.
If anyone had insulted Liu Erlong like that, Mo Li could not promise he would have been any less ruthless than she was.
"Later, when I was a little older, I could help my mother shoulder some of the burden. But the strain from all those years of overwork had already wrecked her health. She spent the last few years of her life in bed."
"I started traveling to gain experience very early, hoping to find rare treasures that could restore her health, but I never found any."
"My mother didn't live to see me return. She had already..."
Liu Erlong could no longer finish. She was overcome with grief.
"I knew my mother's greatest wish in life was to have a proper place by my father's side, to be acknowledged as his woman. When she was bedridden, she would often look out the window."
"I asked her why she was always looking outside. Each time, she would turn to me with a smile, pull me into her arms, and say she was waiting for her great hero to come back."
"I never thought he was any kind of hero, and I never felt he had protected my mother and me. My mother protected me. I never felt even a single day of fatherly love from him."
"Back then, I didn't understand what my mother meant. Thinking about it now, she never said a single bad word about my father, not even before she died. She loved him too much. But I couldn't. He saved my mother, yes, but in the end, he abandoned her."
"My mother never blamed him, but I hated him. I hated the man who couldn't even fulfill my mother's final wish. Because of him, my mother died with regrets."
Liu Erlong wiped away her tears, a trace of coldness appearing on her face.
"I can't say I hate the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. I'm practically indifferent to them; they're not worth hating. I only hate myself for failing to protect my mother. I only want my mother's final wish to be fulfilled."