The Bitterness Life Could Not Smooth Away

"When... when you truly knew what kind of person I was, when everything about me was laid bare before you," Lin Xiaosu said, "then you would have the chance to reassess your choice."

"...I'll listen to you! When the day comes that you leave the Bridge Realm, I'll give you that choice. All right?"

"All right!" Lin Xiaosu said. "Now you can leave. I think..."

"No! I'm going to lie down!" Li Xueyi lightly raised her hand and covered his lips.

She lay quietly in his arms, with the blanket between them.

Lin Xiaosu's gaze turned toward the window. His Heavenly Insight Eye fixed on that stretch of lakeshore embankment amid the mist outside...

That stretch of embankment.

Three ancient trees.

Their roots were thick and their branches strong, but they bore few leaves.

From time to time, several leaves fluttered down. Half fell into this lake, and half into the lava lake.

Those that fell into the lava lake caught fire and burned. Those that fell into this lake rode the water away.

Beneath the trees, a noblewoman watched the falling leaves and gave a soft sigh. "Leaves from the same tree make different choices, and their fates differ accordingly."

Beside her, Li Qiangu smiled faintly. "Madam, are you still unable to let go of his bloodline?"

The two of them were the true rulers of the Li Clan.

Clan Chief Li Qiangu and his wife.

Li Xueyi's parents.

Madam nodded. "Xueyi's bloodline is the purest. With First Ancestral Union, perhaps she truly could have opened an entirely new Gate. But joining with a Secondary Bloodline means the great hopes we placed upon her have come to nothing."

She had mentioned two terms: First Ancestral Union and the union of Secondary Bloodlines.

They referred to a reproductive code of