At Ye Xishui's words, Cuicui lowered her head even further and haltingly recounted her past.
"My family lived in a remote village in the Star Luo Empire. There were only two children at home: my younger brother and me."
"Every year, someone from the empire came to the surrounding villages to hold free Martial Soul Awakenings."
"I awakened my Martial Soul two years before my brother did. But I had no Soul Power, and my Martial Soul was just a simple dagger."
"I thought that dagger would help me earn money for my family and make Mom and Dad love me the way they used to."
"But two years later, my brother awakened a stalk of Blue Silver Grass, and he had level-eight Innate Soul Power."
"Our whole family was overjoyed. I was happy too, at first."
“But to pay for my younger brother to study in a city in the Sun Moon Empire, my father sold me to a local brothel.”
"I was abused day and night there. I never understood why my father had done that."
"I had awakened a Martial Soul too. I could earn money for the family and go hunting in the mountains with him. I tried so hard."
"But once my brother awakened his Martial Soul, my father threw me away."
“But then I met the Holy Church. It gave me another chance and took me to kill those people.”
"Now they and I are a real family. We'll never be separated."
Still kneeling, Cuicui lifted her clothes and exposed her stomach as she spoke.
Three human faces flickered beneath her once-fair skin, frantically beating against her flesh as though trying to call for help.
Cuicui's gaze had grown hazy.
“The Holy Church taught me cultivation techniques. It taught me how to make those