Chapter 315 : Connected Energies
Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue sat in the hall whispering for quite some time, but without the parties involved present, their discussion couldn't reach any definitive conclusions. Most importantly, there were things they couldn't confirm, so certain matters were difficult to address directly. After extensive discussion, they only reached the conclusion that the two were old acquaintances, nothing more.
Of course, both were cautious about discussing others behind their backs, so they immediately fell silent upon hearing a sound.
Jiang Mo was the first to stop talking and look up, seeing two figures appear at the top of the staircase—Zhu Baiyi and Qingyu descending together.
Yun Qingyue stood up, proactively stepping forward to greet them, first calling out: "Master." After doing so, she glanced at Sect Leader Zhu beside her, her lips moving several times without producing any sound, clearly having some estrangement with her birth mother.
Zhu Baiyi didn't mind; in truth, neither of them had particularly warm personalities, and their interaction had always been subdued since their reunion. Thinking about it carefully, since Zhu Baiyi had rescued her from the Nine Abyss Sect Leader eighty years ago, Yun Qingyue had never called her "Mother." If she were to become particular about it now in front of Qingyu, it would seem rather affected.
The atmosphere remained harmonious. As the two approached the table, Jiang Mo had already arranged all the snacks she had previously taken out. Knowing these two had deep relationships with her Senior Sister, she smiled brightly and said: "Peak Master, Sect Leader, would you like something to eat?"
The two elders had abstained from food even longer than Yun Qingyue and naturally had no interest in eating or drinking, politely declining.
They sat down opposite the younger pair, and Zhu Baiyi's gaze swept briefly across Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue's faces before she suddenly asked: "You two were out early, weren't you? With nothing to do, what were you discussing here earlier?"
The directness of this question caught them off guard. Jiang Mo's mind raced, trying to find an excuse to gloss over it—no matter how curious she was, it wasn't appropriate to admit she had been privately discussing them. Besides, she had no significant relationship with the two, while her Senior Sister had deep connections with both. Under these circumstances, revealing the truth would create discomfort for all four of them.
However, Yun Qingyue seemed to have no such concerns. Her gaze swept over the two opposite them: "I'm very curious about the relationship between Master and you..." After a pause, she added: "I'm also curious whether my abandonment at the Xuanqing Sect entrance was coincidental or..."
Actually, the latter half of the question was unnecessary, as anyone with sense knew it wasn't coincidental.
Hearing her Senior Sister's equally direct questioning, Jiang Mo felt somewhat uncomfortable and shrank back slightly, feeling out of place.
This wasn't just her imagination. Especially once the truth was revealed, Jiang Mo would discover they were a family of three, while she was the only outsider. No matter how much she wanted to integrate, at this moment, she remained an outsider.
Of course, that was for later. Right now, Jiang Mo only felt the atmosphere was somewhat delicate. She shrank back, trying to reduce her presence, but in reality, Zhu Baiyi opposite her didn't even spare her a glance. After pondering for a moment, she began speaking: "Since it's just us here, if you want to know these things, I don't mind telling you."
Despite saying this, she still glanced at Qingyu.
Evidently, the two had already reached a consensus, as Qingyu merely lowered her gaze, staring at something indeterminate without even raising her eyelids. Clearly, she had no intention of speaking, thus leaving everything in Zhu Baiyi's hands.
A flash of complexity passed through Zhu Baiyi's eyes, quickly disappearing as she redirected her gaze, while the two opposite her waited for her answer.
The intensity of their gazes was palpable, yet Zhu Baiyi avoided meeting their eyes. A hint of nostalgia flickered in her expression: "The story begins four hundred years ago. Once, I was ambushed and severely injured, forcing me to revert to my original form. To escape my pursuers, I hid in an inn. There, I met someone who saved me and helped heal my wounds. Afterward, I traveled with her..."
Four hundred years ago, both Zhu Baiyi and Qingyu were young. Qingyu had just formed her Nascent Soul and was out gaining experience, while Zhu Baiyi was also just starting out, with a temperament that wasn't particularly amiable, prone to disputes at the slightest provocation.
However, after being rescued by Qingyu, the hot-tempered Zhu Baiyi became more restrained. She followed Qingyu, accompanying her on her travels. Together, they visited the North Abyss, reached the Southern Sea, and traversed the continent from east to west. Their footprints covered almost the entire Xuantian Continent. That journey lasted nearly ten years, and as they accompanied each other, an extraordinary affection naturally developed between them.
Cultivators followed their hearts without many constraints. Even though Zhu Baiyi was also a woman, and even with her monstrous beast bloodline, Qingyu saw no issue with this. After that fleeting kiss, she even decided to bring Zhu Baiyi back to meet her master.
After meeting her master and informing the sect, they could truly be together.
However, it was at that time that Zhu Baiyi's identity was exposed—she not only had a monstrous beast bloodline but was also a demonic cultivator. Beyond the standoff between righteous and demonic paths, more significantly, Zhu Baiyi had deceived her for ten years!
Of course, Zhu Baiyi felt rather wronged. If she hadn't concealed this from Qingyu, they wouldn't have had those ten years of mutual dependence.
In any case, Qingyu left in anger. Upon returning to the Xuanqing Sect, she immediately entered closed-door cultivation and hardly left the sect for the next three hundred years. Even when she did venture out, it was always with her fellow disciples. She either remained secluded or was constantly surrounded by others, making it nearly impossible for Zhu Baiyi to meet her. Until over a hundred years ago when Yun Qingyue was born, and she sent her to the Xuanqing Sect...
Zhu Baiyi had no intention of elaborating on these past events to the younger generation. She only mentioned their first meeting, confirming Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue's speculation about their previous acquaintance. Then, without further explanation, she formed a hand seal and directed it toward Yun Qingyue.
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A dull "thud" broke the room's silence—the sound of a chair falling.
Jiang Mo stared at the scene before her in stupefaction, completely bewildered.
Cultivators possessed numerous techniques; matters complicated for ordinary people often seemed effortless for cultivators. Just as a cleaning spell could solve all sanitation issues, a single hand seal could verify bloodlines!
Yes, after eighty years, Jiang Mo once again witnessed this hand seal. This time, with both parties present, there was no need for hair or fresh blood as a catalyst. With just a hand seal directed at them, the connection between their energies was visible to anyone with eyes.
Jiang Mo wasn't blind, so she saw it especially clearly, her eyes widening in astonishment. When she realized Zhu Baiyi's hand seal was used to verify bloodlines, she didn't step forward to intervene, as no one present could possibly have a blood relation to her, a white tiger. Yet the reality unfolded differently from her expectations—the hand seal was indeed directed at her Senior Sister, but the energy connection on the other end wasn't with Zhu Baiyi, but with Master Qingyu!
This... this... was there something wrong with the hand seal? Why did the bloodline verification connect to Master rather than her birth mother?
Amid her astonishment, Jiang Mo's mind raced with numerous thoughts, even developing conspiracy theories—perhaps that blood verification years ago had been manipulated from the start. Maybe her Senior Sister wasn't Sect Leader Zhu's daughter at all, but Master Qingyu's illegitimate child?!
Jiang Mo wasn't alone in these thoughts; Yun Qingyue's inner calm was equally shattered. Her typically cool crystal eyes surged with turbulent waves in that instant, her expression displaying extraordinary shock, unable to maintain her composure. She looked down at the energy connecting her to her master, even raising her hand to try to sever it, but the temporarily broken connection would reform immediately.
Yun Qingyue's eyes trembled slightly as she looked at Qingyu in disbelief, her voice quavering: "Mas... Master..."
Truthfully, Qingyu had previously only heard Zhu Baiyi's side of the story, and this was her first time witnessing the connected energies confirming their relationship. Her heart was hardly more settled than Yun Qingyue's, so she stared at the connected energies, momentarily speechless.
Yun Qingyue seemed to misunderstand something. She abruptly stood up, knocking over the chair behind her: "Master, you... you are..." The words "my mother" wouldn't come out, but her tone had lost its usual calmness: "All of that back then was false. Sect Leader Zhu isn't my mother; I was framed. You knew, so why, why didn't you ever say anything?!"
With Zhu Baiyi's previous narrative about them being old acquaintances, Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue had clearly been misled—since they were old acquaintances, it wasn't a big deal for Zhu Baiyi to take the blame, using it as an excuse to send the child back to her former companion.
Yun Qingyue's thoughts went even further: given her master's immersion in cultivation, if they weren't mother and daughter, why would she have taken her in and raised her at the sect? And among all the disciples her master had accepted, why was she always the most special? She spent the most time with her master, received the most guidance from her master, and was single-handedly supported by her to become Mount Mingxia's unquestioned senior disciple...
These thoughts were overwhelming; the more she considered them, the more it seemed her master had known everything, arranging it all.
But how could Qingyu have known any of this? She was even more wronged than Zhu Baiyi had been years ago. Not only had her disciple inexplicably become her daughter, but she had also only learned of this news half a month before Yun Qingyue, and it was only today that this information had been confirmed.
Though her emotions were complex, Qingyu hadn't forgotten to defend herself: "I didn't know. I only just found out about this."
Neither Yun Qingyue nor Jiang Mo believed her. After all, childbirth was different for women than for men—with a ten-month pregnancy culminating in labor, how could a mother not know? And if she knew she had this daughter, unless Zhu Baiyi had stolen her and returned her as revenge, how could Qingyu not have known Yun Qingyue's identity? If not, she should have guessed it when Yun Qingyue's identity was exposed years ago.
Yet seeing how the two interacted now, it clearly wasn't that simple.
Qingyu could see their disbelief, but even she found the situation absurd. Before she could determine where to begin her explanation, Zhu Baiyi decisively cast another hand seal, this time connecting her own energy with Yun Qingyue's.
Seeing this newly formed energy connection, Yun Qingyue was completely stunned. She looked from Qingyu to Zhu Baiyi, momentarily unsure which one was her birth mother. Or perhaps one of them was a man in disguise?!