“Oh, Mother, why is it snowing today?”
Hua Xiangrong had just stepped out of the small building when she saw bits of snow drifting down from the sky.
The courtyard was already covered in a thin layer of silver-white.
“Did you do this, Mother?”
The girl curiously reached out her hand, catching a snowflake and watching it melt instantly in her palm.
‘It’s cool and refreshing.’
“I don’t have that kind of leisure.”
Hua Yan was already sitting on a stone bench in the courtyard.
There was no snow within half a meter of her.
With a casual wave of her hand, two cups of warm water appeared on the stone table, followed by two toothbrushes and two bags of tooth powder.
“Come and brush your teeth.”
“Okay.”
Hua Xiangrong nodded obediently and stepped through the snow to sit beside her, and the two began their morning routine together.
In truth, with Hua Yan’s cultivation level, she had long since reached the point where she was untainted by mortal filth; there was no need for her to wash at all.
The only reason she accompanied Hua Xiangrong in brushing her teeth was that on their first morning together, Hua Xiangrong’s eyes had widened in obvious shock when she heard her mother didn’t need to wash up.
This made Hua Yan suspect something.
‘Could it be that Yun Xueshang has been washing up with this child every morning since she was little?’
Holding onto the principle that she could never lose to Yun Xueshang, Hua Yan immediately gathered materials on the spot to make two toothbrushes, using the bristles of high-grade demonic beasts.
As for the tooth powder, she naturally refined it herself using spiritual herbs.
It even had the added effect of strengthening tooth enamel.
“Then, Mother, where did this snow come from?”
After finishing her morning routine, Hua Xiangrong asked while crunching on an orange-flavored Fasting Pill.
“The logic is actually quite simple.”
Hua Yan put away the towels and cups, glancing at the pink-haired girl beside her.
“Have you never wondered where the sunlight inside this ship comes from? Or why the day and night cycles are synchronized with the outside world?”
“Didn’t you use magic to make it, Mother?”
Hua Xiangrong tilted her small head, a look of confusion on her face.
“Heh, I’m too lazy to waste my spiritual power,” Hua Yan said with a curve of her lips.
“It’s merely the formations built into the ship. If it’s clear outside, it’s clear here. If it rains outside, it rains here.”
“That’s why I said it’s barely a decent treasure. Aside from looking good and flying fast, its only real use is blocking the astral winds during flight. They are all basic functions. Those fellows at the Tianji Pavilion really love to cut corners.”
At this point, she curled her lip, clearly dissatisfied with the so-called Tianji Pavilion.
“That means… it’s really snowing outside right now?”
Hua Xiangrong looked up in surprise, her eyes sparkling.
“Yes,” Hua Yan nodded.
“If my calculations are correct, we should have reached the Frost Ridge Mountains. This range is the boundary that separates the righteous and demonic paths. It stretches for 50,000 miles from north to south and is about 2,000 or 3,000 miles wide from east to west. Once we pass these snowy mountains, we will be in the territory of the Righteous Path.”
“What, did your mother not let you see it when she brought you over?”
Hua Xiangrong shook her head honestly.
“Heh, it seems the ship Yun Xueshang used to take you was even worse than mine. It was probably one of those enclosed models without any spatial expansion; you couldn’t even see the scenery.”
Hua Yan shook her head before smiling triumphantly.
“In that case, do you want to come to the deck with me and see it for yourself?”
“Yes! Yes, please!”
Hua Xiangrong immediately nodded repeatedly, her voice full of excitement.
She had been cooped up in the courtyard for days, meditating and exercising, and had long since grown restless.
The two followed the snow-covered path and walked outside.
Hua Xiangrong skipped ahead while Hua Yan followed leisurely behind.
After passing through a wall of distorted light, they reached the deck of the flower boat.
“Wow! — ”
The pink-haired girl rushed to the railing as soon as she emerged, leaning half her body over to look down.
Just as Hua Yan had said, towering and boundless snow-capped mountains lay below, while the flower boat they rode sailed leisurely above the silver waves.
‘Children are so easily impressed.’
Hua Yan leaned against the doorway, shaking her head as she watched the excited little figure.
‘She can look at a bunch of white for this long.’
She accompanied Hua Xiangrong on the deck for quite a while.
Finally, Hua Yan let out a yawn and spoke lazily:
“Alright, have you seen enough? We should head back and continue your training.”
Saying this, she turned around to lead the way back.
This time, she walked in front with her hands behind her back, and Hua Xiangrong followed obediently behind.
……
“Mother, when can I learn some spells?”
At noon, after finishing her medicinal bath, Hua Xiangrong dashed over to Hua Yan in the courtyard and looked at her expectantly.
These past few days, Hua Yan had only made her meditate and exercise, without teaching her even the simplest spell.
This made Hua Xiangrong wonder if this surrogate mother of hers wanted her to follow the path of body tempering.
‘That won’t do. I don’t want to become a muscle-bound Barbie.’
Hua Xiangrong took this opportunity to bring the matter up to Hua Yan.
“What? You’ve only been practicing for a few days and you’re already losing your patience?”
Hua Yan waved her hand, using her magical power to dry the girl’s wet pink hair.
She lazily raised her eyes to look at her.
“However, considering you’ve performed well during this time, it’s not impossible to teach you some spells.”
Her tone shifted as she gave a half-smile.
“But the things I know are all the killing arts of the Demonic Cult, which are completely different from your righteous mother’s methods. My techniques were born for the sake of taking lives.”
“…Do you still want to learn?”
“I — ”
“Wait, there’s a situation. We’ll talk about this later.”
Just as Hua Xiangrong was about to answer, Hua Yan suddenly raised her hand to interrupt her.
Her brow furrowed slightly as her divine sense quickly swept over several auras rapidly approaching the flying ship.
‘Hmph, just some Foundation Establishment and Golden Core cultivators. The strongest is only at the middle stage of the Golden Core Realm.’
‘A bunch of small fry.’
“Come, follow me to the deck again. It’s a good chance to show you a bit of the world.”
Having identified the newcomers’ path in her heart, Hua Yan shrugged and led Hua Xiangrong outside.
“THIS ROAD WAS OPENED BY ME!”
“THIS TREE WAS PLANTED BY ME!”
“IF YOU WANT TO PASS THROUGH HERE!”
“LEAVE YOUR TOLL MONEY BEHIND!”
As soon as the two stepped out of the cabin, they heard those clichéd lines.
One had to wonder where the “road” and “tree” were in these vast, snowy mountains.
Hua Yan picked at her ear, feeling bored.
When the muscular cultivators surrounding the flower boat saw a red-dressed fairy coming out with a child, their eyes glazed over at her stunning beauty and figure.
“Haha! Fairy, are you headed for the territory of the Righteous Path?”
The leading man cupped his hands and smiled, though cunning was hidden in his eyes.
“What a coincidence! My brothers and I are very familiar with this path! If the fairy is willing to pay some goods, we can escort you for a segment of the journey — ”
His gaze wandered over Hua Yan’s face as greed began to show.
“Or… if the fairy is willing to pay ‘another kind of price,’ my brothers and I might let you and your little sister go!”
“Hahahahahaha!”
His words triggered a burst of laughter from the men around him, their laughter filled with filth.
“Even though I feel like asking is a waste of breath,” Hua Yan said, her brows furrowed with undisguised disgust as if she were looking at something repulsive.
“Let me ask you this: have you all committed acts of murder, robbery, or the bullying of weak women?”
“?”
The man was somewhat confused.
In the Frost Ridge Mountains, there were many people trying to sneak between the righteous and demonic lands.
He and his companions were all rogue cultivators wanted by the Righteous Path.
Since they couldn’t survive there, they fled to these snowy mountains to commit robbery every day.
They certainly had many lives on their hands.
‘Could it be that this beautiful fairy wants to use her body to pay the debt but is afraid we’ll be too rough?’
The man licked his dry lips, a sinister smile appearing on his face.
“Hahaha, of course we’ve done it! But don’t you worry, Fairy, we — ”
“In that case, then you can all just die.”
‘Die? What does that mean?’
The man only saw the red-haired fairy’s crimson lips part slightly as she uttered those airy words.
Immediately, the world before his eyes tilted and shifted.
A cold fissure spread silently between his eyes, splitting his skull neatly in one clean line — along with those lewd eyes, which were halved.
It wasn’t just him.
The group of bandits behind him didn’t even have time to show expressions of horror before they were instantly transformed into dozens of neat chunks of flesh, mixing with the blood mist filling the sky and falling toward the snowy mountains below.
“Well? Do you still want to continue learning spells from me?”
Hua Yan slowly turned around to face Hua Xiangrong.
Behind her was a falling rain of blood and severed limbs; at the corner of her mouth was an ambiguous smile.
Her pale gold eyes reflected the snow’s light, shining with an incredibly bright, dangerous, and gorgeous radiance.
‘According to this girl’s little-adult personality, she should either be scared witless by now or, like those righteous blockheads, jump out to criticize me for killing people so casually.’
Hua Yan stared at the pink-haired girl, calculating in her heart.
‘I must properly correct her mindset today; I absolutely cannot let her become one of those pedantic — ‘
“Wow! Mother, you’re so cool! You took down all the bad guys in one go!”
The pink-haired girl covered her mouth, her eyes sparkling as she cheered excitedly.
“I want to learn your spells too! I want to become as powerful as you!”
Hua Yan stared at her for a long while, and then —
“Hahahahahaha!”
The young woman in the red dress suddenly covered her face and threw her head back in laughter, her voice full of arrogance and pride.
“Good! Good! As expected of my daughter! Even after being raised by that woman Yun Xueshang in the Righteous Path for so many years, you didn’t become a righteous blockhead! Good! Very good!”
“Hahahahahaha! Hahahaha!”
Aboard the flower boat, the woman’s laughter was unrestrained and echoed through the clouds.
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