“I’m telling you, you definitely ran into another bad woman who’s just playing with your feelings, didn’t you?”
“Xiao Li isn’t a bad woman! She’s just too busy!”
“Yeah, yeah, sure…”
Qu Linglong and Lin Qianqian bickered on the side, but Hua Xiangrong didn’t have the heart to listen.
She held a bowl of Osmanthus Rice Wine, her gaze fixed intently on the images in her mind.
Meanwhile, the little system in her head was already a chaotic mess.
“Waaaah! I knew doing this would lead to exposure sooner or later! What do we do now, Host?”
“Don’t panic, 099.”
Hua Xiangrong gripped the bowl of rice wine, her small eyebrows furrowing unconsciously.
Her tone carried a hint of uncertainty.
“Let’s wait and see for now. Just wait and see…”
It was unclear whether she was comforting the system or herself.
The girl who usually cried out ‘seize the day’ was now tense because her identity had been accidentally exposed ahead of time.
She seemed nervous, even… a bit anxious about the potential loss.
…
On the other side.
“What do you mean ‘Rongrong grew up with me since she was little’? She’s your child, so how could she have grown up with me?”
Hua Yan listened to Yun Xuechang’s question, finding it utterly nonsensical.
“?”
Yun Xuechang also froze for a moment and looked at her.
“But I have never given birth to a child. Isn’t Rongrong… the one you raised?”
“???”
Hua Yan’s confusion deepened, her tone filled with bewilderment.
“How could she be mine? She suddenly appeared at my place more than one month ago! She even said you were her mother and called me a heartbreaker. I got a sound thrashing from my grandmother because of that!”
“But I… truly have never had a child.”
Hua Yan looked at the other woman’s cold, serious face. There wasn’t a hint of a joke in her expression. Her brain suddenly buzzed in a chaotic mess.
‘Since she didn’t give birth to her, and I didn’t either… then where did this child come from?!’
“Wait, Yan’er,” Yun Xuechang suddenly asked. “Could you tell me in detail what happened after Rongrong found you?”
“Huh? Oh, well, it went like this…”
Hua Yan was stunned for a moment, then recounted everything from start to finish.
“I see.”
After hearing the narration, Yun Xuechang fell silent for a moment.
With a slight hesitation, she said, “I have a guess… but it might sound a bit too bizarre.”
“Oh, just say it! Stop keeping me in suspense!”
Hua Yan couldn’t wait any longer. She was worried sick — did Rongrong really just pop out from a crack in a rock?
“Yan’er, I think that Rongrong might… really be our daughter.”
Under Hua Yan’s anxious gaze, Yun Xuechang spoke softly.
“What do you mean ‘really our daughter’? We clearly haven’t given birth to anyone…”
“But the Bloodline Detection Spell used on both of us shouldn’t be wrong, right?”
Yun Xuechang looked at her and continued her analysis.
“Even if the spell was flawed, given your grandmother’s cultivation, there are very few people in this world who could deceive her. Why would such a proud powerhouse be willing to masquerade as a little girl? Besides, Rongrong is indeed only at the Qi Refining Stage. You even watched her breakthrough with your own eyes.”
“That makes sense… Wait, how do you know my grandmother’s cultivation is very high?”
Hua Yan gradually calmed down. While nodding in agreement, she suddenly noticed something was off.
“Aren’t you the only child of the Hundred Flowers Valley’s Valley Master? I asked the Saintess of Hehuan Sect about your identity years ago.”
Yun Xuechang was the one taken aback by the question. She looked at her in confusion.
“Your grandmother is the Old Valley Master. In this Shenzhou Continent, who doesn’t know of her profound cultivation?”
“?!”
“You knew my identity?! Then why didn’t you expose me when I kept calling myself Hua Yan’er these past few days!”
‘This jerk… has she been laughing at me this whole time?!’
Hua Yan’s face instantly flushed red with shame and annoyance.
“I thought you wanted to hide your identity in front of Daoist Friend Qu and Junior Sister Lin. After all, relations between the Righteous and Demonic Paths are tense right now. I understand that much.”
As she spoke, the white-haired Fairy slightly puffed out her non-existent chest, seemingly carrying a hint of… pride.
“Then shouldn’t I be thanking you?!”
“No need for thanks, Yan’er. It is what I should do.”
Yun Xuechang’s gaze was sincere.
“Get lost! You’re not allowed to call me Yan’er anymore!”
Hua Yan’s cheeks were crimson with rage.
“Get back to the point! According to what you said, where did Rongrong actually come from?”
“Oh…”
The white-haired girl lowered her eyes and continued.
“As I said just now, since Rongrong really is our daughter, is there a possibility — that she isn’t the daughter of the ‘us’ in this world?”
“Not from this world… What do you mean?”
Hua Yan looked at her, completely failing to understand.
“Yan’er, you know that Shenzhou is one world, but beyond it, there are countless heavens and earths.”
Yun Xuechang explained slowly.
“Some worlds are very small, forming their own corners, connected to us either stably or temporarily. Those are the so-called ‘Secret Realms’. Some worlds are very large, like the Immortal Realm after ascension. Legend says it is even several times larger than Shenzhou.”
“Tales and legends about other worlds have existed since ancient times, too many to count. Have you ever wondered if there might be a world extremely similar to Shenzhou?”
“Are you saying… like that nonsense the bald Buddhist cultivators say about ‘one thought, one world’? That every choice a living being makes splits into different heavens and earths?”
Hua Yan knit her brows, thinking carefully. She forgot to bicker about the name.
“It’s somewhat similar.”
Yun Xuechang nodded.
“I believe that Rongrong might come from such a world similar to ours. There is also a Yun Xuechang and a Hua Yan there, as well as the Hundred Flowers Valley and the Hehuan Sect. In that world, perhaps I really did fall in love with you and give birth to Rongrong after that match on the Yin-Yang Platform of the Hehuan Sect ten years ago.”
“This would also explain why Rongrong familiarly told me not to buy the Sword Manual from the street stall when she first saw me — I’ve been a bit confused about that. Looking at it now, it’s likely because she was raised by the ‘me’ of that world and is familiar with my temperament and habits.”
“From Rongrong’s descriptions, we can infer that the ‘me’ of that world wanted to take her to find you for some reason. By some strange coincidence, Rongrong might have unintentionally crossed worlds and arrived directly at the Hundred Flowers Valley.”
As Hua Yan listened, although it still felt like a wild fantasy, she couldn’t help but feel it made some sense.
“Now that you mention it… I remember too. I asked Rongrong how she got to the Hundred Flowers Valley before. She said her eyes went black with a ‘pop,’ then everything lit up with a ‘flash,’ and she was there… I thought you had knocked her out back then and brought her to the Valley before waking her up.”
“I was thinking, if you were her biological mother, how could you treat a child like that? Besides, Sister Liu also mentioned that when she first saw Rongrong, the girl was full of energy, not at all like someone who was starving or had traveled a long way.”
The more she thought about it, the more she felt Yun Xuechang’s words were reasonable.
“Also, Rongrong once told me that you taught her ‘the Demonic Path is about the same as Evil Cultivators.’ But from my observations these days, I don’t feel like you’re such an extreme person… You shouldn’t think that way, right?”
“Naturally not.”
Yun Xuechang shook her head frankly, meeting her probing gaze.
“Then that’s it. It seems Rongrong really did cross worlds in an instant back then and landed in the Hundred Flowers Valley. As for her view on the Demonic Path… maybe the ‘you’ in that world turned love into hatred and resented me, which is why you taught her that?”
“Perhaps so.”
Yun Xuechang nodded slightly.
“So… Rongrong really is the child of the ‘us’ from another world? By a stroke of fate, she appeared before the ‘us’ of this world who never gave birth to her?”
Ultimately, Hua Yan accepted this conclusion, which would be considered a ghost story even in Shenzhou. However, her heart was still in a daze, lingering with a hint of indelible disbelief.
“Yes… although it sounds absurd, it’s the only way to explain everything clearly.”
Yun Xuechang nodded. After a moment of silence, she spoke again.
“Yan’er, since we have deduced the truth of this matter, let’s… not tell Rongrong for the time being, okay?”
“What…”
Hua Yan was startled at first, then realized.
“Of course we can’t tell her! She is so small. If she finds out that she might never see her real mother again in this life and that she’s stranded all alone in this similar yet strange world… how could she bear it?”
“Yes. Telling her the truth would be far too cruel.”
Yun Xuechang nodded. After a long silence, her voice grew lower.
“Yan’er, Rongrong is a good child… I want to help her keep this ‘lie’ going forever. Even if she is only the daughter of the ‘us’ from another world…”
“What are you saying!”
Hua Yan immediately put her hands on her hips and glared at her.
“I don’t care if it’s this world or whatever world! Yun Xuechang, I don’t care what you think, but Hua Xiangrong — she is my, Hua Yan’s, own flesh-and-blood daughter!”
The white-haired girl looked at her angry expression.
She was stunned for a moment, then the corners of her lips curved up slightly, and her gaze turned warm and soft.
“Yes, I think so too. I also want to stay by Rongrong’s side… She is my, Yun Xuechang’s, daughter as well.”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.