Chapter 394: Seeing Tumi Again, Finally Finding Peace

A group of people were talking outside; could the person in the room actually still be sleeping?

This piqued Lingxiang's curiosity, and taking advantage of the moment the few were talking, she slipped into the inner room.

Looking through the screen, the person on the bed was vaguely visible, only their chest was rising and falling unevenly, looking extremely weak.

So they were ill.

Lingxiang muttered to herself as she walked forward, and she actually saw a familiar face.

"Qiaoshi Furen!"

Lingxiang gasped; the person lying on the bed was none other than the wife of the Guyang City Lord, Qiaoshi Furen.

Although the current Qiaoshi Furen had the appearance of a young girl and had not yet fully matured, Lingxiang recognized those familiar brows and eyes at a glance.

How could Qiaoshi Furen be here?

Gazing at the weak Qiaoshi Furen, Lingxiang was utterly bewildered, and just as she was about to lean in, she heard the sound of a curtain being lifted behind her.

It was Tumi Xianzi.

And not until Tumi Xianzi was close did Lingxiang realize that she was actually heading straight for her.

That's right! Tumi was staring fixedly at Lingxiang!

Lingxiang was stunned and tried to move her body, but no matter where she moved, Tumi Xianzi's smiling gaze would follow.

Could it be...

Lingxiang's heart hammered in her chest; she opened her mouth, but in the end, she did not say a word.

In her panic, Tumi Xianzi suddenly pulled Lingxiang into an embrace.

"My child!"

Lingxiang was at a loss for a moment, standing there like a wooden puppet, and only after confirming that this gentle embrace was not fake did she let out a gasp of surprise.

This...

This was too inconceivable!

Lingxiang hurriedly broke free, stepped back two paces, and stammered, "Words can be spoken recklessly, but one cannot claim kin recklessly. Just what kind of sacred being are you?"

Admittedly, the woman before her did indeed have the face of her mother, but couldn't the others not see her? Why could this woman?

Could it be Guihua playing tricks again?

Tumi Xianzi just smiled, composed herself, and sat down by the bedside.

"It is a good thing that you can be on guard; after all, I am only a fragment of memory."

Hearing this, Lingxiang took another long breath.

A fragment of memory?

How could there be a memory of her mother in Maidong's sea of consciousness?

No! That's not right!

Maidong's inner demon had been broken, and her own divine sense should have returned to its place; could it be...

Could it be that this was her own sea of consciousness?

Once the divine sense returns, one should awaken, but this memory popped out at this time; could it be that her mother did this on purpose?

Lingxiang was puzzled and asked hurriedly, and Tumi Xianzi nodded to confirm Lingxiang's conjecture.

"When I passed my cultivation to you back then, I sealed this memory in your sea of consciousness, and it would reveal itself to you when the time was ripe."

"The time? What time?"

Tumi Xianzi turned her head to look at Qiaoshi Furen sleeping on the bed.

"To be able to see this memory, you must have already met."

Seeing Lingxiang nod, Tumi Xianzi then spoke slowly.

As it turned out, the reason Tumi Xianzi met with the heads of the three families was initially aimed at the legendary Natural Spiritual Root, but she did not expect to see everything that was currently happening in the dreams of Qiaoshi Furen.

The reason Qiaoshi Furen was born weak was because of this talent, so after Tumi Xianzi saw everything, she shackled Qiaoshi Furen's ability and sealed her memories with the Heart Imprisonment Seal.

But what she did not expect was that the Heavenly Star Spirit Root was ultimately too overbearing; even with Tumi Xianzi's witchcraft, the power could still seep out from the shackles, so much so that later, whenever Qiaoshi Furen saw a person, she could know what would happen to that person afterward.

The turmoil of the Demon Race and three years of devastation forced the three families to re-examine their mission.

After all, the matter of suppressing demons was, firstly, by the order of the ancient gods and had been the duty of the three families since ancient times, and secondly, the danger of the ancient great demons was even more severe than that of the Demon Race.

So, after much debate, it was decided to reunite the three clans at Yuanqing to consolidate the power of suppressing demons.

But they could not ignore the Demon Race, so the three heads decided to use the power of their family bloodlines to temporarily suppress the power of the Demon Race.

Tumi Xianzi was on very good terms with Nanshan Jun and knew the temperament of Bao Yan well, so after the decision of the three family heads to sacrifice themselves for righteousness, she plotted this strategy.

"So..." Lingxiang turned her gloomy face away, interrupting Tumi Xianzi, "You calculated all of this?"

"Yes."

"Does Father know?"

"It was a strategy I discussed with your father."

Lingxiang did not speak again, her expression dark and unreadable, saying nothing, not knowing what she was thinking. Tumi Xianzi was not in a hurry either, just sitting there quietly.

The room was silent, with only the light shining through the window changing in the stillness.

"You..." After a long time, Lingxiang finally spoke with difficulty: "Did you ever think of me? Did you think about whether I would be willing? Did you think about what I would become in the future?"

Tumi Xianzi knew that Lingxiang felt aggrieved; she thought Lingxiang would lose her temper, but she did not expect that this daughter of hers could actually endure it so firmly.

Looking at the forbearing Lingxiang, Tumi Xianzi revealed a gratified smile.

"Child, I know you are aggrieved, but when the nest is overturned, are there any intact eggs? You are also a member of the Daoist Sect; how could you not understand this?"

"Yes..." Lingxiang said in a low voice, her face still hidden in the shadows, "Eliminating demons and defending the Dao, punishing evil and saving the world—these are the duties of those who cultivate the Dao..."

Lingxiang paused, then asked in return: "But what does this have to do with me?"

Tumi Xianzi's face was as calm as water, but her heart was very pained.

"I am but a person of flesh and blood with mortal eyes; I only wish for a father's kindness and a mother's love, only desire to cling to the mundane world. What happens to this world, what happens to the heavens and earth—what does that have to do with me?!"

Lingxiang spoke these words very calmly, but Tumi Xianzi knew that her daughter was venting the bitterness and grievances of these past years.

Tumi Xianzi waited for what Lingxiang would say next, but Lingxiang did not speak again.

"Yet, you still chose to take in Long Qi, planning deeply for his sake and helping him along the way, did you not?"

Lingxiang was stunned for a moment, then sat down as if throwing a tantrum, but her expression was no longer gloomy; her eyes were merely slightly red and her brows lightly furrowed, as if she were forcefully holding back.

Tumi Xianzi brushed Lingxiang's hair from her temples, and Lingxiang did not dodge, though her expression remained incredibly awkward.

"Child, I understand all your grievances, but in one's life, one never lives only for oneself, nor does one ever live without living for oneself." Tumi Xianzi said this while embracing Lingxiang once more.

"Your mother has been willful her whole life, living freely and unrestrained, but only since having your father and having you have I understood what is meant by the joy of family."

"So even if I am to be hated by you, even if I am to be blamed by you, your mother must do this."

"Because you are your mother's child, your mother absolutely cannot let you live in a world of deep water and scorching fire!"

Lingxiang closed her eyes, and a tear fell from the corner of her eye; she raised her arms to embrace Tumi Xianzi, responding to her mother's warmth.

Yes, what was she struggling with? Isn't this the mother she has thought of day and night?

The sages rely on the Dao to transform rather than on wisdom and craft, yet they insist on using wisdom and craft to scheme for all things in the world—but this is her mother!

A mother gives everything she has to her child; how could she bear to let her child suffer and endure hardship?

What a sage can do, a mother can also do, but what a mother does, a sage may not necessarily be able to do.

"Mother... is this a dream? If it is only a dream, I fear that after waking, I will be even more heartbroken..."

Lingxiang felt somewhat melancholy, but Tumi Xianzi only smiled slightly.

"Whether it is or isn't, what does it matter? Who can say that what happens in a dream is not real?"