Chapter 93: He kneels on the ground, wailing in pain

Lu Daocheng could not help but be stunned.

He thought he had misheard, and it was only after he regained his senses that he heard clearly what Lu Daoshuang had said.

His tone was dreamlike and illusory.

"Mo... Mother."

Lu Daoshuang keenly noticed his abnormality, but she did not take it to heart, assuming only that he had suffered abuse.

That was just as well.

When they occasionally cultivated together, she always heard Lu Daocheng speak of his mother, his tone filled with incomparable longing.

His birthday was coming up soon, and she had thought for a long time about what to give him; in the end, she chose this special gift.

His desire for material things was low.

The resources within the family were all readily available.

If there were any regrets in this world, it was only the longing that a young person desired but could not obtain.

Lu Daoshuang had always presented herself with gentleness in the clan; hearing this, a very faint smile appeared on her face.

She said softly, "Yes."

"I heard you say that you miss your mother very much, and your birthday is coming soon, so let this be the birthday gift I give you in advance."

"I imagine this gift should make you happy."

"Um... okay." Lu Daocheng replied haphazardly, stumbling over his words.

He did not know what reaction he should make, so he reluctantly clutched his chest and put on a pained expression, not wanting others to suspect his identity.

"I, I want to go see."

However, although the time Lu Ren had spent with him was not very long, it was not short either.

Almost in an instant, Lu Ren discovered his unusual state.

But his divine sense swept over Lu Daocheng and found no traces of Possession, so he remained silent.

Although he did not know what exactly had happened to Lu Daocheng, it was, in any case, likely not a bad thing.

Lu Daoshuang tilted her head, appearing a bit playful and cute: "Are you sure? Logically speaking, shouldn't you be going to tend to your injuries now?"

Lu Daocheng shook his head immediately.

He struggled to suppress his urgency, "No, no need, I want, I want to go see now."

"I miss my mother very much."

After wandering for a thousand years, this sentence was finally uttered by him.

Whether it was the current Lu Daocheng or Lu Daocheng as the Demon Emperor, this sentence was something buried deep in his heart.

As this sentence poured out, he was almost on the verge of tears.

Although Lu Daoshuang felt somewhat puzzled, she glanced at Lu Ren's expression and ultimately chose to lead him there without a word.

Lu Daocheng was a bit strange today.

But in the end, the person was still the same person.

She took Lu Daocheng with her, walking step by step past the Lu Family's main residence and other dwellings.

There were simple and elegant high walls and large courtyards, exquisite and unique Immortal dwellings, pavilions and towers, wine kiosks and long corridors, winding and twisting, with the scent of the south wind and Spirit Wine passing through the halls.

Beside the long corridors were almost all kinds of rare and exotic plants.

Cranes lowered their heads in the spirit lake, and translucent spirit fish swam past.

Lu Daocheng's gaze swept over these buildings, committing their layout to memory, yet he felt increasingly puzzled.

This place looked at a glance like an extremely standard and traditional cultivation family.

Logically, such a family should not have suddenly fallen into decline.

Yet, around the time he became famous, he seemed to have never heard of such a vast and invincible force existing in the world.

He knew the name of the master of the Poor Oddity, and he knew the name of Wanren City, but these names almost all existed only in legends.

It was said, it was all said.

There was not a shred of factual truth to corroborate it.

He had occasionally heard that the master of the Poor Oddity was once a rare genius. He had died at the hands of a treacherous person, a death most regrettable and lamentable, yet there was no way to undo it? He had also heard that the heaven-gifted genius named Lu Ren seemed to have an adopted son who intended to avenge him.

But... in the end, he was tortured to death, his limbs severed, his spirit root gouged out, suffering a miserable end.

Lu Daocheng's thoughts were a mess, but they finally settled on determination.

—Determined not to think about it anymore.

Either way, this was just an illusion, and things appearing in an illusion could not be treated as reality.

But if this illusion could allow him to see scenes related to his mother, that would be for the best.

A thousand years had passed in the blink of an eye.

The scenes of his mother in his mind, the images related to his mother, had almost all dissipated.

Even if he racked his brains to recall, he could not pull the past images out of his mind.

The reason he dared not rest even though he knew he was injured was that he feared the illusion would end too quickly, preventing him from seeing his mother of old.

Lu Daoshuang did not know what was wrong with Lu Daocheng; she brought him into the Library Pavilion, found the Image Recording Stone she had extracted, and shoved it into Lu Daocheng's hand.

She said, "Here!"

"This is what I intercepted from it."

"Look."

Lu Daocheng channeled the remaining Spirit Power in his body into the Image Recording Stone, and the image within the stone unfolded in an instant, and the person he longed for day and night indeed appeared in the stone.

His tears fell instantly.

Warm teardrops rolled down, sliding off his cheeks and falling into his collar, staining it with warm, blooming flowers; the damp traces slowly spread, yet they burned into his heart.

It is Mother.

It really is Mother.

The place where Mother is in the image is not any place he is familiar with, much less the tiny snail-shell dwelling he remembers living in with Mother, nor is it the dilapidated shack.

The scene displayed within the Image Recording Stone is extremely warm.

It is a small courtyard.

But the courtyard is planted with fruits and vegetables of the four seasons, one can see the sunrise and sunset, and if one climbs high to gaze into the distance, one can even see the ebb and flow of the tides at the edge of Wanren City.

Although this place is near the outer city, the environment is extremely beautiful, and the walls are also intact.

There are no drafts leaking in from all sides, and it is not tattered or broken.

Inside the Image Recording Stone, Mother's mouth opens and closes; although it did not record what Mother was saying, he can see his younger self snuggled in Mother's embrace, eyes wide and bright, letting Mother bundle him into thick cotton-padded clothes.

Relying on the opening and closing of her lips, he vaguely distinguishes what Mother said.

She said, "My good child..."

"The Lu Family Head is benevolent, which is why we have such a good life; you... must be good... towards..."

"So handsome, my son is so handsome... must be grateful for the benevolence and virtue of the Lu Family Head..."

"Tofu pudding, hmm... good, meat, dumplings..."

Lu Daocheng's tears fell torrentially.

His throat was choked with sobs.

Mother.

It really is Mother.

Dead memories came back to life at this moment; he remembered that in her final dying moments, Mother was wearing tattered clothes that barely covered her body, her body was so thin that her bones were visible, she was covered in filth, and she was staring with wide eyes at the roof of the drafty, dilapidated temple.

She just died like that.

She died at a time he did not know.

When he returned, her body was already stiff.

Mother.

A living, breathing Mother.

It is Mother.

Like an abandoned beast, Lu Daocheng knelt on the ground in agony and wailed.

(End of this chapter)