Chapter 59: Chapter 59: Ripples
A few days later, just before the New Year, Qin Hanyue left quietly with Qin Xue.
Staring at the now somewhat empty home, Qin Li felt a pang of emptiness, followed by a self-deprecating smile. ’Looks like I’d actually gotten used to my current identity,’ he thought. ’Since when did I, Qin Li, ever need someone else’s care just to survive?’
Qin Hanyue’s departure seemed sudden, but upon careful reflection, it made perfect sense.
A woman of immense talent had endured untold hardships to raise her child for thirteen years. Thirteen years! Not just a day or two. Moreover, Qin Hanyue had once been the Eldest Miss of the Qin Family, a woman of noble status. It was always others who served her; when had she ever had to serve anyone else?
Thirteen years had nearly ground a woman blessed by the heavens down into a common housewife!
Thankfully, Qin Li had finally risen, had finally matured!
Qin Hanyue had watched her son’s explosive growth in such a short time. His cunning, his methods, his intelligence—none were lacking. She could finally set her heart at ease. And the moment she did, a tidal wave of longing, suppressed for thirteen long years, crashed over her!
Nearly five thousand days and nights!
They say a single day of separation can feel like three autumns. After thirteen years, how many autumns had it been for her?
The feeling was so overwhelming that Qin Hanyue had to fight the uncontrollable urge to fly to Profound Island at once. But she resisted. She still wasn’t completely at ease with the idea of her son living all by himself.
It wasn’t until after her son attended the Shangguan Family’s banquet, and she had heard a detailed account of what transpired, that Qin Hanyue was finally, completely at ease. She had always believed her only lot in this life was to wait for him to come to her, that there was no other possibility.
But it seemed the heavens had not been unkind. After so much hardship, her son had grown from a fledgling who only dared to peek over the edge of the nest into a young eagle that dared to fight the sky itself. Since that was the case, why not let go completely and allow him to become a true, mighty eagle, soaring through the nine heavens?
Her heart heavy with reluctance, Qin Hanyue resolutely departed. She left Yellow Sand City, a place she had grown to utterly despise, and set foot on another path... a path that was hers and hers alone.
...
Honestly, pretending to be a teenager all the time was rather difficult for Qin Li. He had to be constantly vigilant to not let his mask slip, and he had to deal with all sorts of unexpected situations. If not for the memories from the other soul within him, Qin Li would have truly felt lost. ’A child trying to act mature is ridiculous,’ he thought, ’but an adult trying to act childish is even more so!’
However, the memories also had their distinct drawbacks. There were many times when Qin Li would find himself in a daze, feeling as if he really was the thirteen-year-old Qin Li.
Fortunately, as his power grew, those moments became increasingly rare.
Furthermore, the heart-to-heart talk he’d had with Qin Hanyue before she left made Qin Li realize that his disguise had been rather unnecessary in front of her. But he couldn’t be blamed for it. He had never experienced a mother’s love before. Hearing that a mother’s love is the greatest love in the world and experiencing it firsthand were two completely different things.
Thus, it wasn’t until Qin Hanyue was truly gone that Qin Li had a sudden epiphany. For a mother, no matter how mature or exceptional her child becomes, she feels only happiness and relief, never suspicion.
The most unconditional love in this world is a mother’s love. Of this, there was no doubt.
The moon was bright, the stars brilliant. Qin Li stood on the roof of his humble home, gazing up at the silent, vast heavens. His eyes seemed to pierce the endless night, his gaze falling upon that woman far away.
"Mother, take care."
...
Few people paid any attention to the poor district, so the families watching Qin Li didn’t learn of Qin Hanyue and Qin Xue’s departure right away. By the time they found out, two days had already passed.
Yellow Sand City. The Wang Family estate.
Ever since Patriarch Wang Guanghui’s third son, Wang Cheng, was publicly beaten and humiliated by Qin Li at the Shangguan Family banquet a few days prior, the entire Wang Family had been shrouded in fury.
In Yellow Sand City, for a small family to survive and climb the ranks to become a mid-sized one required not only unimaginable effort but also a powerful sense of cohesion and unity.
The Wang Family was young, and they lacked neither cohesion nor unity. Everyone knew what kind of person Wang Cheng was, but that didn’t mean they could just swallow this insult. He was just some bastard from the Qin Family who’d latched onto the powerful Shangguans. Did that give him the right to look down on everyone?
Furthermore, some had since pointed out that forcing Wang Cheng to kneel and apologize in public, as well as scaring the City Lord’s daughter to the point of incontinence, was the result of a unique Spiritual Attack from the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, Only I am Venerable technique!
He was just some poor kid with no backing, explicitly abandoned by the Qin Family, who had then gone and suicidally severed all ties with the Shangguan Family. If the Wang Family couldn’t even reclaim its honor from someone like that, they would never be able to hold their heads high in Yellow Sand City again!
What’s more, the Shangguan Family had already spread the word after the banquet: from this day forward, none of Qin Li’s actions had anything to do with them.
Before this, many had speculated whether the Shangguan Family would be so ruthless. It was rumored that the Shangguan’s young miss had been taken away by a mysterious, supreme expert, which meant Qin Li and his engagement had become a running joke. If the Shangguan Family were benevolent, they could have still protected Qin Li and ensured him a life without worry. But the problem now wasn’t that the Shangguan Family lacked benevolence; it was that Qin Li himself was courting death!
The Wang Family’s council hall was nowhere near as luxurious or grand as the Qin Family’s. It was a large room where a dozen or so people sat around an oval table. Wang Guanghui, seated at the head, frowned slightly. "Our honor must be reclaimed," he said. "The question is how. I don’t think we should be too brazen about it. The Shangguan Family can say whatever they want, but if they suddenly decide to turn on us, we’ll have handed them the perfect excuse."
"Brother, Cheng is your own son! He was beaten like that and forced to kneel in public! He lost face for our entire Wang Family! If we can’t deal with that brat openly, how can we show our faces in Yellow Sand City?" a middle-aged man of about forty demanded, his face contorted with rage. "I say we send the Third Elite Squad, kidnap the brat, and—we don’t have to kill him—make him kneel outside the Wang Family gate, slapping his own face while shouting ’I was wrong!’ After three days, we let him go. It will even make us look magnanimous..."
The other members of the Wang Family collectively rolled their eyes. ’And you call that magnanimous?’ they thought. ’You might as well just kill him and be done with it.’
Wang Guanghui waved a dismissive hand, glanced at the middle-aged man, and said softly, "No. I cannot risk the entire family for the sake of my son. Besides, our Wang Family wasn’t the only one humiliated that day. Have you forgotten the City Lord’s House? Now, that Qin Family daughter has vanished, along with that peerless handmaiden the Qins trained. Hmph. On the surface, it looks like the Qin Family has cut ties with them, but can you be so sure? Who knows what schemes are afoot! The Qin Family and the Shangguan Family are both far stronger than we are. Qin Hongyuan and Shangguan Tie... those two old foxes are as cunning as they come. We may be much stronger than we once were, but we are still walking on thin ice with every step we take. This matter requires long-term planning! Hmph. As long as that brat doesn’t leave Yellow Sand City, we’ll have plenty of opportunities. So, what we need to do now is wait!"
Seeing that the Patriarch had made his final decision, the rest of the Wang Family no longer objected. On one hand, they respected his authority. On the other, the one who had been injured was his own son. The person who should be most pained by this was Wang Guanghui himself. If he could let it go for now, what right did they have to press the issue?
And indeed, there were few men who could achieve what Wang Guanghui had. His ability to swallow his pride and endure humiliation, even when faced with a powerless boy, was precisely why the Wang Family had managed to leap from a minor clan to an upper-mid-tier family in just a few short decades.
Endure what others cannot, and do what others will not.
Qin Hanyue’s departure caused little stir in the Shangguan Family, either. Of course, if Shangguan Tie had been out of seclusion, he would have undoubtedly given his second son, Shangguan Buhui, a vicious slap across the face. The reason was simple. Before his seclusion, he had repeatedly stressed that they must treat Qin Li well, and that they must not look down on him just because Shiyu had left to train under a powerful figure. He never imagined that Shangguan Buhui would not only ignore his words, but do the exact opposite of what he had instructed.
In the Qin Family, however, the sudden disappearance of Qin Hanyue and Qin Xue made Qin Hongyuan rather restless. For over a decade, he had harbored a single suspicion: did his youngest daughter, Qin Hanyue, know any Martial Skills? He had even deliberately allowed the servants to mock her, hoping to force the person backing her to reveal himself. Otherwise, given their lowly status, how would a few servants dare to laugh at her, no matter what scandalous things she might have done?
Thirteen years had passed in a flash. Qin Hanyue had endured it all silently, never fighting back, never complaining. It had given Qin Hongyuan the false impression that perhaps he had misjudged his daughter after all.
It was partly out of this guilt that he had recently allowed the mother and son to move back to Zichen Garden.
What he hadn’t expected was the dramatic transformation that occurred after Qin Li and his mother moved out. It might have looked like the Qin Family was indifferent to their fate, but in truth, nearly every move Qin Li made after leaving was under their surveillance. Of course, they knew absolutely nothing about him killing Qin Shisan.
It wasn’t that no one in the Qin Family had ever cultivated the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, Only I am Venerable technique. The power of that Martial Skill was incredibly domineering, and it was quite effective for training Death Warriors. However, not a single person had ever survived the third Nirvana.
In other words, death was certain after eighteen months!
That was too high a price to pay. Even if someone was willing to be a Death Warrior, they wouldn’t choose a death like that, would they? Qin Hongyuan refused to believe his daughter was unaware of this, yet she had dared to let Qin Li cultivate it. And now, six months had passed, yet Qin Li showed no signs of undergoing Nirvana!
This... this was what concerned Qin Hongyuan the most! If they could find a way to counteract the soul-damaging effects of the Nirvana from the Only I am Venerable Martial Skill, then within a few short years, the Qin Family would become the number one family in the entire Cyan Dragon Kingdom... No, the entire Celestial Essence Continent!
They would be... unrivaled in the world!
Don’t call it baseless ambition, and don’t ask why no one succeeded in ancient times. Just because no one succeeded back then doesn’t mean it’s impossible now!
Just as Qin Hongyuan was preparing to find an opportunity to call Qin Hanyue back for a heart-to-heart talk, to appeal to her with both reason and emotion, his precious daughter, along with the handmaiden Qin Xue he had given her, had simply... vanished!
This sent Qin Hongyuan, who had always been suspicious of his daughter, into a thundering rage. He severely punished the agents responsible for keeping an eye on them. He didn’t need to think twice; his daughter’s departure was undoubtedly related to Qin Li’s father!
But it was too late for regrets; he had clearly miscalculated. He immediately summoned the Qin Family’s upper echelon and gave a specific order to the brothers Qin Feng and Qin Hu: for the time being, they were absolutely forbidden from causing trouble for Qin Li, on pain of severe punishment!
Qin Hanyue’s departure was like a small pebble tossed into a calm lake. It created only the faintest of ripples, but it triggered... a chain reaction of consequences.
Qin Li could sense this much as he walked the streets of Yellow Sand City; for the first time in a long while, he didn’t feel anyone tailing him.
Qin Li had come out this time to buy a good sword. Before she left, his mother had given him eight thousand taels of silver. Qin Li was confident that so much silver would be more than enough to purchase a high-quality weapon.
