Chapter 254: Chapter 141: Mother_3
"Although that woman may be exaggerating a bit, she is indeed facing a crisis and needs me to rescue her. If I don’t go back, she won’t be able to explain things to others."
"I don’t want to burden you, Chu Xuan. You should return to the Daoist Palace. We’ll meet again in the future."
Chu Xuan said solemnly, "No! I absolutely won’t allow you to suffer that kind of torment again. I’ve already sworn an oath."
Qingqing was about to persuade further, but Granny Yinhua said, "There won’t be any more offerings for the time being, you can rest assured about this, Young Master Chu."
"Because the Saintess is essentially a secret trump card, our Sect Leader plans to reveal her at the last possible moment to turn the tide. There’s no way they’d expose her existence prematurely."
"The abdication ceremony is in seven days. At least during that time, the Saintess will be fine."
"And what about afterward?" Chu Xuan questioned, "I really don’t believe you’d abandon nurturing that demon fetus."
Granny Yinhua remained silent, and Qingqing wiped her tears and said with difficulty, "As for the future... we’ll talk about it later."
"Chu Xuan," Qingqing clutched his arm with a look of longing and pleading.
"I know you care for me, but I also care for you. These past three months, along with the time of our first meeting, have been the happiest memories of my life."
"I’ll always remember you in the future, and please don’t forget me."
Chu Xuan’s face was expressionless, and he tightly gripped her hand, clearly unwilling to give up.
Qingqing had no choice but to continue, "Believe me, I will grow stronger in the future, and so will you. By then, nobody will be able to stop us from being together."
After saying this, she kissed Chu Xuan’s lips and hugged him tightly.
Chu Xuan could feel the slight trembling of the person in his arms and the emotion of pleading.
Finally, after Qingqing let go, he looked down at her and said with a determined expression, "I’ll come to find you again, remember this."
Qingqing hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded. She knew it was clearly impossible for Chu Xuan to simply give up.
"Then come back in the future, don’t get involved in this abdication ceremony. Yao Yufei will rely on me to turn the tables, and nothing will happen to me."
Chu Xuan was noncommittal; in his view, with Yao Yufei’s tactics, it’s impossible for her to fail just because her daughter ran away—she can only let herself be slaughtered.
But Qingqing is currently very worried about her mother. If you don’t let her be deceived once, she won’t wake up.
Chu Xuan silently thought:
This is better. Accompanying Qingqing back directly is too passive. There’s a chance I might even get stuck there; it’s better to be prepared and go after seven days.
If I can save her once, I can save her a second time!
Surely, after Qingqing realizes she’s been fooled, she won’t believe that woman’s nonsense any longer.
...
Thus, Qingqing and Chu Xuan parted wistfully, and then she followed Granny Yinhua to secretly set off on the return journey.
Chu Xuan stood on the rooftop, watching Qingqing’s departing silhouette, silently pondering ways to break the situation.
The old ghost, who hadn’t been suppressed back yet, hurriedly offered advice: "Let’s stick to the plan we discussed last time. You let me out, I’ll help you save the person with all my strength, then we’ll call it even."
But Chu Xuan remained silent, still insufficient. In last time’s emergency, this method could be used to escape, but now the situation has changed. Yao Yufei will definitely guard against me trying to snatch the person again.
Chu Xuan silently assessed the strength in his hands and ultimately decided to seek outside help.
But he couldn’t possibly turn around and ask Ji Mingyu to intervene, so he could only seek assistance from the Cyan Lotus Daoist Palace.
Initially, Chu Xuan didn’t want to do this, but for Qingqing... he clenched his fist, determined to find a way to gain support without dragging the entire sect down.
He immediately set off, asking the old ghost to enhance him with the "Ten Thousand Miles Wandering Soul Curse," to first go back and meet his master. The old man might be able to offer some advice.
...
Two days later, Qingqing and Granny Yinhua covertly returned to the tense and somber atmosphere of the Li’an Demon Sect through a secret path in the back mountain.
In the Li’an Hall, Yao Yufei remained seated at the top, leisurely without a hint of tension.
Upon seeing Qingqing return, she smiled at Granny Yinhua, "See? I knew my daughter is filial. She surely would come back."
"You lied to me?!" Qingqing gritted her teeth, furious to the extreme!
She had initially thought, even if her mother hadn’t been completely confined, she was besieged on all sides, in a dire situation, eagerly awaiting her return.
But she never expected this woman to act as if everything was fine, seeming confident in overcoming the crisis whether Qingqing returned or not.
Yao Yufei looked at her daughter with a playful gaze, "No, no, no, mother loves you too much to deceive you."
As she said it, she descended the stairs and opened her arms to Qingqing, "Come, let mother hug you properly, I’ll tell you a secret."
But Qingqing, with a look of distaste and disgust, pushed her hand away, "You lied to me, time and time again, I will never believe another word of yours!"
Yao Yufei wasn’t angry, instead, she looked at her daughter with loving eyes, "The time has finally come, I have painstakingly set this trap for over twenty years, all for the sake of both of us."
With that, Yao Yufei disregarded her daughter’s weak and futile resistance, insistently holding her in her arms.
Though Qingqing remained angry, turning her head away from her, Yao Yufei didn’t mind. She whispered a secret—a significant secret—in her daughter’s ear.
Qingqing initially didn’t believe it, then was startled, and finally incredulous, because the things her mother said seemed to correspond with some past situations. Could it be true?
