Mingyue nodded. She understood the situation.
It was IceFlame poison, a venom that made the victim feel burning and freezing pain at the same time.
Her mother had been cultivating nonstop to suppress the poison for as long as Mingyue could remember.
However, it did nothing to cure her.
The poison was only pushed down and never removed, trapping her mother in a vicious cycle.
She had to keep cultivating and absorbing qi, but her realm did not advance.
All that qi only suppressed the poison.
"A few months ago, the Hua family offered a fifty-thousand-year-old ginseng.
As you know, natural treasures like that are very rare.
This ginseng could greatly boost someone's life force and might give a chance to cure the poison.
In return, they wanted the family to turn a blind eye to the competition between Mingyue and Linghua."
[The target's anger is intensifying, mixed with pain and helplessness.]
Mingyue felt as if her heart was being pierced.
She could easily guess the rest.
The patriarch believed that if Mingyue failed to survive, it would be because of her own weakness.
She knew how the patriarch thought. In his eyes, a sheltered flower could never outlast one that grew in the wild.
The family needed a trailblazer, someone who could open a new path, not a spoiled prodigy.
What hurt Mingyue the most was that the cure was only a possibility. It was not even guaranteed.
Mingyue could not understand her mother's heartlessness.
She even wondered if she had been adopted, but then she remembered that her little brother was treated the same way.
At this point, Mingyue just wanted to leave and find a quiet place to calm down, but she did not want to make her uncle suspicious.
"You seem to care a lot about Mingyue.
Didn't she hate you?"
Jian Feng wanted to ask about Mingyue's current situation, but he assumed she was not in immediate danger.
If she were, why would this woman come here so calmly?
"That is good. I hope she hates me.
She is a diamond, a brilliant genius, even better than her mother.
I hope she escapes and leaves this family to pursue her own happiness," Jian Feng said with a sad smile.
He kept his gaze on the table and did not dare to look at Mingyue.
If he had looked at her, he would have seen that, despite her cold expression, Mingyue's breathing was heavy and her chest rose and fell quickly.
She took a deep breath and tried to calm her emotions.
Zan Lu, who had been standing guard the whole time, could piece together part of the story.
So this is what it is like inside a prominent family, he thought. What a rotten family.
He had always looked up to such clans, thinking how fortunate those born into them were.
They had great talent, never lacked money, and could easily walk the path of cultivation, but now he saw the cost.
The family's cruelty made Zan Lu feel grateful that he was born a commoner.
What use was a long life or immortality if there was nothing to return to?
A million years of solitude or a hundred years with his wife, Zan Lu could choose without hesitation.
Even now, what drove him most was how to make his wife happy in the secret realm and how to give her a better life by following Mingyue.
Overwhelmed by emotion, Jian Feng continued.
"Mingyue is like my own daughter.
She probably does not remember, but since she was born, I was the one taking care of her, and it was the same for Minghao.
I bet she has forgotten all of that."
Mingyue was still not fully convinced by Jian Feng's explanation.
Her mind was a mess. If she was not acting, she would have exploded already.
Why did he not tell me anything? Why did he not warn me? she thought.
But she already knew the answer. Since the patriarch had agreed, he must have taken measures to silence everyone.
As for the other family members, who would risk going against the patriarch for her sake?
She knew the answer. No one.
"What about the artifact?
Who stole it?"
Jian Feng let out a dry laugh.
"Who else?
After my sister got the ginseng, the result was even better than we expected.
She was not only cured. She also broke through to the Golden Core stage.
It was not that the artifact was stolen. She took her life tablet and left the family for good, moving somewhere else.
This made the patriarch furious, and he locked down the city.
He wants to find every spy from other families or sects.
He is worried it is part of the Hua family's plan and that they will come to attack us, since Qingying knows many of our family's secrets."
Mom left the family? Mingyue could not believe it.
Then what happened to Dad and Minghao? she wondered.
Before she could ask, Jian Feng continued.
"Can you believe it?
After selling her own daughter, she just left like that and dragged her son into it as well.
That woman is so heartless.
Luckily, the family was too busy arguing about what to do next, so I took Minghao to my house.
But their father was not that lucky. The patriarch killed him in a fit of rage."
"Zan Lu, go with him and do as planned," Mingyue said in a cold voice.
Inside, her emotions had already turned into a raging wave that could burst at any moment.
Jian Feng raised his eyebrows in confusion. The woman still had not explained why she had come.
What had happened to Mingyue? What did this woman want?
Zan Lu moved quickly and escorted Jian Feng out.
In truth, he still did not know what Mingyue had planned.
He only knew that the lady wanted to be alone right now.
On his own, he asked Jian Feng to show him around the city, hoping that Mingyue would send him instructions before they finished.
Left alone in the room, Mingyue's gaze turned dark. Her eyes lost focus as many memories rose in her mind.
"Poor child..." Feng Xue mumbled.
"I do not need your sympathy..." Mingyue said. Her voice cracked.
She stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the twilight sky where the sun was setting.
Her beautiful amber eyes turned sharp as tears rolled down, wetting her cheeks.