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Chapter 58.1




“They cut off your dragon horns and dragon claws. They even pulled out your dragon scales…”
The little snake looked dumbly at the man who declared himself her father. The coldness in his eyes grew heavier with each word. Oddly, she, who was sensitive to malice and had always feared the cold look from others, wasn’t afraid at all. Surrounded by her father’s dragon aura, she felt comfortable all over, and she slightly squinted upon noticing her irregularity.
It was as if she didn’t have to be afraid of anything, as long as she was beside him, and that no one could hurt her.
As she was smothered by that sense of comfort, she started dozing off from the relief, especially since she just had a tense day. She happily closed her eyes and was ready to go to sleep, with all the inexplicable sadness and grievances dissipating.
Just as she was falling asleep, her bean size eyes suddenly opened.
Wait a minute!
Dragon horn, dragon claw, dragon scale?! Was this person implying that she is a dragon!?
Faced with his daughter’s question, His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor lovingly touched the bulging bun on top of her head.
“Yes, you are a dragon. You should have soared the Nine Heavens but I, your father, accidentally lost you and made you suffer so much.”
The little snake saw the pain in the depth of his eyes. Although she had only come to know this father for less time than it took an incense stick to burn, the bloodline in her made her feel close to him from the bottom of her heart.
She didn’t want to see her father upset.
The little snake struggled to raise her head high, using the bulging bun on top of her head to nuzzle at her father.
“I didn’t suffer. I was very well trained by the Tiger Demon, Bear Demon and Lizard Demon. They were very, very good to me.”
She concealed her loneliness and the biting pain when she woke up every day and only said things that showed that she was living well.
Strangely enough, there were many things she didn’t know much about, but she could do them very well.
Momentarily forgetting her lethargy, the little snake chattered and told her father all the things she felt were good. After that, a pair of clear little eyes looked at the person in front of her.
I’m really living well…
So, don’t look so sad…
Looking at his daughter’s clear eyes in front of him, Lin Shiheng withdrew the gloom and put a smile on.
“Do you have a name?”
Speaking of which, the little snake who was just trying to emphasize that she was having a good life, turned a bit sheepish and lowered her head.
“No.”
She had been called ‘little snake’ since she woke up. After all, snake demons living in the mountains have a lifespan of at least several hundred years, with some having true forms as big as pythons. She was the only one with such a small form, and even her slithering wasn’t smooth.
Gradually, the name ‘little snake’ became hers exclusively.
“Can I give you a name?”
The little snake’s eyes shone brightly as it agreed, “Yes.”
Lin Shiheng pondered for a few moments and said, “Right now, I am just glad that you’re healthy and safe. Father’s surname is Lin. In the future, how about I call you Lin Ning’an?”
“‘Ning’ from peace, ‘An’ from safe and sound…”
The little snake repeated these words. Although she had seen the picture books brought back by the Lizard Demon, and understood a lot about earthly matters, her fragmented memory made her only capable of understanding half of it.
Now, hearing her father’s words, she felt like eating ice in summer. Her whole body felt comfortable.
She nodded her head and replied happily, “Then, call me Lin Ning’an in the future!”
She also has a name now, he he he…
Lin Ning’an smiled happily and asked again, “Dad, you said that the bulge on my head is a dragon horn. So, I am a dragon? But Tiger Demon said that only the Heavenly Realm has dragons.”
“Exactly. Father came down from the Heavenly Realm to look for you.”
The Heavenly Realm?
Lin Ning’an had the feeling of being dazzled by a big pie falling from the sky.
(TNote: big pie falling from the sky = very lucky.)
She knew that the demons in that mountain practice hard every day, so that they could go to the Heavenly Realm.
Lin Shiheng held the little snake in his hand and whispered, “Father will kill them for you. Let’s go back to the Heavenly Realm together, okay?”
“Kill … kill who?”
Lin Ning’an curled the tip of her tail in confusion. “Why kill them?”
“Naturally, because they have wronged my child.”
The dark lines on the Heavenly Emperor gradually sank with his cold words, getting darker and darker, as if it was drawn out of thick ink.
He didn’t seem like the cold Heavenly Emperor that all the people in heaven always imagined. Rather, he felt more like the Demon Realm inhabitants who prefer to engage in dark and frightening things.
Lin Ning’an didn’t understand this. She just curled the tip of her tail, as she asked, “Did someone wrong me when I lost my memory? How did they wrong me? Were they responsible for my missing dragon horns and dragon claws?”
The eyes of the man in front of her seemed to turn as dark as dark patterns on the clothes on his body, “Exactly.”
“They cut off your dragon’s horns and claws, of which the pain hurts tens of millions of times more than the pain of eating a human’s heart. They treated you like this. Father will never spare them.”
Lin Ning’an’s mind was still dumbfounded, but a sharp pain came from the bulging bun on top of her head and her flat abdomen following those words.
—A knife came down, causing a sharp pain on the top of her head.
—Another knife stabbed her in the abdomen. She was abandoned in the wilderness, left as the remaining body of a dragon no longer. A dragon that had lost its horns. Another slash came down, cutting off the dragon’s claws.
Pain.
So painful.
“Wu…”
She couldn’t move from the pain, and tears fell from her eyes.
There are things that she had forgotten, but her body would forever bear the pain.
Before the tears fell to the ground, Lin Shiheng had already used his spiritual power. The threads of dragon aura wrapped around her entire body to suppress the pain.
For him, it was only a moment, but for Lin Ning’an, it was a century of pain.
She rolled and fell to the ground, landing as a teenage girl. Just one glance at that beautiful face, and anyone could tell her feature bore some similarities with Lin Shiheng.
Lin Ning’an leaned against his chest, her lips still slightly pale.
“Dad, I don’t want to let them die straight away.”
“I don’t remember things, but I still know that heaven’s justice is fair and karma will prevail.”
As she said so, she raised her eyes, a pair of clear eyes with the unique childishness of a little girl.
“Do they have horns and claws? I also want to cut off their horns and claws, and peel off their scales one by one, and make them hurt as much as I do.”
The jade bodied Heavenly Emperor looked tenderly at the suffering daughter in front of him.
His eyebrows spread with a smile.
“Ning’an is right. Immediate death is too cheap for them.”
“Even if they die, they have to lose everything before they die.”
“But …”
In the end, it was already a small world of its own, so Lin Shiheng was also a little unsure whether the original plot would be inserted later on.
He waved his sleeves and put a bowl of clear soup in front of his daughter.
“Ning’an, drink this.”
Lin Ning’an obediently held up the medicine bowl and looked at the seemingly clear but faintly swirling soup inside.
“Dad, what is this?”
“It is called Meng Po soup. I brought it from the Heavenly Realm.”
(TNote: Meng Po soup = a soup in ancient Chinese folklore that can forget all the troubles and memories, all the love and hatred, permanently. This is usually what ghosts drink before they reincarnate.)
The Emperor smiled gently at his daughter. “Don’t be afraid, this is an improved version. At most, you wouldn’t remember your past death. Your cultivation is still shallow, and you lost your dragon body. Drink this bowl, in the future, you wouldn’t need to drink it again.”
Lin Ning’an still didn’t understand what Meng Po soup was. Yet, looking down at the bowl of medicine, it was as if someone in her heart was urging her to drink it.
—Drink it.
There was a woman crying in a low voice in the depths of her mind, yet with relief.
— Drink it, and we won’t have to suffer any more.
Lin Ning’an raised her head and looked at her father who was calming watching over her. Then, she smiled and tilted up the bowl high to drink the Meng Po soup in one gulp.
The stuff brought from the Heavenly Realm was the most exquisite, and right after drinking, her heart was suddenly clear. The emotions that coiled in her chest since she woke up had disappeared.
Lin Shiheng smiled and asked his daughter to turn into her true form and touched her little head.
“Your cultivation is low, but there’s nothing wrong with overcoming a calamity to improve. Just drink Meng Po soup. You won’t suffer the pain.”
The dragon aura swept the two and disappeared from the room.
When Shan Huaiyu came back happily, he found that the basket was empty. The little snake inside had long since disappeared.
“Aaaaah!!”
He let out a wail and powerlessly went to set the basket back down.
How did it escape? Wasn’t his room under restriction?
How could a small snake with no cultivation escape?
It’s a pity. Master just said that he could raise it into a spirit animal…
—“Husband, it’s getting dark. Don’t read anymore. Be careful of the cold.”
—“I heard that the Lantern Festival is extremely lively, but unfortunately it’s only held in the capital. If only we could go to the capital in the future. Then, we could watch the Lantern Festival thoroughly.”
—“Husband, why…”
Shan Junqing slowly opened his eyes as he still envisioned his wife covering her abdomen full of blood, eyes full of disbelief as she slowly fell down.
What was the reason?
It was because… He cultivated the Heartless Dao.
(TNote: Dao = path)
If you want to be heartless, you must naturally cut off the roots of love.
He has no father, no mother, no children, and he only has one wife that loves him from the bottom of her heart. Besides her, what else could make him see beyond the mortal realm overnight?
The torment he felt before taking action at that time, the few moments of painful desire to give up, were only fleeting after a hundred years.
Even if he didn’t kill his wife at that time, after a hundred years, she would have still turned into bones.
The only important thing was cultivating and becoming immortal.
Resolving his thoughts that way, Shan Junqing got up and pushed the door open.
Although he was patient enough to stay in seclusion continuously, he can’t rely on seclusion all the time on the path of cultivation. The Great Clan Competition is coming soon. At that time, all the major clans would come, and it was a perfect day for Shan Huaiyu to sharpen his mentality.
As a master and an elder in the sect, he naturally needed to be there.
Just as Shan Junqing came out of the mountain, under the peach tree below the mountain, he saw the figure of a teenage girl.
She was reading a scroll in her hand, her face full of innocence. A quick glance showed that she has been pampered growing up. There happened to be a breeze, and the young girl slightly looked up, facing Shan Junqing’s eyes.
Seeing this man, the girl merely took a glance before lowering her head to continue to memorize. However, Shan Junqing, who had always been cold at heart since ascending from the Mortal Realm, felt as if waves were crashing in his heart, and even his blood seemed to chill for a moment.
“Mengyu…”
He called out his wife’s name, and couldn’t help taking two steps closer to the girl. He reached out to touch the face that had appeared in his dreams countless times.