Chapter 464: Bai Lingmiao

Chapter 464: Bai Lingmiao

With sensitive fingers tracing over the paper, following the ink marks of his own handwriting, Li Huowang carefully searched for solutions, one by one.

"Firstly, I must replace Bai Lingmiao’s eyes. Her vision is deteriorating rapidly, and this matter cannot be delayed. Since Liu Zongyuan mentioned that the Jing Tian Si in the capital has such things, I definitely need to go take a look."

"And besides, I’ve done quite a bit of work within the Jing Tian Si. I've made a good deal of money, but aside from bribing Hong Da, the knife-debt man, back when I wanted to kill Xinchi, all my other efforts have been wasted, stuck in the belly of the gourd with no real use. This would be a perfect opportunity to change everything."

"As for her short lifespan, I wonder if the Yangshou Pill could help her."

"Oh yes, speaking of Bai Lingmiao, where has she gone? Why haven’t I seen her all night?"

"Li Sui, where is your mother?"

"She went into the room with many black wooden boards hanging on the wall."

Hearing this, Li Huowang's expression dimmed slightly, and he said nothing more—Bai Lingmiao had gone to the ancestral hall.

"It’s nothing. It’s late, you should go to sleep too."

Li Sui nodded at Li Huowang’s words and turned to leave the house.

When he returned to the Bai family compound wearing a straw raincoat and a conical hat, he headed toward the stable. That was where she was staying temporarily.

Besides some horses used for pulling carriages, there weren’t many horses around, making the place feel vast and empty.

Li Sui walked to the deepest stall, which was covered entirely in thick hay.

He pushed his whole body into the hay pile, stretched out contentedly, then folded his grotesque form into a flat disc shape from head to tail.

But after only a short while of silence, Li Sui crawled out again. Tilting his head toward the ancestral hall, he raised his clawed foot and walked slowly in that direction.

The ancestral hall came into view quickly. The hidden door on the wall wasn’t closed. After thinking for a moment, Li Sui bent low and entered.

Upon seeing the spacious main hall of the White Lotus Sect, faced with an unfamiliar environment, Li Sui showed great curiosity. He sniffed the lotus banners hanging from the ceiling from time to time, and occasionally scraped his claws across the painted murals on the walls.

After walking around, Li Sui stopped and looked toward a side door on the wall, where he sensed a familiar scent.

After hesitating for a while, he finally stepped inside. It was dark inside, but the smell grew stronger—it was his mother’s scent.

Soon, Li Sui heard muffled sobs coming from the direction of the scent. His mother seemed to be crying.

"We’ve lived together for so long, I know how much Brother Li cares for me. I don’t want to hurt him either, but..."

"But I really don’t know what else to do. Every time I’m with him, every night when I close my eyes, my parents appear in my dreams, cursing me, calling me ungrateful, heartless. I truly live a heavy, exhausting life."

"Am I really supposed to leave Brother Li? But... I really can’t let go."

"The constant struggle between both sides makes me want to die, but because of the immortal path, even death is denied to me."

"Mother of the Boundless Life, no matter what I do now, it seems wrong. What should I do?"

The voice from the direction of the scent stopped. Li Sui thought for a moment before moving closer, only to be blocked by a red figure standing before him.

"Mother?" Li Sui whispered softly to the figure before him. "Mother, it’s so late. Aren’t you going to sleep? Father already told me to go to bed."

The figure extended its pale white hand, adorned with sharp nails, and took Li Sui’s right front paw, which bore white bones and black tendrils. They moved slowly through the dim tunnel into the inner chamber.

When Li Sui passed through another hidden door held by the figure, she saw a frail woman kneeling before a lotus, dressed in white. That was another mother.

Bai Lingmiao held three incense sticks in her hands, tears streaming down her face as she looked up at the twin lotuses on the wall. “Mother of the Boundless Life… are you really as described in the books? Do you truly exist? Are you omnipotent?”

“But if you truly exist, why didn’t you intervene when the Bai family was killed by Brother Li? Why did you not save them?”

Li Sui stood silently, listening to her mother pray.

It wasn’t until she herself began to feel drowsy that she noticed her mother, eyes red and swollen, rise to her feet and bow three times respectfully toward the twin lotuses on the wall.

“Mother of the Boundless Life, if you are indeed as compassionate as the scriptures say, please help me escape this predicament.”

“If you grant my wish, I, Bai Lingmiao, will forge a golden statue of you and serve the White Lotus Sect for all eternity.”

Bai Lingmiao lifted her head once more to gaze upon the twin lotuses on the wall, yet they remained unchanged.

It seemed fate had already decided, yet Bai Lingmiao still wore a deep look of disappointment.

As she turned away in a daze, she saw Li Sui and the figure standing there.

Bai Lingmiao didn’t react much. She wiped the tears from her eyes and walked outside.

She walked ahead, while the figure quietly followed behind, leading Li Sui.

At the entrance of the ancestral hall, Bai Lingmiao stopped without turning around. Her voice trembled as she said, “Do you really despise me so much that you’d worship something fake beyond belief?”

“If you’re tired, I’ll take over,” came a sinister voice from beneath the red veil.

Bai Lingmiao bit her lower lip and shook her head violently. “No. If the evil spirit enters my body again, Brother Li will be even more heartbroken.”

The figure extended its pale hands and covered Li Sui’s partially missing dog ears. “You’re barely surviving yourself. What does he think matter? You’re more like a steamed bun than his dog.”

“You!!”

The red veil slipped off, revealing a terrifying beast-like face underneath.

“Someone shows you kindness, and you want to give them your heart. You deserve it.”

“If we followed the rules of the Greenwood, he would be your father’s killer. If you want to be a filial daughter, find a chance to kill Li Huowang—but you dare not, nor do you wish to.”

“If you think the living Li Huowang is better than the dead Bai family, then marry him and get married soon. But you can’t overcome your inner conflict.”

“When problems arise, instead of solving them, you pin your hopes on the ethereal Mother of the Boundless Life, praying for divine intervention. You're weak.”

“So wake up! No one can help you, not even gods. Only you can save yourself. You must understand this completely.”

Bai Lingmiao couldn’t argue with the figure and said nothing more. She turned away, choking back tears.

The figure removed its hands from Li Sui’s ears. “Stop circling around Li Huowang all day. Your own life matters more than his. Think about how to survive. You’re almost blind.”

With tears in her eyes, Bai Lingmiao placed her hands over her chest and wandered aimlessly back toward the Bai family compound. “I just wanted to spend my life with someone I loved. Did I do anything wrong?”

Everyone, I’ve used a new typo-checking software. Please take a look and tell me how these two chapters turned out.

(End of Chapter)