Chapter 467
Chapter 467
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 467
>Chapter Title: Bai Lingmiao
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Li Huowang stroked the ink marks he had written on the paper with his sensitive fingers, searching line by line for solutions.
"First, replace Bai Lingmiao's eyes. Her eyesight is getting worse; this can't be delayed. Since Liu Zongyuan said the capital's Bureau of Celestial Surveillance has them, I definitely need to go check it out."
"And I've done quite a bit of work for the Bureau of Celestial Surveillance, earning a good amount of money. But aside from the huge bribe to the Debt Collector Hongda to kill Xinzhi earlier, I haven't really spent much else while holed up in the gourd. This is a perfect chance to spend it all."
"As for her short lifespan issue, I wonder if the Yangshou Pills would work on her."
"Right, speaking of Bai Lingmiao, where did she go? I haven't seen her all evening."
"Li Sui, where's your mom?"
"She went to that room with all the black wooden plaques hanging on the walls."
Hearing this, Li Huowang's expression dimmed slightly, and he didn't ask any more. Bai Lingmiao had gone to the ancestral hall.
"Nothing. It's late; you should go to sleep too."
At Li Huowang's words, Li Sui nodded and turned to leave the house.
Once she put on the raincoat and bamboo hat again and returned to the Bai family compound, she headed straight for the stables, where she was temporarily staying.
Aside from a few horses for pulling carriages, the place didn't have many horses and felt very spacious.
Li Sui walked to the deepest stall, which was piled high with thick dry hay.
She burrowed her entire body into the haystack, stretched out contentedly for a moment, then curled her grotesque form head to tail into a flat pancake shape.
But she didn't stay still for long before popping back out. She tilted her head toward the ancestral hall, then lifted her reverse-jointed foot and walked over.
The ancestral hall was nearby. The hidden door in the wall wasn't closed, so Li Sui thought for a moment before crouching slightly and heading inside.
Seeing the spacious White Lotus Cult main hall, a strange new environment, Li Sui grew very curious. She sniffed at the lotus white banners on the ceiling from time to time and clawed at the murals on the walls.
After wandering around once, Li Sui stopped and looked toward a side door on the wall. There was a familiar scent coming from there.
She hesitated for a bit before going in. It was very dark inside, but the scent grew stronger. It was her mom's smell.
Soon, Li Sui heard some sobbing sounds from the direction of the scent. Her mom seemed to be crying.
"We've been together day and night for so long. I know how Senior Brother Li feels about me, and I don't want to hurt him, but..."
"But I really don't know what to do. Whenever I'm with him, every night when I close my eyes, my parents come to me in dreams. They curse me in those dreams, calling me ungrateful, heartless. I'm so tired of living, so exhausted..."
"Should I really leave Senior Brother Li? But... I really can't bear to."
"This constant back-and-forth struggle makes me want to die, but because of the immortal families, I can't even die."
"Unborn Mother, no matter what I do now, it's wrong. Tell me, what should I do?"
The voice from the direction of the scent stopped. Li Sui thought for a moment and prepared to move closer, but a red figure blocked her path.
"Mom?" Li Sui said softly to the second deity in front of her. "Mom, it's so late. Aren't you going to sleep? Dad told me to go to sleep."
The second deity reached out her pale right hand with its sharp nails and took Li Sui's right foreclaw, which was exposed bone grown with black tentacles. They slowly walked deeper into the dim tunnel.
When Li Sui was led by the second deity through a hidden door, she saw the frail white woman kneeling before the lotus flower. That was her other mom.
Bai Lingmiao held three sticks of incense in her hands, tears in her eyes as she looked up at the double lotus on the wall.
"Unborn Mother... are you really as the books say, truly existing? Are you omnipotent?"
"But if you really exist, why didn't you show a miracle to save them when Senior Brother Li killed the Bai family, even though they believed in you?"
Li Sui just stood there, listening to her mom speak while kneeling.
It wasn't until Li Sui started feeling sleepy that she saw her mom stand up with red, swollen eyes and bow three times respectfully to the double lotus on the wall.
"Unborn Mother, if you truly are as merciful and compassionate as the books say, please help me escape this predicament."
"If you grant this humble girl's wish, then I, Bai Lingmiao, vow to cast a golden body for you, believe in the White Lotus Cult for life, and serve you forever."
Bai Lingmiao looked up again at the double lotus on the wall, but there was no change whatsoever.
This seemed predestined, yet deep disappointment still hung on Bai Lingmiao's face.
As she turned around in a daze, she saw Li Sui and the second deity standing there.
Bai Lingmiao showed no extra reaction, just wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes and walked toward the exit.
She walked ahead, while the second deity silently led Li Sui behind her.
At the entrance to the ancestral hall, Bai Lingmiao stopped, not turning her head, her voice choked as she spoke: "Do you despise me too? For actually praying to that thing that's faker than fake?"
"If you find it tiring, you can switch with me." A eerie voice came from under the red veil.
Bai Lingmiao bit her lower lip and shook her head forcefully. "No. If the baleful energy possesses me again, Senior Brother Li will be even more heartbroken."
The second deity reached out her pale hands and covered Li Sui's mangled dog ears. "You're barely holding on yourself. Why care what he thinks? You're more like his dog than Mantou is."
"You!!"
The red veil slipped down, revealing the ferocious beast face beneath.
"Others show you a bit of kindness, and you want to rip out your heart for them. You deserve it."
"By greenwood rules, he's your parents' killer. If you want to play the filial daughter, find a chance and kill Li Huowang. But you don't dare, and you don't want to."
"If you think the living Li Huowang is better than your dead Bai family, then marry him properly and get wed soon. But you can't get over that hurdle in your heart."
"When trouble comes, instead of thinking how to solve it, you pin your hopes on the illusory Unborn Mother, praying for gods and immortals to intervene. You're a coward."
"So wake up. No matter who you pray to, no one can help you. Only you can help yourself. Figure it out completely."
Bai Lingmiao couldn't argue with the second deity and didn't want to say anything, just turned away choking.
The second deity's hands lifted from Li Sui's ears. "Stop revolving around Li Huowang all day. Our own lives matter more than his. Think hard about how to stay alive. Your eyes are almost blind."
The sobbing Bai Lingmiao held her hands to her chest and walked in a daze back to the Bai family compound. "I just... I just want to spend my life with the person I like. Is that wrong too?"