Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

"..."

Chu Mingkong hesitated, then realized he was powerless to refute.

The siblings' voices woke the "unconscious" woman. When she regained consciousness, she saw the familiar yet eerie murky sky above her, and her consciousness remained frozen for a few breaths.

She slowly sat up, glanced at her clothes, which were neat and tidy, but her hairstyle was slightly messy, lacking her usual elegance.

"Um... Mingkong, Yunhan, how did I get here?"

Chu Mingkong remained silent, too embarrassed to speak.

Xiao Yunhan, however, had no such reservations: "Mingkong put you on horseback and you were on the road all the way here. You were still hanging there when we entered the Abyss. I just put you down, Mother. Don't worry, no outsiders saw you."

Xiao Zhi felt a little desperate. It was one thing to have such an experience once, but now it happened again, and in front of her eldest daughter, Yun Han!

But deep down, she still held a glimmer of hope: "Mingkong, did Yunhan also... follow your path and cultivate like this?"

If she had a "companion," she wouldn't necessarily be unable to accept it, especially if that person was her own daughter. Perhaps, as someone who had been through similar experiences, they could offer her daughter some comfort.

Chu Mingkong hesitated and said, "No, Yunhan was traveling with me. She just saw you in my arms... um."

The fleeting hope vanished instantly, leaving Xiao Zhi with a heavy heart. She glared at her son, who had transformed into Ji Yuan, and said, "Ming Kong, did you do this on purpose?!"

Chu Mingkong vehemently denied it, but the black-blooded man shook his head incessantly.

"No, no, Yunhan has been hogging the place for too long these past two days, so you haven't been able to have a proper time, Zhier!"

This time, when you were lost in thought and seemed completely out of it, your body was moving on its own, and I felt bad stopping you, didn't I...?

Xiao Zhi gave up struggling and lay in his arms, saying with a mixture of self-pity and resentment:

“Mingkong, I won’t interfere with your relationships with those women from now on, but they must also go through this process. Then I will acknowledge them as my ‘daughters-in-law’!”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean ‘daughter-in-law’. They can also be sisters. Zhi’er and Yunhan are sisters now, but Zhi’er is a bit older.”

"Sister baby," Xiao Yunhan addressed her expressionlessly, her eyes devoid of any emotion.

"..." Xiao Zhi was completely speechless.

After walking for a while, Xiao Zhi finally recovered from her depressed and ashamed mood, thanks in large part to her daughter's lack of emotion.

Xiao Zhi asked her daughter, "Yunhan... is this all over? You really don't have any strange thoughts about your mother?"

Xiao Yunhan shook his head, gently guiding his mother to sit down with her back turned, and helped her comb her hair, saying at the same time:

"No, Mother, you've become too concerned about what others think. You never used to be like this. Why care so much about the world's opinions? You don't need to depend on the world to live."

My master once told me, "The world is outside of the self." What you need to care about is what you have in your world; everything else is just fleeting and can be ignored.

Don't always care about what others think. When you're doing well, people will only wish you were doing poorly; when you're doing poorly, people will only wish you were doing even worse.

Xiao Zhi looked up at the pitch-black sky above, blinked, and after a long silence, finally said hesitantly:

“That makes sense, but according to Sect Master Shen, Mingkong and you are the ‘people’ I should be paying attention to.”

"...Hmm, Mother, I think it's difficult to have a gentle and unassuming nature like yours, Yunhan. I think I still live in the eyes of the world, but you are my whole world."

Seeing that the atmosphere was good, Chu Mingkong chimed in:

"Well, there's something else I need to tell you, Yunhan. In a few days, your mother will be giving birth to a younger sister, or rather, a niece..."

The news came somewhat suddenly. Xiao Yunhan remained silent for a long time, noticing that her mother seemed a little uneasy, so she toned down her sharp words:

"Even if the cat doesn't grow bigger, it will have plenty of food for a long time."

That seems to be true!

During their casual conversation, the three of them successfully returned to the border of the Abyss. Just as Chu Mingkong arrived, a large force suddenly gathered at the border.

Catapults and crossbows were set up, and the sound of soldiers arrayed in formation was deafening. The bugle call at the highest level resounded throughout the region.

A tense and solemn gaze fell upon the faces of the soldiers on the border.

Chu Mingkong realized something was wrong. He had been so engrossed in chatting that he forgot to change back. Now that the soldiers had clashed so fiercely, it would be inappropriate to change back now, and it would seem like the problem was his.

It wouldn't be appropriate to explain it as just changing appearances for fun, or simply strolling around with family.

Xiao Yunhan remained calm and composed. She took out the royal token and tossed it into the air to reveal her identity.

The border soldiers finally recognized the group of women who had emerged from the abyss. The leading officer shouted to his subordinates:

"It's Miss Xiao and Princess Chu!"

The tense atmosphere of facing death dissipated, but the officers were still suspicious of the black humanoid beast. Although they had heard rumors about Chu Mingkong in the capital, they had never actually seen the legendary black monster and did not recognize it at the moment.

"Young Miss, this is... an Abyssal Beast?"

Xiao Yunhan didn't know how to explain it either. Seeing that Chu Mingkong seemed to intend to continue pretending to be dead, she could only make up a story:

"Yes, I found it by chance in the depths of the abyss. It seems to have intelligence. I was lucky enough to tame it and was about to take it back to my master for confirmation."

But I've tamed it?

Chu Mingkong couldn't speak at the moment, so he nodded slightly to indicate that he agreed with his sister.

The officer's face immediately showed shock, but he forced himself to remain calm, though his eyes couldn't hide his admiration for the eldest daughter of the Xiling royal family.

"The changes in this Abyss are too great. Has a ferocious beast with intelligence finally been born...? I apologize, young lady. I failed to recognize you and the princess in time, and this has caused such an offense."

Empress Xiao Zhi immediately regained her composure as the Princess Consort of Xiling, sitting gracefully and elegantly in the "beast's" grasp, and calmly said:

"No need. This is a misunderstanding, and it's not your fault. However, Yunhan's subduing of this ferocious beast was a rare and accidental event. From now on, you must maintain the same level of vigilance as you have today and not let your guard down."

"Let's leave this matter here. You may all leave and return to your duties. Yunhan will take me away."

Xiao Zhi handled these matters reasonably well. Her current approach reassured the soldiers that it was merely an accident and wouldn't damage their trust. If Chu Mingkong had revealed himself and confessed, while his ability to transform into the Abyss was indeed astonishing, it would have created resentment among the soldiers and undermined their sense of duty.

They thought to themselves: We've been so dutiful, yet you higher-ups treat us like monkeys and run wild.

This kind of mentality affects morale and should be avoided if possible.

Even if the soldiers wondered what the royal mother and daughter were doing in the Abyss, it was not their business.

This little episode was over. Chu Mingkong quickly slipped away with his sister and mother, running a long way before transforming back and flying back to Tianya City on his sword.

The news of the sudden death of the old King of Chu was eventually discovered by the Buddhist community.

The monks who intended to attack Xiling to avenge the Blood Blade King fell silent.

"The old King of Chu benefited greatly from the Yin Time, and with the help of our Buddhist sect, he has already opened up the cultivation of the divine soul. Why did his life lamp suddenly go out?"

Chapter 225 The Classic of the Plain Girl

A few days ago, some people in the Buddhist community discovered that they could not contact the old King Chu. The prayer beads given to him were a token of communication, but unfortunately, they did not work.

At the time, the Buddhist sect thought he had been discovered, but with so many spiritual treasures protecting him, and having also gained many opportunities in the underworld, including listening to a high monk preach at a revived temple, if they could stall for a little longer, they would surely find a chance to slip out and relay the general information back to them.

But a few days later, he was gone!

"Are you sure you didn't sever his connection with the life lamp by some other means? Although it's difficult, it's not impossible." A monk asked incredulously, examining the old King Chu's life lamp.

The old monk who controlled the lamp of fate had not participated in their plan to ambush and avenge Chu Mingkong of Xiling, but he was now sought out for advice. The old monk, with his white eyebrows like fat silkworms, shook his head and said:

"After you achieved your cultivation, you came to this old monk and hung a life lamp here, but then you didn't pay any attention to it. How could you know how reliable this life lamp is?"

If the lamp of life is likened to a flower, then a person is the root system of that flower. No matter how messy, tangled, or long the root system is, it can always nourish the flower outside the soil—that is, the lamp of life. Unless you merely leave this world, the lamp can only go out upon death.

When the old monk spoke of leaving this world, he was not referring to passing away, but rather to the literal meaning of leaving this world and going elsewhere.

The abbot of the Blood Blade King Hall continued the discussion:

"Before the old King of Chu set off, we had already warned him. There is a Yin Shi person in Xiling who can easily kill Qiamentuo. Will the old King of Chu ignore our warnings and perish at the hands of that Yin Shi person?"

"That shouldn't be the case either. I entrusted the matter of Chamento to the old King of Chu, and he was the one who took the initiative to ask me for advice. The old King of Chu himself was worried about running into that Yin Shi person for no reason, so he couldn't be so careless."

Their discussion here may seem superfluous, but in reality, the fact that the old King of Chu died just two or three days after his passing is quite unusual, like a highly accomplished cultivator being hit and killed by a carriage on the road.

They doubted the true strength of the forces in Xiling, wondering if, as previously reported, they were at most just a few so-called "strongmen" without any spiritual cultivation.

“We instructed him to report as he went, and to try to report once a day. The old King of Chu said seriously that he would do so. Does that mean that he was discovered and suppressed on his first day there, without even the strength to send out any news?”

Does Chu Mingkong really possess such a method to deal with cultivators at the fourth or fifth level of Divine Soul cultivation?!

They then looked at the old monk who was in charge of the life lamp, hoping he could offer more answers to their questions.

The life lamp is connected to its owner, and sometimes it can reveal the last memory of the owner before death, which may provide answers.

"Ah, this old monk is really worn out by all this..."

The old monk sighed, for although this method was extremely taxing, it still satisfied their wishes.

In addition, the old monk himself was quite curious. How could he die so quickly? He had never heard of a cultivator at the Divine Soul Realm dying so suddenly. Was his Vajra Technique not enough to prolong his life?

The old monk activated the Life Lamp by circulating the Qi-Drawing Technique, allowing it to slowly absorb the fragments of souls from the world. Even though the old King Chu was dead, everything that belonged to him would not return to the world so quickly; it would take some time to erase the imprint of his life.

The monks nearby all circulated their internal energy to help the old monk accelerate the process.

After a long while, the old monk stopped his practice, his head covered in a dense layer of sweat the size of beans, and his robe looked as if it had been soaked in water.

"Too little, too fragmented... The old King of Chu's soul was shattered into dust, there's only this little bit left."

The extinguished life lamp wick reignited, igniting a faint, eerie blue flame. The black smoke that drifted out dissipated, revealing fragments of memories that had been "salvaged."

The scene is from the perspective of the old King of Chu, who is surrounded by the imagery of a thousand lamps, protected by Buddhist light...

"This is 'A Thousand Lamps Reflecting the Buddha, Perfect Brightness Illuminating the Stillness,' the Buddhist supernatural power personally explained and transmitted by an ancient eminent monk in the temple that revived during the Yin time! He did not die suddenly due to carelessness; he had already used his supernatural power to protect himself!" someone hurriedly said.

But why is there no battle in this scene? Where are the enemies?

After a while, the monks noticed figures moving about in the white mist ahead. The old King of Chu's memory was hazy at this point, indicating that he was extremely unwilling to let that scene appear in his mind.

Even these fragments of memory are intentionally blurring that part of the memory!

This made the already foggy human figure even more indistinct, and the memory also conveyed a strong sense of resentment, unwillingness, and humiliation.

"Why are there three people fighting in this fog, not using magic, just physical combat? Sometimes they're riding, sometimes they're biting, what exactly are they doing?"

The monks strained to make out the details until they heard the passionate moans of two women echoing from within their memory... Although it was only a brief sound, it was enough for them to understand what had happened.

The monks fell silent, somewhat embarrassed.

The figures in the fog became slightly clearer, but they were still just dark figures. The two women seemed to be piled up on top of each other, treated roughly like young ladies stacked on top of each other.

The atmosphere in the main hall, which should have been filled with discussions about the mystery of the old King of Chu's death, was somewhat strange.