“The Wang Clan,” Wei Liang repeated. He tilted his head and looked at Lin Jiu. His cool and frosty expression loosened slightly, but his gaze still seemed as deep as a pool. Strange emotions seem to float up in Lin Jiu’s heart, like an unspoken craftiness one would feel as children when you did something wrong with your friends.
She winked at him and smiled. “You should go deal with your work, and I’ll deal with things here.”
Wei Liang was slightly hesitant.
Lin Jiu urged him. “Go on then.”
Liu Qing Yin bit her cherry lips and looked in disbelief at the two of them. Could it be that she was overthinking this? How was this possible? She had clearly seen the pain hidden in Wei Liang’s when Lin Jiu had confessed to him…so how did that change so quickly?
Wei Liang nodded lightly and headed for the mountain gates. Meanwhile, Liu Qing Yin and second Big Brother Gu Fei glanced at each other and quickly followed him.
After watching the group leave, Zheng Zi Yu moved over to the ebony chair with her hand on her hip and sat down, exhausted. “Those Wangs, just they wait! See if I won’t be able to wring them dead with my son-in-law backing me up!” she cursed.
She looked over imperiously at Lin Jiu. “You useless girl, come over here quickly and rub my shoulders! Let me tell you, I was the one who gave you a way out when I saw how reluctant Wei Liang looked that day. That child, Wang Bi Tan, was still thinking about you, so I gave him two pieces of your undergarments. Now that Wei Liang is treating you so well, you can’t admit it even if they beat you to death.” Zheng Zi Yu paused to take a sigh. “Do you know how much I’ve done for you as your mother!”
Lin Jiu raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s not just my undergarments is it?” she asked. “If my guess is not wrong, you must have promised to help him do some matchmaking so he can sleep with Wei Liang’s wife.”
Wang Bi Tan was the first grandson of Dong Ting’s Wang Clan, as well as the Golden Core cultivator who was supposed to take Lin Jiu in as his concubine. After Lin Jiu was sent back home by Wei Liang in the book, she quickly got mixed up with Wang Bi Tan. Looking back, it seemed like almost all of this was Zheng Zi Yu’s doing.
Zheng Zi Yu raised her brow. “And isn’t that all for your own good! Who knew that a useless girl like you would actually have the ability to take Wei Liang’s heart. It’s all thanks to me for birthing you with such a beautiful face… Come over here, and think up a good plan for that little brother of yours. This Thousand Divine Swords Sect is a mountain of gold! You’ll have to bring back a golden horn for your little brother, no matter what!” she crowed, her face all smiles.
Lin Jiu returned a bland smile before looking over to her brother Lin Dong, who was picking his nails while sitting cross-legged.
“Say something then!” Zheng Zi Yu urged.
The smile remained stretched on Lin Jiu’s lips. “I’m afraid you’d go crazy if I spoke.”
“What are you saying, you useless girl!” Zheng Zi Yu cried, and that greedy smile had yet to fade from her face. “Hurry up, but don’t talk nonsense.”
Lin Jiu crossed her arms and obliged. “Then I’ll say it. Don’t even mention anything about the small spirit stone vein or all three thousand miles of Dong Ting. If you want the world, then nobody can stop you. If you have the capabilities, then get it yourself!” Lin Jiu snapped.
Zheng Zi Yu’s face sank. “What are you trying to say?”
“If you don’t have the ability to obtain something, then it doesn’t matter if you begged for it and got it in your own hands, because you still wouldn’t be able to keep it.” A corner of Lin Jiu’s mouth twitched upward as she continued in a serious tone. “Who asked you to raise your son to be such a waste who only knows to eat, sleep, and wait to die?”
Zheng Zi Yu’s mouth was wide in horror. “What did you say?! I am the one who gave you everything you have today! You ungrateful girl! How dare you forget all that I’ve done for you!”
Lin Dong, meanwhile, bared his teeth and glared fiercely at his sister, and began pulling his sleeves up.
Lin Jiu bent over with cynical laughter. “You should understand that no concubine who steps through the Wang Clan’s doors lasts longer than half a year. After becoming a cultivation furnace and having their power harvested daily, the concubines’ faces and bodies will rapidly decay. Even if that didn’t end in their death, they will still die miserably from the torment they’ll receive from men due to how old and ugly they’ve become. If I hadn’t acted stupidly and failed to learn the Jade Heart Sutra after so long, I would have been reduced to a pile of dirt by now. Do you remember how you forced me to learn it back then? Zheng Zi Yu, your daughter has long been dead!” she ranted.
That was right. She was dead. The old Lin Jiu was dead, and so was she.
Zheng Zi Yu’s face flushed red with anger. “Nonsense! That’s because the concubines didn’t have it in them to capture the heart of a man! It’s their fault they’re dead! How difficult would it be to charm Wang Bi Tan with your good looks? It’s not impossible to rise from concubine to the madame of the household either. I’m pushing you into a gold nest, and not only do you not appreciate it, you’re holding a grudge against me? There are no daughters like you out there!”
Lin Dong couldn’t hold himself back any more and he jumped up from the ebony chair. He leapt into the air like a bird, and he aimed his foot to kick right at Lin Jiu’s chest. “I’ll teach you a lesson in place of Mother, you ungrateful thing! Know your place!” he raged.
Zheng Zi Yu had wasted countless cultivation resources on Lin Dong, whilst Lin Jiu had only received a slither of it and built her foundation at the age of fifteen. Lin Dong,on the other hand, was still stuck at the Qi Refining stage at seventeen years of age. It wasn’t until Zheng Zi Yu sold off her daughter and obtained a Foundation Establishment pill from the Wang Clan that she helped her precious son get his foundation set.
Lin Jiu had gotten used to the bullying at a young age and didn’t dare to fight back, but Lin Dong actually believed that his sister wouldn’t be able to beat him.
Lin Jiu would not bother with such a useless waste. She was in the Middle Foundation Establishment stage to begin with. After getting help from the lotus petal, her cultivation had already reached Peak Foundation Establishment stage, only, she had no idea how to break through for the time being. In addition, with the Dripstone Spiritual Milk that Wei Liang helped her absorb, her meridians were now strong and her body’s spiritual aura was rich and dense, and she could now crush Lin Dong several blocks over!
In her eyes, Lin Dong’s kick was light and slow.
Lin Jiu sneered. She seized Lin Dong’s ankles, then flung him heavily to the ground!