Chapter 116 - 100: Snow Lotus
Chapter 116: Chapter 100: Snow Lotus
The woman was dressed to seduce.
A moon-white bandeau was loosely tied, offering fleeting glimpses of her cleavage. Over it, she wore a light red, plum-blossom-embroidered robe.
"Besides—"
"How could a place like Jiangbei ever produce a stunning creature like me?"
The woman picked up the copper mirror, admiring her own reflection. She was clearly quite pleased with what she saw.
And she had every right to be.
If beauty could be ranked.
She would be the undisputed number one in Jiangbei City, incomparable to the powdered-and-painted courtesans of the brothels. Like a lotus emerging from the mud, unstained, she exuded an inviolable sanctity.
This was what men loved most.
The destructive desire buried deep in a man’s nature makes his favorite pastime defiling such sacred beauties with abandon.
Kneeling on the floor, Chen Quan...
His gaze inadvertently fell upon a pair of swaying, alabaster feet. His Adam’s apple bobbed reflexively, and he quickly looked away. After a moment of struggling to process the news, he finally spoke, his voice filled with disbelief.
"So my position as the heir to the Chen Family... it doesn’t matter at all?"
"It’s not important."
"Then... Mother, why did you make me fight for it?"
"To give you some practice. After all, you’ll have to keep fighting in the future."
"Mother."
Chen Quan took a deep breath and said through clenched teeth, "Is that grand plan you mentioned related to Nameless Mountain?"
"..."
The woman’s brow knitted once more. She tore her gaze from the rain-swept scene outside and fixed it on Chen Quan. "Where did you hear that?"
"I..."
Chen Quan didn’t dare to meet his mother’s eyes. He pressed himself to the floor and stammered, "The last time you and Uncle Liu were talking in the room... I was passing by and happened to overhear you mention Nameless Mountain."
Uncle Liu was Tributor Liu of the Chen Family, a Level 5 Architect.
He didn’t finish.
That time, he hadn’t just heard their conversation. He’d also heard other, more intimate sounds.
But he never told his father.
The woman did not speak.
The room fell utterly silent. You could have heard a pin drop.
Unable to bear the pressure, Chen Quan forced himself to continue.
"Today in the council hall, the Grand Elder of the Chen Family said that Chen Fan went to Nameless Mountain and established a camp there. If you have a plan in motion there, will he ruin it?"
"Causing years of your planning to go to waste, Mother."
As soon as the words left his mouth...
"Heh."
A soft, almost inaudible scoff escaped her.
"Ruin it?"
"Honestly, the things you say..."
The woman sat on the edge of the bed, one long, slender finger elegantly propping up her chin. Her eyes danced, a pitiful smile gracing her lips as she tilted her head, searching for a word that wouldn’t sting too much.
"How adorably naive of you."
"Do you have any idea whose former domain Nameless Mountain is?"
"It belongs to *Him*."
"Are you implying that the Snow Lotus and Earth Core Fruit—nurtured by the Celestial Prison Array that *He* set down before his departure—can be destroyed by some common mortal?"
"If that Chen Fan could really pull it off..."
"Then perhaps I should be the one begging to be his disciple. His abilities would seem far greater than my own master’s."
"Do you know the meaning behind our name, the Pingtian Commerce Association?"
"Because our goal is to bring down the Celestial Prison Array."
"..."
With his cheek pressed to the floor, Chen Quan reeled. He had never heard such secrets. It felt as if a veil was being lifted, revealing the true world before him. A question escaped his lips subconsciously.
"Won’t we offend *Him* by doing this?"
"Oh, *He* can hardly protect himself these days."
The woman raised a hand to her lips, but she couldn’t hide the flicker of malicious glee in her eyes.
"Then Mother, why do you call him *Him* and not by his name?"
"..."
The smile had barely formed on the woman’s lips before it froze. The color drained from her face for an instant, her fingertips curling reflexively. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to reclaim her usual dignified composure.
But when she picked up her teacup...
...her fingertips still betrayed a faint, almost imperceptible tremor.
She lowered her gaze, her voice soft, yet tinged with a new hoarseness.
"It’s a sign of respect for the powerful."
"Then why did this predecessor cultivate the Snow Lotus? What is the Snow Lotus for?"
"To save an Exotic Beast."
"An Exotic Beast... is that a type of Ghost Object?"
The woman didn’t answer. She simply turned her head to gaze at the rain outside once more. "You know too much," she said softly. "You’ll understand everything in due time. For now, just lay low and wait for the rainy season to end."
...
After Chen Quan left...
A man in white drifted into the room like a phantom, passing through the door as if it weren’t there. He stood in place, his voice bizarrely calm and seeming to come from both near and far.
"Last night, Hou Kui made his move."
"The Meat Worms’ Ghost Tide was driven toward Nameless Mountain as planned, but the wind shifted unexpectedly. A complication arose—the Ghost Fire on Nameless Mountain wasn’t extinguished. Shall we proceed again tonight?"
"..."
The woman neither spoke nor turned around.
「Several days ago.」
’The Meat Worms’ Ghost Tide had attacked Jiangbei City. If she hadn’t intervened, the city would have fallen long ago.’
’How laughable. The mortals in the city actually believed the Wild Wolf Gang had fought to the death to stop the Meat Worms’ Ghost Tide.’
’A mere Level 1 City Wall.’
’Even if the Wild Wolf Gang had thrown in everything they had, they could never have stopped the Meat Worms’ Ghost Tide.’
’These people had never witnessed a Meat Worms’ Ghost Tide before; they had no idea of its true horror. If she hadn’t sent her own people to intervene, not even the combined might of Jiangbei City’s three great families could have held it back.’
’Only those who have experienced it can comprehend the terror of the Ghost Objects during the rainy season.’
’If she’d let the Meat Worms’ Ghost Tide overrun Jiangbei City, she would have died as well. It wasn’t as if she cared about the lives of these mortals; they were worth less to her than a single hairpin.’
"Can Hou Kui activate it a second time tonight?"
The woman lowered her head, lost in thought. Although she’d claimed Chen Fan couldn’t possibly do any real damage on Nameless Mountain, extinguishing that Ghost Fire was still the safest course of action, just to be sure.
She had been guarding this place for over a decade.
The Pingtian Commerce Association had been standing guard here for over a decade as well. The plans of so many people, spanning so many years, all for this one Snow Lotus... and something else she hadn’t mentioned.
It would be mature once this rainy season passed.
She couldn’t allow anything to go wrong.
Once this matter was resolved...
...she could finally leave this remote corner of the world.
"Not for now."
"We’ll have to wait for the wind to blow the Meat Worms’ Ghost Tide near Jiangbei City again. There’s no telling when that will happen."
Just at this moment—
The man in white turned his head toward the door. His eyes narrowed as he took a step back, his body seeming to melt into the shadows of the room. An onlooker would have to stare to even notice he was there.
Chen Quan, who had just left, had suddenly returned.
He knelt in the doorway, his face a mixture of fear and determination. He looked at his mother and spoke, his voice trembling.
"Mother."
"Do you love Father...?"
"No."
The woman slowly shook her head. Her brow furrowed, as if she couldn’t comprehend why he would ask such a foolish question.
"Then..."
Chen Quan pressed his forehead to the floor, mustering his courage to ask in a hoarse voice, "Then who is my real father? The Patriarch of the Chen Family, or... Uncle Liu."
After a long moment...
...the woman’s voice finally drifted from within the room.
"Does it matter?"
Chen Quan, who had been trembling in terror, now looked up in a daze at his mother by the window. "It... it doesn’t matter?"
’Even this doesn’t matter.’
’Then what in life is important?’
’The Snow Lotus?’
...
ps: We hit the 2,000 monthly ticket goal, so I’m releasing 5 bonus Chapters today.
That’s a total of 32,000 characters updated today, so there are bound to be some typos and awkward sentences.
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Before every scheduled post, I do a quick first pass. At this stage, my brain is fried—it’s like trying to keep watching a movie when you’re already high. It’s hard to focus, so a lot of typos and awkward phrases get missed. I’m mainly just checking for plot consistency and continuity.
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