Dead

Seeing the spirit sword in Ye Chuan's hand, the other party was clearly stunned for quite a while before slowly snapping back to reality.

"These swords really are exactly the same as the one in my hand."

After all, they were the standard-issue spirit swords of the Qingyun Sect. Since Ye Chuan had wiped out the entire Qingyun Sect, the last thing he lacked was these standard-issue swords.

After Xiaotian's eyes lingered on Ye Chuan's face for a good while, she seemed to believe his words.

"Are you really... someone my mother knew? Did you give her this sword?"

Xiaotian had initially thought the other party was getting greedy for her sword, but who would have thought he'd whip out so many identical swords in the blink of an eye.

Did that even make sense?

"To think Tian Xiaotian actually has a daughter, and she's already this old." Ye Chuan looked at Xiaotian in front of him and fell into deep thought. After all, every time he entered the eerie world, the time difference between him and Tian Xiaotian was inexplicably huge.

He had watched her go from a little girl with a mushroom haircut to a mature woman, and now she actually had a daughter?

"Although you say you're Tian Xiaotian's daughter, the two of you really don't look alike at all," Ye Chuan muttered, looking at Xiaotian, who was currently the same age as Tian Xiaotian was when he first met her.

"Oh right, how is Gua Xiaotian doing now?"

"Gua?"

"No, how is your mother doing now?" Ye Chuan asked.

"She's dead..." Xiaotian whispered.

"Dead...?" Ye Chuan's movements visibly froze. He remained silent for several seconds, leaving only the sound of rain beating against the windows.

Dead...

"You... I..." Ye Chuan had wanted to say something else, but in the end, he only asked,

"How did she die?"

Xiaotian explained, "She didn't clear the instance... She died to save everyone."

Hearing this, Ye Chuan felt an indescribable sense of depression. Tian Xiaotian had learned the Qingyun Sect's cultivation methods, and with the golden physique he had given her plus this spirit sword, how could she have died so easily?

To Ye Chuan, it felt like he had just seen Tian Xiaotian not too long ago, but to her, an unknown number of years had passed.

But for some reason, Ye Chuan felt that something wasn't quite right, though he couldn't put his finger on it.

"What about your father?" Ye Chuan asked.

Xiaotian paused for a moment, then shook her head. "I don't know. I've never met him."

The girl in front of him didn't seem to be lying; she genuinely looked like she had never seen her father. Looking at the young girl, Ye Chuan didn't know what to say.

Since she was the child of an old friend, he couldn't exactly leave her be, so he simply said,

"Come with me. Generally speaking, clearing an S-rank instance with me will be much easier than going at it alone."

"Okay! Big Brother Cai Kun!"

The two walked out of the room, with Xiaotian following obediently behind Ye Chuan. Having just witnessed his methods, she knew his combat power had to be incredibly strong.

"Big Brother Cai Kun, what was your relationship with my mother?"

"We didn't really have much of a relationship. We just cleared a few instances together," Ye Chuan said. "Friends, I suppose."

Were they friends?

They probably were.

For some reason, after learning of Gua Xiaotian's death, Ye Chuan still felt an unspeakable gloominess in his heart.

Moreover, since Gua Xiaotian died inside an instance, he didn't even have the chance to resurrect her.

Sigh. Otherwise, reviving her would have been doable.

What a pity.

"Friends," Xiaotian murmured.

At that moment, she noticed Ye Chuan's footsteps pause as he looked back.

"Oh right, do you know why that goddess statue has no head?"

He pointed at the goddess statue not far away in the main hall. Looking from a distance, the break off point at the neck was still visible.

Xiaotian immediately replied, "Huh? I... I don't know."

"I see." Although Ye Chuan wasn't sure why Xiaotian was panicking, he gave a slight nod and led her toward the door. They had pretty much finished exploring the church and hadn't found any special clues.

The only thing they learned was that they couldn't touch the black rain.

"Did that monster from earlier... have anything to do with the clues?" Ye Chuan thought of the slime monster he had just dealt with.

It was a bit disgusting, but at the very least, human features could still be made out.

"Could it be that touching this rain turns you into that monster?" Xiaotian suggested beside him.

"What you said is quite possible." Ye Chuan grunted in agreement. That mud monster from earlier was very likely an original resident of this instance who turned into a monster after touching this strange black rain.

"You're smarter than your mother," Ye Chuan noted.

Instead of being happy about the praise, Xiaotian shook her head, her eyes looking a bit lonely. "Mother was the most amazing."

"She was obviously just a coward," Ye Chuan said, unable to help but recall the first time he saw Tian Xiaotian, half scared to death by his wolf demon.

She was just a wimp. If it hadn't been for the gold bars back then, Ye Chuan wouldn't have even wanted to bother with her.

"She... she wasn't a coward!!" Xiaotian immediately retorted, her voice even rising a pitch.

Ye Chuan froze for a second before suddenly chuckling. "Ah, my mistake. I shouldn't judge your mother like that."

"Ah... I was too emotional, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Xiaotian immediately apologized, realizing her tone hadn't been very polite.

"It's fine," Ye Chuan smiled.

"Big Brother Cai Kun, you're so gentle. You must be a really good person, right?" Xiaotian asked.

"Yeah, I'm wholeheartedly good even to strangers," Ye Chuan said.

"And because of that, I'm always attacked by people who don't understand me. But I still repay them with double the kindness."

"..."

What a great personality.

Xiaotian couldn't help but think that there were actually such great people in this world.

Outside the church, it was dark and hazy. The rain went drip-drop, making it completely impossible to tell if it was day or night. From the looks of it, there was no chance of it clearing up anytime soon.

"The rain is too heavy, how are we going to cross?" Ye Chuan looked into the distance. The outlines of some buildings were vaguely visible, but they were still quite a distance away.

"How about I give you my raincoat to wear, Big Brother Cai Kun?" Xiaotian asked.

"There's no need for that, it's just keeping out of the rain." Ye Chuan first rummaged through his backpack, and then his gaze landed on the main doors of the church.

"Hmm..."

The church doors were not small, and they were specially made of metal, bearing some strange scratches on the surface.

Xiaotian didn't understand what Ye Chuan wanted to do, so she just watched quietly from the side.

The next moment, under Xiaotian's shocked gaze, Ye Chuan actually tore the iron door off with his bare hands, then crushed a groove into the door panel with his bare hands to use as a grip!

"Big enough to hide from the rain." Ye Chuan lifted the door panel high above his head and waved at Xiaotian behind him.

"Let's go, Xiaogua."