Aunt Yang

The old woman, known as Aunt Yang, didn't try to take the bucket back. Instead, she let him have it and just asked cheerfully from the side:

“How long are you staying this time? Do you have enough socks and shoes? I’ve made some more lately—I’ll bring them over for you in a bit.”

Liang Zhonghuai quickly poured all the water into the vat and replied:

“No rush. I’ve applied for leave, so I’ll be home for a long while this time.”

Hearing this, Aunt Yang was pleasantly surprised:

“Really? That’s wonderful! I’ll make a couple extra dishes tonight, and you can keep me company for a meal.”

Seeing how happy she was, he knew she must have been feeling lonely and bored staying at home by herself all day. So Liang Zhonghuai nodded gently and said:

“Alright. From now on, I’ll eat every meal with you.”

During lunch, Liang Zhonghuai held his bowl, piled high with rice, and looked at the old woman across from him eating cheerfully. After a moment’s thought, he asked:

“Aunt Yang, since I have time now, how about I accompany you back to the mortal world to look for your daughter?”

It seemed she hadn’t expected him to bring this up. Aunt Yang froze for a moment, then, as if something had crossed her mind, her eyes suddenly reddened. She stared blankly at the food in front of her for a long while, and Liang Zhonghuai stayed quiet, keeping her company in silence.

Counting the years, it had already been fifteen years since she was separated from her young daughter.

And it had also been nearly fifteen years since she came to this cultivation world.

In that instant, she thought back to the days of fleeing disaster, when, because of a single moment of carelessness, she had lost her daughter in the chaos.

After a long while, Aunt Yang lowered her head and wiped her eyes, then slowly nodded and said:

“Alright. That way, I can also let your uncle finally rest in peace.”

Back then, they had stumbled into the cultivation world by sheer accident and, through a twist of fate, met Liang Zhonghuai, who had fled his family, dejected and broken.

At that time, he wasn’t called Liang Zhonghuai. He was called Liang Ji.

Because he had been born as nothing more than a sacrificial offering.

It was precisely because of this that Liang Zhonghuai, worn down in both body and mind, could no longer endure it and desperately broke free from his family.

The name Liang Zhonghuai was given to him anew by Uncle Yang.

Under the care and encouragement of Uncle Yang and Aunt Yang, Liang Zhonghuai, who had already been consumed by despair, slowly found the strength to stand back up.

In those days, the three of them squeezed together in a cave out in the wild.

Perhaps they were lucky—they never ran into any demonic beasts. And since Liang Zhonghuai was already a Qi Refinement ninth-level cultivator with a few small tricks up his sleeve, they managed to live in the wilderness for a time in relative safety.

Each day, they scraped by on wild berries nearby, fish that Uncle Yang caught from a stream far off, and the low-level demonic beasts Liang Zhonghuai barely managed to capture.

Later, he passed the recruitment screening at Wanwan Tong, successfully joined up, and worked hard to buy a small courtyard in Lixu City. That was when they finally settled down.

The three of them lived peacefully in the city for a while.

But misfortune strikes without warning.

One day, Uncle Yang went out and encountered a rampaging Foundation Establishment cultivator on the street. Many mortals on the street lost their lives that day.

Although the cultivator was later struck down by the city’s protective formation, those who had died could not be brought back.

When Aunt Yang rushed over after hearing the news, she only managed to see Uncle Yang’s final moments.

In his dying breath, the only thing he still worried about was their lost daughter.

From that day on, Aunt Yang would only step out of the house in the early morning hours to fetch water and buy groceries. Otherwise, she barely set foot outside at all.

The world of cultivators was truly too dangerous.

She still needed to stay alive to find her daughter.

Now that Liang Zhonghuai had the time and was willing to bring her to try reaching the mortal realm, her heart was filled with melancholy.

It had been fifteen years already.

Back then, neither she nor her husband had any idea how they had crossed from the mortal realm into the world of cultivation. All they remembered was being hungry, exhausted, and disoriented—and then, as they walked, they simply ran into Liang Zhonghuai.

And over all these years, even the ever-knowledgeable Liang Zhonghuai had been unable to uncover any quick way to travel to the mortal realm.

The only way was to spend a great deal of time walking there.

Moreover, he had heard that along the way, there was a stretch of land where spiritual energy was extremely scarce, making it very difficult to recover one's own spiritual power.

Who knew how long it would take to cross that on foot?

According to the few cultivators who had come from the mortal realm, even those at the Golden Core or Nascent Soul stages had taken anywhere from half a year to a full year to make the journey.

Liang Zhonghuai had shared all this news every time he returned home from gathering information.

Aunt Yang had naturally thought of this as well. She paused, then asked again:

"Won't this take up too much of your time?"

Liang Zhonghuai shook his head.

"You and Uncle Yang are my family now. The people we're going back to the mortal realm to find are also my family. There's no such thing as wasting time."

"It's settled, then. I'll head out in a bit to prepare some supplies for the road. You should also think about anything else we might need that I haven't thought of. We'll get everything ready over the next two days and set out."

Even though he was only at the Foundation Establishment stage, he had managed to save up quite a number of spirit stones over the years.

He had also managed to get his hands on several very useful flying artifacts.

Years ago, when he first learned that Uncle Yang and Aunt Yang had a daughter who had gone missing in the mortal realm, and that the mortal realm was incredibly difficult to reach, he had already started to build up his savings.

He had made up his mind back then: he would bring Uncle Yang and Aunt Yang back to find their daughter.

To Liang Zhonghuai, they were the only family he had left in this world.

If his cultivation wasn't high enough, then he would save up plenty of spirit stones and use flying artifacts to make the trip.

Now was the perfect opportunity.

Three years—he wondered if that would be enough time.

But even if it wasn't, it didn't matter.

At worst, he would simply quit his job.

He could always find other work anyway.

Aunt Yang was deeply moved by his words, tears glistening in her eyes as she looked at him and said:

"Good child, thank you so much."

And so, after lunch, the two of them began making their preparations.

Liang Zhonghuai went out to buy all sorts of things they would need on the road, the spirit stones he had saved over the years flowing away from his hands in a steady stream.

Meanwhile, Aunt Yang retrieved Uncle Yang's ashes from the grave in the backyard.

That grave had been built there at Liang Zhonghuai's insistence.

Because if it had been placed anywhere else, he wouldn't have felt at ease.

If buried outside the city, who knew when some cultivator's spell battle or some other incident might wipe the grave out completely?

Only by temporarily burying Uncle Yang in the courtyard of their own home in the city could he rest assured.

After retrieving Uncle Yang's ashes, Aunt Yang began packing their luggage.

Most of it was her own belongings.

Since she was still a mortal, she needed food, water, and all the necessities of daily life, so there was an awful lot to bring.

As for Liang Zhonghuai, aside from the clothes and shoes Aunt Yang had made for him, everything he needed was already on his person.

The two of them moved very quickly.

By the afternoon of the following day, the little courtyard in Lixu City that no one had ever bothered to visit was already deserted. A lock hung on its door, and a ward had been laid over it.