If Jiang Feng was present, he would’ve been so emotional that he might not have been able to speak. This woman was none other than the beloved wife he had missed day and night for almost thirty years, the previous Blue Moon holy maiden, Xu Meng.
Almost thirty years had put plenty of distance between the couple, but it never managed to pull Xu Meng’s thoughts away from the Eastern Kingdom. She missed her distant husband and the child who’d lost his mother since infancy, Jiang Chen, nearly every minute and every hour.
Xu Meng wore a distressed smile as she murmured seemingly to herself. “Xuan’er, I’m just so incredibly biased. One of your brothers lost me when he was just a baby, and your twin brother was chased out of the sect and abandoned to survive on his own when he was just twelve years old. I don’t even know where he is. I’m only able to stay by your side now. Don’t you think I’m biased?”
The girl she was speaking to was the new Blue Moon holy maiden, Xu Qingxuan. The girl was respectfully addressed as Holy Maiden Qingxuan, and she was the most talented and outstanding holy maiden of this generation.
Xu Qingxuan felt as if knives were slas.h.i.+ng across her heart. She knew that her mother’s longing for her family had slowly transformed into an internal demon that no one could dispel unless her mother and father could meet again one day. Although she occasionally felt curious about the father she’d never met, the entire faction, from her martial dao master to her etiquette teachers and even her servants, worked hard to brainwash her. They told her that her father was of filthy, lowly blood. They told her that the sect had saved them, mother and daughter, from his tainted world and helped them cut ties with her lowly father, preventing them from succ.u.mbing to his world.
The brainwas.h.i.+ng wasn’t completely ineffective. Sometimes, she would wonder if her father really as bad as they said. But if he is, why isn’t mother able to forget him despite so many years? And so, her father was a body of contradiction in her head. On one hand, he was the embodiment of all the faults her people described, and on the other, he was what her mother described him as. Sometimes, she felt it would be nice if she could meet her father for real. All her doubts would be solved this way.
As for her brother…
Xu Qingxuan had no idea what her brother at the Eastern Kingdom was like. She only thought that the place he lived in was so lowly that it could almost be forgotten. Her twin brother was fifteen minutes older than she was. Though they were both born in the Moon G.o.d Sect, the number of times she was able to see him were far and few in between.
Ever since her bloodline had been tested, she’d been protected like a princess. Ever since her twin brother’s test took place, he was thrown away like trash. Their fates had completely branched off since, and Xu Qingxuan slowly forgot about her twin brother over time. After all, her twin brother had been forced to leave them at a very young age. As they’d never met each other since, her impression of her twin brother was extremely blurry.
But Xu Qingxuan knew that her mother had never ceased viewing her twin brother as a son. To her mother, there was nothing more cruel than watching her own flesh and blood being isolated, chased out of the Moon G.o.d Sect, out of the city and not being able to do anything about it.
Xu Meng had tried to escape the Moon G.o.d Sect to seek out her husband and her son multiple times, but the sect never allowed her to take a step out of their sight. She’d managed to exit the main doors a few times, but after several failed attempts, she was restricted to the point where she wasn’t even able to walk out of Blue Moon territory. She was watched very heavily by the faction because of her escape attempts, and was now viewed as the shame of the faction instead of a former holy maiden. In their eyes, a Moon G.o.d Sect holy maiden who couldn’t forget a man of lowly blood was a corrupt holy maiden and sacrilege to the sect. If she wasn’t the mother of Xu Qingxuan, she might’ve been executed already. To the Blues, Xu Meng had lost all value the moment she gave birth to Xu Qingxuan. She was no longer needed in the line of inheritance. Currently, her only remaining ident.i.ty was the birth mother of Holy Maiden Qingxuan. If it wasn’t for this ident.i.ty, she wouldn’t be allowed to reside in Blue Moon territory at all.
But no matter how much the outside world disliked, scorned and disparaged Xu Meng, Xu Qingxuan never grew distant or felt disdain for her own mother. Although she had been brainwashed countless times since she was born and had been told by many that her mother was impure and the shame of the sect, the young girl had inherited her mother’s natural kindness and purity. The brainwas.h.i.+ng failed to subvert her nature. Mother and daughter was connected by blood, and the love between them surpa.s.sed all slander.
Xu Qingxuan’s heart ached when she saw how sad her mother was and she tried for consolation. “Wait just a bit longer, mother. When Xuan’er becomes the sectmaster of the Moon G.o.d Sect, no one in Blue Moon will be able to confine you or put you on house arrest any longer. Xuan’er will be able to take you anywhere you want to… Xuan’er is happy as long mother is happy.”
Xu Meng smiled. She was very glad to see that her daughter had grown up to become a sensible person. Although her daughter underwent brainwas.h.i.+ng every day, she hadn’t lost her nature. It was a very commendable thing. She saw herself in her daughter when she noted how well-behaved her daughter was and Qingxuan she hadn’t lost her kindness despite her environment.
When she caressed her daughter’s cheeks and stared at her face, Xu Meng could almost recall the happy days she’d spent with Jiang Feng shortly after their marriage. Back then, Xu Meng had been just as young as her daughter, the difference being that there were more hints of a n.o.ble, heroic air in her daughter’s bearing.
“Xuan’er, you should leave now. Your master will grow anxious if you don’t hurry,” Xu Meng said lovingly as she stroked her daughter’s beautiful hair gently. She sighed softly. “Please don’t be jealous of your father or your two older brothers. I miss them, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you as much. All of you are my heart, and it feels that it’d rip in two if I lost any one of you.”
Xu Qingxuan nodded understandingly. “Mother, Xuan’er knows of your love for father. The others may not understand it, but I really do. Mother’s background isn’t something you chose, but your love for father is something you chose. They kept saying that you are the shame of the sect, but if it wasn’t for them you would never have wandered into the secular world in the first place, would you? They are the ones who had caused all this sadness!”
Xu Qingxuan wasn’t devoid of sense. She was very much on her mother’s side in this regard.
“My good daughter, I’m so glad you understand. I would able to die with peace given your understanding. That being said, please don’t ever disdain your father. If it wasn’t for him, you wouldn’t exist. No matter what happens, he is your one and only birth father. This is something that cannot change no matter how much they scorn or look down on him. Despite his humble birth, your father is a man amongst men. He was willing to give up everything to fight for the woman he loves. If you ever meet a man like this in the future, you must grab hold of him and cherish him greatly. You musn’t forget that even the strongest man in the world might not be willing to lay his life down on the line for a woman he loves. A man’s background and strength may not be his own choices, but his courage and att.i.tude are. Xuan’er, you’re still very young. You will understand my words one day.” Xu Meng’s statements were slightly radical. She was talking to the Moon G.o.d Sect’s holy maiden, and the holy maiden was absolutely forbidden from falling in love of her own accord. Only the holy maidens confirmed not to become sectmaster were allowed to love and marry.
Holy Maiden Qingxuan’s tender cheeks turned pink. “Mother, you can’t let master hear this or she’ll be angry with you again.”
Xu Meng smiled faintly. “I’m just teaching my own daughter a lesson. What does she have to be angry about? Alright, Xuan’er, you should hurry off. She’ll really be angry if you’re any later” Xu Meng pushed her daughter’s shoulder gently.
Xu Qingxuan sighed quietly. “Mother, just let me stay by your side for a little while longer. Master has been pretty busy as of late because something’s gone wrong with the sect’s tree of inheritance lately. Everyone in the sect is working hard to solve this, but a solution hasn’t been found just yet.”
Xu Meng cared nothing for the problem just mentioned. In fact, she didn’t want to listen to anything related to the Moon G.o.d Sect. The only thing she was interested in was news regarding the sixteen kingdoms alliance and the Eastern Kingdom. However, there were almost no one in the entire Tilted Moon Region who’d ever heard of the Eastern Kingdom. As for the sixteen kingdoms alliance, who in their right minds would visit such a small place far from civilization?
Xu Qingxuan herself knew that her mother wasn’t interested in such things, so she giggled. “Mother, do you think I should beg master to take you down the mountains for a breath of fresh air?”
Xu Meng shook her head. “No, it’s alright. Your master’s going to scold you again if you do that, and I have no intentions of letting my daughter be scolded. If you really are concerned for my well being, just remember to visit Myriad Domain when you’re sent into the world for training and visit the Eastern Kingdom of the sixteen kingdoms alliance. Specifically, you should inquire about the Jiang Han province.”
Xu Qingxuan’s face was a little strange when she heard this. Truthfully, she had inquired about the Jiang Han province through other channels, but what she’d learned shocked her greatly.
The Jiang Han province still existed to this day, but it didn’t belong to the Jiangs any more. Everyone in the Jiang family was either dead or had left, and the Jiang bloodline had terminated a long time ago. But dare she tell her mother about this?
The only thing sustaining her mother through the years was her longing for the Jiang Han province. If she learned that her husband and oldest son was possible be dead already, she might actually crumble on the spot. Xu Qingxuan knew that a person’s flame of life was soon to extinguish the moment they’d lost all will to live.