Little Feng Qingran’s eyes widened. “Little Niu!”
She cried out and tried to rush forward to check on him.
The woman grabbed her by the collar, hissing, “You little hussy, come back with me! If I catch you seeing this fool again, I’ll skin you alive!”
Long-term malnutrition had left her skinny and weak, powerless to resist the woman.
Even lying on the ground, Little Niu kept murmuring, “Ranran… don’t go… it’s dangerous…”
But little Feng Qingran couldn’t hear him.
She was dragged home by the woman and given a vicious beating.
That night, she saw the woman bring back a lecherous old man.
The old man’s muddy eyes roamed over her, making her feel utterly sick.
He expressed great dissatisfaction. “How did you let her get like this? What did you do with the silver I gave you?”
“I asked for a fair, tender girl, not a sallow, skinny brat!”
“I’ll give you one more month. If she still looks like this, you’ll return every piece of silver to me!”
With that, the old man turned and left. The woman saw him out with an obsequious smile plastered on her face.
Feng Qingran cowered in a corner, her lowered eyes glinting with a dark light. One month?
One month from now was her birthday, the day she could escape as her mother instructed…
Over the next month, the woman’s attitude did a complete one-eighty. She served her big fish and meat every day, not letting her do a single chore.
She was also very obedient, eating whatever she was given…
She knew she needed to eat well and regain her strength to have a chance to escape.
In the meantime, she inquired about Little Niu. She only heard that someone had come and taken him away.
Time flew by.
Soon, only one day remained in the month.
Only one day remained until her eleventh birthday.
But Feng Qingran didn’t want to wait any longer. She was afraid she wouldn’t have a chance tomorrow.
That night, she secretly slipped a sleeping drug into everyone’s food.
Once everyone was asleep, she made her way to the end of the village and entered the old house from six years ago.
Everything inside the old house was broken and dilapidated, items scattered and overturned.
She searched and searched through the room filled with memories, but found nothing.
Just as she was about to leave, something flashed in her mind.
She returned to the room she used to live in. In a crack of the collapsed bed, she found a yellowed piece of paper.
“This must be what Mother left for me,” Feng Qingran thought, joy flashing in her eyes. She tucked the paper into her clothes.
Under the cover of night, she left the village and headed for Qingyunzhou.
——————————
Outside the Illusion.
“Yinglong, what exactly did you do? Why did she become like this?” Tai Gu Mingshe was utterly confused.
Why had Feng Qingran suddenly become so submissive, timid, and resigned to her fate?
Yinglong replied solemnly, “I suppressed part of her innate nature. Furthermore, I sealed all her current memories and implanted another set of memories in their place.”
“Yinglong, aren’t you afraid the illusion will collapse if you do this?” Tai Gu Mingshe’s expression was grave.
Yinglong sighed helplessly. “I had no choice. The restrictions on her prevent me from seeing all her memories. This means the ‘her’ within the illusion would also be mysterious and dangerous. If I didn’t suppress it a bit,”
“and let the illusion develop solely according to her memories, not only would she herself be trapped, but the other ferocious beasts would also be stuck in her illusion, unable to escape.”
Hearing this, Tai Gu Mingshe looked at Yinglong in surprise.
Feng Qingran was only at the Foundation Establishment stage. How could an illusion constructed from her memories possibly trap a group of immensely powerful ferocious beasts?
Tai Gu Mingshe’s gaze fell on Feng Qingran in the mirror, and suddenly it felt like she might actually be capable of it!
Yinglong let out a sigh, speaking gravely, “This girl has extremely strong defenses. She always leaves herself a way out, no matter the situation. If I didn’t suppress it a bit, she would definitely destroy the illusion.”
Just then—
Tai Gu Mingshe seemed to notice something. It stared at Feng Qingran’s wrist for a long time.
“Yinglong, when did that bracelet appear on Feng Qingran’s wrist?” Tai Gu Mingshe remembered clearly that when Feng Qingran left the village, her wrist was bare.
Yinglong looked into the mirror. At this moment, Feng Qingran had followed Su Yanran into the Tianjian Sect.
Su Yanran came to Feng Qingran to demand the jade bracelet, but Feng Qingran refused directly.
Yinglong looked at the jade bracelet on Feng Qingran’s wrist.
Before Feng Qingran entered the illusion, she was indeed wearing this bracelet.
But after entering the illusion, she seemed to have automatically omitted the memory of the bracelet.
The jade bracelet was merely a sacred artifact. Why would Feng Qingran hide this memory?
“This Su Yanran actually poisoned Feng Qingran! How could someone do that? And she tried to snatch Feng Qingran’s bracelet! Yinglong, why did you arbitrarily alter the illusion?” Tai Gu Mingshe’s tone carried a hint of anger.
“I didn’t alter it. These are Feng Qingran’s original memories,” Yinglong said, watching as the bracelet was swapped, its eyes filled with doubt.
The one Su Yanran took was the real bracelet.
But it clearly remembered that the bracelet Feng Qingran wore before entering the illusion was also real.
A bold thought echoed in Yinglong’s mind.
Perhaps what they were seeing were Feng Qingran’s memories from a past life!
