Chapter 32: Mother-in-law
With the rest of the people on the scene watching, and Ling Hong’s own cultivation being too low to escape, this beating was inevitable.
Xie Bailu just watched from the side, watching Ling Song use Shishang as a club, smiling as he broke Ling Hong’s legs, arms, and finally, his spine.
Ling Hong ended up paralyzed like a dead dog, his screams barely audible.
But Xie Bailu didn’t feel much pity for him.
From Zong Sheng’s few words, she could guess how much harm Ling Song had suffered as a child. Everything he was doing now was probably just retaliation in kind.
Besides, this was the cultivation world. These injuries, caused without any spiritual energy, only hurt when they were inflicted. They were not difficult to heal afterwards.
Also, Ling Hong had been so arrogant in front of Ling Song just now. It was very likely that after Ling Song’s cultivation had improved, he rarely returned to the Ling family, so he had never retaliated against Ling Hong. That was why Ling Hong only had hatred for Ling Song, but lacked fear.
In that case, Ling Song’s retaliation against Ling Hong was too light.
In the end, Hengwu bowed to Ling Song and carried away the completely immobile Ling Hong.
Ling Song shook Shishang, and the blood-stained cloth strips on it were shattered. After sheathing his sword, he turned to look at Xie Bailu and asked with a smile, “Happy now?”
Xie Bailu felt Zong Sheng and Qingke staring at her, especially Qingke. Having never seen her and Ling Song’s “love,” she must be very shocked by Ling Song’s “doting.”
Xie Bailu felt a sense of incongruity everywhere in this Ling family. Seeing that Ling Song wanted to continue to play the part of doting on her, she also cooperated and raised her chin. “More or less. This cousin of yours is too annoying. He’s ugly and speaks rudely. Someone should teach him a lesson.”
Ling Song said, “If he comes again in the future, I’ll beat him again.”
Xie Bailu said, “Can’t you just kill him? He’s so annoying!”
Ling Song smiled. “This is the Ling family. Are you saying you want to kill the son of the Ling family head in the Ling family?”
His tone was very relaxed, as if it was no big deal for Xie Bailu to say such a thing.
Xie Bailu shrugged. “Alright!”
She added, “I’m tired. Where do I stay?”
Mainly, she wanted to quickly see what was in the storage bags Ling Song had given her.
Qingke, who seemed to have not heard the conversation between Xie Bailu and Ling Song just now, said in a timely manner, “The elder has prepared a room for you, miss. You can come with me.”
Xie Bailu glanced at Ling Song and saw that he did not object, so she followed Qingke.
Zong Sheng also quickly followed Qingke. After taking two steps, he turned back and said to Ling Song, “Brother, mother has kept your room for you. Do you still remember where it is?”
Ling Song gave him a slight smile. “Are you going to lead the way for me?”
Zong Sheng immediately waved his hands and ran away quickly. “Go by yourself!”
Ling Yiyao’s courtyard was very large, comparable to the courtyard of an ordinary wealthy family. Xie Bailu followed Qingke to a clean room that seemed to have been carefully arranged. When Zong Sheng wanted to follow her in, she shut him out.
It was only when she was alone in the room that Xie Bailu let out a long breath.
Xiao Xing whispered, “Master, have we entered a wolf’s den? Can we still leave? The Ling family has an array. We can’t get out even with the Divine Movement Art.”
Xie Bailu said, “Did you see me having a choice on the way here?”
Xiao Xing wilted. “…No.”
Xie Bailu picked up Xiao Xing and kneaded it into a ball, smiling. “Don’t worry. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Don’t forget who I am. We can’t give up until the very last moment!”
Xiao Xing immediately perked up again. The child of fortune, fearless!
Xie Bailu poured out the contents of all the storage bags, first putting all the spirit stones in a pile. After a rough count, there were several thousand of them. She immediately grinned from ear to ear.
After putting away the spirit stones, she began to check the other things. Clothes, food, and the like were all put into a storage bag to be thrown away.
The rest were some magical treasures.
Most of them were swords, and perhaps because Ling Song only took the storage bags and didn’t search the bodies, these magical treasures were mostly not the ones the cultivators usually used. As spares, their quality was very average.
She was considering whether she should remind Ling Song not to forget to pick up the magical treasures the others were using at the time next time.
If there was a next time.
Xiao Xing was knowledgeable and helped her to identify them. Xie Bailu also put away the ordinary swords. They were not good things, but she didn’t mind having more.
There was an array diagram. The one she and Ling Song had been trapped in was probably this one.
Xiao Xing said, “It’s a good thing, but it costs a lot of spirit stones. You can only use it to trap Foundation Establishment cultivators.”
Xie Bailu gave it a try and successfully got lost in this small room. She only got out with Xiao Xing’s guidance. Fortunately, it was a short time, and she only consumed a total of twenty spirit stones.
She quickly put it away, planning to study it slowly later.
There was a heart-protecting mirror that could block a full-power attack from an early-stage Golden Core cultivator. Although it was called a heart-protecting mirror, it was more like a piece of armor that covered half of the body. According to Xiao Xing’s guidance, Xie Bailu found that this heart-protecting mirror could change its curvature. That is to say, if a male cultivator wore it, it would be basically flat. If a female cultivator wore it, it could form a curve.
Xie Bailu inexplicably felt that this mirror was a bit lewd. If it didn’t have an artifact spirit, she wouldn’t even want to wear it.
After putting it on, the heart-protecting mirror automatically fit her body, and she could barely feel its weight. Xie Bailu felt much safer.
The last thing was a zither. She didn’t know how to play it, so she skipped it.
After putting everything away, Xie Bailu finally had the leisure to think about Ling Song and the Ling family.
Ling Song had given her so many things, and with that protective attitude, if it were a love-struck little girl, she would probably have thought he liked her.
But fortunately, Xie Bailu was not love-struck. Ling Song seemed to be deliberately putting on a show for someone. Or rather, even if he hadn’t deliberately done anything before the rumors spread, after meeting Zong Sheng, Ling Song’s actions were a bit deliberate.
She felt that Ling Song wanted her to come to the Ling family. Even if he had stopped Zong Sheng and beaten him up, how could he not have been able to shake off Zong Sheng, who was following him? Ling Song had deliberately shown a flaw to let Zong Sheng bring her to the Ling family.
And after arriving at the Ling family, in front of Qingke, he had also beaten up Ling Hong. Besides retaliation, perhaps there was also the purpose of showing his concern for her.
So, why?
She suddenly thought of a question Ling Song had asked Zong Sheng earlier. He had asked what their mother wanted to do.
Now she also really wanted to know what Ling Yiyao wanted to do.
Xie Bailu met Ling Yiyao the next day after a sumptuous breakfast.
Qingke invited her over and led her to a large osmanthus tree. A woman who looked very young was drinking tea at a stone table by the tree.
The woman was dressed in luxurious clothes and was extremely beautiful, but her beauty was not aggressive. She was gentle and soft, completely different from the Ling Yiyao Xie Bailu had imagined.
The mother of two madmen actually looked very normal.
When Ling Yiyao saw Xie Bailu, she smiled slightly and pointed to the opposite side of the stone table, saying casually, “Sit.”
Ling Yiyao’s cultivation felt even weaker than Ling Song’s to Xie Bailu. She should not be at the late-stage Golden Core yet. But Xie Bailu was just a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Facing a Golden Core cultivator, she could only sit down obediently.
Ling Yiyao poured Xie Bailu a cup of tea, pushed it over, and said gently, “I am Ling Song’s mother. What is your name?”
Xie Bailu replied, “My surname is Xie, and my name is the ‘bailu’ from ‘a line of egrets rises to the blue sky’.”
“Bailu, a good name,” Ling Yiyao nodded. “A’Sheng didn’t bully you on the way here, did he?”
Xie Bailu couldn’t figure out Ling Yiyao’s game, so she said, “It was fine. We were in a hurry.”
Ling Yiyao smiled lightly and sized up Xie Bailu with a gentle gaze that would not make people feel offended. Then she said, “I’ve always wondered what Song’er’s partner would be like, but he’s always been obsessed with fighting and has never had a woman by his side. You are very good. I like you very much.”
Xie Bailu said politely, “You’re too kind.”
This script was too gentle, so much so that Xie Bailu felt it was unreal, like a dream.
Besides, no matter how normal this Ling Yiyao appeared, if she had gone to such great lengths to bring her to the Ling family just to say “you are very good, I like you very much,” then this person couldn’t be that normal!
Just as Xie Bailu was thinking this, her hand on the table was held by Ling Yiyao. She suddenly looked up and saw Ling Yiyao looking at her eagerly. “Song’er suffered a lot when he was a child. It’s all my fault as a mother. I was wrong at that time. Now I want to make it up to him, but he’s not willing to accept it. I’ve heard about Song’er’s concern for you. If you can always be by his side, I, as a mother, can also be at ease.”
Xie Bailu was speechless. “…”
She was too much like a normal mother, so normal that she felt that she, who doubted the other party’s motherly love, was too cold-blooded.
But the problem was, Ling Yiyao was not an ordinary mother. She was a Golden Core cultivator and an elder of a major family. It wasn’t that she couldn’t have motherly love, but the motherly love she showed was not in line with her status.
However, just from what she had heard so far, Xie Bailu didn’t know what kind of scheme Ling Yiyao could have.
Xie Bailu held Ling Yiyao’s hand back and said with emotion, “Senior, then can I call you ‘mother-in-law’?”
She didn’t miss the fleeting discomfort on Ling Yiyao’s face.
Ling Yiyao smiled. “Of course you can.”
Xie Bailu then said affectionately, “Mother-in-law, I was very worried before I came, afraid that you would think I’m not worthy of Big Brother Ling Song. I didn’t expect you to be such a gentle mother-in-law. I was still thinking, what would I do if you threw a storage bag of spirit stones at me and asked me to leave Big Brother Ling Song? After all, I really like Big Brother Ling Song, but I don’t want to make things difficult for him and make you unhappy. Now that you can accept me, it’s really great!”
Xie Bailu’s string of “mother-in-law” almost broke the gentle expression on Ling Yiyao’s face. She insisted on listening to Xie Bailu’s words before maintaining her gentle posture. “If Song’er likes you, what reason do I have to object?”
Xie Bailu’s face was full of emotion. “I didn’t hear Big Brother Ling Song mention you before I came. I thought you didn’t like him, so he was unwilling to mention you. I didn’t expect you to consider so much for him. I misunderstood you before.”
She then wiped the slightly red corners of her eyes. “Big Brother Ling Song is very proud and never tells me about his past. Can you tell me, mother-in-law? I want to know what he was like in the past, so I can love and cherish him better. Let’s start from—”
She paused and smiled. “Let’s start from when he fought with wild dogs for food!”
Ling Yiyao’s hand was still tightly held by Xie Bailu. Hearing this, she suddenly looked at her. After a brief moment of astonishment, she slowly let go of Xie Bailu’s hand.