Deep Like a Cold Pond

"I'm afraid Noble Consort Lin won't be willing to take things lying down then," the youth in black quietly stated.

Mo Lian lightly snorted. "Then have her collect the 100 mid-grade magnetite on her own and redeem him from the Heavenly Dao Sect. It's none of our concern."

"Yes, my lord."

Mo Lian looked back at Qiao Mu's house, a light shifting in his eyes.

"My lord, about that little mystic cultivator girl, should we have a long discussion with her and see if we can recruit her into the Dragon Saliva Guard?" The youth in black continued. "She is a rare potential. We can't let the Heavenly Dao Sect benefit."

Mo Lian shot him a look and said with a mocking smile, "That icy little girl is not as easy to deceive and approach as you imagine. From what I see, this little guy is very young, but her heart is cast from a millennium-old cold rock."

However, whenever he recalled the little girl's stoic face, he wanted to rip it apart and uncover the lively little thing inside. That would be quite interesting…

Qiao Mu was carried to a chair with her hands still holding the ointment box. After she was carefully examined by her mother left and right and top to bottom, her wood-cut face nearly shattered. She felt truly resigned; she was not a child anymore.

Disregarding the days where she wandered aimlessly in the air, she had lived for at least 26 years in her previous life.

"Qiaoqiao, you frightened Mom to death." Wei Ziqin hugged her daughter and said, half in reproach and half in panic, "You mustn't be so improper from now on, alright?"

Qiao Mu nodded. She looked up and caught the particularly joyous glimmer brimming from her father's eyes. Her eyebrows involuntarily rose, and she inwardly sneered.

She was very familiar with that gaze from her father—a gaze of anticipation as well as pleasure and pride.

Did he think she had contributed to the pride of the Qiao Clan? Pft…

She remembered that her father was once a mystic cultivator as well. He had triggered his mystic meridians at age 11 and had been brought away by the main Qiao Clan for an emphasized education at age 12.

He had amazed the world in the clan competition at age 13 and was picked by the Daybreak Sect, one of the three sects who had come to select talents. Everyone thought that Qiao Zhongbang would shoot up in the world with a limitless future from then on.

Who knew that he would be sent back to Qiaotou Village at age 15, stripped of his former glory, with his mystic meridians damaged and all of his mystic energy lost. He then suffered from the scorn of all his clansmen.

However, it was this unquestionably filially pious man who continued to be incomparably loyal to his family clan after receiving so much unfair treatment. He continued to have profound anticipation and longing for his clansmen. Was he naive? Kind? What damn use were those things?

When someone was ensnared in despair, this goodness that only existed in fairy tales could not pull someone out of a hopeless abyss. It could not!

Qiao Clan? What importance was the Qiao Clan? She, Qiao Mu, triggered her mystic meridians at age 7 and ascended to the ranks of a mystic cultivator, but she did not care for these supposed glories at all. Whether it was the present or the future, her accomplishments and everything under her control would have nothing to do with the Qiao Clan.

She had climbed out centimeter by centimeter from the broken hell in the air and the deepest, infinitely desperate pit of the underworld. Her heart had already transformed into a deep and icy spring. She could not congest the slightest bit of warmth and tender sentiments for those superficial clansmen of hers.

"Qiaoqiao." Her mother's call caused her face to relax and her eyes to lost their previous frostiness as she calmly looked over.

Wei Ziqin watched her daughter, taken back. She felt like ever since her daughter accidentally rolled down the hill in front of the school three days ago and regained consciousness, her daughter's personality had dramatically changed, and something seemed different from before…