CH 61: New Home in the Spiritual Sea

"This place is..." Standing in what seemed just space, Hu Liena looked at the others curiously. Smiling, Ah Li welcome :"Welcome to my Spiritual Sea! I hope you like it, because you'll be staying here. At least until we have an actual place to stay in."

Qian Renxue :"What does that mean?"

Ah Li :"It means exactly what it sounds like. I'm an orphan and I don't have a home either. I'm always on the move for hunting Soul Beasts and such for reasons that have made me so freaking strong. Can you please explain everything to them later, Sister Goddess?"

Bibi Dong :"Yeah, sure, I'll do it."

Ah Li :"Thanks. And that's why, we have nowhere else for you to stay. Because of how strong my Spiritual Sea is, it has become something akin to an actual world. So you guys and actual living beings can live here if I just brought you here. So yeah, this is your new home for now. Sister Goddess, Nightmare and Skydream also live here. But Sister Goddess has more of a private room here."

Hu Liena, smirking :"Why, are you playing favorites?"

Ah Li :"Haha, funny. No, it's that she literally manifested in my Spiritual Sea with her own space, the Rakshasa Realm."

Qian Renxue :"Rakshasa? Mom, weren't you the Rakshasa Goddess before...?"

Bibi Dong :"That's right. My godhood seems to have traveled with me. But it doesn't have anything nor can it do anything. It's just a room. It's that."

She pointed at the red mist.

Qian Renxue :"Oh. Can we take a look inside?"

Bibi Dong, smiling :"Of course. You'll be living there with me after all."

Skydream :"What about us? That's unfair."

Nightmare :"Right, I've never even seen what it looks like."

Bibi Dong :"Well I'm sorry for not letting men into my private living space."

Qian Renxue, whispering to Hu Liena :"Has mom gotten more sarcastic or is it just me?"

Hu Liena :"No, she definitely has gotten more sarcastic."

Skydream :"You do realize that humans don't appeal to us at all, right?"

Bibi Dong :"It doesn't matter. The matters between men and women should be considered carefully."

Nightmare :"Then what about Ah Li? You've let him into your "private space" since day one."

The squinted eyes of Qian Renxue and Hu Liena moved between Ah Li and Bibi Dong, making the goddess cough :"That's different. Anyway, it's not like there's a problem here anyway. I just want to live with my daughters, that's all."

Nightmare :"Alright, whatever. We were just curious, that's all."

Skydream :"Yeah, he's right. We just wanted to see what it looked like. It's the space of a previous goddess after all."

Bibi Dong :"Alright then, that's good to hear. Alright, girls, come with me. There's a lot to talk about."

Ah Li :"Ah wait, Sister Goddess! We have to check out. It would be weird if only I left the hotel when two people came in."

Qian Renxue, squinting eyes :"You two stayed in a hotel?"

Hu Liena, squinting eyes :"Together? In one room?"

Bibi Dong, face twitching :"Quiet, you two. You wait here, I'll come back in a minute. Chat with Nightmare and Skydream meanwhile or something. Get to know each other."

Qian Renxue/Hu Liena :"Okay."

Ah Li and Bibi Dong disappeared.

Hu Liena :"Well, how about we introduce ourselves again? My name is Hu Liena, the sole disciple of master Bibi Dong, and a Lv 88 Soul Douluo. It's nice to meet you."

Qian Renxue :"And as you already know, I'm Qian Renxue, the daughter of Bibi Dong, and a Lv 89 Soul Douluo. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Nightmare :"I'm a Flying Nightmare Centipede. I don't have a name, but the others call me Nightmare. I'm a 200,000-year Soul Beast. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Skydream, proudly :"And I'm the amazing Skydream Ice Worm, known as Tian Meng, the only Soul Beast with a cultivation base of 1,000,000-years! Mwahahaha! It's a pleasure to meet the daughters of sister Dong. I hope we get along!"

Hu Liena :"1,000,000-year Soul Beast..."

Qian Renxue :"It still feels unreal to hear that."

Skydream :"Hehehehe, that's right, an actual 1,000,000-year Soul Beast! By the way, I'm the Soul Spirit that's attached to Rakshasa Goddess Martial Soul, aka your mother, so I definitely hope we can get along."

Qian Renxue :"Soul Spirit? Have you ever heard of that, Nana?"

Hu Liena :"No, I have no idea what that is? What is it, Skydream?"

Skydream :"Oh, right, these two don't know anything yet."

Nightmare :"Sigh, there's going to be a lot of explaining to do."

Skydream :"How about we start explaining after sister Dong comes back? She's Nana's teacher, after all, she can teach them better than anybody. Is it okay if I call you that?"

Hu Liena, smiling :"Oh, of course. You are all the elderly here, and are like family to master. So you're like family to us as well! Isn't that right, sister Xue?"

Qian Renxue, smiling :"Of course. Please feel free to call me whatever you want as well."

Nightmare :"Hahaha, such good daughters. No wonder Bibi Dong was so proud of you whenever she talked about you."

Skydream :"Alright, let's go and check out on what those two are doing!"

Qian Renxue :"We can go out?"

Nightmare :"Of course. Xiao Li doesn't lock his Spiritual Sea unless for special reasons. You can always go out as a spirit. Here, I'll teach you."

After teaching the two how to exit Ah Li's Spiritual Sea in soul form, they saw him walking out of the hotel they were staying in. "Oh, we're actually outside." Hu Liena looked around :"This is..."

Qian Renxue :"Heaven Duo City. You all stayed here on the way to the Extreme North, right?"

Ah Li :"(You're outside already? As expected of Sister Goddess daughters, you learn quickly. Yeah, we stayed here to rest, since we spent the entire day going around and shopping yesterday. Heh, Sister Goddess was quite excited for finally having a physical body.)"

Bibi Dong, embarrassed :"(Ahem, it was a normal reaction since I was just a soul for 6 years.)"

Skydream, depressed :"Right, I know what it's like not being able to do anything."

Ah Li :"(What do you mean "not being able to"? You don't do anything even when you can. You just sleep and laze around.)"

Skydream :"Ugh... w-well, anyway! Where are we going now?"

Ah Li, smirking :"(Where else? Obviously the Extreme North.)"

Skydream, touched :"Boss... waaah, Boss, let me kiss you!"

Ah Li, chuckling :"(Piss off, you gay worm.)"

-

Sitting around a table in the Rakshasa Realm around a table, with tea and cookies on it, the beauties were chatting.

Bibi Dong, smiling :"There's no one unfamiliar to you now, so let's chat. How have you been?"

Qian Renxue :"Sigh, not good. After you... died, everything went downhill."

Bibi Dong :"Sigh, as I expected. Can you tell me what happened?"

Qian Renxue :"The fight continued. I fought against that bastard Tang San, but ultimately lost. No matter what I did, I still lost in the end. He didn't kill me though. But even so, my godhood was shattered, and I've been stuck in Lv 89 ever since. The entirety of the Martial Soul Hall was destroyed along with the city as well."

Bibi Dong :"Oh my dear... it must have been hard for you. For the both of you."

Qian Renxue :"Yeah, it was hard. But I didn't have it as hard as Nana. Losing you was tough for me, but it was a lot harder for her. The guilt has been torturing her ever since as well."

"Nana..." Looking at her disciple, Bibi Dong's heart ached. Qian Renxue was right, she looked miserable. Qian Renxue had suffered because of the pain of losing everything. But Hu Liena had always been tortured by regret. And even now, her eyes were filled with regret, with shame as she hung her head low. Unable to look her master in the eyes.

"I... I'm sorry..." She managed to let out the words, but the tears slowly came out with them :"I-I'm sorry, m-master, I'm so sorry..." She kept apologizing, the tears falling down continuously. Bibi Dong didn't think for a second. She stood up and kneeled in front of her as she grabbed her hand :"Hey, hey, Nana. Look at me. Don't cry, alright? It's okay, don't cry. Everything's alright."

"It's not alright!" She screamed, her voice filled with pain as she sobbed, her tearful eyes full of regret as she looked at her :"It's not alright! It's my fault! I-it's all my fault! If not for my stupidity, none of this would have happened! Everything fell apart because of me! Y-you... you died because of me, master!

All of your hard work fell apart because of my stupidity! Everybody died because of me! You, my brother, senior Gui Mei and Yue Guan, everyone died because of me! It's all because of me that sister Xue and everybody else has suffered so much! How can you say it's alright?! I'm a white eyed wolf that ruined everything because of my stupidity!"

She was mad. Mad at herself. Mad at the world. She had thought that she had finally found her love, and had thought she could fix the relationship between him and the Martial Soul Hall. She just wanted to be happy. But her stupidity and this cruel world just had to ruin everything.

Even though she was mad, she couldn't do anything. She couldn't even take revenge. So all she could do was cry, cry and cry. Cry until she died of regret or went blind. Cry until death released her of this regret that made her want to die.

Bibi Dong's heart broke with each of Hu Liena's tears. She had long lost her anger for her. And even if that anger had remained the same as when she died, she still would have lost all of that anger when she saw her disciple's condition. The girl she regarded as her own daughter even if she was strict with her.

No matter how angry she was with her, no matter what punishment she would give her, it wouldn't be comparable to the pain she had endured all these years. Bibi Dong was a cruel person, but she would never be cruel to her own daughters. Never again.

She pulled Hu Liena into her embrace :"It's okay. Let it all out." She let Hu Liena cry into her chest :"Let it all out, I'm here. Master is here now, dear." Let out everything as her wails echoed around the room. Let the tears fall onto her dress. Not tears of regret, but apology. Tears that begged for forgiveness.

"It's alright, master is here now." She comforted, hugging her tightly. Hu Liena kept crying, her hands desperately holding onto her master's clothes as the pain kept coming out. Amidst the cries, she felt another set of hands hugging her from behind.

"It's alright, Nana." She heard Qian Renxue's gentle voice :"It's not your fault. It wasn't your fault." Hearing the comfort of someone she thought would never forgive her, the tears grew even more intense. She had wronged her. She had wronged Qian Renxue worse than everybody that had died because of her. She had taken away the mother she had made up with after so many years.

When the tears and wails slowly died out, and only sobs and hiccups remained, Bibi Dong gently made her look up, a hand on her wet cheek wiping away the tears :"Nana, it's alright. I'm not mad at you. I could never be mad at my dear daughters.

I've already forgiven you long ago. So please, don't be sad anymore, alright? For me, your master, don't beat yourself up anymore. I know what it's like. To be blinded by love, and disregard everything else to want to be happy.

I know what it's like. Believe me, I know what it's like. I have experienced it myself. To try and love, just for everything to be ruined. The world is cruel like that. So believe me, I'm not mad at you. I've already forgiven you, okay? So please, don't be sad anymore. For me, okay?"

"Master... I'm sorry..." The younger blonde leaned into her touch, desperate for the warmth she had missed for so many years. Seeing that she had finally stopped crying, Bibi Dong smiled :"Silly girl, I already told you I've forgiven you. So don't apologize anymore."

"Hm. Thank you, master. I-I'm sorry to you too, sister Xue..." She looked back at the older girl in shame :"I... I know I'm being shameless, and I know it might be impossible, but I hope you'll forgive me..."

"Silly girl." Qian smiled gently, pulling her into a hug :"Sure, I was mad at you a little. But that was because of losing mom. But it wasn't your fault. It was all that bastard Tang San's fault. And now that mom is here with us, why would I be mad at you? Don't worry, I forgive you too."

"H-hm... thank you..." Hu Liena hugged her back, finally feeling some happiness as a part of the regret left her :"Thank you..." She sniffed, making Qian Renxue smile :"You're welcome. You're my younger sister, after all. It's finally time I treated you like one." Making Bibi Dong smile too as she hugged them both. Filled with relief of being forgiven, it didn't take long for the tired Hu Liena to fall asleep in their arms.