Chapter 29 – Uninvited Visitors

'I will stop by the market to get Ken some gifts before going back home. Knowing Haoran, he'll likely forget, so I'll get something for him to give to Ken too.'

Mei made a stop at a few stores to buy some things she thought Ken would like. First were a few stones that a master swordsman practiced on for a few months, brought to the market from the main sect. They had some sword intent, and Ken might be able to learn from them how to develop his own.

She planned to let Haoran gift him the stones while she purchased a few fourth-rank herbs for him. Despite being the elder of the pills division, she couldn't take as many fourth-grade materials as she wished and had to pay for them. They were much rarer than the third-grade materials, so the sect couldn't afford to gift many of them to her.

In those past few months, Ken finally learned how to make fourth-grade pills. Although they were difficult to make and exhausted his soul, mind, and Qi quickly, he was strong enough to make a few of them before having to rest.

Mei found it amazing; for someone who still hadn't formed his core, he had as much energy as a few geniuses combined. As his growth continued, he kept getting stronger every day even without training, and it was making a big difference.

When she got closer to her house, she suddenly heard a huge explosion in the distance, just in the direction of her residence. She quickly started running in that direction and vanished from where she was walking.

'Nobody is strong enough in the sect to dare attack our house. Maybe one of our neighbors has troubles?'

She asked herself inwardly while she sprinted home. They had a rather big space for themselves, so with her higher senses as a cultivator, the explosions sounded distinctively in their territory.

The explosions kept echoing as she got closer, and now she couldn't tell herself it didn't come from her house. Furthermore, she was close enough to feel the Qi waves and knew the fighters were too strong for the branch sect.

When she got closer, she found Haoran fighting a familiar man while a woman was watching their fight with a smirk.

"Little Brother, you've been tempted by a slut and betrayed your family. Let us help you wash this shame away and kill her; you can come back with us to the main sect. Look how weak you became."

The man fighting with Haoran ridiculed him while easily deflecting Haoran's sword attacks. With a palm attack, he sent Haoran crushing to the ground and broke a few of his ribs.

*Cough*

Haoran coughed out blood as he lay on the ground. He tried to stand, but this palm attack was cruel; it caused him a huge deal of damage to his organs and his ribs.

"Haoran!"

Mei appeared next to him and put a healing pill in his mouth. She looked with fury at the man who was descending slowly from the sky after hitting Haoran.

"Norman, why are you here?"

Norman was Haoran's third brother; he was slightly older and had a different mother. There wasn't a main wife since Haoran's father never married someone equal to him, or else he wouldn't be able to marry multiple wives.

"We've heard a word you have a genius son so we came to take a look. Guess what we found out? To our surprise, your 'slow' son is surprisingly quick-witted!"

Norman laughed while looking at Mei mockingly. Mei looked around and soon found Ken, Sol, and Aaron standing behind the woman's back, seemingly unharmed.

"Don't glare at me like that, we didn't do anything to them. Your son is truly a smart boy; he knew what's best for him and didn't fight back when we told him to stand back and watch quietly."

The woman smiled at Mei when she noticed her looking at her with hatred.

"Krone, the patriarch said he will only take my children to the main sect when they turn 10, leave and we will pretend it never happened."

"Hahaha, pretend it never happened? That's not something the weak can say. You've lost too much cultivation time when you hid in that little mortal village. They probably really hated you for choosing their village to hide in when we found out about it."

Mei clenched her teeth as she heard Krone's words.

"Cruel! They've done nothing to you! They didn't even know whom we were hiding from!"

"Since mere mortals got involved in the cultivation world, they can only blame themselves for paying the price. Or rather, they can blame you for pulling them into your mess."

Krone shrugged uncaringly before giving another cruel smirk.

"However, you've lied to the patriarch. He gave us full reign to act as we want if you wronged your own son and prevented him access to better resources, so I think you deserve a punishment."

Ken's hands itched as he heard the woman talking about punishing his mother. He truly loved his parents after the way they treated him all this time, even holding back his murderous tendencies for them, and his killing intent started leaking out.

"Ho? Impressive killing intent kid. You really are a genius, although a murderous one. Heed my advice and sit out this one."

Krone exuded a pulse of Qi that sent him rolling a few meters away. Mei's eyes widened when she saw that.

"Ken, stay out of it! She is in the sixth stage, you cannot help in this battle. Trust Mom, I will be fine."

She shouted at Ken to not resist, encouraging him to take control of his emotions quickly. He sat on the ground again and thought about the situation clearly. No matter how much he thought, he couldn't come up with a way to deal with the huge gap of strength. 

Meanwhile, Krone launched herself toward Mei's direction and the two women started fighting.

"Mom will be fine? Didn't you hear your own words?"

Krone asked her a question with every blow they exchanged. Krone didn't even go all out, but Mei was being sent a few meters back with every hit. Mei's arms were shaking from the heavy clash, and she could do nothing to fight back.

"Since you know I'm at the sixth rank, and most likely you also know you're just at the fifth rank, how can you shout such nonsense?"

"There are things more important in life than cultivation and power. Even if I could be stronger than you by staying in the sect, I'd make the same decision again. Otherwise, how'd I have such an amazing son?"

She noticed that Sol had held Aaron in her arms, and she didn't know if they already knew he was her son as well.

"That's romantic and sweet, but can it save you now?"

Krone crushed Mei's sword technique in one punch, and with a second one, she hit Mei's stomach and sent her rolling on the ground for a few dozen meters.

*Cough cough*

Mei coughed out blood and turned to look at how Haoran was doing. She saw him exchanging a few blows with Norman, but it was obvious that Norman was just toying with him. When Norman noticed Mei's gaze, he smiled and thought it'd be a good chance to give Haoran another beating.

With a palm technique to Haoran's shoulder, he sent him to the ground again, and Haoran groaned with pain when his shoulder blade broke and he couldn't lift his right arm anymore. However, Krone's next words pulled his attention away from his own pain.

"For lying to the patriarch, I shall punish you by crippling your core."

"NOO!!!"

Haoran screamed. But he could only watch her appear in front of Mei in an instant and punch her in the guts a couple of times, sending waves of Qi into her dantian.

The Qi invaded Mei's dantian and despite her struggles, it quickly broke its boundaries. As her dantian exploded, a wave of Qi was released inside her body and fractured all her meridians and many of her blood vessels and bones as a chain reaction.

Mei widened her eyes with pain and fell to the ground on her knees. She soon collapsed on the ground without moving anymore.

"MEIII!!!"

Haoran screamed and rushed to Mei's side. His siblings didn't stop him this time and only watched him cry while holding Mei's hand and trying to manipulate the rampaging Qi in her body to prevent her from dying.

"Brother, we've freed you from what was holding you back. Come back with us and you could enjoy plenty of resources instead of staying in this hole forever."

Krone told her brother with a righteous tone as if she just did him a huge favor. Haoran just looked at her with empty eyes and diverted his eyes to Ken.

"I'm sorry Ken, we couldn't give you more time to grow before sending you to struggle for your life in the main sect. Remember, while even a tiger doesn't eat its cub, my family is far worse than animals. I can't keep you safe anymore, but my last advice for you is to never trust any of them." (1)

"Little Brother, that's such a heartbreaking thing to say. We've only done what was best for you. Ken, are you ready to leave?"

"Not yet, Uncle. I still have one last thing to do."

He answered calmly and drew his sword.

A/N: Even a tiger doesn't eat its cub – Chinese idiom meaning that people don't hurt their descendants.