ATLAS TRANSLATES

Xing Shuishui narrowed her eyes and pushed against his chest.

The bed creaked softly at her movement, causing both of them to freeze.

The house owner also paused briefly.

Xing Shuishui became much more still. To prevent her from moving again, He Liansheng pinned her hand against the pillow as a warning.

Now she couldn’t move even if she wanted to.

Their palms touched, creating a tingling sensation.

“…”

Silence filled the room.

The house owner, seemingly unaware of what was happening inside, closed the door. He put down the basket from his shoulder onto the table. He lit the stove, making the room warmer, and added water and tea leaves to the kettle. Soon the water boiled, filling the air with rich tea fragrance.

Through gaps in the curtain, Xing Shuishui caught glimpses of his silhouette and was surprised. He was just a mortal.

Before she could think further, there was another knock at the door.

The footsteps outside sounded numerous. It wasn’t one person, but a group, and they didn’t come with good intentions.

“Father, it’s me.”

The voice was cold, belonging to a woman. Based on her aura, she had significant spiritual power.

Father? Xing Shuishui looked at He Liansheng.

Could that person outside be Hua Yue?

The young man was also looking at her, his brows furrowed, his warm breath touching her eyes, nose, and cheeks. She froze, possibly because his dark pupils showed nothing but coldness, yet somehow she didn’t resist.

But if it really was Hua Yue, then living in this pocket dimension was her father — a mortal without any spiritual power. Things were getting interesting.

Xing Shuishui continued listening intently to the movements outside.

The door creaked open.

The old man’s voice was hoarse: “Little Yue, why are you here? Father just brewed some tea, it’s excellent tea leaves. Sit down and try it. You always say you don’t like bitter tea, so I switched to a milder one.”

But Hua Yue avoided the topic, getting straight to the point: “Someone broke into Huayu Tower tonight. Father, did you see anyone? The thief was quite cunning. We don’t know where they escaped to.”

The room fell quiet for a moment.

The female attendants who came with Hua Yue barged in, preparing to search the place. Xing Shuishui held her breath, while He Liansheng raised his sword tip. At the crucial moment, Hua Yue scolded coldly: “Who gave you permission to search?”

They fell to their knees, begging for forgiveness.

The old man extinguished the stove fire, warmed the cups with hot tea, and said: “Don’t be hard on them. I haven’t seen anyone break in. Perhaps they escaped somewhere else.”

Hua Yue wasn’t surprised: “Then I won’t disturb Father any longer.”

As she prepared to leave, the old man asked again if she wanted to stay for tea. The room grew quiet again, silence fermenting in the tea fragrance, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Hua Yue said: “Next time.”

Her emotions were unclear.

After they left, only he remained in the house. Xing Shuishui mouthed to He Liansheng: We could actually take him hostage now to threaten Hua Yue.

He Liansheng stared at her for a long time, not understanding her sudden nonsense, and sealed her mouth with a talisman.

Xing Shuishui: “…”

What a psycho!

Just then, the old man’s voice came from outside the curtain.

“You two can come out now. They’re gone.”

So he had known all along.

Xing Shuishui pointed at her sealed mouth, looking at He Liansheng. He didn’t immediately remove the sealing talisman, instead maliciously enjoying the sight for a while before peeling it off.

Once Xing Shuishui could speak, her first words were: “Can you stop sealing my mouth?”

He Liansheng: “No.”

Still that hateful personality.

They lifted the silk curtain and got down from the bed. The room hadn’t changed much except for the additional people.

Xing Shuishui looked up to examine the old man and was truly shocked.

His skin was withered, face covered in wrinkles, with many grayish-brown age spots. As he observed them, Xing Shuishui also noticed his eyeballs were cloudy, a gray color close to that of a dead person.

Was he naturally this aged, or had he become this way from taking the child pills refined from the Luoyu Flower?

Xing Shuishui remembered that thing sacrificed human lifespan in exchange for a hundred years of spiritual power. But wasn’t this man Hua Yue’s real father?

The old man seemed to have no ill intentions and looked surprised seeing He Liansheng: “So young yet already a Celestial Master, your future is boundless.”

“Were you the ones who broke into Huayu Tower?”

He Liansheng said coldly: “Stop wasting time. What’s your relationship with Hua Yue? And what’s the deal with this pocket dimension? Not just anyone can create a pocket dimension.”

The old man smiled: “I can roughly guess why you’re here, and there’s no harm in telling you everything. After all these years, I’m tired. If you want to kill me, then do it. But Little Yue is my daughter, she was just confused. I only ask that you spare her life.”

So they really were father and daughter? That explained it.

The old man poured two cups of tea: “If you don’t mind, sit down and have some tea, it’s freshly brewed.”

Xing Shuishui sat down, facing a cup of warm tea.

He looked at He Liansheng again: “You’re from Lingshan, aren’t you?”

He Liansheng couldn’t be bothered to respond. Xing Shuishui had to answer for him: “He’s from the He family of Lingshan! But I’m not. I’m just an ordinary mortal. We met on the road.”

The old man smiled: “My wife was also from Lingshan.”

Xing Shuishui was stunned. The Lingshan people were so proud and looked down on others, they never married outsiders, let alone ordinary people.

The old man saw her confusion and said: “Demons have their magic. Cultivators have their immortal arts. The mortal world also has folk magic, with its own heritage like yours. I am Hua Yiling, the inheritor of the Hua family’s folk magic. When I was twenty, while hunting demons I met a woman, we fell in love, and later had Little Yue.”

“I thought the good days would last forever, until I learned my wife’s real name was Shangguan Zhuyao, from Lingshan. Perhaps you’ve heard of her — a grandmaster of poison arts, whom Mirror Wuduo feared for her poison techniques and tried countless times to kill her. Because of this, I established Huayu Tower, setting up forty-nine formations. But in the end, Mirror Wuduo still succeeded.”

Speaking of this, he became somewhat melancholic.

It all made sense now. Xing Shuishui understood everything.

Mirror Wuduo killed Shangguan Zhuyao, Lingshan sent He Lianyu to assassinate Mirror Wuduo, Li Shixu went in his place, and finally perished together with Mirror Wuduo in the Boundless Sea.

No wonder those Lingshan people suddenly wanted to kill Mirror Wuduo back then! It wasn’t a random disaster — Mirror Wuduo had hurt their precious daughter! Shangguan Zhuyao, the pearl of the Shangguan family. Mirror Wuduo killed her without considering the consequences, how could Lingshan people let him off!

Hua Yiling composed himself and continued talking about the past.

Little Yue grew up with us in Huayu Tower. After my wife died, the Shangguan family decided to take her back to Lingshan for training. Despite my reluctance and inability to teach her more, for the child’s future, I could only watch as they took her away.

I had heard from my wife that training in Lingshan was harsh. I didn’t care then, and was even happy Little Yue could go to Lingshan, until one time she ran away and came back, having lost so much weight, and immediately hugged me crying.

Seeing my child like this broke my heart, but I still scolded her: “Child, how could you run back on your own? If you can’t handle the hardships of training, how will you ever fight demons?”

Little Yue knelt on the ground begging me, tears in her eyes: “Father, can I… not go back… to Lingshan?”

I thought she was just being lazy and got very angry, kicking her. After all, my training environment when I was young was much harsher than hers!

I demanded: “Give me a reason.”

Little Yue cried, saying the children there looked down on her for having no parents to care for her, and for being a stutterer, so no one would play with her.

How could my Little Yue have no parents? I didn’t know what to say.

So I tried asking my in-laws if I could personally take Little Yue back to Lingshan. But they were still furious about me “deceiving” their daughter into marriage, told me to get lost, and threatened that if I dared step foot in Lingshan, I would never see Little Yue again. I was angry, but helpless, could only wipe her tears and say: “Let’s play a game with Father. If you win, you won’t have to go back to Lingshan.”

She paused for a moment. Smiled and said: “Okay.”

Little Yue was obedient, closed her eyes and started counting. I didn’t hide, just stood in front of her, quietly watching her for a long time. When she counted to ten, I signaled to the Shangguan family members outside. Little Yue was knocked unconscious and taken away.

That day, the moonlight was dim, and I missed her as soon as she left.

I think, in the following years at Lingshan, she must have hated me terribly.

Especially that year when Guan Yinzi returned to the Shangguan family for revenge over his sister’s matter, almost killing everyone in the Shangguan family. Little Yue later told me that day the Shangguan house was like hell, everyone she could see was dead, she only survived by hiding in the chicken coop. And she was just a child then.

Little Yue grew up in such an environment, without support, surrounded by nothing but interests and calculations. When she was old enough to marry, she was to wed her cousin Shangguan Fu. Though Shangguan Fu wasn’t a good person, no one expected Du Dizhu to interfere. He had long coveted Little Yue’s beauty, and on the wedding night killed Shangguan Fu and took his place. Though Little Yue was afraid, she went along with the plan, pretending not to recognize that the groom was Du Dizhu in disguise, and through dual cultivation stole his thousand years of cultivation, also obtaining a rare flower called the Luoyu Flower.

Xing Shuishui exclaimed in amazement.

No wonder Du Dizhu killing Shangguan Fu to steal his bride was considered a shame by Lingshan, and Du Dizhu himself felt ashamed and never spoke much about it. When asked why, he wouldn’t say, only called Shangguan Houyue a poisonous woman. So it turned out he had his thousand years of cultivation stolen!

Wait… Shangguan Houyue! Xing Shuishui suddenly realized something — Hua Yue!

Hua Yue was Shangguan Houyue!

He Liansheng narrowed his eyes: “Your daughter is the current Shangguan family head, Shangguan Houyue?”

Hua Yiling smiled without speaking, and after a long time told them: “Whether she’s Shangguan Houyue or Hua Yue, she’s just my daughter Little Yue. After she grew up, I knew she hated me for sending her to Lingshan, so for many years I’ve kept myself in this pocket dimension. If she’s tired and wants to come in for tea, I’m always waiting for her.”

“You came here probably because her cultivation of the Luoyu Flower alarmed you. The Luoyu Flower is a miraculous flower. Du Dizhu looked down on it, but thousands of cultivators in the world dream of obtaining it.

After refining it into pills, one year of lifespan can be exchanged for a hundred years of cultivation. The child-mother pills — those who take the child pill will have reduced lifespan, while those who take the mother pill will see their cultivation advance tremendously.”

Xing Shuishui suddenly remembered something and poured out a pill from the porcelain bottle of “longevity pills” on the table, almost laughing out loud — these weren’t “longevity pills” at all, but the child pills from the Luoyu Flower.

Ah, Shangguan Houyue, trading her birth father’s lifespan for boundless prospects.

She asked Hua Yiling: “You knew all along?”

Hua Yiling replied: “Little Yue sends them to me every so often, saying they’re just longevity pills, good for my health. But my wife was extremely skilled in poisons, how could I not know what these really are?”

Xing Shuishui was stunned. So he had known all along.

He suddenly looked at her very seriously, somewhat excited: “But I took them willingly! Because only this way would she smile! Having lost my wife and relatives, living a few more years would only add to my pain. Only Little Yue — she’s what I worry about most.”

Did he know how short a mortal’s life is? The Luoyu Flower doesn’t always work effectively either. Was it really worth reducing lifespan year by year for those few hundred years of cultivation?

But Xing Shuishui thought: if someone told her she could exchange one year of life to bring Sister back to the world, perhaps she would willingly offer all her remaining years too. Just like Hua Yiling’s love for Shangguan Houyue, her own love for Sister — bonds that even death cannot separate can never be measured by worth, they transcend rationality.

He Liansheng said: “Foolish ignorance.”

But Hua Yiling didn’t mind, instead asking: “Don’t you have someone you would risk your life to protect?”