Chapter 97: The Strange Old Man

The gray-robed elder looked at her with a smile, benevolent in both brow and expression.

Yet the instant Jiang Min gathered her emotions, caution rose sharply in her heart.

How laughable.

In this world, who would be good to another for no reason except their closest kin? Let alone some stranger who had suddenly appeared, declaring for no reason that he wanted to take her as a disciple.

No good deed went untainted by scheming.

She could remember the matter of Lin Mingyue for the rest of her life.

At once, she feigned a trace of surprise, as though startled, and took two steps back.

Seeing her shocked face and retreat, the gray-robed elder only then realized his blunder and said with chagrin, “Look at me, all too eager and impatient... I have been abrupt, as your master.”

After apologizing, his voice softened. “Good girl, go and reunite with your family first. When you are done, I will answer your questions.”

With that, the gray-robed elder smiled, swept his sleeve, and turned back.

He naturally went into the Jiang residence.

The moment he turned away,

the expression on Jiang Min’s face gradually fell away, for it had all been an act.

“With the strength of my divine sense, I cannot even discern his cultivation. Either he carries a treasure that conceals fate, or... his cultivation is far above mine!”

Her heart grew grave. She opened her mouth and exhaled a faint, unseen radiance that flew out and coiled about her wrist, transforming into a branch that wound itself into the shape of a bracelet.

She and the Peach Branch were already linked by blood and mind. She could not fathom the elder’s cultivation, but perhaps the formidable Peach Branch could.

The instant she urged the Peach Branch,

a chill rose suddenly behind Jiang Min, making her scalp prickle with dread.

Within the Peach Branch’s perception,

the elder carried a hidden, bizarre aura: dark, cold, evil... No simple words could properly describe the feeling this aura gave Jiang Min. Even all the demonic cultivators she had encountered before had never made her hair stand on end like this.

And yet the Peach Branch

gave off a... ravenous emotion toward that strange, hidden aura.

That feeling flowed through their shared mind into Jiang Min, and though she feared the elder, she also felt an uncanny hunger toward him.

Jiang Min did not fully understand the Peach Branch’s craving. Since the Peach Branch was not afraid of the elder, she forced herself to restrain some of her own fear as well. And yet the taut string in her heart still did not loosen in the slightest.

Because it was obvious that the elder was now living in this very house.

Her family was all inside.

Jiang Min still did not know the elder’s true purpose, or whether he had already made a move against her family.

Clatter, clatter, clatter...

Hurried footsteps sounded one after another from behind the screen wall.

Several figures emerged.

When they saw Jiang Min standing at the gate, they all froze in place.

After ten years of cultivation, Jiang Min had changed beyond recognition. She was no longer the thin, yellow-faced little child of her youth, small and stunted in frame, clever enough yet still marked by rustic plainness.

Now she stood straight and tall, still lithe and lovely, but every inch of her had been tempered by the confidence and composure nurtured by a great sect’s horizon. And after overcoming tribulation and establishing her foundation, she possessed an otherworldly grace separated from the mortal realm. One could not help but feel, upon looking at her, that she was unreal, as though she might vanish at any moment...

For a time, the whole family, halted before the screen wall, scarcely dared to recognize her.

It was Jiang Min herself who let her gaze pass over the familiar faces buried deep in her memory, suppressing the complex emotions she could not name. She raised a bright smile and took the initiative to speak.

“It’s me! Second Girl.”

“Yaya!”

The Jiang matriarch was the first to step forward. With red eyes, she hurried toward Jiang Min, who quickly went up to meet her, grasping the open arms before being drawn into a tight embrace.

“Yaya, Mother missed you. Mother has missed you so much...”

Mrs. Jiang buried her face against Jiang Min’s shoulder, her voice thick with sobs. Soon tears soaked through Jiang Min’s robe.

Jiang Min lifted her arms and held Mrs. Jiang back, her own heart aching bitterly as her eyes reddened.

“I was unfilial and made Mother worry.”

Mrs. Jiang wiped her tears away before finally releasing her and saying, “Your grandmother and your father have been missing you terribly as well.”

Supported by Jiang Shangliu, Old Madam Jiang hobbled forward on one leg. She looked at Jiang Min, and on her dark face, where wrinkles had quietly deepened, joy and excitement intertwined. Her lips trembled for a moment before she repeated again and again, “It is good that you’re back. It is good that you’re back.”

Old Madam Jiang studied Jiang Min with eyes a little clouded by age, yet brimming with delight.

“Yaya, Yaya... It really is you. You’ve come home!”

“Father, Grandmother, I’m home.”

“Second Sister!”

Her elder sister Jiang He, dressed like a married woman, hurried over next. When Jiang Min saw her, a sour ache rose in her nose and she hugged her at once.

“Elder Sister, have you been well all these years?”

“I have, I have.”

Jiang He patted her back and restrained her tears as well, comforting her.

“Do you not trust your sister’s abilities? I was sold by traffickers to the Feng family in Lunan. I worked my way up bit by bit, and in the end I came to serve beside Old Madam Lu of the Lu family. She thought highly of me. Later, it was Eldest Brother who found me, bought back my freedom, and then brought the whole family here to settle in Jiangning, Qingjiang.”

“Oh, right.” Jiang He released her and looked to the side, where a man in his thirties stood beside her. He was dignified and proper in appearance. She introduced him, saying, “This is your brother-in-law, Kang Cheng. He works for the Gu family wine estate in the south of Jiangning City. He is fourth among the Gu family’s sons.”

Jiang Min nodded and called, “Hello, Brother-in-law.”

Gu Kangcheng quickly nodded in return, not daring to be careless, and said generously, “Hello, younger sister-in-law.”

He did not dare put on the airs of an elder in the least. After all, this second daughter of the Jiang family was clearly no ordinary mortal, but a cultivator.

Jiang He held Jiang Min’s hand and continued warmly, “Last year, I opened a tavern in the city. Business has been booming. Tonight, let your elder sister treat you to my cooking, and let you taste the fine wine brewed by your brother-in-law’s family.”

“Okay.”

Warmth filled Jiang Min’s heart, and she nodded obediently.

Then came her second younger brother, Jiang Shi, and her third younger sister, Jiang Le. When she left home, both of them were still children, but in the blink of an eye they had grown into youths. Jiang Min almost could not recognize them anymore, yet the two still had good memories and remembered her as well, calling out sweetly and courteously, “Second Sister.”

There was also a gentle and elegant woman with a swelling belly, standing nearby with a smile. Seeing the family reunited, she was sincerely happy for them too.

“This is your eldest brother’s wife, Madam Qin.” Mrs. Jiang introduced her, then looked at Qin Moyu and said, “Moyu, this is the second daughter of the eldest son of our family, Jiang Min. Yaya is her childhood name.”

Qin Moyu looked rather young, with the generous bearing of a well-bred young lady from a prominent household, and said gently, “Second Sister.”

“Sister-in-law.”

Jiang Min nodded, took out a jade pendant, and offered it to Qin Moyu with both hands, smiling as she said, “Congratulations, Sister-in-law. This is a little token of my regard for the child.”

Qin Moyu looked at the jade pendant. She was worldly enough to know that, though she could not feel the faint spiritual energy upon it, just by its quality alone she could tell it was no ordinary thing.

She hurriedly accepted it with both hands and thanked her sincerely. “Thank you, Second Sister.”

After greeting every member of the Jiang family,

Jiang Min drew her right hand into her sleeve. The Peach Branch, coiled about her wrist, seemed to have eaten something and had become swollen and bulging, raised into one lump after another like tumors. These... were all things it had devoured from the Jiang family members.

She lowered her eyes and concealed the dark killing intent in them.

Her hand within her sleeve slowly clenched into a fist.

Damn it.

That old thing had made a move on her family.

Tomorrow there will be two updates, to make up for yesterday’s.

Peach Branch: Brother, you smell so good. I’m eating, eating, eating, eating, eating...