MingHao spoke slowly as he tried to recall the past.
"Well, not directly after you left, but sometime after that, I saw many people come from other families.
I don't know what they talked about, but afterward, Mom spent more time at home. She even cooked food for me.
Can you imagine it?"
MingYue sighed. This was another reason she had disliked her brother in the past.
She had always felt that their mother favored him more.
MingHao continued.
"But one day, we had dinner together with Dad. They talked about something and then told me this:
'We are sorry for not being good parents to you and your sister. Tell her we are sorry if you meet her again.'
The next day, they disappeared."
Uncle told me the patriarch killed Dad, and Mom left with the tablet. It seems he only heard a second-hand story.
But doesn't this mean they know I am alive? MingYue thought.
"You said Dad acted weird too. How?" she asked.
"You know he always spent time doing something in the basement, but lately he went outside the city often," MingHao said.
"Oh yeah, Sis, they also gave me this. They told me to give it to you."
He took out two amulets.
They were a matching set, separated into two parts, one carved as a fiery phoenix and the other as a flood dragon.
MingYue frowned as she looked at them.
Is Alex right? Is my family somehow connected to the upper world or something like that?
She shook her head.
No, no way. I have read too many novels.
I have never even heard about the upper world other than in those novels.
I should really stop linking it with my reality.
Seeing his sister study the amulets with a serious face, MingHao thought she was thinking about their parents.
"Sis, I know Uncle told you Mom left and betrayed the family, even sold you for an elixir..." MingHao hesitated, then forced himself to continue.
"I know I am not in a position to talk about this, but I am sure they had a reason."
MingYue's gaze turned cold. She looked straight at him.
"You brat, tell me, what reason can a parent have to justify abandoning their kids? Stop talking for them."
She then motioned for him to be quiet and took both pendants from his hand.
The fiery phoenix pendant was carved from a red crystal. It looked like a ruby but with an orange hue.
The flood dragon pendant was made from a crystal similar to blue sapphire, with a hue that matched the phoenix.
The chains were made from jade, and many formations were carved into them.
"Why did you not tell Uncle about this?" she asked.
"The pendant? Or the story?" MingHao asked back.
"Both."
"Mom and Dad made me swear never to tell any soul other than you about this," he said.
He put a finger on his chin as he remembered something.
"Oh yeah, they also told me to hide the pendant away and never take it out in front of other people."
"Is one of the pendants for you?" MingYue asked.
MingHao shook his head.
"No. Mom said both are for you."
That answer confused MingYue.
Vesa, there seem to be formations here. Can you tell what they are? she asked in her mind.
[It works similarly to a storage ring, Queen, but there are protections set into it.]
[I can tell it is set to break by itself when it detects your qi is at the Heavenly Ascension stage.]
That stage was still very far away for MingYue. She did not want to wait that long.
Can you break it? she asked.
[I can, but it will take a long time, Queen, with the risk of the item inside being destroyed.]
[I detect there are protections if someone tries to tamper with it in the wrong way.]
[But I have a solution. Just gather enough life force. I can then enhance a wisp of your qi to one from a Heavenly Ascension stage cultivator.]
[That should be enough to trick it.]
How much life force do I need? she asked.
[We need ten thousand life force.]
MingYue felt the cost was too high just to enhance a single wisp of qi.
That is too much. Can't you do it for five thousand life force?
Or one thousand? she asked.
[Queen...]
[This is not a flea market.]
[Actually, I could have done it for less before, but I cannot now. For this reason, you should ask King about it later.]
MingYue wanted to ask Alex directly, but she knew this was not the right time.
She looked back at MingHao.
"Brat, don't tell Uncle I am MingYue."
MingHao wanted to ask why, but when he saw her glare, he swallowed his question and just nodded reluctantly.
MingYue stood up and walked to the window. She looked at the bustling city outside.
"MingHao, what do you think about the Xueqi family?" she asked.
"Other than Uncle's family, I do not care about the rest," MingHao answered as he walked to stand beside her.
"Do you know where they are now?
I have not seen any of our family except you two," she asked while looking toward the family mansion in the center of the city.
"I remember hearing some of the cousins saying they are at the ancestral ground," MingHao said.
His answer matched what MingYue had suspected.
She had already asked Vesa to locate her family, but Vesa could not detect most of them.
That included the patriarch, who should be the only Nascent Soul cultivator here.
Even if they had ancestor-level cultivators, they should only be at Golden Core or Spiritual Transformation at best.
They were still only a middle-class family on the outskirts.
If they are inside the ancestral ground, it is not strange then, she thought.
She remembered that their family lived on the outskirts of the continent and chuckled.
She recalled how the protagonists in the novels she had read usually came from the smallest families, in the smallest countries, continents, and even planets.
Seeing his sister suddenly laugh, MingHao felt confused. They had been talking about serious matters just a moment ago.
Noticing his gaze, MingYue coughed.
"You brat, why are you staring at me like that?"
Her expression became serious again.
"I have decided, MingHao. I will destroy this family.
You will follow me starting today. There is no need for you to return to Uncle's side."