CHAPTER 56: 56

"You...?" Lin Wan was in disbelief. For a moment, she was even wondering if she had hit her head too hard on the ground. Otherwise, how could she explain what she had just heard?

Not to mention Lin Wan, even Xiao Ruolan and Lin Yue were staring at the newcomer in confusion. They too heard Lin Wan call her mother, but the reply the other party gave filled them with doubts. Could it be that Lin Wan had gone crazy after getting hit by the fireball?

"Mother, is that you?" Lin Wan asked again, but this time her voice wasn’t as confident as before. She was even beginning to wonder if the woman just looked similar to her mother. After all, the two of them had a heart-to-heart talk just a few days ago.

"....." Lin Wan didn’t give a reply, but the disappointment and coldness in her eyes just grew exponentially.

"SAY SOMETHING." Lin Wan shouted at the top of her lungs. By now, she was almost sure that the woman standing there was, in fact, her mother. But this was what confused her the most. Why wouldn’t her mother take any action against the masked woman, but instead scold her? Was it a test from her? Did she want to see how they would perform under pressure?

The more she thought about it, the more it seemed.

"Was this a test?" She asked with some hesitation, and from the trembling in her voice, one could see her confusion.

"What do you think?" Instead of Yun Ning, it was the masked woman who replied in a leisurely tone.

"..." Lin Wan didn’t have an answer to the question. She wanted to say it was a test, but the expression on her mother’s face said otherwise.

"Let’s just get it over with." Ignoring Lin Wan’s confusion, Yun Ning took a step forward before appearing directly in front of her.

Looking at her eldest daughter, whose clothes were torn from the explosion, revealing scrotched skin underneath, she just shook her head before bending her knees and sitting in front of Lin Wan.

"Mother..." Lin Wan didn’t know what was even going on anymore. One moment, they were attacked by someone, and the next moment, her mother was already standing right beside her. But instead of helping her, she was just sitting in front of her, quietly staring at her face. Her mind was in a mess. She was trying her best to understand what was going on, but to no avail.

As if sensing her confusion, Yun Ning finally opened her cherry lips to speak.

"Do you wanna hear a story?"

"Huh!?" Her sentence not only stunned Lin Wan but also Lin Yue and Xiao Ruolan, who were gathering their internal energy desperately, in case they had to defend again.

As for Yang Ze... He had long since stopped thinking about things. He didn’t care what happened or how. He had no interest in meddling in their affairs. The only thing he wanted was to get out of here alive. Those women could kill each other for all he cares.

"A long time ago, there was a little girl who used to live in the slums." Yun Ning didn’t even need their consent as she began to narrate the story, completely ignoring the baffled look on their faces.

"This little girl had a loving family. Beside her, there were her father and mother." Speaking till here, Yun Ning’s voice paused for a brief moment before continuing further.

"The little girl was happy. They weren’t rich, but their days were filled with happiness. That is... until one day, her mother decided to sell her off to a filthy scholar."

"The scholar came from a rich family. You see, he hated women... Hated them so much that he used to torment them every day. Some were tortured to death, and some were crippled before being thrown out in the street."

"But with every passing day, the scholar’s twisted desire only increased. So, to fulfil his sick desires, he set his sight on little girls..."

"He would buy small girls between the ages of eight and twelve and then torment them in every possible way."

"He had done it countless times before and now... now it was finally the turn of that little girl."

Listening to her, the three women lying on the ground were only confused. They just couldn’t understand why this woman was even telling them this story. But none of them dared to utter a word. They just quietly lay there, listening to her.

As for Yang Ze... He, too, was quietly listening to the story, but by now, he was already sneering in his mind. This woman was acting so mysterious, but wasn’t she just telling her childhood story?

How could he, who has read countless novels couldn’t understand what was going on? She was just going to tell them her sob story.

Thankfully, the women there couldn’t read minds; otherwise, he would have died countless times already.

"And so... just for a few silver coins, the girl was thrown off to that monster by her own parents."

"Her dreams... her hopes... everything was crushed."

"The man didn’t kill her. Instead, he would torture her. He would often flog her with a barbed whip and then throw her into a bathtub filled with salt water."

"Of course, compared to the rest of the things he did, this was an act of mercy."

"And then, one day... One day, he dragged the girl to an exquisite kitchen. At first, the girl thought that perhaps he took pity on her and wanted to treat her to a meal."

"Heh!" Yun Ning’s voice had a hint of mockery in it as she spoke further.

"Well, he did treat her to a meal. Except that the meal was the flesh of her parents."

The moment she finished speaking, the scene was engulfed in an eerie silence. The three women just narrowed their eyes, wondering what the point of such a story was, while Yang Ze just lay still.

Ignoring the people on the ground, Yun Ning continued the story.

"The girl’s parents were hanged with meat hooks, and the cook would cut off their flesh piece by piece before serving her."

"Every time the girl fainted or threw up, the man would laugh and shove the ’food’ down her throat forcefully."

"He fed her for weeks."

"The parents were kept alive with the medicine just so that the meat would be fresh."

"And then one day... One day, the nightmare was finally over."

"Maybe because the man just got bored with the little girl. One day, he just kicked her out of the house."

Yun Ning’s emotionless voice finally trembled for a moment before returning back to normal.

"The little girl then wandered around the city... she didn’t know what she was doing or why she was alive. A once cheerful girl who was once full of dreams for her future... who was once full of hope, was now a wandering corpse. Aimless... purposeless... and without a future."

Speaking till here, Yun Ning went silent for a long time. Her eyes seemed to be in a daze as if she was watching it all unfold in front of her own eyes.

"But then... then a miracle happened."

"The girl met a cultivator. Someone who adopted her... taught her... treated her like her own daughter."

"She gave the girl everything that she was missing."

"Unfortunately... it was too late."

"The girl just followed her instructions like a puppet. She practised, acted like she was expected to, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t get strong."

"You see, she was a talentless twat. No matter how much effort she put, or how hard she worked, it was just never enough."

"And then one day..."

"One day, while on exploration, the girl came across something unexpected."

Speaking till here, Yun Ning’s lips curled into a smile.

"She found a way to get strong. But to do that, she needed to be cruel. She needed to pay a certain price."

"The girl wanted her revenge... Years of cultivation made her escape the dark shadows, but at the same time, it also fueled her heart with rage. She wanted to pay back the man in the same way."

"And so... so she chose to be cruel."

"With every person killed, with every person sacrificed, the girl got stronger and stronger."

"In just a few years, she was strong enough to get her revenge, which she did."

"But the void in her heart was never filled. The hunger for power never went away."

"She kept on killing... she kept on sacrificing, until she got so strong that she couldn’t progress anymore."

"And then..." Speaking till here, Yun Ning gently caressed Lin Wan’s face.

"Then she came across the technique with which she could break the shackles and reach the height that no one could."

"But you see... The technique requires three sacrifices. Three closest people in her life."

"So... The girl came up with a plan."

"She married a guy... gave birth to two daughters, and when the time was ripe, gave the first sacrifice."

Speaking till here, a smile ran across Yun Ning’s face, but Lin Wan’s heart chilled upon hearing those words. Looking at the smile on her mother’s face that was unnatural and seemed forced, she swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

"The first sacrifice was that of her husband. The closest person in her life."

Yun Ning’s voice turned eerie, sending chills down the women’s spines.

None of them were idiots and by now have understood that the woman was talking about herself.

"After she made her first sacrifice, the second sacrifice was that of the woman who brought her up, raised her, loved her and taught her everything."

"And the third sacrifice..." Yun Ning’s gaze turned gentle as she gently kissed Lin Wan on her forehead.

"The third sacrifice is of her own child."