Chapter Text
Wei Ying was left at the inn in Yiling for two days when the owner kicked her out. News spread that the rouge cultivators who tried to subdue the yao met their demise near the Burial mounds.
Wei Ying cried because she promised that she would stay at the inn and wait for her parents to come back.
She tried staying outside the door, but the owner asked the innkeeper to drive her away.
So, when the evening came, she decided to hide in the stable. As the night turned darker, she fell asleep.
The next day, she woke up to find the sun high in the sky.
A lady approached her, inquiring as to why she was staying in the stables.
Wei Ying honestly answered that she was kicked out of the inn and is still waiting for her parents to arrive.
Bai Lian woke up earlier that day and decided to visit her horse in the stable, where she met the beautiful and pitiful child.
When she inquired who her parents are, she could not in clear conscience explain that her parents died, but the child deserves the truth, so she was the bearer of the sad news. She told Wei Ying that her parents would not come back since they were already on a new journey and would be very far away.
She could see the understanding in those silver-gray eyes, and she felt so sad for her.
An idea came to her mind after seeing the child orphaned and left alone to fend for herself.
"Wei Ying, since you have no one now, will you be okay coming home with me?
I promised I would not replace your mother, but I could be your second mom who would oversee you as you grow up."
And with that, a new fate for Wei Ying is adopted by Bai Lian.
Bai Lian, the sister of Yiling’s magistrate, never married and is known as the spinster mistress of the Bai family.
That day, Wei Ying will have to hide her identity, and going forward, she will now be known as Bai Xianle, the daughter of Bai Lian.
She grew up educated to be a madam of the household, but she and her muqin know that she secretly practices cultivation.
Her mother always invites the rouge cultivators who night hunt in Yiling to be her shifu in exchange for their stay in town and silver coins.
Thirteen years have passed since that faithful day at the inn, and now at a marriageable age, she cannot help but overhear the maids discussing the proposal for her hand sent to her uncle.
And since she is still in mourning, they could not accept the proposal immediately, but she has only a year left before her excuse runs out.
Her mother died last year due to her sickness, and she promised on her deathbed that she would never force herself to marry just to pay back their family; instead, she wanted her daughter to do her dream of being a rouge cultivator.
She mourned when her mother died; she was the one who made sure that she would be educated in four arts at an early age; she was even taught harem politics in case she would marry a man with too many wives, not that in her sane mind she would do that.
Since discovering that she is a strong cultivator and with her genius mind, her mother knows that her dream as a cultivator could be achieved.
She always plans to do so, but she has no heart to leave her mother alone and be lonely without her. For the past decade, she has been her mother, and she is her daughter.
So, when she died, she knew only the mourning period was her chance to escape the claws of the Bai family.
It is now the third year of her mourning period since the heavens gave her the chance to escape the family compound.