Lin Yue and Xiao Ruolan both quietly sat there, each with their own thoughts. They weren't surprised by this decision.

They had expected such an outcome the day they decided to sneak into the Duality Sect.

They didn't resent their families for this. On the contrary, they felt a sense of relief.

They have spent their entire lives under the protection of their family. While it protected them, nurtured them, it also restricted their freedom. Especially the identity of the Yong Lady... it was the chain binding them further. Every action they took was met with countless questions and mockery, as well as strict discipline.

Though they were relieved, they also felt a tinge of disappointment. During their entire life, they were dependent on their family. And now they were suddenly told that they were no longer a part of it... The two of them were at a loss.

And at the same time, they felt a surge of anger too. If only their families listened to them... tried to have some sort of talk with the Duality Sect. Maybe the situation wouldn't have deteriorated to such a degree.

"Do you understand?" This time it was the old woman who asked.

"Mmm.." Both Lin Yue and Xiao Ruolan nodded at the same time.

The old woman's eyes turned gentle as she looked at her granddaughter while expressing the inner turmoil in her heart.

"Ruo'er." She spoke softly. "Because of our pleading, the Duality Sect won't take any action against you for the next six months."

"During this time, you need to find a way to join the Heavenly Sword Sect."

"Only then can you stay safe because of their alliance."

Xiao Ruolan's grandma then looked at Lin Yue before repeating the same thing.

"I don't know how you do it, but you have to. Otherwise..." She didn't complete the sentence, but the meaning behind it was obvious.

She then reached beside her chair before picking up a small, exquisite jar that was half the size of her arm, before placing it on the table and sliding it towards Xiao Ruolan.

"Every time a daughter is born, her family would bury a jar of wine for her marriage night."

"I..." The old woman's voice trembled as she spoke further. "I wanted to see it with my own eyes. I wanted to turn your marriage into a grand celebration."

"But now..." She just let out a hollow laugh.

"This is the family's parting gift to you."

"It was brewed to bless your bridal chamber… yet it shall serve instead as the wine of severed bloodlines."

Xiao Ruolan didn't speak but quietly reached out for the wine jar. Holding it, she could feel the soft texture that still had the smell of soil.

She wanted to lift it up and hold it in her arms, but couldn't. To her, it felt the heaviest thing in the entire world. No matter how hard she tried, her hand just wouldn't move.

Lin Yue just let out a soft sigh as she looked at her mother, wondering if she was going to hand her an even bigger jar. After all, she knew how much her mother loved to drink.

"Don't look at me. I didn't bury one for you." Lin Meilin just shrugged upon noticing Lin Yue's gaze. "I was busy at that time."

Her words not only stunned Lin Yue, but both the old woman and Lin Yue too.

The old woman wanted to speak out, but in the end held back. It wasn't her place to meddle in others' family affairs.

"....." Lin Yue, upon hearing her mother, just stood there with a blank expression. But with every passing second, her eyes grew indifferent.

"Our work here is done." Lin Meilin clapped her hands before turning around.

"We should head back now."

"I..." The old woman was reluctant to leave. This was perhaps the last time she was going to see her granddaughter. She didn't want to leave so soon. In her heart, she even wanted to take back the wine, grab her granddaughter and take her back to the family... Duality sect be damned.

But in the end, rationality won over impulse. She was the ancestor of the Xiao family first and Xiao Ruolan's grandma second.

"Goodbye." In the end, she could only mutter those words softly as she turned around and walked out the door, leaving behind the figure of the three women and a man who was sitting at the very corner.

"Tch! She didn't even wait for me." Looking at the old woman's rapidly disappearing figure, Lin Meilin shook her head with a smile before walking towards the door.

Halfway through, she suddenly paused, turned around to look at the man sitting there with a nervous expression, before letting out a seductive yet soothing smile.

"Surely you wouldn't let a lady leave all by herself?" Her voice was filled with charm that sent a shiver down Yang Ze's spine.

"Gulp." Yang Ze swallowed a mouthful of saliva as he looked at her lazy expression... that smile on the corner of her lips, her smooth milky legs, those massive creamy breasts and that thin waist... everything was filled with a unique charm.

In the end, he could only nod absent-mindedly as he walked beside her.

Because of his height, he could only reach till her breasts, but this didn't change Lin Meilin's opinion of him.

In the cultivation world, there were all kinds of people. Long, short, dark, pale, bald and even blue. And yet, there was never any kind of discrimination based on these factors.

The only discrimination in this world was based on a person's cultivation realm.

After Yang Ze stood beside her, the two of them walked out of the house. As they made their way towards the bottom of the mountain, Lin Meilin was the first one to start the conversation.

"I have seen you before, haven't I?"

Her sudden question almost startled Yang Ze with fright. But in the end, he managed to calm himself before nodding in response.

"I saw your excellency once during the Lin family's competition."

"...." Lin Meilin thought for a moment before suddenly her face lit up with realisation.

"AAH! You are that fellow who was hiding his face with that black cloth?" Even though she didn't pay any attention to him at that moment, she could still vaguely remember him.

"That would be me." Yang Ze just replied with an embarrassed smile. At that time, he didn't have the skin mask, so he had to hide his face by wearing a thick black cloth.

"I see." Lin Meilin just looked at him with interest.

"What's your relationship with my daughter?" Lin Meilin asked again. "You have been accompanying her for such a long time. From the Lin family to the Duality Sect and now here..."

"Its..." Yang Ze thought for a long time before answering, "It's complicated."

He couldn't just tell her that it was her daughter who kept on dragging him around, could he? Even if the woman had kicked Lin Yue from the family, she didn't sever their bond of mother and daughter. God knows what she will do to him if he badmouths her daughter directly in her face.

"I bet." Lin Meilin just chuckled in response.

The two of them walked in silence for a while before Yang Ze gritted his teeth and decided to ask the thing he was dying to know.

"Can you tell me about something?"

"Shoot." Lin Meilin replied leisurely.

"It's like this..." Yang Ze slowly began to narrate the story he heard from both Lin Yue and Xiao Ruolan with their own twists. They both were blaming each other.

In the end, Yang Ze decided to directly ask Lin Yue's mother. If there was one person who could answer him truthfully, it would be her. After all, she had no reason to lie to him... right?

Lin Meilin patiently listened to him before bursting out in laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAAHHAA."

The sound of her laughter was akin to the ringing of bells, making Yang Ze just stand there with his mouth wide open. His eyes would constantly drift towards her enchanting face, her flowing hair and then to her massive breasts, which would constantly tremble with her laughter.

It wasn't until a few more seconds had passed that Lin Meilin finally stopped laughing, looked at him with a playful expression and answered in a leisurely voice.

"It was both of them."

Lin Meilin's answer caught him by surprise. Yang Ze was expecting a lot of things, but he didn't expect the answer to be like this.

"They both took part in torturing that poor dog to death."

"Their fight wasn't because one wanted to stop the other."

"It was because one party couldn't torture the dog as much as the other."

"They fought over who would drop that dog into hot oil."

"It was because of this that the two of them stopped talking to each other."

Listening to her words, Yang Ze's heart chilled. The two of them were even crazier than he had initially imagined.

"Don't worry." As if sensing his worries, Lin Meilin consoled him.

"If they wanted to do the same thing to you, they would have done it a long time ago."

Yang Ze didn't know if he should be scared or thankful. In the end, he just walked in silence.

Lin Meilin didn't ask him any more questions and quietly appreciated the scenery around her.

After half an hour, the two of them reached the bottom of the cliff.

Just when they were about to part ways, Lin Meilin stopped him.

"Wait." Yang Ze's heart thumped, but before he could think further, Lin Meilin spoke with a gentle smile.

"We never got a chance to get familiar with each other."

"I am Lin Meilin... Mother of Lin Yue and the current Matriarch of Lin Family."

"What is your name?"

Listening to her words, Yang Ze was stunned for a long time before muttering subconsciously.

"Yang Ze."

"Yang Ze..." Lin Meilin repeated his name as if wanting to memorise it before giving him a polite nod.

"It was nice to meet you, Yang Ze. I hope we will see each other in the future."

Without waiting for him to respond, she turned around and left. Leaving behind the figure of Yang Ze, who was still lost while looking at her departing back.

------------

Yang Ze didn't know when he reached back to the house where he was staying. Halfway through, he was even thinking about not going back, but staying out was not an option.

Besides, he didn't think the two of them would be crazy enough to do anything inside the Heavenly Sword Sect. And with Cang Yue interested in him for some godforsaken reason, he wasn't overly worried about his safety.

The moment he reached inside the house, he was greeted by the sight of Lin Yue and Xiao Ruolan sitting side by side with the wine jar cracked open as the two of them filled their cups before gulping them down in one go.

"What the?" He couldn't believe that the two of them would start drinking the moment their family members left.

But in a way, it made sense.

What they were drinking was not wine, but their grief.

Shaking his head, he turned around, hoping to leave the two of them behind, but before he could even step out, he felt a hand on his shoulder before the heavy scent of alcohol overwhelmed him.

"~Hic~ Come." Without waiting for him to respond, Lin Yue directly dragged him to Xiao Ruolan, who, upon seeing the two of them, just let out a foolish laugh unlike her cold and emotionless self.

She then refilled her cup with wine as she took it towards Yang Ze.

"I don't drink." Yang Ze's voice this time was a bit cold. He had already told them that he didn't like to drink, and yet here they were, forcing him to drink.

Even if they were drunk, it didn't excuse their wanton behaviour.

Yang Ze was about to stand up and walk away, but before he could, Lin Yue hooked both his hands with hers from behind.

"What the!?" Yang Ze wasn't expecting her to do something like this.

He tried to struggle, but even with his strength at the peak of Foundation Forging, it was futile.

He couldn't escape, no matter how hard he tried.

His entire body was stuck on Lin Yue's as she used both her legs to circle around his waist before locking his legs as well.

"YOU...." Yang Ze was about to curse, but the moment he opened his mouth, Xiao Ruolan's hand carrying the cup was already in front of him.

Without any hesitation, she placed it on his lips before emptying it.

"Ughhh!" Yang Ze tried to struggle but to no avail. He even tried to close his lips, but with Xiao Ruolan's hand pinching his lips, how could he?

In the end, the wine travelled through his mouth, down his throat, into his stomach.

"In that instant, Yang Ze felt dizzy." He desperately tried to be sober, but Xiao Ruolan just let out a cold snort before directly placing the wine jar to his mouth and tilting it, making Yang Ze drink one mouthful after another.

Yang Ze didn't even know how much he drank. After the second gulp, he had lost all his senses.

He didn't know where he was or what he was doing.

He only felt his vision blur as the surroundings turned hazy.

In a daze, he saw a woman in her late thirties with a drunk face walking towards him while holding a bottle of wine.

He couldn't see her face clearly, but after squinting his eyes, he managed to see it.

"MOTHER?" He couldn't help but scream in terror as he desperately tried to run.

Unfortunately for him, he couldn't move his body.

"DON'T", Yang Ze cried out once again, "Please don't do this."

"I don't like it."

"Leave me alone."

But no matter how much he pleaded, how much he screamed, it didn't have any effect on the woman.

She just laughed, overpowered him before placing the bottle of wine to his lips.

"DRINK... EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE. LEAVE EVERYTHING TO MAMA."

The woman kept on muttering as she forced Yang Ze to drink.

Yang Ze wanted to swat the bottle away from her hand, but with his small body, how could he? He could only watch helplessly as the woman emptied the bottle.

As his vision blurred, he felt his body relax as the woman stood up. The last thing he remembered was the rustling of clothes as he saw the woman take off her clothes from the corner of his eye.

"Hush... Everything will be fine." The woman kept on muttering this as she pressed him down.

The last thing he heard was the dazed words of his mother...

"He looks so much like you, darling... just your splitting image. Maybe it is you... Maybe you came back to me."

Inside the dimly lit room, Cang Yue and Xiao Ruolan, who were holding Yang Ze tightly while laughing, suddenly felt Yang Ze's body tremble before convulsing violently.

They heard him calling out to his mother and thought that he was just afraid of her.

But now...

If a Vein Expansion realm powerhouse doesn't want to stay drunk, they could easily dispel the effects of the wine.

Lin Yue and Xiao Ruolan both did the same.

With clear eyes, they looked at Yang Ze, who was twitching uncontrollably on the ground as if experiencing something unspeakable.

Just when the two of them were confused and shocked, an angry voice brought them back to their senses.

"YOU TWO SLUTS. DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH?"

Before they could even react, they saw Cang Yue directly appearing beside Yang Ze as she placed her hand on his forehead before his twitching stopped.

After making sure that his breathing was normal, Cang Yue turned around and looked at the two women with a murderous gaze as she uttered in a chilling voice.

"EXPLAIN YOURSELVES NOW."

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