Chapter 269: Finally Meeting?

Chapter 269: Finally Meeting?

Holy Land of Jade Pool.

“Danyun, we’ve already caught your daughter.”

Real Person Yuyao looked coldly at the woman inside the cage, whose clothes were in tatters and whose body was covered with wounds. Her voice was calm and indifferent.

In the corner, Danyun trembled violently upon hearing those words. She lifted her head abruptly, and the killing intent in her eyes chilled the very air inside the cage.

“Impossible! You can’t break my formation! You couldn’t have caught my daughter!”

“Yuyao, you old hag! You’re lying to me!”

“Lying to you?” Real Person Yuyao chuckled coldly and clapped her hands. “Someone, bring Danbai here.”

With the sound of approaching footsteps, a thin girl was dragged in front of the cell door.

The hem of her skirt was stained with splatters of red, and her bare feet were covered in mud.

Real Person Yuyao lifted the girl's chin, revealing a delicate face partially hidden under messy hair. A satisfied smirk tugged at the corner of her lips.

This girl really did look quite like Danbai.

But they couldn’t use illusions on Danyun — she was born with Spirit Eyes, and no trickery could escape her gaze.

So they had to find a girl who naturally resembled Danbai to fool Danyun.

As long as the two didn’t physically interact, and after not seeing her daughter for more than ten years, it would be extremely difficult for Danyun to distinguish whether this girl was the real Danbai.

“Danbai!” The moment Danyun saw the girl, she froze completely.

Her shoulders trembled uncontrollably, tears instantly welling up and streaming silently down her cheeks.

It had been thirteen whole years since she last saw her daughter.

These tears were born from years of accumulated longing — and the overwhelming guilt and pain of seeing her daughter imprisoned here as well.

She struggled to rush forward, but the chain that sealed her cultivation yanked her back.

All she could do was press herself against the ground, staring at the shivering girl in Real Person Yuyao's grasp.

The girl raised her head at the sound and blankly stared back at Danyun. A thin layer of mist gathered in her glassy eyes.

That look in Danyun's eyes... it reminded the girl of her own mother.

Back during the famine years, her father and older brother had dragged her to the marketplace to sell her. Her mother had stood in front of them, staring at her with the exact same expression. Her mother had gripped her tightly, refusing to let them take her away, until her father knocked her unconscious. Only then did that calloused hand slowly let go...

“Not going to recognize your mother?” Real Person Yuyao suddenly tightened her grip on the girl's chin, hinting at what the girl should do.

“M-Mother!” the girl called out to Danyun, her voice trembling as tears streamed down uncontrollably.

The tears were genuine. She could feel the overwhelming love and longing coming from the woman inside the cage.

She had been bought from slavers by these so-called “immortals.”

They ordered her to act out a play and deceive a woman.

If she obeyed, she wouldn’t just live — she’d be allowed to cultivate in this immortal territory.

One day, she might even become one of those exalted immortals herself.

She had once yearned for this immortal land, believing it must be a place without suffering.

But upon entering the Holy Land of Jade Pool, those indifferent eyes that looked down on her like an ant made her feel suffocated.

Compared to facing these so-called immortals, she would rather stay here pretending to be this woman's daughter.

At least... at least when this woman looked at her, there was warmth.

“Danyun, this Venerable said we would catch your daughter, so we caught your daughter. You have one month. Within that month, this Venerable wants to see at least one Top-Grade Primordial Heaven-Mending Pill!” Real Person Yuyao’s voice grew cold.

Her grip around the girl's neck tightened.

Only when the girl’s face turned purple and she whimpered in pain from suffocation did Real Person Yuyao finally let go.

“Stop it! Don’t touch my daughter!” The chains scraped sharply against the stone floor as Danyun took two steps forward. Seeing the girl kneeling on the ground, coughing painfully, Danyun bit her lip hard. “What do you need so many Primordial Heaven-Mending Pills for?”

“Of course, to forge a vessel,” Real Person Yuyao answered nonchalantly, walking up to the cage and locking eyes with Danyun. “And to repair my damaged foundation… Danyun, Danyun, if you obediently help this Venerable ascend to immortality, your daughter will be safe, and so will you. When this Venerable becomes an immortal, how could I treat you poorly? Don’t refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit!”

Danyun opened her Spirit Eyes and glared at Real Person Yuyao.

She immediately saw it — Real Person Yuyao’s foundation was indeed damaged.

Part of it was sealed by the Dao of Reincarnation, while another part was marred by backlash from Heavenly Fate.

“Where’s Real Person Zhang?”

Real Person Yuyao knew Danyun had spotted the problem and didn’t bother hiding it. She sneered, “Dead.”

“This Venerable and Reverend Karma killed him together!”

“You’re all insane… Don’t you fear Heaven’s wrath, causing such chaos in the Cangyun Realm?” Though she had already suspected Zhang Yibai's fate, hearing it from Real Person Yuyao’s own mouth still filled Danyun with fury.

“If Heaven won’t let this Venerable become an immortal—” Real Person Yuyao's eyes were filled with madness as she shouted, “then this Venerable will trample Heaven itself!”

…

Real Person Yuyao left the dungeon, satisfied.

Danyun had promised to produce at least one Top-Grade Primordial Heaven-Mending Pill within a month.

As for the High-Grade Primordial Heaven-Mending Pills required to stabilize her foundation, those could be refined within seven days.

As for the Celestial-Grade, she knew it would require the perfect timing, location, and people, so she didn't force it.

The girl they brought in to play Danbai had, of course, been locked away elsewhere, so Danyun wouldn’t notice anything strange.

Danyun only requested to see the girl once a day to ensure her safety.

That was a trivial demand.

…

Inside the dungeon.

The moment Real Person Yuyao left, the girl was taken away as well.

Inside the damp and gloomy cell, Danyun’s sorrow slowly faded.

This girl… wasn’t Danbai.

Though she resembled her daughter greatly, even down to the near-identical birthmark between her brows—

But...

No was still no.

How could a heartless monster like Real Person Yuyao understand that a mother would never mistake her own child?

So why didn’t she expose them?

Because she knew, the moment she did, this innocent girl would be killed without mercy.

So she simply played along — as if she hadn’t noticed.

As long as Real Person Yuyao hadn’t really caught her daughter, that was enough.

Danyun looked up at the narrow strip of sky above, and the icy glint in her eyes gradually ignited into a raging fire.

“You want to ascend?”

“Fine, you old b***h, I’ll help you ascend!”

After being imprisoned for over a decade,

the only thing that kept her going

was the hope of one day escaping to see her daughter again.

But Real Person Yuyao’s threat revealed a deeper danger.

If Yuyao wasn’t eliminated, her daughter would never be safe.

She had to do something.

And besides, hadn’t she already “seen” her daughter?

Danyun dragged the pill cauldron and the Primordial Heaven-Mending Pill materials to herself.

She was born with Spirit Eyes and was also a prodigy in alchemy.

Before she turned twenty, she was already a renowned Grade-One Alchemist throughout the Cangyun Realm.

Later, she became Dao companions with the previous Sect Master of the Dan Sect. Under his guidance, her understanding of alchemy advanced by leaps and bounds.

Seven days.

Within these seven days,

she would use the formula and materials for the Primordial Heaven-Mending Pill, but take a different path.

She would exploit the tiniest variable and refine a poisonous pill capable of crippling Real Person Yuyao’s foundation permanently.

Danyun knelt on the ground, holding up the cauldron with both hands, bowing to Heaven and Earth, and to the spirits of the underworld.

No one… could harm her daughter.

“Even if… it costs me my life!”

A bolt of lightning tore through the night.

In that pale flash, Danyun’s silhouette stood with arms wide open.

Pill flames surged from all directions, like thousands of fiery serpents, engulfing her thin figure.

…

…