If one climbed to the top of the tallest mountain near the Falling Dragon Waterfall, there lay the Temple of Suffering.
Here, all day long, the monks would be scurrying about with all sorts of activities. Chanting, making vegetarian food, meditating under oak trees or on the verandas. There were also many children being trained by the experienced monks here; they would be more carefree, running around, drawing faces on the meditating monks with ink brushes.
Yet, as the night comes, everything settles down. The noisy children go to sleep in their assigned quarters, and the monks, as disciplined as baldies that they were, would also move into silent meditations.
On the roof of the tallest temple building in the complex sat Yue Li, and she was alone. Her brows were furrowed in contemplation, often writing something on a piece of paper with an ink brush before throwing it away.
Finally, she smiled slightly and looked up at the moon on the horizon. Twinkling stars dotted the canvas of the dark skies; this high up from the ground—with the mountain's height and the buildings adding up—there were not many sounds of insects. The rare cicada or stonefly was thus all the more audible.
She sniffed, feeling the chill in the air. Then, once again, she focused on the sheet of paper in front of her. Even in the darkness of night, she could see clearly as a Cultivator, so her hand flowed smoothly through the paper, writing things slowly and calmly.
"Yue Li, who ate fruit which she wished with her System by trading her talent, and Han Li was born. The Boy was cute. Very cute. Then, he grew up. Sad. But not too much."
She looked at the paper intently. She wasn't too good at English but fine enough, she presumed. What she wrote didn't seem wrong to her... at least.
Giggling slightly, she began writing once more. "Han Li had no talent in cultivation. He had no Spark at all. Poor boy, no wonder he went on to become such a loner in his later years; he was unlike any other child, after all. He doesn't even has... Hm, or was it have?
any friends. Even now. He has some women on his tail now... but not then."
She dipped the brush in the ink and wrote once more. "Heh!... Not that I am swooning at him because he is my own son, but he worked hard at that time. My legs were broken, hmm, not exactly, but I was crippled and had constant attacks of leg pain at that point.
He was a cook in the Southern Lust City, and he cooked for every poor person and made just enough money for us to survive with decent circumstances."
'Was that the spelling of circumstances again?' she cursed the people who created this unholy language. Or was she too stupid? Couldn't be.
Smiling to herself, she continued: "At that point, the beautiful mother, Yue Li, used to get scammed often by traders selling random things. Of course, the prick of a son didn't know that she was not really getting scammed but was in search of destiny.
Heh, you heard me right; I had used the System years ago by trading away my own Talent to get Xiao; hm, maybe I shouldn't use this nickname, but his actual name in writing, Han Li, started on cultivating.
...
The system didn't seem to have worked, but I thought somehow, if I got some legendary artifact from one of these scammers, he would be able to cultivate like everyone. So, I kept losing money on things that seemed like great and magical things—of course, I was scammed.
And in one of these scamming escapades—especially note that it was on the day of his 18th birthday—that I got the Demonic Lust Sutra. A black covered, blank paged book. It was expensive, and the little motherfucker was irritated and made issue with me for losing his hard-earned money on useless trash. Of course, there was a twist.
In the end, the book was no ordinary book but the Inheritance of the Sacred Demon of Lust. A great inheritance! Something that could let my dear boy cultivate. And cultivate he did.
He gained a Lust Spark by taking my anal... Virginity. Losing his virginity in the process.
Ahh, fond memories. Then, he also seemed a bit... different from that day onwards. He was still my Han Li; there was no doubt about that. But all of his little characteristics seemed to have become much more extreme.
I will give you an example. His wariness.
He had been wary of strangers even when he was a kid, far more than his own mother was, but since that day on, he had been way too wary, seeing anyone and everything around him as enemies unless they proved otherwise. Of course, the only people who proved otherwise were Li Yao and Liyue; I think he saw every other person as an enemy. He became extremely wary of simple wariness.
That was only one facet of what constituted Han Li. His ruthlessness... he was always indifferent about the fate of strangers once she thought of it, even as a child, but since the day he started cultivating, it became a truly extreme level. He, as ashamed as I am to say this about my dear boy, is a Demon. A ruthless bastard.
Of course, he hadn't killed for a long time now... but I know that's because he hadn't had the need to kill for a long while. There are only a few he cares about; the rest, he looks at them with utter indifference. I thought about it, you know?
Wondering what could have made my son more extreme. I asked him. Again and again, but he never gave an answer. For as sweet as he is, he is incurable when it comes to secrets. He knows everything about me from top to bottom, but he keeps a lot of secrets, but damn... I had already guessed it out. What had caused my son to change?
It had been so obvious. He had a lot of new knowledge, like... he knew everything!
After starting his cultivation, he got to make Liyue his fiance, and he taught her Spear Arts. The way of the spear.
Since that day, it had now been nearly three years.
Some interesting things did happen in these three years, but Yue Li was far too lazy to write about them. For example, Liyue's marriage.
This was a very curious subject. Han Li and Liyue had tried to marry many different times after that, but something always seemed to interrupt it. It was almost as if Liyue was cursed; all of the time, the marriage was midway, and something disastrous ruined it. Last time, it was an actual earthquake that ruined the marriage.
Indeed, something was amiss.
Just as she was writing, someone pinched her cheeks powerfully, and she ouched.
Looking sideways, a red-eyed young man was glaring at her writings. His gaze especially focused on the words 'Regressed' and some other parts. With a sigh, he gave her a harder pinch.
"Just because others can't read English doesn't mean you can go so wild with it. That's like half of my life right there. My enemies might be able to kill me because of that."
Yue Li said through the pain in her cheeks, "No, they can't. The ink is special, a water-type Magical Resource. Only the writer can see it. Your eyes are too weird. You can see my Um..." She mouthed, "Luck Chat System too."
Han Li coughed gently and patted his mother on the back. "I like how you are becoming more contemplative. I honestly do. But there are a lot of things missing in this little writing of yours regarding that year. And it's so messily written, even though the handwriting is rather good."
Yue Li felt delighted at first but then smiled wryly.
"I thought so as well."
Han Li smiled.
She didn't know a thing about his Sacred Eyes, his Magic Powers transforming into Talents, and she didn't even really know what cultivation was; if he was writing a recap of it, he would have involved how his strength grew every time, too.
Yet, she had gone so far as to guess the true nature of his future knowledge and proficiency. Indeed, when it came to things regarding himself, his mother was a genius.
He brought her head close to himself and kissed the side of her face. Then said, "Head down, I am entering another seclusion here for a while."
Yue Li shook her head vehemently. "I found this place first. This rooftop is mine."
He sat down and brought her into his embrace. His hands and chest smothered her down, and before she knew it, she was completely under his mercy.
Her body had grown stronger over the past few years, but he was still far stronger.
"Then we might as well go into this seclusion together," he muttered.
She nodded enthusiastically.
This was where he usually came to meditate, and his meditations were even more horrendous than the monks sometimes—lasting a month or two before he stopped. He even used Magical Resources to regulate his food consumption at those moments.
She had always wanted to spend a seclusion with him, even though he told her she would probably be bored to death. "By the way, why the sudden seclusion?"
"You know the girl that Monk Hen Shin took in as a disciple?"
"Ah, that pretty woman with an attitude. The monk seems to have some high hopes for the girl's life as a monk."
"I think she is smitten with me."
Yue Li was stunned, but she got no more answers as Han Li closed his eyes and went into meditation.
Yue Li sighed. No wonder he came up the roof.
She had come here alone because he was nowhere to be found in the first place, so she had no complaints. She leaned on his chest and tried to fall asleep.