Chapter 236
Chapter 236
Being stabbed in the back by those closest to you was perhaps one of the cruelest things in the world.
No wonder Li Qingying had never wanted to talk about her past.
Yet today, to comfort me, she had torn open her own wounds and shared her pain so I would know I wasn’t alone.
My eyes immediately welled with tears. I rested my head on her shoulder and quietly listened.
“Back then, I truly believed the hopes of our entire clan rested on my shoulders. Whenever they looked at me, their eyes were so fervent, so full of hope. I thought they were all proud of me.
“I practiced over and over again. No matter how high or dangerous the platform, waterfall, or flaming hoop, I wasn’t afraid. I was injured time and time again, but that didn’t scare me either. I was going to become the pride of our entire clan.”
By this point, Li Qingying was choking back sobs, her voice trembling. “I really thought I would make them proud. So why did they do that to me?!
“They… They never wanted me to undergo Leaping the Dragon Gate alone, become a Dragon, and protect the entire clan. What they wanted was to create gods! To turn our entire clan into gods!”
Li Qingying burst into tears.
She wasn’t someone who cried easily.
But now, she had truly touched upon the most painful part of her past.
I gently patted her back, my heart filled with sorrow and confusion.
Through her tears, Li Qingying continued, “It turns out that from the moment my horn first emerged, the clan chief had already searched through every clan record passed down by our ancestors.
“The records said that if a forked horn was cut off, roasted, ground into powder, mixed with blood, and consumed, it could cleanse the muscles and bones of blood relatives and help them grow horns of their own.”
At that, I understood everything.
All those years ago, Li Qingying had been waiting for her chance to attempt Carp Leaping the Dragon Gate, but her siblings had set their sights on her horn.
Just when her horn had finally forked and she was about to go to the Dragon Gate, her clansmen cut it off, drained her blood, and fed both to her brothers and sisters.
To create their gods, they had ruthlessly destroyed Li Qingying!
“In a single night, my horn was gone, the tendons in both my wrists were severed, and they abandoned me on the shores of Linghai. I lost so much blood that I nearly died!
“Not one of them cared. They discarded me like a worn-out shoe. The waves battered me, tossing me through the sea and washing me back and forth. I sank and surfaced over and over, crashing into the reefs countless times, but by then, I couldn’t even feel the pain anymore…”
Li Qingying wept as she spoke, and I cried with her.
“I don’t know how many days I drifted like that. Maybe the resentment in my heart was too deep. Somehow, I clung to my final breath and refused to die.
“It was that one last breath that kept me alive until Seventh Master arrived. He pulled me from the sea, transferred True Qi into me, and sent people to care for me.
“When I first regained consciousness, I couldn’t lift either of my hands. Fish and shrimp had gnawed my toes until the bones were exposed, and the wound on the tip of my nose, where my horn had been cut off, wouldn’t stop bleeding.
“Seventh Master found a healer to stop the bleeding and treat my wounds. It took more than half a month before I could get out of bed and walk again. My body slowly recovered, but the wound in my heart wasn’t something any healer could cure.
“I lost all desire to live. Someone had to feed me every meal, and if no one did, I simply went hungry. At one point, I weighed barely seventy-seven pounds. I swayed whenever I walked. I was nothing more than a Walking Corpse.”
I wrapped my arms tightly around Li Qingying.
I had known her life couldn’t have been easy, but I had never imagined she had suffered so horribly.
It was hard to imagine how she had ever managed to survive it all.
No wonder, when she first came to the Pawnshop, she repeatedly warned me about what she would do if I ever betrayed Liu Junyan.
No wonder she had seemed so cold and unapproachable at first, only to become my closest friend soon afterward.
The truth was, she had always been an extraordinarily kind person.
She had merely armored herself in indifference after being stabbed in the back by those she loved most.
If she hadn’t met Liu Junyan back then, she might have already lost her life in Linghai and ended up in the belly of a fish.
During the darkest, most desperate period of her life, it was Liu Junyan who arranged for people to care for her and help her through it.
And clearly, he had done far more for her than just that.
“Seventh Master was always busy. He told me to focus on recovering and not to give up on cultivation. But whenever he finished his affairs and returned to Linghai Dragon Palace, he would stop by to see me, only to find that I was still doing poorly.
“He scolded me several times and told me to pull myself together. I truly did try, but my horn was gone and the tendons in my hands had been severed. There was no way I could cultivate anymore.
“I drifted through the next few years in a daze. I practically sealed myself away in that tiny corner and reduced myself to a useless wreck.
“Then one day, Seventh Master suddenly told me that someone else from the Red Carp Clan was preparing for Leaping the Dragon Gate. He asked if I wanted to go and watch. I immediately shook my head and refused.
“Seventh Master didn’t pressure me. He only told me when Leaping the Dragon Gate would take place. At first, I didn’t care, but the closer the day came, the more restless I became.”
By then, both of us had calmed down a little. I asked, “You went in the end, didn’t you?”
“Yes.” Li Qingying’s eyes went distant. “How could I not?
“I knew the Red Carp Clan too well. I was the only person in the entire clan with that kind of talent. There was no way they could have produced even one more clan member capable of Leaping the Dragon Gate through normal means in just a few short years. So the ones attempting Leaping the Dragon Gate this time had to be those who ate the horn powder mixed with my blood.
“I had to see for myself. I had to know whether they’d really succeeded in cleansing their marrow and remaking themselves.
“That day, I saw the legendary Dragon Gate. It was truly magnificent. The towering gate pierced the clouds, and a column of water seemed to pour straight down from the heavens, crashing endlessly against the surface of Linghai. Countless fish leaped from the water. More than a dozen of my brothers and sisters stood proudly against the current, horns growing from their heads. They lined up one behind another in a long procession.
“I hid in a corner. I saw the clan leader, the elders, and the people I once called family… Every last one of them was waving and cheering for those brothers and sisters. But did any of them still remember that, just a few years before, there had been a girl named Li Qingying who had nearly attempted Leaping the Dragon Gate too?
“No. In their eyes, I had died years ago and ended up in the belly of a fish.”
At that point, Li Qingying’s voice began trembling again. Choked with sobs, she had to pause.
Just then, I happened to notice someone standing by the door.
I had no idea when Hui Moqiong had arrived or how much he had heard.
But one look at his reddened eyes told me he had probably heard everything.
I instinctively opened my mouth, but Hui Moqiong immediately raised a finger to his lips, signaling for me to remain silent.
He then gave me a cupped-fist salute and pointed at Li Qingying before turning and leaving.
He knew Li Qingying didn’t want too many people to hear about this part of her past.
He cared for her, and he respected her wishes.
I held Li Qingying’s ice-cold hands tightly and ventured, “Did they succeed?”
“Succeed?” Li Qingying suddenly laughed, but her smile was more painful than tears. “At noon, sunlight poured down and bathed the entire Dragon Gate, as though coating it in gold — or setting it ablaze.
“With the entire clan watching, cheering, and pinning their hopes on them, my brothers and sisters leaped toward the Dragon Gate with all their strength, one after another.
“The Dragon Gate was so high, and that cascading torrent was so fierce. I watched them leap upward one by one, clear the gate one by one, and then… vanish, one by one…”
I stared at her in disbelief. “They all disappeared? Every one of them cleared the Dragon Gate and achieved Dragon Transformation?”