A woman walked out of the opened doors slowly.
To Li Tianming, this was like seeing the sun again after years of darkness, and with bated breath, he fixed his eyes on her. She had eye-catchingly light grey hair that fell down like a waterfall.
The light grey hair gave Li Tianming pause. Did Wei Tiancang fail?
However, he obviously hadn’t. Although it was light grey, it was still glossy and full of life. When Li Tianming looked downwards, it wasn't a forty-year-old woman that greeted him, but rather, a girl who looked in her teens.
Even Mu Wan, who was a little over thirty, looked older than her.
She had a pair of sparkling eyes and a set of white teeth, a smile that should belong to a young girl on her face. Her delicate body was filled with life as she moved about agilely.
Li Tianming thought he was seeing things. This girl looked no different from Jiang Feiling and Jiang Qingluan.
M-mother? Li Tianming had expected her to change, from looking like an eighty-year-old to a forty-year-old, someone who looked as old as Xue Lan. However, she looked eighteen instead! Sure, her hair was light grey, but an unknowing bystander would think that she used dye, and might even hit on her.
For the second time in this morning, a headache began to brew. With such an appearance, was he supposed to address her as mother, big sister… or little sister?
It wasn’t limited to Li Tianming. When Wei Jing walked out, everyone present was flabbergasted, wondering if there was a problem with their eyes.
“You all have limited knowledge. When someone recovers from Lifesbane, they’ll recover their appearance from before it, even if sixty years have passed.” An old man appeared behind Wei Jing. He looked exhausted, and his face was pale.
Obviously, removing this Lifesbane hadn’t been easy for Wei Tiancang.
“All of you get lost! I need to rest for three months. No one is to bother me!” Wei Tiancang pushed Wei Jing out, before slamming the door close, as if saving Wei Jing was something humiliating.
Needing to rest for three months not only showed how strenuous this was, but also that Li Tianming had misjudged this grandfather of his. Fortunately, a rest was enough for him.
Wei Jing turned around, but the door was already shut. “That stubborn old coot.”
While she was gritting her teeth, a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips. The walls between her and her father had come down; how could she not be happy? Her Lifesbane was gone, she had returned to being twenty and she had buried the hatchet with her father. It was as if she had left hell and entered heaven.
The bliss that filled her was enough to leave her rooted to the spot. She had already thanked her father many times, but she knew there was one other major contributor, Li Tianming.
When she saw her son, her eyes turned damp with tears of joy. “Tianming!”
The next moment, Wei Jing was already hugging her son.
“Who are you? My long-lost sister?” Li Tianming grabbed her by the shoulders and said with an exaggerated expression.
Wei Jing smiled, having seen herself in the mirror. She herself hadn’t expected to become twenty again.
“Father said Lifesbane isn’t just misfortune. It also had many mysterious aspects that our clan can’t grasp. Returning to the state you were in when the Lifesbane started is just one small part. It’s not just my body that has had the clock turned back twenty years.” With those words, she summoned her lifebound beast, an Eight-Winged Goldroc!
It, like Wei Jing, was roughly at the peak of Spiritsource.
After suffering from Lifesbane for twenty years, the roc had regressed to becoming a Four-Winged Goldroc. However, it had now returned to its state twenty years ago.
“Incredible…” Li Tianming had been in the dark about the profundities of Lifesbane. He had thought it was purely misfortune.
Even Wei Tiancang himself had only been able to guess this would happen, because Wei Jing was the first ever case study that had endured the Lifesbane for twenty years. Usually, members of the Wei Clan that contracted Lifesbane would get rid of it immediately.
A twenty-year-old mother? Li Tianming wasn't sure what to think now.
“Don’t give me that. I may be twenty years old in body, but I still have the heart of a forty-year-old!” Wei Jing chided jokingly. She was practically over the moon now!
Li Tianming was even happier, feeling like a rock that had been weighing down on his heart for the longest time was gone.
“Mom, ignore that Li Tianming. Your son is coming!” The little chick flew over.
“Meow.” Behind it, electricity flickered. A moment later, the black cat was comfortably nestled in Wei Jing’s arms. These two were competent when it came to stealing the limelight.
Still, they were one big family!
The miracle born from the Lifesbane's removal was joy piled upon joy.
He had always said Wei Jing must have been a great beauty of Ignispolis when she was young, and now his words were proven right. Little wonder people like Mu Yang and Sage Chen treated her with such favour.
“You’re married already, don’t look so much.” Mu Yang stared at Sage Chen.
“She’s twenty again. Hard times are coming for me,” Sage Chen said emotionally.
“Speaking of which, that person at home will be jealous when she sees how Jing’er looks now.” Mu Yang laughed.
Sage Chen shook his head. "Whatever. She’s always been like that. We’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it.”
Stepping forward shy, Mu Wan asked, “Big brother, is there any way I can get an unlimited number of Lifesbane?”
“Excuse me, what?” Mu Yang stared.
“No, I’m just interested in eternal youth,” Mu Wan said enviously.
“Scram.”
“I can see you’re infatuated with big sis Jing…”
“I’ll give you a smack if you continue on.”
Mu Wan scampered off.
The only ones who didn’t look as happy here were Wei Tianxiong, Wei Zikun and their children. They had also been in opposition, but Wei Tiancang had still unexpectedly saved her.
“Why do I feel father wanted to save her from the start?” Wei Zikun frowned.
“Is that surprising? He always doted on her the most,” Wei Tianxiong replied.
“Alright, that mother and son must be so happy now. Wei Manor is no longer ours.”
“Obviously. Mu Yang will accept Li Tianming as his disciple. Li Tianming will likely be the next Potentate.” It meant it wasn’t their children’s world either anymore. Still, what could they do about it?
“Big brother, Zikun.” Surprisingly, Wei Jing approached them. “All these years, it was my fault. Thank you for taking care of father and supporting the manor.”
“Mhm. Now that you’re free of it, live a good life. Don’t do anything that will hurt him again. He’s getting old,” Wei Tianxiong said.
“Jing’er understands.”
“I have something on. I’ll make a move first,” Wei Tianxiong said.
“Alright.”
“Take care. Uncles, I won’t be sending you off.” Li Tianming stepped forward with a smile.
Even though they felt displeasure, there was nothing they could do but leave, filled with complex emotions. Wei Tianxiong also brought away Wei Guohao, Wei Lingxuan and the rest of the onlookers. In the end, even Wei Tiancang had chosen to forgive her, so there was no reason for them to carry a grudge.
Li Tianming and the rest returned to Rainforest Pavilion.
Wei Jing personally cooked for the guests. While it wasn’t that spectacular, Mu Yang and Sage Chen still praised it to high heavens. They only left when night fell, leaving behind Li Tianming, his mother and two small animals.
Ying Huo and Meow Meow went to the courtyard to play, while Wei Jing was brushing her hair in front of the mirror. Li Tianming examined her youthful-looking reflection in the mirror, feeling like he would laugh himself awake when sleeping.
“Mother, will you rekindle a relationship with Uncle Yang?” Li Tianming asked.
“No.”
“Why?” Li Tianming asked curiously.
“He said he doesn’t have such thoughts. He’s used to his life after twenty years. It’ll be stressful to be with me,” Wei Jing said.
“Is there something wrong with him?” Li Tianming had thought Mu Yang had certain plans when he saw how proactive he was.
“Also, there’s someone I want to find.” Wei Jing looked resolutely at her reflection.
“Who?”
“I’ll tell you if the opportunity comes.”
“...”
She continued to groom herself in the mirror, something she hadn’t been able to do for twenty years.
“What’s that?” When her sleeves rolled up, Li Tianming noticed something on her right arm. Li Tianming grabbed her arm for a closer look. He saw three overlapping circular rings that wouldn’t come off no matter how hard he rubbed.
“I don’t know. It appeared when the Lifesbane was removed,” Wei Jing said.
“Will it cause problems?”
“No. There have been many through the years who have had Lifesbane. However, they all removed it by the first year, and their arms only had one such ring. It's possible that I have three because I had Lifesbane for far longer,” Wei Jing explained.
“Will it affect your future cultivation and life?”
“Supposedly, each ring will boost cultivation speed. It’s the reason for the Wei Clan’s prosperity through the ages. My father has one, but my brothers don’t, so they’re weaker,” Wei Jing replied.
“So that’s how it is! If one ring lets you reach Wei Tiancang’s level, wouldn’t you accomplish three times as much as him since you have three?”
“Don’t address your grandfather by name. That’s rude.” Wei Jing gave him a knock on the head.
“Mother, how did our clan get this Lifesbane?” Li Tianming asked, curious.
“Supposedly, a female ancestor surnamed Li who married in a thousand years ago brought it in. It’s because of her our Wei Clan flourished."
“A female ancestor named Li?” Actually, Li Tianming did have thoughts of changing his surname. However, Wei Tianming sounded pretty bad. He was used to it too, so in the end, he was too lazy to change it.
Unexpectedly, that ancestor who brought in the Lifesbane had the same surname as him.
“I’ll go and play with Ying Huo and Meow Meow. Prime Disciple Li Tianming, work hard on your cultivation, lest your title of genius gets taken away by your mother!” Wei Jing laughed as she left.
Li Tianming wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. He was possibly the only one in the world who looked the same age as his mother and had to fight over the title of genius with her.
“My hair?” Li Tianming leaned closer and made a curious discovery. His hair was lighter than he last remembered it. “Am I seeing things?”
Li Tianming remembered that his hair had always been a lustrous black.
He suddenly had a bad feeling, and examined his right arm immediately. One ring was sitting there!
“Fuck! I also have Lifesbane!”
Li Tianming's scalp numbed, and he felt his heart chill.