Chương 103: Jiangxi

"I'm sorry, alright? I already learned my lesson," Qing Huqin said, looking genuinely regretful with his hands chained together.

"Sorry for what? It was just a fight. It happens all the time. Besides, he's the one who started it; why am I getting into trouble?" Qing Fulang questioned. Jiangxi didn't even turn around; she kept guiding the two troublemakers toward the punishment hall.

"You're not in trouble yet. If you've done nothing wrong, you'll be let go without punishment."

"I've already explained it to you!" Qing Fulang said, gritting his teeth in anger.

"It's not my call to make. It's useless no matter how much you explain," Jiangxi answered nonchalantly. She wasn't that happy about the situation either; she was just about to finish her shift and return home, but this Qing Fulang just had to taunt his distant cousin and start a fight. As she was still on duty, Jiangxi had no choice but to apprehend them.

"Damn it! I'm going to be late for my class. Can you really take responsibility for that? The consequences will be serious if Teacher Wangqi gets angry, you know," Qing Fulang warned.

"Not to mention how rough you were. I'd like to see how you explain yourself to my grandmother later."

"Is that a threat?" Jiangxi asked.

"So what!?" Qing Fulang roared in anger, "A foreign sex slave thinks-" Qing Fulang didn't get another word out as Jiangxi punched him in the face. Not with full force, as that would kill him, just enough to break his nose.

"Ah!" Qing Fulang yelled out in pain, collapsing to the ground.

"Are you crazy!?"

"Get up, stop dawdling," Jiangxi said, unconcerned.

"No! You think you can-" Qing Fulang began, but Jiangxi interrupted him.

"If you're not going to use your legs, I might as well break them," She said with a shrug.

"You…" Qing Fulang paused, seemingly contemplating if she was serious.

"Three, two, one," Jiangxi started counting down, lifting up her leg, getting ready to kick.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Qing Fulang yelled, jumping to his feet.

"Good, then let's keep moving," Jiangxi said, turning around again. The two boys finally quieted down, and Jiangxi could escort them in peace. She wasn't afraid of the consequences of hurting them; it was well within her rights. After ten years with the Qing Family, Jiangxi had learned exactly how far she could take things.

"Shen Jiangxi!" A middle-aged man, Qing Hanzi, called out as he came running.

"What's the matter?" Jiangxi asked.

"The Family Head wants to see you," Qing Hanzi answered, panting.

"The Family Head? What for?" Jiangxi asked. While she had managed to climb pretty high in the social hierarchy of the Qing family, she certainly wasn't on the level that could meet with the Family Head.

"I don't know; I'm just passing along the message," Qing Hanzi said.

"You should head over right away."

"What about these two?" Jiangxi asked, gesturing to the boys behind her.

"I'll take them; just go," Qing Hanzi said.

"Alright," Jiangxi said, nodding. She didn't stall and started running toward the main mountain, where the core of the Qing Family lived.

'What could he possibly want with me? Have I messed up somewhere?' But no matter how she thought about it, she couldn't think of doing anything wrong. Even if she had, it was unlikely for the Family Head himself to take it up with her.

'Maybe…a reward?' It wasn't impossible. Out of all the people brought back from south of the Desolate Mountains, she was the one most often used as an example of a success story. The Qing Family had rewarded her in the past, mostly to show the others how well you would be treated if you applied yourself and joined the Qing Family in heart and spirit.

'But for a reward to come from the Head himself…That doesn't seem very likely.' Jiangxi kept thinking through all possible scenarios, good and bad, but even as she arrived at the grand hall, she couldn't come up with any reasonable explanation.

"You can step inside now," A peak Qi Refiner said, gesturing for Jiangxi to enter the grand hall after waiting for a few minutes. Stepping inside, she was surprised to see only the Family Head present. He looked young, like a man in his thirties, but Jiangxi knew he was well over a hundred.

"Shen Jiangxi, thank you for coming over so quickly," Qing Linchuang said with a kind smile.

"Of course, patriarch Linchuang," Jiangxi answered with a bow.

"I've heard you've integrated very well into the Qing Family since getting here. Elder Hucong speaks highly of you," Qing Linchuang praised.

"I'm honored. Elder Hucong has shown me a lot of kindness over the years," Jiangxi answered.

"That's good," Qing Linchuang said with a nod.

"Anyway, I brought you here to ask you a question."

"Please," Jiangxi said.

"Have you heard about the inheritance found in the Jin Mountains?" Qing Linchuang asked.

"Of course," Jiangxi answered. It had caused a big commotion when it was revealed to be the inheritance of a Golden Core cultivator, and she had heard that even True People of the Silver Feather Sect had arrived to contest it.

"The Golden Core cultivators finally broke the formation about a week ago, disrupting the trial. Out of the few people inside who made it to the final section, there was a man called Zhuo Zhangye. Does the name sound familiar to you?" Qing Linchuang asked. Jiangxi frowned slightly.

'Zhuo Zhangye? Wasn't that Shu Yang's friend who went missing?' The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Jiangxi had helped direct the search for him when it happened, but as far as she knew, he was never found.

"It seems you've heard of him?" Qing Linchuang asked.

"I've heard the name before, but I doubt it's the same person," Jiangxi answered.

"It appears he is a body cultivator, perhaps at the Foundation stage, so it's not impossible that he originates from the Desolate South," Qing Linchuang said. Jiangxi shook her head.

"The man I knew of that name was only at the low-level Qi Refining stage, and it seemed unlikely he would advance further."

"Did you know him well?" Qing Linchuang asked.

"No," Jiangxi answered.

"He was a friend of a friend; I never knew him."

"Alright then," Qing Linchuang said, nodding, "If we forget about the name, do you know of anyone in your homeland who could advance to the Foundation stage?" For some reason, Shu Yang's image appeared in Jiangxi's mind.

"That would be the Lishen Emperor. He's the only Saint, or Foundation expert, that I knew of. Perhaps one of his descendants inherited his talent, but I never heard anything about that." Jiangxi also believed her niece would have some hope, but she would never bring her up.

"I see." Qing Linchuang asked a few more questions about the situation in the Desolate South before dismissing Jiangxi. As she was leaving, Jiangxi couldn't help but be slightly confused.

'Why so interested in these things all of a sudden? Why is a random body cultivator so important?'

'Did he receive the inheritance in the end? Is there an ongoing hunt for this person?' Jiangxi walked back home, deep in thought. Most of her mind was occupied by the coincidence of the name Zhuo Zhangye.

'Could it be an alias? A way to signal us?'

"Mom! You're back!" An eight-year-old boy with a bright smile came running toward her. Jiangxi smiled and bent down to give him a hug.

"Are you finished with your daily reading?"

"Of course, I finished hours ago," The boy said, straightening his back proudly.

"Can we practice body cultivation now?"

"Soon. Let me get settled first," Jiangxi said, patting the boy on the head.

"I'll warm up first, then," The boy said and ran out to the yard. Jiangxi watched him leave with a smile. Her son's name was Qing Yeshen, named after her brother. He had not only inherited her own talent for body cultivation and the Shen Family trait that allowed him to tell lies from truth, but he also inherited spirit roots from his father. When Qing Yeshen turned six and had his spirit roots tested, it was revealed that they were 6th-grade spirit roots.

In the Qing Family, that wasn't enough to be treated like an exceptional genius, but it was definitely enough to be considered a core member, and with luck, he might be invested in as a future Foundation expert. When his talents were revealed, Jiangxi's status had gone up quite a bit. Her husband's great-grandfather, Elder Hucong, had even started stopping by to visit them once in a while.

She had even been advised to have a few more children, as just one son was far from enough to guarantee the family line would pass on. But there was nothing Jiangxi could do about that. She actually wanted to have another child as well, preferably a daughter. But reality was cruel, and she never got pregnant after Yeshen was born. Now, she had completely given up that thought; she was far too old. Just having been able to give birth to Yeshen safely was a blessing.

'To think I'd end up like this. A mother.' Jiangxi thought to herself, shaking her head. In her youth, she could never have imagined such a day coming. Jiangxi's family had arranged a marriage for her back then, but she had no interest in getting married and starting a family. She was quite adamant about it too, and when her family started pressuring her, she simply went to cut off the manhood of her fiancé. In the end, she failed to cut it off, but some damage was still done, and it caused quite the commotion.

Jiangxi ended up being banished from the Shen family and had to settle down in the distant Chunsi Town.

'I guess I was a bit reckless.' She didn't regret it, though. If she had made any other decision, she would never have ended up having her son. When she first came to the Qing Family, Jiangxi knew that she had to choose a husband and have children. Even if it wasn't forced on her, she would have to take the initiative in order to protect Tianyi. So as soon as they arrived in the Qing Family, Jiangxi had started getting busy. She needed to choose her husband wisely and gather all the information she could.

Unfortunately, it wasn't easy to gather information as someone kidnapped from their home. She, along with the others who were taken, was kept separate from the Qing family. They were put in a few buildings that seemed to be built in the middle of nowhere. Jiangxi only saw a few guards the first week. But then, one morning, an Elder took all the men away in a flying ship. Come nightfall, only half of them returned. Jiangxi knew that time was running out, and she might have the initiative taken out of her hands.

So she had simply approached the guards and told them that she wanted to see the bachelors of the Qing Family. She said that she was completely willing to join the Qing Family. The guards told her to be patient, as they would all be taken away for just that reason in a few more days. But Jiangxi didn't want to wait, so she proposed a plan. She would be the first to choose a husband and get married; she was even willing to have children straight away.

Then, she could talk to the other women and convince them to join her and the Qing Family. As one of the people kidnapped herself, she would have it a lot easier getting through to the women. Jiangxi knew it wasn't moral, but she didn't care. She had decided when she was taken that her role was to take care of Tianyi and make sure she would be safe; everything else came in second. The guards she explained her plan to thought that her suggestion made some sense, so they had passed on her message.

Later that same evening, Jiangxi left a tearful and scared Tianyi and traveled to the Qing Mountain, where she was introduced to several men who were looking for a marriage partner. Each of them spoke briefly about themselves, and then Jiangxi conversed with everyone one by one for a bit. In the end, Jiangxi chose Qing Linghan as her husband. There was nothing remarkable about him. In fact, he was rather meek and introverted. But Jiangxi preferred it that way.

She needed to be the one in control of their small family in the future, and she knew straight away that Qing Linghan was a man she could control. Not to mention that he was the one who seemed most interested in Jiangxi as well, and that his great-grandfather was a Foundation expert. Jiangxi had been prepared to settle for someone a lot worse, so she happily accepted Linghan as her partner. It might not be the kind of love you read about in storybooks. But Jiangxi was quite satisfied with her husband.

He wasn't incompetent, and wasn't mean or stupid. That was enough for her. She might not love her husband. Even after almost ten years together, Jiangxi was conflicted about how she felt. Some of the hatred she held for the Qing Family and her kidnapping naturally got transferred over to her husband. But after she gave birth to Yeshen, and as the boy slowly grew up, some of the love she felt for the child also got transferred to her husband.

'I'll say something nice to him when he gets back home. It always makes him happy.' Jiangxi got changed and prepared to head out into the yard to practice with her son.

'I might ask him to look into this Zhuo Zhangye. Could it really be someone from back home? Could it be Shu Yang?' Jiangxi didn't quite dare believe it, but she felt she needed to find out for certain.

'I should find an opportunity to tell Tianyi as well. I just need to be careful to phrase it in a way that doesn't get her hopes up.' Jiangxi had made sure Tianyi didn't suffer the fate of an arranged marriage and arranged for her to be placed in the Song Family under a female Elder to learn formations. She might have been able to keep Tianyi with her, but for how long? She would have to live her own life eventually, and she needed to develop her own set of skills, improve her strength, and develop connections.

So when the opportunity presented itself, Jiangxi had made sure Tianyi would receive a way to support herself in the future, and placed her in the Song Family.

'Tianyi always talks about how great it is there, and how much she is learning. But how much of that is actually her true feelings?'

'No matter what, she is bound to be missing home.' Jiangxi shook her head slightly.

'How I hope this Zhuo Zhangye actually is Shu Yang coming to get her.'