Chapter 666: The Truth Yet Unknown
The sky outside the window has turned dark; the time I’ve spent here with Sister Bai has exceeded our expectations by far.
The original owner of this house has gradually returned, as expected. My mother took the child to work, while my father came home even later.
“Are they just going to leave the child here unattended?”
Sister Bai and I arrived at the nursery, which is just a bedroom with a crib set up inside.
“One goes to cook when it’s time… the other comes home and smokes… hehe.”
Looking at these two people and then glancing at the baby girl in the crib, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pity for the hardships this little girl might face in her future.
Sister Bai was also curiously looking at the baby. If the baby weren’t already asleep, she would probably reach out to play with her.
I leaned over the crib, observing this baby who was already a few months old. Right now, she was quiet and peacefully asleep.
Logically, this time should roughly coincide with the end of maternity leave. I didn’t expect her to return to work so soon…
However, for the baby, her birth was innocent. No matter how much I disliked this family, I couldn’t feel the same way about a newborn.
Out of instinct, I used the Earth Vein Identification Technique on her, but instead of tracing back through the timeline, I displayed information.
I just wanted to understand how much suffering this child had endured while living with these parents.
During the maternity leave, they should have taken good care of the child, right? At least that would prove they were competent parents for a period of time.
As the information from the Earth Vein Identification Technique gradually revealed itself, the organized data continued to surface until a crucial piece of information emerged, causing my hand to tremble violently as it rested on the crib.
“Xiao Han? What’s wrong?”
Sister Bai’s concerned inquiry startled the baby awake with her loud crying, as if igniting the last spark of conflict in this family.
“Her dad! Go check on her!”
“Dammit… why don’t you go! And don’t call me her dad!”
“Why don’t I go? I’m cooking, do you know! If the food burns, you won’t be eating anything tonight!”
“…”
Their quarrel persisted, seemingly venting out their day’s frustrations instead of addressing the baby’s issue.
“Xiao Han…”
I shook my head at Sister Bai, interrupting her words, my gaze complex as I looked back at the crying child.
In the end, I did nothing but took Sister Bai’s hand and used space teleportation to leave this place entirely.
However, with the baby’s cries inexplicably piercing the air, this incident triggered yet another family conflict.
At this moment, in Sister Bai’s house, a teleportation portal opened, and I led her through it.
“Xiao Han, what exactly happened?” Sister Bai asked with concern, as many events had occurred too quickly for her to process. It wasn’t that she couldn’t react, but the parents’ responses shattered her understanding, leaving her bewildered…
Why did they start arguing instead of soothing the baby when she was just crying?
The mother, discussing cooking in the kitchen, and the father, shutting himself in to smoke. Once that shout of “go check on her” rang out, everything went wrong, and no one was right anymore.
The mother, at the end of her maternity leave, faced work pressure and then had to cook when she got home, leaving little time for the child. The father, perhaps still sulking while smoking, wasn’t suitable for taking care of a baby either. No one was wrong, but no one was right either; they had just turned their lives into a routine of daily arguments.
“Something happened… that I can hardly believe,” I said, shaking my head.
“Well… is it convenient for you to talk to me about it?” Sister Bai softened her tone and gently inquired.
Something clearly must have happened that shook me so much that even Xiao Han, being a Body Cultivator, couldn’t control her trembling hands.
The baby’s crying, if traced back to its source, was merely a result of Xiao Han’s accidental tremor.
“That baby girl… isn’t their biological child,” I began.
“What?!”
“That child… is not the biological offspring of this couple, but… that woman did indeed experience pregnancy.” I was adjusting my mindset.
This brought back memories of when Yao Beijuan told me something similar… I wasn’t biological either, but I had never verified it. Even after obtaining the Earth Vein Identification Technique, I unconsciously neglected this matter because I believed I had moved on from the past, making the truth of such matters seem insignificant.
But now, another similar case had arisen.
“Not biological? Did that woman cheat?” Sister Bai, still processing, hadn’t yet comprehended the gravity of the situation…
“The baby isn’t her biological child either… Remember what was said earlier? ‘Don’t call me her dad.’ That line…”
My words left Sister Bai stunned; she couldn’t grasp why. Accepting others’ ideas was the hardest thing, especially when it surpassed her understanding.
A prolonged silence followed, but eventually, I was the first to react; perhaps I had encountered too many harsh truths in my life…
“Sister Bai… accompany me to two places,” I said, standing up.
“Okay, I’ll go with you.” Sister Bai nodded, even though she had no idea where we were going, she was willing to accompany me as long as I had a goal.
“Sister Bai, aren’t you curious where we’re going?”
“Wherever you go, I’ll be with you.”
“Thank you, Sister Bai…” I squeezed her hand, feeling the remaining sense of security, “I… want to go to the Holy Light Church nearby… and… the hospital.”
“Alright, let’s go.” Sister Bai nodded, not surprised. Going to these two places was simply about uncovering the truth, akin to tracing back the past.
The first place we chose, the Holy Light Church, wasn’t far from here, so Sister Bai accompanied me as we prepared to walk over.
The dark night sky was illuminated only by the warm-yellow streetlights lining the road. As we strolled along, we felt less urgency; maybe we had come to terms with many things?
After all, what had happened couldn’t be changed. We were merely set to witness the truth as it was.
The Holy Light Church at night was located in the most bustling area.
Standing there, its magnificent appearance gave a breathtaking first impression. Even in the night, it was the most beautiful sight around.
The architectural style of the church incorporated all the most popular historical elements, creating stunning light and shadow effects under the illumination of the holy light. The soaring spires pointed skyward, adorned with a glowing halo resembling a Holy Angel. It was one of the greatest miracles of light displayed by the Holy Light Church, guiding and blessing every believer and ascetic.
As Sister Bai and I approached, the finely crafted white jade sculptures on the church’s outer wall depicted stories from the Holy Light Revelation and the images of the Holy Angels in vivid detail through intricate craftsmanship.
Bathed in the holy light, they exhibited a sense of sanctity that compelled one to pray.
Even now, many believers dressed in pure white garments gathered here at night, alongside devoted ascetics who walked across the square in front of the church. Whether arriving or leaving, they all carried the sincerest devotion.
And this was the destination of my visit.
Sister Bai and I exchanged glances; although the connection in our hearts had faded, we seemed to understand instinctively what to do next.
People around us ignored our incongruity, and with each step we took forward, the scenes before our eyes began to retrace.
The pitch-black night gradually brightened, and the twilight that had long since faded transformed into the dawn rising in the west.
We were once again treading the path of the past, a flood of information crashing over me in an instant, yet I did not feel as overwhelmed as before.
I continued to walk forward, determined to uncover the memories of what had once been.
But this was the Holy Light Church, not that “home.” Yet, in this way, it became easier to search. Once I anchored the information about that family here, it became our moment to pause and observe.
But I found that the first point of intersection was not that family, but rather my name and its relation to this Holy Light Church.
After all, we were retracing events in reverse flow, which meant we were confronting the most recent occurrences.
“They realized my name, recognized my strength, understood my terror… and they fortuitously knew my family, my parents, and my… younger brother.”
Before that, I also understood why, logically speaking, the “mother” who should have been resting post-delivery appeared so lively; the Holy Light Church had been assisting her with healing magic. This was also a means of demonstrating a miracle.
“Isn’t it interesting… when they can’t have you, they start thinking about your brother?” Sister Bai remarked, watching the fast-forwarding images beside me.
The gleeful expressions of the hierarchy at the Holy Light Church, as if they had discovered a treasure, and the promises they extended, made Sister Bai almost unable to contain her laughter.
“Wow, they’re quick to act…”
I shook my head and continued forward with the retracing. As events unfolded as I had predicted, any further ahead indicated that the Holy Light Church was unaware that the family involved was the very one I once belonged to; they merely viewed them as a typical case blessed by the holy light to promote continuously.
They would staunchly stand against the Inferior Demon Academy and other such evil extraordinary academies, fiercely safeguarding every child’s right to choose their academy.
The images continued to trace back until they reached a time when that family had no intersection with the Holy Light Church. I found myself back at a certain node…
“Xiao Han, this place is…”
“They are a couple of pseudo-believers. To increase the church’s exposure and obtain more benefits, they begrudgingly come here to pray and confess on weekends when they have free time…”
“Does Xiao Han think they genuinely confess here?”
“I don’t know, but… the information from the Earth Veins is too abundant. Without more precise search methods, I cannot summarize and uncover the truths they haven’t spoken…”
Of course, my intent in doing this was simply to find out if they had recognized their sins under the holy light.
However, soon after, with each confession event and the ever-jumping time frames, they did not appear to repent for their actions as I had expected; instead, many were complaints, as if questioning why the holy light had granted them such a miserable life.
“It’s still your fault; you keep saying to be patient… And now, that family has moved away. Where can we find them?”
“That troublesome thing, you think that family is anything good? A neurotic thing was better off leaving early.”
“What about my biological daughter?! My biological daughter brought us this troublesome thing; can we ever find her again?”
“Our daughter probably doesn’t even know where she is enjoying life. You shouldn’t worry…”
Watching the floating dialogue above the past apparition, the brevity of their words laid bare a harsh truth.
“Xiao Han…”
“Let’s go; it seems unnecessary to stay here any longer.” I took the initiative to grasp Sister Bai’s hand, “Sister Bai, don’t think too much; witnessing the diversity of life is also part of the ordinary topic.”
“It’s like a certain bird species in nature lays its young in other birds’ nests for them to rear.” I said to Sister Bai, “This world is already terminally ill. The extremely impoverished want to rise again; children are their scratch-off tickets. They know their odds of winning are low, but good families’ children aren’t guaranteed to make it either.”
“…Why? Why has it turned out like this…?” Sister Bai faced such a truth, which was far too shocking to her understanding.
If all this had no connection to her, she might have been moved, but since this event happened to someone she cared about most, Xiao Han, she could not ignore it.
At one moment, she almost lost control of the pressure of her life. The extraordinary-level life essence swept through the entire Holy Light Church like divine wrath.
Countless believers and ascetics fell prostrate on the ground, praying for the anger of the holy light to subside.
That fleeting moment felt too short, like an illusion; yet, it was improbable for everyone to experience an illusion simultaneously. Those ignorant believers and ascetics merely thought this was another miracle descending, believing it stemmed from the unforgivable mistakes made by the penitent at that moment.
“Letting others raise your child, then having someone else’s child uplift your family, the more failed a life, the more it breeds distorted perceptions. I once thought I had sufficiently underestimated the oppression facing the lower classes, believing childbirth was merely an investment and that this notion was the bottom line of being human. I never expected…”
I recalled the structures within the extraordinary families; even among the affluent and powerful families, even the most mundane child would not be held to an abject existence that an ordinary person would never reach. The failure of a family did not regard the bloodline of the child; ignorant parents could not raise a child capable of uplifting them.
Because of their ignorance, stinginess, arrogance, and controlling desires… even if the whole world praised their child as the smartest person, they would never acknowledge that the child was indeed the brightest in the family.
Even if they had a thousand chances bestowed upon them, they would never learn the art of letting go. A failure in education meant that the greatest issue within such a family was never the child but the parents, as they would never acknowledge the fault lay with themselves.
“Sister Bai, let’s head to the hospital.” After calming my emotions, I forced a slight smile and looked at Sister Bai.
“Mm.” Sister Bai nodded, without inquiring further or asking whether we were going to the hospital to learn the truth or to find our true parents.
She just knew that Xiao Han needed her company at that moment.
By now, many truths had already been revealed, many regrets had dissipated, many reasons had been understood, and many obsessions had been let go.
This journey did not seek a turning point in the development of events; rather, it was to witness the realities of truths firsthand.
This was a completion of life’s experiences, a resurrection of the lacking experiences, a nourishment of inner strength; it was the insistence on ideals and dedication, the fading of regrets and the past, the growth of spirit and psyche, and the… rebirth of self and recognition.
