My junior sister sees everyone as a heretical cultivator.

Chapter 260 Senior Brother! Don't brag like that! (Seeking monthly tickets! Seeking rewards! Seeking book recommendations!)
Su's mother's gaze lingered on that face for a moment before quickly shifting away.

Every time she sees a girl on the street who resembles her daughter, her heart skips a beat, only to be met with emptiness and disappointment.

Hope is ignited and then extinguished; the feeling of falling from the clouds to the bottom of the valley is more agonizing each time.

She dared not look anymore.

She was afraid, afraid that this time, like countless times before, was just another mistake due to her excessive longing.

She was afraid that if she chased after him again, she would still see a strange face that seemed to say, "You've mistaken me for someone else." She preferred to believe that it was just a passerby who looked similar.

Mother Su turned around, her back to the street, and said to the servants, "Hurry up! What are you all dawdling for! It's almost dark!"

She used busyness and scolding to cover up her beating heart and the uncontrollable soreness in her eyes.

The rain lessened a bit, and Su Ling'er's heart sank.

Mother...didn't you recognize me...? Have I changed so much from how I looked three years ago...?

But Su Ling'er still took a deep breath, took a step, and walked to the cloth shed. When the servants saw this stranger with a knife on his shoulder approaching, they all subconsciously stopped what they were doing.

“…Miss…the porridge for today has already been served.” Su Ling’er looked at her mother’s face, etched with the marks of time, and saw the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, and her throat tightened.

"……mother."

Just one word, just that one word, and Su's mother's body trembled violently. The rag in her hand fell with a "plop" into the puddle on the ground.

Her eyes were fixed on Su Ling'er's face, her pupils dilating in an instant. That voice... that address... could it be that this time it wasn't an illusion...?

Su's mother's lips trembled, as if she wanted to say something but could not make a sound. She reached out her hand, as if to touch Su Ling'er's face, but her hand stopped in mid-air, trembling uncontrollably.

Seeing her mother's reaction, Su Ling'er's eyes welled up with tears, and she spoke again, "Mother, it's me."

"……I'm back."

……

It's still raining.

The gates of the Su residence slowly closed behind Su Ling'er, shutting out the outside noise and damp cold.

Inside the main room, candles were lit, and a reunion more than three years in the making slowly unfolded amidst the flickering candlelight and the fragrant aroma of food.

During the meal, Su Ling'er gave a brief, fabricated account of her whereabouts over the past three years. She made no mention of the destruction of the Qingxu Temple's leader, the bloody battle in the canyon, or even the conflict between the righteous and demonic paths of the immortals.

Those cruel truths were too heavy for the ordinary family members living in Anhe City. She only said that by chance, she had joined a secluded immortal sect called "Guixi Sect".

The training there emphasizes practical combat and worldly experience, and the outfit I'm wearing is the sect's everyday attire for training.

She said that the "boss" next to her, surnamed Lin, was an employer she met while working away from home, and also a friend who took good care of her. She was just passing by on her way to visit.

The Su family listened to these mysterious tales of immortals, and although they didn't quite understand them, they believed them when they saw their daughter, who was thin but full of energy.

In their minds, it was a good thing that their daughter, with such talent, could go to a higher immortal sect. The former name, Qingxu Temple, was gradually changed by Su Ling'er's guidance and eventually replaced by "Guixi Sect." At the dinner table, her mother kept piling food onto Su Ling'er's plate, finally filling her empty bowl to the brim: "Eat more, look how thin you are. Have you not been eating properly while you were away?"

The father still didn't say much, but he never stopped warming the wine for his daughter. He pushed the warmed wine pot in front of Su Ling'er and quietly replaced the dish of pickled vegetables in front of her that had cooled down.

The younger siblings, initially strangers, gradually gathered around Su Ling'er with curiosity, asking her all sorts of questions.

Lin Qingfeng ate quietly as a friend, but he also glanced at the Su family members and then shook his head helplessly.

They have no spiritual roots, they're all just mortals. For this family to produce someone with a pseudo-spiritual root like Su Ling'er is already a stroke of good luck. There's nothing else of value to cultivate, what a pity…

Then Lin Qingfeng also began to play his role. When Su's father asked about Su Ling'er's situation outside, he smiled and spoke.

"When Su Ling'er is out in the world, she is a force to be reckoned with, not inferior to any man. I have seen her kill a Core Formation stage demon single-handedly with her sword! She even fought a Core Formation stage evil spirit to a standstill!"

Su Ling'er almost spat out her food while listening to Lin Qingfeng's boasting.

No… Senior Brother! Don’t exaggerate like that! When we were killing the Core Formation demon, I was a complete puppet the whole time, okay? I was just terrified!

And another thing! During the fight against Ju-on, I was clearly getting beaten up on equal terms... Although you did try very hard to embellish my record, I really don't deserve such praise!
Su Ling'er maintained a "I'm so strong" smile on her face, but inside she was frantically scratching the wall in frustration.

"Yes, yes, the cultivation in Guixi Sect is so dangerous. Children should not even think about getting involved."

But the younger brother Su Wenxuan and the younger sister Su Wenjing's eyes lit up. They had been reading the fantasy novels left by their older sister since they were little, and their hearts were filled with endless fantasies about a world of slaying demons and monsters.

The younger brother, Su Wenxuan, even pulled out a chopstick and waved it in the air.

"Sister! You can slay powerful demons with a single sword strike? Can you teach me? I want to be like the sword immortals in those stories, wandering the world with my sword!"

Their questions came one after another, and Su Ling'er felt a sharp pain in her heart as she looked into their eyes.

Wandering the world with a sword? She thought of the underhanded cooperation between the righteous and demonic paths for the sake of profit, she thought of the cruelty of the Qingxu Temple leader's blood sacrifice of his fellow disciples, and she thought of the righteous Tianlu Sect elders who also treated human life as worthless.

Even now, the one time she was truly in mortal danger was when she encountered the leader of the righteous sect, not when she experienced the demonic sect. Who would believe that if I told you?

This world is not as wonderful as depicted in stories, and Su Ling'er does not want them to get involved in this quagmire.

She took out a small porcelain bottle from her storage bag. It contained some pills that she had bought to strengthen the body and prolong life, which were useless to cultivators.

She poured out the pills and distributed them to her parents, younger brother, and younger sister: "Dad, Mom, Wenxuan, Wenjing, you should eat these; they're good for your health."

Seeing this, Lin Qingfeng subconsciously reached into his storage bag, but after thinking about it, he decided against it.

Now that he's a wealthy businessman, if he casually pulls out an elixir, his persona will crumble. He'll give his junior sister something else privately later and have her pass it on.

He then continued eating without a care in the world, completely disregarding his own status. His younger siblings were still pestering Su Ling'er, clamoring to go cultivate immortality with her.

Su Ling'er looked at them and shook her head: "You don't have spiritual roots, so you can't cultivate immortality. Just stay at home, study hard, live well, and inherit the family business. Don't keep thinking about those unrealistic things."

After all... this world isn't as simple as it's portrayed in stories...

(End of this chapter)