Are you really trying to cultivate immortality? Something feels off.

Tan Suiting grasped his hand, raised it, and touched his earlobe. The sapphire blue pendant swayed gently, feeling slightly cool to the touch: "This is the destiny of the Dragon Clan. My mother personally put it on me when I was six years old, and it cannot be taken off casually before I reach adulthood. When I was twenty-five, my father personally moved it from my right ear to my left ear, signifying that I can start a family and choose a Daoist partner."

"Kunkun," he said softly, his tone indifferent, yet his eyes held a hint of anticipation, "when the day comes that you reach adulthood, I will take it off and give it to you."

Xie Weixing's eyelashes trembled slightly, and she froze.

*

"Xiaoyun," Shen Yuan said, placing the porridge on a tray and entering the room, "have something to eat."

Nie Shiyun leaned against the bedside, her face pale, with bandage marks on her body.

Her injury was not fatal. After all, Shen Yuan only wanted her to submit, not to take her life. Therefore, he did not kill her in the Ten Thousand Poisons Cave. She was just weak and powerless because she had not eaten for a long time.

"Get out," Nie Shiyun turned her head away, "get out."

Shen Yuan gently placed the tray on the table. The porcelain bowl touched the wooden table with only a very soft sound.

He wore a plain-colored long robe, his posture was upright, and his eyes and brows were gentle.

He walked slowly to the bedside, lowered his eyes slightly, and looked at Nie Shiyun, who stubbornly turned her face away and refused to look at him. His voice was extremely soft, gentle and tender: "Xiaoyun, why torture yourself like this when you're angry with your father?"

Nie Shiyun's shoulders were tense, her thin back was straight, and her wounds throbbed with each soft breath, making her voice weak and trembling, yet her words remained icy: "I don't want your fake kindness, go away."

Shen Yuan sighed softly, his gaze tinged with just the right amount of heartache, his eyes falling on her neatly bandaged wounds, a genuine pity in them: "When has your father ever truly hurt you? You know perfectly well. In the past two years in the Ten Thousand Poisons Cave, if I had truly attacked you, it would have been a deadly end. How could you have survived until now?"

Nie Shiyun scoffed, her face pale: "Then I should thank you? Thank you for sending me to the Ten Thousand Poisons Cave, for locking me up for two years, for turning me into a grotesque creature. If it weren't for my sister saving me, I don't know where I'd be dead by now!"

"Xiaoyun, I did use you, but think about it. Haven't I been genuinely good to you since you were little? I hate the elders of the Nie family, and I want to kill them. That's why I need you to help me seize power. I can't just watch my ten-year plan fall apart. Xiaoyun, that day in the ancestral hall, you were the one who attacked me first, weren't you?"

Nie Shiyun's eyes trembled slightly.

"You know your father is in poor health and cannot cultivate. If he were to face you, he would surely die," Shen Yuan said, lowering his eyes slightly, his voice tinged with desolation. "I know that you also look down on your father."

"When have I ever looked down on you?" Nie Shiyun gritted her teeth, tears welling in her eyes. "From childhood to adulthood, you've always been the best person to me. Everyone said I wasn't as good as Nie Zhao, but you told me I wasn't inferior to my sister. I've never looked down on you. When those elders treated you badly, I went to help you take revenge. When Mother was in seclusion and my sister wasn't in the manor, you used me to kill so many elders. In the end, when you realized I was disobedient and no longer useful, you kicked me into the Ten Thousand Poisons Cave. No father would treat a child like that!"

"You insisted on going against my arrangements and insisted on leaving the Nie family mansion in Nanchuan. If I let you go unpunished, given your spoiled nature, would I just watch you wander outside, homeless and without a place to live?" Shen Yuan's eyes were filled with tears, his expression sincere. "If I really hated you and really wanted you to die, why would I go to such lengths to keep you alive and personally watch over you? No father in the world would kill the daughter he raised from childhood. Xiao Yun, I raised you with my own hands. You've had whatever you wanted since you were little. I truly love you."

Nie Shiyun's lips lost their color, her eyes churning with grievance and anger. Her fingers gripped the brocade quilt beneath her tightly, creating deep wrinkles: "Using this method? That's your twisted logic!"

Shen Yuan spoke patiently and tenderly: "Xiao Yun, I admit that I love your mother more than I love you, but I'm good to you because you are my daughter, my only daughter."

He slowly reached out his hand, his fingertips hovering lightly over her shoulder: "I can tolerate your anger, hatred, and resentment towards me, but you shouldn't have taken it out on yourself. The servants say you haven't eaten or drunk anything. Your body is already weak, how can you withstand this? Your wounds haven't healed, and if you starve yourself, you'll develop a chronic illness and suffer year after year. It's true that I'm using you, but I love you even more."

The warm rice porridge on the table steamed with white vapor, and the sweet aroma of rice filled the whole room.

Shen Yuan turned to the side, picked up the bowl of porridge. The temperature was just right, neither too hot nor too cold, a temperature he had personally tested.

He lowered his eyes and spoke gently, "Giving in isn't admitting defeat. Going along with your father this once isn't you compromising; it's you being sensible. As long as you're willing to take good care of your injuries, I'll apologize for whatever you want."

Nie Shiyun looked at him with trembling eyes, a complex mix of emotions rising in her heart.

Surprise, fear, attachment, doubt.

Why can people be so versatile?

He doted on her from a young age. Even though she was frail and had many affairs to attend to in the Nie family, he would still make time to play with her and help her with her cultivation every day.

He would sit beside her while she practiced swordsmanship, smiling gently and saying, "Little Yun, you're making great progress. Daddy has a gift for you today."

In the winter, when she felt cold, he would come in the middle of the night, wearing a cloak, to keep watch over the servants and keep them warm by the stove, fearing she would be cold.

These are all true, but why would such a good father suddenly change his expression and, without hesitation, tie her up and throw her into the Ten Thousand Poisons Cave?

"Xiaoyun," Shen Yuan said calmly, "you are my only family, my only daughter. I have never had true feelings for Nie Zhao, but I have always cherished you and wanted to protect you as you grow up. I never thought of pushing you to the brink. From beginning to end, I only wanted you to stay by my side peacefully."

Nie Shiyun stared at him blankly.

This is her father, who raised her and is the person she has trusted and relied on the most since she was a child.

The fragrant, warm rice porridge warmed my stomach as it entered my mouth, and my chilled body began to feel warm again.

"Bang--!"

The door was suddenly pushed open.

"Look what you've done!"

Nie Qingyi slapped a roll of paper hard across Shen Yuan's face: "Is this what you meant by not using ordinary people to create corpses?"

She glanced at Nie Shiyun on the bed and suppressed her anger: "Get out here."

Nie Zhao followed behind, raising his eyes coldly.

Shen Yuan put down the bowl of porridge, frowned slightly, his cheek stinging from the blow, and bent down to pick up the paper from the ground to examine it.