“Mother, you’re overthinking it. Qin’er genuinely cares about me,” Ying Guo said. “In a few days, I’m going to meet up with her for an outing and want to pick out a gift for her.”

Ying Guo’s intentions were very clear. Shen Ke’er, who had always been generous toward her adopted son, gave him quite a bit of money. After that, Ying Guo grew even closer to the girl. He came by to help with the stall less and less, and his private school test scores plummeted.

When the teacher reported the matter to Shen Ke’er, she became furious and gave Ying Guo a harsh beating, forbidding him from leaving the house to meet that girl for several days. Although Ying Guo said he felt upset, he didn’t think too much about it. Several days later, he told the girl he liked about what had happened.

Qin’er applied ointment to his wounds, her face full of heartache. “It was just a poor test score. Your mother was far too harsh with you, beating you like this.” Ying Guo shook his head. “Don’t blame Mother. It really was my fault for not doing well on the test.”

“Brother Guo, your personality is just too good. In my opinion, you always handle things by balancing work and rest,” Qin’er said. “You get up early every day and study from morning till night, and you still have to help your mother look after the stall, yet she still treats you this way. It’s really a bit too much.”

Ying Guo’s eyes dropped slightly as he recalled how, over the years, he had repeated the same exhausting routine every day, rising early and working into the night. Even when he caught a cold, he still had to study. Suddenly, he didn’t know what to say. He truly felt wronged. He no longer tried to defend Shen Ke’er and instead said, “Actually, she’s my adoptive mother.”

Qin’er suddenly understood and said, “No wonder she’s so harsh with you. I think your adoptive mother has suffered too much hardship and is scared of living that way again. That’s why she’s so strict about your studies—she wants you to succeed in life and take her along to live better days. Unlike my own mother, who always doted on my real older brother. Even if he didn’t do well on his exams, she’d still prepare him a big meal to cheer him up.”

Hearing these words, Ying Guo felt extremely uncomfortable. He had previously thought nothing of it, but now he felt that his mother truly had been a bit too heartless toward him. In the days that followed, Shen Ke’er clearly noticed that Ying Guo was deliberately distancing himself from her.

One day, while she was at the market buying tofu, she happened to see Ying Guo chatting and strolling with that young lady named Qin’er. Hearing their conversation clearly chilled her heart. That girl kept criticizing her parenting, saying this and that was wrong, and Ying Guo just stood to the side listening without refuting a single word. In fact, there were even moments where he agreed that the girl was right.

This was the child she had raised with painstaking effort, and yet a girl he had only just met was able to drive a wedge between their mother-son bond. Shen Ke’er felt utterly heartbroken, and after that, her attitude toward Ying Guo became noticeably colder.

Until one day, Ying Guo once again asked her for money. How could Shen Ke’er not know? Ying Guo just wanted to go out and enjoy himself with that girl. So she didn’t give him the money.

Instead, Ying Guo got a bit angry and said, “Mother, I just want a little pocket money. You won’t even give me that?” Shen Ke’er asked in return, “You want it, but why should I give it to you?”

To be honest, during this period, Ying Guo had already taken quite a bit of money from her. How much could she possibly earn in a day selling tofu?

She even had to pay for Ying Guo’s private tutoring fees. She had already been squeezed dry. But Ying Guo replied matter-of-factly, “Because you’re my mother. Isn’t it only right for you to give me money?”

Shen Ke’er felt utterly chilled inside. Why had she never realized—when had she raised Ying Guo into this kind of person? She stopped responding to Ying Guo, feeling a headache coming on, and planned to find some peace and quiet alone. However, in Ying Guo’s eyes, her actions meant that she didn’t want to care about him anymore.

Late at night, while Shen Ke’er was asleep, she noticed some movement beside her. She opened her eyes and saw that Ying Guo was secretly taking money from her purse. Seeing she had woken up, Ying Guo immediately ran outside. Shen Ke’er felt utterly disheartened—Ying Guo hadn’t left her a single coin. She couldn’t even afford the ingredients to make tofu for the next day. A few days later, she couldn’t even afford food.

With no other choice, she had to pull out her stash of emergency supplies from under the bed. Inside, there were still three items—trinkets that Lin Mo had brought back for her during his past travels. She clutched those three items tightly, tears unconsciously streaming down her face.

“Senior Brother… Senior Brother, I know I was wrong.”
“I know I was in the wrong, and even more so—I’ve wronged you.”
“But I really, really miss you…”

Over all these years, whenever she was wronged, she would always pick up something Lin Mo had given her and cry. In the past, with Lin Mo protecting and providing for her, her days had been so happy… It was nothing like how things were now…

Thinking of how she had once been blinded by hatred, and had pointed to Lin Mo as the one who had harmed his fellow disciples, and even more so, to save that beast Ye Kai, she had personally hurt Lin Mo—her heart was now stuffed full of guilt. To have done something like that, she truly was not worthy of pity. But she was afraid. She still wanted to live…

After taking out a hairpin from the storage chest, she once again hid the storage chest under the pit beneath the bed. Just as Shen Ke’er stepped outside, she ran into Ying Guo.

When Ying Guo saw the hairpin in her hand, he immediately found it beautiful. Without giving her a chance to explain, he snatched it from her hand. “Mother, you still have such a nice treasure? Then I’ll thank you on Qin’er’s behalf.” Without even waiting for Shen Ke’er to respond, Ying Guo dashed off excitedly with the hairpin in hand.

Overwhelmed by rage and heartbreak, Shen Ke’er spat out a mouthful of blood and fainted. After that, a long time passed, and Ying Guo never came back. Not only that, from that day onward, he never went to private school again.

When Shen Ke’er learned the truth, she was utterly disheartened. How could she have raised such an ungrateful creature? Several months later, Shen Ke’er still hadn’t seen Ying Guo return. Just as she had resolved to live the rest of her life alone, Ying Guo showed up at her door with Qin’er and two men.

Although Shen Ke’er had no cultivation base left, she could still sense that the two men were cultivators.
“What are you doing back here?” Shen Ke’er looked at Ying Guo coldly.

But Ying Guo simply smiled and said, “Mother, where did you get that hairpin last time? You don’t know—it’s a real treasure.”

“Mother, do you still have any more? Give me a few more,” Ying Guo asked eagerly. “A cultivator told me that if I can bring out a few more items like that hairpin, they’ll make an exception and let Qin’er and me join their immortal sect.” He was practically bursting with excitement. “Mother, did you know? In the entrance test, I turned out to have triple spiritual roots. I’m fated for cultivation! If I can cultivate, why would I still need to study?”

Shen Ke’er laughed angrily. “From the moment you snatched my hairpin last time, I no longer consider you my child.”

Ying Guo pleaded sorrowfully, “Mother, you were the one who raised me from childhood. You don’t want to see me live a worthless life, do you?” Shen Ke’er said nothing, only waving them off, telling them to leave.

At that moment, Qin’er spoke up. “Brother Guo, your mother just can’t stand to see you do well. No need to say more—let the cultivators search on our own..” Before Shen Ke’er could respond, the two men with them began ransacking the small thatched hut, turning everything upside down.

Shen Ke’er’s eyes reddened with fury. “You beast, do you have any idea how important this hut is to me?”

Ying Guo didn’t care at all. “It’s just a thatched hut. If the immortal sects find treasures here, would they really treat us poorly?” Shen Ke’er stepped forward and tugged at his sleeve. “You beast, tell them to stop.” But Ying Guo had no intention of doing so.

In a rage, Shen Ke’er bit down on Ying Guo’s hand. He cried out in pain and instinctively shoved her to the ground. Just then, the two men pulled out the storage chest from under the bed.

“Wow, not bad at all,” one of them said. “Just the grade of this storage chest isn’t low, and inside there’s even a spiritual treasure.”

Ying Guo exclaimed excitedly, “Honored immortals, does this mean I can join the sect now?”
One of the men chuckled and said, “Of course you can.”

When Shen Ke’er saw that the storage box Lin Mo had left for her was being taken away, she seemed to go mad, lunging at the man and shouting, “Give me back my things! Return what’s mine!” During the scuffle, the man accidentally tore off her veil. Upon seeing her face, he sneered, “What an ugly thing,” and with spiritual energy gathered in his palm, struck her.

Shen Ke’er only felt a sharp pain in her waist and abdomen as she was slammed heavily to the ground, her head covered in blood. She felt unable to get up, yet still muttered, “Return my senior brother’s ring.”

But the man ignored her and walked away. Ying Guo quickly followed, while Qin’er asked, “You really won’t return the ring to your mother? I can tell she really cares about it.” Ying Guo curled his lips into a smile and said lightly, “She’s the mother who raised me from childhood. What’s hers is mine, isn’t it? Let’s go.”

Shen Ke’er let out a self-deprecating laugh. She suddenly realized that Ying Guo was her shadow, reflecting all the details of how she had treated Lin Mo back then. Back on Qingzhu Peak, hadn’t she treated Lin Mo with exactly this same attitude? Relying on that one sentence—”because I’m the junior sister who was raised since childhood”—she had taken all of Lin Mo’s kindness as something she deserved without question.

She finally understood just how much her senior brother had suffered back then. Her heart ached—deeply, excruciatingly—more than it had when Ye Kai abandoned her.

A child she had raised herself, now so easily driven apart by others—deliberately pulled away from her—turned out to be such a heartbreaking thing. A child she had raised, demanding from her as if it were rightfully theirs—this, too, turned out to be something so suffocating. And worst of all, the child she had raised stabbed her in the back at her most helpless moment. So this… this was what that felt like.

She truly regretted everything.

If she could do it all over again, she would never again listen to the malicious words of petty people. She would stay obediently by Lin Mo’s side and properly repay the kindness of his care and upbringing.

In that moment, she no longer feared death. In fact, death felt like the greatest relief.

And just as Shen Ke’er truly repented and resolved to change, her soul was once again pulled by the system into another illusionary cycle.

Meanwhile, in the demon realm, Lin Mo looked on coldly as the system notified him of the regret points he had just received.

[Shen Ke’er has experienced her tenth illusionary cycle. The regret value gained by the host has decreased again.]
[Congratulations, host. You have received 800 regret points.]

Back when Shen Ke’er went through her first cycle, Lin Mo had received eighty thousand regret points. But with each additional cycle, the system would grant fewer and fewer.

But so what?

Hadn’t he also gone through thousands of cycles before he was finally able to change this outcome?

…