In the end, the village head only found one of Li Guifen's shoes at the inner entrance of the mountain, and a piece of fabric from her clothes on a tree branch, which he brought back to Li Ergou.

"Ergou! We really couldn't find the child. We only found these things. It looks like he's probably dead." Zhou Lizheng's voice was heavy.

Holding his daughter's shoes and scraps of cloth, Li Ergou sat at his doorstep, sobbing uncontrollably. He blamed himself for letting his daughter down; she hadn't even had a few days of happiness before she passed away, and now her body couldn't even be found.

It's truly heartbreaking to see her so devastated by her daughter's death.

He even banged his head against the wooden stake in his own yard, making a loud thud.

Zhou Lizheng also felt a pang of sadness. "Ergou, let's hold a funeral for the child! What can we do now that he's gone?" Zhou Lizheng advised.

Meanwhile, Liu Sisi, who had just arrived home by horse-drawn carriage, was also quite shocked to hear from the villagers that Li Guifen had died!

"She's dead. How did she die?" Liu Sisi asked Aunt Li next door.

"Her father said he went up the mountain to collect ginseng for her, but he was eaten by wild animals in the inner part of the mountain. This child bullied you so much before, I don't know if this is retribution."

Aunt Li replied in a low voice.

“She’s picking ginseng for her father. When did she become so filial? I’ll go take a look,” Liu Sisi said to Aunt Li before heading to Li Guifen’s house.

Li Guifen's house was once again surrounded by people. Li Ergou was still crying there. Yang and her two sons had just returned from the fields and heard that Li Guifen had been eaten by wild animals. Yang also rushed into Li Ergou's arms and started crying.

Li Guifu's expression was also somewhat sad, and Li Guiquan stood there without saying a word, as if the dead had nothing to do with him.

Liu Sisi looked at Li Ergou's family and felt something was off. She sensed that although they looked sad, it seemed like they were faking it.

She didn't think too much about it. Since Li Guifen was dead, the original owner of this body should rest in peace. She had gotten her just deserts.

She stopped looking, turned, and headed home. Before she even reached her house, a line of small words flashed through her mind: "Please quickly learn the sixth level of the Jade Goddess Palm. Upon completion, you will gain the ability to connect with your own soul."

Three big question marks instantly appeared above Liu Sisi's head.

What does this mean? Connecting to one's own soul—don't I have a soul now?

She ran home as fast as she could, and as soon as she entered, she said to Madam Wu, "Father, Mother, the Snake Immortal said he's going to teach me martial arts. I'm not eating tonight, so please don't come in and disturb me!"

"Mother understands," Madam Wu knew her daughter was different from ordinary people, and now she wouldn't ask any more questions about what Liu Sisi said.

After Liu Sisi entered the room, Wu said to Liu Dashi, "Husband, do you think we should tell her that she was adopted? Our daughter is so capable now, what if she wants to find her parents?"

“If that family has abandoned their daughter, what kind of good family could they be? Sisi is our daughter. What if we take her back and that family treats her badly?”

“Now that we’re doing better, I’d be willing to raise my daughter for the rest of my life. Let’s not bring this up again.” Liu Dashi’s voice was somewhat serious.

Ms. Wu recalled the day she brought Liu Sisi home; she had also given birth that day.

However, because she was often harassed by Old Wang during her pregnancy, her pregnancy was unstable and she was born prematurely. Old Wang didn't care about her and didn't hire a midwife. She even cut the umbilical cord herself.

Liu Dashi was working odd jobs in town at the time and was not at home. Her sons were still young. She did not expect that the baby would not cry after birth. When Wu picked him up, she saw that it was a stillborn male fetus.

She dared not let Old Wang know. That old woman was very superstitious. If she found out it was a stillborn, she would definitely curse her for bad luck and then just throw the child away. Even if the child died, she would not have peace.

When Liu Dashi returned around 3 PM, she told him about it.

When everyone was asleep at 9 PM, Liu Dashi secretly took the stillborn child and went a long way, almost to the county town, before digging a hole and burying the child.

On her way back, she heard crying. When she went to check, she found a child. He had just lost one child and then found an abandoned child. He felt that this was a child given to him by God out of pity, and he took the child home without hesitation.

When she got home, Ms. Wu took the baby and saw that it was a girl. She was overjoyed, as she had only given birth to boys and had just lost one of her children.

They were just worried about how to explain it to Old Wang! Then this little girl came along, which made things much easier, so both of them doted on this daughter.

Fortunately, Old Wang didn't care much about her. She just came to see that she had given birth to a girl, said "a money-losing good thing," and left.

Even his sons didn't know about this; only he and his wife knew.

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Wu made a silent resolution to keep this secret. What if that family had bad intentions and found out about her daughter's secret and harmed her?

She's really confused. Why did she go looking for that family?

At this moment, Liu Sisi had no idea that she was not actually the biological daughter of her father; she was focused on practicing the sixth level of the Jade Goddess Palm technique.

Two hours have passed and it's still not finished.

Xi Yu hid in the snake pit and watched Liu Sisi.

"This girl's training sessions are getting longer and longer. Ugh, so boring! Time to eat some spicy snacks. Staying in the space eating all day is pretty dull. I'll talk to her about going out for a stroll sometime."

Two more hours passed, and it was finally finished.

"Congratulations on successfully mastering the sixth level of the Jade Goddess Palm Technique; you have gained the ability to connect with your own soul."

After those words flashed through my mind, a crack appeared in the sky above the space outside.

Immediately afterwards, a transparent spirit floated down from the crack, and the spirit slowly solidified into the shape of Liu Sisi.

Looking at the face that looked exactly like hers, Liu Sisi was overwhelmed with shock.

"You, you are the original owner?" Liu Sisi finally managed to utter this sentence after a long pause.

"I am you," the person on the other end said.

What? Liu Sisi's brain went blank for a moment, and she couldn't understand what she meant.

"There is no original owner. I am you, and you are me. I am just your other half of the soul, just separated in different eras. I represent your cowardly side, and you represent your strong side."

"My mission is complete, so it's time for me to step down. I'm leaving."

What? What do you mean by that? Didn't you say you were me? Why did you leave? Aren't you going to come back to me? Liu Sisi was completely confused by what she said.

"What would we do if we joined forces?" I am cowardly, would joining forces with you make you cowardly too?

"I'm leaving now; other tasks await me!"

"Wait, I was about to tell you that Li Guifen is dead!" Liu Sisi called out to her.

"She's actually not dead yet!" The spirit on the other side only said this before drifting away through the crack, leaving Liu Sisi bewildered.