Chapter 8 Pan'er, it seems your father is a little dead.
Jiang Pan'er didn't understand why her family would sell her for her younger brother's "future".
Although she knew from a young age that her younger brother was the most precious treasure in the family.
She was just incredibly lucky to be born into the same family as Baotou, and she should be proud to have such a brother.
They would give my younger brother whatever he wanted. But when I wanted something, my mother would just coax me into thinking it was something I didn't want.
“Pan’er, my good child. Your little brother has been smart since he was little, and he’s so lively and active. He’s sure to have a bright future. Maybe one of our family members will be chosen by the spiritual energy to become a spiritual cultivator? But spiritual cultivation is not cheap. I know you’re the most sensible one. You should always think more about your brother.”
Her father would then put on a sorrowful expression, sighing but saying nothing more.
It was as if she owed them both something.
She heard these words over and over again. Jiang Pan'er wanted to ask countless times why her mother didn't remember that she was as lively and active as she was when she was little.
But at that time, her mother told her, "Jiang Pan'er, get down! How can a girl act like this, looking exactly like a monkey! When will you learn to be more ladylike? If you continue like this, what good family will want you in the future!"
She was very young then and didn't understand what a "good family" meant. She was intimidated by the words and started to do things quietly, just like the introverted Jiang Jingshu next door, as if she was afraid of disturbing her dog, Dahuang.
But her dog, Da Huang, loved to follow her around, jumping and running around. After she pretended to be a well-mannered lady, Da Huang was extremely puzzled.
Big Yellow would always come with its little ball in its mouth, look at her with its big, black, beady eyes, and then rub against her. It was as if it was asking her why she no longer climbed trees.
She wanted to climb, but she had to be a lady, and she was busy helping her mother with chores. She didn't have time, nor should she climb the tree.
Jiang Pan'er grew up in such a sensible environment.
But she still often couldn't understand why her younger brother, who was already at the age where he "should be doing housework," was still lazy and good-for-nothing all day long.
When asked, the response is always, "He's a boy..." or "You're his older sister." Parents are always like this; it seems like they're giving some kind of answer, but if you listen closely, it's hard to understand.
Why should she be the sensible older sister in the family? While her younger brother only needs to be himself.
The older sister is so pitiful; she doesn't want to be the older sister anymore. She always has to give in to her younger brother.
When Jiang Pan'er realized she was being treated differently, she was unwilling to accept it; she was seething with resentment. She knew this emotion was called anger, a feeling she had experienced before when her younger brother tried to hit Da Huang with a stick.
Dahuang was once an unwanted stray dog, and Jiang Pan'er inexplicably saw herself in it. When she, a tiny girl, brought the tiny Dahuang home, it meant that she would treat Dahuang as a family member to accompany her for life.
Dahuang is the younger sister that Jiang Pan'er chose herself.
At that moment, she quickly came up with the formula in her mind that "the older should give way to the younger." She was the older sister and should give way to her younger brother, but her younger sister was the youngest, so even if he was the younger brother, he should give way to his younger sister!
Seeing her younger brother trying to bully her younger sister, the eldest sister, bursting with a sense of responsibility, grabbed a wooden stick and hit Jiang Yaozu hard on the buttocks.
Jiang Yaozu was stunned, so she hit him again.
No one can bully my sister.
Jiang Yaozu burst into tears and immediately crawled to an adult to complain—
Her father punished her by making her lie face down on the sofa and hitting her a few times with a wooden stick; she couldn't remember exactly how many times.
She had already explained herself, but they wouldn't listen.
"...He did something wrong, but he was just being mischievous."
"As the older sister, how can you not love and care for your younger brother? What kind of older sister would hurt her own brother!"
Jiang Pan'er then understood that this was what "love" was.
The equation of age doesn't exist at all times; preferences will always slide towards a fixed group of people.
Jiang Pan'er no longer yearned for her family's "love." She studied diligently, absorbing basic knowledge about spiritual energy from every possible source, hoping that one day she could put it to use.
But she discovered that everyone was telling her that because she was a girl, she was inherently inferior to boys.
Jiang Pan'er began to doubt and deny herself again. But after denying herself, she felt that it made no sense.
...After all, she has a younger brother who is very difficult to convince her of this theory.
She felt distressed, but had no one to talk to. The first person to notice her depression was her quiet neighbor.
It turned out that Jiang Jingshu thought the same thing—she looked gentle and quiet, but her ideas were much bolder and more unconventional than her own. Jiang Jingshu was several years older than her and always made her call her "sister."
Jiang Pan'er disliked being called "older sister," as it reminded her of many unpleasant things. She always called her by her full name, Jiang Jingshu.
After learning the reason, Jiang Jingshu disagreed:
"That's the 'younger brother's' fault, not the 'older sister's' fault."
...So that's how it is.
This was the first time someone had told her that it wasn't her sister who was wrong.
"Just like you and Dahuang, you are the best sister in the world to Dahuang."
"Sister" is a very nice title, and Jiang Jingshu really hopes to become her own sister.
So, Jiang Pan'er and Jiang Jingshu made a promise that once Jiang Jingshu became a Spirit Master, she would call her "elder sister".
Jiang Jingshu was finally satisfied and said to her, "It's a deal." She also said that she had joined an organization, and once their organization continued to grow, she would find a way to move them both to the central area.
The central area is the core region closest to spiritual energy.
Jiang Pan'er was filled with fighting spirit and set a new goal. But before they could fulfill their promise, Jiang Jingshu broke her word.
The neighbor said Jiang Jingshu had gotten married; she had married for love. But Jiang Jingshu had never been interested in love or romance, and since she had clearly promised to leave with her, why would she leave her behind like this?
Her ambition should be to become a spiritual being; their eyes were clearly set on the central area long ago.
She had to find Jiang Jingshu, even if she had to go alone, she had to hear her explain the reason in person!
But before she could even set off, her father, looking like he'd found money, said something to her mother and brought them here.
It turns out her parents wanted to sell her. But her younger brother wasn't even selected during the enrollment process... This was something her father let slip when he was drunk.
……never mind.
Then she should just do what she did back then: wait for the ugly man to take her away, and then hit him on the head with a stick.
This was something she had wanted to do to Jiang Yaozu, but had never dared to. In the end, she only smacked his butt, and that alone was enough to get her a terrible scolding.
This time, no one will criticize her anymore.
Their kindness in raising and giving birth to the two of them was surely contained in those six spirit stones.
She paid it off.
If she fails... well, we'll see then.
She had to find Jiang Jingshu; she had to survive.
Just as Jiang Pan'er was figuring out how to find the wooden stick, she saw a tall, long-legged woman in black walking towards her with a dog, exuding an immense sense of oppression.
Her mother, her father, and the man were all so caught up in the joy of the completed transaction that they did not notice the woman's presence.
The woman didn't speak, but simply stretched out her hand in their direction, as if tearing something through the air.
In an instant, the ugly man's face, which was about to take her away, became twisted and terrifying—
His eyes began to bulge, and his face turned bright red from lack of oxygen. The instinct for survival drove him to open his mouth wide and struggle desperately, but the woman's hands were as nimble as if they were piercing a thin, fragile piece of paper.
The two are only a few meters apart, but for a man, that is the greatest distance.
The whole process happened unexpectedly quickly. The man's struggles gradually stopped, and he collapsed helplessly to the ground, his body grotesquely crushed as if his bones had been crushed, and he stopped breathing forever.
She accomplished all of this through the void, without her hands getting wet in the slightest.
...This is spiritual power! This powerful woman is a spiritualist!
This was the first time she had ever seen such a powerful spiritualist!
Jiang Pan'er was overjoyed. Although she witnessed the ugly man's death, she felt no fear whatsoever. Instead, she looked at the righteous spirit with the dog with great admiration.
"What about them?"
The spirit pointed to her mother and father.
Jiang Pan'er paused, pondering this question for the first time.
...And what about them?
Before Jiang Pan'er could answer, she heard her father's shocked question: "Who are you? Did you kill someone?"
...So stupid that Jiang Pan'er felt ashamed.
The person being questioned had a cold expression, and the fierce look in her eyes was enough to silence her father.
Jiang's father retreated in a panic, but then heard the woman say again, "Three more seconds."
The mother and father exchanged bewildered glances, unable to grasp the meaning of "three seconds." Jiang Pan'er was equally confused, but instinctively took a deep breath in nervousness.
"three."
The woman looked at Jiang Pan'er's father and, while counting down, silently mouthed to him: Run.
Her dull-witted father seemed to glean some information from the word.
"two."
The veins on the man's forehead bulged, and his sluggish body struggled to turn around, as if he were being chased by a demon and fleeing in panic.
"one."
The countdown stopped.
As her mother cried out in alarm, Jiang Pan'er's heart pounded so hard it felt like it would burst out of her chest.
She saw it, she saw it—her father revealed an “inner self” that had never been seen before—as if torn apart by a beast, with a haphazard dividing line drawn between the surface and the interior.
This was the first time Jiang Pan'er had witnessed the complexity and intricacy of human anatomy up close.
The man's muscles were dissolving, imperfectly separating from his skeleton. Starting from the head, it was like a banana whose peel had been failed to come off. The perpetrator's methods were brutal; sticky, unidentified tissue mingled together, rotting into pieces, revealing the banana core inside.
The woman closest to him was splattered with her husband's blood and cried out in terror. Reason told her she had to run away, but her heavy steps and out-of-control body revealed her physical fear.
The person who started all this did it as casually as if he had just peeled a banana, and even had time to chat with Jiang Pan'er:
"It seems your father is a bit dead."
A note from the author:
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