“You’re pretty intimate with that black robe, aren’t you? What’s your relationship?” Pi Yang asked just as Yun Ruoyan turned to leave.

“He’s my husband,” Yun Ruoyan responded, without turning back.

In the deep of the night, when Yun Ruoyan slowly fell asleep in Li Mo’s lap, she thought she could hear somebody calling out to her.

“Ruoyan, Ruoyan!”

This voice was extremely familiar, and one that she would never forget: the voice of her mother, Lin Yuemei. Yun Ruoyan slowly stood up and blearily began walking in the direction of the voice.

“Mother!” Yun Ruoyan wandered through a patch of white fog. “Mother, where are you?”

In the blink of an eye, she arrived at a valley. Under the moonlight, she could see a small cottage by the side of a lake, the cottage that they had found and inspected not long after they arrived in this mysterious realm.

Yun Ruoyan slowly walked toward the cottage, feeling an uncanny familiarity with every step she took. Yun Ruoyan thought that she had been to this place before—not just when she first arrived in this realm, but even before that.

A voice came from within the cottage. “Long Yin, do you think they’ll find this place?”

Yun Ruoyan identified this voice as her mother, Lin Yuemei. She hurriedly stepped forward. The door of the cottage wasn’t closed, so Yun Ruoyan walked inside. She saw Lin Yuemei lying in bed, her face pale. The man whom she called Long Yin was slowly feeding her a bowl of porridge.

“I don’t know either,” Long Yin replied. “This realm might be rather hidden, but it’s not impossible to find it.”

He put down the bowl of food. “Yuemei, if you’re scared, I can send you back to the Chenyuan continent. They wouldn’t dare do anything to you there.”

“No!” Lin Yuemei sat upright, her tone agitated. “Long Yin, I want to stay with you! As long as I’m with you, I wouldn’t fear anything!”

She held Long Yin’s hand by her stomach. “We’ll have Yan’er by our side as well. The three of us will stay together, forever and ever!”

A cold wind blew by, and Yun Ruoyan felt a patch of coldness on her face. She touched the wet trail and found that she had begun to cry.

“Yuemei, this is for you.” Long Yin took out a silver bracelet from his robes and placed it on Lin Yuemei’s palm.

“What a pretty bracelet.” Lin Yuemei marvelled at the bracelet, inspecting it from all angles and giving Yun Ruoyan a good view of it as well. In shock, she compared it to the silver bracelet on her own wrist and found that they were exactly the same.

“This isn’t an ordinary bracelet,” Long Yin explained.

“What’s special about it?”

“I found this bracelet in the Beast King’s palace, and it contains an extradimensional space sealed by powerful spiritual energy. It took quite some effort for me to crack this protection,” Long Yin explained. “I found that there was an ancient fire qilin sealed inside. It seemed to have suffered a grievous injury, and had reverted to its childhood form. Because I broke the seal, it should awaken not long from now, and you’ll be able to contract with it after that. Then, it’ll protect you and our child.”

On Long Yin’s request, Lin Yuemei cut her thumb and held her bloodied wound to the bracelet, binding it to her.

So this bracelet was a gift from Father to Mother! Yun Ruoyan thought. But for some reason, Mother wasn’t able to wait for Qiuqiu to wake up from its deep sleep, and I ended up with it…

If she were able to find her mother, she would definitely be very pleased to know that Qiuqiu had woken up. Yun Ruoyan glanced at the silver bracelet on her wrist again, two tracks of tears steadily trailing down her face. Although she had never met this Long Yin in person, Yun Ruoyan always felt an unusual sensation when she got close to him in her dreams.

Perhaps this is kinship, she thought. Despite never having met him, she could clearly feel her father’s love for her mother and for herself.

“Oh, and take this too.” Long Yin handed Lin Yuemei another object, a worn scroll.

“What’s this?” Although Lin Yuemei didn’t recognize the scroll, Yun Ruoyan did: it was a teleportation scroll, one that would bring her somewhere else as soon as she activated it.

“Just a preventive measure,” Long Yin said. “If something unexpected happens, tear the scroll and it’ll protect you from harm.”

Lin Yuemei kept the scroll, then nodded seriously.

The scene suddenly shifted from night to day. Lin Yuemei continued to lie in bed, and her face was still wan.

“Long Yin, I think our child’s likely to be a boy.” Despite her pallor, her smile was radiant and full of motherly love. “Otherwise, why would I have such a severe reaction to this pregnancy just two months in?”

Long Yin was arranging a few logs by the side of the room, an arrangement that would eventually become a crib for a baby.

“No, no, it must be a precious girl!” Long Yin called back, mock-affronted. They glanced at each other fondly, and Yun Ruoyan could clearly sense their love for each other in their eyes.

Just then, however, a sudden tremor through the earth caused Lin Yuemei to scream in shock.

“Yuemei!” Long Yin hurriedly stepped forward to comfort her.

“Master Long, you’re truly quite easy to find.” When the surroundings had settled down, a male voice came from outside the cottage’s door.

Yun Ruoyan looked at the door and saw a red-haired man dressed in a blue robe, stunningly beautiful, with a few tall, muscular guards dressed like swordsmen behind him.

“So you’ve found me even here?” Long Yin stood up, shielding his wife behind him. “The person you’re looking for is me, so don’t harm my wife.”

The red-haired man peered at Lin Yuemei, partially hidden behind Lin Yuemei. He narrowed his gaze, and a sinister smile appeared on his face. “Oh, Master Long, I’m afraid not. The silver dragon clan’s elder has tasked me with apprehending all who possess the demonic dragon’s bloodline. You’re not the only one who satisfies that criterion here.”

The red-haired man glanced at Lin Yuemei’s abdomen, which she quickly covered with a hand.

“You won’t even let my child go?” Long Yin’s voice was low, his face tight.

“Any descendant of the demonic dragon clan may hold the key to revitalizing the entire clan. As the clan elder of the silver dragon states, it’s better to kill a thousand innocents than to let one of your kind live. But…” The man dragged this last word out, and with it, any hope that Long Yin had for salvation. “If you were to reveal the whereabouts of the demonic dragon grave, however, and allow us to exterminate all the souls there, your bloodline would be useless, and we wouldn’t have to kill you. Well?”

Long Yin snorted. “I won’t betray my ancestors. Dream on!”

“Haven’t you already done so?” the red-haired man asked. “For the woman behind you, you chose to give up on your entire clan. Now, not only are the silver dragons after you, so are the demonic dragons. Only by exterminating the demonic dragon clan completely will you ever find peace. Isn’t that so?”

“None of your sophistry.” Long Yin’s tone was resolute. “If you want to kill me, now’s your chance.”

“As you wish.” Noting that Long Yin showed no sign of giving in, the red-haired man stepped forward, folding his arms. “In that case, don’t blame me for being brusque.” He gave the swordsmen behind him a hand signal, and they all drew their blades and charged toward Long Yin.

“Yuemei, use the scroll!” Long Yin cried out, turning to face his wife for the last time in her life. “Protect yourself!”

Lin Yuemei nodded, then tore the teleportation scroll in her hands. A white light enveloped her, and as the light vanished, so did she.

“You bastard.” The red-haired man, suddenly overcome by anger, drew a long, red whip from his waist and snapped it at Long Yin. As a sudden crack struck her ear, Yun Ruoyan tensed and woke up from her dream.

“Yan’er, what’s wrong?” Li Mo was jostled awake by Yun Ruoyan’s sudden movement, and he lowered his head to glance at Yun Ruoyan. Her face was pale, her forehead beaded with sweat, and she seemed to be crying.

“I had a dream,” Yun Ruoyan whispered, burying her head firmly by Li Mo’s chest. “I dreamt of my mother and father.”

Li Mo caressed Yun Ruoyan’s head, stroking her back as she continued to speak.

“Li Mo.” Yun Ruoyan finally raised her head to look at him. “Please accompany me somewhere, now.”

And so it was that the two of them flew to the lakeside cottage before dawn. This time, now that she knew of its history, the cottage felt completely different. Her parents had once lived together there, until an uncertain fate befell them both.

“Li Mo, I was here in my dreams,” Yun Ruoyan said, caressing the dusty bedsheet. “The moment I entered this house, I felt an uncanny sense of familiarity, but I couldn’t remember where I had seen it. Now, I finally remember. I came here before in my dreams, and this was where my parents used to live.”

“Where your parents used to live?” Li Mo frowned. “Why would Official Yun bring his wife over here?”

“Not Yun Lan,” Yun Ruoyan explained. “My birth father.”