"You've had it tough all these years," Yang Kai sighed softly. "Where's the person you mentioned?"
He didn't see any sign of anyone here.
"She's right here." Huang Juan smiled and drew out a small figure from behind her, crouching down to say gently, "Yun'er, come say hello to Sect Master Yang!"
Yang Kai looked down and couldn't hide his surprise. "A child?"
He had never expected that the person Huang Juan referred to would be a little girl!
She looked to be about six or seven years old, not even three feet tall. Her frame was thin and frail, her complexion sallow and yellowish — clearly malnourished. She wore rough hemp clothes, though they were neat and free of any dirt or dust. Her hair had a faint yellowish tint, and her face still carried the innocence of early childhood. But those round eyes of hers were remarkably bright and lively.
She wasn't Huang Juan's daughter — there was no resemblance between them whatsoever. And as far as Yang Kai knew, Huang Juan had never borne any children.
So where had this little girl come from?
The child seemed shy and fearful, yet also curious. She hid behind Huang Juan, staring up at Yang Kai with her dark, round eyes without saying a single word.
Huang Juan coaxed her a few times, urging her to offer a greeting, but the girl wouldn't budge. She simply kept shaking her head, watching Yang Kai's face with a hint of wariness. That look made Yang Kai's brow furrow, and an inexplicable pang of sourness rose in his heart.
A child this age should be too young to understand anything about the world, yet she was already on guard against strangers. That could only mean she had experienced something frightening before, something that made her afraid to get close to anyone she didn't know.
"Please forgive her, Sect Master. Yun'er is still very young and doesn't know proper etiquette. I hope you won't hold it against her." Huang Juan stood up and gave Yang Kai an apologetic smile.
"It's fine." Yang Kai shook his head slowly, then swept his spiritual sense over the girl. His eyebrows rose in surprise. "She's already at the peak of the Kaiyuan Realm? You taught her?"
"Mm." Huang Juan nodded lightly. "Yun'er kept pestering me to teach her, so I gave her some basic instruction."
"Very good, very good." Yang Kai's face showed open approval. Reaching the peak of the Kaiyuan Realm at such a young age was virtually impossible in the Central Capital, and with Huang Juan's limited means, she certainly couldn't have provided the girl with an ideal cultivation environment or resources. In other words, this little girl's aptitude was quite impressive.
After a moment of hesitation, Yang Kai sent a message through his spiritual sense: "What about her parents?"
"They perished three years ago," Huang Juan answered, her expression turning somber.
She then gave Yang Kai a brief account of the girl's story.
The child's surname was Lin, and her full name was Lin Yun'er. Her father had been a rogue cultivator with no ties to any sect, while her mother had originally been a female disciple of the Sea Palace. The Sea Palace was a major power in the Boundless Sea, its prestige there comparable to that of the Battle Heaven Alliance or the Lei Tai Sect on the mainland.
Lin Yun'er's mother had apparently held a position of some standing within the Sea Palace. For a woman of her background, there would have been no shortage of suitors. But love, that peculiar thing, had arrived without warning. After meeting Lin Yun'er's father, her mother had fallen head over heels, and there was no turning back. The two were deeply in love and quickly made a secret commitment to each other.
When the higher-ups of the Sea Palace learned of this, they were furious and expelled Lin Yun'er's mother from the sect.
Though they cast her out, the people of the Sea Palace didn't go out of their way to make her life difficult. They tacitly allowed her to continue living in Linhai City. From that point on, Lin Yun'er's parents lived as a hardworking but devoted couple, and despite their hardships, their days were reasonably content.
But cultivators couldn't simply go through the motions of daily life — they still needed to cultivate.
Both of them were only at the Saint King Realm, roughly on par with Huang Juan. Without any sect backing them, they had to fend for themselves, venturing out to sea to hunt sea beasts and harvest their inner cores, hides, and bones in exchange for cultivation resources.
It was precisely through this line of work that Huang Juan had come to know them. The three of them formed a small team and ventured out together.
But during an expedition three years ago, they encountered an 8th-grade sea beast. Lin Yun'er's parents perished on the spot, and only Huang Juan managed to escape with her life. She returned to Linhai City, and from that day forward, she took Lin Yun'er in and raised her.
At the time, the little girl had been only three or four years old — just barely old enough to begin forming memories.
In truth, most of Lin Yun'er's memories were of Huang Juan. Everything she had learned came from Huang Juan's teaching. The bond between them was as close as mother and daughter.
As for why the girl was so wary of strangers — while Lin Yun'er's parents were still alive, they had borrowed a fair number of Saint Crystals from others. After word of their deaths reached those creditors, they came knocking, demanding to take Lin Yun'er as payment for the debt. Fortunately, Huang Juan had stepped in to stop them and paid off everything herself.
In short, Lin Yun'er's life had been a tragic one. She had lost both parents at such a tender age, and had it not been for Huang Juan's care over these past three years, it was impossible to say whether she would even still be alive.
This modest, run-down house had been where Lin Yun'er's parents once lived. After their deaths, Huang Juan had stayed on to make it easier to look after the girl.
"So that's how it is!" After hearing Huang Juan's account, Yang Kai nodded gently, a wave of tender pity swelling in his heart.
And just then, Lin Yun'er — who had remained silent throughout — suddenly spoke up. "Are you here to take Yun'er away?"
Her voice was clear and crisp, exquisitely pleasant to the ear. As she asked the question, those bright, clear eyes of hers fixed on Yang Kai like a pool of pure spring water, utterly unclouded.
Yang Kai chuckled at her words and grinned. "That's right. I'm here to take you away."
Lin Yun'er showed no fear. Instead, she tilted her head and thought for a moment before saying, "Could you come back again in a few years?"
"Why?" Yang Kai was genuinely curious about how a child this young processed the world.
"Yun'er will grow up really fast. In a few years, I'll be old enough to go out and hunt sea beasts. Then I can give you lots of Saint Crystals — more than you could ever spend in your whole life!"