Whatever you intend to do to the Rong Family — count me in.

Hearing Wu Youzi say those words, Lang Jiuchuan felt a quiet satisfaction wash through her. She had anticipated this outcome, yet hearing it spoken aloud still stirred a faint warmth in her heart.

More outside assistance meant more favorable conditions for her.

She made no move to mock him — asking whether he was simply telling her what she wanted to hear. After all, the man had drawn a blood talisman invoking the Heavenly Dao Severance on her behalf. His resolve to break with the Rong Family was witnessed by Heaven itself.

“With those words from you, Senior, I can rest easy. Even without your involvement, I would still have gone after that old dog of the Rong Family — but I neither approve of the Xuan Clan’s way of doing things, nor do I underestimate their foundations. Particularly the hidden reserves that a family lineage conceals until the very last — resources that would be beyond the strength of any one person to withstand alone. With you joining us, I trust I won’t need to worry too much about facing a backlash I can’t handle?”

Wu Youzi looked at her composed, self-assured demeanor and fell into a slight daze. He murmured softly, “My daughter — was she as confident and quick-witted as you? What was her life like, all those years?”

Lang Jiuchuan paused, pressing her lips together. “She was probably lonely.”

“Why?” Wu Youzi’s gaze sharpened.

Lang Jiuchuan said evenly, “From the very start, Madam Cui sensed that this body was not her biological daughter. Naturally, she felt none of the heart-to-heart bond or joy a mother should feel — she even resented the child for occupying her own daughter’s place, and could never bring herself to love her. That’s why she was kept on the estate all those years.”

She recounted the original owner’s circumstances in a calm, measured tone. Wu Youzi’s hands clenched tight, his eyes growing wet. So his daughter — from beginning to end — had never once known the love of either parent.

Wu Youzi wanted nothing more than to return to the Rong Family right now and grind the clan head to dust, to crack him open and see whether his heart was truly black inside. He had known all along that the child carried the Rong bloodline — how had he borne to leave her adrift like that? And how had he been so ruthless as to harvest her sinews, her tendons, her bones?

Lang Jiuchuan saw the manic destructive desire blazing in his eyes and delivered one sharp word of warning: “Impatience ruins careful plans. Before you can take full control of the Rong Family, I advise you not to alarm the snake. Or to put it plainly — don’t act on a momentary impulse. If you strike a snake and fail to kill it, you invite future calamity upon yourself. I have no desire to collect your corpse on that young elder sister’s behalf.”

She referred to the original owner as elder sister — a gesture of respect.

She didn’t know the original owner’s exact birth time, but the original owner had come first, and only afterward had the substitution of Madam Cui’s child occurred. So she should have been born before herself.

Wu Youzi’s chest tightened.

In all honesty, this child’s way of speaking was genuinely infuriating.

“I’m not exaggerating to alarm you. From Ren Yao’s death, to the child being sent to the Lang Family, to why the Lang Family’s child ended up where she did — and why this entire substitution scheme was set in motion at such enormous effort — there is a carefully laid conspiracy behind all of this. And at its heart is something big enough to be worth all that trouble. We simply don’t yet know what it is.” Lang Jiuchuan continued, “To uncover the truth, we need to capture the Rong clan head and search his soul. Not listen to him talk his way around it — I intend to read the truth myself.”

Search his soul, not hear his justifications.

She would discern the truth with her own eyes.

Lang Jiuchuan turned to Wu Youzi and said, “A portion of your soul’s memory was excised — and that corresponds eerily to what happened to Madam Cui — that is, my mother — when she gave birth. In her case, I believe they used an illusion technique to conceal what occurred. So the person you glimpsed just now — think carefully about who that was. That individual is almost certainly a key figure in this substitution scheme. Possibly even the true mastermind behind it all.”

Gong Tinglan said, “Could it not have been entirely orchestrated by the Rong clan head himself?”

“Senior just said that at the time, he didn’t possess the ability to erase another person’s memories. That means someone else helped him — but on what grounds would anyone expend that kind of effort and cultivation for his benefit?” Lang Jiuchuan curled her lips with cool disdain. “How many people are truly capable of selfless altruism — being a genuinely good person who helps others for nothing? I’m certainly not. So they must have had an exchange of some kind.”

She glanced at Wu Youzi again and said, “Techniques like this typically carry the caster’s soul-imprint within them. Once broken, the caster senses it — and may even experience karmic backlash. Which means that person has very likely already sensed that the seal on you has been shattered. In other words, the time left to us is short.”

Wu Youzi stiffened.

Lang Jiuchuan led them on a visit to the water dungeon at the Ren family residence and the destroyed altar within, and said, “Although the Rong clan head denied it, Zhengyang Zi’s initial account agreed — that this altar was his creation. As for how many lives he has destroyed over the years, only the ledger of merits and misdeeds in the underworld could tell. And the Rong Family — setting the clan head aside — even Rong Huanxuan used blood sacrifices of living souls to fortify her own cultivation foundation and advance her practice. It is more than evident that the Rong Family has amassed a collection of forbidden arts.”

Gong Tinglan looked toward Wu Youzi.

Wu Youzi said, “The Rong Family does possess several sealed scrolls of forbidden techniques — secret arts from the demonic cultivator Kong Jin. But anyone who cultivates by those methods is simply courting death. Sooner or later they fall to demonic corruption. When one’s Dao is not righteous, Heaven will not tolerate it — and all will rise against them.”

“The Rong clan head seems to have been living rather comfortably,” Lang Jiuchuan muttered under her breath.

Wu Youzi gave a cold laugh. “Before you came along, he had half a lifetime of smooth sailing — not quite having everything handed to him, but still standing above everyone else. Yet hasn’t he suffered setback after setback at the hands of a child like you? So karma clearly does exist. He wronged you both, and in the end he will fall by your hands. Trust me — given that insufferably proud disposition of his, being defeated by you two will send him into a far deeper breakdown than being bested by any great power could.”

He had said you both. The soul that had been his daughter’s body, and her own soul — the two now merged as one, coming back for justice.