Invincible Dad-Chapter 603: Big Sister is Right_1

Xu Yiyi scratched her head.

She was just a six-year-old child. How could she understand so much?

After hesitating for a moment, Yiyi suddenly stroked Ruan Lan’s head and said gently, "Auntie, maybe this is just the world of cultivators."

This world has never had so-called fairness and justice. Whether in the world of cultivators or the world of ordinary people, darkness always coexists with light. But whether light drives out darkness or darkness swallows light depends entirely on each person’s heart.

"If only this were all a dream." Ruan Lan suddenly realized something. She reached out to pinch Yiyi’s cheek and asked expectantly, "Does it hurt, my niece?"

"It hurts..."

"Looks like it isn’t a dream."

Amidst her despair, Ruan Lan snatched the wine jug back from Yiyi and took three big gulps. Wine spilled from the corners of her mouth, falling onto her bloodstained clothes. With half of her hair turned white, Ruan Lan looked even more desolate.

Yiyi had occasionally seen this kind of emotion on her father, so she didn’t try too hard to stop her aunt. She just murmured softly, "Has Dad ever felt this distressed, too...?"

Only an hour had passed when the injured were collectively taken into Chang’an City for treatment. Martial Artists patrolled atop the city walls. This ancient city, which had stood for three hundred years, was nearly reduced to ruins by the war, but now everything was in good order.

"Two thousand nine hundred and sixteen Martial Ancestors in the city are dead or injured."

"Thirty-seven thousand, nine hundred and twenty-one ordinary people in the city are dead or injured."

"The number of wounded... is countless."

Zhang Suzi, her face aged beyond her years, sat beside Ruan Lan and said in a soft voice, "Two of the six Watchmen are dead, and my grandfather and Uncle Zhao might be next..."

The freckled girl pursed her lips. Zhao Wumian was already at death’s door, and her grandfather, Zhang Henshui, was in the same condition.

Ruan Lan listened in silence.

More than forty thousand people had died. These weren’t just cold numbers, but vibrant lives, representing tens of thousands of families.

Xu Yiyi covered her small mouth. "So many."

"There might be even more." Zhang Suzi smiled bitterly. "Among the seven hundred and fifty-six surviving Martial Ancestors, four hundred are lightly injured. The rest are all severely injured. Without enough elixirs and medicinal herbs, they... won’t survive the night."

"What about the elixirs and herbs?!" Ruan Lan grew anxious.

"They were all used up just now." Zhang Suzi let out a heavy sigh. "The Formation to return to Earth has been destroyed. Restoring it will take at least eight hours, but many people can’t wait that long."

"..."

Ruan Lan glanced back, as if she could see the patients wailing in agony on the ground, and her heart ached. "Isn’t there any other way?"

"There is." Zhang Suzi nodded vigorously. "A thousand li away, there is a place called the Sea of the Moon. It’s surrounded by Primordial Grass, which can treat their injuries."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go pick it!"

"We can’t. The Sea of the Moon is the Moon Clan’s forbidden territory, and there’s a Moon Clan tribe nearby. Anyone who goes there is certain to die." Zhang Suzi said in despair, "A hundred years ago, three cultivators at the peak of the Divine Gate Realm died there. The news was sent back by a Sound Transmission Jade Slip."

"So how many peak Divine Gate cultivators are left in Chang’an City?" Ruan Lan’s heart sank.

"Me, my grandfather, Uncle Zhao, Aunt Fan, Grandpa Zong..." Zhang Suzi counted on her fingers, then paused. "Only the five of us are left alive."

"..."

Ruan Lan remained silent. Zhang Suzi could only be considered half a fighter, and Zhang Henshui and Zhao Wumian were so severely injured they had completely lost their combat ability. The remaining two peak Divine Gate cultivators couldn’t leave; after all, the city was nearly defenseless, and they had to guard Chang’an.

"So no one is going?" Yiyi blinked her large eyes.

Zhang Suzi silently nodded. Then she looked at Ruan Lan. "Is there any more wine?"

Ruan Lan passed her the wine jug.

Zhang Suzi took a big gulp, only to choke and spit it all out, coughing uncontrollably.

Ruan Lan took the jug back. "With a tolerance like that, you shouldn’t be drinking. You’re even worse than me."

"I, Zhang Suzi, swear to the heavens that I will annihilate the Moon Clan in this lifetime and ensure that not a single other person dies in Chang’an City!" Zhang Suzi’s eyes were rimmed with red. She cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone and bellowed toward the fields outside the city.

The current Zhang Suzi no longer had the visage of a teenage girl. Because she had overdrawn her life force, she appeared more like a woman in her thirties or forties.

Ruan Lan gently wiped the tears from the corners of Zhang Suzi’s eyes and said calmly, "There will be a way. You should go get some sleep. Maybe when you wake up, those Spirit Plants will have appeared?"

Zhang Suzi murmured, "Yes, how wonderful that would be."

She walked away, completely crestfallen.

Ruan Lan watched her retreating figure for a moment, then turned to straighten Yiyi’s hair, offering a small smile. "Yiyi, go find Qian Xiao. Be a good girl and stay in the city. Don’t go anywhere. I’m going to ask Xu Wandao about something."

"Okay." Xu Yiyi obediently nodded, though her large eyes still shone with a clever light.

「Half an hour later.」

Having coaxed the precise location of the Primordial Grass—a heaven-and-earth treasure—from Xu Wandao, Ruan Lan told no one and quietly leaped down from the city wall. She walked alone on this foreign star, the silhouette of Chang’an gradually fading from view behind her.

Ruan Lan glanced back at Chang’an City one last time, smiled freely, and then continued forward with an even more resolute stride.

When she was young, Ruan Lan had always dreamed of being a chivalrous heroine, punishing the wicked and delivering justice for the heavens. But upon truly entering the Cultivation World, what awaited her was not the self-indulgent gallantry of a youth in fine clothes on a spirited horse, who has seen all the world’s splendors, nor the romantic ideal of "two people, one horse, with the world before them."

It was slaughter. It was death. It was the heartache of seeing an old man she had shared tea with just days ago now dying for want of an elixir.

Ruan Lan didn’t want Zhang Henshui to die, nor did she want the other Martial Artists in the city to perish. She decided to go harvest the Primordial Grass alone, in secret.

If she returned alive, it would be a cause for great joy. If she died... it didn’t matter. After all, she was alone in the world. Her sister Ruan Tang would surely be heartbroken, but her brother-in-law Xu Lai would be there to help her overcome her grief.

While journeying alone, Ruan Lan’s ears twitched. She faintly heard voices coming from a deep pit ahead. The sunlight didn’t reach this area, leaving the visibility poor.

Ruan Lan narrowed her eyes and silently formed a lethal Starlight Array in her hand. As she crept closer, just as she was about to launch the Great Array, she heard a very familiar voice. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"Boss, will Auntie Ruan Lan really come? She’s so afraid of death..."

"She will."

"..."

Hearing the voices, Ruan Lan froze. She peered down into the pit and exclaimed frantically, "What are you two doing here?!"

The speakers were not from the Moon Clan.

It was Xu Yiyi and Qian Xiao!

This place was four li from Chang’an City. For these two children to dare leave the city... they were audacious to a fault.

"See? I told you Auntie would come," Yiyi said, not with the panic of being caught, but with pure elation.

"Auntie, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have thought you were afraid of death," Qian Xiao apologized, his head bowed in shame.

"Wait a minute! You two still haven’t told me what you’re doing here!" Ruan Lan’s eyes widened.

"We can’t let Auntie carry this burden all by herself," Yiyi said earnestly.

"The Boss is right."

"..."

Ruan Lan’s lips moved, but no sound came out. She suddenly felt that she was no longer alone. Rubbing her slightly reddened eyes, she waved her hand grandly and declared, "Let’s go! Let’s have our Star Origin Sect go rob... no, go pick some Primordial Grass and bring it back!"

"Auntie, are you crying...?"

"No. Just got some sand in my eye."

"Oh, okay."

But on this vast, barren Moon...

Where would the wind come from?

And where would the sand?