CHAPTER 224: FAMILY REUNION 3

Chapter 224: Family Reunion 3

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Liang Yuexin, who had also been unsure of what to do, found herself forgetting all of that the moment she heard those words.

Without thinking twice, she stepped forward, vanishing and reappearing in front of the elf girl, who looked at her with a pair of eyes both unfamiliar and familiar at the same time.

Without hesitation, she wrapped her in a tight embrace, lifting her up and spinning her around as immense joy flooded her entire heart.

"Yes, my little angel, this is Mom!" she shouted, overflowing with affection, while her mind spun out of control as those words echoed in her head again and again,the more she repeated them in her mind, the more her heart burst with joy.

Ye Ning was caught a little off guard by this sudden assault, but even she set everything else aside and let herself sink into the love and maternal warmth this woman, whose presence felt so familiar, was giving her.

Lin Xian, seeing this, could only be happy for her friend, while Zhu Rong, watching his little daughter being "stolen" by his wife, didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

That said, seeing them together, a scene he had long believed impossible, calmed his heart, filling him with a sense of peace and satisfaction he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

The dragon woman’s affectionate attack went on for a while longer before she finally managed to calm her emotions enough to talk with her daughter more peacefully.

Needless to say, all of this was far too sudden for all three of them, especially for Ye Ning, who ended up exhausted in the blink of an eye because of the whirlwind of emotions hitting her in such a short span of time.

Time passed as mother and daughter got to know each other better, and soon night fell over the small world of the Secret Realm.

Zhu Rong had already spent plenty of time with Ye Ning over the last year, so he naturally allowed the dragon woman to have her time with their daughter.

The four of them were now sitting comfortably on the short grass of the small garden behind their residence, gathered around a small campfire.

Although for cultivators of their level the light and warmth of a fire were practically useless, some habits were just too deeply rooted to ignore, never mind the fact that the four actually preferred it that way.

Ye Ning, exhausted, was already falling asleep as she rested with her head in her mother’s lap, a sight that sparked a bit of envy in Zhu Rong, who decided to set aside the feeling of having his pillow stolen.

Lin Xian, on the other side, looked calm, but her eyes told a completely different story.

Many times in the past she had imagined a scene like this, wondering whether the little troublemaker she had raised for a while would ever get to live a day like this.

Memories of her journeys with little Ning flickered through her mind before she pushed them aside.

As a good friend to the couple, she did her part, and seeing how things had unfolded, she didn’t deny feeling happy, though there was a faint sense of emptiness in her heart that she chose to ignore.

Silence ruled the area, broken only by the small crackling of the fire as it burned the dry branches feeding it.

A light aroma filled the air as skewers of meat, from who knows which spiritual beast, cooked over the flames.

Zhu Rong had taken his time preparing a few snacks, and after a while he saw that they were almost perfectly cooked.

Keeping his gaze on the fire, he finally spoke, addressing Lin Xian, who had already noticed the inviting aroma of the skewers.

"You know, I’ve been wanting to ask you something for a while now," he said, still looking at the skewers, his voice calm and low enough for the one meant to hear him.

"That group of elf girls who stayed with her all this time... you’re behind them, aren’t you?" he asked, referring to the group he had saved along with Ye Ning from the slave merchant.

Thanks to him, almost none of them had been put up for sale, as they had been captured shortly before he went to buy them.

And even the few unlucky ones who had been sold, he had later retrieved them as well.

Back then, he hadn’t noticed anything and simply treated them as a small family who had accompanied Ye Ning while she lived in a certain little village in the elf kingdom.

But later, after leaving the Secret Realm and recovering his memories, along with some of his old powers, he couldn’t help but notice something odd about those elves.

In the past he had wondered why they were all female with no males among them, and had assumed perhaps the males had been killed due to being far less valuable compared to the opposite sex. Strange as it was, he didn’t pay too much attention to it at the time.

But once he noticed the anomaly in them, it didn’t take long to reach a conclusion and understand the reason behind it.

Lin Xian, who had been getting ready to steal one of Zhu Rong’s skewers, paused at those words before sighing and saying,

"I see you noticed. Well, it was inevitable," she said simply.

"At the time, my cultivation had reached the maximum allowed in this plane of existence, and although I kept delaying the inevitable, it was becoming impossible to resist it.

So I decided to surround her with an environment where she could grow happily and safely, at least as much as was possible back then," she said.

Zhu Rong’s movements seemed to halt for a moment before he resumed working on the skewers.

If there was anyone present who fully understood the true complexity of the elf empress’s words, it was without a doubt him.

And that was because all of this had happened during a time when peace was the last thing anyone could hope for.

Even more so because, at that time, he and Liang Yuexin had already disappeared from that continent, leaving her alone with a tiny life whose chances of survival were slim,

and three empires still struggling with the massive damage left behind by the calamity of corrupted beasts.

He could only imagine the difficulties and pressure that all of this had fallen upon her back then.

Especially considering the decision she had made for his daughter, a choice that, at the time, could have cost her dearly, as well as the entire elven empire,

yet she took it regardless.

It was probably the only reason he now had the chance to embrace Ye Ning, after so many years had passed.

He sighed in weariness, but a smile slowly spread across his face as he finally lifted his gaze and looked toward the elf who, in apparent age, seemed no older than his daughter,

yet among all present, was second only to him.

"When all of this is over, I promise you I will find you, and then I will keep the promise I made to you," he said, words simple yet enough to make the elven empress stiffen.

Her body trembled as she kept her head lowered, perhaps lost in thought, or perhaps to avoid showing the emotions she had suppressed for who knows how long.