Chapter 14: How She Came to be Here

It was after she had been sent to the mountain shed and taken in by Muo Jeng. When she was a mere infant, she remembers her loving parents. A gentle beauty and a handsome man. When she was merely 6 months old, however, everything shattered. Her mother was taken hostage and her father was killed, then, her mother's body fell beside her husbands. Their house was razed to the ground as she cried in her little bundle, not wanting to die. She saw a woman leaning over her, a crazed smile and blood splattered on her face. The woman had laughed evilly and taken her, bundle and all. That was how she had ended up at Minister Shen's Estate, as Shen Yue's daughter. Despite Shen Yue being the most beloved wife of the Minister, Shen Tianyu had been abandoned in a small courtyard and was bullied by the Concubines and their daughters as she grew up. Due to the brainwashing of Shen Yue, who adopted her, her father didn't step in either and saw her as an eyesore instead. When she was 4, the Minister had ordered her to be sent to the Guanyin Temple.

In this world, children were tested for their cultivation talent as soon as they could walk. The monk that was in charge of the test at Guanyin Temple that day had said that she had a strange yet powerful cultivation base. And Shen Chiang had visited her for the first time since she settled in that estate the next day. However, knowing what the people in the Estate was like, Shen Tianyu was determined to leave the place. She slacked off on cultivation and eventually didn't achieve anything.

Four years later, Shen Chiang, at the end of his patience, sent her to a mountain shed on a mountain filled with beasts on the pretext of "training" her. He probably wanted to have an excuse to get rid of such a failure. Right after she had entered the forest on her own, with a sack of clothes and other necessities, she was attacked by a mysterious assailant. Even if she didn't know who it was, she could guess who hired him. Because she had slacked off in cultivation, she couldn't fight back and could only escape heavily injured. The assailant had stopped pursuing her, probably thinking she was dead. Thankfully, she managed to slightly heal her injuries with the little medical plant knowledge she possessed. As she was leaning against a tree trunk, wondering if she was going to die there, a somewhat old man, looking to be about 40 years old appeared a distance from her. Before she had blacked out, she remembered seeing the old man leisurely walk over to her. By the time she woke up, she was in a small wooden hut. She looked to her side and saw the old man, she then opened her mouth and asked "Why did you save me?"

The old man answered, "I am not cold-hearted enough to leave an injured little girl to die right in front of me. Granted we had no animosity between us."

After her recovery, Shen Tianyu found out that the old man, Muo Jeng, was an eccentric sect leader obsessed with poison. Not wanting to stay in the mountains, she started showcasing her knowledge of poisons granted from her previous world. After a longer while, recognizing that she knew much more than him, he wanted to become her disciple, Muo Jeng was not arrogant if others didn't show arrogance in front of him and was humble when need be. She then explained her circumstances, which angered Muo Jeng who already considered her his Master. He was ready to storm the Shen Residence, but Shen Tianyu stopped him and told him she intended to deal with them but she had to gain power first. They hashed out the details of how to help her the whole day that day and the two journeyed to Yaodu's headquarters the next day. She established the Lavender Palace and Lotus Pavilion to help with Yaodu's finances as thanks for their shelter and for herself then began training.

Eight years later, the spy she had asked to be sent to her mountain shed received word from her father that he wanted her to come back. Before she left Yaodu, Muo Jeng had given her a potion that temporarily reduced a cultivator's power for a whole day. When she arrived at her mountain shed, she put on fresh clothes and waited. Less than a quarter of a shichen later, the servant that was supposed to lead her down arrived. Right before she left, she drank the potion her Master had given her. When she arrived back at the Estate, Shen Chiang took one look at her and stated with disdain, "Trash."

"I-If you hate me so much, you should have sold me off! Why did you keep me here for so long?!" Shen Tianyu had shouted in sadness with tears in her eyes.

"Fine! Since you don't want to be sold that much, I'll sell you off tomorrow!" Shen Chiang responded angrily, flicked his sleeves and went back to his own courtyard. The servant that led her here then led her back to her former courtyard. Throughout this journey, that servant never glanced at her and kept mumbling complaints under his breath, loud enough for her to hear. After she entered, he hastily left, as if running away from some plague.

The next morning, Shen Chiang had sent a guard to wake her up. She was not a morning person, so she ended up being dragged out of bed by that guard and dressed up by maidservants before being practically thrown out of the front door. She then stumbled after her waiting, irritated father. And that was how she came to be at Lavender Palace now.

...

Back in the Space

In her space, Shen Tianyu was wondering whether she should throw something into the offertory box, that is what one is supposed to do at a shrine like this after all. She searched her clothes, trying to find some money and ended up finding a pretty stone with flowing white streaks in her money pouch. 'Where did I get this? I didn't really expect to turn up with anything.'

She shrugged, not thinking much of it, and threw the stone into the offertory box.

Before she could do anything else, a blinding light flashed from the bench chair in front of the paper screen. As she shut her eyes from the light, she was ready to retreat from her space, when she felt the warmth in the light. Her intuition also told her it was nothing harmful to her so she stayed put until she felt the light disappear through her closed eyelids. As she slowly opened her eyes, the light was gone, and in it's place, there was a paper scroll placed on the couch that had never been there before.