"I asked if you were finished, not how much you’ve done!" The middle-aged woman withdrew her whip, raised her arm high, and brought it down again.

CRACK!

The whip lashed across the woman’s face. The gust of wind from the strike blew her disheveled hair aside, revealing a mangled, bloody face.

Countless wounds crisscrossed her face. Some had scabbed over, others still wept blood, but most were inflamed and festering. Yellowish-brown pus trickled down, releasing a pungent stench.

She was none other than the person Mo Qi was looking for: Uncle Niu’s daughter, Niu Kexin!

Niu Kexin clenched her jaw, enduring the bone-deep agony without a sound.

The middle-aged woman pinched her nose in disgust. "Look at the state of you. Even a pig is prettier and cleaner than you are!"

Niu Kexin drew her long hair forward to cover her face again and silently returned to her spot.

"Oh? Still got some fight in you? Didn’t you hear me talking to you?"

The long whip whistled through the air again, landing on Niu Kexin’s body like a torrent of rain. Streaks of blood soaked through her coarse linen, dyeing it red.

"No, I’m not finished!" Niu Kexin huddled in the corner, her arms wrapped around her head as she shivered uncontrollably.

"Not finished?" The middle-aged woman’s interest was piqued, her expression turning manic. "I gave you half a day, and you can’t even finish a simple task like this? Do you still think you’re the young mistress of the Niu Family?"

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The sound of the whip biting into flesh echoed incessantly, a sound chilling enough to make one’s skin crawl.

But the middle-aged woman was tireless, reveling in the act with a pathological smile on her face.

The woman only stopped when she was exhausted from the beating, panting heavily.

Niu Kexin’s coarse robes were in tatters, and blood pooled on the floor beneath her. There wasn’t an unblemished patch of skin on her body; some of the lash marks were so deep the bone was visible.

The middle-aged woman tossed the whip aside and walked over to Niu Kexin.

"Don’t you play dead with me. The Immortal Master gave orders that you’re not allowed to die."

With that, she kicked over a bowl of thin congee, stomped on a moldy steamed bun, and ground it into the spilled liquid on the floor. Then, she kicked the filthy mess over to Niu Kexin’s mouth.

"Eat it!"

Niu Kexin’s mouth fell open weakly, but she didn’t move.

"I said, eat it! Do you hear me?"

The woman grabbed a handful of Niu Kexin’s hair and slammed her head down onto the flattened bun, grinding her face into it.

"You’ll eat it! Eat!"

Barely conscious, Niu Kexin asked, "Why are you doing this to me? You worked for the Niu Family for more than ten years. I know I never treated you like a servant or wronged you in any way."

The middle-aged woman released her, unconcerned, and sneered. "Niu Kexin, if you must blame someone, blame the Niu Family for offending the Immortal Master. Besides, what is your so-called kindness worth compared to half of the Niu family’s entire fortune?"

"The Immortal Master promised that as long as I keep torturing you to her satisfaction, half of the Niu family’s assets will be mine! Half the fortune! Could you ever part with that much, Niu Kexin?"

"Then did the Immortal Master ever tell you *why* she’s targeting the Niu Family?" A cold, clear voice laced with killing intent rang out. The middle-aged woman felt as if she’d been plunged into an icy cavern, her very soul trembling.

"Who’s there?!" the middle-aged woman cried in a panic. Whirling around, she saw two young men—one fat, the other with an honest, simple face.

"Who are you? Who let you in? The Immortal Master is not someone you can speak of!"

Seeing that Mo Qi and Jin Sanpang were only teenagers, the middle-aged woman relaxed.

At the main gate of the Niu Residence, Mo Qi had already interrogated someone to get the information he wanted.

The so-called Immortal Master was, as expected, Fang Min.

Fang Min had conspired with the Zhou Family, a minor clan in Nanyang City, to seize the Niu Residence. They imprisoned Niu Kexin inside, treating her like a servant and relentlessly torturing her.

Upon hearing that Niu Kexin was still alive, Mo Qi had breathed a sigh of relief and rushed to the woodshed as fast as he could.

Anyone who had tried to block their path on the way was swatted to death by Jin Sanpang.

Mo Qi had expected Niu Kexin to be suffering inhuman treatment, to have been tortured horribly, but he never imagined it would be this severe.

Niu Kexin’s condition could no longer be described as merely "miserable." It was a scene of utter inhumanity, an appalling tragedy!

"Sister Kexin!"

Looking at Niu Kexin’s tragic state, Mo Qi felt a suffocating pain, as if ten thousand arrows were piercing his heart.

Distant memories suddenly flooded his mind.

It was the end of the year, snow was falling, and Mo Qi was pestering Uncle Niu to take him along on his trip home to visit family.

"Mo the kid, this here is my daughter, Niu Kexin. Pretty, ain’t she? I’m warning you, don’t you get any ideas."

"Hello, my name is Niu Kexin. I’m two years older than you, you know! You can call me Sister Kexin."

Niu Kexin, who wore her hair in two pigtails, was a head taller than Mo Qi. She was adorable, with big, blinking eyes and rosy cheeks.

"Little Brother Mo, hurry over here! Big sister will take you to get something good to eat." 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Little Brother Mo, Big sister will take you to catch snow rabbits."

"Little Brother Mo, Big sister will take you to the Lantern Festival."

...

"Sister Kexin, my legs are tired."

"Come on, Little Brother Mo. Big sister will carry you."

"You’re the best, Sister Kexin."

"Haha, of course! If Big sister isn’t the best, who is?"

...

"Sister Kexin, I’m too late... I’ve let you suffer!" Mo Qi fell to his knees before Niu Kexin. His hands trembled as he reached to pull her into his arms.

But her body was so covered in wounds that he didn’t know where he could possibly hold her, terrified of causing her more pain.

Niu Kexin weakly opened her eyes. As she looked at Mo Qi, a bright light suddenly shone from their depths—a look of shocked joy.

"You... You’re Little Brother Mo!"

It wasn’t a question, but a statement of fact—the certainty of a long-awaited reunion with someone she had thought of day and night!

Yet before Mo Qi could answer, Niu Kexin began to shake her head frantically.

"No, you’re not Little Brother Mo! I don’t know you! Get out of here, quickly!" Her voice was filled with panic and worry.

Mo Qi’s heart ached again.

He knew exactly what she was thinking.

She had recognized him but denied it, terrified of implicating him.

’My foolish sister... even in a state like this, you’re still thinking of me!’

"Don’t worry, Sister Kexin. From this day forward, no one will ever dare to harm a single hair on your head! No one! Not even the King of Heaven himself, unless they do it over my dead body!"

"No, I don’t know you! Get out! Get out now!" Niu Kexin knew the Zhou Family’s status and power in Nanyang City. Mo Qi couldn’t possibly fight them on his own.

The more she pushed him away, the deeper Mo Qi’s guilt and heartache became.

"San Pang, help me treat her wounds!" Mo Qi took out all the Elixirs Yu Liang had given him.

Niu Kexin was a mortal with no Cultivation. In her extremely weakened state, she couldn’t withstand the direct force of an Elixir’s Medicinal Power.

Therefore, the Medicinal Power had to be moderated with True Essence to allow her to absorb it slowly.

Mo Qi had no True Essence, so he had to ask Jin Sanpang to do it.

"Don’t worry, Brother Mo. Your sister is my sister. Leave it to me, San Pang." Jin Sanpang could see how much Niu Kexin meant to Mo Qi and had heard him call her sister, so of course, he wouldn’t dare be careless.

"Hey! Who do you think you are? Do you have any idea where you are?" The middle-aged woman had picked up her whip at some point and was now pointing it at Mo Qi.

Seeing Niu Kexin drift into a deep sleep under the gentle influence of Jin Sanpang’s True Essence, Mo Qi took a deep breath.

"You. Should. Die!"

Mo Qi turned to face the middle-aged woman, speaking one deliberate word at a time.