Dual Cultivation

"I apologize, that was unsightly of me…" Su Yang said once he regained consciousness a few seconds after being in Qiuyue's hold.

Qiuyue felt slightly guilty upon seeing the condition of his body, which was mainly caused by her pressure.

Su Yang slowly stabilized himself and stood up, his lamenting gaze at the solemn moon.

A moment later, he said in a composed voice. "Yuehai, your mother… she's gone, huh…"

"2,000 years is an insignificant amount of time for Immortals and is no different than a few years of time to her, yet in such a short time… How?" He turned to look at her with a serious expression.

"What happened? How did she die? Is it related to why you are being chased by the Sacred Moon Palace?" he asked.

Qiuyue slowly nodded. "It happened a few years after your death when father learned of her relationship with you, which caused a massive turmoil within the grounds of the Sacred Moon Palace…"

"..."

Su Yang inwardly sighed at her words. He instantly understood the situation, and knowing the Goddess of the Moon, Yuehai's character, she must have been the one who revealed their secrets.

"So you now know about my relationship with your mother, huh… Do you blame me for her death?" he asked her with a bitter expression.

"..."

Qiuyue stared at him silently for a few moments before saying: "I did."

"You did?" Su Yang's eyebrows raised at her use of past tense.

"When mother died and I first learned of the reason, I blamed you, even loathing you for her death. But as time passed, I recalled how my mother was always smiling beside you… and only you..."

"Father never paid attention to mother unless he needed her for something, and it was the same for me. Life within the Sacred Moon Palace was always boring and suffocating, but your presence there changed everything. At first, I never knew— understood why my mother never smiled when she was beside my father but would always laugh when your presence was there. I never gave a thought about it because as long as mother was laughing and you were there, nothing else mattered."

"But after my mother and your death, I finally understood everything…" Qiuyue stared at Su Yang's trembling eyes with a clear and meaningful gaze. "So I want to thank you, Senior Su, for making my mother smile."

Su Yang slowly closed his eyes. He didn't want her to see the emotions flickering within.

"As for why I am here… I lied to father saying that I wasn't her daughter and that you, Senior Su, was my real father..."

"You what?!" Su Yang's eyes quickly snapped open, his mouth wide open from shock.

"Because of that, I am now being hunted by the Sacred Moon Palace," she said with a bashful smile with not even a single hint of regret in her tone, even looking proud of her decision.

"Why would you do that?! Now the entire Sacred Moon Palace will hunt you down until you die!" Su Yang said with a huge headache.

"Because I wanted him to feel pain for killing mother! I do not have the strength to avenge mother even now, nor do I have any authority within the Sacred Moon Palace, so I did what I did! I had planned on leaving the place anyway, so I might as well leave while knowing that I managed to make that bastard feel like shit! After all, what better way to make someone puke blood than to tell him that his child isn't actually his?" she said with her nails digging into her skin, her eyes radiating killing intent.

"Aiya! What a silly girl you are!" Su Yang sighed deeply. Although her method was effective and had definitely dealt some serious and irreversible damage to the Moon God, how did she plan on surviving this harsh world by herself without her family's background?

"How long has it been since you left?" he asked her.

"About 1,500 years…"

"What cultivation base are you at right now, and how much has your cultivation base advanced since then?"

"The third level of Divine Lord Realm… and it has barely advanced since I left…"

"Aiya! And you plan on avenging your mother? At this rate, you will die from a natural death before avenging your mother!"

"B-But I have you now, Senior Su!"

"And did you also plan to meet me, who is supposedly dead, here today?" he asked her with narrowed eyes.

"..."

Qiuyue instantly went quiet.

A few moments later, she said: "I am aware that I had acted too rashly, but what else am I supposed to do? Continue cultivating myself in the Sacred Moon Palace until I have enough strength to avenge mother? How long will that take? Millions of years? I cannot wait that long! I left the place with everything on the line, hoping that I would encounter a miraculous event that could help me! And today, my hopes have been realized by meeting you, Senior Su!"

Su Yang sighed at her words.

"Forget about avenging your mother, Qiuyue," he suddenly said, dumbfounding her.

"Why?! Aren't you also angry?! Don't you also want revenge?!" she asked, her face filled with puzzlement.

Su Yang turned around and said in a nonchalant voice: "Exactly why I am telling you to forget about it— because I alone will be enough to deal with the Moon God…"

Qiuyue's eyes instantly widened with shock.

"Eh?"

"I said I will be taking care of the Moon God, so you do not have to worry about him," he repeated, and he continued: "However, don't misunderstand my intentions. I am not doing this for the sake of revenge— this is something more personal," he said in a profound tone.

He then said to her: "It's getting cold out here, let's continue talking inside."

Qiuyue nodded, following Su Yang into his room.

"Before I can return to the Four Divine Heavens, I must know where I am first. Tell me, Qiuyue, where are we, and why is the cultivation world here so lousy?" Su Yang asked her after closing the door.

"Long story short— shortly after you died, many new and smaller worlds began appearing around the Four Divine Heavens from seemingly out of thin air, and this world is probably one of them. The cultivation world here is lacking simply because this world is still new and developing."

"Probably? What do you mean by that?"

"Well... before arriving here, I'd entered the Ancient Portal of the Four Heavenly Realms without setting a destination..."

"Aiiii..." Su Yang sighed again, feeling like he was talking to a child who has been doing nothing but mistakes. How could she, who was over a thousand years old at that time, keep making so many careless and dangerous decisions? Was he at fault, since he was the one who taught her everything as he watched her grow?

The Ancient Portal of the Four Heavenly Realms was a heavenly device that allowed people to travel from any of the Four Divine Heavens to another, but entering one without setting a destination would cause the individual that entered to be teleported anywhere in the universe— randomly.

Su Yang then continued to listen to Qiuyue with a pondering expression as she answered questions he's had in his mind since arriving at this world.