Chapter 55: The Beautiful, Powerful, and Tragic Cannon Fodder Villain—My Father Is a King (Part 8)

Qin Ye: ...

He displayed an awkward yet polite smile.

Xiao Jiang: ...

Forget it, as long as Father isn’t upset.

Since the topic had already been broached, Qin Ye sighed and prepared to reveal Qin Bing’s true parentage.

“At this point, I won’t hide it from you anymore. In fact, you’re not my biological son. Like Xiao Jiang, I picked you up.”

Since Qiu Lingsu had abandoned him herself, wasn’t that the same as his original self picking him up?

Qin Ye felt there was nothing wrong with his words.

Qin Bing looked helpless. “Father, the older you get, the more you sound like a child. I didn’t believe this kind of nonsense even when I was young, let alone now.”

Qin Ye rubbed his nose.

He’d raised his boys well and wasn’t like those neighbors who, for amusement, would tell their children they’d been found under a rock.

Such words, back in the days at the medical hall, Qin Bing and Xiao Jiang had heard quite enough.

But Xiao Jiang was convinced he really had been picked up by the old beggar from the river. There was no way he was the old beggar’s real son or grandson, right?

Wait, but wasn’t that possible too? Xiao Jiang fell into a reverie.

Bai Yujing, meanwhile, was a silent background presence. In his eyes, Qin Bing and Xiao Jiang were already nobles whom even the most distinguished village chief in their mountain village could never hope to meet.

When Qin Ye returned, Bai Yujing became even more reserved.

Among his peers, Bai Yujing could still muster some youthful bravado, enough that he didn’t care too much about status.

But in front of the older generation, Bai Yujing immediately shrank.

Oh no, would Master Qin punish Big Brother Qin and Second Brother Qin because of him?

He was so anxious he didn’t dare speak, nor even look around, for fear of meeting a pair of eyes full of disdain and impatience.

As he grew more uneasy, Bai Yujing suddenly looked up in shock. Even the dignified gentlemen of wealthy families made up such stories, just like the women in the village who grew impatient with children’s endless “where did I come from” questions?

Something inside him seemed to shatter with a crisp sound.

“What I said is true.”

“Yes, yes, of course it’s true. So, what’s my origin, then?”

The three youths below—three pairs of eyes—were either full of disbelief, shock that a dignified lord could lie so glibly, or pretending to believe, just to see how he’d spin his tale to amuse children.

Qin Ye: ...

What could he say? Did he really have no authority at all?

“Actually, your real father is Yan Wushuang, the greatest martial artist in the world.”

“Your mother was the last Holy Maiden of the Demonic Sect, Qiu Lingsu. The destruction of the Sword-Crafting Manor was orchestrated by your mother’s hand.”

“Your father abandoned your mother. She bore a grudge and planned to use you as a tool for revenge.”

“She wanted to raise you into a weapon, and then use that weapon—you—to kill Yan Wushuang.”

“No matter whether you died or Yan Wushuang died, it would be revenge to her, because after you two fought to the death, she would reveal the truth to the survivor.”

Qin Ye’s string of words left Qin Bing, who had been playing along with a helpless yet doting expression, suddenly silent.

He swallowed. “Father, you really aren’t just teasing me?”

Qin Ye patted his shoulder, the force making him stagger. “Your mother has been searching for you all these years. She can’t accept that her perfect plan for revenge went awry.”

“My mother ...”

Qin Bing began, then quickly corrected himself. “She never loved her child, did she?”

Qin Ye clasped his hands behind his back. “It’s hard to say. When your mother was pregnant, your father abandoned her for another woman. That left her to be taken away by a top assassin sent by the Demonic Sect to punish traitors.

While she was being tortured for her betrayal, your father, in order to save the other woman’s sect, accepted the sacred sword’s recognition and became its master.

Adding that to his original cultivation, he instantly became the greatest martial artist in the world, saved that woman’s sect, and announced he would retire with her and never again concern himself with worldly affairs.”

Qin Bing clenched his fists. “And my mother? He completely left her behind?”

Qin Ye’s weathered face turned upward. “Who can say what grudges and debts the previous generation tangled themselves in?

Maybe your father sent someone back for her, but they failed, and he thought she was dead.

Or maybe someone misled your father, made him believe her betrayal was just a ruse, and now she’d simply gone back to being the Demonic Sect enchantress.

The truth of what happened, only your father and those who were there know for sure.”

Qin Bing’s fists tightened and loosened, over and over again.

Xiao Jiang looked at him with concern, but before he could offer comfort, Qin Bing had already flung himself into Qin Ye’s arms.

“Waaah, Father, you’re telling me all this because you don’t want me anymore!”

Qin Ye’s mouth twitched. “No, I just think you’re grown now, and you deserve to know the truth about the past.

If I thought keeping it from you was best, I’d say nothing. But now that you’ve set out into the martial world, your mother’s people will surely find you.

When that happens, I’m afraid you’ll be sold by your mother and still help her count the money.

I’m not speaking ill of her, but back then your mother was blinded by hatred, and after her martial arts were crippled, she could no longer seek revenge.

So, to get her vengeance, she turned to the Demonic Sect’s forbidden art, the Heavenly Demon Dance.

Once mastered, even at its lowest level, the Heavenly Demon Dance gives one the power of a Grandmaster.

But it’s called a forbidden art because everyone who practices it becomes a madman.”

In other words, Qiu Lingsu had gone mad.

This was the truth Qin Ye only learned after he’d gained complete authority over the Holy Sect.

He’d always wondered why Qiu Lingsu seemed so indifferent to her own son, her mind filled only with plans to use him for revenge on Yan Wushuang.

But she hadn’t always been like this. Originally, Qiu Lingsu, though a member of the Demonic Sect, still harbored a remnant of conscience and justice.

That’s why, when she met Yan Wushuang, the young hero of the righteous path, she was gradually moved by him and fell in love, eventually longing to leave the Demonic Sect behind.

Unfortunately, perhaps in trying to break away from the sect, she was too proactive.

In the contest between the white moonlight and the cinnabar mole, she became the first grain of plain rice or a drop of mosquito blood.

This was all due to the high-level maneuvering of the previous leader of the Water Moon Convent.

Qiu Lingsu, as a demonic enchantress, lost completely.

Sang Lanxin of the Water Moon Convent, too, loved Yan Wushuang, but she never considered withdrawing from the world with him.

She liked him, yes, but that never kept her from scheming to use him for her sect’s benefit.

In short, Qiu Lingsu was driven by love, while Sang Lanxin was all about her career.

In the end, the one ruled by love lost everything. The deeper the love, the greater the hate and pain afterward.

But the career woman? Well, if love is gone, she still has her career, and her career can soothe the pain of lost affection.

The original soul had no desire for revenge against Qiu Lingsu, so Qin Ye didn’t bother with her.

As for the blood feud of the Sword-Crafting Manor, everyone who’d had a hand in it had already been dealt with by Qin Ye, except for Qiu Lingsu, who’d only spread the news.

Qiu Lingsu was mad, and her personality meant that every day she lived was another day of torment.

Qin Ye had no intention of taking her life.

Not just because of that, but also out of consideration for Qin Bing’s feelings.

Whatever you do, you’ll always leave traces.

If Qin Bing learned the truth someday, that his adoptive father whom he respected above all else had killed his birth mother, it would destroy him.

Yes, Qiu Lingsu wasn’t a good person—she was mad and unfit to be a mother.

In the story, Qin Bing suffered every misery and was cast as the villain just for opposing the protagonists. Qiu Lingsu trained him to be an emotionless weapon.

Killing meant nothing to him.

But before that, he’d been a living, breathing person.

He’d had friends like Xiao Jiang.

But in the story, Qin Bing wasn’t some reincarnator returning to the past with all his pain. He hadn’t experienced all that yet.

If Qin Ye killed Qiu Lingsu, to Qin Bing it would mean his most respected adoptive father had killed his birth mother.

A Qin Bing who hadn’t been brainwashed into a weapon would be thrown into despair and confusion, maybe even driven mad.

Their team’s mission wasn’t to destroy the child, but to save him.

To save—didn’t they understand what saving meant?

Qin Ye’s expression grew solemn, his whole being seeming to shine with an inner light.

Tai’e: ...

Reluctantly, Tai’e produced the radiant effect for the shameless human.

Why didn’t the flute have to do any work?

Demon Flute: ...

Uh, its light was a ghastly green, very much in the style of a demonic cultivator. It really wasn’t appropriate to show up now.

Tai’e: Green tea flute!

Demon Flute: Wow, you pick up a new phrase and use it everywhere!

At that moment, Qin Bing’s emotions shifted from shock and confusion to sorrow and misery, finally settling on a kind of relief: at least Father was still Father.

The atmosphere was ruined, just like that.

“It doesn’t matter. As long as you’re still my father, nothing else matters,” Qin Bing said solemnly.

Qin Ye blinked. “You’re not going to search for your real father?”

“When he left my mother, didn’t he know she was pregnant?”

“He did.”

That’s how it was in the story, so he must have known.

“But he still left her, so what’s there to say?”

Qin Ye: “Then are you going to find your mother?”

“I can’t beat her yet, so no.”

What?

What???

Going to find your mother and not being able to beat her—what’s the connection between those two things?

Xiao Jiang suddenly realized, “Don’t tell me you’re waiting until you’re strong enough to defeat Aunt Qiu, then you’ll go tie her up and cripple her martial arts?”

This time, it was Qin Ye’s turn for his pupils to quake.

What? Could his identity as a demonic cultivator have been exposed? Otherwise, how could his boy have such a strong demonic sect vibe?

“Since the Heavenly Demon Dance is a forbidden art and those who practice it go mad, if I cripple her martial arts, won’t my mother return to normal?

Then I’ll bring my real father back too, and cripple his martial arts as well.

If she wants revenge, she can have it. If she doesn’t, and still loves my father, then they can spend the rest of their lives together in peace.”