"P-please ..., please mistress. I beg you!? Please, d-don't hurt father! I ..., I am sorry. I'm so so sorry ...!"
It was the first time for the Gu Clan's Second Young Mistress to prostrated in front of someone. Begging for forgiveness. It became the talk of the nearby onlookers. The pressure that exuded from the two experts began to diminish, and not long after civilians began to surround this street to watch the drama unfolded.
They snickered in their heart. 'Serve the damn right, that Arrogant Young Mistress finally kicked some bronze plate.'
"This Lady, I was the one who attacked you first. Please, don't make her suffer because of what I did." Gu Ming said while gritting his teeth out of agony.
"It's surprising indeed ...," Arianne turned back to the imprisoned Gu Ming raising her brow in amazement.
"Master!?" Sun Yue who was finally released from the horror-like pressure shouted. It was the most bizarre battle scene he had ever seen in his life.
"Young Miss Arianne, please wait for a little. This man over here is the City Lord whom we suppose to meet. Please don't escalate the matter any worse than this!" from the side, Dian Luze also reminded her of the initial business they must do in this city.
"Shut it old man, am I a retard? Of course, I know that, he is this girl's father, and that only means he is Lord's soon-to-be father-in-law." Arianne scoffed him with a sudden shout. "Heihh ..., I don't know anymore ..., hey you girl, get up and come here!"
She pointed at the crying Gu Fenglin who still prostrated and beckoned her to rise and come to her side. Still sobbing quietly, she raised her head. The arrogant face from before then became a pitiful crying young maiden. All of the attention turned to the crying Gu Fenglin.
The gaze from the commoners who were onlooking from the side was not sympathy nor pity, they were gloating at the state she was at the moment.
"Serve her right, if I have myself a daughter like her, then I'll sell her to be a slave ..."
"I can't disagree with you, she will be a hot cake in the market. At least she has the look."
"Damn are you little girl lovers?"
"So what if I am!? Are you from the older woman faction?"
"Oy oy ..., don't say that you two, hey, at least don't spurt your meaningless argument in the public!"
"Hmph, what a sh*tty Lord he is?"
"That's wrong in any sense, are you new here? I tell you, don't underestimate the Gu Clan power!"
"What do you afraid of? It's not like that damn Landlord will capture us anyway? He's a weakling and a coward! Look at him, to be incapacitated just after a minute of a fight. He doesn't have the strength to protect us, what a sh*tty city lord. Both of him and her daughter!"
"Hey, dude. I told this for your sake, don't talk badly about the Gu! Even if our City Lord is not that strong, he still a Grand Knight. And there is still the old monsters who locked themselves inside. I heard that they have a Fundamental Saint on them!"
"They what? A Fundamental Saint! Isn't that some old monsters that only a royal family or the major clan from the Zhongyang region have? Are you for real?"
"Heih, even if they have Fundamental Saint, this clan is doomed for sure. Just look at this generation, City Lord doesn't have direct male heir, and although the first daughter is somewhat decent, this ..."
"..., yeah, what a failure of a daughter."
"If I have a daughter like her, I will sell her to a slave trader immediately."
"Oy, you've said that before! And before you wish about what will you do when you finally have a daughter, you should be thinking about how to convince a woman to be your wife in the first place!"
Strangely, their discussion could be heard easily by Gu Fenglin. She was extremely focused on every word they said, and every time she heard it, there was this particular feeling as if her heart was stabbed. Thus making her cry even harder.
She could only mindlessly walked into Arianne.
The red-haired woman looked at the young girl with an irritated expression. She then raised a palm to the encaged Gu Ming, said. "Adjust Temperature!"
The hellish-like temperature of the blazing hot chain and prison was lowered drastically. It lessened the temperature of the Flame Prison, and then Gu Ming could breathe with ease. He concentrated to regenerating the cell on his body with qi.
Meanwhile, the red-haired woman said something to the crying girl. "It's hurt, right? There is a saying, tongue is sharper than a knife."
"... sob ... hiks ..." Gu Fenglin didn't speak and just continue crying.
"You must be asking in your heart, why I am ended up being hated like this? Or, what I've done all this time?" Arianne asked once again.
"..., hiks ..." Gu Fenglin sucking back the snot that stuck on her nose.
Arianne scratched the back of her head and stated, "arghh ..., this is really irritating. Hey, girl, it's your fault to be this idiot. I want you to accept this fact first before I continue."
She waited for some time to let the young girl digest what she just said.
After some time, while crossing her arm on her towering chest, Arianne said. "But what can you do, the fault of a children lay on how their parents educate them."
Gu Fenglin stared blankly at Arianne.
Arianne then walked to her half-kneeling to matched their gaze. She hugged her seemingly fragile body, she patted Gu Fenglin's head and caressed her hair.
"Girl, I could guess that you must be living a lavish boring life as a City Lord daughter. However, these peculiar behaviors of yours, it's not the best way to gain your parent's attention. A troublemaker child won't receive her mother's love. I want you to understand this." She said with this out of this world motherly aura on her.
Actually, Arianne was irritated because of the particular scent on Gu Fenglin. While, yes there was also the thing with her being jealous because of this young girl who hadn't yet to grow hair would be her Lord's spouse. But Arianne's strong animosity on her was because of Gu Fenglin smell like her mother, and Dian Xianli's mother.
The smell of someone who had been forsaken. Perhaps it was only her father's indifference, but she clearly felt abandoned by him.
A troublemaker child mostly became what they are because they were neglected by their parents. They would try to gain their parent's attention even if that would mean raising trouble here and there. Arianne knew about this matter precisely because the environment she grew up in was not that great.
She once had a brother, because of her family condition, her parents always favored her brother over here despite she excelled at everything while the brother of hers never had any real achievement to speak off. But even so, her existence still denied by the family because she was a girl, who someday would be married off to another family. It led to the disparity of the sibling's treatment.
Her father who rarely care about household affair always said a word of praise to everything her brother achieve. But not for her, even if she did great on magic practice or got a perfect score on magic theory, her parents never praise her.
This sense of negligence always lingered her mind. And thus, when she could no longer hold it back anymore, she had done precisely what Gu Fenglin did at the moment. She made a problem here and there, but on a bigger scale than what Gu Fenglin did.
Starting from joining an underground organization and did some shady stuff with her new friend. Like, stealing magic books from her family's private library, copied it and let the organization have it. Training some Peasant-class Mage corps. And she even used the bit of gold from her family to fund this group of rebellion that arose in her country. Fun time on the group of young people with too much energy to spare for the world.
She joined this revolutionary organization not because she fancied their ideology, most of all, she care less about their goals and ideals. She only wanted a bit of that attention from her parents. Even if it would mean that she blanched her family reputation, she would do anything just to gather her parents' attention on her.
Though even after she was busted for joining a dangerous organization like this, her father was too much of a stoic person. He shut-in inside his research room not caring about the problem that arose because of his daughter. As for her mother, she ignored everything that she did. As if everything that she had done outside of the house didn't even matter for the mother.
In the end, three months after she joined this organization she was awakened by the cruel reality. The incident that burned down her mansion and stripped her privilege as a noble daughter.
Arianne then strived in the world as an adventurer with her bits knowledge regarding magic. She turned down the invitation to become the leader of the revolutionary organization because she felt that this organization would only crumble in a short time. She then joined the Mage Tower Association, and at the age of 42, she rose into the position of Mage Tower Master.
Perhaps, she saw the young herself on Gu Fenglin that made her did all of that. How mad she was when remembering that particular time of her life. She tried to gain her parent's attention when her family actually was in such a devastating state. She really wanted to beat her past self for being selfish and ignorant.
Arianne actually wanted to beat the sh*t out of Gu Fenglin. If the City Lord didn't come, then she probably would have already done that. However, when Arianne thought about it once again, the one who was at fault as those who neglect.
So she turned her attention to the Gu Ming.
"And you, I don't know why you would do something like ignore your own daughter. But even if what she did was only making you trouble, you must properly scold your daughter when she was in the wrong and give her direction and advice! It's called basic of parenting, are you even worthy to be called a parent?"
"That's ...," Gu Ming looked down in contemplation.
"What that's? I know you are not doing the exact 'that'! You don't even look properly at her eyes! What kind of failure father you are?!"
Gu Ming lowered his head thinking about what she said. Arianne hit the right spot to point at his fault.
Gu Ming had only one wife in this life. His wife was actually his cousin that also from Gu clan. Just like him, his wife was the young genius of the clan. She loved him dearly and Gu Ming also shared the same feeling. With the Clan Elders arrangement, the two of them married. Unfortunately, she died after giving birth to Gu Fenglin.
After that, he never takes another woman to be his partner. He just cultivated madly every day or busying himself with the city matters.
When Gu Fenglin's talent assessed, the result was just some average Rank 5 Talent. Unlike his first daughter who had a wonderful Rank 9 Talent, this second daughter was considered as subpar. With her messy talent, she could not cultivate the lowest cultivation method of the clan.
Gu Ming tried to get a cultivation method from the nearby sect with Fire element focus. Even though Gu Fenglin had an average talent, she still inherited a Fire-type Spiritual Root. Thus finding another Earth-ranked cultivation method from other sects would be the best for her.
But then it began, the daily of Gu Fenglin and her unreasonable behavior. Gu Ming handed her Earth-ranked Cultivation Method he bought with much difficulty from nearby Phoenix Rebirth Sect. However, this daughter didn't accept it and said she wouldn't cultivate it if it was not the cultivation method from the clan.
Gu Ming persuaded her kindly and patiently, his first daughter also helped to persuade Gu Fenglin. But it only maddened the ten-year-old Gu Fenglin. In the end, Gu Ming exploded with anger and then yelled at her for being unruly. It was the first time for the young girl and her elder sister to see their father this mad.
However, drenched in tears, Gu Fenglin still opposed learning the method from Phoenix Rebirth Sect. Gu Ming then stopped speaking any further and just let her do what she wanted to do. In a simple word, he just abandoned her and let her for doing as she please.
Gu Ming knew this, even if she tried, it would be impossible for her to cultivate the higher rank method of Gu Clan. Sooner or later, she would just give it up and then trained with the Earth-rank method.
But something that was totally unexpected happened. Because she finally realized that she couldn't cultivate the Gu Clan method, Gu Fenglin just let it go and did not want to cultivate at all. It was the epitome of the unreasonableness of her, even then Gu Ming perplexed with her.
This time again, Gu Ming just kept silent and let her do what she wishes to do. Perhaps, it wouldn't be long till she started to realize the importance of self inner strength in this harsh cultivation world.
If it was stopped until that, then it would be best. But Gu Fenglin's unreasonable behavior started to get out of the Mansion. She made a scene here and there and leave a mark in Xianjing city for no particular reason. At that time she always brought a leather whip with her, and when she needed it, she would lash whoever irked her.
Again, she lashed anyone for no special reason. When there was a commoner boy who ran on the street and bumped her carriage, she lashed him even though he was heavily injured. When she was in the market and didn't get the price she wanted, she lashed the merchant until he gave all of his items to her at a super cheap price. And there was also a story of how she whipped a maidservant of the mansion until she bleeds and died of blood loss.
This peculiar behavior of hers finally reached Gu Ming's ear. He then couldn't keep silent when his reputation as the city lord was on the line. He confiscated her favorite leather whip and put her into house arrest. But he never spoke a single word to her.
After the house arrest period ended, Gu Ming then placed a bodyguard to watch this despotic daughter of his. It was not to guard her against danger but to prevent her to do something dangerous to the civilian. He also made her promised to not do any unreasonable behavior.
However, even after all of that, it was still ineffective. While yes, she didn't lash anyone with her whip. But she still roaming around the city, incited hatred and provoke anyone she saw. It made anyone in the city wanted to do everything to harm and humiliate her, and some of them truly did that. But then when she was in danger she would let her bodyguard break their bone for her.
She did not put her hand on all of this, her bodyguard did all of the crude work. She also had an excuse if her father asked, it was for self-defense. And with a few threats and blackmailing, she managed to gain control over the bodyguard appointed by her father. Such a thing was happening these years in Xianjing City.
Everyone in the city knew that the best solution to deal with this young lady was to avoid her completely. And pray that someday she would meet someone she couldn't afford to provoke.
Gu Ming already knew all of this. Besides putting a bodyguard on the daylight, he also arranged some people who tailed her on the shadow and report her conduct to him.
However, after all this time he was really tired dealing with this unruly behavior of his second daughter. He felt the time to take care of every mess she made wasn't that important compared to other things. Gu Ming then completely neglected her and then focused to groom her elder sister. He even agreed to sent Gu Fenglin to the most despotic noble son in the region, Dian Xianli of Dali City.
Even if she was raised wrongly and turn out to be a complete calamity-bringer of his family ..., when her life was in danger, he wouldn't let it slide just like that. She was the last thing his wife left for him. And though he hated to admit it, Gu Fenglin was the perfect mirror of her mother on her youth. If the only thing mattered was appearance.
That was why when Arianne let out her aura and pressurized the whole city, he showed up brandishing his spear. All of the excuses he said about Arianne harming his citizen was just a cover-up because he wasn't that good with his second daughter. He didn't want to be seen as if he cared about her daughter's well-being.
But in the end, he was completely and thoroughly defeated. The golden chain that tied him render him useless because even circulating qi to the peripheral meridian was impossible.
And with the cage that was made out of melting metal. The cage that almost reached its melting point would be malleable and easy to bend. But who in the right mind would bend that scorching hot metal when even getting near it was very difficult!?
Gu Ming knew this clearly, that what he did to his daughters was a mistake. He was guilty of how he neglecting one while supporting the other. He felt this treatment was being unfair to both of his daughters.
Seeing Gu Ming reflect on himself, Arianne turned her attention back to Gu Fenglin. "Look here, girl ..., remember just what I said before, about this is also your fault ..."
She didn't know if it was because how kind and caring her word, or because being hugged by a beautiful(though still masked) person was this pleasing. Gu Fenglin did not feel afraid with her anymore. Even though Arianne was that very demon who terrorized the entire city and made her almost peed her skirt out of fear. In fact, this time she felt very comfortable on her embrace.
Gu Fenglin nodded her little head at Arianne's sudden question. The red-haired woman looked at the girl with a little of understanding look.
"I don't know if this is wrong, but I understand that you just desperately wanted attention. I can understand the reason behind all of what you did. After all, being pampered by your parents is also your basic needs and privilege as a kid. Look here, you'll never get that chance when you grow up. But still, you're at fault in the way you did it."
"I ... I just want to be cared for. Just like ... like my sister. Why father is not even want to talk with me?" The girl finally showed up her real feeling.
Arianne matched up to her gaze and smiled, "now, now ..., you see, adult people sometimes is dumb. To think there will be a time when a father ignored her cute daughter. But perhaps it's the daughter's fault ..., okay, before we continue, I'm gonna ask. Have you done anything wrong unto your father before?"
"I ... yes, I have." Gu Fenglin avoided her eyes from Arianne.
"Look see, a disobedient girl is never favored. Perhaps your father won't take a look at you anymore because you're just being too much of a stubborn."
"I ..., I just want to learn my clan cultivation method? Why father brought me a method from another sect? I just wanted to learn the method that all of my cousins learned. Why can't I?"
Arianne smiled wryly with this question from the little girl. Though she didn't know what was this cultivation method was, probably it was the same as a spellbook.
She then pondered for a bit and said, "..., probably you already know the reason why. But as I said, you're just too stubborn to admit it. Hey, in this life you may have to give it in and choose for another."
"But I don't want to be different from the other!"
'Hey girl, with you being this unreasonable, you're too much of an oddball in this world' what other people thought from the side. Though, they still kept silent this whole time. The scene of Arianne hugging the little girl was too much of an impact for them.
"What's wrong with being different? Everyone in this world is different, but they tried to find what they have in common to make them more comfortable in society. That's how they placed themselves in the world, grouped with everyone else who is the same as them. Personally, I prefer being different. Look I'm wearing a mask, this attire, and look at this glove and stocking! I even shot out a flame from my hand! Isn't that awesome?"
Arianne flaunted her mode of fashion to the little girl, while at it, she also snapped her finger to create a miniature fire spell. But unlike the hellish flame she used to torment Gu Ming, it was docile and somewhat cute little fire sprite that provide warmth. Gu Fenglin watched the flame with a curious gaze, no longer crying or fearing the red-haired woman.
Arianne snapped her finger once again and the matches' fire went off. "Being different is fine, but just don't cross the borderline of humanity. You got it?"
Gu Fenglin wiped the tears on her cheek and nodded, "Unn ..., I got it."
"Good ..." Arianne scuffled her head in a full-face smile, again because she was still on her mask her expression didn't change that much.
She then turned her attention to the encaged Gu Ming. Saying, "that father over there, are you finished contemplating the life in this world?"
"Aa ..., this Lady, I don't know what to say to you anymore. It was all my fault. Perhaps all this time I was in the wrong." Gu Ming stated in an exhausted voice.
"It's good that you as a proper adult realized your mistake. How about apologizing to your daughter first?"
"I see, I think it's the least I can do right now."
She took one last hug to the Gu Fenglin and stood up. Arianne then pointed her hand to Gu Ming, while she chanted, "Release."
The Flame Cage of Razeegna immediately disappeared from sight as the heated metal chains and cages got pulled back into the magic circle.
Arianne patted the little girl back and told her, "go talk it out with your father!"
"Yes, mother!" nodded the little girl cheerfully.
"Huh? Ehhhh!?!" the crease on Arianne's forehead was never this plenty.