Chapter 184 - About VDC

"Then what about friends?" Cater said in confusion.

Peony shook her head, "It's been a long time since I last interacted with a cultivator in a friendly manner. I'd say Huo Wei and two others are the closest I have to friends right now."

"But, you have Little Jun?" Riddle pointed out curiously.

"Little Jun is family." Lotus responded, "We're not as distant as friends. Especially not since I'm raising him alongside everyone else."

"Huh?" Cater looked to her in confusion, "But, what about your family?"

Peony shook her head and frowned, "They've passed shortly after I came into the world."

"Huh, really?" Cater looked to her in surprise before covering his mouth, "Ah, sorry. It's just I thought I remember Lotus mentioning something similar."

Peony nodded, "Lotus and I have a similar background, it seems. Both of our families were done in our own biological family."

"Huh? It's the same for you?"

"Ah, Cater." Trey warned him with a frown.

Peony shrugged, "It's fine. I'm not as sad as I don't know much about them at the moment. Besides, I didn't retain any memories from back then and I was raised by someone else, after. As for Lotus, his only family was his mother, so he must've cherished her a lot. I was raised by my foster parents and thank god they're still unharmed before I left. However, I just don't know where they've gone to this time. It's been so many years too. Aside from family, I doubt those evil beings thought that I'm still around..."

Riddle frowned, "Wait, if they're hunting for you, then..."

Peony shook her head, "That wouldn't be likely. I've been gone missing for so long. They must've thought that I'm dead by now. So, I'm gonna take this time and regather my strength before I face them again."

"But why would your own family want you dead?" Riddle looked to him in confusion.

"Well, my father was a prodigy when he was young and the star of his family household. He wanted to marry my mother who has no background and an orphan. That's when things broke out. According to the servants, my father was already on bad terms with his family who were all materialistic about everything. The reason they didn't agree with the union was because my mother had no benefits to them. With all that, my father severed himself from the family and left. He started his own business, but who knew that things would blow up after I was born. Apparently, they wanted revenge for the decline of their reputation due to my father's decision to leave the family."

"Reputation decline?" Riddle looked to him in surprise, "Did your father do something for the family?"

Peony nodded, "My father was a strong cultivator. There was usually a competition or expedition for opportunity to get stronger for us. My father often took part in those event representing his family. However, after his departure, their family was no longer the first and people began pointing fingers at the household for being dumb in rejecting my father's request for marriage. In truth, my mother wasn't short of a prodigy either. However, she came from a common background and lost her parents at a young age. She also didn't have any reputation on her making her an unfit candidate as his wife. Shortly after their marriage, she began to make a lot of accomplishments from medicine to poison and was referred to as a miracle doctor by the people. At the same time, my father knew spatial array. Both are strong cultivators and talented ones too. However, his family looked down on my mother which led to ill times in their household."

"I see." Riddle frowned, "From their perspective, it was probably like a bad luck, but... Following your words, it sounds like karma caught up to them."

Peony nodded, "That's right. However, all they lost was their reputation. Not their lives. My parents didn't harm the family directly, but, with their reputation on the line, they tried to find every opportunity they could to harm my parents."

"The toxicity in the family is so high..." Cater sighed in exasperation.

"It's so common. You can find it anywhere from our place." Peony shook her head, "Many well-off families are like this with materialistic view in our society. Underhanded scheme aren't rare at all. When they heard that my mother was pregnant with me, they struck and poisoned her."

"What?!"

"It's not uncommon, you know." Peony responded, "What I don't understand is why she didn't try to cure herself. Could it have harmed me if she tried to do so? In the end, she died shortly after giving birth to me and the poison passed onto me. If she hadn't been a cultivator, I would've long died in her womb, but for poison to pass from mother to child is rather uncommon, yet not rare. Shortly, after I was born, my father's family took this opportunity to raid the house in the middle of the night. Apparently, my father was poisoned during the fight, so the butler took me and escaped. However, they found us a few days after and left me to rot in a forest. The poison made me unable to cultivate and I was too young, so I was left there when my foster mother found me and adopted me. However, those people probably made sure that I was dead and returned to find me, because they quickly identified me a few years later when I returned with my foster parents. We left quickly after that and went on separate paths after. Who knew that I'd be gone for so long after that."

"Why would they come after you, though?" Riddle frowned, "Did you do something after returning to that place?"

Peony shook her head and continued to fib, "Not yet. Usually, people, like them, would do this to make sure the child does not return to enact revenge for the death of the parents. I didn't even know I was from their family until they targeted me. If they hadn't, I'd probably still be oblivious to the fact that I was descended from their household. Now that I'm back, I should let them continue to bask as much as they want. I'm in no hurry, after all."

"I'm surprised you hadn't enacted your revenge." Trey noted in disbelief.

"Why should I?" Peony sneered, "Haven't you heard of the saying? Only tall trees will catch larger winds. Such pristine reputation is just waiting to be trampled over and one little blotch is enough to ruin the entire appearance."

Hearing this, Riddle sighed as he noted to himself how much alike the thinking of these two oddballs are. It'd be unusual if they weren't related at all. If he could, he'd love to see if the two were the same person as well. However, Peony is clearly very powerful and always on high alert. The reason she's telling them this is basically because they can't do anything to help her nor intervene with their current strength. They can't even solve the problem of the intruders with their own hands. How can they stop or help her? If he looks into the matter of the two, he would be the one in the thick of it all. Personally, he couldn't help but lament at his own weakness, but he was also reassured that she was on their side right now and she is a powerful ally.

.....

As they finished cleaning up, Cater looked up to her as though he remembered something, "Ah, right! It'd would probably be helpful for you to know this, but there will be a VDC going on next month."

"VDC?" Peony looked to him genuinely surprised, "What's that?"

"Vocal And Dance Championship." Riddle explained, "From what I know, it's a competition for performances, such as singing and dancing. Vil should know more about it."

"Vil..."

"He's the dorm leader of Pomefiore dorm." Cater responded, "You possibly not known him either. He's a famous model and actor."

Peony grumbled as she complained, "But, I prefer books and calligraphy over movies and all that..."

"Eh?" Cater sighed in exasperation, "All right, all right. We get it."

She turned to Riddle and said, "Don't worry. Now that I know, I'll prepare to keep them from causing trouble. At the same time, it would be better if you make sure that nobody else overblots again. I won't be able to focus if there's another overblot."

"Speaking of which, Lotus must be treating Jamil, right?" Trey reminded them with a worried look.

"Yes. He's better now. That guy..." Peony sighed, "He ignored Lotus's warning and I had to sneak an imprint onto him. He has so much negative energy so early. All it needed was blot to fulfill it all. Then, I had to personally protect his soul from the incoming blot while Yuu and the others fought."

"It was that bad?" Riddle looked to her in confusion, "I know he's Kalim's vice-dorm leader, but..."

"He also works under Kalim back home, if I remember correctly." Trey reminded him.

Peony nodded, "I've learned from his memory that he will most likely take on his family's position and work under Kalim exclusively in the future, just like their fathers. They've known each other since young, after all."

"Ah..." Riddle sighed, "It's no wonder..."

"Wah, Riddle really isn't helping Kalim either..." Cater said nervously before he responded in all seriousness, "Honestly, I can understand why Jamil became stressed since Kalim is always happy-go-lucky too, but controlling him is still taking it too far."

"Enough." Riddle interrupted with a frown, "This is their matter from this point on. We can discuss this at a later date."

Peony nodded, "Kalim helped Jamil retain his position as Vice-dorm leader."

"I see..." Riddle nodded, "Then, all's well. Will you be able to withhold the intruders before the next event?"

Peony nodded again, "I have a plan, which involves Little Jun and Crystal."

"You won't intervene, yourself?" Cater looked to her in surprise.

Peony shook her head, "The last overblot used up a lot of my spiritual energy. I need time to recover and I also got injured. If not, Lotus would not have been left in the snow that day."

"Lotus got hurt?"