As they walked back home from the forest Mo Zhenyu could not help but sigh. His feelings when it came to his mother were complicated. As a matter of fact, there was a secret his father thought he had hidden well over the years but he was aware of his mother's hatred for him.
Mo ZhenYu gained consciousness in the womb. As incredible as it sounds it was because of the purple orb in his left eye.
Before he could hear voices, he had been poisoned with hopes of inducing abortion but under the support of the Purple orb he survived and grew into a fetus.
When he could hear voices, his mother would always lament, about not being able to go to this event, not participating in said competition because of the devil within her. During her pregnancy, she had referred to him as exactly that term "Devil spawn" every single time.
One night after arguing with Mo RenYu, she rushed into a wall to induce a forced abortion. " Her exact words were, I never wanted that monster anyway" before the contact.
Mo Renyu called the midwives and servants to assist with the premature pregnancy, She was unconscious and the baby was thought to be dead so they had to expel the fetus.
But to their surprise, though incredibly weak, Mo Zhenyu was born with a heartbeat. His father did all he could to preserve his life. In the process, his mother lost the usage of her legs after suffering from intense bleeding.
From that day on she became depressed and resentful. She turned from a strong and acclaimed Astral cultivator to a cripple, and the devil spawn was the root cause. She never held him, never fed him, would not accept to be in the same room as him.
Mo ZhenYu however was a quiet child, he would not make any sound or complain of anything just look at the world with his purple and blue eyes. His father had named him Mo (墨): "Ink." Zhenyu (真宇): "True Universe." Wishing for him to become a person who could write his own destiny.
One night while he was asleep in his crib, his mother, slid her wheelchair into the room and looked at him through the wooden, bars. He must have been seven or nine months.
He remembered how she flipped the crib with her Astral energy and lifted him up.
Her complexion was haggard, and so was her appearance. Sensing the danger Mo Zhenyu burst into tears, in the hope of alerting his father.
The latter dashed through as fast as possible, but he stumbled upon the sight of his wife, stabbing a knife through the eye of his only child.
"Have you lost your mind?" He yelled before pulling her away from the child. But turned into a frenzy smashing everything.
"I want him dead, Kill, Kill him." She was yelling. Both with tears of the baby Mo Zhenyu his father aged in a second. He felt guilty for his wife and for his son. He could not choose a party and he could not decisively cut off one either.
That night the family of three left wherever they lived before and went to this isolated island where his father would tend to his mother and help her recuperate and alternatively help him train.For nine years, his mother had not stepped out of her room. And for nine years, he had been forbidden from going anywhere near it.
His father had crafted a strict set of rules, a careful strategy to ensure that when his wife finally healed, she would be ready to accept their son.
First, he lied.
He told Mo Zhenyu he had been born with only one eye.
Second, he gave an excuse.
His mother was in deep cultivation, crossing an important threshold, and could not be disturbed.
Next, he shaped him in her image.
He taught him everything she loved—calligraphy, literature, painting. Even her spear techniques became part of his daily training, as if familiarity alone could bridge the gap between them.
But no matter how much effort his father poured into this illusion, nothing seemed to move her past her grief.
Mo Zhenyu never asked questions, but he was not naive. He had no illusions about his mother's feelings toward him. Some hatred simply could not be erased.
Still, he pitied his father—the love-lorn fool who clung to a dream that had long turned to ash.
He sighed as their wooden house came into view, then silently parted ways with his father, heading straight for his chamber. The impurities on his body clung to him with a stench he could no longer endure.
After a quick wash, he made his way to his father's study—only to find the man in a panic.
"Grab your bag. Your mother is missing."
Mo Renyu's voice was sharp with urgency as he flicked his wrist, sending a rolled-up portrait flying toward him.
Mo Zhenyu caught it mid-air, his fingers tightening around the familiar canvas. It was his father's most treasured work, an unfinished painting that had taken years—yet remained incomplete.
Ironically, his mother's left eye had never been drawn in.
Just like his own.
He sneered inwardly, tucking the scroll into his robes before grabbing the emergency bag his father had long prepared for him. Without a word, he followed the man as they sprinted toward the island's cliffside.
Mo Zhenyu watched as his father, the man who had spent years teaching him discipline, abandoned every lesson he had once preached.
What happened to never rushing in headfirst?
What about analyzing the situation before taking action?
Or never making decisions under heightened emotions?
Yet here he was, running blind, led only by desperation.
As they cleared the forest and stepped into the open air, a breathtaking yet unsettling sight unfolded before them.
There, at the edge of the cliff, stood the missing woman.
Her wheelchair lay discarded, forgotten, as the sea winds tangled through her long robes and hair. The moon bathed her in silver light, painting her pale figure with an almost ethereal glow.
Mo Renyu skidded to a stop, eyes wide with disbelief.
"Hao Lan… You can stand."
His voice trembled, thick with emotion. Without hesitation, he rushed toward her, arms outstretched, ready to embrace the woman he had waited so long for.
Mo Zhenyu lingered behind, watching as his mother—his mother, whom he had never truly seen—smiled.
For the first time, she was not a distant ghost or a name whispered behind closed doors.
She was beautiful. Devastatingly so.
He did not know she was capable of such warmth, such love.
A strange, unfamiliar feeling swelled in his chest.
Maybe… maybe they could be whole again.
But reality was cruel.
"Father, be careful!"
The warning tore from his throat, but it was too late.
The moment Mo Renyu stepped into her embrace, Hao Lan drove a hairpin into his back.