The original owner did not understand the reason why, but Leng Zhuxin, who knew the plot of the original book, did.
Although this book was merely an immortal cultivation novel that Leng Zhuxin had casually flipped through during her leisure time catching ghosts, and her impression of it was not very deep, she couldn't help but read all the plots concerning the original owner because the original owner shared her exact name.
Therefore, Leng Zhuxin knew that the reason why the original owner's Spiritual Root and Dantian had to be dug out and given to Leng Yueyao was because Leng Yueyao was pregnant.
The child Leng Yueyao was carrying was naturally the male protagonist's, but the male protagonist was not Immortal Lord Changheng; rather, he was a mysterious cultivator from the Upper Realm.
Leng Yueyao had embarked on the path of immortal cultivation as a mortal using Spirit-Evoking Grass and Spirit-Washing Grass, and her Golden Core cultivation was entirely built up with heavenly treasures, lacking true purity.
The male protagonist, Kangkong Hao, possessed a noble and precious bloodline. The nobler and more precious one's bloodline was, the harder it was to conceive offspring, and the greater the damage to the mother's body would be. Leng Yueyao possessed merely a mortal bloodline and naturally could not support it. Barely a month into her pregnancy, her face was already ashen, her cultivation had regressed to the Qi Condensation Stage, and her vitality was being heavily drained by the fetus in her womb.
Immortal Lord Changheng knew that if things went on like this, neither Leng Yueyao nor the fetus in her womb would survive, so he demanded that Leng Yueyao get an abortion. Leng Yueyao was unwilling and bitterly begged Immortal Lord Changheng to save the child in her womb.
Knowing that Immortal Lord Changheng and her four senior martial brothers all favored her, she declared that whoever could keep her and her child safe and sound would become her cultivation partner.
To these devoted admirers, these words were the greatest encouragement, and several senior martial brothers successively descended the mountain in search of life-preserving treasures.
Meanwhile, Immortal Lord Changheng, who had always known that the original owner possessed a Heavenly Water Spiritual Root, set his sights on the original owner.
As one of the most powerful individuals in the Xuanling Continent, Immortal Lord Changheng certainly knew that there was nothing within the Xuanling Continent that could help Leng Yueyao; even if such a thing existed, it could only allow the child to be born safely while reducing Leng Yueyao back to a mortal.
How could Immortal Lord Changheng, who deeply loved Leng Yueyao and was even willing to step in as a substitute father, ever let Leng Yueyao become a mere mortal? By a stroke of fortune and misfortune, he had once acquired a forbidden art that perfectly suited Leng Yueyao's current situation.
Only the Spiritual Root and Golden Core of a cultivator in the Golden Core Stage with a Heavenly Water Spiritual Root could ensure the safety of both Leng Yueyao and her child, while preventing Leng Yueyao from reverting to a mortal. As for transferring half of the original owner's bloodline to Leng Yueyao, it was because while stripping away the original owner's Spiritual Root and Golden Core, Immortal Lord Changheng discovered that the original owner possessed a special bloodline, so he went ahead and swapped the bloodline as well.
Nourished by the original owner's Spiritual Root and Golden Core, and now possessing half of the original owner's special bloodline, Leng Yueyao naturally ended up safely giving birth to a son.
To the outside world, Immortal Lord Changheng claimed that he was the father of Leng Yueyao's son, and he even held a grand Dual Cultivation Ceremony with Leng Yueyao.
The subsequent plot involved Leng Yueyao using the original owner's half-bloodline to cultivate back to the Golden Core Stage, after which the two of them tracked down the original owner—who had been reincarnated into a minor family within the Immortal Cultivation World—and took the original owner in as Leng Yueyao's disciple.
Later on, the original owner died during a trial, and right before dying, she handed over her second lifetime's Heavenly Spiritual Root to Leng Yueyao.
From then on, Leng Yueyao's life was essentially cheating; her cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds, she broke through to Deity Transformation within a hundred years, gained countless followers, became the premier female immortal of the Xuanling Continent, and earned the qualification to stand side by side with the Dragon-Surnamed male protagonist, Kangkong Hao.
When Kangkong Hao came to the Xuanling Continent once again, she took her genius son—who possessed a Heavenly Water Spiritual Root—to acknowledge Kangkong Hao, and the family of three passed through the teleportation array together to the Upper Realm.
This was the complete plot that Leng Zhuxin had read. As for other developments, Leng Zhuxin only knew that after Leng Yueyao and Kangkong Hao went to the Upper Realm, Leng Yueyao acknowledged a powerful figure as her sworn brother, securing a backing for herself.
Moreover, she utilized the bloodline obtained from the original owner to do quite a few things for the Dragon-Surnamed protagonist and solved numerous troubles.
...
Having reviewed all the plot points and the original owner's memories, Leng Zhuxin was once again utterly sickened by the story, and she clearly saw that the original owner was simply Leng Yueyao's stepping stone—the number one sucker in this Xuanling Continent! She had given her heart and soul to Leng Yueyao, only to become growth nourishment for Leng Yueyao across two lifetimes.
Leng Zhuxin had never cultivated immortals, but she had cultivated Dao. Both immortal cultivation and Dao cultivation placed the utmost importance on karma, and returning kindness for kindness was a matter of course. Someone like Leng Yueyao, who returned enmity for kindness and still managed to become an immortal, was truly one of a kind.
The original owner had been trapped in the situation and blind to the truth, but Leng Zhuxin was a clear-headed bystander. From the original owner's memories, Leng Zhuxin discovered that Leng Yueyao might have set her sights on the original owner long ago. Or rather, the entire Leng Family had designs on the original owner.
Pulling her thoughts back, Leng Zhuxin raised her head and looked toward Leng Yueyao. The first thing she noticed was Leng Yueyao's physiognomy: greedy, petty, prone to jealousy, and full of schemes, yet possessing the innocent, short-lived appearance of a pure white lotus.
The Qi hovering above her head was mottled and messy beyond compare, looking nothing like the destiny of a favored child of heaven.
"No, that's not right." Leng Zhuxin looked sharply toward the top of Leng Yueyao's head, discovering something fishy about her.
Beneath Leng Yueyao's mottled and chaotic Qi, a faint white light shimmered, and there even seemed to be an invisible thread connecting her and Leng Yueyao, binding their auras together.
This was a phenomenon that only occurred when one person was plundering another's Qi and fortune! Leng Yueyao was plundering her fortune!
With a cold expression, Leng Zhuxin reached out to grip the small dagger at her waist while simultaneously forming incantations with her left hand, attempting to snatch her fortune back.
However, the techniques of the Immortal Cultivation World were ultimately superior to the Daoist arts Leng Zhuxin had learned, and this body was only fourteen years old and had not yet begun cultivation; despite using all her strength, she could not exert the slightest influence over it.
"Since it cannot be taken back, then the only option is... to kill her!
Anyway, I was going to avenge the original owner sooner or later; it's merely a matter of suffering a loss of merit by acting now!" Leng Zhuxin gripped the dagger tightly again and thought, her gaze toward Leng Yueyao turning murderous.
This made Leng Yueyao sense that something was amiss. She withdrew the eager look from her eyes, replaced it with a grievance-stricken expression that looked as if she were about to burst into tears, and tugged at Leng Zhuxin's sleeve: "Xinxin, are you disliking Elder Sister, unwilling to take Elder Sister with you..."
"Ah! Xinxin, you..."
Before Leng Yueyao could finish her sentence, she let out a miserable shriek of pain. The look of utter disbelief on her face looked far more genuine than her previous grievance. She looked down at the dagger thrust straight into her heart, trying to push Leng Zhuxin away—the one who had struck at her—only to be met with Leng Zhuxin twisting the dagger around inside the wound.
Fresh blood gushed from the wound and the corners of her mouth, and the disbelief on Leng Yueyao's face finally transformed into hatred. Before she could manage to utter any pleas for mercy or curses, she breathed her last.
Ignoring the sky that had suddenly grown gloomy, Leng Yueyao's breathing, pulse, and heartbeat were checked as Leng Zhuxin pressed her hand against the bloody chest to ensure that Leng Yueyao was dead beyond any doubt. Only then did she wipe her hands on Leng Yueyao's clothes and store the corpse inside Leng Yueyao's Storage Bag.
The place where Leng Yueyao and the original owner were located was at the entrance of the Cangxuan Forest outside the city. The original owner loved small animals dearly and came here almost every day. Because she would likely be leaving the Mortal Realm tomorrow, the original owner had thought of bidding farewell to her animal friends. Leng Yueyao had sought her out on her own accord, which conveniently provided Leng Zhuxin with an opportunity to strike.
Because the dagger had not been pulled out from the wound, there was not much blood on the ground; Leng Zhuxin casually kicked some dead leaves over to scuff the area and cover it up.
Having dealt with the bloodstains, she took the Storage Bag and walked into the forest, stopping only at the edge of a cliff to take Leng Yueyao's corpse out from the Storage Bag.