My Mother Has a System but Won't Use It

Inside her own body, her senses were extremely powerful, and even from where she was, she could sense the invader\'s Existence. It was a woman and a particularly striking one with a devilish countenance. Even though Existence in itself was transparent, the personality, ideals, and everything just seemed right there for sight.

She could see her.

The Invader waved her hand, and mirrors manifested around her; Liyue\'s gaze trembled at the sight of her family—Li Yao, Yue Li, Ruo, and Hua Feilan. They were all playing ball; she loved to play that too, and they were talking animatedly about… her. They were conversing about the surprises they could give her for her breakthrough.

Liyue\'s eyes filled with tears. Yet, she tried to remain calm—keeping calm had been ingrained into her by many sorts of training her Big Brother had given her, but it seemed impossible to keep calm.

But just as the intruder looked into the mirror, Yue Li frowned and looked at the gaze as if she could feel it, and Liyue\'s gaze also grew clear.

A golden shadow loomed over her Mother Yue\'s Existence; it was heart-rending, peaceful, yet corroding—it almost felt as if she was standing before something beyond mortality when she looked at her existence.

At the same time, she could see more—The golden shadow was not only on Yue Li. The shadow split out from her and covered Ruo, Li Yao, and Hua Feilan with different degrees of intensity.

Ruo had the highest amount surrounding her!

She then quickly turned to look at herself. Now, she could also see that golden light on herself. It was abundant, no lesser than Ruo in intensity. She didn\'t know what the Golden Shadow was, but she felt that it was something good rather than bad.

"Oh, young girl, wherever you hide, it is no use!" The invader said eerily, removing the mirror, her voice echoing with confidence. "Just think of it, Liyue. I might not be able to kill Han Li, but I\'ll gently move toward your mother, Li Yao, and then a knife in the heart. Ahh… just think of it: how betrayed would she feel as life left her?

"Her own daughter had killed her!

"Then I will move to Ruo and kill her, too. The tender thing would surely scream, and believe me or not, your Big Brother Han would be nothing more than a lifeless living after that—he cares far more about her than the likes of you!"

"I will then move and kill your dear Mother Yue too…" The voice giggled. "Or I will concoct a poison and put it into all of your loved ones\' food. Nobody would be wary of you, the loving, gentle Liyue, after all."

Nobody answered her. Her smirk grew.

"Come out, Little Liyue! Come! Wherever you are hiding, come out! I promise you I will not hurt anyone if you are obedient."

Liyue then looked at herself once again.

Where was she hiding? She wondered.

There seemed to be at least six more places like this where she could hide inside her body. One of those six places was where… the enemy was standing.

That was her Empty Space.

Then where else was she?

Another… Empty Space… in her own body?

There were six more in her?

A total of 7?

What…

An old memory came back to her, the memory of her first marriage attempt with Han Li three years ago.

"Basically, many cruel cultivators are attacking the city, and all three clans are in a startled state. Some of even the Starlight Clan kids are in their hands, supposedly—kidnapped. And we can\'t enter the city now; most probably, some of the Demons are inside the city, too."

"Why are they attacking?" Liyue asked, grasping her big brother\'s robe. Nervous.

It was her marriage, and exactly now, the world was going mad.

Han Li thought about this question deeply for a second and then spoke out his thoughts, "Detached Empty Spaces. Have you heard of it, any three of you?"

They shook their heads.

"The Empty Space inside us is a mysterious space that holds our Sparks, Dao Souls, and everything of that sort. And when someone at the stage of Power Birth or higher dies, their Empty Spaces disintegrate into the atmosphere, while their Sparks or Sao Souls rise to the sky—in myths, they are said to one day transform into stars."

They nodded once more.

They had heard of it before.

"But there is a rare chance of an Empty Space not disintegrating after a cultivator dies, and then it transforms into a treasure. A physical orb that could actually be touched physically and used.

The Dao Soul inside it would still phase through its physical bounds and fly off into the sky once the cultivator dies, but not the Empty Space in itself—that is, if the rare instance occurred in the first place."

"What can it be used for?" Liyue asked softly, feeling him stroke her lips through her veil with his own lips. She could also feel the warmth of his breath.

Han Li smiled and spoke, "It can be absorbed to gain a hell of a lot of energy, and I can absorb it slowly over some months; even one of them would cause my cultivation speed to skyrocket for a few days. And not only that, it can be used to cook some special recipes in my hand."

Liyue came back to herself.

That wasn\'t the case in the end, and everything was because of the man named Li Shuanwei, but they didn\'t know that at that point. Yet, her Big Brother had guessed that it was from the Southern Lust City and something of that sort would happen.

She then thought of the weird dream she had had during the end of her Breakthrough Dream. As a child, she had touched some Dark Orb in the snow. Not only that, but her physique itself somehow felt unique.

The invader was growing impatient. It barked, "Your secrets won\'t protect you forever. This body is now mine, all your secrets too! If you die obediently, I will live as Liyue from now on without tainting your name. Your big brother won\'t even have to feel sad for losing the woman he loves. Just think of it!"

"You!" Liyue gritted her teeth in hatred. Whatever her conclusions had been, it was all useless to escape her circumstances. Somehow, she should find a way to tell her Big Brother that it was not herself that he was dealing with.

The faintest of hints, and he would notice.

"Who are you?" she asked.

The Invader smirked.

"I am a past Transcendent. Someone who you have no chance of tricking in mind games—the name is Munyu. Some call me the Spirit."

Liyue thought and thought, but no way came to her mind. Had she known any Magical Powers, she could have tried using those, but she did not know Magic Powers, nor were there any Dao Crystals in her hand.

Munyu was cautious, for all the arrogance she displayed. She hadn\'t taken any chances with the process and had chosen the best and weakest moment Liyue would be in.

"Why are you doing this?"

"To live, to grow stronger. You could see it many ways." The Spirit shrugged.

Liyue asked, much calmer, "If you let me go, I promise you I will get you another person to possess and gain a body. Just let me out. It\'s a promise!"

The Spirit chuckled.

"What a nice idea, but no. I would have agreed to it some time ago, but not anymore; your body is too unique. I want it!" Then, she gave a final declaration: "And I don\'t want people with the knowledge of the Existence to remain alive, you see. You have two choices: either die or see the people you care for die. That\'s it. There is no room for negotiations."

There was no one in the Seven Continents who knew of what an Existence was, and that had to remain so. Liyue hung there in the darkness, her thoughts tumultuous.

She\'d rather die than let any one of her family die.

All of them were too precious!

She would never be able to live with herself if she caused Han Li grief.

Yet she didn\'t want to die… she hadn\'t had her first night, nor had she borne Han Li his child. She hadn\'t yet seen the limits of what the spear could achieve, nor had she had enough of her blissful life. Tears welled up in her soul.

If she entered the Empty Space where the Spirit was in, she would probably die.

Nobody would even know her sacrifice.

She didn\'t know what to do, and then, her soul suddenly condensed. Being in this different Empty Space for too long seemed to have done something to her, and she felt nauseous.

She wanted to vomit!

This was not supposed to be a natural thing.

Even if she tried to drag this out, she probably couldn\'t stay here long.

She checked all of her Empty Spaces one by one, searching for that one clue in everything.

There was no absolute. There must be a chance!

She didn\'t want to give up so easily!

"Promise me that you won\'t hurt any of them! Promise it by your Existence!" Liyue said.

The Spirit soothingly nodded.

Promising on their own Existence was something just as powerful as a Heart Qi Binding. And anyone who sensed their own Existence would know that. A person who sensed it and a person who didn\'t was a different breed.

"I wouldn\'t hurt them in any way unless they are against me and have hurt me of their own accord."

A long minute passed.

Liyue felt the passage between her Seven Empty Spaces and appeared in a blink before the Spirit. They looked at each other with blank faces.

"They would never hurt you when you are in my appearance," Liyue said.

The Spirit harrumphed, but then, Liyue shook her head, a sense of clear reluctance in her soul\'s eyes.

The Spirit snorted at the woman, but she didn\'t immediately attack.

Something was weird. She could feel a sense of oppression.

She became more cautious. The last time she tried to possess someone, she got trapped within Yang Wei and almost became one with him. She had learned from that lesson to completely break the opponent\'s morale before she attempted to devour the Soul.