My Mother Has a System but Won't Use It

The best step was the step that was taken. If she didn't take it, it would be nothing but a normal step, but if she took it, it would be a way forward. It was jargon, of course. It didn't mean anything in particular. Yet, it was fun.

Maybe it was because she was about to Evolve… everything seemed fun.

The steps that were so slippery due to ice it would have been impossible to walk on it—had she not trained in the art of spear. The hand of the man she loved and her freedom to swing it around as she hummed a small tune and walked down with… no worry of slipping. Even if she slipped, he'd hold her.

Of course, he also often let her fall… to teach her the essence of falling, he said.

Yet, she doubted he would do that today. Today was a day to rise, not fall.

Jumping down another step and balancing her footing, she smiled broadly.

"Big Brother, I love you so much!" She exclaimed, her puffing breath and her smile filled with unhinged bliss. Her brown twinkling eyes were full of

Han Li was thinking about something important, but he paused. He was not really the romantic type, at least not in his own opinion, but he could appreciate such words from a woman he obviously cared for—one of the rare few in the whole world.

"Lucky am I to have one of the most beautiful women in the entire continent say that to me…"

She chuckled, and her spring seemed to have Evolved already as her pace quickened. He smiled and followed; she really had become so much more beautiful.

It was honestly a bit worrying at this point.

Every Cultivation Stage would only make her look more beautiful, and she would surely bring trouble. If not today, someday else, but it was lucky they were under (sort of) Monk Hen Shin.

They didn't really have anyone to be worried about at the moment.

Nobody Han Li knew would want to mess with someone as powerful as Hen Shin for a woman who was not their own.

That monk was obstinate but helpful in many ways. You just have to play your cards well, and Han Li was rather sure the Monk wouldn't let any of the people in his Temple be hurt for no reason—even Han Li would be protected.

They reached a broken step filled with surviving greenery on it. There was also some little spider webs there. She smiled and sat down on a clean part of the step.

Han Li shook his head with a wry smile.

'A place that signifies survival even in harsh conditions, huh? The monks filled you all with their superstitions, those accursed baldies.'

Liyue exchanged a glance with him, and he nodded.

She sat down, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes.

Ten minutes passed.

She breathed out the icy air inside her chest, and a Spark appeared on her palm. It was golden white in color—The Spark of Starlight.

She looked at it for a minute in contemplation, each of Han Li's teachings streaming through her mind one by one as she calmly started her training.

The Spark slowly detached from her skin and floated an inch above her palm.

Immediately, her Soul Sense expanded in size to twice the amount it was.

From 5 meters as an Awakened to 10 meters; what she would have permanently if she successfully Evolved. The sight of her fiance, husband, and the source of all sort of complex thoughts in her mind was reassuring, he was staying beside her as if this was just a walk in the park and not some actually fate changing moment.

'He is always like that,' Liyue mumbled a complaint to herself. 'Even if the world crumbles, he probably would be this calm. The only thing that ever breaks him into an actual sincere smile is either something Mother Yue does or… us growing stronger.'

That was not bad. It was reassuring.

Her head started to throb as if a scorching nail had been hammered into it.

She gritted her teeth and looked at the spark resolutely.

Han Li looked around, eyes calm. He was not worried Liyue would actually fail. Only fools relied on luck, and he had made Liyue into someone who didn't have to rely on something that flimsy.

Yet, there was the mystery of those failed marriages… that worried him slightly. Monk Hen Shin was a very amiable monk—a non-naive but usable man. Han Li was sure the monk would help in case someone strong was behind that fiasco.

It was something more. He just couldn't put a finger on it. He was a bit worried whether that would impact Liyue's breakthrough, somehow.

With his knowledge about the Energy of the world, he could see that the whole world's energy was converging on Liyue's Spark. It was all moving towards her, gently surrounding the Spark that had detached from herself.

On the other hand, Liyue grit her teeth. Her regal bearing doubled in might as a fierce vein popped up on her forehead.

The Spark rose higher from her body, and the pain increased.

Her heart started pumping in adrenaline in waves. She clenched her hands as the feeling of her Spark losing out of her own control started to thump against her chest.

It had always listened when she told it to come out or go back in. But now, it was unresponsive.

As it was absorbing the energy of the world, it was also being corrupted by this energy and melding into the world. Han Li coldly looked at it. The Heaven—The consciousness of the Great Tree was taking back what belonged to it when the Humans let it out of their body.

The consciousness was tugging at what was its.

Give it back to me!

Mine!

He felt as if he heard guttural screams, but his face was cold. Impassive.

Those were his own conjectures but most probably true.

Yet…

What if it belonged to you?

There was no pity for the Heavens in Han Li's mind.

The seven Sacred Demons had burned its body, and all Spark were its cinders. It wanted itself back. It cried for it.

So what?

Yet, he did think of one interesting fact.

That was the tribulation that had ruined hundreds of people's lives but it was just taking what was its own from the first place.

Liyue smirked as a devilish grin plastered across her face.

"Not giving it to you!"

The Spark suddenly shook and stopped 4 inches in front of her face.

The sensation of connection spread through the Spark.

She had a feeling as if her soul had become the Spark while her body was just a shell for it to live in. It was as if she was projecting her own mind outside of her body as the Spark burst in a whitish hue in front of her.

Her mind briefly went blank, but she immediately stabilized herself as the Spark floated in front of her—no longer a little whitish flame but a carbon copy of her own body in a flame-like form. It was akin to an apparition as it stared at her like a doll.

It felt as foreign to her as the stones scattered outside her room.

She had no connection with it. This was the last part of Evolving, accepting the Spark back into the body and melding it into your true soul.

It had lost connection with her due to Evolution.

It was now neither the Heavens nor herself. It was just Energy. She had to bring it back into her and make it her own power.

Her head became dizzy as if she had been hit by a metal rod in the back.

At this point, Han Li could help her if he wanted by pushing her towards the Spark. By touching it, she would win. Yet, he didn't do it and waited. Nevertheless, Liyue made all of her power erupt for the first time in her life.

She was tired, dead tired, but her body moved forward like a cheetah as she opened her mouth and devoured the Spark like an angered goddess.

He nodded. She was deadly fatigued due to the headaches and pressure against the tug of war between her consciousness and the Heavens. If the Heavens could focus its powers, she would have been nothing but an ant, but it couldn't—it had lost in the tug of war.

"Grr…." Liyue growled weakly but she could feel her soul shaking, it felt as if a mosquito was buzzing by her ears before her gaze brightened for a short moment and then dimmed as she slipped into unconsciousness. Her body was sweating profusely.

She fell towards the side, but a hand caught her and pulled her into a lying posture on his chest. Inside her body, inside her Empty Space, she was transforming fundamentally. Soon enough, she will be able to generate Dao Crystals and also perform the Magic Powers of the Starlight Dao.

Her Spark had Evolved. It was no longer a mere Spark but something much stronger. Something that was a source of power and change.

It had evolved into a Minor Dao Soul.

The Minor Dao Soul of Starlight.

Han Li carried her down the steps of the temple in a princess carry and sat down in a place with shade. She must be experiencing her Breakthrough Dream now—The Dream, the memory of their own life that cultivators had as an obligation after each Major Breakthrough in cultivation.

As her regal baring was pushed aside and everything became calm in her sleep, he could once again see that vulnerable woman.

Shan Liyue. She was as cute as ever.

She clung to his robes instinctively.