22 The Sparkling Garden

Lien Hua found herself alone in the house and calmly cleared the table. After clearing the table, she moved over to the bed where a small necklace had been placed; it was a gift from Lin Yue when she was six years old. The necklace consisted of a simple thinly braided silver chain that held a small rhombus-shaped bronze medallion with a character engraved on it, 'Lin'.

Looking at the locket, Lien Hua more or less understood what it meant now. At first she hadn't paid that much attention to it, but now that she was looking at it better and after Lin Yue's revelation, Lien Hua could see how it was a symbol of affiliation with that clan. 'Ah... what should I say? Even if I don't want to be, I am always helped by others. But I definitely won't deny it this time, it might come in very handy in the future; you never know.' Lien Hua definitely didn't want to throw away such useful help.

She was in a cultivation world. From what she knew, any possible affiliation with a strong clan was both good and bad, but there were definitely many more benefits with this. Lien Hua would definitely not hold herself back as soon as she could take advantage of the influence of this locket.

Dragging her finger over the engraved character of 'Lin', Lien Hua with a sigh placed it back on top of the nightstand beside her bed and looked out the window. "It's already night... This day has been really fun. I hope to have more and more like this."

As she moved towards the sliding door that led close to her garden, she noticed something strange. Lien Hua increased her pace until she quickly opened the door and in front of her a fantastic phenomenon was happening; the garden that had always been quiet seemed to have come alive this evening.

Flashing lights of various colours were rising from the garden. Lien Hua looked around and noticed that even after approaching to touch them, as soon as her hand made contact with them, the lights moved away as if they did not want to be touched.

With a surprised face, she heard the opening of a door to her left. Lien Hua, turning towards the noise, saw that a person had just come out of it and as if feeling observed had turned towards her. Lien Hua soon noticed that even though the person was looking at her, they didn't seem to have noticed all those balls of colour around the sky and was surprised.

'What? Only I can see them? But they're right here in front of us both and they're all so bright.'

Noticing that the person on the other side was starting to give her a dirty look because they kept staring at her Lien Hua quickly turned away.

'Sigh... I got caught up in the shock. Anyway the tree looks a lot brighter too, how nice...'

Lien Hua looked at the brightly lit tree and approached it, passing through all the bright balls of various colours that as soon as they were in contact with her skin they scattered. A moment later she found herself in front of the large roots of the tree.

Lien Hua looked down at it and noticed how it had grown from when she was a child by almost 1 metre, and in the last few days it had been growing much faster than before, but no one seemed to have noticed this apart from her.

'Everything that's happening is strange, from balls of different colours to this tree.'

Looking at it with a kind of affection, Lien Hua didn't know why but this connection with this tree made her much closer to it, and now after so many years of living in this house, she had become attached to it. It might seem strange to become attached to a tree, but Lien Hua found something strange about this oak tree, as if it was some kind of undeveloped infant still sleeping.

Lien Hua, slowly bringing her hands close to the bark of the tree that was now lit up a very bright brown, as soon as she placed her hands on it, was shocked at how the connection that had previously taken a few seconds and some concentration was this time almost instantly.

Lien Hua closed her eyes and savoured the connection she had made with the tree, digging deeper and deeper into the link. As soon as she infiltrated more she could see how the thread of spiritual energy that the tree had previously had inside it had become much larger and could already be compared to a phalanx of one of her little fingers. 'What?! It has grown so much in such a short time?! For heaven's sake, it's only been 1 day since I trained vic-'

As soon as she was about to finish thinking about that word, Lien Hua's eyes widened in surprise. 'So that's it! This strange connection with spiritual energy makes it so that the plants around me get overloaded when i train… What an outstanding thing…'

Lien Hua sighed and detached her hands from the bark of the tree, and as if had wanted a little more of that brown light, it stretched out clasping her hands until she had detached herself from it and it withdrew. Lien Hua, meanwhile, standing still with her hands now frozen in place, was watching this absurd phenomenon. "It's like it's alive and doesn't want me to move away from it... Wow!"

With a pleased smile, Lien Hua decided to stay here for the night; she wanted to try something. As soon as Lien Hua sat down at the foot of the tree, she could see that all the area around her and the tree too were happy, she could tell by how many more balls of lights of different colours there were, but this time green and brown were much more present among them.

Lien Hua, looking at the phenomenon, was completely fascinated and left speechless. Closing her mouth to swallow, Lien Hua, with a beautiful smile that expressed calmness, walked over to the tree and laid her back on it. Feeling as if the bark behind her was much more comfortable than she had thought, Lien Hua was thrilled. 'It's like the nature around me loves me, I have a connection with it. Mhh... more than nature, it's the spiritual energy in it that has a connection with me.'

Lien Hua sighed again with relief, and calmed down all her muscles which had tensed up during the day, which even if she didn't show it, were hurting a lot, and she closed her eyes with her head resting on the bark of the tree and her long legs crossed one over the other and began to think.

'Everything that had happened today was a lot of fun, but there were also a lot of suspicious things. Starting from how Ling Tianni not even a day after their discussion had changed so much, what could have happened to him? I don't know... but I'll definitely keep an eye on him. You never know when something might happen,l/); better to be cautious with people in this world.'

Lien Hua didn't want to make the mistake she had made before, which was to underestimate this world's people. Lien Hua didn't even know how her head could process the people of this world, thinking that they were like the people of her old civilization. It was obvious that she had to be careful so that what happened to Old Li's son wouldn't happen to her. At the mere thought of what had happened to her adoptive grandfather's son, Lien Hua couldn't help but tremble a little in fear.

Lien Hua didn't want to die once more; one round had already been enough for her. She didn't want to end up there again. 'I have to make use of all the knowledge I've learned after years of reading Light Novels and use it to the best of my ability. I don't want to remain as weak as I am now.'

Lien Hua was thinking about Lin Yue as she contemplated all these things. If she were stronger she could have kept them from taking Lin Yue and no longer let the tears fall from her eyes until her eyes had turned red.

Thinking of the mere memory of Lin Yue crying because she didn't want to leave, Lien Hua, coming out of her relaxation on the tree, opened her eyes, and looking at the sky lit up by a multitude of bright balls of various colours and the two moons of this world, gritted her teeth and punched the ground beneath her.

"Damn it! Damn... if only I had been stronger, this wouldn't have happened... *sigh*..."

Lien Hua knew it was wrong to blame herself, but as the adult in the group she had, as it were, taken on the responsibility of guardian of the other two and seeing how she couldn't even protect her friend, she was furious and disappointed with herself.

So Lien Hua, calming down from this outburst, looked up to the sky again. "But I mustn't make the mistake of burning myself out in training. By letting that happen I would only create problems for others and above all I wouldn't accomplish anything, unfortunately. Even if I don't want to, I have to do everything calmly and in the meantime steadily increase in power."

Lien Hua gazed up at the illuminated sky, smiled, and looking down afterwards, settled into a position she was already familiar with: legs crossed, hands joined in a lotus blossom close to her belly, and lying down on the straight bark of the tree. Lien Hua closed her eyes and entered the cultivation state that had now become an automatic action for her.