Qing Ying often exchanged messages with her master, Dong Yeshou, sometimes spending an entire day writing and drawing on communication talismans, occasionally smiling at the messages. Sometimes after she had been looking at messages into the night, Xiang An’ge would come to watch her take her medicine.

After Qing Ying drank the bitter black medicinal soup, a substitute spirit immediately offered her three to five plates of fruity desserts, letting her choose whichever she wanted.

She bit into a sour plum, holding it in her mouth while looking up without speaking. Xiang An’ge sat nearby, grinding the medicinal pills he had prepared that day into a bowl, mixing them with water, and putting them in the medicinal stove to brew.

“What is the outside world like now?” Qing Ying rested her chin on one hand, her gaze on the starry sky.

Xiang An’ge glanced at her: “You’ll go out and see for yourself when the time comes.”

Qing Ying looked back with a bitter face: “When will I be able to go out?”

Xiang An’ge said, “When all eight of your meridians have fully integrated, when you don’t get breathless from running quickly, and when your skin no longer cracks and bleeds from using star power for a slightly longer period, then you can go out.”

After listening, Qing Ying scratched her head, knowing she wouldn’t be able to leave Wu Fang Kingdom for quite some time.

While waiting for Xiang An’ge to brew the medicine, Qing Ying flipped through the day’s communication talismans, glancing at Xiang An’ge operating the stove fire beside her.

“Why don’t you go out either?” she asked.

Xiang An’ge turned his head, meeting her bright eyes, completely different from the emptiness when they first met.

Perhaps he stared at these eyes for a bit too long, long enough for Qing Ying to slowly raise her hand, sit upright, and say: “Sorry, if I asked something I shouldn’t have, you can ignore me.”

Xiang An’ge turned his head back to look at the stove fire and said lazily: “This is where I want to stay.”

Qing Ying also turned her gaze to look around, praising: “It’s beautiful.”

Xiang An’ge: “What’s beautiful?”

Qing Ying looked back at him and said, “The place where you stay is beautiful.”

After hearing this, Xiang An’ge raised an eyebrow slightly. This was the first time he had heard such praise, although not many people had visited Wu Fang Kingdom, and those who forced their way in had all died.

“You have better taste than your senior sister,” Xiang An’ge replied in a good mood.

Ming Li had never praised his created Wu Fang Kingdom as beautiful.

Qing Ying said seriously: “How is that possible? My senior sister is the person with the best taste.”

Xiang An’ge glanced at her, knowing she was devoted to her senior sister, so he didn’t argue about this.

Xiang An’ge was well aware that Qing Ying’s trust in him and her natural interactions with him largely came from her trust in Ming Li.

Qing Ying trusted Ming Li’s decision to leave her with Xiang An’ge in Wu Fang Kingdom, believing she would not be harmed.

Because Xiang An’ge was Ming Li’s friend.

What Qing Ying trusted was Ming Li’s judgment in choosing friends.

*

Qing Ying had to drink six bowls of medicinal soup each day, two bowls per meal, needing to control her star meridian power while continuously absorbing star power.

Wu Fang Kingdom had many large palaces, and it was easy to get lost without the guidance of substitute spirits.

Qing Ying went out for a walk, going further and further until she didn’t know where she was. She passed through flower-lined paths and winding corridors, arriving at the entrance of a solemn and cold palace.

Just one door’s distance away, Qing Ying stood outside without entering. She could hear the sound of chains colliding inside, as well as painful gasping and wailing.

Cui Yuanxi vaguely saw a reflection on the door, crawling painfully on the ground, calling Qing Ying’s name in a hoarse voice.

The person outside did not move.

The voice from the room grew louder and louder, filled with remorse and pain, still expressing his love, yearning for forgiveness, clinging to unrealistic fantasies.

These sounds entered Qing Ying’s ears, stirring up the hatred and resentment buried deep in her heart.

Xiang An’ge heard Cui Yuanxi’s hysterical shouting from outside the palace walls. He rushed to the hall, finding Qing Ying standing outside the room. She had torn off the spirit doll’s tongue, broken off its ten fingers, then torn them off, and finally crushed its head.

Only the incomplete body remained. Qing Ying gripped it tightly and raised her hand, seemingly about to throw it fiercely at the door. The hatred emanating in this moment filled all her actions with killing intent and ferocity.

Xiang An’ge stood behind, neither startling nor stopping her, allowing Qing Ying to vent.

Qing Ying didn’t enter the room, but Cui Yuanxi died that day.

*

After that day, the previously lively person became dejected and stayed in her room without going anywhere.

A substitute spirit opened the door to peek at the person curled up in the corner under a blanket, then closed the door, only to open it again after a while to check on her.

Xiang An’ge entered the room with medicinal soup.

“Take your medicine.”

A hand extended from under the blanket.

The substitute spirit handed the medicinal soup to her. Qing Ying drank the medicine under the blanket, then handed the empty bowl back out, opening her palm. Xiang An’ge picked a few of her favorite sweets and placed them in her palm.

After several days like this, Xiang An’ge felt this couldn’t continue.

That night, after Qing Ying drank her medicine and opened her palm, Xiang An’ge gave her a sweet date and said: “Your senior sister bought you many clothes and accessories.”

The person huddled in the blanket remained quiet for a moment, finally poking her head out, looking eagerly at Xiang An’ge, as if saying, don’t lie to me.

Xiang An’ge wasn’t lying. He asked Qing Ying to come out and took her to the neighboring palace. Half the room was filled with clothes racks holding dresses, and the other half contained boxes of rouge and accessories.

Qing Ying touched the smooth fabric and turned to ask Xiang An’ge, standing at the door: “All these were bought by my senior sister for me?”

Xiang An’ge nodded: “Yes.”

Qing Ying stood there looking for a long time.

Her senior sister wouldn’t do such a thing; Ming Li would come directly.

But Qing Ying didn’t expose this. With her back to Xiang An’ge, she said: “Please tell my senior sister that I like them very much.”

Xiang An’ge’s eyelid twitched, and he looked up at her.

*

Qing Ying’s condition gradually improved. She no longer fell into depression and worried each day about which dress to wear and which earrings to choose.

Wearing beautiful dresses, she practiced spirit techniques in combat with substitute spirits.

The flowers and plants in the palace were bombarded by Qing Ying’s spirit techniques, as she still couldn’t control her power skillfully. The workload for substitute spirits repairing the plants increased dramatically.

After practicing spirit techniques, Qing Ying voluntarily helped the substitute spirits repair the flowers and plants.

The substitute spirits couldn’t speak; what they knew and did was all according to Xiang An’ge’s eight meridian power regulations.

Yet Xiang An’ge found that Qing Ying could talk endlessly with these little things.

Each time, Xiang An’ge would say: “They don’t understand.”

Qing Ying, crouching down, tapped the mud-stained, withered branch claws of the substitute spirits: “It doesn’t matter whether they understand or not. They’re the only ones I can talk to.”

Xiang An’ge chuckled.

Qing Ying belatedly looked up at him, and Xiang An’ge asked: “Who are you talking to now?”

“You don’t seem to enjoy chatting with people,” Qing Ying said honestly. “Talking to you without permission feels like disturbing you.”

Xiang An’ge: “Then consider me disturbed.”

Qing Ying also smiled: “I’m not an impolite person. That’s not how my master taught me.”

Xiang An’ge stared at her for a moment and said, “Then you are very polite.”

*

Qing Ying recovered well. The medicinal herbs Xiang An’ge gave her were extremely valuable and rare.

Once, she came to the pharmacy and saw Xiang An’ge placing numerous precious medicinal herbs on the table, selecting them one by one. She gasped and asked in a small voice: “How much does this cost?”

Xiang An’ge didn’t even lift his eyelids: “Money you couldn’t earn in your past life, this life, or your next life.”

Qing Ying hissed, “Good thing my master is the head of Bei Dou’s Yaoguang Hall and doesn’t lack this bit of money.”

Xiang An’ge looked up at her, but Qing Ying had already turned to examine the medicine cabinets, curiously pulling open drawers to look: “Since you don’t leave Wu Fang Kingdom, how do you get these medicinal herbs?”

Xiang An’ge: “I don’t go out, but people deliver them to my door.”

Forces wanting to curry favor with or win over a Pilgrim were numerous. Every year, the number of people sending things to Wu Fang Kingdom only grew.

Qing Ying understood but asked in surprise: “After receiving these things, do you have to do favors for them?”

Xiang An’ge raised an eyebrow slightly: “Once something enters Wu Fang Kingdom, it’s mine.”

So that’s how it works.

Qing Ying couldn’t help but smile, then suddenly bent down to feel the corner of a window: “This is broken. If it’s not fixed, won’t rats come in and gnaw on the medicinal herbs? It will also get damp.”

Before Xiang An’ge could say that there were no rats in Wu Fang Kingdom, Qing Ying had already started tinkering with the wooden window. “I’ll fix it for you.”

“You know how to fix this?” Now it was Xiang An’ge’s turn to be surprised.

“Yes,” Qing Ying took the tools handed by the substitute spirit and hammered at the window. “I’ve fixed quite a few in the past.”

Her Spiritual Court Meridian was unusual. If she didn’t expend spiritual energy, she found it difficult to sleep at night, so she often moved around the seven halls of Bei Dou doing chores. She had indeed done quite a bit of this type of work.

However, Xiang An’ge mistakenly thought this was also taught by her master, Dong Yeshou, and developed a bit of respect for the head of Bei Dou’s Yaoguang Hall.

Qing Ying was very skilled with her hands. From repairing doors, windows, tables, and chairs to preparing elaborate feasts, she could do almost anything.

When asked, she would say she either learned it from her master or her senior brothers and sisters.

Xiang An’ge greatly admired this.

*

Xiang An’ge spent more and more time watching over Qing Ying.

Previously, he would only come to see her when delivering medicine. Gradually, he would come to her as soon as he woke up each day, watching her draw, or taking her out for walks, observing her practice spirit techniques with substitute spirits.

If Qing Ying wanted to cook, he would stand at the door watching her wash rice and vegetables, occasionally being called by Qing Ying to help cut vegetables or fetch something.

“I’ve noticed there are no vegetables grown in the main hall. Where do you get all these from?” Qing Ying asked curiously.

Xiang An’ge answered: “Stolen from outside.”

Whether stolen from Da Qian or other small or large countries, small or large sects, as long as fresh vegetables could be brought back, it was fine.

Qing Ying heard this and wanted to laugh. Holding back her amusement, she raised her hand to point at the substitute spirits: “Can’t they grow vegetables?”

Xiang An’ge leaned against the doorframe and glanced at her. “The things substitute spirits can do are all based on the instructions and imprints given by my circulation meridian. They only respond to those.”

In other words, if he hadn’t set the corresponding circulation incantation, the substitute spirits wouldn’t perform the task.

Qing Ying nodded, indicating she didn’t understand: “So what you’re saying is, you don’t know how to grow vegetables, so you can’t give the substitute spirits the corresponding instructions and imprints for growing vegetables.”

Xiang An’ge: “…”

“I also know how to grow vegetables. In winter, you can have fresh roasted red potatoes to eat, and you can also plant some fruit trees, so you can pick them whenever you want to eat,” Qing Ying said as she cut vegetables. “By the way, who goes out to steal vegetables?”

Xiang An’ge chuckled, his expression inscrutable: “What do you think?”

The substitute spirits.

Qing Ying thought about Wu Fang Kingdom’s substitute spirits going to different places every day to steal vegetables, and couldn’t hold back. She burst out laughing, put down the knife, and bent over, unable to stop laughing for a long time.

Standing by the door, Xiang An’ge gave her a lazy sidelong glance. The substitute spirits all gathered around the crouching Qing Ying, as if wondering if she was feeling unwell somewhere.

Xiang An’ge listened to her laughter: “That’s enough.”

“Oh,” Qing Ying stood up, smiling, and picked up the knife again to cut vegetables. “Do you want to grow vegetables?”

Xiang An’ge said: “Yes.”

*

Qing Ying also learned a lot from Xiang An’ge.

Especially regarding artifact techniques.

She and Xiang An’ge together created substitute spirits that could grow vegetables, watching the dried tree figures reclaim wasteland, dig holes, fill them with seeds, and water them at the right time, diligently maintaining the plants just like they did with flowers.

But before Qing Ying could wait for the planted fruits and vegetables to grow, she left Wu Fang Kingdom.

Xiang An’ge said: “I need to go find the Book Saint to resolve some troubles. I can’t leave you here alone, so you’ll come with me.”

Qing Ying was very excited; she could finally go find her master and the others.

Xiang An’ge and Qing Ying left Wu Fang Kingdom together, went to the imperial capital together, then to Bei Dou together, resolved the divine oracle together, and returned to Bei Dou.

It was the first time he had experienced so many things together with someone.