“Senior Sister.”

A clear, youthful voice called to her with gentle tones, addressing her naturally:

“Don’t sleep outside.”

Ming Li opened her eyes, expecting, as usual, to see Zhou Zixi, who had awakened her.

Yet what met her gaze was a dusky horizon, vast stretches of sunset clouds dyeing the sky red, reminiscent of the intense, oppressive pilgrimage fire that had killed her in Bei Jing Gui Yuan.

Ming Li sat up from the grass, her gaze dropping from the horizon to the vast expanse of deep blue river below that stretched endlessly.

She didn’t know where this was, but she was certain it wasn’t within the Northern Borders.

Ming Li raised her hand to touch her hair, then walked down the slope to the riverside. She bent down to cup some water and wash her face, carefully examining the reflection on the water’s surface.

It was indeed her.

Ming Li, disciple of Yaoguang Academy, one of the Bei Dou Seven Sects.

Except that her appearance had reverted to when she was sixteen or seventeen years old.

Thinking about how, before her death, she had regretted not being able to return to Bei Dou and reunite with old acquaintances, and now, somehow still alive, she felt relieved. The people at Bei Dou must be worried; she needed to quickly return and let them know she was safe.

The fastest method would be to summon the Divine Wood Bow far away at Yaoguang Academy in Bei Dou. For certain unmentionable reasons, she hadn’t brought it with her when she went to battle in the Northern Borders.

In this world, only her stellar meridian power could awaken the Divine Wood Bow, so she only needed to mobilize her star power—

Huh?

Ming Li, forming hand seals, frowned as she discovered the power within her body felt unfamiliar. Though her stellar meridians were intact, her power pathways had all reset to zero, no longer resembling her former self.

It was as if she had suddenly reverted from a top-tier supreme master with eight fully-cultivated meridians and integrated powers to a novice who had just begun cultivation and only reached the Perception Realm.

Not only had she been downgraded, but her stellar meridian power was also being suppressed by the pilgrimage fire from Bei Jing Gui Yuan. When not mobilizing power, this scorching fire remained quiet, but once stellar power was activated, it would stir up in response.

Ming Li: “…”

She stood silently by the riverside for a long while, carefully examining herself before accepting this reality.

Being alive was already a gain.

As for having to start cultivation from the beginning, she wasn’t afraid.

Strictly speaking, her stellar meridian power was still at its peak, but it was suppressed by the pilgrimage fire, making it difficult to utilize this peak power. Therefore, she couldn’t summon the Divine Wood Bow to inform Bei Dou that she was still alive.

The pilgrimage fire was like a wall, separating her from her original power, forcing her to cultivate anew from this side of the wall.

Ming Li looked at the gradually darkening sky and the boundless waters. This place was desolate, and to leave, she could only travel by water.

In the past, she wouldn’t have given it a second thought, instantly traveling thousands of miles with a single flash step. Now, however, she had to worry about how to cross the water.

This was the first such predicament for Ming Li, who had always advanced smoothly in cultivation since childhood.

Since she needed to cross the water, she would use the Water Stilling technique, primarily utilizing the Third Palace Qi Circulation Meridian. Ming Li forcibly mobilized her stellar power, stirring up a small whirlwind beneath her feet, stepping onto the water’s surface, and creating a circle of ripples.

After walking two or three steps on the water’s surface, she suddenly fell into the water.

Ming Li returned to the shore, completely soaked.

She consoled herself that the Water Stilling technique was a high-level spiritual ability that required a large amount of stellar power. Since she couldn’t maintain it for long, she would switch to a lower-level technique.

Qi Circulation Meridian low-level spiritual technique: Fish Swimming.

Ming Li planned to swim across.

With the Fish Swimming spiritual technique enhancement, she could move quickly underwater like a flying arrow, but due to insufficient stellar power, she had to pitifully swim back before even reaching halfway across.

By now, night had fallen, the moon was bright with few stars, and only a handful of constant stars were visible.

Ming Li lay back on the grass, gazing at the night sky.

She knew the source of the problem.

Each time she mobilized her stellar power, it would trigger the powerful suppression of the pilgrimage fire within her body, constraining her stellar power from circulating. This meant that when she used stellar power to activate spiritual techniques, she also had to use another portion of stellar power to deal with the pilgrimage fire, essentially using twice as much stellar power as others.

That’s why even the lowest-level spiritual techniques were difficult to use.

Since her former power couldn’t be used, she had to cultivate anew to transform new stellar power.

Ming Li opened her palm and then closed it; her initially cool palm became scorching hot when she mobilized her stellar power, as the burning of the pilgrimage fire instantly heated it.

It had been a long time since she had tasted the flavor of injury.

Because of her extraordinary talent from childhood, after entering the Perception Realm at the age of ten, she immediately awakened her stellar meridians. Of the eight meridians awakened, seven were at the innate full boundary.

By sixteen, she had cultivated to the level of eight meridians at the seventh boundary, becoming the youngest pilgrim on the continent.

From that time on, nothing could harm her.

The pain brought by the pilgrimage fire made her slightly furrow her brow. Ming Li didn’t stop but repeatedly opened and closed her hand, calmly adapting to the pain.

Finally, due to excessive consumption of stellar power, she became dizzy and lay down to rest quietly with her eyes closed.

Ming Li took a short nap and dreamed of a day from her time at Bei Dou.

*

That day, when she returned from Fugushen Temple, she learned it was Bei Dou’s annual recruitment day, with disciples from the Seven Sects screening applicants at the mountain gate.

Many people were standing in long queues, the youngest appearing to be only eleven or twelve years old, the oldest not exceeding eighteen.

Bei Dou Seven Sects’ Yaoguang Academy was at the very end, with a long sign stating: Bei Dou Seven Sects • Yaoguang Academy Recruitment Office.

The young man sitting behind the table was leisurely donning his disciple’s robe, with sleeves embroidered with fine gold threads, distinguishing him from some of the other disciples around.

Ming Li saw her senior brother Chen Zhou wearing his clothes loosely, biting one end of the belt as he calmly adjusted it while saying: “Those who have just reached the Perception Realm without awakening stellar meridians go to my left, those who have awakened stellar meridians go to my right, those with recommendations from the Martial Academy come directly to me.”

By the time Chen Zhou finished tying his belt and looked up, Ming Li had already flashed to the top of the mountain with a single step, arriving at Tian Shu Hall at the peak of Bei Dou’s mountains.

All seven sect leaders were waiting for the news she had brought back from Fugushen Temple. As Ming Li approached the council hall doors, from the corner of her eye, she glimpsed two figures—one black, one white—walking along a distant corridor.

Her elder brother, dressed in black combat attire with his sword in hand, leaned against a corridor pillar, impassively facing his junior sister Qing Ying, who was playfully trying various ways to coax him.

As soon as Ming Li entered the hall, she saw her father lifting a teacup. He lowered his gaze as he drank, while the Bei Dou Sect Leader beside him smiled kindly with a hint of admiration: “You’ve returned so quickly.”

“Nothing,” she shook her head and said.

The various sect leaders fell into contemplation.

The Bei Dou Sect Leader said, “Thank you for making this journey. If there is news from Nan Que, we will inform you again.”

Ming Li nodded and disappeared from the council hall.

She went directly back to her residence at Yaoguang Academy. Although it was a thousand miles from Bei Dou to Fugushen Temple, she hadn’t been gone long—less than half an hour—yet the person who had agreed to wait in her courtyard was nowhere to be seen.

Ming Li lay down on the outdoor bamboo mat amid the courtyard flowers and silently counted. When she counted to ten, she heard a familiar, gentle sigh.

A young man in green stood at the courtyard gate with a resigned expression, his voice clear: “Senior Sister, don’t always fall asleep outside.”

Ming Li opened her eyes to see the young man standing against the light at the courtyard entrance, his face handsome and extraordinarily elegant. She turned to sit up, looking at the young man with innocent eyes: “I wasn’t asleep.”

Zhou Zixi approached with a food tray: “Still, you shouldn’t just lie out here like this.”

Ming Li accepted the bowl of porridge he handed her and sniffed it: “I thought you had left.”

Zhou Zixi naturally added chili sauce to another bowl containing a poached egg: “I calculated when you would return, so I went to prepare the food you wanted to eat first. I need to go help Senior Brother down the mountain later; these days are recruitment days, so it will be quite busy.”

Everyone knew that Ming Li, the head senior sister of Bei Dou Seven Sects’ Yaoguang Academy, was a genius and one of the seven supreme masters of the continent, but they didn’t know she was picky and peculiar about food.

When eating poached eggs, she required the egg white and yolk to be separated, no sweetness, but preferred spiciness and sourness.

Currently, in Bei Dou, only Zhou Zixi could tolerate Ming Li’s picky and peculiar eating habits.

Zhou Zixi received a sound note transmitted from Chen Zhou down the mountain, urging him to hurry down and help. He crushed the note without changing his expression, then turned to Ming Li and asked: “Senior Sister, did you find anything on this trip to Fugushen Temple?”

“Didn’t find it,” Ming Li stirred with her spoon, thoughtfully saying, “The sect treasure of Nan Que was stolen, and the thief was only discovered after fleeing a thousand miles away. Aren’t the people of Nan Que a bit too incompetent? Even if by chance a pilgrim like me wasn’t in the sect, this shouldn’t have happened.”

Zhou Zixi smiled slightly: “Perhaps the thief is also an eight-meridian seventh-boundary pilgrim.”

Ming Li looked up at him, blinking: “Since when have pilgrims become as common as cabbages?”

The young man blinked back at her: “The ones who lost something are Nan Que, why not let them find it themselves?”

Ming Li shook her head: “If it was truly stolen by a pilgrim, then we can just watch for entertainment. But Nan Que says the thief was a ground ghost; I also sensed something similar at Fugushen Temple. If that’s true, then we can’t just watch for entertainment without taking action.”

Zhou Zixi noticed her furrowed brow as she seriously considered, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he said gently: “I’ll go down the mountain to help Senior Brother first, and come back in the evening.”

Ming Li nodded, watching him leave.

At the doorway, he turned back with a slightly helpless expression, his clear voice tinged with subtle tenderness: “Senior Sister, if you’re tired and want to rest, go back inside. Don’t sleep outside.”

*

“Don’t sleep outside.”

These words made Ming Li wake up again, opening her eyes to see the first light of dawn.

She sat up and began to cultivate, absorbing the purest spiritual essence of the day to transform into stellar power.

If he knew of her death in battle, Zhou Zixi would certainly be heartbroken. Ming Li decided to return quickly, not wanting him to grieve for too long.

Every day she battled the pilgrimage fire within her body. Initially relying on the low-level Fish Swimming technique, after three to five days she directly confronted it with the high-level Water Stilling technique.

Ming Li tirelessly practiced crossing the river. As the pilgrimage fire burned more and more vigorously, she pushed her Third Palace Qi Circulation Meridian to its limit, but still fell into the water.

However, this time she could see the opposite shore in the distance.

Ming Li shook off the water droplets from her face, thinking she would swim across. With her tenacious willpower, she swam for a long time, and the dilapidated ferry landing on the shore became increasingly clear.

There was a small wooden boat at the dock. Seemingly noticing something unusual in the water in the distance, the boat owner, with a blade of grass clenched between his teeth, steered the boat toward Ming Li’s direction.

The boatman saw that it was actually a young girl who had been swimming in the icy river for so long and hurriedly approached to pull her onto the boat.

After boarding, Ming Li thanked him and asked if he knew what territory this was.

The boatman answered while heading back to shore: “This is Black Water River, at the southernmost edge of the Great Qin Empire.”

Ming Li’s expression momentarily turned strange upon hearing this.

The southernmost edge of the Great Qin Empire was the domain of the Nan Que Seven Sects. She had been reborn in the place farthest from the Bei Dou Seven Sects.

Ming Li silently wrung the water from her clothes. The boatman was quite friendly, kindly asking why she had fallen into the river alone, where her home was, and how to contact her parents.

She thought quickly. Even though this was the domain of the Nan Que Seven Sects at the southernmost edge of the Great Qin Empire, Bei Dou still had outpost martial academies in this area.

Looking at her current bedraggled state—soaking wet with her stellar power depleted—she absolutely could not let the people of Nan Que recognize her.

After reaching shore, Ming Li thanked the boatman again and departed alone.