“Ah Rao!”
Ning Yuzhou looked joyfully at the young girl in the spiritual field and was just about to walk over when he suddenly heard a panicked voice.
“Don’t come over!”
His steps paused. A faint look of surprise appeared on Ning Yuzhou’s face, but he did not continue forward.
The surrounding spiritual herbs were extremely lush, growing wildly. Anyone who did not know better would think this place had been abandoned for ages, causing weeds to grow everywhere. There was none of the neat order a spiritual field should have. Because the spiritual herbs were growing so well, the young girl hidden among them only revealed her head, and beneath her slender, fair neck, there was something faintly visible…
Ning Yuzhou suddenly understood, and his expression paused.
Like a vigilant rabbit, Wen Qiao hid among the spiritual herbs, nervously staring at him. She stammered, “Can you help me get a set of clothes? I still can’t transform clothes for now.”
At this point, Wen Qiao felt a little embarrassed.
Her inheritance did teach her how to transform clothes when changing into human form. But her strength was not enough. Transforming into a human had already used up all her power, so for now she could not transform clothing and could only hide like this.
Ning Yuzhou found it amusing. The young girl among the spiritual herbs stared at him with a pair of round black eyes. Her pink cheeks still held a childish innocence, yet one could already glimpse how breathtakingly beautiful she would become in the future.
In the end, Ning Yuzhou returned to the room, found the trunks Wen Qiao had brought when she married over, and brought back a pale green dress.
“Y-you can just hang it there,” Wen Qiao whispered.
Ning Yuzhou hung the clothes on a branch of the Stone-Gold Python Vine reaching over from behind him. Then the vine branch moved like a slithering snake, passing through and delivering the clothes to the human girl in the spiritual field.
Wen Qiao took the clothes, her dark eyes fixed on the man outside the field.
With a slightly red face, she whispered, “Husband, can you turn around?”
Ning Yuzhou silently looked at her once, then turned around.
Wen Qiao watched the man with his back to her and hurriedly put on the clothes.
Although she had been grass for several months, after transforming into human form, not wearing clothes felt extremely strange and very insecure.
“Husband, I’m done.”
Hearing her voice, Ning Yuzhou turned around. At first glance, he saw the young girl standing in the spiritual field. Her pale green clothes looked fresh and elegant; her delicate features were peerlessly graceful. Her brows needed no painting to be dark, her lips needed no rouge to be red. Her clear, water-like eyes looked over at him, enough to make one’s heart stir.
Wen Qiao smiled at him. Dimples appeared at the corners of her lips, and her little tiger teeth were faintly visible.
So cute.
Compared with that matchless beauty, the cuteness of her sudden smile pleased him even more. Ning Yuzhou returned a gentle smile and beckoned to her. “Ah Rao, come here.”
Wen Qiao carefully stepped over the surrounding spiritual herbs and walked to Ning Yuzhou.
Ning Yuzhou lowered his head and examined her. Her skin was like ice and bones like jade, her cheeks faintly flushed. Compared with her former pale frailty, Wen Qiao now looked like a healthy young girl. Of course, perhaps because she had been underdeveloped before, she was still a slender, delicate little girl who stirred pity, with an air of fragility about her.
He took her wrist to inspect her and discovered that the fire poison in her body had actually disappeared.
Surprise appeared on Ning Yuzhou’s face.
Wen Qiao obediently let him examine her and said, “Maybe because I died once and my body was reconstructed, the fire poison disappeared too.”
Wen Qiao had checked her own body earlier as well. Her body was now very healthy. Not only had the fire poison that had been corroding her disappeared, even the problem of her damaged spiritual apertures had been resolved. Her thirty-six spiritual apertures could now store primordial spiritual energy, and she no longer had to worry about it leaking away.
It should be a benefit brought about by transforming into a demon body after dying once.
Compared with a human flesh-and-blood body, a demon body was naturally stronger. Although her demon body was only a little seedling, it was still a kind of demon body.
It was just that her meridians were still somewhat fragile. Otherwise, there was no major issue. As for her naturally weak meridians, they could be compensated for later. It would only take some time, and it would not be a problem at all.
After Ning Yuzhou finished examining her, his expression eased, and he was naturally happy.
Spiritual apertures were where cultivators stored primordial spiritual energy. If something went wrong with them, they were also the hardest to treat.
Now Wen Qiao had healed herself, so there was no longer a need to rack their brains to cure her. That was the best outcome. In comparison, fragile meridians were nothing much. As long as he had time, he could find heavenly treasures to widen her meridians and pair them with a treatment plan; they would definitely be healed.
Wen Qiao looked at him without blinking. Seeing his expression soften, she could not help smiling.
“Oh, your cultivation…” Wen Qiao looked closely at him and discovered that he was now at the late stage of the Entry Yuan Realm. She pursed her lips and smiled. “You improved too.”
Ning Yuzhou smiled. “Father came over just now and was regretting that my cultivation was too low and my cultivation speed too slow.”
Thinking that he had not yet explained the space to her in detail, he told her about it properly.
Wen Qiao was amazed. She had not expected such a unique bloodline to exist in the world. Sincerely, she said, “You’re really amazing to have inherited such a powerful bloodline.”
But Ning Yuzhou shook his head. “Although it is powerful, it also has many restrictions. This space is one of them.”
Perhaps to the world, possessing a mustard-seed space was indeed a good thing, but it also limited his cultivation speed. If someone without perseverance and willpower spent a great deal of time cultivating yet saw little progress, they might eventually be led astray for various reasons and destroy themselves without realising it.
The Five Emperor bloodlines were indeed powerful, but in order to maintain balance, the Heavenly Dao would also impose restrictions on them. It would not allow them to become so powerful that they shook the very foundation of all living beings’ survival.
Wen Qiao seemed to understand.
Finally, she said, “It’s all right. My cultivation speed is fast. I’m already at the Yuan Bright Realm now. I’ll protect you in the future.”
Her husband possessed a powerful miraculous bloodline and a mustard-seed space; it could be said that he carried an enormous treasure. Yet his cultivation was restricted by it, making it difficult for him to protect himself. If others discovered his miraculous bloodline, they might develop thoughts of killing him to seize his treasure. Worse still, someone might even try to seize another person’s miraculous bloodline. These things had to be guarded against.
The little girl was very serious and solemn. Ning Yuzhou’s heart softened, and he nodded with a smile. “All right, then I’ll wait for Ah Rao to protect me.”
Wen Qiao gave a sound of agreement and secretly decided that she must cultivate hard and not slack off.
After transforming into her demon body, Wen Qiao’s cultivation leapt to the Yuan Bright Realm, crossing another major realm once more.
It had to be said that this cultivation speed was simply heaven-defying and shocking.
But when one thought of how she had survived a brush with death before transforming into a demon body, it was no longer strange.
Who in this world could be as fortunate as her? She had originally been a frail half-demon, perhaps unable to live past twenty. Yet because of this opportunity, she had escaped the fate of dying young and officially stepped onto a smooth path of cultivation.
Wen Qiao knew in her heart that all of this was Ning Yuzhou’s doing. If not for him taking her to Lin Tai Hunting Valley, carefully regulating her body, and even after thinking she had died, still refusing to give up on finding her, not hesitating to expose his space to help her transform…
All of this was no different from giving her a second life.
Compared with her birth parents, what Ning Yuzhou had done for her was in no way lacking.
—
After Wen Qiao transformed, Ning Yuzhou brought her out of the space.
The moment they came out, Wen Qiao sensed something charging into her arms. She instinctively grabbed it and caught a fluffy little rabbit.
The demon rabbit rubbed hard against Wen Qiao.
Its little seedling had appeared again!
But as it rubbed, it suddenly realised something was wrong. The demon rabbit stared closely, and its whole rabbit body froze.
The little seedling was gone?!!!!
No—its little seedling had turned into a person!
Ning Yuzhou frowned slightly, reached out, and lifted the stunned demon rabbit away. He said to Wen Qiao, “Rest for a while first. This is where I cultivate in seclusion. No one dares come in.”
Wen Qiao nodded, understanding what he meant.
Previously, she had still been a little seedling, and no one knew when she would transform into a person. Qian Shou thought she was dead, while Emperor Chenghao thought she had been taken away by foreign cultivators. That was also what they had told outsiders. In any case, she was supposedly not in Dongling. If she suddenly appeared now, wouldn’t people realise something was wrong?
Thinking that the enemy who had killed her parents back then might still be secretly watching Dongling, Wen Qiao pursed her lips. She knew they still needed to lie low for now.
Ning Yuzhou went out for a while and soon returned, carrying a food box.
Inside the food box were spiritual dishes.
After more than two months, the husband and wife once again sat at the same table to eat.
Being able to eat normal food moved Wen Qiao so much she almost cried. Being a little seedling that could only drink spiritual medicinal liquid had truly been miserable.
Seeing them eating so deliciously, the demon rabbit curiously jumped onto the table. After watching for a while and finding it was not interested, it sat to the side and hugged a spirit pill to gnaw on.
After the meal, the two sat together and discussed their future path.
“You cannot appear before others right now. Why don’t we leave Dongling?” Ning Yuzhou explained his plan. “It is also time for us to go out and see other places, treating it as travel and cultivation training.”
There were many things they needed to do. At this stage, what they needed most was experience and to raise their strength.
Wen Qiao nodded, having no objections to his arrangement.
“Let’s set off in a month. During this time, I’ll refine more spirit pills and talismans. Raising a rabbit now is not easy,” Ning Yuzhou said meaningfully.
Wen Qiao glanced at the demon rabbit whose claws rarely left its spirit pills and felt deep sympathy. Supporting a household really was not easy.
Then she asked curiously, “What grade of spirit pills can you refine now? What grade of talismans can you draw?”
“As for spirit pills, most are yellow-grade for now, but I can also refine some mystic-grade pills. It’s just that the yield is not high.”
Spirit pills were divided into sacred, king, heaven, earth, mystic, and yellow grades. Yellow-grade pills were the lowest grade of spirit pills and were also the pills many alchemists refined when first starting out.
During his previous one and a half months of seclusion, Ning Yuzhou had not only cultivated blindly; he had also tried refining pills and making talismans.
It could be said that the reason Ning Yuzhou’s cultivation speed was so slow was not only because he had to nourish a space, but also because he spent most of his time refining pills and talismans.
Wen Qiao was just about to say that being able to refine mystic-grade pills after cultivating for only a little over a month was already extremely impressive, when she heard him say, “Pills that are not supreme-grade contain too many impurities. They cannot be considered good pills. If cultivators consume too many, impurities and pill toxins will accumulate in their bodies, which is not beneficial to cultivation.”
Wen Qiao silently shut her mouth.
Fine. She knew her husband was someone who pursued perfection. Even when it came to pill refining and talisman making, he still demanded perfection. Since he would not use anything other than supreme-grade spirit pills and supreme-grade talismans, naturally he would not let her eat inferior spirit pills. The spirit pills from before had been refined by the Ning clan’s alchemists, so Ning Yuzhou could not demand too much and had therefore not stopped Wen Qiao from taking them.
Now that he could refine pills himself, he naturally required the best.
“As for talismans, most are currently high-grade yellow-rank. Supreme-grade ones are rare. I still lack some proficiency and need to continue practising,” Ning Yuzhou continued.
Wen Qiao silently looked at him.
Ning Yuzhou smiled at her and said gently, “Although things like pills, talismans, artefacts, and formations are only auxiliary, they can catch enemies off guard in battle and buy more time to reverse the situation. No matter what method is used, only by staying alive can one talk about anything else.”
Wen Qiao carefully committed this to memory. She had too little actual combat experience, so Ning Yuzhou’s reminders were very important to her.
After setting the time to leave, Ning Yuzhou once again went into seclusion.
Wen Qiao could not appear before others, so naturally she stayed with him. Seeing him earnestly refining pills, she asked him to send her into the space, planning to tidy up the spiritual herb field inside.
Wen Qiao took the demon rabbit into the space with her.
The moment they entered, the demon rabbit was stunned by the spiritual herbs filling the entire space.
So many, so many spiritual herbs.
The demon rabbit excitedly pounced in, aiming for the eighth-rank Earth Dragon Twining Silk Orchid.
Wen Qiao hurriedly stopped it. “The Earth Dragon Twining Silk Orchid hasn’t matured yet. You can’t eat it. When it matures, I’ll ask Yuzhou if we can spare you one orchid flower.”
The demon rabbit looked at her. In the end, it did not gnaw on the Earth Dragon Twining Silk Orchid.
Naturally, it had to listen to the little seedling. It also could not offend the alchemist, otherwise there would be no spirit pills to eat in the future.
—
Wen Qiao spent several days reorganising the spirit field in the space.
The spirit field quickly changed completely. It no longer looked like an abandoned weed field as before, but had been planned out very neatly.
Wen Qiao had a natural affinity with spiritual herbs to begin with, and she knew their habits and varieties as well as if they were family treasures. She could move them according to their preferences and needs, pairing spiritual herbs together based on their natures so they could coexist and support one another. Every spiritual herb whose position was changed grew very vigorously.
Ning Yuzhou took time to look and saw Wen Qiao bustling around in the space like a little bee. He smiled, then continued focusing on refining pills.
The demon rabbit followed Wen Qiao around and always took advantage when she was not paying attention to secretly nibble on the leaves and fruits of the spiritual herbs. Fortunately, it also knew not to swallow the whole plant and at least allowed them to keep growing. Otherwise, Wen Qiao would have had to throw it out and stop letting it enter.
It had to be said that the demon rabbit was extremely clever. It knew exactly how to make trouble while stepping on Ning Yuzhou and Wen Qiao’s bottom line.
After the space was planned and tidied, Wen Qiao had nothing else to do, so she continued cultivating, stimulating the spiritual herbs’ growth. Then she picked the mature herbs, processed them, and placed them aside for Ning Yuzhou to use in pill refining.
There were nearly a hundred types of spiritual herbs in the space, with more than eighty low-rank varieties. These herbs could be combined to make over a dozen kinds of spirit pills, just right for Ning Yuzhou to practise with.
Ning Yuzhou worried that she would feel bored staying inside the space, so he occasionally let her come out to move around.
Wen Qiao did not like going out, so whether she left the space or not did not matter. When she did leave, she sat to the side and watched Ning Yuzhou refine pills.
Ning Yuzhou’s pill-refining technique became more and more proficient. The yellow-grade spirit pills he refined also changed from high-grade to supreme-grade. His refining speed was extremely fast; he could refine over a dozen furnaces of pills in a day, and every furnace produced supreme-grade pills.
After becoming completely skilled with yellow-grade pills, Ning Yuzhou continued refining mystic-grade pills.
He only chose a few types of mystic-grade pills to refine. Once he was able to refine all of them into supreme-grade spirit pills, he temporarily slowed down and did not continue.
Seeing him take out a talisman brush, talisman ink, and talisman paper, Wen Qiao went over to help him mix the ink.
Talisman ink was made from demon beast blood, with some ores and medicinal materials added to it. This could raise the grade of the talismans drawn with it.
Just like talisman brushes and talisman paper, the better the quality of the talisman ink, the better the grade of the talisman drawn.
Wen Qiao did not understand these things, so Ning Yuzhou explained them to her gently. She listened and learned from the side, then tried mixing the ink and made her first batch of talisman ink.
Ning Yuzhou lightly sniffed the talisman ink and smiled. “Not bad. It is low-grade talisman ink.”
Wen Qiao: “…Only low-grade?”
Seeing the little girl’s disappointed look, Ning Yuzhou wondered whether he had been too blunt and gently comforted her. “This is your first time mixing ink. Being able to make low-grade talisman ink is already very impressive. Many people fail the first time they mix ink and have to try several times before succeeding.”
Wen Qiao gave an “oh,” then asked, “Then what grade of talisman ink did you make the first time you mixed it?”
“Supreme-grade.”
Wen Qiao: “…………”
Comparisons really were infuriating. Her husband was a genius.
After failing several times, and only managing to mix medium-grade talisman ink, Wen Qiao realised that she really was not suited for this and decisively gave up to avoid wasting materials.
For some reason, she did not seem capable of doing this kind of delicate work. Compared with these things, she was more willing to fight and kill. Just like in the Ice Tear Frogs’ territory, even after fighting the Ice Tear Frogs for ten consecutive days, she had not felt bored. On the contrary, she could have fought for another ten days.
After watching for a while, Wen Qiao picked up the demon rabbit and went next door to practise swordsmanship.
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