Chapter 269

Chapter 269

　Without moving from her spot, Chui's consciousness instantly enveloped the entire room.

　However, her consciousness found nothing unusual; it was as if the shadow she saw was just an illusion. Just like that time when they had returned from Cangyun Peak and rested for three days, only to suddenly see something upon opening their eyes.

　At that time, Chui thought she must have been mistaken.

　After sweeping her consciousness through the room without finding any clues, Chui's brows furrowed slightly, and she suddenly said, "Come out!"

　The room remained silent.

　As the morning sun rose, Chui pursed her lips and walked out of the guest courtyard with a cold face, heading to the medicine room.

　Ning Yuzhou was refining pills, but his movements did not falter even as he noticed her entering. He smoothly and swiftly cast alchemy seals, and the pill furnace hummed, indicating that this batch of pills was at a critical stage. However, he showed no signs of anxiety or tension, acting as if he were doing something quite easy.

　Only after successfully refining the pills did Ning Yuzhou casually catch the flying spirit pills and asked with a smile, "Why is Chui here?"

　Chui sat beside him and said unhappily, "My husband, that thing won't come out and keeps spying on me."

　Ning Yuzhou paused, then took out a pill bottle to store the refined spirit pills.

　"Should we think of a way to force it out?" Chui suddenly asked.

　Ning Yuzhou turned to look at her, seeing her eager expression, and smiled, "Why make it so complicated? Since it chose to reveal itself to you, it seems Chui is special to it. We just need to wait for it to come to us."

　Chui frowned again, "Will it really appear? I don't like sneaky things; they should either be straightforward or not at all."

　"It probably will," Ning Yuzhou said, not wanting to sound too certain.

　Her straightforward nature always preferred open and honest actions. She disliked those who lurked in the shadows and plotted conspiracies. Ning Yuzhou understood this about her and liked it, perhaps because he himself could not do so, making him particularly fond of such admirable traits.

　Chui reluctantly agreed, "Alright, I'll wait a bit longer."

　Seeing her sullen expression, Ning Yuzhou felt a pang of sympathy and suggested, "Since it likes spirit pills, fruits, and stones, use these to lure it..."

　After hearing Ning Yuzhou's plan, Chui left the medicine room happily, leading a group of cloud beasts to cause trouble.

　In the following days, Chui would place a spirit pill and fruit by the windowsill every night, only to find them gone the next morning.

　After several consecutive nights, Chui suddenly stopped placing the spirit pills and fruits, as if nothing had happened before.

　This day, as Chui opened her eyes from meditation, she saw that fleeting shadow once again.

　"Don't leave!" Chui shouted.

　Perhaps startled by her voice, Chui clearly saw the shadow dart behind a pillar on the ceiling.

　Chui declared firmly, "If you leave again, don't come back. I won't give you any more spirit pills or fruits; I'd rather feed them to the cloud beasts than give them to you."

　Behind the pillar: "..."

　After threatening it, she added, "Alright, come out. It's just the two of us here, and I promise I won't do anything."

　To prove her words, Chui set up a barrier around the area, which would alert her if anyone approached.

　Having done this, Chui continued waiting.

　After a while, nothing appeared from behind the pillar, so Chui leaped onto the ceiling and reached out to grab it.

　Her hand grasped nothing.

　Chui's brow twitched; she clearly sensed something there, yet couldn't catch it.

　Feeling a chill, she circled around the pillar and suddenly met a pair of large, black, sparkling eyes.

　For a moment, their eyes locked, both pairs of clean, pure black eyes reflecting each other, strangely similar.

　Chui frowned and couldn't help asking, "What is this thing?"

　"I am not a thing!" a childlike voice exclaimed angrily, pointing at her with a translucent chubby finger, "Neither are you!"

　Chui nodded, "Of course, I'm a person."

　Saying this, she looked at the small, chubby doll-like figure sitting on the beam, dressed in simple robes, resembling a child. However, this little figure was translucent, appearing as if it might vanish into thin air at any moment, weightless and intangible.

　Only a form, but no substance.

　The translucent little figure pouted, "You're not a person."

　Chui: "...How am I not a person?"

　"You're like me," the little figure argued.

　Chui wanted to pick up this strange little figure to ask how they were alike, but seeing its fragile appearance and lack of substance, she gave up on the idea.

　She didn't press the issue further and instead asked, "I'm Chui, also known as Ah Chui. What's your name?"

　The little figure replied, "I know your name; I heard that human man call you." Then it sighed, "I don't have a name, but they call me Star Map."

　"Star Valley? Pleiades Continent?" Chui exclaimed in surprise, "Could it be that you're the manifestation of Star Valley or Pleiades Continent?"

　The little figure suddenly became angry, shouting, "I am not Star Valley, nor Pleiades Continent! I am Star Map!"

　Chui blurted out, "Are you the Twenty-Eight Constellations Map?"

　The little figure nodded, "They do call me that, but I don't like the name; it's too long. I prefer Star Map."

　Chui remained silent for a long time.

The little child stealthily glanced at her, noticing her silence, and felt a twinge of discomfort, involuntarily swallowing quietly. Its plump little hands wrung together as it timidly whispered, "You, you won't tell anyone else, will you? If we weren't alike, I wouldn't have approached you. Your spiritual pills and fruits are truly delightful; they restore my spiritual energy. Do you have any more?"

Her mind still in a daze, the words slipped out: "The spirit pills were refined by my husband. You can find him."

"No way. If the human race finds out about me, they'll certainly do terrible things to me. No way." The Star Map child began to complain, "You don't know how scary those humans are! Every time I wake up, I find them searching everywhere for the Star Map and harming the successors of the Star Valley. If they knew about me, they'd definitely do terrible things, even killing each other to snatch me. I don't like it..."

Wen Qiao finally accepted that the little child before her was not human.

Not only was it not human, but it was also the Twenty-Eight Mansions Four Symbols Map.

Wen Qiao stared at the semi-transparent child and argued, "Nonsense, my husband is a good person. He has no interest in the Twenty-Eight Mansions Four Symbols Map and won't do anything terrible to you."

Even with her "my husband is the best" attitude, the child remained unmoved.

Although Ning Yuzhou hadn't done anything, for some reason, the Star Map felt an innate fear when facing him, unwilling to approach him. In the past, such overwhelming fear had only come from beings either in the Divine Realm or in the "Boundless Darkness," making it feel that this person was extraordinary.

"Don't you want spirit pills? My husband can refine many spirit pills," Wen Qiao tempted it.

The child couldn't help but lick its lips. The taste of high-quality spirit pills was truly delightful, free of impurities, replenishing the spirit energy it needed. If it weren't so desperate for spirit energy to strengthen itself, it wouldn't have exposed itself to Wen Qiao and snatched the spirit pills and fruits from the cloud beasts.

Thinking about this, it looked at Wen Qiao enviously.

Both being of the same kind, why did others fare so well while it struggled so much?

In the end, the Star Map succumbed to the allure of the spirit pills. "Well, alright then. If it's just that human man, I'll reluctantly meet him. But no one else, you mustn't tell anyone else."

"Don't worry, I'm not stupid," Wen Qiao patted her chest in assurance.

***

In the alchemy room, Ning Yuzhou, who had just finished refining a batch of pills, noticed a sound transmission talisman floating nearby.

He picked up the talisman and opened it, hearing Wen Qiao's voice: "Husband, make sure to return to our room tonight. I want to sleep with you."

Ning Yuzhou: "..."

This sounded too suggestive. Someone with a twisted mind might think it was a late-night invitation from his wife.

Unfortunately, this couple was still pure and in name only. Plus, his wife was "innocent" to the point of not understanding such implications. Instead, it was the husband whose nature was slightly skewed, momentarily thinking along those lines before quickly correcting himself.

Ning Yuzhou rubbed his face, put away the spirit pills, tidied his slightly disheveled clothes, and left.

No need to wait until night; he couldn't wait to return to the room and sleep with his little wife.

Just as Ning Yuzhou reached the door, he noticed a restriction around it.

His expression paused slightly as he pushed the door open.

"Husband, you're back!"

As he opened the door, he heard his little wife's clear voice. Looking up, he saw her standing in the center of the room, smiling at him, with a jade-like, adorable little child peeking from behind her, watching him with bright eyes.

Ning Yuzhou: "..."

"Wife, you're back so soon. I thought I'd wait until tonight to tell you," Wen Qiao said, turning to look at the child clinging to her shoulder. "My husband is back. Don't you want to greet him?"

The child cautiously glanced at Ning Yuzhou and greeted him in a soft voice, "Brother Ning, you're back."

Ning Yuzhou: "..."

Half an hour later, Ning Yuzhou sat at the table, opposite Wen Qiao, with a charming and adorable child sitting on the table.

"Husband, that's what happened," Wen Qiao pointed at the child on the table. "He only agreed to see you, no one else. Give him a bottle of spirit pills."

The child immediately looked at Ning Yuzhou expectantly.

Being stared at by both big and small, Ning Yuzhou found their expressions remarkably similar—pure and untainted by the world's complexities.

Silently, he handed over the bottle of spirit pills he had just refined to the child called Star Map.

The Star Map immediately beamed, reaching out with its semi-transparent hand to grab the bottle, which then disappeared.

"Huh, do you have a storage space?" Wen Qiao asked curiously.

"Of course, otherwise how would I store things? Don't you have one too?" the Star Map asked, assuming they were the same.

"Do storage bags count?" Wen Qiao asked.

The Star Map: "...Those are storage spiritual artifacts made by cultivators. How could they count? What about your own storage space?"

"I don't have one," Wen Qiao weakly replied. "But my husband does."

After awakening the Di Xi bloodline, her husband derived a life space, which was very powerful.

The Star Map couldn't help but glance at Ning Yuzhou, its brows furrowed in confusion, unsure how to describe its feelings.

Ning Yuzhou observed them for a moment before speaking slowly, "You are the spirit of the Twenty-Eight Mansions Four Symbols Map, right? How did you become like this?"

Wen Qiao was slightly stunned, realizing it was indeed a spirit.

Then she remembered something and exclaimed, "Could the Twenty-Eight Mansions Four Symbols Map be a divine artifact? I heard only divine artifacts can give birth to spirits."

The Star Map didn't deny it, looking at Wen Qiao, thinking that they were both spirits, yet it fared so poorly while Wen Qiao thrived, making it envious.

"I suffered severe injuries and turned into this," the Star Map said, taking a spirit pill and swallowing it. The taste of the high-quality spirit pill made it close its eyes in delight. "Brother Ning's spirit pills are rich in spirit energy, providing me with strength."

"How did you get injured?" Wen Qiao asked curiously.

The Star Map shook its head, seemingly unwilling to elaborate.

Wen Qiao asked again, "Can the spirit pills my husband refined help you recover?"

"No, although spirit pills contain more spiritual energy than other things, they won't be of much help to me. At most, they can keep me awake."

Wen Qiao suddenly understood, recalling that it had mentioned before that it often fell into a deep sleep and could only wake up when it had accumulated enough spiritual energy.

However, every time it woke up, something bad seemed to happen, making it very wary of humans.

This was also due to the cultivators' own actions.

Wen Qiao didn’t defend those cultivators but instead engaged Su Molan in various questions until the little one's eyes started drooping. Then she said, "Alright, go to bed now. We'll play together tomorrow."

Su Molan no longer hid, and Wen Qiao was willing to play with it.

Su Molan happily replied, "Sure, sure. Also, I don't actually need to sleep, but sleeping doesn't waste too much energy. Otherwise, I would quickly fall back into a deep sleep."

It was rare to meet a fellow kindred spirit, especially one doing so well, so it didn’t want to fall back into a deep sleep.

Su Molan soon disappeared.

It came and went without a trace, making it hard for anyone to detect.

Of course, another reason was that with the current strength of cultivators, discovering a spirit was not easy unless the spirit revealed itself voluntarily. Otherwise, they couldn’t find it.

Ning Yuzhou looked at where Su Molan had vanished.

The sky outside the window had unknowingly darkened, stars twinkling in the distance, illuminating the night sky and adorning the quiet evening of Su Star Valley.

Seeing him staring for a long time, Wen Qiao asked curiously, "Husband, what are you looking at?"

Ning Yuzhou snapped back to reality, smiled at her, and casually said, "Chui, Su Molan seems to like you very much and is willing to listen to you."

"I also find it strange. It said we are of the same kind..." Wen Qiao looked puzzled and then asked nervously, "Husband, do you think it has figured out my identity?"

Ning Yuzhou calmly took out a bottle of spirit pills and handed them to her, saying, "Perhaps."

Wen Qiao continued to ponder, "It shouldn't reveal anything, right? The Twenty-Eight Constellations Four Symbols Map belongs to the Su family. If it were to tell the Su family..."

"It won't!" Ning Yuzhou affirmed, "The Su family is just the guardian of the Twenty-Eight Constellations Four Symbols Map. Ordinary people have no right to make a divine artifact recognize them as its master."

Wen Qiao finally understood why Su Molan had previously said that Su Star Valley was the guardian of the Twenty-Eight Constellations Four Symbols Map and never claimed ownership.

"So that’s how it is. Since Su Star is the Twenty-Eight Constellations Four Symbols Map, why did it end up in such a state? Wait, wasn’t it said that only the Su family’s bloodline could open the Twenty-Eight Constellations Four Symbols Map? What’s going on with Su Star?"

Wen Qiao was thoroughly confused.

Seeing her full of questions, Ning Yuzhou couldn’t help but laugh, "If you want to know, just ask Su Star. It should know."

Without waiting for her response, Ning Yuzhou pulled her up and led her towards the bed in the inner room.

He remembered that today she had specifically sent him a message asking him to come back and sleep with her.