"No, I’ve only managed to suppress the illness; a complete cure is still out of reach," Nie Kong chuckled.

"Brother, stop talking about it. I want to fight you. Gu Qi, don't peek..." Gu Qi was about to ask more, but Tai Yan wasn't interested in those matters. She smiled, tugging Nie Kong toward the room. Nie Kong broke into a cold sweat; this girl Tai Yan was even more impatient than he was.

"Fight? What fight?"

Gu Qi was initially confused. By the time she registered what was happening, Tai Yan had already pulled Nie Kong into the bedroom. A fight... Could it be sparring? What was there to hide from sight? Stingy! Gu Qi rolled her eyes but couldn't suppress her curiosity. With a mischievous glint, she circled around to the back of the room.

Peeking her head in and looking through the window, Gu Qi froze, instantly stunned. The pretty color of her delicate face deepened. Moments later, a long, lingering cry of pleasure from Tai Yan startled her back to awareness.

"Ah!"

Gu Qi covered her small mouth and let out a muffled gasp before bolting away like a wisp of smoke.

She only stopped running a hundred meters away, panting heavily, clutching her chest. The mere thought of that bare scene made her face burn, and her heart pounded wildly. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. She called it a fight—it was clearly something else... Humph, and she tried to trick me!"

"I wasn't trying to trick you."

Half an hour later, the battle inside the room finally reached a natural conclusion. Tai Yan lay comfortably draped over Nie Kong, beaming with satisfaction. "Brother, I was telling the truth. Every time we finish a 'fight,' the strength I can control increases slightly. This pace is much faster than if I just tried to practice on my own."

Nie Kong found it quite baffling, yet since Tai Yan stated it so certainly, it must be true; she would never lie to him about something like this.

Could it be some lingering effect from when she was trapped in the Spirit Mansion Cage?

Regardless, it was a good thing.

Perhaps in a few years, Tai Yan would be able to fully command all the power hidden within her body. If that happened, Tai Yan could finally cultivate and become a true Spirit God.

"Brother, I want more..."

Tai Yan quickly regained her strength, sitting up with a joyous wiggle of her body. Her perfectly round and lifted snow-white hips swayed gently against Nie Kong's waist, while the twin mounds of her full bosom trembled and rose and fell, their tips—two spots of lovely crimson—shimmering with an intoxicating, mesmerizing luster.

Nie Kong felt the familiar stirrings again, ready to reignite the battle, but a thought suddenly flashed through his mind. "Tai Yan, do you want to try fighting in the water?"

Tai Yan looked puzzled. "How do you fight in water?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

Nie Kong smirked wickedly, scooped Tai Yan up, and leaped out. Their figures vanished instantly from the bedroom...

... In the depths of the White Bone Space within the Netherworld Ghost Domain.

Inside the White Bone Palace, the Grand Yan Spirit Venerable sighed deeply, then murmured wistfully, "Severing the link with the avatar felt like losing a part of myself. It’s far more comfortable now that the connection is restored. What's more, my divine power isn't diminished; it's recovering even faster."

"It’s all that bastard Nie Kong’s fault!"

Recalling the reason for severing the link with her avatar, the Grand Yan Spirit Venerable gritted her teeth in fury. "If I don't grind him to dust, I won't quell the hatred in my heart. When I finally break through the Netherworld Seal in the future... Hmm?" Before finishing her thought, the Grand Yan Spirit Venerable frowned in confusion.

Immediately, the furious beauty of the Grand Yan Spirit Venerable’s face went rigid.

A trace of crimson uncontrollably crept up her tender, porcelain-white cheeks, and the fullness of her chest rose and fell sharply. She had never expected that the very instant the connection between her main body and avatar was restored, that familiar yet utterly detestable sensation would surge back.

Not long after, the Venerable’s enraged roars echoed throughout the entire White Bone Space: "Nie Kong! Nie Kong... I will kill you..."

... "I'll kill you!"

In the expansive Spirit Mansion Illusion Array within the Forbidden Spirit Swamp, Qing Yue swung two broken stalks of dried herbs fiercely, sending Hulu scrambling away with his head covered. "Don't run! Don't run... How dare you sneak into the herb garden and eat the medicinal herbs without my Grandma's permission? You clearly don't respect me as the garden's owner!"

"Waaah, Auntie Wan agreed to let me eat the herbs."

"Hmph, is she the Garden Owner, or am I the Garden Owner?"

"Please don't kill me! I’m scared!"

"Stop playing pitiful. I won't kill you, but you have to stand still and let Grandma have a good whack, and then I'll let you go... Still running? Still running! You’re making Grandma furious!"

"..."

Within the hazy green illusion array, two small figures, one cyan and one white, darted back and forth incessantly.

After a while, Hulu’s speed began to decrease. His small mouth opened and closed, panting fiercely like a thirsty fish. Seeing this, Qing Yue looked quite smug, grinning fiercely. "Little Hulu, Grandma is a thousand-year Medicine Spirit, a Heaven Spirit powerhouse... How dare a little brat like you tangle with me!"

"You're a thousand-year Medicine Spirit, but I’m a ten-thousand-year Elixir Spirit," Hulu mumbled. Suddenly, his body stopped. He spotted the entrance to the steps and shouted in a childish voice, "Nie Kong, save me! Qing Yue is going to hit me!"

Qing Yue approached Hulu with a cold sneer. "Little brat, that little trick of yours is ancient history. If I don't teach you a proper lesson, you'll never learn what Grandma is capable of."

"What's going on? Is our Herb Garden Owner this furious?" A light chuckle suddenly came from the edge of the illusion array.

"Huh?"

Qing Yue turned and froze. Weren't the man and woman walking into the array shoulder-to-shoulder Nie Kong and Tai Yan? While the little one was lost in thought, Hulu seized the chance, swiftly darting past her and rolling like a little meatball toward Nie Kong dozens of meters away.

"Nie Kong, Qing Yue is too mean! She wants to hit me and won't let me eat the herbs," Hulu quickly complained.

Qing Yue snapped back to reality, her small face flushed crimson with anger. She flashed over and stopped in front of Nie Kong, shaking the two pieces of dried herbs. "Nie Kong, you have no idea how infuriating this little brat is. Grandma painstakingly nurtured a few seedlings of Grade Eight medicinal herbs, but this rascal actually pulled up and ate two in a row."

"Oh?"

Nie Kong was momentarily stunned. He looked towards the little meatball hiding behind him. "Hulu, is that true?" Nie Kong knew perfectly well how precious the herb seedlings he had separated for Qing Yue were; Hulu eating two one after another was more than enough reason for the little one to be this angry.

Hulu looked somewhat guilty, squeaking childishly, "How was I supposed to know they were the ones Qing Yue planted? Besides, Auntie Wan agreed! She said I could eat two segments of herbs that long every seven days. They looked so tender and were exactly that long, so I pulled them out for a taste."

"Do you realize that one taste ruined seven days of my hard work!"

"Fine, I won't eat the herbs you plant next time."

"..."

Tai Yan listened with great interest on the side, but Nie Kong was left with a wry smile. He hadn't expected that right after returning to the Spirit Mansion, before even seeing the Grade Seven Spiritual Alchemists and Grade Eight Medicine Kings he had invited, he would walk into a scene like this. In the end, Nie Kong acted as the peacemaker. "Hulu is at fault here. He is punished by being forbidden from eating any herbs from the garden for a month. Qing Yue, aren't you Hulu’s grandmother? Shouldn't a grandmother be magnanimous when her grandson makes a mistake?"

"Ga?"

Qing Yue looked dumbfounded for a moment, then reluctantly slapped her forehead, sighing irritably. "Since that's the case, and since you're my grandson, Grandma will forgive you this once."

"I’m not your grandson..." Hulu muttered, but quickly retracted his round head behind Nie Kong when he saw Qing Yue glaring ferociously at him.

"Alright, let's put this behind us. Qing Yue, follow this prescription and fetch me some ingredients from the herb garden." Nie Kong pulled a sheet of paper from his robe.

"Golden Summit Tassel, Winding Pulse Wind-Parrying Grass... Yin-Yang Red Phoenix Immortal..." Qing Yue sounded surprised. "Nie Kong, are you refining medicine?"

"That’s right. I'm refining one 'Void Piercing Golden Elixir.'"

"..."