The next morning when it came time to open the shop, it was business as usual. Ning Yan scrubbed the floor, Nethersprite boiled water, Wu Jianwu and Patriarch Inkrule tried to attract customers, Li Youfei did odd jobs, and the Captain stood guard. The only difference was that everyone seemed to be working unusually hard. That, and there were now four people sipping tea.

However, as the days passed, it wasn’t unusual to see the Heir Apparent sitting by himself.

Over the course of the next half month, Princess Brightblossom gave Ling’er a lot of attention. She would take Ling’er out with her, and whenever they returned, Ling’er would be in high spirits, and her cultivation base fluctuations would be more prominent.

Fifth Sister got interested in the chickens. Apparently, she really liked chickens, so she took over Ning Yan’s responsibilities in the backyard.

After getting to know everyone, Eighth Sib seemed to develop a deep curiosity about Chen Erniu. The Captain worked hard to get on his good side, and thus, they ended up chatting with each other on almost a daily basis.

Xu Qing had already grown used to the weight of the sun, and could even deal with the special hat. That was when the Heir Apparent came to explain the details of his new cultivation routine.

This time, Princess Brightblossom joined.

“Xu Qing,” the Heir Apparent said, “your heavenly dao, your Smoldering God mountain, and your nascent soul prison cell are three very unique things. Once you achieve your next cultivation base breakthrough, you can seek further enlightenment of them. And then there’s your timescape bottle and the remains of the sun that form daybreak light. Given those things, it makes more sense for my third sister to give you pointers going forward.”

He looked at Princess Brightblossom.

Xu Qing sat in front of the Heir Apparent listening intently. It wasn’t a surprise to him that the Heir Apparent could simply list out his reserve powers. When the Heir Apparent finished speaking, Xu Qing also looked at Princess Brightblossom.

“Timescape bottles are items associated with the imperial clan,” she said. “I don’t know any details of their mysterious origin. They do have the magic of time within them, however, it’s something that can’t be mastered by study. You have to seek enlightenment and imprint that on your heart. Each person is different in the way they pursue the extremely mysterious nature of time.”

Princess Brightblossom looked Xu Qing up and down. He stiffened from head to toe at the sensation of being examined deeply.

“Your life lamps have already taken you down the path of time. All you need to do is keep going. The fact that you formed personalized life lamps despite not having the blood of an Imperial Sovereign like us… is impressive. I suppose that’s why the Heir Apparent has taken an interest in you.”

The Heir Apparent chuckled. “It’s too bad we can’t secretly break open Ninth Sib’s prison. His Life Lamp Godfire Incantation would be very suitable for this kid.”

Princess Brightblossom nodded and continued, “Daybreak light isn’t very common. In fact, I’ve never had a chance to study it. Back in the day, one of the Ancient Emperors had a son who possessed daybreak light, and could use it to transform himself into a sun.

“Although it was difficult for him to fully unleash it, even just having part of the power of a sun was spectacularly glorious. There wasn’t a magical technique that could hurt him!

“Don’t be held back by the limitations of your thoughts, sweetie. Divine abilities can only truly be constrained by your own imagination. If you combine all of your other powers in the proper way, you can create something that matches perfectly.”

Princess Brightblossom looked at Xu Qing with anticipation in her eyes. She knew full well that talking about things like this was easy, but actually understanding and implementing them would be extremely difficult.

Right now, she wanted Xu Qing to at least develop an awareness of how the daybreak light and the golden crow could work together to release even greater power. Ideally, the two could be combined to create a trump card. Of course, she didn’t outright say that. She just gave Xu Qing some food for thought. After he developed a general awareness, then he could gain deeper enlightenment. If she directly gave the explanation ahead of time, it could have a profoundly negative impact.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing was deeply shaken by what he was hearing. Princess Brightblossom’s words echoed in his mind for a long time, leaving him feeling as if he were being blessed with wisdom. As he pondered the situation, a host of ideas sprang up in his mind, slamming into each other, mixing, and eventually turning into numerous sparks of inspiration. A short time later, he felt blessed to the core. Thoughts racing, he looked up with an earnest expression.

“Many thanks, Senior! I understand now!”

The Heir Apparent, who had been in the middle of sipping some tea, suddenly glared. The last three words spoken gave him a sudden uneasy premonition, and he opened his mouth to speak.

Princess Brightblossom beat him to the punch.

“Oh? What do you understand now?” She lifted her cup of tea.

Xu Qing took a deep breath. “Senior, I understand what you’re trying to tell me. Ma’am, you’re reminding me of the fact that light… doesn’t have just one form! Its form can change. That’s one of the powers of light, and it’s a powerful one at that.”

The cup in Princess Brightblossom’s hand trembled slightly, and her cup lowered.

Looking excited, Xu Qing continued, “Therefore… since daybreak light can be used for countless techniques, then it definitely contains a myriad of magics! Yeah! Senior, what you mean to tell me is that the strength or weakness of my divine abilities is controlled by my imagination! That’s what’s been limiting me.

“Now I understand that daybreak light is one of the ways to use light. What I should be doing is using daybreak light to imitate the magical techniques of other people! Because light contains the power of transformations, I can definitely succeed. That… is the correct path to follow regarding daybreak light!”

Xu Qing shot to his feet excitedly, all while looking at Princess Brightblossom and waiting for any further commentary from her.

The Heir Apparent sat there quietly.

Princess Brightblossom likewise didn’t say anything. She seemed to be thinking. After several breaths of time passed, she nodded and lifted her cup to her lips again.

Seeing her approval, Xu Qing inhaled deeply. All of a sudden, he realized that Princess Brightblossom definitely deserved to have the respect of even the Heir Apparent. All it took was a few words from her to completely open his eyes to the truth.

Xu Qing loved that feeling. Clasping hands, he bowed to Princess Brightblossom, then rushed out to start some further study and research.

After he was gone, Princess Brightblossom put down her cup and looked deeply at the Heir Apparent.

The Heir Apparent smiled wryly and projected a message to her. “What do you think of my quasi-apprentice’s powers of understanding? Quite the prodigy, wouldn’t you say?”

Expression the same as ever, Princess Brightblossom said, “Watch your wording. He’s not your ‘quasi-apprentice.’ Within three months, he’ll absorb everything you have to teach him. At that point, he won’t need your instruction anymore. I’ll take over!”

Three days passed.

During that time, Xu Qing absorbed himself in working with daybreak light in the back room. He constantly sent out bits of daybreak light and tried hard to transform it. Things didn’t go very smoothly, but he didn’t give up. And he kept putting a lot of thought into the subject. Eventually, he thought about jade slips designed to record images.

Recording jade slips are able to record images of just about anything. That seems to indicate… that they’re related to light! Back in that world fragment, Eldest Brother used that patch of skin with the palm print on it. That was also an application of light….

He sighed in his heart.

Senior Brightblossom is really amazing and gives extremely good advice. I was so stupid before! Everything was happening right in front of my eyes, yet I didn’t even think about daybreak light! And if I want to use daybreak light to imitate things, then the first thing I need to think about is a carrier!

What came to mind immediatley were jade slips, so he took one out and started studying it.

That night, as Xu Qing was making some progress, the Captain snuck in with a very mysterious expression on his face.

“Little Ah Qing, it’s almost time for the next big job.”

Xu Qing looked up at him. “Almost time?”

Xu Qing knew that the Captain was planning to do something big in the Bitter Life Mountains, although he wasn’t sure what it was, and hadn’t bothered asking.

“Little Ah Qing, the big job we need to do in the Bitter Life Mountains is about to go down. When we can look at the horizon and see, not just blood-colored light, but the red moon itself, then it will be time to act!

“I’ve been doing some calculations recently, and I can tell you that the time is almost here. This big job is going to be slightly different than anything in the past.”

Looking very pleased with himself, the Captain squatted in front of Xu Qing, lowered his voice, and said, “Usually, we sneak in, do our stuff, then make our escape. And I usually spend a lot of time figuring out how to get in and out unseen. But this time…. We want all living beings in the Moonrite Region to see what we’re doing!”

The Captain suddenly looked very proud. “You can think of this big job as us putting on a show on a stage. And the living beings of the Moonrite Region are going to be the audience! This time, we’re going to need everyone to participate. Big Jianjian. Little Ningning. Even Ling’er.

“Sadly, even though I made a good case to the grandpas and grandmas, they said they wouldn’t help. That would have made it so much easier.”

At this point, the Captain tried to seal the deal. “I came to you, not just to let you know that the time is almost here to get to work, but also… to ask you to help persuade them to come along….”

Xu Qing hesitated. Before he could say anything, they heard a cold snort from the Heir Apparent.

“We’re not going!”

Looking very serious, Xu Qing turned to the Captain. “Eldest Brother, I think that if we want to eventually grow up, we should probably focus on tempering ourselves.”

The Captain blinked a few times. Xu Qing nodded.

“Fine….” The Captain seemed to struggle a bit before leaving helplessly. For the following three evenings in a row, it was possible to hear the Captain howling from Wu Jianwu’s room. One of those days, Ning Yan also got called over. It was impossible to tell what the Captain was doing. Every morning, Wu Jianwu would come out looking pale and exhausted. On the occasion in which Ning Yan went over, he came out looking the same as well.

Curious, Ling’er asked about what was going on.

Wu Jianwu said nothing.

Ning Yan sighed. “Oh, it’s nothing. And it’s not the first time either….”

That got Ling’er even more curious.

The howling ended after three days. When the Captain came out, he also looked extremely pale. After casting a resentful look at the Heir Apparent and the others drinking tea, he went into the back room.

Gasping for breath, the Captain said, “We’ve got to rely on ourselves this time, little Ah Qing! I’ve got the tools ready. Now I just need you to lend me your spirit automaton.”

“Just what exactly is this big job?” Xu Qing asked, taking out the Spike of Misfortune and tossing it to the Captain.

“A big performance!” the Captain said, catching the fish bone. Inside, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior shivered. “If I remember correctly, this spirit automaton of yours has read a lot of novels. That must mean he’s adept at fabricating storylines. I want him to write the script for me.

“We’ll also need some ancient-style clothing, which is going to be tough. Old clothing styles emphasize delicacy and beauty, and they require very expensive materials…. I guess it’s not that big of a deal. The lady over there with the big booty probably has lots of stuff hidden away.”

The Captain was really starting to get excited. “Little Ah Qing, this big job is going to be totally different than anything before!”

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