Chapter 426: True God Ning Qing

Chen Shu leaned in close to Ning Qing, observing her carefully.

Breaking through a Spirit Lock, and having used a Beast Pill, she must be in immense pain right now, yet she only kept her eyes lightly closed, her posture sitting straight and motionless, as if she could not feel any pain at all.

Qingqing is truly beautiful.

Her snow-white skin looked as if it had the most exquisite makeup applied, without a single flaw to be found. Her features were fresh and elegant; with her eyes closed, she lacked her usual coldness and possessed more of the quietness of a sleeping beauty. Her eyelashes were fine and long, and her eyebrows looked as if they had been groomed.

As the Spirit Power surged and leaked from within her body, under the powerful Spirit Power Field Effect, her eyelashes, eyebrows, and hair tips all lit up with a subtle, seven-colored luster.

Chen Shu retreated slightly and sat cross-legged facing her.

Taozi also sat upright, staring at its master without blinking—at this moment, it was its master's loyal guard. Under such high concentration, only the tip of its tail was tapping the floor rhythmically, though this was not under its control.

Until it was scooped into someone's arms.

"Woof-awoo~"

Taozi let out a dissatisfied bark.

This person is so annoying; it is working.

However, even while being petted, it still tried its best to look at its master, fulfilling its duty as a guard officer.

Its body was in the Cao camp, but its heart was with the Han.

Time slipped away bit by bit.

From early morning to noon, and then to the afternoon, Qingqing sat like an old monk in meditation, without any emotional fluctuations or accidents. Gradually, the light filtering through the gaps in the curtains turned golden; dusk had arrived.

The door was knocked, and Xiaoxiao brought them a boxed meal, quietly observing her sister's state.

To her disappointment, her sister did not have a pained, distorted expression or an ugly face; she was even more composed than she herself had been when breaking through a Spirit Lock last time—could it be that her sister was less afraid of pain than she, who had been beaten since childhood? This was illogical.

"Has sister been like this the whole time?"

"Yes."

"Doesn't it hurt?"

"Not very much, I suppose; Heavenly Humans are relatively numb to pain," Chen Shu replied in a low voice.

"I have the Heavenly Human Bloodline too."

"Perhaps sister just isn't very afraid of pain."

"..." The young girl pondered for a moment, then lowered her voice, her tone certain, "It must be because you, brother-in-law, are by her side that she is pretending it doesn't hurt."

"Maybe."

"Brother-in-law, eat quickly; I'll come to collect the trays later."

"Alright."

The young girl retreated and quietly closed the door.

"Dinner time."

Chen Shu said to the little thing lying beside him, "Let's see what dishes there are... garlic sprouts with duck strips, mushroom-scented stir-fried chicken, baby bok choy, and mixed fried rice; it looks like it might be tastier than the noon meal."

"Woof~"

Taozi's voice was very, very soft.

It seemed to be reminding him not to make noise.

"..."

Chen Shu was speechless; he opened the lunch box and tried his best to pick out all the meat from the dishes for Taozi.

"Woof?"

Taozi was still very quiet, staring at him strangely.

Then it looked at the pile of meat in its bowl, then straightened up to look at the pile of vegetables in his bowl, fell silent for a moment, and felt a bit of self-doubt—could it be that higher life forms nowadays don't even like to eat meat?

Should I protest at this moment, or should I accept it gladly?

Taozi fell into a dilemma.

"Don't want to eat?"

Two sections of garlic sprouts and a few slices of mushrooms fell into its bowl.

"Then you eat this!"

"Woof~"

Taozi lowered its head and tasted two bites.

The mushrooms were thin slices of king oyster mushroom, soft and tough. Biting with its canine teeth only poked holes, and it couldn't bite through with its other teeth, yet it didn't know how to chew. The garlic sprouts were even more uncomfortable than the mushroom slices; they were hard and fibrous, crunching loudly when bitten, and it could never bite through them—it was terrible.

Taozi bit the bullet and finished them, then told itself: the task of acting as a higher life form for today is complete.

Hmm, meat is still better...

Immediately, while eating meat, it glanced out of the corner of its eye at Chen Shu, who was crunching on the garlic sprouts, and felt that humans were truly pitiful for actually liking to eat these things.

Just then, the Spirit Power fluctuations on Ning Qing's body surged violently, truly like an explosion, with Spirit Power even leaking out of her body, blowing the fur of Taozi, who was happily eating meat, and giving it a start.

Only when it turned its head and saw Chen Shu looking as usual, still chewing on the vegetable stalks, did it feel relieved and continue eating, while constantly observing its master's movements.

Ning Qing suddenly opened her eyes.

"Woof!"

Taozi pointed at its master and turned to look at Chen Shu.

"I saw it."

Chen Shu shoveled a mouthful of rice and said to Ning Qing with some surprise, "That's it? Why so fast?"

Ning Qing did not speak, only nodded.

The movement was very small, almost imperceptible.

The pain caused by the Beast Pill might indeed have been minimal for her, and she was indifferent to it, but the damage caused to a Cultivator's body during the process of the Beast Pill taking effect was real; even if she could still speak, her voice would become strange.

"Restoration Pill?"

Chen Shu pointed at the Pill on the ground.

Ning Qing shook her head, almost imperceptibly.

Immediately after, she closed her eyes again.

……

The world turned dark once more.

The relationship between a Secret Sect Practitioner's ability strength and their Spirit Sea is relatively weak, at least far less so than in other systems; Ning Qing's attainments in the Secret Sect System likely already exceed those of the Eighth Stage Secret Sect Practitioner who collaborates with the Imperial Family, but some abilities still require Spirit Sea performance as support.

For example, obliterating others.

For example, peering into the Predicted Timeline.

Usually, when peering into the Predicted Timeline, the content visible is not much, and one can only take a hurried glance before Spirit Power is consumed at high speed.

Yet during the recent breakthrough, she had calculated that she would not be able to exhaust the Spirit Power within the Beast Pill, with about 30% likely to be wasted, and once the Spirit Power of the Beast Pill enters the body, it automatically acts upon the body and Spirit Sea; this Spirit Power is truly special, and after entering the Spirit Sea, it differs little from one's own Spirit Power.

And this is actually Eighth Stage Spirit Power.

Thus, Ning Qing diverted a portion of her focus and, utilizing this portion of unspent Spirit Power, found an exquisite entry point to peer into a "glimpse" of the Predicted Timeline that most Eighth Stage Secret Sect Practitioners cannot see.

That was a prediction line strongly related to her.

And precisely because it was related to herself, this process was exceptionally simple, and she saw it with exceptional clarity and detail.

That is actually very ethereal and complex content; it is not a true line, and if one were forced to draw it as a line, it would certainly not be straight.

Because the Predicted Timeline is often inaccurate, frequently making mistakes and then correcting them, the line drawn would be somewhat crooked, with traces of fine-tuning everywhere.

Moreover, there would be many tiny branches; these branches are the content within the original prediction line, and because deviations appeared in the development of the real world, the prediction line made corrections here and re-predicted according to the correct development.

These erroneous branches were also preserved.

Ning Qing saw one largest branch.

Since it was not a real line, the end of this branch was also blurry, and searching for it carefully was actually very difficult, but she found it at once—it would be better to say she had long known of it, and this time she had come to confirm it.

That was the first half of the year 00.

A variable that was completely outside the World Will's prediction appeared, bringing with it a person who was completely outside the World Will's prediction.

The prediction line deviated as a result.

Initially, the deviation was not very large, nor was it obvious; after all, he was just an infant, and even if his personality differed from the infant originally predicted by the World Will, the things an infant does are much the same, the scope of influence is also very small, and his family was not royalty or nobility, so his influence on the world as a whole was also quite limited. But as he grew a little older, the angle of deviation became increasingly obvious; his actions and the originally predicted results diverged more and more.

The World Will therefore constantly made corrections.

It can be said that the process of him gradually growing up was also a process of the World Will constantly making mistakes and correcting them.

This process only stopped once the World Will had roughly figured him out; at this time, he was no different from the original inhabitants of this world in the World Prediction Line, and the World Will could normally infer his future actions, his mutual influence with the world, and so on, and the errors were also curbed.

But this was already a brand-new prediction line.

The original prediction results were also destined to be abandoned, becoming a branch that deviated from the main path.

And in that branch, the results originally predicted by the World Will showed that the neighbor's youngest son was also a very talented child, only he did not have much intersection with Ning Qing, and he also entered the Yujing Academy where his sister was, but like Chen Jiaoshou, he applied to the History Department.

As for the Ning Qing in that story……

That was an indifferent Secret Sect Practitioner, indifferent and irritable, forming a cold-blooded personality.

More indifferent than President Ning, more irritable than Director An.

No emotions, no friends.

Her younger sister was also like a stranger.

As for her parents, there was no contact at all after she became an adult.

In the process of her growth, she also destroyed many people in bloodless ways that seemed unrelated to her.

Yet she happened to be a Secret Sect Practitioner.

No matter how strong the power-holders in the world are, they only hold power and represent a large organization, whereas the Secret Sect holds the future and represents the World Will, so in this process, no one could do anything to her.

Later, she became the world's strongest Ninth Stage, and even that genius who suffered from severe Genius Disease and was cured could not contend with her; as for what happened after that, the World Will could no longer predict it, but she knew herself well enough that she could roughly predict what would happen next—

The first deity of the Secret Sect was born.

Unlike the deities of other systems, the deity of the Secret Sect is a true deity, knowing the past and the future, controlling the operation of the entire world.

As she sees it now, it is no different from being dead.

Ning Qing opened her eyes.

She saw Chen Shu sitting cross-legged directly opposite her, only half a meter away; he rested his elbows on his knees, propped his chin with his palms, and stared at her, bored. Beside him sat a disposable meal tray; the rice had been eaten, but a pile of garlic sprouts remained.

Taozi was still eating, and the box was full of meat.

"What did you just do?" this person asked her, "Not enough pain, so you're savoring it?"

"Taking the opportunity, I saw an abandoned prediction line." Ning Qing's voice was strange at this moment, lacking its original clarity, and becoming a bit hoarse.

"What line?"

"A line without you."

"Without me? Then where did I go?"

"It had nothing to do with me."

"Oh, oh, that's what you mean... then what about you?"

"I became the most powerful person in this world, the Great Demon King."

"……" Chen Shu scratched his head upon hearing this, "Then I've delayed you, haven't I?"

"Apologize."

"Oh!!! I'm sorry!!"

"It's okay."

"You actually dared to accept it??"

"Anything else you want to ask?"

"Yes! What about Xiaoxiao?"

"The little demon king."

"Is she on good terms with you?"

"Not close."

"Tsk tsk, how miserable."

"Indeed."

"Then are you living well?"

"Not well."

"Truly miserable."

"Truly miserable."

"Then are there any more Taozi?"

"None left."

"Woof?"

Taozi raised its head, its expression one of extreme Surprise—it had gone to eat just now and hadn't been listening carefully; what had just happened, and why were there none left for it?

Ning Qing pursed her lips again, her expression as indifferent as always: "I am so exhausted now, feed me a Restoration Pill."

Chen Shu then picked up the small porcelain bottle nearby, broke the seal, took out a Pill the size of a thumb, and fed it to her. He then pulled her into his embrace, watching her gradually fall into a deep sleep, her body slowly losing its strength, collapsing limply against him.

This feeling of being trusted was truly intoxicating.

……

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It is the end of the month again, and the monthly tickets accumulated in your hands are about to expire. If you have nowhere to cast them, you can cast them for Jasmine; otherwise, it is a waste if they expire, a loss of one hundred million!