Spirit Cultivation

"That definitely wasn't five minutes…" Xuefeng rolled his eyes when he saw mature Ming cutting her younger self's speech in just a minute, but Ming only shrugged and called out, "Oh, really? I thought it was. Maybe I just count too fast. Too bad. You can talk to her next time."

"Are you joking with me? This is not funny." Seeing her attitude returning, Xuefeng got annoyed once again. He wanted to know more about the situation but Ming was blocking Little Ming from speaking up. ​​

Just as they were about to banter once again, a deep male voice escaped from the bracelet and bellowed towards Ming, "Behave!" Both Ling and Ming shuddered after hearing the voice and Ming shut up immediately.

"I let you live only because you know the location of the ruins. I planned to torture you to get the information but Xuefeng who is my partner now decided to spare you. You should be thanking him instead, not banter like an idiot." The bracelet's Spirit called out to Ming, leaking something that Xuefeng wanted to hide for now before bashing at Xuefeng as well, "And you, stop being so soft on them and rule them. Be a man and get a hold of them all."

"You didn't have to mention it… I was just about to get a hold of her." Xuefeng rolled his eyes at the Spirit's scolding as he already knew what he had to fix. Looking towards Ling, Xuefeng reached out to her, inviting her into his embrace, "Ling?" He wanted to show her that he was still the same.

Ling was a bit scared of the bracelet but she believed him and entered into his arms, laying her head on Xuefeng's shoulder. The look he was giving her was much different than before, as if Xuefeng finally matured and understood something, which kind of made him even more attractive.

Having Ling in his arms, Xuefeng glanced at Ming who was staring at him confused and finally she gave in, realising it wasn't just Xuefeng she was facing. With the bracelet's Spirit advising him from the side, it would be hard for her to sway Xuefeng.

"I'm sorry... I will behave from now on…" Taking a deep breath, Ming finally apologized sincerely, planning on being nice for a while.

There were not many options before her right there and she wasn't a fool. She knew that they only kept her because she was useful to them. She was after all a fountain of knowledge which could help Xuefeng a lot in the future.

If they didn't connect with her, she would have to stay back in the Holy Land's Wisdom Tree or stay inside of the bracelet space, which wasn't quite comfortable for the bracelet's Spirit. A Spirit couldn't survive in the outside world without a host that could carry them, which is why they either needed a Spirit Artefact or a human as a carrier.

"I let you stay with me because I don't believe Little Ming deserves such a fate just because you are annoying. As long as you are a nice girl, I wouldn't mind you staying here. Your knowledge and ability will be useful to me as well. So, do you plan to argue more in the future, or work together with me for better results?" Xuefeng informed her, speaking the honest truth, forgetting about being soft as that didn't work with her.

Knowing she had no other choice, Ming nodded right away, agreeing with a small smile, "Let's work well together then. I will try my best to be of help to you." Xuefeng felt suspicious with her agreeing so fast, but he couldn't do anything else in this situation.

"Tell me, why did you even need to try cancelling my connection with Ling and take control? Is there a problem somewhere?" Xuefeng asked the main thing he wanted to learn from her that kept bothering him.

"Well, you should better ask your bracelet friend. He said that if we don't connect with you, he will consume your body. I promised him a Fate Holder who would find Elemental Stones for him so if I didn't connect with you, he wouldn't waste time on you. The moment my little sis gave you the bracelet, we could either let you die or connect with you. We, of course, choose the latter. In the end, you were the one who struck a deal with him, fixing the situation." Ming explained the situation which left Xuefeng speechless, but at the same time relieved.

He kind of expected that the bracelet's Spirit wasn't a saint so he merely confirmed that, but he was relieved to confirm that Little Ming wasn't at fault in this matter, and only cared for his well-being. It was the mature Ming and bracelet's Spirit who didn't care about Ling at all and only changed that after they saw how much he cared about her.

"I want you to let Little Ming out, exchanging your place with her every day. She was only following your orders so she doesn't deserve any punishment." Xuefeng demanded one more thing after hearing Ming's explanation.

"Sure, but constant swapping is tiring so she needs to rest now anyway. We can change once a day then…" Ming didn't like that at all but compromised in the end.

Having everything somehow sorted for now, Xuefeng decided to return back to the real world in case Nuwa was worried about him, thinking of asking more questions after that, "Alright, give me a moment now. I will talk to you in a bit."

....

When Xuefeng returned with his consciousness to his mind and opened his eyes, he realised that he was no longer in the Wisdom Tree cave. Nuwa already dragged him back towards the palace and he was currently laying on the sofa with his head on Nuwa's soft lap.

"Honey, is everything alright? You were out for quite a while. I didn't want you to sit down in a hard cave floor so I brought you back." Nuwa asked with a gentle smile as she rubbed Xuefeng's cheek with her thumb.

"Mhmm, I think everything is settled now. All I have left is to talk a bit more to learn some information and I should be ready to leave with you." Xuefeng replied with the same smile as he grasped her free hand in thanks for her care.

"No need to hurry. Take your time. I just want to stay with you so I don't really care where we are. You can talk while laying on my lap if you like it." Nuwa proposed as she booped his nose playfully. She was suddenly behaving too lovely and cute, very different compared to her usual self, but Xuefeng liked that she changed from time to time.

"Alright. Don't mind me if I do." Xuefeng couldn't reject her if she presented it like this and got comfy on her lap right away, closing his eyes in relaxation. It was a great difference from all the arguments he had recently and quite a refreshment.

Enjoying Nuwa's gentle brushes on his hair, Xuefeng called out in his mind, 'Ming, I wanted to ask about this Holy Land. Was it created by you?' Xuefeng has been thinking of asking this for a while as it looked like it was Ming who controlled everything here.

'Yes and no. Only the Wisdom Tree was brought by me which I used as my base and it allowed me to control the space to some extent. Years ago I also let some Forest Elves live here and they happen to grow up to this point. If you are planning to ask about the Fate Stones then I can only tell you how they are appearing out of nowhere, not why. This Holy Land is connected with some other special space which is very mysterious even for me. You probably heard of it already.'' Ming replied from the inside of his Spirit, using it as her home now.

'Fate Kingdom?' Xuefeng asked curiously, recalling some previous conversations with Ling to which Ming confirmed, 'Yes. Unfortunately, this connection could only be used to transfer Qi, not people. I can sense the Fate Kingdom's Fate Qi in here and I suspect this space was created by the leaking Qi, not someone specific. I'm lucky that I discovered it before anyone else and managed to cover it, else the complications would be enormous. Also, the Qi that is leaking out of this connection is the source which creates Fate Stones.'

'Have you been there? In that Fate Kingdom.' Xuefeng found it quite interesting and delved deeper for more information.

Trying to win back his favour, Ming didn't hesitate to reply anymore, 'Of course. I was born there. Unfortunately, after I went out to play around in this world, the Fate Kingdom suddenly closed and I haven't had any contact with anyone from there in quite a while. There are more of us who can't go back, but they are managing this world right now. They are also from the Fate Kingdom just like me.'

Hearing up to this point, Xuefeng suddenly thought that all the Fate Spirits were from there so he asked Ling to confirm, 'So Ling, you are also from the Fate Kingdom?'

Sadly, Ling didn't verify his theory as she said, 'I don't remember actually. In my first memory I was already connected with a Fate Holder.'

Before Xuefeng could reply, Ming preceded him and explained it, proving her worth, 'There are two types of Fate Spirits. One that lives in the Fate Kingdom and regulates how worlds work and another that search for the candidate. Xuefeng you are still too weak to bother yourself with all of this, but with me here, I will tell you everything when the time is right.'

Xuefeng didn't actually argue with that. Nuwa was still waiting for him so he didn't plan to prolong this talk with stuff that wasn't currently important. He already asked about the Fate Kingdom because of his curiosity.

Thinking of the stuff that he still wanted to know urgently, Xuefeng asked, "How about this Holy Land. Is it possible that it was you who made that restriction on humans there? Can you revert it so that others can also enter there?"

Ming caught up his plan right away and giggled, investigating, "Haha, do you plan to have all your girlfriends move into my Holy Land? I can do that for you, but will there be a reward?"

'Ming…' Xuefeng was rendered speechless, thinking that she had already started to change, but she returned to her old personality this fast.

Noticing his change Ming quickly corrected herself, sighing, 'I'm joking… Gosh, it's a habit. You can bring them without any problems now. This space is a great means of transportation so we can use it to its fullest. The only downside is that you have to know where you are going, so you have to travel there by yourself first to imagine the space…' Thinking that Xuefeng would be mad again, Ming added, 'I'm your Fate Spirit, okay? I wouldn't mistreat you.'

Knowing that Xuefeng could now move everyone together with him, his mood improved noticeably and he didn't even mind Ming's behaviour as he asked the last question, 'What's your ability then?' Being someone from the mysterious Fate Kingdom, she was bound to have an amazing ability so he couldn't help but be curious.

Seeing that he wasn't angry at her, Ming confidence returned and she replied while laughing playfully, 'Hehe, I will show you when we leave. We will need a target for that.' When it came to abilities, Ming was definitely proud of her own.

Getting everything he wanted, Xuefeng opened his eyes and called out softly as he looked up at Nuwa, "I'm done." Just a moment ago she was still brushing his head, gently patting him, but now Nuwa also had her eyes closed as if she was sleeping which made Xuefeng smile.

Xuefeng realised what she wanted and leaned over, kissing her on the lips as a reward for her patience before calling out warmly, "Wake up my Queen."