After the day she woke up, she was kept confined in the inner courtyard as if she were a disobedient pet being grounded.

Prince Zhanying was rarely seen in the inner courtyard as he always went off to visit his beloved Third Uncle Yunru. Even Yuansong was always missing and out running errands. She felt her existence had been engulfed by the abyss of the palace, and it was devouring her soul bit by bit. At least, she had Xiaobai who was a happy ball of energy.

Jingrui sat under the peach blossom tree, drowning herself in the past with the nostalgic fragrance. Being caged in the palace, there was no way she could advance with her ambition. All that she came here for was being pushed back over and over.

If she had never saved Prince Zhanying that day, would she have already found the culprit and walked on her track without all the obstacles? She didn't know, but she knew one thing, she had only survived this long because she had him by her side.

Besides, if she thought through it carefully, with no one influential to back her up, even if she were to find the culprit who had killed her sister and master, they would probably silence her. . .

Her thought came to a pause as she let the word rang in her mind.

Silence her. Silence her. Silence her. . .

Jingrui gasped and jolted upright. That's right!

After coming back from the Jade Dragon Mountain, she had finally unraveled that the sole reason her Master had sent Sister Jingyi to the Heavenly Palace fifty years ago was to find his long lost love and son. But that harmless mission alone, couldn't possibly get Sister Jingyi killed. Unless she had found out something else that she shouldn't. And that secret led her to being silenced.

As for the people who silenced her? A man a little shorter than me and a middle-aged woman, there wouldn't be too many couple within Heaven that matched the description. She just had to do some digging, and soon, the truth would come to light.

Jingrui took a sharp breath as the puzzle pieces began to fall to its places. But before she had more time to ponder over it, Yuansong trotted into the courtyard, humming a happy tune.

When he saw her, his smile turned cocky. "Daydreaming again, little maid?" Yuansong hopped to her side. "You must be bored to death, being grounded by His Highness like this."

Jingrui rolled her eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you that His Highness didn't ground me?"

"Whatever, whatever."

"So, where's His Highness?"

"Discussing work with the Third Uncle."

Jingrui pushed herself to stand, and a smile came over her face. "That's good." She looked around to make sure no one was present and inched closer to Yuansong. "Yuansong, I need your help."

He sneered. "You need my help? Right."

Jingrui batted her lashes at him and nudged his shoulder. "I really do. Will you help me?"

Yuansong shivered, and his hair stood on end. "Stop giving me puppy eyes, i-it won't turn me soft! Just tell me what you need."

A sense of victory flushed over her. "Well, you see, the Mountain has taught me many lessons."

He nodded. "Serves you just right."

"And those lessons make me want to become a competent immortal. Although I have low cultivation, can you teach me qigong¹⁶?"

Sweat rolled down Yuansong's forehead as she coerced him with her hopeful eyes. "W-Why me? Didn't you win the Prince's care? Why don't you go ask someone like the God of War to teach you?"

Jingrui shook her head. "No way. He would never teach me, and I don't dream that big. Besides, I don't want him to know, or else he'll probably taunt me." She pressed her lips into a smile. "Teach me please, and I'll call you 'sir'!"

Yuansong gave a resigned sigh. "Fine, little maid. I'll teach you. You seem bored to death with nothing to do, so this is my mercy to you." He waved a hand and summoned two scrolls. "You are a weak, little immortal because you have never learned the fundamentals. These scrolls are written by the God of War himself. You do good and recite the theory in the first scroll, then you can learn the qigong¹⁶ movements in the second."

Yuansong chucked her the scrolls, and Jingrui caught it while glowering at him. "Do I have to recite the theory first? Can't I skip to learn the movements?"

Yuansong snickered. "There's no shortcut in cultivation, little maid. I've wasted enough of my time with you. Good luck with your practice."

"Hey, wait—" Jingrui began but Yuansong had already left for his room. She plopped down under the tree with a huff and opened the first scroll. Ancient scripture was carved into the bamboo, and her brain began to grow dizzy as she scanned over the complex characters. "The hot Qi of Yang accumulates fire. The essence of the fire-Qi becomes the sun. The cold Qi of Yin accumulates water. The essence of the water-Qi becomes the moon. . ." She scratched her head and rolled the scroll over.

It was not until dusk that the writing finally got into her thick skull, and she lay, panting under the tree.

She wanted to be taught how to defend herself, not recite pointless immortal theories. Most of it was about random sutra she didn't care about, otherwise it was about how to control immortal's meridians for the cold and warm flow of Qi.

The point was, she didn't even know whether her flow of Qi was cold or warm!

Prince Zhanying couldn't always defend her forever. She didn't want to always be his burden. If only she could be as smart as Sister Jingyi and had paid attention to Master's lessons, she wouldn't be a bothersome, little maid of the Floating Abyss Palace. Groaning, she sat up straight and opened the second scroll, determined to become stronger.

Written in it were several martial arts movements, and she stood up, trying to mimic them.

"Focus your inner energy in your foot and lean forward." Her movement was shaky and awkward as she leaned forward on one foot. "Open the meridians and balance the roots. Focus the vital energy to the tip of your finger and launch at your opponent—"

She yelped as a sudden gust of light shot out of her fingers and darted towards the figure of Prince Zhanying who had just returned to the Palace. His brows arched up as he waved her cutting light into a swirl of soft speckles. Stunned, she lost her balance and fell against the grass with a whimper.

Prince Zhanying gave her curious look as he walked over to her. "What are you trying to do? Destroy my palace?"

Jingrui rubbed her knees and sat up straight. "N-Nothing, Your Highness."

He let out a soft sneer. "Oh, really? But Yuansong told me you asked him to train you."

She gritted her teeth and pushed herself to stand. "You obnoxious traitor, who could have thought you'd tell on me!"

Prince Zhanying tilted his head slowly, his eyes cutting like an icy blade.

Jingrui scoffed. "No, I didn't mean you, Your Highness."

"You . . . You think Yuansong can teach you well? He may be older than me, but he doesn't have good fundamentals."

"Well, at least he is stronger than me."

Prince Zhanying clenched his jaw. "Yuansong is an obnoxious traitor, floundering and amateur."

Her brows raised at his sudden insults. "You seem to be in a bad mood tonight, Your Highness." Jingrui searched his expression for any sign of anger. There was no anger, but there was something else she couldn't grasp her head around.

"I see. So Yuansong comes to your mind first." Prince Zhanying seemed to come to an odd conclusion, and she gulped as the air shifted into discomfort.

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16) qigong (氣功): a system of coordinated body posture and movement, breathing, and meditation. (Used for martial arts.)