The Infinite Space

Xiang Ling entered the bedchamber and closed the door behind her before placing a spell on it. The spell would alert her if anyone approached the inner courtyard.

Once she was assured that she had as much privacy as she needed, she removed the long sleeve of her dress from her left wrist. All of a sudden, a carving in bright blue light appeared on her inner wrist before it became permanent there in an intricate pattern of a celestial formation of stars.

A bright smile bloomed on Xiang Ling's lips. She channeled her inner energy into the pattern and the very next moment, her body disappeared from the bedchamber.

-

When the world around her came into focus again after a moment, Xiang Ling was no longer standing in the bedchamber, instead, she was standing in front of a very familiar cottage inside her celestial space.

Every person cultivating spiritual qi carried a space with them but the size of their space depended on their cultivation level. Since Xiang Ling had been cultivating for over ten thousand years and had already reached the highest level of cultivation - Immortal, her space was infinite and filled with the treasures she had collected during her small lifetime.

Throughout her space, she had built several cottages for different purposes, but the one standing right in front of her at the moment was her favorite for certain reasons. Not only was it located near a waterfall but was even built at the bank of a stream. It took her over three years to finish this cottage - from the design to the very last item of interior design. It was a double-storey cottage with an open patio.

Stepping inside, Xiang Ling prepared a herbal bath for herself before she settled down on the wooden floor in the lotus position and started working on cleansing her body. Despite being healthy, the previous Xiang Ling failed to take proper care of her body and thus her body had a lot of impurities.

A small candy-sized crystal clear pill appeared in Xiang Ling's palm and she immediately consumed it before working on channeling her spiritual power through her body to squeeze out all the impurities.

It took barely ten minutes of the combined effort of the pill and the spiritual qi to extort out all the impurities from her body in the form of dark black liquid. By the time Xiang Ling finished regulating the spiritual qi through her body and opened her eyes, she was a complete mess of black gue.

She scrunched her nose at the foul smell and used a quick spell to get rid of all the dark liquid from her clothes and body. After that, she peeled off the layers of clothes from her body and stepped into the bathtub.

The herbal bath did its magic and Xiang Ling felt every muscle in her body loosening up and relaxing. She washed her waist-length dark black hair, turning it silky smooth by the time she finished. She rubbed her body to get rid of all the dirt. When she finally stepped out of the bathtub, the water had turned as dark as possible.

Xiang Ling draped a white gown over her wet body before she headed inside her small bedroom to get ready for the day. A spell turned her wet hair dry before she oiled the mid and roots of her hair and styled them simply. She then turned her attention toward her body and put moisturizing oil all over it that made her smell like flowers. Once done taking care of her skin, she finally picked a simple hanfu from the collection of her clothes and put it on.

The previous Xiang Ling used to dress extravagantly which did little to help her already bad reputation. Her makeup was always too much and despite her having beautiful facial features, she never appeared beautiful to anyone. That was why the first thing that Xiang Ling decided to do this morning was to change the way of her dressing and make-up.

Instead of a lavish dress, she chose a simple white and red hanfu with minimal makeup.

Once Xiang Ling was satisfied with her appearance, she finally left the space and returned to the bedchamber of the inner courtyard of Chen Manor. Though she stayed for nearly two hours inside her space, barely five minutes passed in the outside world.

She took down the spell she previously cast on the door and stepped out the very moment Fu Xiao appeared outside the door. The two women came to a sudden stop and stared at each other in surprise for a moment or two.

While Xiang Ling recovered quickly, Fu Xiao was at a total loss for words as she stared at the former in utter shock. "My... My Lady?" The way her voice came out as a question almost made Xiang Ling chuckle.

"Yes, it is me, Your Lady. Why are you looking at me with such wide eyes?" She teased the girl with a warm smile that only surprised the latter even more.

Fu Xiao opened her mouth to speak but then closed it without saying anything. After she took another few more minutes to wrap her mind around what her eyes were seeing, she finally spoke, "My Lady, you are looking completely different. I can hardly recognize you."

"Am I looking better or worse than usual?" Xiang Ling asked as if she was asking some sort of secret.

"Beautiful." Fu Xiao answered with a big smile but immediately froze as terror overshadowed her happiness. She was worried that she would be punished by the lady.

"Don't overthink. I'm not going to punish you for calling me beautiful today. But I'm feeling really hungry. Let's go and eat breakfast with others."

Before Fu Xiao could have said anything in response, Xiang Ling was already heading away while humming softly. Little did the latter knew that she was going to receive even more surprises.