Three years passed.
Ao Ying had remained in that pool of water.
She never came out...
As if she had died inside.
If Su Qing hadn't occasionally thought of her when idle,
And gone to check near the pool, performing calculations with hand seals...
She would have thought the child had truly drowned in that pool.
However, even knowing she was alive, it still caused concern.
Three years without leaving the pool, just how severely injured was this girl?
"Never mind, let her recover slowly!"
Everything Su Qing could do, she had already done.
The rest depended on Ao Ying's own recuperation.
After that, Su Qing didn't disturb her recovery...
She just asked the nearby monkeys to pay more attention. If they noticed any movement in the pool,
They should tell the sparrows... who would then inform her.
Another three months passed.
It was midsummer.
One day, Su Qing, having nothing to do, thought of the Stone Monkey who had gone off to seek knowledge.
She couldn't help but wonder where the Stone Monkey had reached now, and how far he was from Patriarch Bodhi.
So, she began to calculate the Stone Monkey's location with her fingers.
However, the Stone Monkey was born of heaven and earth and possessed great fortune, making it difficult even for Su Qing to calculate his exact whereabouts.
Fortunately, Su Qing had prepared in advance.
She had left an item on the Stone Monkey.
She only needed to calculate the item's location to roughly know the Stone Monkey's current position.
Even if the item was also affected by his fortune, it was still just an item... so calculating it wasn't difficult.
Moreover, Su Qing had put a lot of effort into calculations over the years.
Her skills had improved significantly.
Before long,
Su Qing got the result...
It was a little unexpected for her.
"This monkey is quite fast; he's already reached Southern Jambudvipa... and must not be far from Western Aparagodaniya."
"But to find the Patriarch... it will probably take a few more years."
"However, I don't think it will be a big problem."
Su Qing thought to herself.
She couldn't help but hope the Stone Monkey would find Patriarch Bodhi soon.
That way, she could also find the Daoist academy and see her master again.
Her master had treated her extremely well...
Like a master and a father, she naturally missed him dearly.
Recalling carefully, Su Qing hadn't seen her master for over a hundred years.
She hadn't even returned to that ginkgo courtyard for over a hundred years.
"Time... truly flies. Unknowingly, I've been away from that Daoist academy for a century..."
"A century passed in a hurry, and now recalling it, it feels like only yesterday."
"Alas, I wonder how my senior brothers and sisters are doing now."
"Has the Patriarch taken any other disciples..."
Su Qing shook her head slightly, knowing these things couldn't be rushed...
Letting nature take its course was best.
If she interfered... it would inevitably lead things in other subtle directions.
The Stone Monkey didn't need her to worry for now.
With the Stone Monkey's fortune, he would most likely have a smooth journey.
"Never mind, I'll wait a bit longer... he'll get there eventually."
Su Qing smiled faintly, took a sip of tea, and muttered to herself:
"I should go out for a walk. Staying cooped up at home all the time isn't good."
Su Qing stood up and stretched, about to head out.
Then she saw Leng Xiang slowly approaching, with a few 'dumplings' perched on her shoulder.
"Master, the little ones say they have something important to tell you."
Leng Xiang said helplessly:
"I asked them to tell me, but they were being mysterious and insisted on telling you personally."
Su Qing heard this, sighed helplessly, and nodded.
The 'dumplings' saw Su Qing and immediately flew to her side.
They chattered excitedly, telling Su Qing their story.
The sparrows told Su Qing...
That some monkeys had found them and told them that a long white dragon had flown out of a certain place.
A moment later, it even transformed into a human form, just like their elder sister!
But it had antlers like a young deer on its forehead! And strange scales near its eyes.
The sparrows carefully translated the monkeys' description to Su Qing... fearing they might miss something.
They even asked Su Qing if there were dragons on Flower-Fruit Mountain too!
Su Qing couldn't help but smile wryly.
After hearing the monkeys' description, couldn't these fellows connect it to Ao Ying?
They had seen Ao Ying's appearance, hadn't they?
But Su Qing was too lazy to call them stupid; these little ones hadn't been stupid for just a day or two.
"So where is Ao Ying now? The person you were talking about," Su Qing asked.
"Ah? We don't know, we don't know, the monkeys didn't tell us."
"That's right, that's right! Should we go ask the monkeys again?"
Su Qing smiled helplessly, shook her head, and said, "No need... we'll just go to her dwelling and see."
She figured that since Ao Ying hadn't actively come to find her, she was most likely waiting there.
The sparrows also nodded happily at her words.
They still seemed very curious about who the person was.
Leng Xiang, however, seemed relatively calm, following behind Su Qing.
Soon, Su Qing and Leng Xiang arrived near the pool.
Indeed, upon arriving, they saw Ao Ying.
Ao Ying was currently sitting on a stone stool under a peach tree, quietly waiting for Su Qing's arrival.
Or rather, she was waiting for a monkey to tell her that Su Qing was calling for her.
Ao Ying wasn't stupid; how could she not know that the nearby monkeys were essentially Su Qing's eyes and ears?
In Ao Ying's eyes, Su Qing was probably the Great King of Flower-Fruit Mountain, and this was her territory...
So, naturally, she knew everything.
Seeing Su Qing arriving on a cloud, Ao Ying quickly rose and bowed.
Living under someone else's roof, Ao Ying naturally had no princess airs...
Moreover, this was the person who had saved her life.
She naturally had to treat her with respect.
Besides... now, how could she still be considered a little princess of the East Sea Dragon Palace?
She had almost had her Dragon Pearl crushed by her own father's subordinates...
Ao Ying put away her jumbled thoughts and softly called out:
"Sister Xiao Qing!"
"Hmm, looking at your complexion, it seems you've recovered quite a bit?"
Su Qing saw that Ao Ying's complexion was no longer as pale as it had been three years ago, and nodded slightly.
Clearly, three years of recuperation had allowed Ao Ying to recover considerably.
But it seemed she hadn't fully recovered yet.
"Thanks to Sister Xiao Qing, I've recovered a lot in these three years."
Ao Ying nodded, looking at Su Qing with gratitude, and said:
"Unfortunately, that battle damaged my essence. Although I've recovered some, it will probably take over a hundred years to fully recover."
"But please don't worry, Sister... I've recovered a lot now, and I'll leave in a few days."
"I won't continue to bother you, Sister."
The Dragon Pearl was the essence of the Dragon race; once damaged, it was a fundamental injury.
It couldn't possibly be recovered in just a few short years.
"There's no need to rush to leave... your staying here won't cause me any trouble."
"Besides, a hundred years isn't actually that long. It's fine for you to continue staying here."
Su Qing nodded slightly and said:
"However, you bear the surname Ao, which means you are of the East Sea Dragon Clan. Why would that Flood Dragon strike so fatally? Doesn't he worry about your father coming to settle accounts with him?"
Although Su Qing didn't know much about the East Sea,
She knew that the surname Ao was the royal surname of the Dragon Palace...
If she knew, how could the Black Flood Dragon, a sea serpent, not know that Ao Ying was a Dragon Palace royal?
Upon hearing this, Ao Ying's face also became bitter.
"He naturally isn't afraid... he would strike so fatally, it must have been by my father's command."
"Without my father's order, how would the Black Flood Dragon dare to attack me? He must have given an order to kill me regardless of the consequences, right?"
Ao Ying shook her head with a bitter smile and said.
"Oh?"
Su Qing frowned slightly and asked:
"Your father actually ordered someone to kill his own daughter?"
Su Qing was also a little surprised...
Even a tiger doesn't eat its cubs.
How did it come to the Dragon race, where a father directly sent someone to take his daughter's life?
"Alas... if Sister Xiao Qing is curious. Ying will tell Sister Xiao Qing about what happened back then!"
Ao Ying shook her head slightly and said with a bitter smile.
"Uh... if you don't want to recall it, then don't say anything!"
Su Qing was curious, but she didn't want to force the other party to say anything...
After all, everyone has secrets.
Ao Ying said, "It's all in the past... telling Sister is no harm!"
Ao Ying actually felt that she couldn't hide such a matter from Su Qing.
Su Qing was her savior, and yet she was keeping such a big secret...
It was clearly unethical.
After all, if she kept it from Su Qing, it might lead Su Qing to make incorrect judgments.
It might also bring trouble to her savior.
So, Ao Ying slowly recounted the events of that year.
The story was long to tell, but in summary, it wasn't complicated.
That year, the Dragon Palace hosted a banquet for the demon kings from all directions.
Among them, a certain Mudfish Demon took a liking to Ao Ying and asked the East Sea Dragon King to marry her to him.
The East Sea Dragon King thought that exchanging a daughter for the loyalty of a demon king was a worthwhile deal, so he agreed.
However, while the East Sea Dragon King agreed, Ao Ying was extremely displeased.
The demon king was ugly and extremely lecherous, surrounded by many beautiful female demons... and he even publicly made light of Ao Ying.
This made Ao Ying extremely disgusted with that demon king...
Upon hearing that she was to marry him, Ao Ying was naturally very unwilling.
So she refused him.
But the East Sea Dragon King, for the sake of his reputation and the loyalty of a demon king, was exceptionally firm.
Ao Ying couldn't argue with the Dragon King and could only temporarily submit.
But secretly, she was planning to run away from home...
Then, the subsequent events became somewhat predictable.
Ao Ying escaped, was discovered by the Dragon Palace people, and finally, the Dragon King was furious...
He explicitly stated that no matter if Ao Ying was dead or alive, she had to be brought back.
And then... there was the Dragon-Flood Dragon Battle that night.
"It's a pity I didn't like cultivating back then; even at six hundred years old, I had only just entered the Divine Immortal realm... otherwise, I wouldn't have been defeated so miserably that day."
Ao Ying recalled her disastrous defeat, but without any sadness.
She only regretted her past negligence in cultivation, having good Dragon race talent but lacking a good cultivation realm.
She felt that if she had been in the mid to late Divine Immortal realm,
Perhaps the Mudfish Demon wouldn't have wanted to marry her, and her father wouldn't have agreed.
She wouldn't have been reduced to a tool for an arranged marriage.
Su Qing listened for a long time and had a general understanding of the situation.
She couldn't help but feel some sympathy for Ao Ying's plight...
Although Ao Ying was a royal princess, she ultimately ended up as a tool for an arranged marriage.
It was truly somewhat tragic.
But something else also caught Su Qing's attention.
"So, you're already six hundred years old, huh..." Su Qing muttered to herself.
Ao Ying: "????"
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