The mugwort blinked.

She smiled and avoided the question, asking, "What's wrong?"

The woman gave a soft hum. She continued chewing the beads of blood in her mouth, and surprisingly, she went along with the mugwort's suggestion, letting the question she had raised slip by.

The woman said, "When I first cut off my tail, I mixed some of the spiritual energy that had been released with my blood and condensed it into these beads."

"I sealed away the memories of that life and buried them back inside my body. Every time I lose or grow a tail, I remember this."

“I have lost my tail eight times and gone through eight reincarnations. So, there are eight beads here.”

She bent her finger and gently flicked the droplet of blood floating in front of her.

Her fingernail struck the bead of blood, producing a crisp, lingering echo.

“In my first life, I possessed almost supernatural abilities. Therefore, in my childhood, I foresaw the turbulence of these past lives through various means,” the woman said. “But in that premonition, I was to die completely in my ninth life. Naturally, only when I severed my tail before death could these things be unsealed.”

But she grew a third tail and regained her intelligence.

In sequence, she unlocked the memories of her first and second lives.

The woman's dark eyes gazed calmly at the mugwort.

Ai Cao's face remained expressionless as she slowly sipped her tea and asked, "What's wrong?"

The woman was deflated.

She picked up the teacup she had used before and refilled it. She took a sip and said, "This tea is sweeter than all the suffering I've endured in the past."

Ai Cao smiled. She instinctively raised her hand, ready to pat the woman's head as she had in the previous world. But as she raised her hand, she realized that the woman before her was not truly a young person. It would be inappropriate for her to continue treating her like a cub.

The woman drank the tea in her cup in one gulp and said, "Just call me Qingyun. Not Qingqiu Qingyun, just Qingyun."

Ai Cao nodded and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Qingyun."

Qingyun smiled and gently placed the teacup back on the table. She stared at the mugwort for a while, her smile turning into surprise: "How come you don't have any spiritual power at all?"

Even before the mugwort responded to the question, the system exclaimed in surprise.

The system cried out, "How could you possibly have no spiritual energy at all!" Every word it uttered was filled with deep anxiety. "I clearly gave you a cultivation gift pack! You even flew to this city on your sword, I saw it with my own eyes!"

Ai Cao blinked and asked, "Spiritual power?"

Qingyun frowned. She leaned forward, her dark eyes fixed on the mugwort. She said in a low voice, "Make eye contact with me."

Ai Cao looked into her eyes.

A faint silver light flickered in Qingyun's black eyes—two beams of silver light intersected, with her pupils serving as the boundary of this confrontation. After a few breaths, Qingyun suddenly closed her eyes and said wearily, "No, I still can't find the problem with you."

Artemisia said, "There's no need to look for it."

If she had the energy, Qingyun would definitely have glared at her fiercely. But she had just gone through a fierce battle and didn't have the strength to open her eyes at all.

Qingyun closed her eyes and said, "I remember you came by sword. Can you take out your natal sword and let me see it?" She regulated her breathing for a few seconds, calmed the surging blood in her chest, and then opened her eyes.

Ai Cao raised her hand. A longsword gleaming with silver light appeared in her hand.

It humanely broke free from her grasp, and in mid-air, it swung the hilt of its sword at Ai Cao and Qing Yun, hitting each of them on the head.

Qingyun was stunned by the blow, staring blankly at the sword.

Qingyun asked, "Is this your natal sword?"

Artemisia nodded and said, "Theoretically speaking, yes."

Qingyun's eyes were vacant: "You're not its natal sword, are you?"

The mugwort nodded.

Qingyun looked at the sword, then at the mugwort.

She looked around several times, making sure she was sure, before saying, "You don't have as much spiritual power as it does, no wonder it attacked you."

Ai Cao smiled and said, "I have other swords, but I don't know if they'd be willing to come out."

Qingyun: "Huh?"

Ai Cao raised her hand again, and another broadsword appeared in her hand. This broadsword was not as unruly as the previous one; it simply rested calmly in Ai Cao's hand.

Ai Cao waved it twice and said, "This is the sword that brought me here before."

Qingyun frowned again. She stood up and paced back and forth in the courtyard: "That's not right, a person can only have one natal sword... not to mention that the spiritual power in your body is not even as much as the spiritual power of your natal sword, what exactly..."

The system was also yelling in Ai Cao's head: "Why don't you have any spiritual power?!"

The system doesn't easily shed tears, but now it's no longer a question of whether it's sad or not. Thinking of Ai Cao's low mental strength, and then thinking of how the central platform is always busy checking for bugs and putting aside the issues it reported, it couldn't help but shed another tear for itself, after working so hard to improve the luck of Ai Cao.

The mugwort offered a token word of comfort.

Qingyun muttered to himself as he walked over the pile of male guards' corpses, crushing them even more under his feet.

She walked around a few times, her steps uneven, and then sat back down aggressively.

Qingyun said, "If you help me retrieve the rest of my memories, I should be able to find the problem with you." She said, "If even I, after cultivating to the Ten-Tails and ascending to perfection, cannot figure out the problem with you, then it is not something that this world can solve. Go to another world and find a solution."

She spoke earnestly, so Ai Cao became more serious and said, "Okay."

Ai Cao thought for a moment and asked, "Since you already know that I am not from this world—then I will be frank. I came here so that you can achieve perfect ascension. But of course, I don't just want you to cultivate into a ten-tailed being."

Qingyun nodded. She had also guessed Ai Cao's purpose in coming here. After all, the timing of Ai Cao's appearance in front of her was too perfect, just right to lead her away from the trajectory of her destiny in this life.

If Ai Cao arrives too early, she will still be in Qingqiu; if Ai Cao arrives too late, she will be taken to some unknown place by the male supporting character.

Only at that exact moment could the mugwort save the innocent little fox.

Seeing that she didn't react in any particular way, Ai Cao continued, "I hope this world can remain stable for a long time."

Qingyun frowned slightly. She said, "Maintaining stability in a world is much harder than getting nine tails back."

Ai Cao nodded and said, "I have relatively rich experience in stabilizing worlds. So far, I have stabilized three worlds."

Qingyun took it as a joke and jokingly said, "Tell me about it."

Artemisia briefly recounted her experiences from the past three worlds.

Qingyun's expression grew increasingly complicated.

After Ai Cao finished speaking, Qing Yun finally managed to ask with difficulty, "Do you intend for women to rule in this world?"

Artemisia blinked and asked, "Is it not allowed?"