In another treehouse, Xiangling was sitting on her bed, talking to Guoba.
"Guoba, I've got another junior sister now!"
"Wuwu!"
"She looks really cute, too."
"Wuwuwu!"
"But she seems a bit shy, so as the senior disciple, it's my duty to help her open up."
"Wu!"
Xiangling pulled out a novel from under her pillow — the one Zhu Zi had written, about a love story between master and disciple.
"All right, time for our nightly reading session. Where did we leave off yesterday?"
"Wuwu!"
"Page 132 — wow, you have a great memory, Guoba!"
"Wu!"
About ten minutes later, Xiangling closed the book with red cheeks and a satisfied sigh.
"So good… but we've reread this so many times already. Tomorrow we should go pester Zhu Zi for an update."
"Wuwu!"
--
In the next treehouse, Qiqi was sitting cross-legged on her bed, practicing her cultivation techniques.
At one point, she opened her eyes and frowned slightly.
Her emotions felt unsettled, making her cultivation tonight rather unsteady.
She had a stray thought in her heart.
Qiqi looked up toward a certain direction outside her window.
Master having another disciple was fine in itself — but the new junior sister seemed awfully close to him. She could even call him "Daddy," and got to bathe with him…
That sense of being replaced felt really unpleasant…
I was here first…
Qiqi drew her gaze back, took out a tiny key, and held it to her chest, softly whispering her master's name.
A stream of pure faith power floated out from her body and flowed into the key.
Before long, Qiqi opened her eyes again.
She could feel the key was now fully charged.
If she wanted, she could transform into a magical girl on the spot.
She hesitated, but didn't go through with it, instead putting the key away.
She'd tell Master about it tomorrow.
It wasn't that she wanted to use this chance to gain his favor — it was just that Master seemed interested in it, so as his disciple, of course she had to satisfy him…
Then Qiqi took a piece of calming incense from her ring and placed it at her bedside, lighting it.
A strange, soothing fragrance spread through the air.
She inhaled gently, and all the distracting thoughts instantly cleared from her mind.
Qiqi closed her eyes and resumed her meditation.
--
In another room, Xia Zhi lay on his bed and took a Platinum Treasure Chest out of his inventory.
It was something he'd farmed off Xia Lin earlier.
He chose to open it directly.
A slightly worn wooden fish appeared before him.
[Pure Wooden Fish]
Quality: Platinum
Type: Auxiliary Item
Trait: Accumulate virtue, practice kindness.
Effect: Each strike of the fish grants one point of merit automatically; the daily maximum increases with the user's past good deeds.
Hidden Effect: +5% Charm, +10% Luck.
Recyclable: 1000 points.
Xia Zhi looked at the wooden fish in surprise.
An item that could automatically accumulate merit?
Merit was a rather mysterious and abstract concept. For most people, it had little practical use.
Like Cloud Retainer — when Xia Zhi first met her, he'd cast [Detect Evil] on her and found her virtue aura so bright it was blinding, yet she still ended up in a dangerous predicament while testing her mechanisms.
Or like Baizhu — Xia Zhi had also used [Detect Evil] on him in a dream, and saw his virtue shining brightly, but because he'd used a secret methods to save others, he'd ended up riddled with illnesses and on the brink of death.
If Xia Zhi hadn't intervened, even with a huge stock of merit, their fates wouldn't have turned out well.
But on the flip side, the reason Xia Zhi had chosen to help Cloud Retainer and Baizhu was precisely because he'd seen all that virtue on them, and judged them worth saving.
So you could say, from that angle, that their merit had brought them good outcomes after all… merit did have its uses.
Just… rather passive ones.
Xia Zhi picked up the wooden fish and tapped it lightly with the little hammer.
A faint golden glow shone as a clear, soothing sound rang out.
Xia Zhi felt a sense of peace wash over him, settling his heart.
It reminded him of the [Bodhi Beads].
Buddhist tools all seemed to have that kind of calming power.
At the same time, he heard the system's voice in his mind.
"Due to the effects of [Pure Wooden Fish], the host's merit has permanently increased by 1."
Xia Zhi struck the wooden fish again.
The system prompt sounded once more.
"Due to the effects of [Pure Wooden Fish], the host's merit has permanently increased by 1."
He kept tapping, all the way up to the nineteenth strike.
After that, the wooden fish no longer emitted a golden glow, and the system prompt went silent.
Xia Zhi stopped striking.
So for him, this item could provide 18 merit points per day.
Not a huge amount.
But it was extremely easy and consistent.
If he kept it up over time, then even if he never performed another good deed, he could eventually have as much merit as Cloud Retainer and Baizhu — maybe even more.
And unlike those two, merit was genuinely useful to Xia Zhi.
Because he had the passive skill [Auspiciousness]: the more merit and good deeds he had, the higher his luck bonus.
He'd learned that skill from Ganyu.
Xia Zhi lowered his head in thought.
Come to think of it, Ganyu had done far more good deeds over her thousands of years, so if she used this item, the merit gain each day would probably be way higher than his 18 points.
That meant she was actually the perfect owner for it.
Xia Zhi chuckled to himself.
"Perfect timing for a gift…"
Not as romantic as the [Thread of Fate] he'd given Shenhe, maybe, but way more practical.
--
Dream realm.
Tonight the Dragon King dragged Zhongli along to the internet café for another round of stomping noobs, saying he'd come up with a new unbeatable strategy while working the school gates that day, and this time he'd definitely defeat those two mystery opponents.
Xia Zhi gave him a sympathetic look, then took Shenhe and Ganyu out for a walk.
On the way, Shenhe looked calm as usual, but Ganyu couldn't help asking, "Who exactly is this Xia Lin? Why does she call you Daddy?"
Xia Zhi told them Xia Lin's whole story.
Ganyu let out a sigh of relief. As long as she wasn't a biological daughter, that was fine — for a second there, she'd thought she'd suddenly gained a terrifying rival.
Shenhe, however, looked a little down after hearing it.
Xia Zhi looked at her. "Shenhe, what's wrong?"
She shook her head lightly, voice soft. "It's nothing. I just… she reminds me of myself…"
Xia Zhi paused.
Shenhe had been born under the fate, a destiny that brought misfortune to those around her, no matter how hard she tried.
Her mother's death in her childhood… it was hard to say it had nothing to do with that destiny.
That tragic background was actually very similar to Xia Lin's.
Xia Lin, too, had brought a doomsday disaster upon Mondstadt because of her abyssal dragon nature, even though she never wanted to.
Shenhe was probably empathizing with her.
After that, Shenhe seemed a little lost in her own thoughts, staying quiet.
This mood carried over into the next morning.
As soon as Xia Zhi woke up from his dreams, he felt someone hugging him tightly from behind.
That familiar warmth—no need to guess, it had to be Shenhe.
Except she hadn't stayed over last night.
So, coming to see him first thing in the morning—was she here to practice spear techniques?
He felt a warm breath gently brush the back of his ear.
"Boss…"
Shenhe's voice was soft, full of a kind of maternal gentleness.
"Shenhe?"
"I want…"
Her voice paused for a moment.
"…I want Xia Lin to call me Mom. Just like she calls you Dad…" (;-; Shenhe Mommy)
----
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