"A month and a half."
Qingxiao answered.
As he spoke, he started to rise, but the moment he stood up, the flames inside the Pill Furnace before him began surging out of it, somewhat out of control.
"Wait a moment, Taiping. This batch of pills is almost ready. I can't afford to be distracted."
Dugu Qingxiao promptly sat back down, then turned to explain to Xu Taiping.
"I'm all right now, Senior Brother. Don't worry about me."
Xu Taiping nodded.
At the same time, Bai Yu's and Ping'an's voices rang out in his mind, one after another-
"Taiping, you finally woke up! It's been over a month. I thought you would never wake up."
"Xu Taiping, why did you sleep for so long?"
"Can you still see clearly now?"
Xu Taiping hurriedly answered them, finally managing to reassure them.
Then he tried communicating with Fairy Lingyue:
"Sister Lingyue, can you hear me?"
He had barely asked when Fairy Lingyue's spirit form appeared beside his bed.
But she merely watched Xu Taiping quietly, without saying a word.
"Sister... Lingyue?"
His voice full of confusion, Xu Taiping called to Fairy Lingyue again.
"Whew..."
Only then did Fairy Lingyue let out a long breath, then give Xu Taiping a gentle smile and say:
"It wasn't just those two. This time, even I thought you would never wake up."
"It wasn't that serious, was it?"
Xu Taiping was somewhat puzzled.
To him, he had really only slept.
Both the pain in his body and the pain in his divine soul had been within what he could endure.
"Never mind your physical injuries. Just to activate those two Heavenly Dao precepts, you gave up four of your five senses. That was tantamount to offering most of your soul to that Ancient Buddha. Had anything gone