Chen Jing gave a sheepish grin. "I tested positive for a Mixed Spiritual Root. Senior Brother Zheng said I can enter the Inner Sect to train next month."
"Congratulations on getting your wish, Senior Brother." Shen Leyan pointed at the large chunk of beef he had bought from the kitchen. "Perfect timing. Let's have something good today and celebrate together."
Chen Jing accepted without standing on ceremony, though he asked with some regret, "Shen Leyan, why didn't you come to today's Spiritual Root test?"
"Didn't I tell you, Senior Brother? I don't want to cultivate."
Chen Jing bumped his shoulder. "You..."
Shen Leyan dodged him with a grin. "Let's cook, let's cook. Just looking at this beef is making my mouth water..."
In ancient times, beef wasn't something you could eat whenever you pleased. The Imperial Court forbade the unauthorized slaughter of plow oxen. Their meat could only be eaten once they died of old age or illness.
He hadn't tasted beef since transmigrating here, much less fatty beef rolls in Hot Pot.
While directing Chen Jing to build a makeshift stove in the courtyard, light a fire, and fry the Hot Pot base, he borrowed a sword and began slicing thin beef rolls.
Now that Chen Jing had been found to possess a Spiritual Root and would soon enter the Inner Sect to train, the sect had issued him a sword.
Shen Leyan apologized as he sliced the beef.
Sorry, little sword. I really did forget to borrow a kitchen knife, so I have no choice but to use you to slice beef...
Chen Jing dug at his ear. "Why does it sound like my sword is cursing someone out...?"
Shen Leyan said, "Of course it isn't!"
"Anyway, what dish are you planning to make? I don't think I've ever seen it before."
Shen Leyan made something up on the spot. "It's a dish my parents invented. I ate it a lot as a kid, so I still remember how to make it."
Once the Hot Pot base grew fragrant, he poured in boiling water. A layer of red oil floated to the surface, releasing a rich, spicy aroma.
Shen Leyan looked up at the sky. Summer nights fell late, but by this hour, the sky was already a deep purple, with bright stars twinkling overhead.
He had arranged for the Spirit-Testing Stone to come here tonight for a late-night meal. Why hadn't she arrived yet?
Don't tell me Lu Yuanyi and the sect elders have detained her and she can't get out.
He glanced at the half-finished snow mochi and taro paste, then shoved the bowls and chopsticks into Chen Jing's hands.
"Senior Brother, the person who promised to meet me hasn't arrived yet. I need to go look for her..."
Chen Jing nodded. "Got it. I'll wait here for you both—but hurry up. If this keeps cooking, all the water in the pot will boil away!"
"Will do!"
He took a shortcut toward the Spirit Perch Pavilion.
Along the way, he considered how he could bring the Spirit-Testing Stone out for a late-night meal without exposing his spiritual root if Lu Yuanyi and the sect elders were all there.
He had just emerged from a bamboo grove when a dark figure suddenly appeared in the clear, bright moonlight.
"Shen Leyan!"
Shen Leyan raised his head. The Spirit-Testing Stone before him had fully transformed from a stone into the form of a little girl. She looked a few years older than when they had first met, perhaps six or seven.
If not for those unmistakable pigtails sticking straight up, he might not have recognized her.
"Shen Leyan, I was just coming to find you! I didn't expect to run into you here—you promised to treat me to something delicious. Is it ready?"
"It's ready. I was worried they'd kept you at the Spirit Perch Pavilion... The sect master and elders just let you leave?"
The Spirit-Testing Stone lifted her chin smugly.
"Yes. I insisted that I'd only just transformed this evening, that my Spiritual Power was depleted, and that my old eyes were failing me, so I'd mistaken what I saw. There wasn't any disciple with a Supreme Single Spiritual Root in the Cloud Radiance Sect at all."
"After that big meanie Lu Yuanyi heard me out, he let me go without any fuss."
Shen Leyan might have been an innocent college student, but if he couldn't spot something wrong here, he probably wouldn't have survived even the first chapter.
"...Would Sect Master Lu and the elders really believe such a flimsy excuse?"
"...Was my excuse no good?"
"Sect Master Lu is a big meanie, not a big idiot."
The Spirit-Testing Stone considered this, then nodded quietly. "I suppose that's true..."
The Spirit-Testing Stone had been born in ancient times, but she hadn't spent long in human form. According to her, when she first transformed a thousand years ago, Lu Yuanyi had lured her back to the Cloud Radiance Sect with a skewer of candied hawthorn.
After eating and drinking her fill at the Cloud Radiance Sect, she had fallen into a deep sleep again.
Only today, when she suddenly caught the scent of a Supreme Single Spiritual Root for the first time in ages, had she jolted awake.
That was why her mind wasn't full of schemes like those old monsters who had lived for a thousand years.
"You're still young." Shen Leyan gently tugged at the Spirit-Testing Stone's pigtails. "The cultivation world is full of tricks. You've still got plenty to learn."
The Spirit-Testing Stone hung her head. "...Do I still get to have tonight's meal?"
"Of course. I've already made it. Besides, this all happened through a string of mix-ups. I can't blame you."
"But... that big meanie Lu Yuanyi might come to catch you."
"He hasn't come yet, has he?"
Perhaps Zheng Ziheng had put in a good word for him with Sect Master Lu, and those in charge of the Cloud Radiance Sect intended to pretend this had never happened.
Besides, the Cloud Radiance Sect couldn't very well seize him and force him to cultivate.
"What's done is done. Let's eat first. Nothing in the world matters more than food... Come on, let's eat!!!"
They returned to the courtyard outside his room. Chen Jing had already added some ingredients that took longer to cook, such as tofu and mushrooms, to the Hot Pot.
The snow mochi had also been shaped and arranged on a plate nearby. Their translucent skins revealed the fruit and cream wrapped inside.
Shen Leyan introduced her to Chen Jing. "This is a new junior sister in our sect. Her name is..."
The Spirit-Testing Stone stared fixedly at the bubbling Hot Pot. "My name is Qingli."
Chen Jing suspected nothing.
Whenever cultivators from the Cloud Radiance Sect encountered homeless orphans during their travels, they would bring them back to the sect and take them in. There were so many Outer Sect disciples that no one could possibly know them all.
Qingli looked like a little girl of only six or seven. Perhaps some misfortune had befallen her family, leading her to join the Cloud Radiance Sect as an Outer Sect disciple.
"Everyone, sit down. We can put in the beef rolls and vegetables now. Here, have some dessert to whet your appetite first."
Qingli swiftly grabbed a snow mochi and asked curiously, "What is this?"
"A kind of pastry."
"How do you make it?"
"The skin is made from cornstarch, glutinous rice flour, sugar, and milk. Inside, there's some fruit and cream made from egg whites."
Qingli took a bite and savored it carefully before delivering her verdict with stars in her eyes.
"Next time, I won't eat any offerings unless you made them!"
Chen Jing was also absorbed in the taste of this novel pastry. It was fragrant and sweet, soft and chewy. He had no idea how the cream inside had been made, but it was delicate and smooth, without being cloyingly sweet.
At her words, he froze for a couple of seconds, as though wondering whether he had misheard. "What? What offerings?"
Shen Leyan picked up a cooked slice of beef and played dumb. "You must have heard wrong, Senior Brother."
Then he placed the beef in Qingli's bowl, shutting her up.
Don't say things you shouldn't!
Before you continue