Care to Join Us, Sect Master Lu?

The fatty beef roll, freshly cooked in the spicy broth, swirled through the dipping sauce, picking up scallions, sesame seeds, and chili oil. It smelled so good that the big yellow dog in the neighboring courtyard started barking.

All three dug in eagerly, and the first batch of food in the Hot Pot was soon swept clean.

Qingli wiped her mouth with a handkerchief and spoke straight from the heart.

"It's so delicious!!!"

Unfortunately, she could only take the form of a six- or seven-year-old now, so she couldn't eat much.

"Shen Leyan, do you have any more of those pastries we had before? I want to take some back."

There were still some ingredients left for the cream-filled mochi.

Shen Leyan readily nodded.

"Once we enter the Inner Sect, we have to learn Grain Avoidance first. After that, we can't eat any of this food anymore, only Pills." Chen Jing suddenly sighed as he ate.

Shen Leyan looked up, still chewing a beef roll, his cheeks bulging and his words slightly muffled. "Without good food, wouldn't life lose a lot of its flavor?"

"The Inner Sect cultivators all say that worldly things interfere with cultivation. That's why they practice Grain Avoidance."

"Senior Brother Chen, have you ever heard of a scholar failing the provincial examination because he ate too much good food?

Or a general failing to win battles because the army's meals were too good?

If eating something tasty is enough to disrupt their cultivation, then there must be far too many things that can disrupt them.

Most likely, they're just using that as an excuse for their lack of resolve."

Chen Jing froze for a moment, looking thoughtful, then nodded. "You have a point."

"So, Senior Brother Chen, once you enter the Inner Sect, if you ever get a sudden craving for something delicious, just come find me."

Chen Jing laughed heartily. "You bet! That's exactly what I was waiting to hear!"

Qingli grew anxious and pointed at herself.

Shen Leyan fished food out of the pot at lightning speed and devoured it. "You can come too. It's just another pair of chopsticks."

The moon shone brightly over the mountains, tinged with a soft, deep blue. Beyond a stretch of woods in the distance, the disciples seemed to have finished their evening lessons, and their voices drifted over.

"We'd better hurry up and eat. Otherwise, once more people start passing by..."

Shen Leyan didn't want a crowd watching him just for eating Hot Pot. The attention he'd received over the past two days was enough to turn any introvert into a corpse on the spot.

Not far away, Qingli, who had eaten and drunk her fill and was watching the moon from a bamboo recliner, suddenly spoke. "Stop eating—I think I can sense some very powerful Spiritual Power nearby."

This was the Outer Sect disciples' residential area.

"...Is it Senior Brother Zheng?"

Qingli shook her head. "No."

Shen Leyan said, "Who cares how powerful their Spiritual Power is? It's not like they're going to come here and steal my Hot Pot!"

A quarter of an hour later.

Shen Leyan obediently ran inside to fetch another bowl and pair of chopsticks, then brought out all the remaining fatty beef rolls he'd intended to eat tomorrow, his heart bleeding.

Chen Jing no longer seemed to know what to do with his limbs or his face. He stood beside the table, as blank and motionless as a statue.

Qingli sprang up from the recliner. Having eaten too much, she rubbed her belly while pointing at the newcomer and cursing him.

"Lu Yuanyi!!! You've got some damn nerve coming here to steal my Hot Pot!!!"

Shen Leyan put on his customer-service smile, set the beef rolls beside the table, and said politely, "Please help yourself, Sect Master Lu."

Inside, he was cheering Qingli on.

[My heart hurts! I spent so much silver on those beef rolls!]

*[꒦ິ^꒦ິ]*

[Of all the times Lu Yuanyi could have come, he had to turn up at mealtime. No sense of fair play whatsoever.]

[Good job, Qingli! Try to piss Lu Yuanyi off enough to leave! Then we can keep all the Hot Pot beef rolls for ourselves!]

[૧(●´৺`●)૭]

The original novel described Lu Yuanyi as favoring white robes and blue outer garments, with silver hair like snow and a handsome, aloof air. Because of the cultivation method he practiced, his phoenix eyes had a dark golden hue, which had led some people to suspect he was not human, but a member of the Demon Clan.

Half the cultivation world admired and revered him, because a thousand years ago, when he was still an ordinary disciple of the Cloud Radiance Sect, he had charged into the Demon Clan's territory alone and slain several notorious greater demons. By now, no one knew what realm his cultivation had reached.

Moreover, whenever the major sects held a grand gathering, Lu Yuanyi would sit in a place of honor without saying a word, truly looking every bit the formidable figure from a storybook.

The other half scoffed at him, partly because they suspected he was a member of the Demon Clan, and partly because they thought he was too full of himself.

He hadn't fought in nearly a thousand years. Who knew whether those tales of him slaying greater demons a millennium ago were true or just boasts?

Among the sect masters of the major sects, some were approachable, some were forthright and hearty, and some were highly respected. He alone acted like a mute every time he appeared. He'd cornered the entire market on showing off—what the hell was he posing for?

As far as Shen Leyan was concerned...

Ever since he learned that Lu Yuanyi had tricked the inexperienced Spirit-Testing Stone into working for the Cloud Radiance Sect with just a few skewers of candied hawthorn, he'd known the original novel must have left something out about the man!

[First he tricked Qingli with candied hawthorn. Now he's using his position as sect master to mooch a meal.]

[You damned author, I'm calling the police on you. Do you even understand the characters you wrote?!]

The atmosphere in the courtyard was decidedly strange.

However, Lu Yuanyi seemed to have placed a barrier around them. Even if the disciples returning from evening lessons came this way, they couldn't enter the courtyard or hear their conversation.

Shen Leyan glanced at Senior Brother Chen, who still hadn't recovered from his shock, then at Qingli, whose face and neck were flushed with anger, and dutifully handed Lu Yuanyi the chopsticks.

"Care to join us, Sect Master Lu?"

He remembered Senior Brother Chen saying that most cultivators practiced Grain Avoidance once they began cultivating, and a flicker of hope rose in his heart.

That flicker was utterly extinguished when Lu Yuanyi readily accepted the bowl and chopsticks and picked up the largest beef roll.

[ꈨຶꎁꈨຶ]

Following the principle that every bite Lu Yuanyi ate was one less bite for him.

Shen Leyan took a deep breath, sat down opposite Lu Yuanyi, and began eating as though every second counted.

A few breaths later, Qingli joined the battle too, unwilling to concede.

Only Chen Jing, once he came to his senses, hastily bowed to Lu Yuanyi and left after offering a flimsy excuse.

Beneath the moonlight, the Hot Pot was a battlefield, and the chopsticks were weapons.

Lu Yuanyi's silver hair was loosely fastened with a black jade hairpin, most of it cascading freely and flowing with pure moonlight, like a high-quality wig in a historical drama.

Shen Leyan was distracting himself with the thought, [How much silver could I get if I cut off Lu Yuanyi's hair and sold it?], when he suddenly heard Qingli give a triumphant cheer.

"I got the last piece of meat! Hahaha!"

Shen Leyan couldn't help laughing aloud.

"Thank you for the meal today." Lu Yuanyi's voice was slightly low, but its tone was cool and clear.

Shen Leyan cupped his hands. "And thank you, Sect Master Lu, for breaking the burning-village illusion yesterday."

He paused, let his smile fade, and asked seriously.

"Sect Master Lu, you came because you heard about the Single Spiritual Root, didn't you?"

"Mm."

So stuffed that she was walking around to help her digestion, Qingli instinctively turned her head at that, steadfast in her duty. "Single Spiritual Root? What Single Spiritual Root? When did I ever say anything about a Single Spiritual Root?"

Lu Yuanyi's lips curved slightly. His golden eyes were as deep as a spring beneath the blazing sun, their emotions unreadable, as he said to Shen Leyan.

"You bought her off with this one meal?"