The Large Compound bustled with life again.
Widow Qin hurried to light the stove, Old Li's Wife dug out the dried mushrooms and cured pork she had kept hidden for half the winter, and He Laohun swiftly traded for a sack of Spirit Rice from the Ice and Fire Cave.
Steam filled the kitchen, and spatulas clattered against pots. The long-absent warmth of hearth and home dispelled the chill quiet of recent days.
As Widow Qin sliced winter bamboo shoots, she quietly sized up the young man drawing water by the well. "Young Yi seems a little different since coming back this time," she said softly.
She could not quite say what had changed, only that he vaguely gave the impression of having "come of age."
He Laohun squatted by the stove, feeding in firewood and occasionally raising a hand to gesture. "You didn't see how imposing those higher cultivators were! When they spoke, it was like thunder, rumbling away!"
Jiang Yi smiled at that.
In truth, He Laohun had never personally witnessed Xuanchanzi fighting the people of the Great Talisman Sect. It was merely that, from the following day onward, the neighbors had all insisted over their idle after-meal chatter that they had been there, spinning wildly embroidered tales of fierce magical battles.
"This little kitty is like a ball of fluff. How adorable."
Widow Qin's lovely eyes shifted, settling on the Calico Cat crouched outside Jiang Yi's door. She asked curiously, "Did you buy it down the mountain, young Yi? Could it be a Spirit Pet?"
The Cat Master hated nothing more than being treated as an ordinary household pet.
Seeing Profound Mystery True Person immediately prick up its ears, its amber eyes brimming with majesty,
Jiang Yi hastily explained, "This kitty isn't a Spirit Pet. It's my