Chapter 15
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Chapter 15
Upon their return to Moonfire Valley, they bid farewell to their companions and retreated to the desolate Tianhua Palace.
Only in Ji Yang’s presence did Gong Wu allow herself to show vulnerability. After enduring alone for so long, she recounted the recent upheaval in Jin Yan Tuo in detail.
After listening, Ji Yang reflected for a moment.
"The eldest senior sister is right; we should visit the Rebirth Temple."
"Cats have nine lives; I’ve always feared that if you die too many times, you might lose your spirit and never return," he expressed his concern.
He accompanied her to the small kitchen and, after some time, prepared a bowl of dragon whisker noodles, presenting it to her with his slender, articulate hands.
"Jin Yan Tuo has a new ruler now and is under strict surveillance. They plan to use Moonfire Valley’s people as leverage in exchanges, and they won’t easily reveal any weaknesses in this matter."
"Let’s eat first, and after you freshen up, I’ll take you to meet Master Ancestor."
Technically, the Yaoguang realm is only of intermediate level.
According to the clothing hierarchy, he was restricted to grass green attire and could only wear the diamond-shaped crown as a headpiece.
Yet, Ji Yang’s talent was extraordinary, possessing spiritual vision—a rarity not yet witnessed in the valley.
Master Ancestor had always cherished Tu Xuixin and deeply valued his extraordinary talents. When Tu Xuixin reached the age of fifteen and ascended to the Glorious Light realm, Master Ancestor personally bestowed upon him the blue robe and instructed the other masters to regard him as a higher-ranking disciple.
“From now on, no matter what lectures or classes are held, if Subei wishes to attend, do not stop him.”
The next level is the purple master robe, a privilege reserved for those who reach the fourth stage of the Opening Sun Realm.
For an ordinary person, achieving the Glorious Light realm by the age of twenty-five would be considered a tremendous fortune.
Even if one takes until their forties or fifties to advance, their fellow disciples would still offer their congratulations.
Once one crosses the threshold of the Glorious Light realm and enters the Opening Sun Realm, they are qualified to take on apprentices and establish their own Sect.
When Gong Wu received the noodles, she instinctively used her spiritual vision to glance at him for a moment, noticing a shift in her senior brother’s spiritual energy. His aura shimmered like a moonlit halo, faintly hinting at an impending advancement.
She looked on in astonishment and realized, “You… truly aren’t smiling anymore.”
Ji Yang paused while pouring tea, then after a moment replied, “Is that so?”
“When I mentioned that Master was in a difficult situation, your expression was lightly indifferent, without any emotional change.”
“Then, when Senior Sister was mentioned, you didn’t react at all.”
Gong Wu was slow to respond, but her thoughts were always delicate. Now, when she looked up at Ji Yang again, she tried to smile and congratulate him, but after a long moment, she simply lowered her head and sipped the soup instead.
Ji Yang sat across from her, his hands clasped together as if he had done something wrong.
He said softly, “It’s not because of that Magical Formation.”
“Since I’ve decided to practice the Path of Emotionless, I must abandon all seven feelings, neither angered nor surprised, maintaining a tranquil state of mind.”
“Will Little Wu be scared when she sees that?”
Gong Wu nodded slightly, still focused on her noodles.
She felt her words were selfish, and after much deliberation, she finally spoke.
“Senior Brother, you look really good when you smile.”
“I still feel… a bit sad about it.”
Ji Yang suppressed the sigh that almost escaped and looked at her gently.
"You will gradually get used to it."
The noodles were clearly delicious.
She almost bit her chopsticks in frustration at herself.
"Then, Senior Brother, is your ultimate goal to become a wooden person?"
Ji Yang pondered seriously before correcting his choice of words: “A stone person.”
“Stone does not decay or die, it’s difficult to shake. It would be far stronger than a mortal body.”
He himself felt this topic was rather unpleasant and casually added, “Is today’s noodles, made in haste, still to your liking?”
Gong Wu initially wanted to say they were bad in a fierce tone, but she couldn’t deceive even herself.
“…They are delicious.”
The main kitchen of Moonfire Valley had a Lady Shangguan, whose culinary skills seemed as if they had been passed down from the palace. Whatever she made was exquisite and marvelous.
Often, disciples who had tasted her food would shake their heads in awe and remark that if they couldn’t succeed in cultivation, even learning just a fraction of her skills would be enough to sustain themselves.
When Gong Wu was ten years old, her talents were so poor that she struggled to awaken her abilities. She was assigned to do chores like sweeping, chopping wood, and helping in the kitchen with various tasks.
At that time, Ji Yang was fourteen and often went to play with her. They would lean over the counter together, watching Lady Shangguan make pastries and crab-stuffed tofu.
It just so happened that Ji Yang was in a phase where he wanted to learn everything, so he rolled up his sleeves and decided to learn how to cook with her.
Lady Shangguan smiled warmly and gently declined.
“Oh, dear child, you’re at a good age to practice your cultivation, and you’re a boy too. Don’t learn these things!”
At that young age, Gong Wu didn’t quite understand why “boys shouldn’t learn these things.”
Ji Yang didn’t argue but simply said, “Then please make a dish for me to see.”
Lady Shangguan then showcased one of her proudest skills: dragon whisker noodles.
It’s worth noting that for an ordinary dough to be kneaded into thin, resilient noodles is already quite a feat.
When preparing meals for hundreds of disciples, Lady Shangguan would use drying racks to leave long noodles hanging, making the dining hall look like dozens of snowy white waterfalls.
Today, she deliberately prepared a small batch for the two children, taking the dough and kneading it over thirty times, then pulling and stretching it into fine strands, calling for a small worker to fetch an embroidery needle.
“Watch closely.”
Her hands were steady as she held the needle in front of the children, showing them just how delicate dragon whisker noodles could be.
– The fact that the noodles could be stretched to the thickness of an embroidery needle was already extremely difficult.
But what she showed them was the eye of the needle.
That needle’s eye was both fine and narrow, yet, in her hands, it appeared wide next to the thin noodles.
It took six strands to fit through that one tiny hole before it couldn’t take any more.
Looking at the pile of dragon whisker noodles, even though it used ordinary ingredients, it seemed as if floating clouds drifted like dragon whiskers, embodying unmatched lightness and grace.
Little Gong Wu gasped in amazement and clapped repeatedly.
“Lady Shangguan is the person I admire the most!!”
Lady Shangguan smiled with joy and cooked a bowl of dragon whisker noodles for each of them and the small worker, saying, “Eat up, eat up! Even those in the capital below the third rank can seldom see noodles like this, so you’re lucky.”
As soon as Ji Yang took a bite, it felt like a highly layered flower blooming in his throat.
Whether the noodle soup contained green onions or chicken was no longer important; the scent of the noodles captured all of his attention. In a daze, he had already consumed half a bowl, and even as he sweated from eating, he still felt it wasn’t enough.
After that meal, Ji Yang returned to Tianhua Palace as if nothing had happened, practicing his skills and doing whatever he needed to do.
During this time, Tu Xuixin was in closed-door cultivation and left the two children to guard the palace alone, instructing them to fetch their meals from the kitchen.
However, Ji Yang, with just his charming face, managed to persuade the kitchen staff for flour and eggs, experimenting in the small kitchen of Tianhua Palace.
Though he clearly remembered each step, at first, he couldn’t grasp the essence of kneading the dough.
Thus, his Junior Sister ended up eating vegetable dumpling soup for three or four days.
Gradually, he began to understand how to handle the dough, but he couldn’t stretch the noodles, resulting in products that were thick and hard. Some even snapped before they hit the pot.
The Junior Sister then ate coarse noodles with green onions for over ten days.
Young people can be quite stubborn; the harder things are, the more determined they become.
During the day, he practiced swordsmanship and cultivation, and at night, he wrestled with dough and eggs, gradually managing to make noodles that looked better, even finer than usual hanging noodles.
By this stage, Gong Wu had been eating plain noodles with diced pickled radish for thirty or forty days.
Fourteen-year-old Ji Yang, full of youthful vigor, finally remembered his Master’s teachings after a long time: his ten-year-old Junior Sister needed careful attention, or he might accidentally starve her.
He took money from his own pocket to buy spare ribs and lotus root, preparing a simple yet delicious meal for her.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been making noodles for the last thirty or forty days… I can’t even eat them myself anymore.”
Most people would have given up by the tenth day.
Although Moonfire Valley sometimes faced tough times, they raised chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep, and occasionally improved their meals.
Even on ordinary days with thin porridge and simple dishes, they would find ingredients in the mountains to make the meals more enjoyable.
Little Gong Wu was very calm and ate whatever she was given, never once complaining or sneaking into the kitchen for meat during the month.
Her gentle and obedient nature made Ji Yang feel even more guilty when he realized this.
“Don’t you ever get tired of it? I haven’t heard you complain at all.”
The little girl smiled and shook her head, her voice bright and clear.
“Brother made the noodles for me himself; that shows how much he cares.”
Ji Yang’s stubbornness melted away at that moment. From then on, he would occasionally bring Gong Wu rabbits or wild chickens to eat, and his swordsmanship and archery skills greatly improved.
A year later, when their Master failed his breakthrough and stepped out with a gloomy look to check on the equally bewildered Little Wu, the little girl’s face was round like a small apple.
“Master! My brother has reached the Yaoguang realm!”
“So fast?” Tu Xuixin said sorrowfully, “It seems he’ll be ready to ascend in a few decades, just another disciple leaving me behind. It’s all too familiar…”
“Where is he?”
“My brother is in the kitchen. He hasn’t made noodles for over half a year, and today he said he would make a bowl for Master.”
Tu Xuixin ruffled the little unlucky one’s hair and sighed, “Longevity noodles are great; I hope to live another two hundred years to see your brother ascend to the heavens.”
Before long, the young man appeared before them, carrying a tray with three bowls of noodles.
As he set the tray down, the porcelain bowls revealed slender noodles that seemed as light and delicate as dragon whiskers.
Tu Xuixin stared for a moment, picked up a strand with chopsticks, and tilted his head to look at it, “Is this… is this noodles? Did you make this?”
“Eat up,” Ji Yang said with a straight face, “Lady Shangguan said that people below third rank in the capital aren’t even qualified to see it.”
The little girl had waited in the middle of the night for Master to finish his retreat for nearly three hours. At this moment, she took a big sip of the noodle soup and laughed from the heat.
“Jiang Jiang is so nice; he secretly gave me an egg!”
