Fortunately, Luo Qingci instinctively formed hand seals to protect herself.
Although the heat wave pushed her back a few steps, she wasn’t too seriously injured.
Luo Qingci looked up.
The roof was gone.
The moon hung in the sky.
It was really big and round.
The moonlight was really beautiful…
Then something slightly hard hit Luo Qingci on the head and fell in front of her.
That pitch-black, unidentifiable object was glinting with an eerie light.
Luo Qingci picked up the lump and squeezed it.
It was as hard as a dried bun that had been left out for ten days.
Maybe she should feed it to a dog…
No… if she threw this thing to a dog, it would probably have to think twice about which smelled better, this or a turd.
At least a turd was soft and easy to eat.
This thing would crack your teeth.
Luo Qingci stared at it quietly, then looked at the already shattered furnace beside her, and suddenly started laughing.
A laugh of anger.
I was just roasting a chicken, and you had to explode over it?
Waste of a furnace!
Then she heard footsteps.
Turning her head, she could see through the smoke and dust that it was her three senior brothers.
Gu Changqing, Chen Mo, and Yun Jinzhou, who was struggling to hold back his laughter on the side.
Master’s wooden hut had been reduced to ruins, as if someone had attacked it.
Smoke billowed upward.
The little junior sister’s face was covered in ash, like she had just come back from a coal mine.
She was holding a pitch-black, unidentifiable object in her arms, laughing.
“Uh… Junior Sister?”
Gu Changqing asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Senior Brother.”
Luo Qingci waved the soot-black, unidentifiable object in her hand.
“I was just roasting a chicken.”
As her voice fell, there was a moment of silence in the smoke-filled air.
A chicken?
Whose chicken looked like a lump of charcoal?
For the first time, a clear look of astonishment appeared on Gu Changqing’s gentle features.
His gaze swept over the broken beams on the ground, the overturned tables and chairs, then landed on his junior sister’s ash-covered face and the charred, unrecognizable lump in her arms.
His Adam’s apple moved slightly.
“R-roast chicken?”
Chen Mo, who was usually calm and quiet, also frowned slightly.
He looked at Master’s nearly leveled residence, then at the lump of charcoal, and for a moment, didn’t know what to say.
Yun Jinzhou’s shoulders trembled uncontrollably.
He was laughing so hard his shoulders ached from the strain.
Luo Qingci showed her three senior brothers an innocent smile.
“I wanted to eat roast chicken, so I used Master’s furnace. Then… it exploded…”
“So you used Master’s alchemy furnace to roast it?”
Yun Jinzhou finally couldn’t hold it in and laughed out loud.
His voice was especially clear in the night wind.
“Little Junior Sister, do you know that furnace is a fifth-grade alchemy furnace that Master brought back from Central State? It’s the only one on the entire Lingyun Peak.”
Luo Qingci looked down at the lump of charcoal in her arms, then at the scattered fragments of the furnace on the ground, and shrank her neck.
Fifth-grade?
No wonder it exploded so loudly.
If I were at the Qi Refining stage, I’d be dead in a snap…
Just resisting the explosion had almost drained all my spiritual power, and I barely managed to block it.
She thought about it.
She hadn’t added any spiritual ingredients, so why was the explosive power so great?
Gu Changqing stepped forward, took a handkerchief from his sleeve, and handed it to her.
His voice was gentle but tinged with helplessness.
“Wipe your face first.”
Luo Qingci took the handkerchief and roughly wiped her face a couple of times.
The white handkerchief immediately turned black.
“Master won’t be angry, will he?” she asked in a small voice.
“Junior Sister,” Gu Changqing said calmly, “you blew up Master’s house.”
“I know.”
“You’ll probably be punished.”
Luo Qingci’s shoulders slumped.
She stared at the lump of charcoal in front of her and suddenly felt that it looked a lot like her future—pitch black with no hope in sight.
Yun Jinzhou finally stopped laughing.
He walked over and crouched down beside her, nudging her with his elbow.
“It’s fine, Master is good-natured. Last time Second Senior Brother sliced off his roof while practicing his sword, he didn’t say anything.”
“Really?”
Luo Qingci looked up.
“Really.
Last time, Second Senior Brother just sliced off the eaves, but this time…”
Yun Jinzhou looked around at the ruins and the charcoal.
There was nothing else.
“This time… Master will probably forgive you too.”
Silence.
The night wind blew in through the gap where the roof used to be, making Luo Qingci’s hair fly wildly.
From a distant peak, the cry of a crane echoed, long and clear, making this ruin seem even more quiet.
Gu Changqing sighed and asked, “What about the furnace? Let me see if I can fix it.”
Luo Qingci pointed to the side.
The three of them all looked at the pile of fragments on the ground.
It was broken too thoroughly to even piece together.
A few fragments still had the faint glow of runes on them, flickering weakly, as if struggling for their last breath.
“This…”
Gu Changqing stroked his chin.
“This really can’t be fixed.”
“Just tell the truth,” Chen Mo said, his tone flat.
“Master won’t make things difficult for Junior Sister.”
Luo Qingci didn’t believe that.
Exploding a furnace while alchemy might not be a huge problem, but the thing was… she did it to roast a chicken…
“Junior Sister,” Chen Mo suddenly spoke up.
“We’ll clean up here.”
“No, I caused this trouble—”
“Go on.”
Gu Changqing also turned his head, revealing a gentle smile.
“When Master comes back, you’ll still have to explain it to him. You should get some rest first.”
Luo Qingci looked at her three senior brothers, then at the surrounding ruins.
Finally, she nodded.
When she reached the door, she suddenly stopped, turned around, ran back, picked up the lump of charcoal from the ground, hugged it to her chest, and ran out again.
“You’re still keeping that thing?”
Yun Jinzhou called after her.
“I’m going to feed it to the dog!”
Luo Qingci yelled back.
Honestly, she really wanted to see if the dog would even eat this thing.
After a moment, Yun Jinzhou was the first to laugh out loud.
“No… she used a fifth-grade alchemy furnace to roast chicken… fifth-grade! When I first reached Foundation Establishment, I hadn’t even touched a furnace, and she uses it to roast chicken!”
“When Master comes back, I’m afraid there’ll be quite a show.”
Gu Changqing shook his head and said.
“Second Senior Brother,” Yun Jinzhou stopped laughing, “do you think Master will punish her when he comes back?”
Chen Mo thought for a moment.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Master won’t care about these things,” Chen Mo said.
“As long as she’s okay, that’s all that matters. When Master comes back, let Junior Sister properly admit her mistake. You two step back first. I’ll clean all this up.”
Gu Changqing smiled, drew his longsword, and slashed toward the ruins.
The wind blew in from outside the door, carrying the scent of osmanthus flowers.
There were bird calls in the distance, the chirping of insects, and the sound of flowing water.
Lingyun Peak’s night was, as always, peaceful.
Luo Qingci returned to her small wooden hut, placed the charcoal on the table, and stared at it for a long time.
That chicken had once been very plump.
Its skin was smooth and its flesh was tender, glistening with oil under the moonlight.
She had been so close to roast chicken.
Luo Qingci sighed, rested her head on the table, and pressed her cheek against the cool surface.
The burnt smell of the charcoal drilled straight into her nose.
After smelling it for a while, it wasn’t unpleasant.
Instead, it had the scent of charcoal-grilled meat, making her even hungrier.
She fished out the last piece of osmanthus cake from her storage pouch and took a bite.
She was going to save it for tomorrow…
Luo Qingci chewed the osmanthus cake, running through her explanation for Master in her head several times, but none of them felt convincing enough.
In the end, she thought, maybe she should just kneel down and admit her mistake.
Master had a soft heart; if he saw her kneeling so readily, maybe he wouldn’t pursue it anymore.
One month later…
On the road back from Central State, the moonlight was clear and cold as water.
Xiao Yan, in a crescent-white, wide-sleeved robe, the hem stained with a bit of travel dust, landed his flying sword back on Lingyun Peak.
He had saved up spirit stones for so long, plus the fifth-grade alchemy furnace he had bought a few days ago, that should be about enough…
He had placed the storage ring with the spirit stones inside the furnace.
After all, their entire peak consisted of sword cultivators.
No one knew how to do alchemy, so he wasn’t worried about any of his disciples using the thing.
This time, he had also bought a concealing breath jade pendant.
When he got back, Qingci would probably be very happy.
Not only did she have the compensation gift for the engagement dissolution, but she also had a pendant to conceal her aura.
Thinking this, his expression suddenly became strange.
He had already circled Lingyun Peak three times.
Why couldn’t he still see his little wooden hut?
Had he taken a wrong turn?
That shouldn’t be the case.
He was very familiar with the auras of his disciples.
There was no way he had gone to the wrong place.
Huh?
He stood in that open space for a moment.
The moonlight cast his long, slender shadow far across the ground.
His robe swayed gently in the night breeze, and his hair was slightly mussed.
After confirming that this was indeed his peak, the corner of his mouth twitched.
“No way? Where’s my house?”