The texture was indeed smooth and springy, bursting with savory flavor and rich spirit energy.
He couldn’t help but nod in praise.
“Mmm, the taste is truly excellent. Qingkong’s culinary skills are improving.”
“Right, right!”
Gong Shangyu was as happy as if she herself had been praised.
She kept busy, ladling a small bowl of the milky fish soup for Lu Li.
“Master, try this fish soup too. It’s made from Cold-Tarn Silver Scale Fish, simmered for a full two hours. It’s most nourishing!”
While seemingly casually attending to Lu Li’s meal, she secretly activated the “Lie Detection Talisman” she had been palming—the one that had just been urgently delivered through the Pill Sword Pavilion’s channels.
When Lu Li spoke, the talisman would emit different colored lights in her spiritual sense based on the truthfulness of his words. Green for true, red for false.
Having done this, Gong Shangyu’s heartbeat quickened slightly, but she maintained a relaxed, natural smile on her face.
As if just making casual conversation, she began her probing.
She first placed a serving of refreshing cold spirit vegetables on Lu Li’s plate.
Then, in a tone laced with curiosity and concern, she asked as if by chance, “Master, speaking of which… this disciple noticed you seemed in a very good mood last night? I faintly heard you humming a tune while bathing! Did something happy happen? Share it so your disciples can be happy too?”
This seemingly casual question was, in fact, the core issue she and Gu Qingying had agonized over all night!
They desperately wanted to know if their master’s rare cheerfulness was related to some outsider.
Lu Li, who was drinking the fish soup, paused slightly at her words.
A clear look of helplessness crossed his face.
He put down his spoon and sighed.
“Happy? What happy event? There’s a whole pile of troublesome matters instead.”
Just as Lu Li spoke, Gong Shangyu’s spiritual sense clearly “saw” the Lie Detection Talisman in her hand steadily emitting a soft, green light representing truth.
‘It’s green! Master isn’t lying!’
Gong Shangyu’s heart relaxed abruptly, as if a heavy stone had been lifted.
At the same time, Gu Qingying, hiding in the kitchen and able to sense through another sub-talisman connected to the main one that Lu Li was telling the truth, also let out a sigh of relief.
‘What Master said… is true!’
Gong Shangyu’s spirits soared.
Deciding to strike while the iron was hot, she resolved to ask the final, most critical question in a half-joking manner to completely dispel their doubts.
A mischievous smile appeared on her face. She deliberately leaned closer, lowered her voice, and asked in a teasing tone.
“Oh? Could it be… Master, you met some woman while out sightseeing yesterday and got so captivated you’ve come down with lovesickness?”
As she spoke, she carefully observed Lu Li’s expression while also focusing intently on the talisman’s light.
Her question was bold and tricky, sounding like—
However, the moment her words fell…
‘Thwack!’
A crisp knock sounded.
Lu Li curled his fingers and gave her a not-too-light, not-too-heavy tap on the forehead.
His face held an expression of exasperation and amusement as he glared at her.
“What nonsense are you spouting! You child, you truly have no sense of propriety! Daring to tease your master?”
He withdrew his hand, his tone carrying a mix of helplessness and righteousness.
“Is your master the kind of person who would casually dally with flowers and grass, inviting trouble? Look at me now—every day is either supervising your cultivation or being busy with the registration procedures for the Imperial Secret Realm Trial, utterly overwhelmed. Where would I find the leisure or time to fool around with some female cultivator?”
His expression was frank, even carrying a trace of indignation at being misunderstood by his disciple.
“In your eyes, is your master such an unprofessional person, one who indulges in romantic entanglements?”
And at the same time, in Gong Shangyu’s spiritual sense, the light emitted by the Lie Detection Talisman remained stable and purely green!
Without the slightest fluctuation!
‘Still green! Master is telling the truth! He’s not troubled by any woman’s affairs at all!’
Gong Shangyu sighed in relief again.
Rubbing her forehead where she’d been tapped—though it didn’t really hurt—she cooperatively made a pained, aggrieved face and quickly begged for mercy.
“Ouch! This disciple was wrong! This disciple was wrong! Master, please calm your anger! I was just joking with you! It’s just that Master, you look so… uh… transcendent and elegant, outstandingly handsome. This disciple was just worried you might unknowingly attract some romantic trouble!”
Gong Shangyu’s words were half apology, half a roundabout way of praising Lu Li, trying to muddle through.
Lu Li, exasperated by her glib tongue, couldn’t maintain even his feigned anger.
He could only shake his head helplessly and laugh.
“Glib-tongued! Hurry up and eat! That should shut your mouth!”
“Yes, yes, yes! This disciple will eat right away!”
Gong Shangyu obediently buried her head in her rice.
But the moment she lowered her head, the corner of her mouth couldn’t help but curl upward—the arc of relaxed pleasure after a successful scheme.
And at the kitchen door, Gu Qingying, who had been peeking out with half her head, clearly saw the Lie Detection Talisman’s sub-talisman emit a steady green light for the second time and heard her master’s righteous and principled reply.
The heartstrings that had been tightly wound finally completely relaxed.
She leaned against the kitchen doorframe, slowly letting out a long-held breath.
Her purple eyes regained their sparkle, and she felt the sunlight outside the window had become brighter.
‘So… we really were overthinking it…’
But even so, Gong Shangyu wasn’t ready to give up.
She hurriedly probed Lu Li further, saying in a testing tone, “But… honestly, Master, you really don’t have any female cultivator you’re involved with, or someone you fancy, right?”
“After all, you’re so handsome and dashing. Finding a marriage partner shouldn’t be difficult, right?”
“Aren’t you planning to find us a Master’s Wife or something?”
The moment Gong Shangyu’s words fell…
‘Thwack!’
Another crisp knock, this time landing on the top of her head, with a bit more force than the last one.
“Ouch!”
Gong Shangyu cried out in pain, clutching her head with both hands and looking at Lu Li with a pitiful expression.
“Master! Why did you hit me again!”
Lu Li glared at her, unamused, withdrawing his hand. His tone was full of utter helplessness and offended exasperation.
“You rebellious disciple! Are you deliberately trying to anger your master to death today? What messy things are you thinking about all day in that head of yours!”
He put down his chopsticks and decided to start lecturing this wildly imaginative second disciple.
His tone was resolute, carrying a sense of ‘how could you mere mortals understand the pursuit of the Dao?’
“Your master is single-mindedly devoted to the Dao, pursuing longevity and the ultimate truths of Heaven and Earth! Every day, supervising you two troublemakers in your cultivation already consumes a great deal of energy, not to mention preparing for that blasted secret realm trial. I’m so busy I can barely touch the ground, utterly overwhelmed!”
He spoke with increasing self-righteousness, his voice rising a few notes.
“Where would your master find the leisure or the extra time to think about some female cultivator I’m involved with, or a sweetheart? Do you think your master is some idle, frivolous young master from your storybooks?”
Then, he even began to self-deprecate, trying to use reality to dispel his disciple’s unrealistic fantasies.
“Besides, look at our Duanqing Peak! No spirit stones, no resources, dirt poor. Apart from a few shabby houses and a mountain full of rocks, what do we have? Your master, apart from a passable level of cultivation and this… fairly decent face, has practically nothing! What female cultivator with poor judgment would take a fancy to your master? Who would be willing to follow your master and live this austere life?”
He ended up looking at Gong Shangyu almost as if she were a fool, concluding, “You! You should read fewer of those unreliable storybooks! Do you really think reality is like those fabricated legends? That you can just casually go out for a stroll, slay a demon, and run into a peerless immortal lady who then becomes devoted to you and insists on following you? Not even in your wildest dreams is it that perfect!”
Lu Li’s series of arguments—both lofty idealistic posturing and brutal reality analysis—were spoken with sincere emotion and righteous indignation.
And at the same time, in Gong Shangyu’s spiritual sense, the Lie Detection Talisman in her hand had been emitting a stable, pure, unadulterated green light from beginning to end! So thoroughly green, so reassuring!
‘Green! Still green! Everything Master said is true! He really hasn’t thought about finding a marriage partner! He even thinks he’s poor and that no one would look at him twice!’
Gong Shangyu’s heart was ecstatic, as if she had heard the most beautiful celestial music.
The slight pain on her head was instantly forgotten, her lips curving into an uncontrollable smile.
At the kitchen door, Gu Qingying, who had been nervously watching the proceedings outside, clearly saw the unwavering green light on the Lie Detection Talisman’s sub-talisman and heard her master’s self-deprecating, almost pitiful speech.
The last trace of doubt and gloom in her heart completely dissipated.
Gu Qingying couldn’t help but let out a soft ‘pfft’ of laughter, quickly covering her mouth with her hand, her shoulders shaking slightly.
She was laughing.