The night was deep and quiet, in a remote courtyard of the Outer Disciple Residence.
Xiao Luoyi turned and locked the door behind her.
She listened at the door for a moment, confirming only the sound of wind and insects outside, then turned around.
The room’s furnishings were simple, even bare.
Xiao Luoyi walked to the bedside and took out the cloth square Lin Xiao had given her from her bosom.
She didn’t put it down immediately.
Instead, by the moonlight, she examined it carefully once more.
The cloth square was ordinary, nothing special.
But Xiao Luoyi didn’t seem to think so.
She folded the cloth square meticulously.
In the end, it became a neat little square, which she gently placed on the small wooden table by the head of the bed.
After doing all this, she bent down and crawled under the bed.
She reached out, felt around in the corner near the inner wall, and took out a brocade box from a hidden compartment.
She returned to the desk and carefully opened it.
The box was lined with black velvet, and it didn’t contain much: a piece of amber-like osmanthus cake, a smooth small stone, and a booklet.
Xiao Luoyi took out the booklet, then carefully placed the folded cloth square into the box, putting it next to the osmanthus cake amber.
She opened the booklet, picked up the brush on the table, and began to write.
“I got blocked by Senior Sister Lu at the river again today. The herbs were taken, and my hand was scraped.”
“It’s okay, I’m used to it.”
“…”
“He asked if I wanted to resist?”
“I told him I want to catch the light.”
“He seemed not to understand.”
“…”
“I asked him why someone would care about others but hide.”
“He was clearly flustered; when he changed the subject, he seemed very nervous.”
“He thinks he’s disguised well.”
“But he doesn’t know that on the thunderstorm night when he carried me out of the warehouse, I noticed the petal-shaped birthmark on his hand.”
“Yu Lao?”
“Senior Brother’s way of lying is not clever at all.”
At this point, Xiao Luoyi’s brush paused.
She tilted her head slightly, looking at the faint moonlight outside the window, her eyes slightly unfocused.
Her thoughts seemed to return to that stormy night, and her fingertips unconsciously brushed over the word ‘Senior Brother’ on the page.
“Why won’t you admit it, Senior Brother?”
She added this line at the end, then stopped writing.
After the ink dried, Xiao Luoyi closed the booklet again, put it into the brocade box, returned it to the hidden compartment under the bed, and pushed the brick back.
She restored everything to its original state.
The moonlight stretched the shadow of the window sill long.
The night wind blew through the old tree in the courtyard, making the leaves rustle.
She sat quietly on the edge of the bed, arms wrapped around herself, chin resting on her knees, motionless.
Her eyes were vacant, lost in thought.
After an unknown amount of time, she suddenly blinked, as if waking from a long train of thought.
“Oh, right…”
She stood up, her movements becoming brisk again.
She walked to the wardrobe, opened it, and pulled out a small booklet with a garish cover from the very bottom.
‘Delicacies: First Glimpse’, a popular book in the mortal market, had somehow found its way among the old books of the Outer Sect, and she had secretly kept it.
She flipped open the booklet and quickly turned to the page she had dog-eared.
It showed a picture of osmanthus cake, with ingredients and steps alongside.
Ever since that night, she had come to love this kind of pastry.
“Osmanthus… there’s still some dried osmanthus in the cabinet.”
“Glutinous rice flour… I think I have this too.”
“White sugar… white sugar…”
Her gaze stopped at the words ‘a suitable amount of sugar’, and her brows furrowed slightly.
“A suitable amount… how much is that?” she murmured in confusion.
Her fingertip tapped on those two words.
After thinking for a moment, she seemed to have figured it out: “Since it’s for Senior Brother… oh, for Yu Lao, it has to be sweet. ‘A suitable amount’ should mean enough to make it sweet.”
She closed the booklet and carefully tucked it into her bosom.
Then she silently pushed open the window, flickered her figure, and nimbly climbed out, merging into the night.
The Outer Public Kitchen had long been extinguished at this hour, empty of people.
Most outer disciples hadn’t achieved abstinence from grains, so the kitchen was still an essential place here.
Xiao Luoyi had often been sent to help in the kitchen, so she quickly and familiarly sneaked in.
First, she found a small packet of dried osmanthus from a corner of a public cabinet.
Then, among the densely stacked sacks, she found the glutinous rice flour.
Finally, in the seasoning area, she found the white sugar in a large earthenware jar.
Looking at the jar of sugar, she hesitated for a moment.
Then she found a clean large bowl and began to scoop out the white sugar.
One scoop, two scoops… a suitable amount…
She looked at the piled white granules in the bowl and thought it still wasn’t enough.
So she added two more large scoops, until the white sugar in the bowl formed a small mountain.
Next, she began to follow the steps in the booklet.
It was nothing more than mixing the glutinous rice flour and white sugar, adding water when the powder was too much, adding more powder when the water was too much, and finally sprinkling dried osmanthus.
She lit the fire, set up the steamer, laid down the cloth, poured the batter, and covered the lid, all in one smooth motion.
After doing all this, Xiao Luoyi crouched in front of the stove, holding her cheeks in both hands, staring unblinkingly at the steaming lid.
The firelight flickered on her face, her usually calm eyes now sparkling with rare anticipation.
Time passed little by little, and soon the kitchen was filled with a complex aroma.
The freshness of glutinous rice, the sweetness of osmanthus, and a cloyingly sweet caramel smell.
Xiao Luoyi carefully lifted the lid, and a burst of steam hit her face.
After the mist dissipated, she saw a whole piece of flower cake spread on the steamer.
She gently poked the edge with her finger; it was very soft, almost collapsing, but at least it had set.
Xiao Luoyi couldn’t help but smile, her eyes sparkling.
She carefully packed the osmanthus cake into a food box, then with light steps, slipped out of the kitchen and returned to her small room.
Unlike the sweet foretaste in the Outer Public Kitchen, the atmosphere in the Misty Hidden Forest behind the Lingxiao Sect was much more tense.
Deep in the Misty Hidden Forest, two enormous demonic beasts were facing off.
One of them was a Bristleback Boar, or rather, it should be called the Bristleback Boar King.
Its size was much larger than its kind; standing up, it was almost one zhang tall.
Its opponent was no ordinary either.
It was a mutated porcupine.
Although it was a size smaller than the Bristleback Boar King, its entire body was covered in spines, each one as thick as a person’s forearm.
They were fighting for a mud puddle that emitted spiritual energy.
The water exuded pure earth-attributed spiritual energy.
For earth-type demonic beasts like the Bristleback Boar and the porcupine, it was a good place to cultivate.
They had already been fighting for several dozen rounds.
Broken trees, upturned earth, blood on the ground, and the demonic aura in the air all told of the fierce battle just now.
The next moment, the Bristleback Boar King moved.
Its movements were completely mismatched with its massive body; it was as fast as a black shadow.
The porcupine tried to dodge, but it was too late.
A tusk scraped across the porcupine’s belly, tearing open a huge gash, and bright red blood sprayed all around.
The porcupine screamed, knocked rolling several times by the immense force.
The Bristleback Boar King gave it no chance; it lowered its head and charged again.
At the critical moment of life or death!
The porcupine, driven desperate, suddenly kicked up a large cloud of dust.
The Bristleback Boar King did not stop, but its charge hit nothing. Its tusks sank deep into a large tree, cutting it in half.
By the time it pulled out its tusks, shook off the wood chips on its head, and the dust settled, the porcupine was gone.
Only a winding trail of blood remained on the ground.
Clearly, the porcupine had escaped.
The Bristleback Boar King did not give chase.
It only warily looked around, and after confirming there was no threat, it walked to the edge of the mud puddle and lowered its head to drink the spiritually-charged water in big gulps.
After drinking, it turned and walked toward a dense thicket on the edge of the battlefield.
A rustling sound came from the thicket.
A little spotted pig, only one-tenth its size, with downy fur, tremblingly emerged.
The Bristleback Boar King lowered its head and gently nudged its child with its snout, a completely different image from the ferocious one just moments ago.
It extended its tongue and licked the little spotted pig, then grabbed it by the scruff of its neck like a kitten, and turned to walk deeper into the Misty Hidden Forest.
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