When stumbling back into the backyard, Fan Yumei was disoriented before she collected herself. Then she noted the completion of the camp perimeter.
Mystic drifted low across the clearing, her colossal form a storm-cloud guardian over the six tents pitched beneath her.
Crackling energy drifted from the dented portable pot that Jin Minhe had been attempting to repair all morning.
"Ah, look who finally decided to join us," Zhou Qian called, clearing his throat as he nudged the pot. "Please tell me your cooking hotspot, since Jin Minhe won't stop going on about it."
Lufei glided forward beside Fan Yumei, serene and luminescent, while Maxius tested his new wingspan overhead. Zhou's eyes went wide. "Damn it—did you evolve Lufei and Maxius?!"
A hush fell. Kai Shi let out an envious whistle. "Whistle—man! Your beasts look incredible! I can't wait until mine evolves!"
Min Zhao leaned closer to the flames. "I think Lufei healed my headache just by looking at me."
Maxius dropped silently, folding his wings as he perched on Yumei's shoulder. Jin Minhe, mid–rice binge, dropped his ladle. "Lufei looked at my panda, and it nearly fainted."
"Stop being dramatic," Yumei smiled, tilting a log onto the fire.
Her parents stepped into the glow.
Fan Yangwei teased, "I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful pair of soul beasts—what do you think, Wife?"
Ka Sanni's brow darkened—then she pinched Yangwei's elbow briskly.
"Oww Woman! What was that for?!" he yelped, rubbing his arm. She shot him a look of confusion.
"Hfmp." She turned to Fan Yumei, ignoring her father.
"They look great—congratulations. I sense you've broken through to a higher cultivation. Keep up the hard work," she smiled softly before dragging Fan Yangwei off somewhere.
"Finally you're back—I thought I'd starve," Zhou Qian and Jin Minhe chorused.
"Haha, my uncle isn't that bad—why the theatrics?" Yumei chuckled, slicing vegetables on a stump.
Jin glared at Uncle Hanji, suspended in a hammock spun from Mystic's cloud-fins. "You try eating while he blows up the rice cooker!"
"Cooking is a chaotic, arduous task," Uncle Hanji declared, surveying charred dumplings with pride.
"You burned the meat and the steamer," Min Zhao accused.
"I liberated the flavors and encountered technical difficulties," he replied.
"Open-air aromatherapy," he added as the squad exchanged exasperated glances.
"Perhaps Dad should revoke your cooking clearance," Yumei teased.
"Let him try," Hanji countered, unbowed.
As laughter echoed outside, Fan Yumei placed down bowls as some were passed around. She then sat down beside the fire and began pulling out meat, fruit, vegetables, and pots and pans.
Mystic hovered overhead, casting a faint golden light. One by one, she began preparing the food, fingers and knives flying with practiced precision.
The others leaned in, curious to see what she was making. Min Zhao went over to help Fan Yumei as she rolled up her sleeves to wash her hands and cut up some fruit.
Kai Shi moved back to his seat after watching for a bit. "You know Redwind Academy's top Beastmaster cried after losing to a third-year from Ironroot?"
Min Zhao paused and looked up at him. "Cried? Like, actual tears?"
Zhou Qian nodded excitedly. "Full sob. On stream. Someone added sad violin music. It went viral in four districts."
Liang Chenwu laughed, shaking his head at the memory. "He kept calling it a 'bonding glitch.' His beast tried to comfort him. Made it worse."
Jin Minhe, pulling out a snack packet, mumbled, "Okay, but Ironroot students are psychos. They train blindfolded with concussion mines."
Fan Yumei paused her chopping for a beat, nodding to herself before disagreeing:
"That's a very good and efficient method of training. That's not fair—our Federation student bureaucracy team's negligence with flair."
She then rubbed her imaginary beard while voicing her thoughts out loud:
"Mhm, maybe I should speak to Instructor Luo about this to re-commit it."
"No!" they all shouted at the same time.
The others looked at her in horror. Even her uncle Hanji, who was dozing off in his hammock, jumped awake in fright.
Kai Shi felt like he should cry but couldn't and could only say, "What, are you crazy? Isn't it the same thing you used to do?!"
"Ahh—Ow! Niece! Are you feeling well?!" Her silly uncle fell out of the hammock, his foot caught in the fabric as he flailed and hit the ground with a solid thud.
"Oooh," everyone hissed and flinched before slowly walking over to help him—though he seemed to need no help at all.
He recovered immediately, springing to his feet and scrambling up to Fan Yumei, patting her shoulders and cheeks as he shouted for his older brother.
"Brother!!" he cried out, nearly slapping her forehead silly as he pressed his palm against her brow—not gently, she might add. Fan Yumei stumbled slightly, blinking.
After a few seconds of failing to detect whatever imaginary fever or psychic affliction he feared, he finally released her and clutched his chest with melodramatic dread.
"There is something wrong with my niece! I think it's a fever—or worse!" Fan Hanji gasped, placing the back of his hand to his forehead like a stage actor mid-tragedy. Then he whipped his gaze back toward her with wild intensity.
"Gasp! Oh no—brain damage?!" he wailed.
He would've collapsed if not for Fan Yumei and Lufei catching him from both sides.
Sigh. She shook her head, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and leading him gently back to his hammock like she'd done a hundred times before.
She moved back to the grill and fire pit where her broth was cooking in the makeshift kitchen area to finish chopping up the vegetables and other meats before they went to hunt a wolf to make hotpot for tonight's bonfire feast.
She placed a platter of fruit that she and Min Zhao had finished cutting up.
Zhou Qian stood to fill his awaiting plate with cut-up fruit. "Anyone hear White Fang Academy's new instructor used to be a rogue cultivator?"
Min Zhao answered while conjuring a water spell to clean her hands and wash the vegetables and pots before handing them to Fan Yumei.
"Yeah. Got expelled from three guilds. Now teaches 'adaptive qi compliance.' Whatever that means."
Jin Minhe, eating burnt dumplings, swallowed before saying, "It means sparring with him ends in blood and a waiver form."
Zhou Qian shrugged, waving off the comment. "He made a kid cry. With a pointer stick."
Liang Chenwu laughed. "Ha—the pointer was made of soulsteel."
Kai Shi saluted him. "Honestly? Respect."
Min Zhao rolled her eyes, pointing the knife in her hand at him. "Says the guy who cried last week when Mystic knocked off your headband."
Kai Shi looked away, folding his arms and hissing, "That was a tactical emotional release." He stomped his foot a little in embarrassment.
Jin Minhe pointed and laughed. "Bro, you screamed, 'My ancestors abandoned me.'"
Zhou Qian chimed in, grinning at Kai Shi's red face, "Then tried to crawl into the supply shed."
Liang Chenwu laughed also. "Not 'tried'—he did crawl. Got stuck under the drone recharger." He rolled on the ground, unable to stop laughing.
Kai Shi ran into his tent hiding as he called out to them, "Okay, that was strategy. Distraction maneuver."
They burst into more laughter.
Fan Yumei slapped Jin Minhe's hand away as he tried to steal a piece of food. "Try again and I'll throw away your snack stashes."
Jin Minhe rubbed his hand, pouting. "Please don't. I'll have to fill out another 38-G form."
Kai Shi looked over, asking curiously, "Which one's that?"
Jin Minhe blinked and answered as though it was obvious: "The one where you declare your beast's daily meal intake preferences—and now I'll have to raise the meal intake again." He rubbed his head like he had the world's worries on his back.
Zhou Qian flopped down on his seat and kicked his legs up. "I hate turning in those forms—one time my beast got flagged for 'emotional instability' because she didn't like the attending clerk's scent and hurled on their shoes."
Fan Yumei chuckled, nodding in agreement as she placed the pot on the fire. "I filled out a form for Mystic, but when I brought it to the building with Mystic, she ate every pen on the counter and they gave me a disciplinary token. I framed it for Mystic." Her shoulders shook with laughter as she spoke.
Liang Chenwu chimed in, "It took me a week to get my beast's file unflagged because he growled at a drone."
The others joined in laughing too.