The Heavenly Demon Palace party settled into the Guest Hall with heavy thoughts. When Jian Feng led the honored guests over, Lü Se had already finished all arrangements with Yun Jian and Yun Shu.
Lü Se guided each person to a separate cave abode, left the restriction tokens, then withdrew.
Mo Su kept Jian Feng in his own cave, saying they should catch up. In truth, there was little to say. They usually communicated by transmission jades, so they knew each other's situation well.
Mo Su brewed a pot of spirit tea and handed a cup to Jian Feng. "Try it. I brought this from the Heavenly Demon Palace."
Jian Feng kept a neutral face, but still lifted the cup for a sip.
The pale green liquor slid across his tongue, releasing a faint fragrance that filled his mouth. After he swallowed, a trace of sweetness lingered. He nodded, rare praise slipping out. "Good tea."
Only then did amusement show in Mo Su's eyes. He drew a jade-green tea canister from his storage ring and pushed it to Jian Feng. "If you like it, take this first. I'll bring other kinds next time."
Jian Feng did not refuse. He stored the canister, then looked at Mo Su, his gaze plainly asking, Anything else?
Smiling, Mo Su's magnetic voice sounded again. "Can't I chat with you without a reason? It wasn't easy to come. I've been busy for days, helping Master handle palace affairs before I could get away."
"Weren't you escorting Bi Shu to the Heavenly Sword Sect to identify the blood insect?" Jian Feng frowned.
"Yes. And I came to see you." Mo Su's frankness made Jian Feng a touch embarrassed.
"Say what you want to talk about, then."
So the two of them began to talk in fits and starts.
All of this was a feed Liu Chuan sent back, which made Jian Dan's teeth ache with secondhand sweetness. What a blatant sprinkling of dog food.
"Keep watching," Jian Dan ordered. "As long as they do nothing out of line, don't interfere. If they do, contact me immediately."
"Got it," Liu Chuan drawled.
Meanwhile, Xue Ru, who had gone to the East Peak with Yue Liang, had almost finished arranging her chosen spot.
Thanks to her two Senior Brothers' help, the cave was not far from their stone houses. If she called, they could come at once. She'd have privacy and support both.
Xue Ru's stone house had three floors, one more than her Senior Brothers'. Zong Fan said the women's courtyards in his clan were always large, with pavilions, ponds, flowers, and spirit plants, all complete. Compared to that, Xue Ru's was already simple.
Xue Ru, however, was delighted to have a place of her own. The first floor held a practice room and a reception hall. The second floor was a bedroom, with an extra room set aside for a future spirit companion's cultivation. The third floor was a study and a space for making talisman slips and array disks.
Because Xue Ru had a wind spiritual root, she would not make great strides in alchemy or smithing, so she chose talismans and arrays as one of her four supporting arts.
Jian Dan approved and personally passed down her insights on talismans, not rushing the teaching. She had Xue Ru first learn the process and start by crafting blank talisman paper on her own.
Recently, whenever Xue Ru finished the cultivation tasks left by her Master, she practiced making blank slips. First-rank talisman paper was relatively easy. Stargrass was easy to gather. A hundred stalks could produce ten sheets of sixteen-open paper, which she would then cut down.
For that, her two Senior Brothers had carved out a workspace behind the stone house for boiling ingredients, set a common copper cauldron there, and hooked a tiny rented fire vein beneath it, perfect for a Qi Refining disciple.
Around the stone house, spirit plants blossomed in every hue. Spirit butterflies and bees flitted among them. By the brook, near the house, a willow leaned into the breeze, branches dancing and leaves gleaming like fine jade, soothing to behold.
Yue Liang made a circuit and found Mao Dou and Zong Fan's layout decent. She would simply add a few touches.
With a pat to the storage collar at her throat, Yue Liang began with the reception hall. "Xue Ru, this is where you host guests. It can't be too casual, but stiff and plain doesn't suit your age. Let's make it bright."
A set of red-coral table and chairs appeared in the center of the hall. A large luminous pearl was mounted in the ceiling. A fine carved green-jade tea set went on the table, and Yue Liang produced three jade boxes of tea.
"These are the teas Zūnshàng likes. One box of Qingye Maojian, one of Cloud Mountain Mist, and one of Peach Blossom Tea. Use the first two for guests. The last is floral tea for your own use."
She instructed with the gravity of an elder.
"Yes, I'll remember," Xue Ru said, cheeks pink, eyes curving to crescents.
They went to the second floor. Yue Liang inspected the bedroom. Seeing the hundred-year ironwood bed the Senior Brothers had made, she looked openly displeased."Put that away."
"Yes."
Xue Ru neatly stored the bed, then looked at Yue Liang with bright black eyes.
With a wave, Yue Liang set down a millennium Cold Jade Bed. The ice-white frame was draped with rippling jiaosha gauze, clearly not a mundane item.
"This is a thousand-year Cold Jade Bed. Sit in meditation here every day. It will help solidify your spiritual energy. Even if you rest on it without circulating your art, your body will naturally operate your art to resist the cold. Over time it forms a habit. Even in ordinary practice, your art is always running. That's like cultivating without stopping."
"Thank you for the gift, Senior Yue Liang. Does Master have one too?" Stars shone in Xue Ru's eyes, but she still thought of her Master first.
"Of course. Zūnshàng's is a ten-thousand-year Cold Jade Bed. A thousand-year piece does nothing for her now." Yue Liang spoke with a touch of pride.
"But remember, wealth should not be flaunted. Don't go around bragging. To Zūnshàng this is nothing, but to low-stage cultivators, it's a treasure."
"Understood."
"Here, a protective array disk. Install it in your bedroom. Best not to let outsiders in."
"Oh? Not even my two Senior Brothers?"
"They are male cultivators. Why would they enter your bedroom? We are cultivators, yes, but men and women are still different. Remember that."
Seriousness sat oddly on Yue Liang's soft little face, but her instruction was earnest.
"Yes. Thank you for the reminder, Senior Yue Liang."
"Good girl. Let's see the third floor."
Upstairs, Yue Liang added books and jade slips so Xue Ru could learn the peoples and places of Lingyun Continent in her spare time.
Xue Ru loved them and carefully arranged everything on the cedar shelves her Senior Brothers had built.
In the other room, set aside for talismans and arrays, there was only a meditation cushion and the stack of first-rank talisman paper Xue Ru had made herself.
Yue Liang took out two jade boxes from her storage collar and pushed them to Xue Ru. "These are gifts from Zūnshàng for your new home."