Rewinding time to shortly after Ye Ling had just left.
Heavenly Gate Sect, Bai Yiyi's private chamber.
"No, I should still go take a look."
Bai Yiyi suddenly stood up and was about to dash out the door.
"Sit down!"
Ai Yueli reacted instantly, pressing Bai Yiyi back into her seat. "If you don't learn these spells today, don't even think about going anywhere!"
In front of Bai Yiyi floated a screen made of glowing characters, displaying an image of Ai Yueli explaining step by step how to cast a spell.
If Ye Ling were here, he would be green with envy. They were both being taught, so why was the difference in treatment this big?
In the projection, Ai Yueli was demonstrating a spell used to repair houses.
"You're already grown up, yet you can't even use a simple spell to fix a house. Aren't you afraid your disciple will laugh at you?"
"Wuu…"
Bai Yiyi slumped back down, letting out a pitiful whine like a small animal.
"If I can't learn it, I can't learn it. There's nothing I can do."
"I think your heart just isn't in it."
Once she slipped into teaching mode, Ai Yueli completely ignored Bai Yiyi's status as Sect Master, speaking without the slightest courtesy.
"When I taught you this spell before, even if you forgot it later, you still managed to cast it once. Why won't you even practice today?"
"Wuu…"
Bai Yiyi couldn't answer. She simply collapsed onto the desk, looking exactly like a child sick of studying.
The only difference was that her overly impressive chest prevented her face from properly touching the smooth tabletop.
Ai Yueli ignored the sight and continued relentlessly. "When we left, I reminded you again and again to remember the cleansing spells and keep the sect clean and presentable."
"But look at what you've done. You even called in the Qiuqiu Monkey Clan to help, just so the corners wouldn't grow cobwebs. That's utterly embarrassing!"
As a hidden cultivation sect, being plain was fine. Even looking a bit run-down wouldn't have mattered.
But failing to maintain even the most basic cleanliness was an absolute disgrace for cultivators.
Even sects run by swindlers knew to keep things tidy. Yet their very own Heavenly Gate Sect, a place that could make the cultivation world tremble with a single sneeze, looked dirty and chaotic.
Did that make any sense?
Was that reasonable?
"Granny said she'd keep it a secret for me! She lied!"
With Ye Ling not around, Bai Yiyi seemed even more unrestrained, completely unconcerned about her image.
"And forgetting spells is one thing,"
Taking advantage of Ye Ling's absence, Ai Yueli seized the chance to lecture her further. "But how did you manage to eat all the Spirit Food Fifth Junior Sister prepared for you?"
"With how much Fifth Junior Sister made, it should've lasted you an entire year. I was only gone for three months, and it's all gone."
"You're really something, Sect Master."
As she spoke, Ai Yueli shot a resentful glance at the enormous mound pressing against the tabletop beneath Bai Yiyi.
Damn it.
She doesn't even grow taller, so why does it keep growing there?
Ai Yueli silently fumed.
"Wuu wuu wuu!"
Bai Yiyi lifted her head and cried out to Ai Yueli, "Can you blame me? It was all because Little Seven's Formation was too weak! I barely touched it and it shattered. Otherwise, I definitely could've held out until you all came back!"
"Weak?"
Ai Yueli's expression turned serious. She lightly knocked Bai Yiyi on the head before speaking. "That Formation may have been something Seventh Junior Sister casually set up, but even a Great Ascension Stage cultivator would need some effort to break it. And you call that weak?"
"It was really weak."
Bai Yiyi still argued back, though her eyes darted away, clearly lacking confidence.
"Hmph. So you used brute force, did you? You think I don't know you by now?"
Ai Yueli naturally understood Bai Yiyi's trump cards. After more than ten years as fellow senior sisters, how could she not?
"It was just that Little Five's cooking was too tempting. I… I couldn't help myself. By the time I snapped out of it, all the food was gone."
Bai Yiyi's voice grew softer, her expression full of grievance.
"…"
Faced with this version of Bai Yiyi, Ai Yueli was completely speechless.
"You really are… I don't even know what to say to you anymore."
"I thought you wouldn't be gone for long anyway, so I figured going hungry for a bit wouldn't matter. Who knew my precious disciple would suddenly show up? And Second Senior Sister didn't tell me anything."
"Tch."
It was fine until Ye Ling was mentioned. Once his name came up, Ai Yueli grew visibly annoyed. "Do you even know that the Fasting Pills you gave Ling'er were expired? If not for Sixth Junior Sister's pills being high quality, something might've happened. If Ling'er had gotten sick, what would you have done then?"
Ye Ling was now firmly Ai Yueli's favorite. For his sake, she could scold Bai Yiyi without the slightest guilt.
"Wuu…"
Bai Yiyi let out another pitiful whimper.
After a moment, she finally spoke. "That bottle of Fasting Pills was something Little Six refined for me a few years ago. I used to eat them like candy, but after a while I got tired of them and just left them there."
"I didn't mean to give them to my precious disciple. That day he said he was hungry, so I handed them to him. How was I supposed to know they had expired?"
She looked at Ai Yueli with a puzzled expression and asked, "By the way… do pills actually expire?"
"You…"
Ai Yueli couldn't help clutching her chest. She had always thought Bai Yiyi was a bit foolish, but ever since Bai Yiyi met Ye Ling, it seemed she was no longer just a little foolish.
But what could she do?
Bai Yiyi was her Sect Master, after all.
She could only explain patiently, "Everything in this world has its destined lifespan. It's just a matter of how long."
"But the pills Little Six refined all seemed usable to me," Bai Yiyi asked again.
"Those pills contain Dao resonance. Of course they can't be immortal, but they last far longer. Fasting Pills, on the other hand, are mundane items. Naturally, they will decay and spoil."
Ai Yueli spoke carefully and earnestly, as if teaching a child, deliberately leaving out the deeper reasons. After all, this girl wouldn't understand them anyway.
In truth, the main reason Fasting Pills expired was that their primary ingredients were ordinary grains.
At the end of the day, Fasting Pills simply extracted energy from grains and combined it with Spiritual Qi, creating the effect where eating a single pill could sustain someone for days.
It was essentially the same principle as compressed biscuits or energy bars from before Ye Ling crossed over, just far more exaggerated thanks to the presence of Spiritual Qi.
However, this world had no preservatives or anything similar to slow down spoilage. The grains that made up the Fasting Pills would inevitably deteriorate over time. This was something the cultivation world simply couldn't solve, relying only on an alchemist's skill to delay it.
In a sense, the fact that the Fasting Pills refined by Bai Yiyi's Sixth Junior Sister could be stored in a Storage Ring for several years was already extremely rare.
Normally, if an ordinary alchemist could keep Fasting Pills viable for three to six months, they would already be considered a master. Not because these pills were hard to refine, but because true alchemy masters wouldn't waste time researching something like this.
Yet even such alchemists were enough to be treated as honored guests by the Four Great Imperial Dynasties. After all, one of them was worth an entire logistics force of tens of thousands.
Naturally, Ai Yueli wasn't about to explain all this to Bai Yiyi. Even if she did, it would be like playing music to a cow.
"I understand."
Bai Yiyi's cute little face wore an expression that clearly said, "I didn't understand a single word."
"Forget it."
Ai Yueli didn't feel like arguing with her and continued, "In any case, you're not going anywhere today. Stay here and study properly. I still have something to talk to you about tonight."
Teaching Bai Yiyi always had to be done in the afternoon. Otherwise, sooner or later, Ai Yueli would be driven mad by her.
"Don't be like that. My precious disciple must really need my help!"
Bai Yiyi waved her lotus-root-like arms, completely abandoning her image as she started acting cute.
"You still can't go down the mountain."
Seeing this, Ai Yueli's tone softened noticeably. She couldn't help placing a hand on Bai Yiyi's head as she said, "You remember what Master said, right? Before you separate your soul, you're not allowed to leave the mountain."
"…"
Thinking of the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden, Bai Yiyi fell silent.
"Now that Ling'er has appeared, your knot in the heart should be easing, shouldn't it?"
Ai Yueli simply pulled Bai Yiyi into her arms and spoke gently, "We cultivate the External Dao. The day of ascension is still far away. Why not cultivate together with Ling'er and ascend earlier to meet Master?"
The path of the External Dao was long and arduous, and ascension was still a distant goal.
It was worth mentioning that although Ye Ling had learned Ai Yueli's Talisman Dao, she had never passed on the true External Dao cultivation method to him.
This wasn't because she was hiding anything. It was simply because Ye Ling had already chosen the Orthodox Dao, and there was no need for him to walk her External Dao.
"I don't want to!"
Bai Yiyi shook her head firmly. "If we go, we go together. I don't want to be the only one going to see Master."
"But isn't Ling'er there?"
"It's different. I want to go see Master with all of you. I don't want to be the only one getting scolded."
"…"
The warmth of the moment was instantly shattered by Bai Yiyi's words.
So she knew she'd get scolded.
Then just what kind of days had Ling'er been living through?
Being annoyed by her like that must've been miserable.
Ai Yueli shot Bai Yiyi an exasperated look.
If Ye Ling were here, he'd definitely call her a troublemaker.
"Sigh… I wonder how my precious disciple is doing now."
Bai Yiyi seemed to have already forgotten everything from before. Nestled in Ai Yueli's arms, she murmured softly.
"Stop thinking about it. Ling'er only left ten minutes ago. He probably hasn't even reached the place he's staying yet."
Ai Yueli felt a wave of suffocation, both mentally and physically.
After shifting her position slightly, she added, "Besides, even if you went, what could you actually do?"
"Wuu…"
Bai Yiyi let out her third pitiful cry.
"So cultivate properly and stop thinking about all this."
Ai Yueli straightened Bai Yiyi up, forcing her to look at the looping projection. "If you don't want to cultivate, then at least memorize this spell."
"…"
Bai Yiyi said nothing, staring at the image with dull, unfocused eyes.
I wonder what Ling'er is doing right now.
After settling Bai Yiyi down, Ai Yueli found herself, without even realizing it, starting to miss Ye Ling as well.