Building a sect from scratch.

Just then, the restaurant door was pushed open again, and Chao Yan rushed over, panting: "Senior Sister, Senior Uncle, Elder Lu Ying, I'm back!"

Next, she started taking out cups from her Qiankun bag. Each cup was made of paper, with four large characters printed on the surface that Kui Congrong could not recognize, and a line of smaller characters in the middle, which were in Zhongzhou script: "Duck Milk Tea".

After emptying more than a dozen cups, Chaoyan finally stopped and began introducing them one by one: "Senior Sister, Senior Uncle, and Elder Lu Ying, please see which flavor you all like! I highly recommend this one. It's a new product developed by Sister Ya Ya, called Wax Apple Honey Tea. It's made with hibiscus fruit, honey, and green tea. I think they call hibiscus fruit 'wax apple' in the Blue Star Realm, so it's called Wax Apple Honey Tea! It's super fragrant!"

"And this, watermelon iced tea. This watermelon is a special variety developed by the Taiyin Sect's research institute. It's sweet and juicy, and it tastes especially good when made into a smoothie!"
"Oh, by the way, this is super delicious too! Rice Mochi Milk Tea! It's made with mochi made from mashed glutinous rice, paired with milk and black tea. It's the most popular milk tea lately..."

Elder Lu Ying was surprised that Chao Yan bought so much at once: "You bought so much!"

Asagao waved her hand and said, "Oh, not much! Anyway, these new paper cups have a good preservation and heat retention effect. Even if you don't put them in your storage bag, they can keep food fresh for several days! It's not easy to queue up once, so let's buy more while there are fewer people now!"

Kui Congrong carefully examined the paper cups, even noting that the lids were made of paper: "Won't it leak when you use paper cups to hold drinks?"

"Hehe, look here!"

Asagao picked up a cup of milk tea, turned it over, and revealed the bottom.

On the bottom of the milk tea cup was a delicate and small spirit array diagram, which could be faintly seen automatically absorbing spiritual energy to maintain the faint glow caused by the array.

Kui Congrong knew very little about formations and talismans, and could only roughly tell that it was a variant of a sealing formation. However, she also noticed a clue: "This seems... not to have been drawn on?"

"That's right! It's printed on! By adding spirit stones and travertine powder ground in a specific ratio to ink and dye, you can achieve the effect of a cultivator drawing talismans by drawing spirits! Of course, compared to drawn talismans, this method has a time limit. At least it will gradually lose its effectiveness once the spirit stone and travertine powder on the printed pattern is worn away and consumed. But according to preliminary calculations, it should last for at least a few months!"

Asagao enthusiastically introduced the design, pointing to a corner of the pattern, and said, "This is a collaborative project between our research institute and the fried chicken research institute! I even optimized this part of the design! It saved a huge amount of space that wasn't very useful!"

Just as they were enjoying the admiring gazes of three people, a very unpleasant voice suddenly rang out. It was Lü Wenyuan, who had returned with a tray of food: "Keep bragging! It was clearly Old Du who suggested it, how did it become your achievement!"

Chaoyan slammed her hand on the table in anger: "You're talking nonsense! Although he suggested it, I was the one who made the changes! What does a lousy alchemist like him know about spirit talismans and formations!"

"But you're not a practitioner of talismans and formations either!" Lu Wenyuan pushed the milk tea cup aside with his plate, placed the plate on the table, smiled ingratiatingly at Jiao Xueling and the other two, and said, "I ordered a lot of the most famous hot spicy chicken wing bucket and crispy original chicken, as well as some hamburgers and fries. Everyone can try them!"

Then, he turned to Chaoyan, who was glaring at him fiercely, coughed twice, and said, "Ahem, Senior Sister Chaoyan, mind your manners. Senior Uncle and Elder Lu Ying are here!"

Asagao forced a smile, offering a dry explanation: "Ah! Well, I was just in a hurry, ahaha..." But at the same time, she glared at Lü Wenyuan with murderous intent, the meaning of which even Elder Lu Ying, who wasn't familiar with the two, understood: 'You just wait!'

Elder Lu Ying looked at the two energetic young people and couldn't help but feel a little emotional. They were just like the young men and women of China on Earth. No matter what civilization or society they came from, young people always had a kind of vigor that made people happy.

She patted the empty chair next to her and, unusually, joined in the teasing, saying, "Come on, sit down. We're like brothers and sisters, what can't a meal of fried chicken solve? If that doesn't work, we'll just have some milk tea, right?"

Jiao Xueling smiled and revealed the two's past, saying, "They've always been like this. Back in Pinglin Peak, they were always fighting. If I wasn't around, sometimes we'd have to alert Uncle Qianzhi next door to come and discipline them. Otherwise, they'd be like mice seeing a cat every time they saw Uncle Qianzhi!"

Kui Congrong listened to Jiao Xueling's words and laughed. She had a good relationship with Master Pinglin, who lived in seclusion for many years and sometimes didn't even leave his thatched hut. So she could only occasionally help teach his disciples and punish a few naughty ones. Chaoyan and Lü Wenyuan were always there for him.

Strangely enough, even though she was dressed very elegantly and never lost her temper, and most of the time she was even smiling on purpose to show friendliness, all the disciples were terrified when they saw her, as if she could devour someone alive.

Lu Wenyuan immediately took advantage of the situation and pretended to complain, "That's right! Senior Sister Chaoyan is really fierce! Last time she grabbed a bunch of fire-starting talismans and threw them down my collar, burning all my clothes! Luckily there was a pond that Master dug for fishing nearby, otherwise I would have been in big trouble!"

Asagao put her hands on her hips and said, "Then who told you to steal the homework I painstakingly copied!"

Lu Wenyuan said aggrievedly, "But you took it back... and I was punished by Senior Sister Jiao! A hundred times! She made me copy it for a whole seven days!"

Asagao said matter-of-factly, "That was Senior Sister Jiao's punishment! It wasn't me who took it out on myself! Humph!"

"Alright, that's all old news. Senior Sister Qianzhi and Elder Lu Ying are both here, so stop embarrassing me!"

Jiao Xueling smiled, glared at each of them, and then lifted the bucket of fried chicken that Lü Wenyuan had brought, pushing it to the middle: "Eat it while it's hot. Fried chicken is the crispiest and most delicious when it's freshly served!"

Asagao quickly plopped down in the only empty chair, grabbed a fried chicken leg, and gave Lü Wenyuan a smug look, her expression full of provocation.

Lu Wenyuan muttered "childish" under his breath, then found an empty chair, moved it over, placed it at the head of the table, and sat down.

Jiao Xueling and Wei Congrong followed suit, grabbing fried chicken and eating with relish. Elder Lu Ying sighed inwardly, thinking that this kind of "fried chicken diplomacy" was simply "unseemly," and then joined in eating as well.

But I must say, the crispy crust, the tender and juicy chicken, paired with slightly spicy spices—she hadn't eaten these so-called "junk food" in years! At first bite, it was actually quite delicious! (End of Chapter)