Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

He couldn't wait to boil water and counted out thirty dumplings, which he then threw into the pot to cook.

While the dumplings were cooking, he poured in some vinegar, added salt, and made a dipping sauce.

Although it's a day off today, Yunling said that Master Yuanyan wants to give her a little test today, so she can only come to see him in the evening.

As for Da Chun, he had already gone out to practice long ago. Ever since Zhuang Xing brought him that letter home, he stopped resting on his days off and stopped playing ball with his neighbors. He was only focused on cultivating true qi as soon as possible, becoming a disciple of Qing Sui, so that he could go home to visit his family.

Today is the day the city opens to the public, and the senior students all have their own things to do.

So Zhuang Xing prepared food alone in the woodshed. Although delicious food tastes better when shared, sometimes he also wanted to enjoy some time alone.

On a sunny winter morning, I sit alone, basking in the sun for a while, eating a plate of dumplings I made myself, and sipping some hot noodle soup...

Two words: comfortable~

He waited while burning firewood to warm himself.

Just then, a small figure appeared at the door of the woodshed.

It was Little Jasmine. She poked her little head out and looked at me curiously.

Two years have passed since Xiao Moli came to the mountain. Most of the children who were brought up the mountain back then have found their parents and been sent back down the mountain, but Xiao Moli is still on the mountain.

She is too young to explain many things clearly. She can't even remember her own name or birthday, let alone where she lives. She can't say her parents' names or appearances. Therefore, finding her family is a very difficult task.

This spring, before Bai Yu left, she could often be seen running around beside Bai Yu. Now that Bai Yu has gone down the mountain with the others, she is all alone.

She doesn't usually need to do any work. In fact, the temple doesn't lack people to do odd jobs. How can a child have the strength of an adult to do chores?

The cooks in the canteen, the bricklayers, the snow sweepers on the roof in winter, the blacksmiths and tailors—these were all existing people, each with superb skills. Xuanqing Temple brought those homeless children to the temple simply to take care of them.

If senior brothers and sisters go down the mountain to exorcise demons and encounter orphans whose parents have died at the hands of demons, they will bring them to Xuanqing Temple.

The reason they were made to do odd jobs and work with the masters was so that they could learn to support themselves and not become helpless and helpless when they went down the mountain, unable to endure any hardship and only knowing how to beg for food, turning into a giant baby.

Of course, not every orphan will go down the mountain.

If a child displays talent that satisfies the masters, who think he is a promising talent and are willing to take him on as an apprentice, then he can stay.

However, such children are rare among orphans. The apprentices of the masters are limited, and most of them are taken by the children who pay to go up the mountain. The children who can stay and are willing to stay are basically selected from these apprentices. This is how the system has been passed down from generation to generation.

Little Jasmine was an outsider to this system; she was taken in by human traffickers.

Because she was too young, the temple did not require her to do any work. Since they were still searching for her parents, they did not send her down the mountain with Bai Yu and the others.

She was left all alone. Although she lived with the other female disciples in the temple and someone would take care of her, the disciples all had to go to the school during the day. After Bai Yu left, there was actually no one to take care of her.

Zhuang Xing didn't get to see Xiao Moli very often, but when they did meet, he would take her out for a meal and treat her to some meat dishes. He would also bring her along on holidays.

Although they were not related by blood, he treated Xiao Moli like his own sister.

He suddenly remembered that after Bai Yu left, when he saw Xiao Moli, she seemed to be all alone.

"Brother Taoist priest, what are you doing here?" Little Jasmine asked on tiptoe.

"I'm cooking dumplings." Zhuang Xing stood up and pulled her into the woodshed.

This is the communal woodshed in the Bai Sui disciples' living area. There are more than twenty rooms in total, each with an iron pot and firewood. Outside is a stream for drawing water. Most disciples come here to boil water for bathing.

It's rare to find someone like Zhuang Xing who comes here to cook. When he came today, he brought his own pots, pans, cutting board, and cleaver.

"What are dumplings?" Little Jasmine asked.

"It's delicious. Little Jasmine, would you like to eat with your brother?" Zhuang Xing said.

"Is it okay?" Little Jasmine looked up.

"Of course you can." Zhuang Xing patted her little head.

Although we don’t know Xiao Moli’s exact age, she looks to be at most five or six years old, much younger than Zhuang Xing, who is eight years old and has developed ahead of his age.

If it were her previous life, she would be in kindergarten at most this year.

But she was kidnapped by bad people and almost sold to a bad place.

That year, a white-tailed jackal even grabbed her by the collar and lifted her up. At such a young age, she had already experienced life and death in the jaws of jackals.

Zhuang Xing sighed inwardly, wondering when he would be able to find her parents and send her back home.

After two years of no news, he felt that his hope was very slim.

But he couldn't say anything discouraging at this time, so he lifted the lid of the wood-fired pot and saw that the dumplings were almost cooked, so he scooped them out.

He picked up a dumpling, dipped it in vinegar, blew on it twice, and tasted it to see if it was cooked.

It was a bit hot, but the taste was still quite good. Although it lacked some seasonings and didn't quite replicate the taste he remembered, it was still very fragrant.

So he picked out ten dumplings, put them in another bowl, and gave them to Little Jasmine.

"Dumplings taste better with vinegar." Zhuang Xing handed her a stool and ate standing up. "Try it, but be careful, it's hot. Remember to blow on it before you eat."

"Ah."

Little Jasmine sat down, her short little hands not yet very dexterous with chopsticks. She couldn't pick it up the first time, so she poked two holes in the dumpling vertically and stuck it in the bowl before dipping it in the vinegar dish, blowing on it twice, and putting the dumpling in her little mouth.

The dumplings Zhuang Xing made seemed a bit too big for her.

She couldn't put the dumpling in her mouth, but seeing that Zhuang Xing had been eating them one after another, she held her breath and forced herself to wrap the dumpling up.

"Slow down." Afraid that she would choke, Zhuang Xing quickly scooped up a bowl of noodle soup and added some cold water.

It took her a while to swallow the dumpling.

"Have some soup." Zhuang Xing served the perfectly warm noodle soup to Xiao Moli.

Little Jasmine took two sips before catching her breath. She looked at the bowl, and when she looked up and smiled, her two braids swung around.

"Brother Taoist priest, the dumplings are delicious."

"Eat more if you like it. There's more. If you're still hungry, I'll cook more for you."

"Ah."

Little Jasmine buried her head in her dumplings. Zhuang Xing looked at her little face and wondered if his little sister would be as well-behaved as she grew up.

I think it might be a bit difficult. My little sister is only one year old, but she seems to have a mischievous nature and might be a bit fussy.

Speaking of which, Bai Yu and her father should have harvested the wheat they planted by now.

As Zhuang Xing was pondering this, before he could even finish his second dumpling, another figure appeared outside the woodshed.

"found it."

It was Daoist Qingxuzi. The old Daoist smiled slightly, holding his whisk.

Found it. Does the Taoist priest need something from me?

"Is the Taoist priest looking for me?" Zhuang Xing put down his bowl and chopsticks, stood up and bowed.

"We're looking for that little girl over there with her puffed-out lips."

Master Qingxu smiled kindly, walked into the woodshed, and squatted down.

Little Jasmine stopped chewing and looked at the old Taoist priest.

"Little girl, have you ever seen this before?"

The old Taoist priest took out a yin-yang fish jade pendant. The pendant should have been a pair, but the old Taoist priest only had one half.

Xiao Moli paused for a moment, then suddenly looked at her chest. Zhuang Xing realized she was looking for something and helped her take the bowl and chopsticks away.

She made a conscious effort to move her throat, then took out a jade pendant without a string from her inner pocket, and the two pendants fit together perfectly.

The old Taoist priest returned both jade pendants to Little Jasmine: "Little girl, these jade pendants were given to me by your family. They've come to pick you up; they're at the foot of the mountain."

Little Jasmine didn't reply, she just stared blankly into the old Taoist's eyes, then turned to look at Zhuang Xing.

"Finally, I can go home, little Jasmine."

Zhuang Xing was happy for her; the jade pendants were clearly a pair, and must have been amulets her family had bought for her.

"Go home..." Little Jasmine said somewhat blankly, clutching the jade pendant in her hand, looking a little lost.

The news came so suddenly; she seemed unprepared.

At this moment, the old Taoist priest took out a very old wooden bird from his pocket.

Little Jasmine looked at the wooden bird and reached out to grab it.

"Do you recognize it?" the old Taoist priest asked.

"Mmm." Little Jasmine nodded.

"Then there's no mistake, child." The old Taoist left the wooden bird with her.

"go home..."

Her eyes lit up, but then she suddenly turned her head and grabbed Zhuang Xing's clothes.

The old Taoist smiled and looked at Zhuang Xing: "Zhuang Xing, you should take this child down the mountain."

"I understand, Daoist Master." Zhuang Xing nodded.

"Speaking of which, what are you eating? It looks delicious!" the old Taoist priest asked.

"These are dumplings. Would you like to try some, Daoist Master?" Zhuang Xing showed off the more than seventy dumplings that hadn't been cooked yet.

"I am a little hungry," the old Taoist priest said.

Zhuang Xing then picked out another thirty dumplings and put them in the pot. While the dumplings were cooking, the old Taoist priest talked to him about other things.

“The child’s family were merchants from Yidu. They took her to a temple fair, but they got lost from her. They searched for two years before they received news from the government and finally found her at Xuanqing Temple.”

"Now that we've found her, she and her family will be returning to Yidu."

"I was just planning to visit an old friend in Yidu. Zhuang Xing, you will come with me on this trip to Yidu."

"Am I going to Yidu too?" Zhuang Xing asked, somewhat puzzled.

"You've been a disciple of Qing Sui for two years now, haven't you?" the old Taoist said.

"It's been more than two years," Zhuang Xing said.

"I want to see how much you've improved," the old Taoist priest said again.

So that's how it is. Speaking of which, since he went up the mountain, Master Qingxuzi has no longer accompanied him. The place where he sees the Master most often is in the school of Taoist magic and talismans.

But since he specializes in swordsmanship, it's no wonder the Taoist priest wanted to know his current skill level.