Chapter 36: Winter Solstice, Dumplings with Chestnuts

After five days of snow, the sky finally cleared on the morning of the Winter Solstice. Under the sunlight, the Jiuque Mountain Range was blanketed in silver, appearing like a fairyland.

After Xin Yi's words of advice last night, although Long Qi could not be said to have fully resolved his inner turmoil, he had at least emerged from the gloom.

The moves in the *Coiling Dragon Sword Manual* looked extremely familiar. Long Qi tried practicing a few, and while they felt smooth enough, he always felt they were somewhat anticlimactic; the further he went, the more powerless he felt, as if something were missing.

Smoke from cooking fires rose early in the morning on Qiuyun Peak. As soon as Lingxiang stepped outside, she could smell the fragrance.

Following the scent to the kitchen, she saw Maidong and several disciples busily wrapping dumplings. A pot had already been boiled on the stove, and the plump, white dumplings were rolling in the soup, looking quite lovely.

Lingxiang leaned against the doorframe, watching Maidong laugh and joke with her senior brothers, and suddenly recalled that this girl had also been brought up the mountain by Senior Brother Fuyin not long after that incident.

During those first few days, she had been burning with a high fever that would not subside for a long time, moaning and delirious. It was only thanks to Senior Brother Fuyin's day-and-night care and meticulous treatment that she managed to save her life. Yet, after waking up, she had forgotten her past entirely, not even remembering her own name.

"I guessed you'd be the first to wake up; no one's nose is as sharp as yours." Maidong looked up, saw Lingxiang, and couldn't help but tease her.

The playful remark interrupted Lingxiang's train of thought. She didn't show a thing on her face and began to joke back with Maidong.

"I wondered who was disturbing the peace of my stomach so early in the morning; it turns out it was you, girl. Your senior brothers here must have been put through quite a lot by you."

"That's truly a heartless thing to say. Every year on this day you come here to sponge off us, and this year it just so happens that it snowed before the Winter Festival. You're the one getting the benefit and still complaining, using such words to squeeze me. You're not getting a single dumpling this year," Maidong scolded with a smile, turning to scoop the dumplings out of the pot one by one.

Just as Lingxiang reached out, Maidong slapped her hand away.

"This first pot is to be sent to the Junior Uncles and Master; how can you be so lacking in manners!"

"That's a fine thing to say—could it be that I am not your Junior Aunt?"

Maidong glanced sideways at Lingxiang and scoffed: "You are merely a Peak Master now; are you actually harboring delusions of sitting on equal footing with the Sect Leader and Elders?"

Lingxiang pursed her lips upon hearing this—this wretched girl had been paying less and less attention to her lately.

The area for Outer Disciples was also very lively. The sect had sent over many dumplings, saying that since it was the Winter Solstice, everyone should celebrate the festival together.

The kitchen boys cooked them on the spot. There were shepherd's purse and tofu fillings, chive and vermicelli fillings, and winter bamboo shoot and mushroom fillings. You only had to say which kind you wanted, and they would be cooked in a moment.

As soon as they heard there were dumplings to eat, Long Qi dragged Liu Xia and the other two to the kitchen, but upon hearing they were all vegetarian fillings, he couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.

"Ever since I came up the mountain, I haven't touched a scrap of meat. Finally, there's a meal of dumplings, and they're all vegetarian. My stomach is so empty I could graze on grass."

"Once you enter the Daoist Sect, you naturally cannot have meat. Cultivation, after all, requires tempering the heart and will as a necessary path," Liu Xia said, stepping forward to pick a few of each and handing them to the kitchen boy. "In that sense, it seems there is also the saying about starving the body and skin. It is said that when cultivation reaches a certain realm, one must practice Bigu to further refine one's cultivation."

"So, from now on, I can only live on these green vegetables and leaves every day?" Long Qi lazily picked a few dumplings and handed them out.

"I heard that if you achieve the right fruit and ascend to immortality to the Thirty-Three Heavens, there will be meat to eat. The storybooks say that whenever the Heavenly Officials and Heavenly Generals have a banquet, there is always Immortal Grade food like dragon liver and phoenix marrow to nourish them. It can increase cultivation and satisfy one's appetite at the same time—killing two birds with one stone," Zhao Wuyang said, holding his plate and hesitating over which dumplings to choose.

"Heavenly Officials and Heavenly Generals? That must be a realm reached after hundreds of years of cultivation? It's a pity that my stomach has to go without offerings for so long; it's truly enough to make one mourn to death..." Long Qi said, looking toward Xin Yi, only to see him staring at the dumplings with a thoughtful expression.

"Dumplings, huh..."

"Mother said that one of the dumplings has a chestnut inside. Whoever eats it will have a year ahead as prosperous as that chestnut fruit," the girl said, shaking the two buns on her head and hopping toward the boy. The hair buns bounced happily with the girl's movements, looking extremely cute.

Just as she was about to approach, she didn't notice the step under her feet and stumbled, about to fall to the ground. Seeing this, the boy in the courtyard hurriedly broke his horse stance and leaped toward the girl, catching her just before she was about to fall. The bowl that had been balanced on his head shattered into pieces the moment he moved.

The boy pulled the girl up, but the girl acted as if nothing had happened, saying with a grin: "It's a good thing Brother Lu has good kung fu, otherwise you'd have to take an ugly, disfigured wife home in the future."

Hearing this, the boy smiled with a face full of doting affection.

Just after finishing the dumplings, True Person Chengxin and True Person Fuyin resumed yesterday's unfinished game. True Person Donghui continued to contemplate the *Heavenly Profound Fragmentary Scroll*, while Lingxiang sat to the side shelling pine nuts.

Crack—crack—crack—

True Person Donghui frowned slightly and glanced at Lingxiang, but she acted as if nothing were the matter, tirelessly making the annoying sounds.

"Ahem..." True Person Donghui pressed his fist to his mouth and coughed lightly.

"What? Is Fourth Senior Brother perhaps wanting to eat some?" Lingxiang said, handing over a handful of pine nuts with a sincere expression.

"Ahem!" True Person Donghui was momentarily stifled by anger and actually started coughing. After calming down, he said to Lingxiang: "It is not that I will not help you; the rules are the rules. There is absolutely no precedent for lending out cultivation techniques from the Langhuan Pavilion, especially to an Outer Disciple."

"In that case, I won't make things difficult for you, Fourth Senior Brother. Since they cannot be borrowed, I will just take the person to see them myself," Lingxiang said, popping a pine nut into her mouth.

"Nonsense! How can you bring an Outer Disciple into the Langhuan Pavilion!"

"Look at how you put it; who said I was going to bring him inside right now? After the three rounds of martial trials, he will naturally be my personal disciple. Wouldn't it be only natural for him to enter the Langhuan Pavilion then? Right now, it's just going through the motions."

"Speaking of the martial trials..." Fuyin, who was waiting for Chengxin to place his piece, said: "Regarding that matter with Huiwu, why did you have Hanyang keep it hidden? You must know that Sect Leader Senior Brother is presiding over Wangxian Terrace, and he is aware of all such matters."

"Who said I wanted Hanyang to hide that matter? I just told him not to make a scene about it," Lingxiang said, gazing at the ethereal clouds and mist outside the veranda. "Regarding that person, I always feel I have seen him somewhere before, but I really cannot remember. Let's keep an eye on him for now. If he is harboring evil intentions, there must be someone behind him. If we were to punish him now, wouldn't we be alerting the enemy?"

True Person Chengxin deliberated for a long time before finally placing a piece.

"The Yuanqing Sect has only just opened its gates; it is better to be cautious."

Long Qi listlessly popped a dumpling into his mouth, only to find the taste was actually quite good, and he hurriedly praised the kitchen boy's craftsmanship.

The young boy was embarrassed by the praise and scratched his head, saying: "We are merely boiling these dumplings in the pot; it can hardly be called craftsmanship... If they are delicious, it is because the filling was mixed well."

"Hmm? Could it be that these dumplings weren't wrapped by you?" Long Qi popped another one in and asked, his mouth full.

"These dumplings are sent from Qiuyun Peak every year. In previous years, before the sect gates were opened, they would send one bowl of cooked dumplings per person. Now that there are so many Outer Disciples, Senior Sister Maidong instructed us to make them hot. I heard that before the sky was even bright, she was already busy with the senior brothers from Qiuyun Peak."

It was Maidong? She had this skill?

Xin Yi picked up a dumpling and took a bite, instantly freezing.

That dumpling...

It actually contained a chestnut!