Chapter 26: For the Sake of Lunch

What had seemed a certain death trap ended in less than two minutes once the Patriarch appeared. Qingyang Temple truly embodied the saying: mess with the juniors, and the elder will come for you.

To keep the ghosts from fleeing to cause harm elsewhere, before returning to the top of the pagoda Ye Yuan tossed down two talismans. One was a Soul-Collecting Talisman. With just a small activation from the old man, the countless weak, nearly collapsing female ghosts on the ground were all swept up before the sun fully rose — not a single one left behind.

Bai Yu was stunned. No wonder it was a talisman bestowed by the Patriarch: an ordinary soul-collecting slip could barely trap one fierce ghost, but this one cleared the entire field at once. He grew excited, turning the talisman over and over, though he couldn’t figure out its secrets.

Then he frowned, realizing a problem.

So many ghosts were now sealed inside — but neither he nor the girl had learned any ritual to ferry spirits to the afterlife. These female ghosts had no consciousness left and couldn’t cross over on their own. They couldn’t just keep them trapped forever, could they?

He turned toward the ever-resourceful genius.

“Girl, what now?”

Yun Jiao glanced around at the wreckage and replied seriously,

“I think… the most important thing is to clean up the kitchen first.”

“……”

The old man choked on his words. Thinking of the one upstairs waiting for food, he silently abandoned any thought of asking the Patriarch how to deal with the ghosts.

“It’s nearly eight o’clock,” Yun Jiao looked up at the sky. “The kitchen collapsed. Even if we start now, clearing and rebuilding will take half a day. If we don’t hurry and get lunch ready…”

She didn’t finish, but Bai Yu shuddered, recalling the Patriarch’s earlier fury. He nodded hard.

“You’re right! Kitchen first — hurry, hurry.”

Fierce ghosts were nothing compared to a hungry Patriarch!

He looked around for tools and noticed the other talisman Ye Yuan had given him.

“By the way, girl, what’s this one for?”

“No idea!” Yun Jiao shook her head. The design was unlike anything she’d seen in books. “Just try it. If the Patriarch gave it, it must be useful.”

“Makes sense!” Maybe it was for ferrying the ghosts. He raised the talisman and activated it. Instantly golden light flashed; the paper dissolved into a beam that shot into the ruins to the right.

The ground trembled. Rubble floated up as if gravity vanished, then reassembled itself, stacking higher and higher. In moments, walls rose; broken beams and pillars knit together. Before their stunned eyes, the chaos rewound itself — in less than a minute, a fully restored building stood where wreckage had been, down to the old smoke stains by the window.

“This… this must be the legendary Restoration Talisman!”

Bai Yu’s eyes went wide with disbelief.

“A Heaven-rank talisman said to repair all damage, even revive the dead! I didn’t think such a thing truly existed — no wonder it’s from the Patriarch!”

Excitement sparkled in his eyes.

Yun Jiao blinked. Revive the dead? Seriously?

“So great — the Patriarch’s helping rebuild Qingyang Temple!” Bai Yu said, deeply moved.

They watched the golden glow brighten and the rebuilt house rise taller, more complete…

Then it stopped.

(⊙_⊙)?

Wait. That’s it? Weren’t we supposed to fix the whole temple? Only one building?!

The old man waited a bit longer, but nothing happened. The golden light faded away.

Among the ruins, only one perfectly restored house stood — like a lone survivor in the middle of disaster.

Naturally, it was the kitchen.

Bai Yu: “……”

Yun Jiao: “……”

Both had a silent WTF moment.

---

Cooking itself wasn’t hard for Yun Jiao — she was used to it. The real problem was food: they’d run out of ingredients.

“Should we rush to the market?” Bai Yu suggested.

“No time.” The nearest market was hours away round trip. Dinner maybe; lunch, impossible. Yun Jiao suddenly longed for modern-day food delivery apps.

“So what then?”

“Forget it, I’ll figure something out.” Yun Jiao sighed.

In the end, she managed to cook lunch just before noon. No chicken soup for Ye Yuan, though — only a few big pots of mixed vegetable soups. Not as rich as chicken broth, but at least plentiful.

Bai Yu worried the Patriarch might explode again. But Ye Yuan only frowned slightly, said nothing, and sat down to quietly but thoroughly finish every bowl on the table. During pauses, he kept throwing Bai Yu guarded, watchful glances, face reading: I said no dinner for you, rotten wood — don’t think you can sneak any.

Not even a cabbage leaf reached Bai Yu. He nudged Yun Jiao, whispering,

“Girl, why does the Patriarch love soup so much? Any kind, he just drinks it all.”

Yun Jiao thought for a while, kept her serious face, and answered,

“Maybe… the incense offerings have been too dry?”

After all, he’s been eating here for thousands of years.

“……”

You can explain it like that?!

But… it kind of makes sense!

So all these decades the Patriarch never manifested — was it because he wasn’t given the right offerings?

=_=

Yun Jiao ignored him. When Ye Yuan finished the last bowl, she instinctively tidied the table and reached out.

“I’ll take the bowl.”

“Mm.” Ye Yuan started to hand it over — then saw it was her. His hand froze; the bowl nearly slipped. He jerked back, retreating several big steps as if startled.

Yun Jiao: “……”

Am I contagious or something?

Realizing he’d overreacted, Ye Yuan glanced at her, then the bowl, clearly awkward and uncertain. After a pause, he shoved the bowl into Bai Yu’s hands with solemn authority.

“You wash it.”

Huh?

Then, as if still dissatisfied, he gathered the rest of the empty bowls and piled them all on Bai Yu.

“As a mystic disciple, you can’t just eat without working.”

Bai Yu: “……”

Hold up — I didn’t even eat!! Why am I washing dishes?! Patriarch, that favoritism is showing!

Ye Yuan offered no explanation. He strode out quickly, heading back to the pagoda in a hurry — so fast it was almost comical that he didn’t bother to fly.

Yun Jiao slowly lowered her empty right hand, stared at her palm for a moment, then looked up toward the tall pagoda. In a flash of understanding, her eyes widened slightly.

Could it be… their Patriarch…?

(End of this chapter)