After Lu Yang woke up, Li Haoran and Qin Yanyan came to one after another. The father and daughter looked around, utterly bewildered by the situation.
"You're all awake?" Fifth Elder sat on a wooden bench, looking completely calm and detached.
Qin Yanyan recalled what had happened right before she blacked out: Fifth Elder had swept his sleeve, everything had gone dark before their eyes, and by the time they came to, they were already here.
It was just like the legendary Universe in the Sleeve.
"I know! What you just used was the Universe in the Sleeve, wasn't it?!" Qin Yanyan said excitedly, thrilled at the thought of personally experiencing such a legendary grand divine ability.
As expected of an elder of the Dao Seeking Sect!
Fifth Elder offered a tranquil smile, as if everything went without saying.
Li Haoran wore a pensive look. He had never heard of his master knowing the Universe in the Sleeve.
Meng Jingzhou, who had watched the entire scene play out, twitched an eyebrow. He was the only one of the four who hadn't been knocked unconscious.
After Fifth Elder knocked the three of them out, he had even justified himself, claiming he was worried Lu Yang and the other two were afraid of heights and had no flying experience; taking them down on a sheer dive might be too overwhelming for them, so knocking them out to carry along was far more convenient.
Then Fifth Elder had pulled out three burlap sacks and bagged the three up, his movements so practiced one couldn't tell how many times he had done it before.
"So this is the Try Again Barbecue Shop you talked about?" Fifth Elder had done his homework well before setting off. He had asked Dai Bufan for the mission reports submitted by Lu Yang and the others, so he knew what had transpired in Yanjiang Commandery.
Looking at the familiar furnishings, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou wore reminiscing expressions.
Time flew like a shuttle; circumstances shifted and people came and went. In the blink of an eye, who knew how many years had passed, and even the Immortal Cult had fallen—yet here they were, back again.
Fifth Elder wiped a finger over a table, revealing a thick layer of dust. "Three months have passed. It's time for a cleaning."
Just as the four juniors were rolling up their sleeves to get to work, Fifth Elder waved a hand. "No need to go to so much trouble."
His lips trembled slightly as he chanted an incantation no one could make out, flicking out a seal with a casual wave.
As the seal touched the floor, space seemed to shudder, sending out invisible ripples in concentric circles.
The dust on the tables, chairs, and floor undulated with the spatial ripples, peeling away from the surfaces they clung to and spreading outward.
Even the dust on Lu Yang and the other three trembled faintly, peeling away from their bodies.
Once the dust, grease, and grime had all dispersed into the corners of the room, suction manifested in Fifth Elder's palm. The grime contracted inward, forming a swirling vortex.
In the end, the grime compressed into a sphere. Fifth Elder clenched his fist, and the ball of filth vanished without a trace.
The entire barbecue shop felt refreshed and brand-new, as if every single object had just been replaced.
"This is the Dust-Cleansing Incantation, commonly used for cleaning. In your spare time from cultivation, you can practice practical minor spells like this," Fifth Elder introduced.
"If someone gets on your nerves, you can also use the Dust-Cleansing Incantation to bundle all the dirt into a ball and chuck it at them."
That had been Fifth Elder's original motive for learning the incantation.
"Time to reopen!"
Lu Yang pulled out various seasonings, skewers, and the Automatic Skewering Array from his identity jade pendant. Things like the barbecue grills were already in the shop; they hadn't taken them along when they left before.
"This Automatic Skewering Array is quite interesting. Very creative." Fifth Elder swept his gaze over the array and instantly deduced its function.
Lu Yang thought to himself: *This is the latest achievement of the Immortal Cult's upper echelon, pooling the collective wisdom of four Body Integration stage cultivators.*
Fifth Elder asked, "Is there an array or magical treasure for automatic grilling?"
Lu Yang shook his head. That hadn't been designed yet.
"In that case, I'll design one. However, I've never grilled skewers before and lack experience, so I'll need to grill for a couple of days to practice. That way, I'll know how to design a magical treasure for automatic grilling."
Fifth Elder's favorite thing to do was forging magical treasures that had never existed before.
Lu Yang was delighted. He had been wondering whether he'd need to go capture a couple of chang ghosts from somewhere, but it seemed there was no need for that now.
Lu Yang mixed the seasonings according to a specific ratio, quickly concocting a jar of vibrant red Barbarian-style barbecue sauce.
"I'll go out and buy some raw ingredients first," Lu Yang said, leaving Fifth Elder to get his hands dirty and try it out.
"Go on, go on."
When Lu Yang pushed open the front doors, he drew astonished looks from pedestrians on the street.
"Manager Lu!"
"What? Is that Manager Lu?"
"Is the barbecue shop reopening?"
"I heard Manager Lu left to start a business. Did he fail and come back to run the barbecue shop again?"
"Wasn't the story that Manager Lu went home to inherit the family estate? Why is he back?"
"There was a rumor like that?"
"Haven't you heard? Manager Lu got separated from his parents when he was little, and the barbecue recipe was his childhood memory. An almighty powerhouse came here to eat skewers, wept bitterly after finishing, and said only someone from their family knew how to make that flavor. When he asked who made them, father and son recognized each other, and the barbecue shop closed!"
"How come I heard Manager Lu has a very rich fiancée, and she took him away?"
The pedestrians buzzed with chatter. Try Again Barbecue Shop was once the most popular establishment in Yanjiang Commandery; even surrounding commanderies and counties had heard of it.
Unfortunately, right after the Spring-Plucking Festival, the barbecue shop had closed its doors, leaving people craving its food more than words could say.
People had also come up with all kinds of wild guesses regarding Lu Yang's departure.
As for the Commandery Governor's death back then, no one would ever associate that with a barbecue shop—let alone one whose walls were covered in brocade banners of appreciation.
"Manager Lu, are you reopening the shop?"
"Yeah! If I don't eat your skewers in the evening, it always feels like something is missing!"
Facing the enthusiastic townsfolk, Lu Yang raised his hand and called out loudly, "Quiet down, everyone! Rest assured, we came back this time specifically to reopen the barbecue shop. Our initial plan is to reopen tomorrow!"
"Hooray!"
After Lu Yang finally managed to break through the ring of locals, only to be surrounded all over again at the vegetable market, he returned to the barbecue shop panting for breath. A single trip outside felt more exhausting than a pitched battle.
"I'm back!"
Lu Yang tossed the meat and vegetables onto the Automatic Skewering Array. The array automatically sliced the meat and vegetables into small pieces, while wooden skewers floated into the air, impaling the ingredients in a remarkably smooth sequence.
Fifth Elder carried the prepared skewers over to the barbecue grill, turning to ask, "Do you have any flames specifically meant for grilling?"
As a grandmaster of weapon refinement, Fifth Elder commanded seven kinds of True Fire, but all of them were ferocious and unyielding. They were fine for refining weapons, but completely unsuitable for grilling.
"I have the Three-Flavor True Fire!" Lu Yang volunteered. His True Fire was best suited for barbecue.
"I have a True Fire too," Meng Jingzhou said, a scorching flame springing up in his palm.
"Pure Yang True Fire?" Fifth Elder recognized the origin of the flame in Meng Jingzhou's palm. Anyone with a Bachelor Spiritual Root who condensed a Bachelor Golden Core would automatically master this True Fire. "Still, your flame probably isn't as suited for grilling as Lu Yang's Three-Flavor True Fire, right?"
Meng Jingzhou flashed a confident grin. "No, my Pure Yang True Fire is the product of a Double Bachelor Spiritual Root. It has an effect that traditional Pure Yang True Fire never had."
Fifth Elder asked curiously, "What is it?"
"It boosts virility."
"Any ingredients cooked with my Pure Yang True Fire will boost virility!"
Chapter 324