"Just right—one bowl each." Once the third bowl of wontons was cooked, Lu Yang cheerfully pushed it in front of Lan Ting.
Lan Ting casually glanced at Tao Yaoye, sat down quietly with the gentle grace of a well-bred lady, and picked up a wonton with her chopsticks.
*Since Senior Brother Lu chose this place, it must be a snack stall full of local character... Truly awful.*
Lan Ting stared at the bowl of wontons in astonishment. This was the most disgusting bowl of wontons she had ever eaten.
In truth, the quality of this bowl was merely mediocre to poor, not quite reaching the pinnacle of awfulness. But Lan Ting hailed from a prominent clan and was used to the finest delicacies in the mortal world. After joining the Moon Laurel Immortal Palace, although her diet had become lighter and simpler, the flavors were still second to none in the cultivation world.
A bowl of wontons that ranked below average even by mortal standards was naturally hard for her to swallow.
Seeing Lu Yang order yet another bowl, the stall owner was overjoyed. *Who in all of Yuanhe County doesn't know my wontons taste terrible? Out-of-towners like them are the exact suckers I fleece!*
He had run this wonton stall for nearly thirty years, and his entire clientele consisted of travelers from out of town.
Lu Yang had gotten lucky; his bowl had plenty of vinegar, which masked the taste of the wontons.
Regardless, wontons that had been ordered had to be eaten. In the end, the three of them finished all three bowls.
Wiping his mouth, Lu Yang remembered they had yet to get down to business. "Right, I haven't had a chance to ask you yet, Junior Sister Lan. What brought you here? Are you on a mission too?"
"Yes. A man named Squire Song asked the Moon Laurel Immortal Palace for help. He said his household has an eerie painting that won't burn, can't be thrown away, won't tear, and makes creepy noises in the middle of the night. It's very dangerous."
Tao Yaoye chimed in, "Senior Brother Lu and I are here for that as well. Senior Brother Lu was worried I wouldn't be able to complete the mission alone, so he came along with me."
Lu Yang was somewhat baffled. What Junior Sister Tao said wasn't strictly wrong, yet it felt oddly off.
"It looks like this Squire Song asked both of our sects for assistance."
This was a common occurrence. Those seeking help were often unsure which immortal sect was reliable, so to be safe, they would issue requests to multiple sects. As a result, disciples of the Five Great Immortal Sects frequently crossed paths on missions.
For instance, Daoist Buyu and Luo Hongxia had run into each other on a mission when they were young. Lan Ting had heard the story from her master: the two of them had taken a ghost-exorcism mission and stayed at an inn for three days, searching everywhere without finding where the ghost was hiding. In the end, they found it under Daoist Buyu's bed—while Daoist Buyu had been sleeping, the ghost had been right beneath him, staring up through the bedboards at him.
Afterward, Daoist Buyu insisted that the ghost split the three days' room fee with him.
The ghost had invoked Great Xia law, claiming that according to legal regulations, it wasn't a living being and didn't have to pay room fees.
Daoist Buyu had also cited Great Xia law, arguing that ghosts possessed no human rights and cultivators could kill them on sight.
The ghost had meekly paid its half of the room fee before being brought to justice.
"Senior Brother Lu, Junior Sister Tao, have you investigated Squire Song yet?"
Tao Yaoye recounted what they had just learned. "This is what Senior Brother Lu Yang and I discovered together."
"Senior Brother Lu Yang is truly impressive, uncovering so much right after arriving in Yuanhe County. Junior Sister Tao must have been quite a help as well. I arrived three days earlier than Senior Brother Lu, and what I uncovered is only slightly more than what you found."
"Unfortunately, I'm all on my own. If I had Senior Brother Lu Yang's help, I'm sure I could have uncovered even more."
Tao Yaoye acted as though she hadn't caught the subtext in Lan Ting's words, asking placidly, "What did you discover, Junior Sister Lan?"
"Squire Song's turning point occurred twenty years ago. At that time, his family's fortunes had declined, leaving him with little silver. In a desperate gamble, he invested his entire family fortune into business, only to end in complete failure and lose everything. Someone saw him heading into the mountains, seemingly intent on ending his life. Yet half a day later, Squire Song walked out of the mountains, no longer looking dazed, clutching a painting in his arms."
"You know the rest. Squire Song suddenly developed a keen head for business, wealth poured in, and his family became happy and prosperous."
Lan Ting cast Tao Yaoye a smug glance. *Well? You haven't uncovered this crucial piece of intelligence, have you?*
After hearing Lan Ting's account, Tao Yaoye warmly took Lan Ting's hand. "Junior Sister Lan, you're amazing to have investigated so much all on your own. It seems you do just fine by yourself."
With a beaming smile, Lan Ting linked arms with Tao Yaoye with intimate familiarity. "You're too kind. As the old saying goes, there's strength in numbers. It's just a pity Senior Brother Lu Yang came with you; if he had come with me, we would have completed the mission by now."
"Does Junior Sister Lan mean to say you're better than me?"
"Please don't twist my words, Junior Sister Tao. After all, I arrived three days earlier. If Senior Brother Lu Yang had come three days earlier with me, with his abilities, wouldn't the mission already be complete?"
"True enough. With Senior Brother Lu Yang's abilities, he could complete the mission all on his own."
The two young women walked arm in arm, smiles of long-lost friends reuniting on their faces, seemingly close as sisters.
Lu Yang paid no attention to what the two said afterward, absorbed in thought over the information Lan Ting had gathered. *Sure enough, the problem lies with that painting.*
"Let's go meet Squire Song."
The man and two women headed toward Squire Song's residence. On the way, Lan Ting kept glancing at Lu Yang.
"Junior Sister Lan, is there something on my face?"
Lan Ting smiled. "Not at all. I just think you're incredible, Senior Brother. You're so young, yet you're already the Sect Master's successor, and you even presided over the sect celebration. As far as I know, that's unprecedented in history. Compared to you, I fall far short."
"You flatter me. Becoming the Acting Sect Master was purely luck." Lu Yang wasn't being humble; his becoming the Acting Sect Master was entirely due to the bad luck of reviving the Immortal Fairy.
Seeing Lan Ting's dejection, Lu Yang comforted her, "Besides, you're very impressive yourself, Junior Sister Lan. I watched your battle with Old Meng. You were just too tense; that wasn't your true strength."
Hearing Lu Yang's encouragement, Lan Ting smiled once again. "That's true. I should be more confident; after all, I was representing the Palace's Golden Core stage in battle."
"Junior Sister Tao and I hit it off from the start. I originally thought we would meet on the arena stage, but unfortunately, things didn't go as hoped, and we didn't get a chance to spar."
Tao Yaoye spoke in a soft, gentle voice, "Does Junior Sister Lan love fighting so much? Seeing how gentle and graceful you usually are, I thought you were a well-bred lady."
Lu Yang sensed an odd dissonance and turned to ask the Immortal Fairy, "Fairy, don't you think Junior Sister Tao and Junior Sister Lan are acting a bit strange?"
The Immortal Fairy had also been observing from the spiritual space for a while, and she indeed found the two girls' gestures and tones rather bizarre.
"I feel like this scene is very familiar... Ah, I remember now! The prodigies of the Dragon and Phoenix Clans acted just like this in front of me—heaping praise on each other and showing total unity. Back then, they did it so I'd take both of them as my disciples."
"Then Junior Sister Tao and Junior Sister Lan are acting like this because..."
The Immortal Fairy declared with utter conviction, "They must want you to take them as your disciples! After all, you showed off your extraordinary might and displayed unmatched combat strength at the celebration!"
"That makes sense."
Chapter 515