Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

Zhou Fuying's eyes were dark and she stared at Xu Lingguang without saying a word, which was a bit scary.

Xu Lingguang's smile faded slightly, and he subconsciously took a step back, tentatively calling out, "Zhou Fuying?"

Realizing his hesitation, Zhou Fuying scoffed inwardly, casually sheathed her sword, and scanned him with her gaze: "Where did Master go? Why is he only returning now?"

Seeing that he had returned to normal, Xu Lingguang relaxed, thinking to himself that his little apprentice had a strangely strong aura when practicing swordsmanship, and he would have to stay away from him when he practiced swordsmanship in the future. But he couldn't help but excitedly say, "I went to the next mountain. There are lots of wild fruits and vegetables there, and I even caught two rabbits."

He touched the lively rabbit through the bag, his face beaming with a smile: "We can have roasted rabbit tonight."

Zhou Fuying: "..."

He gave a blank "oh" and pondered how Xu Lingguang managed to come out of the Ailao Mountains alive. The evil spirit and the Nine Swords Master who went into the mountains were clearly dead, but he came back alive and kicking, and even caught two rabbits!

Zhou Fuying gritted his teeth, grabbed his sword, and followed him back to the Qingyu Sect. He casually probed, "The mountain next door is called Ailao Mountain. It's said that the Chenghuang clan lives there in seclusion. The Chenghuang are ferocious and cannibalistic; anyone who trespasses on their forbidden grounds will die. Master, you shouldn't go there next time, in case you encounter the Chenghuang..."

Xu Lingguang hadn't expected that such a random mountain could have such a remarkable history. He paused for a moment, then asked, "Is there really a Chenghuang here?"

He had read the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and naturally knew about Chenghuang, but even in the world of cultivation, a creature like Chenghuang should be fictional, right?

After all, the Classic of Mountains and Seas also says that riding the Chenghuang can grant immortality.

If there really were a Chenghuang, wouldn't everyone want to ride it?

Zhou Fuying smiled enigmatically: "That's just what everyone says; I've never actually seen it myself. But generally, people don't want to get close to the Ailao Mountains."

Xu Lingguang thought of his enemies who had been chasing him all along, but suddenly stopped. Could it be because of the legend of Ailao Mountain?

However, two more people did catch up with them, showing that while the legend was impressive, it wasn't as exaggerated as it seemed.

Xu Lingguang said, "It's just a legend, it might not be true, right?"

Zhou Fuying glanced at him, said nothing more, and turned her gaze to Song Nanchu and Yu Yun, who had come upon hearing the news. She said with a half-smile, "Master caught two wild rabbits and said he was going to roast them."

Song Nanchu and Yu Yun's expressions immediately became indescribable.

Finally, Yu Yun asked, "Master, did you encounter any danger on this trip?"

Xu Lingguang said with lingering fear, "I encountered several enemies who were chasing me, but I was lucky enough to accidentally roll down the hillside. I was dizzy for a while, and when I woke up, those people were gone. They must have left."

Yu Yun: "..."

The person is gone, but not gone; they are dead.

Her gentle smile could barely hold on, and she said with a forced grin, "Let's accompany Master next time he goes out. Who knows when those enemies might come looking for us again?"

Xu Lingguang felt that what she said made sense. As he walked familiarly toward the kitchen, he agreed, saying, "I'll try to go out less in the future."

Upon entering the kitchen, he rummaged around and found oil, salt, spices, and even a string of dried chilies—enough for roasting rabbits. Excitedly, he turned to his three apprentices and asked, "Can you eat spicy food?"

Zhou Fuying couldn't bear to see his carefree, silly grin, so she decided to ignore it and walked out with her sword, saying, "I'm not eating."

He was in a bad mood, and his tone betrayed it. Xu Lingguang was taken aback. He looked at his cold back, then at Yu Jun, and hesitated for a moment: "Before I lost my memory, was my relationship with him not very... harmonious?"

"Harmony" is a rather euphemistic way of putting it.

Even if he was slow to notice, Xu Lingguang could still sense Zhou Fuying's subtle rejection of him.

Yu Yun smiled and said, "Master may not remember, but Junior Brother treats everyone like this."

Xu Lingguang was skeptical, but he didn't press the matter further. After all, he was an outsider and didn't want to delve too deeply into the relationship between the original owner and his disciples.

He took the rabbit out of the bag and quickly began to process it.

Song Nan stood with his arms crossed, watching for a while, then yawned listlessly: "I'm sleepy, I'm going to sleep."

In the end, only Yu Yun remained, occasionally helping Xu Lingguang out.

Xu Lingguang honed his culinary skills in his original world.

At first, it was because his grandmother was too old to cook, so he had to slowly learn to cook. Later, after he started working, in order to save money, he began to think about how to cook different dishes.

After years of honing his skills, his craftsmanship is quite good.

After cleaning the two rabbits, they were first marinated. The internal organs were not wasted either; the edible parts were picked out, sliced, and stir-fried with wild vegetables, which had a unique flavor.

After the rabbit was marinated, it was skewered with a tree branch and placed on a fire to slowly roast until the fat was rendered out, turning golden brown and fragrant. Xu Lingguang swallowed his saliva as he roasted it.

Yu Jun casually added firewood to the fire, her attention always on him.

Before losing his memory, Xu Lingguang couldn't cook.

In his early years, the Qingyu Sect was quite powerful. The previous sect leader was his father, and the previous sect leader was his elder sister. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and had a large number of servants around him, so he didn't have to cook for himself.

Moreover, Xu Lingguang was arrogant and disdainful. In his early years, he was of mediocre talent and his cultivation stagnated until he was thirty-four years old when he successfully established his foundation by initiating Qi. Therefore, he especially loathed the time he spent as a mortal and would never do such a despicable mortal job.

But the person in front of him was extremely skilled, and judging from his expression, there was no resentment, but rather he seemed to be enjoying himself.

If it's all an act, then it's an act that's been done too well.

But if it wasn't an act... Yu Yun's eyes showed deep thought, and she suddenly said, "Master never used to cook."

Xu Lingguang froze, and after a long pause, he scratched his head and said guiltily, "It's because I'm forced to do it. If someone else were cooking, I wouldn't have to do it myself..."

Yu Yun said "Oh": "It's a pity that none of us know how to cook, so we'll have to trouble Master."

Xu Lingguang felt uneasy and could only vaguely say, "It's not hard work."

Fortunately, the rabbit was roasted quickly. Xu Lingguang arranged the golden-brown, oily roasted rabbit slices on a plate and invited Yu Yun to eat with him.

Yu Yun ate a few bites as a courtesy, but most of the rest ended up in Xu Lingguang's stomach.

After a day of living on the run, Xu Lingguang finally ate and drank his fill and sighed contentedly. He thought to himself that he had also seen pheasants while catching rabbits, and that he could hunt two pheasants next time to make soup.

There's not much entertainment in the cultivation world at night. Xu Lingguang strolled around the courtyard a few times to digest his food, and as it got dark, he went back to his room to sleep.

He was exhausted from a long day and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the bed.

Just as if someone was deliberately working against him, Xu Lingguang was startled awake from bed by a series of loud noises as he dreamt that he had traveled back in time and was crying tears of joy while hugging his pillow.

He was worried about a night attack by his enemies, so he didn't take off his outer robe while sleeping, which made it easier for him to run outside.

Grabbing a small knife he'd taken from the kitchen, Xu Lingguang rushed out of the room and saw Zhou Fuying and Yu Yun standing on the veranda, their expressions grave.

He leaned over, about to ask, "What happened?", when suddenly a huge black snake tail crashed down beside him.

The snake's tail was as thick as his waist, and it crashed down just a step away from him. The flying debris hit Xu Lingguang, causing him a sharp pain.

He stared in shock, mouth agape, his eyes glazed as the enormous black snake slithered past him with lightning speed, unable to utter a single word.

Zhou Fuying and Yu Yun glanced at him, but had no time to pay attention to him anymore. With solemn expressions, they chased after the black snake and soon disappeared.