Lou Yue had asked Xiao Rangchen to return to Good Things Brewing with her, but he refused, and she did not press him.
Lou Chengfeng had spent the entire night awake. He was sprawled in a reclining chair, and the moment he saw her return, he let out a heavy snort.
Lou Yue walked straight to the stone table and sat down. Leisurely, she lifted the teapot and poured herself a cup of hot tea. Then she turned around on the stool, leaned her back against the edge of the table, propped up one elbow, and took slow sips while idly turning the cup in her hand.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lou Chengfeng repeatedly examined Lou Yue, sweeping his gaze over her disguised-as-a-man appearance from head to toe. He could not find the slightest clue.
“Out all night!” he snorted again.
No one answered.
The father and daughter sat there: one calmly enjoying her tea, the other stewing in a bellyful of questions as he glared at the sky, the ground, and the empty air.
Only when the others emerged from their rooms one after another did Lou Yue set down her teacup and stand.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
Liufeng Xin, Hong Chou, Xiao Aiai, and even Little Qiu all stopped what they were doing and looked toward her.
Lou Yue curved her lips and said slowly and clearly, “I’ve decided to establish a power for loose cultivators.”
Lou Chengfeng finally stopped avoiding the issue and glared at her openly. “You think this is some sort of children’s game?”
Lou Yue crossed her arms and swept her gaze over everyone. Finally, she lowered her eyelids and glanced at her own father, her tone light and casual.
“Oh, I forgot to mention one thing.”
“That ruin in the Barren Wastes belongs to me now.”
Plop—
The fruit Hong Chou had been holding in her mouth fell straight to the ground. She asked blankly, “…What do you mean, it belongs to you?”
The corners of Lou Yue’s eyes lifted high.
Liufeng Xin quickly finished the fruit in his hand, brushed away the crumbs, and said proudly, “Yueyue obtained that so-called inheritance. That ancient Sacred Saint ruin in the Barren Wastes now has Yueyue as its master.”
Hong Chou suddenly understood. “Your cultivation jumped to the Deity Transformation realm not because of some disguise—you obtained the inheritance!”
Lou Yue raised her brows, silently confirming it.
After recovering from her shock, Xiao Aiai hurriedly asked, “Why establish a loose-cultivator force all of a sudden? Are you planning to…”
Lou Yue winked at her. “Because I’m sick of those aristocratic clans.”
Hong Chou plopped down on the stool beside Lou Yue and said quickly, “Are you planning to use the ruin to attract loose cultivators and recruit them?”
Lou Yue nodded.
Liufeng Xin also came over and sat down on Lou Yue’s other side. “Wherever you go, I’ll go too.”
Hong Chou suddenly remembered something. She jumped to her feet and was just about to rush back inside when she smacked herself on the forehead, turned around, pulled out her divination turtle shell, and shouted as she ran, “Wait, wait, wait—let me cast a divination first! Just one divination!”
She placed three copper coins into the turtle shell, muttering under her breath as she clasped and shook it with both hands. She glanced at Lou Yue, held her breath, and cast the coins.
Two heads and one tail—a yang line.
Hong Chou’s hand trembled slightly. She gathered the coins, shook the shell again, and cast them once more.
One head and two tails—a yang line.
Hong Chou’s expression grew increasingly solemn. The others could not help holding their breath as they stared fixedly at the turtle shell in her hands.
On the third cast, she paused for a long time. So long that even Liufeng Xin was about to urge her on. At last, she gritted her teeth and threw the coins.
Two tails and one head—a yang line.
Hong Chou froze completely, staring blankly at the resulting hexagram.
Seeing that she did not move, Liufeng Xin asked tentatively, “Is it a bad result?”
Lou Yue’s gaze remained calm, and the smile stayed on her lips. “Whatever the result is, it won’t change anything.”
“Three yang lines… Three yang lines… The Qian hexagram…” Hong Chou murmured. “The Qian hexagram… The Qian hexagram…”
Liufeng Xin was about to ask her to explain when Hong Chou suddenly slammed her palm against the table, making her jump.
“It’s the Qian hexagram! The Qian hexagram!” Hong Chou shrieked in excitement.
Liufeng Xin rolled her eyes. “What does the Qian hexagram mean? Hurry up and tell us.”
Hong Chou spoke at lightning speed. “The Qian hexagram means a flying dragon in the heavens, destruction followed by rebirth, and the mandate of Heaven! Pure yang, the highest auspicious omen—it’s extremely lucky! Extremely lucky!”
She immediately grabbed Lou Yue by the arm and shook her. “I’m joining! I’m joining!”
Lou Yue was rocked from side to side by her and hurriedly nodded in agreement.
Liufeng Xin said irritably, “It’s an auspicious omen. The way you looked, I thought you’d drawn the worst possible result.”
Hong Chou’s face was filled with the weariness of someone who had seen too much. “I’ve cast the coins over a thousand times. This is the first time in my life I’ve gotten the best possible omen…”
Xiao Aiai asked softly from the side, “Can I join too? I can do odd jobs and help out.”
Lou Yue’s eyes curved. “Of course. I have something else I need you to do.”
Xiao Aiai immediately broke into a smile.
Little Qiu joined in as well. “Then I’ll be in charge of everyone’s daily needs.”
“Hmph!”
Lou Chengfeng let out another mighty snort.
Little Qiu hurried over to his side. “Master, the young master really is worthy of being your child. You both have such lofty ambitions!”
Lou Chengfeng’s brows lifted slightly. Reclining in his chair, he looked at Lou Yue and asked in a stern voice, “Have you thought this through?”
Ever since Lou Yue had said the previous night, “Then it won’t be just one person. I was already sick of them,” Lou Chengfeng had been turning her words over in his mind. Now, he finally understood what she meant.
Lou Yue hummed in affirmation.
“When are you leaving?” Lou Chengfeng asked.
“Within the next two days.”
Lou Chengfeng rose and walked toward the back of the house.
A short while later, he returned carrying a pile of shovels, rakes, and small hoes. He shoved one into each person’s hands.
“Come with me. We’re mining spirit stones.”
The group followed him in confusion into the depths of the mountain range.
When they saw the dense clusters of spirit stones covering the rock walls and ground, glittering brilliantly and stretching as far as the eye could see, Liufeng Xin’s eyes went wide. She stammered, “H-How many are we supposed to mine…?”
Lou Chengfeng answered decisively, with immense heroic spirit, “All of them. Don’t leave a single one behind!”
Lou Yue looked at him silently.
Lou Chengfeng failed to notice. He merely urged them to get to work.
Two hours later, as he looked at the group’s painfully slow progress and pitiful efficiency, he finally realized with deep regret that he had overestimated them.
First, he looked at Liufeng Xin and Xiao Aiai. Both were sprawled on the ground, exhausted to the point that they could no longer crawl.
One was a delicate alchemy cultivator, while the other was only at the Foundation Establishment stage. They were both young women, so he let it go.
Next, he looked at Little Qiu. Her forehead was covered in sweat, but she was still gritting her teeth and holding on.
Her cultivation was only at the Foundation Establishment stage as well. The fact that she could last this long was already commendable, so he let that go too.
Then he looked at Hong Chou. Though she was panting heavily and moving a little slowly, she was still huffing and puffing away at the ground. She barely passed.
Finally, his gaze fell on his own daughter.
Her face was flushed, and she was panting desperately. Fine—she was a young woman, after all.
Her hands were trembling like sieves, yet she was still stubbornly holding on. That much, at least, was worthy of a grudging compliment for sheer determination.
But when his gaze shifted and landed on the pitifully small pile of spirit stones behind her—less than half the size of Hong Chou’s—his entire body went rigid.
She was the highest-cultivated person there, a Deity Transformation cultivator. He knew that spell cultivators had weak physiques, but how could she possibly be this weak?
Lou Chengfeng strode over, snatched the shovel from her hands, and ground out through clenched teeth, “Go call that brat Xiao Rangchen over here to mine!”
Lou Yue shakily snatched the shovel back and tossed out two stiff words:
“No need.”
Lou Chengfeng stared at her stubborn, hopelessly inept appearance and gritted his teeth. “At this rate, you won’t finish mining even in a year!”
Spirit-stone mines could not be excavated with spiritual power, as that would affect the purity of the spirit stones. They could only be mined by hand.
“Go call that brat over, and have him bring those two demon beasts!”
With a single swing of her shovel, Lou Yue pried loose a spirit stone about the size of a fist after working at it for quite some time. She tossed it into the pile behind her with a “clack,” then shot Lou Chengfeng a disdainful sidelong glance.
“If you can’t dig anymore, go rest.”
Lou Chengfeng was so choked up that he couldn’t get a word out.
He stood there staring for a long while. When he saw the shovel slip from Lou Yue’s hand and fall to the ground, he turned and walked away.
Before long, he returned with Xiao Rangchen and the two marmots, driving Liufeng Xin, Xiao Aiai, Hong Chou, and Little Qiu up as well.
The first person he tried to send away was Lou Yue, but she refused to leave. Lou Chengfeng couldn’t force her and was too lazy to waste any more time arguing with her.
Who would have thought that the moment Xiao Rangchen arrived, he would simply take the shovel from his daughter’s hand and say, “Go rest for a while.”
The stubborn girl, who had been all defiance just moments ago, obediently sat down to rest.
Lou Chengfeng watched Xiao Rangchen’s back and found it more and more irritating.
He walked over to Lou Yue and snorted. “Pathetic.”
Lou Yue lifted her eyes and shot back, “Since you’re so capable, you dig.”
Lou Chengfeng scoffed. “I’m not digging. I’ll let that brat do it all by himself!”
“Then go up.”
Lou Chengfeng grew even angrier. He deliberately chose a spot between the two of them and stood there like a post.
“I’m supervising!”
Lou Yue glanced at her attention-seeking father, who had successfully blocked Xiao Rangchen from view, then turned around and kicked the two marmots squatting nearby and watching the show.
“Go do some work.”
The two beasts, whose lives were no longer their own, obediently began digging for ore.
Lou Yue had no idea what Lou Chengfeng had said to Xiao Rangchen, but she imagined that even if it had been nothing more than a simple order, Xiao Rangchen had probably come running over eagerly.
The image was so “beautiful” that the corners of her lips rose before she could stop them.
Deep inside the mountain, the winding tunnels were quiet and still. The only sound was the crisp clinking of shovels striking spirit stones, making the perfect lullaby.
Lou Yue watched as Lou Chengfeng, who had originally been standing ramrod straight, first sat down cross-legged. Later, he followed Xiao Rangchen forward a little at a time. In the end, he simply found a pile of spirit stones, lay down on it, and fell straight asleep.
His snores rose and fell in time with the rhythmic “thunk, thunk” of mining.
Xiao Rangchen looked back. His eyes met Lou Yue’s, and their gazes remained entangled for a long moment before finally parting.
When Lou Chengfeng woke from his nap, he was startled to find that the two of them were gone. Following the sound of mining, he found them at the very back of the cavern.
When he saw that they were merely sitting there quietly, with a considerable distance between them, his expression finally eased somewhat.
The mining did not end until dawn on the third day.
Lou Chengfeng filled nearly a hundred storage rings before finally putting away all the spirit stones. He then handed the rings to Lou Yue.
“You mined the entire mountain bare. Aren’t you worried that the Lou clan will come looking for trouble?”
Lou Chengfeng’s face was full of disdain. “Hmph. They should be burning incense in gratitude that I haven’t gone looking for trouble with them.”
He was too lazy to speak of the matters of the previous generation. He only told Lou Yue to take away whatever else she wanted.
Lou Yue watched as he removed the bronze bell and put away the stone stele engraved with the words “Something Good Is Brewing.” She carefully and slowly ran her fingers over each of the old objects, then climbed step by step to the loft at the very top.
She gradually guessed what Lou Chengfeng intended to do.
After a long while, she lowered her eyes, turned around, and went back to her own room to pack.
An hour later, everyone—including Xiao Rangchen and the two marmots—stood halfway up the mountain.
Lou Chengfeng turned around, his gaze settling on the several buildings at the mountain’s summit.
“You don’t have to go this far,” Lou Yue said, looking at his back.
The others had no idea what the father and daughter were talking about until Lou Chengfeng suddenly raised both hands.
The protective formation that had been hidden from sight slowly emerged from beneath the ground. Its pale, jade-like patterns spread out like flowing water, rotating and intertwining in circles.
He brought his hands together, and the formation patterns abruptly froze, as though their operation had been forcibly severed.
The next second—
Boom!
A tremendous explosion shook the entire mountain forest.
The entire mountaintop, along with the protective formation, exploded. Loose stones, timber, bricks, and tiles—everything within the formation’s range—was reduced to dust.
Lou Chengfeng slowly turned around and gave an arrogant snort.
“Does your father look like the wishy-washy type?”
Liufeng Xin was utterly dumbfounded. While going down the mountain, she secretly tugged at Xiao Aiai and asked, “Why did Uncle blow up his own home?”
Xiao Aiai looked toward the father and daughter walking ahead, with some distance between them, and answered softly, “Godfather probably doesn’t want to become a burden to Lou Yue.”
Establishing a faction of rogue cultivators meant making an enemy of the four great clans. Lou Yue’s identity was already awkward enough. If her father continued living on House Lou’s territory, she would become an even more obvious target for everyone. And after they left, this place might well become somewhere others came to vent their anger.
Rather than let someone else destroy it, it was better to destroy it himself.
Liufeng Xin nodded, only half understanding.
At the foot of the mountain, Little Qiu had already harnessed the two flying beasts to a carriage. This time, it was no longer ostentatious. The carriage looked plain and unassuming on the outside, but inside it was spacious and comfortable.
Lou Chengfeng stopped beside the carriage and looked at Xiao Rangchen, who was following silently behind them. His tone held a faint, almost imperceptible awkwardness.
“That brat, seeing as you helped with the mining, I’ll raise those two beasts for Lou Yue.”
Lou Yue arched a brow but did not expose his transparent pretense.
Hearing the nearly identical tone he shared with Lou Yue, Xiao Rangchen curved his lips faintly and gave a quiet acknowledgment.
Lou Chengfeng glanced at the two of them, then snorted once more before boarding the carriage first.
Knowing that Xiao Rangchen would not be going to the Wilds for the time being, Xiao Aiai stepped forward to remind him to stay safe, then climbed aboard as well.
Hong Chou and Liufeng Xin shoved and jostled each other as they squeezed into the carriage together.
Little Qiu coaxed the two marmots and temporarily stored them in a storage ring.
Lou Yue told Little Qiu to drive the carriage a hundred meters ahead and wait there.
Once the flying-beast carriage had gone some distance away, she turned around to face Xiao Rangchen.
“Remember what I told you. Don’t go within a hundred miles of the Chaotic Abyss.”
Xiao Rangchen walked toward her one step at a time and stopped in front of her. He answered in a low voice, “Mm.”
The wind swept past, lifting their sleeves and strands of hair. They brushed and tangled lightly in the air, impossible to tell whose clothing or hair was whose.
Lou Yue gazed at the cold, stern face before her, at his lowered brows and eyes. Then she took a step forward and wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face against his chest.
“Two months at most.”
Her voice was muffled, stripped of some of its usual boldness.
Xiao Rangchen tightened his arms and held her firmly against him. He lowered his head into the crook of her neck and drew in a deep breath of her scent.
His chest trembled, and his deep voice fell beside her ear.
“I’ll wait for you.”
