Chapter 7: Dumplings

  Originally thinking that one less thing is better than one more, and outside it's dark and windy, I didn't want to go out. However, lying there for a while, Shi Yian still felt that going out to take a look would be more reassuring. If there really was a child outside, on such a cold night, wouldn't they freeze to death?

  Shi Yi'an hastily put on several warm clothes, grabbed a flashlight, and wore her shoes before heading out.

  The door opened, the snow had stopped, and the crying sound became clearer. Shi Yian stood in the courtyard, carefully identifying the direction of the sound, which seemed to be coming from outside Si Wei's residence. As the crying grew weaker, Shi Yian didn't dare to hesitate, and rushed out hastily. It was already winter, and even the peach blossom spirits, who were usually full of energy, only came out to bask in the sun during the warmest part of the day, hiding back in their original form to cultivate at other times. Therefore, the sound of a child crying in the peach blossom forest was particularly noticeable.

  Shi Yi An held up his flashlight and waved it around, searching for the source of the crying sound.

  "Who's crying?" Shi Yian asked in a loud voice, but no one answered. When he turned his head, he suddenly saw the trees in the peach blossom forest swaying slightly, as if something was inside. Shi Yian walked over and the sound of crying became clearer, it should be behind the trees.

  Shi Yi'an used one hand to part the bushes, but didn't see a child. Instead, he saw a big ball of white fluffy stuff. The white fluffy thing moved and lifted its head, revealing a white nine-tailed fox. The fox suddenly glowed red in the eyes, opened its mouth which was bigger than its head, and pounced towards Shi Yi'an.

  Crackle and pop. Shi Yi'an's thumb pressed the discharge button on his stun gun, pointing directly at the creature.

  Next came a scorched smell, and the white fox convulsed in mid-air before thudding into the snowy ground.

  "Cut, with this little skill you still want to eat people." Shī Yì ān crouched down, grabbed the fox's neck hair and lifted him up, shaking him a few times. He then slapped the fox's buttocks several times and found that this little thing actually had nine tails.

  "What the heck, is this the legendary fox spirit?" Shi Yi'an muttered to himself as he walked back and forth with the fox in his hands. Seeing Yun Mo standing at the door waiting for him, he casually handed over the mysterious creature that was unclear whether it was alive or dead. He was now going to be killed, never had he thought that he would run out in the middle of the night for this thing.

  "Do you want skin or life?" Yun Mo asked, holding up his tail.

  The fox in his hand had woken up, but until he couldn't fight against the two people in front of him, the fox could only stare at the two people with a pair of round and shiny black eyes, waiting for Shi Yian's arrangement.

  Shi Yi'an yawned and gazed at the fox with a cold smile, saying: "First put it in the cage, wait for me to wake up, and see if it can become a beauty. If not, tomorrow I'll cut off its nine tails to make a scarf."

  Shi Yian sat at his desk, reading a book while using a brush to poke the fox in the cage through the bars. The fox lay in the cage with its eyes closed, letting Shi Yian tease it.

  "Its shape is like a fox with nine tails, its sound is like an infant, it can eat people, and those who eat it will not be affected by evil spirits." After reading this, Shi Yi threw the Shan Hai Jing to one side, then said in a gloomy tone: "You're so small, you can't even make a pair of gloves. The book says that eating your flesh can ward off evil spirits and poison, which isn't bad at all. Today, I'll hand you over to Chef Liu and have him braise you in soy sauce."

  Having said that, he picked up the basket and went out the door.

  Last night's snowfall had not been fully cleared from the large mansion of the teacher's family, and there were many places where the accumulated snow could reach the calf of Shi Yi'an. He struggled to pull his feet out of the snowy ground, only to sink into another snow pit. The several servants next to him, or rather, the servant ghosts, were not affected by the heavy snow at all, and they walked on the snowy surface without even leaving a footprint. Shi Yi'an looked at them with envy, jealousy, and hatred.

  "Little brother, look what I've brought for you." Shi Yiran's wife hadn't even arrived yet, but she was already boasting at the door.

  "If you call me little brother again, I'll curse you to death. Oh, wait, maybe you already are one, and I'm just making fun of your deficiency. That's not very nice of me, I apologize." Shi Yihang smiled slightly, his expression not quite angry, but his words were sharp as knives.

  Shi Yi An had long been accustomed to Shi Yi Xing's broken mouth, and he pressed the cage onto the table, found a stool and sat down opposite Shi Yi An.

  "Take it away, take it away! Don't let this thing pee on my table!" Shi Yi Xing looked at it and saw that it was a living creature. His disgust was evident on his face, and he wished he could throw the cage and the ball of fur out together.

  "I want you to take a look at this thing and see if it has any potential, can be cultivated into a great beauty. If not, I'll give it to Chef Liu to braise in soy sauce." Shī Yì ān pushed the cage in front of Shī Yì Xíng.

  Shī Yì Xíng let out a sigh, opened the cage and reached in to grab Tuánzi. Tuánzi's eyes gleamed with ferocity, baring its teeth at Shī Yì Xíng, but unexpectedly, Shī Yì Xíng's eyes, who disliked small animals, were even more ruthless than Tuánzi's. In an instant, Tuánzi's momentum weakened and it let Shī Yì Xíng handle it roughly.

  "Take it away and braise it in soy sauce, this one is a male." Xiang Yi put the bun back into the cage and wiped his hands carefully with two disinfectant paper towels.

  "It's weird, it didn't sound like that yesterday when it called, it sounded like a little girl."

  He actually dared to question his own professional level, Shi Yihang slammed the wet wipe on the table and picked up the rabbit again, flipping over the fluffy little belly of the rabbit and pointing at the small * for Shi Yihang to see: "Look here, this shows that it's a male."

  "So that's how it is. So, even if he really can become a spirit, he can only cultivate into a handsome guy?" Shī Yì ān curiously poked the place where Shī Yì Xíng was pointing with her hand.

  Ahhh, you two scoundrels, taking turns poking me with your little tricks, it's really too shameless. Tuanzi struggled and howled in Shi Yihang's hands. With a hint of annoyance, Shi Yihang applied slight force with his palm, almost squeezing out the little thing's internal organs. Tuanzi also understood that some people were not to be trifled with, so he immediately played dead, lying there motionless no matter how those two poked and prodded him.

  "I'm afraid so." Shi Yi drew out two more tissues to clean up.

  Shi Yi'an, who was deeply shocked by this news, looked at the cubs in the cage and let out a long sigh, saying: "Then stew them in soy sauce."

  Although the fox had nine tails, it was only suitable for braising, and it seemed like a waste. Shi Yinan took the cubs back to Si Wei's residence, asked Yun Mo to find a larger cage, and found some food for them. Shi Yinan said that this nine-tailed fox should still be a cub, and it hadn't learned how to hunt yet. If they released it during this season, it would definitely starve to death. It was better to raise it first and wait for its parents to come find it. Even if the parents didn't come, they could wait until the weather warmed up before deciding what to do.

  After dealing with the Tuanzi matter, Shī Yǐ ān went to his younger uncle's place and reported in. Now his younger uncle has started teaching him how to draw talismans that enhance physical abilities. These talismans are created by combining external symbols with internal spiritual energy, enhancing the body's functions, allowing the user's physical abilities to surpass human limits.

  However, the sword that Shi Yi An drew out so far can only be drawn, and it cannot be used at all. The spiritual power flowing through his body and the spiritual power he can control are not on the same level. If he forces himself to use it, he will be torn into pieces by the two powers.

  "The physical function of the talisman is usable, but it can't be relied upon. The Heavenly Master didn't rely on physical strength from the very beginning." Xiaoshu said, picking up a talisman drawn by Shifu Yan, and after examining it for a while, he forced out a sentence: "This talisman... how to put it, has a lot of personal style."

  "...you'll die if you don't harm others for a day."

  "This kind of talisman paper can be strengthened as a whole, and it can also be strengthened locally. However, because the overall strengthening is too damaging to the body, most Tian Shi only strengthen the part that needs it. But since most talismans require strong spiritual power as backing, only a few types of talismans can be used by ordinary people without spiritual power." At this point, Xiao Shu suddenly smiled and lowered his voice: "The ancestors of our sect have even drawn such talismans for emperors in the past."

  "What are they going to use this for? Those in power have people taking care of everything, what's left that needs to be done personally?" Shi Yi asked as he put down his pen.

  Xiao Shu heard Shi Yi'an ask this, and smiled even more radiantly, saying: "There is one thing that must be done in person, but with three thousand beauties in the harem, it's inevitable that some places need to be strengthened..."

  Shī Yì ān: “……”

  Xiao Shu nodded to stop, and didn't continue anymore. He started to seriously give Shi Yi'an a lesson again. Shi Yi'an silently rolled her eyes and continued listening to the lesson.

  The young uncle looked at the wall clock and saw that it was almost ten o'clock, so he put away his book and said, "Let's stop drawing talismans for today. We'll go to Danfang and light the dan furnace."

  When it comes to alchemy, Shi Yi'an is indeed a bit of a headache. Alchemy and traditional Chinese medicine are a pair of loving yet deadly good friends. The effects of each medicinal material, the tables of medicinal interactions, even looking them up in books makes Shi Yi'an's head spin.

  Today is the day to open the furnace, Xiao Shu took back the guardian who was watching the fire at the alchemy furnace and started to extinguish the fire. Although it's still over an hour before the elixir is ready, the furnace will still have heat after being extinguished. Recently, the little zombies nearby have been particularly arrogant, so Xiao Shu has refined a furnace of zombie-poisoning pills in preparation for any unexpected situation.

  Shi Yi'an was spinning around beside him, directed by his younger uncle.

  "Go wash and disinfect those bottles." Xiao Shu pointed to the medicine bottles on the table, letting Shi Yi'an do it. Shi Yi'an used to work in the school laboratory, so although he couldn't say he was professional level, he was still quite familiar with these tasks.

  Young uncle himself opened a dan furnace and went out with small medicine balls, which were packed in medicinal materials.

  "Each household has sent some, the most is this bottle, I'll send it to your third uncle, you don't need to stay, anyway you won't go out." The younger uncle said with a smile while collecting things.

  "I'll save it for a snack when I'm free." Shi Yisan said, then put a bottle in his pocket and carried the tray to deliver medicine to each department.

  The teacher's house now has a large yard, but there are not many people living in it. Shi Yi'an walked slowly and stopped for about half an hour to deliver the medicine. After delivering the medicine, it was already noon. Carrying the tray back to Si Wei's residence, he hadn't even entered yet when he heard voices inside. Hurriedly taking two steps, Shi Yi'an entered the yard and saw Tuanzi hugging the cage's railing, humming and making cute noises at Yunmo with his nine tails swishing back and forth like a large broom. Then Tuanzi saw Shi Yi'an return and turned around, leaving him an angry silhouette.

  Later, Yun Mo no longer kept Tuanzi locked in the cage, but let it run wild in Si Wei Ju. Tuanzi followed Yun Mo wherever he went, like a small dog recognizing its owner. Shi Yi An himself was too lazy to take care of such a small animal and was happy with this arrangement.

  However, with the New Year approaching, there was no festive atmosphere at all in the entire mansion. This is not hard to understand, as everyone here has lived for over a hundred years, and the New Year's celebration had long since lost any significance for them.

  Shi Yian stood in the middle of the school field and threw out a talisman, which stuck to the top of the iron rod's round ball. This giant thunder symbol could summon lightning, but Shi Yian's skills were limited, and he was only able to make a few sparks appear on the top of the iron rod, not even as big as the sparks produced by connecting a few batteries together.

  Today, San Shu came down the mountain again, saying that several students at a nearby junior high school had jumped off buildings and committed suicide in the past few weeks. The school and police investigated from various angles but found no clues. A three-meter-high protective net was installed on the rooftop, but it didn't prevent jumping at all, and some parents sat guard outside their children's doors all night to prevent such incidents. Finally, the school administration desperately sought help through various channels and found Shi Jia.

  At that time, the principal saw San Shu and had not yet spoken, San Shu carried his toolbox and asked the principal to lead the way. The principal took a look at this situation and knew he had found the right person.

  After Third Uncle left, he was alone here practicing. As the sky darkened, it seemed like it would snow again tonight. Shi Yi carelessly threw out a giant Thunder Symbol and saw a flash of lightning cut across the horizon. The lightning was bright and narrow, and without looking, he knew it must be extremely powerful. It tore through the gloomy sky, creating a rift that rushed towards him. Shi Yi felt like he could even hear the crackling sound of the lightning, and then he watched as it was drawn into the Shi family home, heading straight for Si Xing's residence. The lightning lasted for several seconds, followed by a deafening thunderclap that left Shi Yi stunned.

  I'm going, it's terrible, I hit it off-center, it's all over, I've made a big mistake.

  After going through this mental journey, Shi Yi An Sa ran in the direction of Si Wei's residence. Since he came, Si Wei's residence had not had a peaceful day. Today, another thunder was brought to him, and Yun Mo probably destroyed his heart as well.

  When Shi Yian ran to the entrance of Si Wei's residence, he smelled a burnt smell. Yun Mo was not in Si Wei's residence, and on the ground of Si Wei's residence, there was a large piece of blackened and charred thing that still emitted the aroma of roasted meat. Shi Yian walked over and stared at the thing on the ground in a daze.