Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 191 "Hot Pot Festival" (Still a bonus chapter)
"Master's intention was also to celebrate Fourth Junior Sister's survival after the ordeal."

Ye Shuyun skillfully played the role of smoothing up Murong Ruyan's hair, saying, "Besides, Fourth Junior Sister has just experienced life and death. Inviting more people to make it lively will help her recover as soon as possible."

"I heard that my fourth junior sister was determined to die at the time, and had even written her will."

As she spoke, Ye Shuyun sighed with great sympathy.

Upon hearing this, Murong Ruyan felt a pang of pity for her fourth junior sister, this "old lady."

At her age, she had to enter a sect to cultivate immortality. Not only did she have to abandon her almost unparalleled martial arts skills, but she also had to be called upon by a group of "little devil" senior brothers and sisters who were not even old enough to be her great-grandchildren. Just thinking about it made her feel frustrated!
Even so, he was still the last one in the sect to induce Qi into the body, and he almost lost his life because of it!
In this way, if we take the opportunity to get the disciples in the sect together for a lively meal, it seems... that it can indeed liven up the atmosphere.

In fact, Murong Ruyan really didn't know why Tang Xiaoyu almost lost her life. Even Xu Ying, who was standing next to Zhang Chengdao at the time and heard only a few words, didn't know much about it either.

Therefore, both Murong Ruyan and the other disciples of the White Stone Immortal Sect believed that Tang Xiaoyu had almost died because he was too eager to cultivate and had gone into a state of demonic possession.

The books all say that if you are too eager, have an unstable mindset, and too many distracting thoughts when cultivating, you may suffer from qi deviation. Once you suffer from qi deviation, your cultivation will either regress or be completely ruined!

If it gets even more serious, and he/she dies as a result, it seems... not impossible...

Having only a vague understanding of the situation, Murong Ruyan naturally assumed that Tang Xiaoyu had only experienced this danger due to a qi deviation. She even considerately kept quiet about it, and before coming to find Tang Xiaoyu, she specifically instructed the other outer disciples as well:
"Fourth Junior Sister must be in a bad mood since she survived this time, so don't bring up anything that shouldn't be mentioned. If you must chat, talk about the weather, food, or even what kind of fish you've caught in the pond. Just don't mention anything about cultivation! Understand?"

Seeing Murong Ruyan's serious and "fierce" expression, the disciples nodded like chickens pecking at rice, all agreeing.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief only after Murong Ruyan left to fetch Tang Xiaoyu. Then, in small groups of three or two, they either went to the mountains to dig for mushrooms and wild vegetables, or to the sect's market to buy various fruits and vegetables.

Many of these goods were surplus products from Linggeng Peak, of poor quality, and not worth storing in the sect's warehouse. They were sold at low prices in the market. As a result, many disciples stopped buying food from teahouses and restaurants and instead chose to build their own stoves in the courtyards. Although the food was not as good, it was cheaper and they could save up more spirit stones to exchange for various rare and precious materials.

When Murong Ruyan brought Tang Xiaoyu to the square, Xu Ying had already directed everyone to set up tables and chairs in the square.

The "Hot Pot Festival" was held in a hurry, and theoretically everyone from the White Stone Immortal Sect could participate. So Xu Ying set up as many tables and chairs as possible. Even if Xiao Li and Sandy sat together, there would still be more than enough room.

“Junior sister, before the Immortal Destiny Conference, we often got together to eat hot pot. Unfortunately, after the conference, there were too many people in the sect, and Master was always busy and not in the sect, so we haven’t been able to eat it since.”

Murong Ruyan explained dryly, "So, the reason we're holding this 'Hot Pot Festival' is actually because Master is craving... cough, we're all a bit craving it, and, uh, we also wanted to take this opportunity to get together! Hmm!" As she spoke, Murong Ruyan nodded heavily, as if trying to make her point more convincing.

Tang Xiaoyu smiled and said, "Thank you, senior sister. I've never had hot pot before, so I'll give it a try."

Murong Ruyan coughed lightly, her eyes darting around. She pretended to look at the disciples in the distance who were setting out copper pots borrowed from the restaurant on the tables one by one, while at the other she glanced at the disciples in the neighboring sect's market who were carrying large and small bags of ingredients to the square.

Zhang Chengdao's suggestion to hold a "Hot Pot Festival" was not a decision made on a whim.

Because this opportunity is quite rare, a reasonable reason for "team building" can bring the disciples within the sect closer together and make them more united. Just like a modern school organizing a field trip, the inner and outer disciples I lead should also find an opportunity to have a meal together, instead of being divided into small inner and outer groups that create distance between them.

Huang Wu fared well; with his carpentry skills, he ran a thriving business within the sect. He even invented a unique method of carving talisman symbols onto his carved wooden birds, creating a flying wooden bird capable of delivering messages from a fixed point. Although the technology was still quite immature and the function rather rigid, it was still an invention that Zhang Chengdao greatly admired.

It is said that Huang Wu was inspired by watching his sect leader transform a piece of paper into a living bird a few days ago.

Zhang Chengdao was greatly pleased by this—if all the disciples in the sect had such initiative, it would surely be just around the corner for him to take the helm of the White Stone Immortal Sect, develop spiritual energy technology, and lead the whole society into a highly modernized spiritual energy-based society!

However, apart from Huang Wu and Ye Shuyun, three of his five personal disciples were a major headache for Zhang Chengdao.

Each one of them had a different reason to give him a headache!
For example, Chang Ping'an is very useful, obedient, and respectful to his teachers, but he is just too simple-minded!
It's only because Emperor Ruyan still had a conscience and disdained to trick him; otherwise, with Chang Ping'an's brains, he probably would have been ruined by Murong Ruyan long ago!

As for Murong Ruyan, she is too competitive, to the point that she has a firm grasp on that "everyone except me is trash" imperial aura, and she isolates the entire sect by herself. If this continues, Zhang Chengdao is very worried that the Great Emperor Ruyan will eventually turn evil, and then his gold card will be wasted!

In comparison, Ye Shuyun was the most worry-free. He was intelligent and tactful, knew when to advance and retreat, and was generous with his money. He was as good as eight people. When he was put in charge of building the sect, he did a good job. Even the iron chain bridge connecting the various main peaks was made with the most expensive materials, and he didn't have to spend any money. He was Zhang Chengdao's most satisfied gold card.

The main problem with his fourth disciple, Tang Xiaoyu, was that he wasn't familiar with her. Not only were they not familiar, but she also harbored a bunch of secrets. If Tang Xiaoyu hadn't passed through the three levels of the trial formation almost perfectly, Zhang Chengdao would have thought she was one of those ruthless protagonists from the legends, possessing a script written by an old man in her mind!

Fortunately, after Tang Xiaoyu's refining of the Blood Demon Pearl, Zhang Chengdao finally understood the secret of his fourth disciple. He deliberately wanted to find this opportunity to let the disciples in the sect get along better and exchange feelings.

The main reason was that Tang Xiaoyu was too old and had a heavy Sichuan accent. Previously, in the sect, the other disciples had subconsciously treated her with respect for elders, which inadvertently isolated her from the group.

That won't do! Tang Xiaoyu just refined the Blood Demon Pearl, and she's easily affected by it!
If someone is isolated for a long time, even if nothing is wrong, something will happen!
(End of this chapter)