This could be considered the last peaceful coexistence before ascending Wudong Mountain.

As Zanxing approached the lakeside, she discovered that the lake water here was crystal clear, transparent as air, allowing her to see the pebbles and white sand grains beneath the water. By the shore of Lanjing Lake, there were also the remains of a giant beast. The bones had been washed snow-white by the lake water, half buried in the mud and sand, half exposed on the rocky beach. Behind them were blue sky and the forest sea, and the long horns protruding from the skeleton made everything appear both eerie and magnificent.

“What is this?” Zanxing reached out to touch the skeleton. The bones felt ice-cold to the touch, with a texture like jade.

“It should be a snow rhinoceros,” Meng Ying answered.

Zanxing saw that some disciples from other sects ahead had already rolled up their sleeves and approached the lakeside, though she didn’t know what they were doing. While she was hesitating, Tian Fangfang came running over excitedly with her axe, saying: “The spiritual energy here is abundant. Junior sister, look—they’re all catching fish. Let’s also catch a few to roast and eat. These fish are fat and large, much better than those outside. Eating some will be good for our cultivation!”

As long as it was beneficial for cultivation, Meng Ying never objected. However, Zanxing looked around: “It seems like we don’t have any seasonings, though?”

“I have them, I have them!” Mendong pulled out a row of bottles and jars from his Qiankun Bag like a magic trick, saying: “Previously, when I traveled outside with Fifth Master Uncle and Seventh Master Uncle, when we encountered ingredients growing in places with abundant spiritual energy, we inevitably had to cook ourselves. I always carry these with me!” He also pulled out a copper pot and placed it on the ground: “I also have this medicine cauldron for brewing pills—it’s perfect for making fish soup!”

Zanxing: “…Did you come here for a picnic?”

Just as she was speaking, Tian Fangfang over there was already laughing: “Good heavens, this fish is fat!”

Since people only came to this Secret Realm once every ten years, the fish in the lake had grown fat and beautiful and weren’t afraid of humans. The cultivators swarmed forward, and everyone returned with full loads. Tian Fangfang caught a full pile, had Mendong go collect some tree branches, and sat down right there on the spot, calling Mu Cengxiao over to help prepare the fish.

It was hard to describe Zanxing’s feelings watching these two sitting together preparing fish. Tian Fangfang was fine—her Qianyang Axe already made her look like a royal kitchen helper, so this was nothing more than returning to her original profession. But when Mu Cengxiao also sat seriously on the grass, using the Mieshen Saber to scrape fish scales, for that instant, Zanxing could understand the original story’s feelings.

A perfectly good male lead had been led astray like this—if she were the original story, she’d also want to kill someone.

Children probably had a natural fondness for picnics and outings. This was the first time Zanxing had seen Mendong so excited. He sat beside Tian Fangfang with Mimi, seriously cleaning the wild grass they had picked from nearby.

While helping Tian Fangfang string the smaller fish onto tree branches, Zanxing casually asked Mendong, “What kind of grass is this? Can it be eaten?”

“It’s Yao grass,” Mendong said. “Legend says it was formed from the Heavenly Emperor’s daughter after she died. ‘Its leaves grow in clusters, its flowers are yellow, its fruit is like rabbit hills—eating it makes one charming to people.’ If women eat this, they can become more beautiful.”

Zanxing was somewhat surprised: “That good? Then pick more to put in.”

“Don’t keep ordering me around,” Mendong became unhappy, his small face darkening. “If you want to eat it, go pick it yourself.”

“You can’t say that,” Zanxing nodded toward the other side. “Aren’t there people over there who aren’t doing anything?”

She was referring to Gu Baiying and Meng Ying.

These two hadn’t participated in the picnic activities. Meng Ying was understandable—after all, having such a beautiful fairy kill fish didn’t sound like something a human would do. But Gu Baiying was also just sitting under a tree doing nothing, only closing his eyes to rest, which looked annoying. As if he had come to enjoy a vacation as a young master, and they were all servants here to serve him.

“My Master Uncle’s cooking skills aren’t something just anyone can taste.” Mendong was quite protective of Gu Baiying. “How could he do work for you people?”

“What skills does your Master Uncle have?” Zanxing teased. “Skills in wielding guns and smashing things?”

“Stop looking down on people,” Mendong said angrily. “My Master Uncle’s culinary skills—if the Three Realms held some kind of great chef hero competition, he’d be on the list. It’s just that he only cooks for Master and the Sect Leader. Once I secretly tasted a little…” The child licked his lips. “I want to become a Master and the Sect Leader in the future too.”

“Your aspiration to become Master and the Sect Leader is actually because you want to eat your Master Uncle’s cooking,” Zanxing said. “You’re quite the talent.”

While they were talking, Tian Fangfang’s fish was already cooking.

Both Mu Cengxiao and Tian Fangfang came from ordinary farming families, so they worked quite efficiently. The fish soup had who-knows-what thrown into it, bubbling away in the medicine cauldron. Li Danshu would probably have a heart attack if he saw this scene. The remaining smaller fish were strung on tree branches and rubbed with some kind of seasoning. Tian Fangfang gave everyone a few skewers, lit a fire on the ground, and began roasting fish. Looking at the people from neighboring sects, they were doing the same.

This was an outing.

While roasting fish, people from other sects came over and gave them several skewers of roasted quail-like things. Probably their team had culinary experts who had also hunted several birds and rabbits to prepare together.

Anyway, all the birds, beasts, insects, and fish here grew bathed in spiritual energy—they were all excellent ingredients, and it would be wasteful not to eat them. Mimi circled the fish soup cauldron, and Mu Cengxiao handed Zanxing a skewer of roasted rabbit meat that others had given them. Zanxing waved her hand: “I don’t eat game.”

“It’s all people’s goodwill,” Tian Fangfang said, then suddenly remembered something and rummaged through her Qiankun Bag, pulling out several large watermelons.

This time, even Meng Ying was surprised for a moment.

Gu Baiying glanced over: “What’s that?”

“Previously, at Li’er Kingdom’s royal palace, I noticed the watermelons sent to the palace were particularly sweet, so I thought I’d take a few back to keep some seeds and see if we could grow them in the sect,” Tian Fangfang said. “Right now they’re perfect to eat with the fish.”

She used her axe to split several melons, being quite generous, and even sent a few to neighboring sects, returning the favor.

Zanxing looked at the watermelon in her hand, then at the roasted fish and fish soup by the fire, and felt somewhat dazed.

The fish here were very fat, and when seasoned and roasted over fire, they sizzled and gave off a faint aromatic char. While roasting, Mendong suddenly spoke up: “It’s good that the Merfolk aren’t here; otherwise, if they saw this, they’d probably be angry, right? Would this count as eating their kind?”

This question was too profound, already involving species classification. Zanxing couldn’t answer, and the others didn’t want to answer either. However, Mendong’s reminder made her think of something, so she circulated her Yuanli, and from within Zanxing’s body, a layer of light blue radiance gradually emerged, condensing into the shape of a fish scale.

“This is…” Meng Ying paused.

“This was left in my body before Yinli’s primordial spirit disappeared that night. I don’t know what it is either. Have you seen it before, Senior Sister?” Zanxing asked.