Wait a minute, where is my master?

"Well, Little White's remark seems to have some merit,"

After a moment of silence in the room, Qingyun gently cleared his throat, breaking the awkward atmosphere.

Chef Jiang, hearing this, cast his gaze toward Jin Xu.

Seeing him nod slightly, he dashed to the table with the swiftness of an arrow and moved next to the ice coffin.

He was no longer concerned about the cold. Just like when he first carved tofu as a beginner, he cautiously lifted his daughter out of the ice coffin and then turned to glide down from the golden silkwood round table.

"Nan Er, wake up, it's Dad."

Chef Jiang softly called out to his daughter in his arms, his facial muscles even twitching nervously.

As expected.

Shortly after the little girl was lifted from the ice coffin, she slowly opened her eyes.

Everyone sighed in relief at this scene.

Little White ran exuberantly to Jin Xu's side, with a look that screamed 'praise me, temple master'.

The little Taoist puckered his lips and raised his hand to pat Husky's head twice as a sign of encouragement.

No matter how you looked at it, they had been utterly outwitted by Little White's intelligence on this matter.

Husky, receiving Jin Xu's praise, giggled and swiftly grabbed a rabbit leg from the table before quickly returning to Yu Yaoer's "confinement" to happily indulge.

"Daddy?"

After the little girl opened her eyes, she stared blankly at Jiang Xiulian's square face for a while before emitting a childlike, yet slightly husky voice.

"Ah, Nan Er, you're finally awake!"

Jiang Xiulan, hearing the long-missed 'Daddy', couldn't control the reddening of his eyes, and his voice trembled. Hot tears once again fell from the corners of his eyes.

"Daddy, don't cry."

The little girl, confused and not understanding why her father was crying, instinctively reached out with her cold little hand to gently wipe away his tears.

"Eh, no crying, no crying, Daddy won't cry."

Chef Jiang hurriedly wiped his eyes, then firmly grasped his daughter's hand, gently transferring his spiritual power to her.

He did this to dispel the chill residue from the ice coffin lingering on the girl.

The scene of the father and daughter's reunion was quite touching, but the little Taoist's attention was entirely on another matter.

"Teacher, Junior Sister, I have just received a message. Disciples of Mr. Fu from the academy seem to have encountered something in the Qingmu Secret Realm and have gone missing,"

As Jiang Xiulan was having his reunion with his daughter, Qingyun seemed to have received some information, whispering it to both the Old Dean and Lan Junyan.

"Mr. Fu's disciple? The strongest among the younger generation in the academy?"

"Yes, Teacher, that's him. Our academy's disciples who entered the Secret Realm were led by him. The disciples guarding near the realm said that soon after Cultivators from the Demon Sect fell, he came out of the Secret Realm.

He seemed to be in a bad state then, holding a handkerchief and muttering to himself, quite secretive about it.

At the time, the others just thought he was overexerting himself and didn't inquire further. But unexpectedly, the next day, the kid had disappeared.

When Mr. Fu found out, he couldn't get any response when he sent messages. He reached out to Qingmu City's City Lord and conducted a search in the city. He also had people look in the academy. But they found nothing, and that's when he sent me the message,"

Qingyun shared the information he received with both of them simultaneously.

Upon hearing this, the Old Dean stroked his beard and fell silent.

As for Lan Junyan, he immediately replied with a message without hesitation, "You see, I always said that Fu Gui's way of teaching his disciples was wrong. Now, the disciple couldn't take it and finally ran away from home, didn't he?"

"... Junior Sister, don't judge just because you disapprove of Mr. Fu's teaching methods,"

Qingyun said with resignation, as he turned his gaze toward the Old Dean.

At this time, Qingmu Academy had just suffered an attack from the Demon Sect. Though Jin Xu had "evenly scattered" the people across Qingmu City, the truth was that many of the injured teachers and disciples weren't few.

But with the missing student being the prime among the younger generation, they couldn't just ignore the situation, so he wanted to hear the teacher's opinion before deciding what to do next.

Upon hearing her senior brother's words, Lan Junyan snorted in her transmission, slightly haughtily tilting her head.

Then...

He realized that the little Taoist was looking at her again!

"Why is this person looking at me again? And why is he smiling at me!?"

...

Jin Xu accidentally heard the content of the other's telepathic communication.

He was pondering whether the disciple Qingyun mentioned, who was holding a handkerchief and muttering to himself, could be the "heartbroken man" he had encountered in the Secret Realm.

Seeing Lan Junyan suddenly look up at him, he subconsciously smiled back.

The little Taoist planned to find a way to broach the subject without revealing that he could hear others' telepathy, just to slightly hint at it.

"Brother Yan, I..."

Before he could finish, Jin Xu's intended words were interrupted by a young child's voice.

"Daddy, I'm hungry."

The little girl's body temperature gradually recovered after being nourished by Jiang Xiulan's spiritual power.

The one who hadn't eaten in over twenty years expressed her needs to her father as soon as possible.

"Ah, Nan Er, what do you want to eat? Tell Daddy."

As the first Chef of the Nine Provinces, he should have headed straight to the kitchen the moment his daughter wanted something to eat.

But now that his daughter had just awakened, Jiang Xiulan really couldn't bear to leave her side, so he turned his gaze toward Lan Junyan instead.

"Mr. Lan, could you please call a servant?"

While speaking, Chef Jiang turned his daughter around in his arms so her face was toward the golden silkwood round table.

There was still plenty of food on the table, but Jiang Xiulan certainly couldn't let his daughter eat leftovers. Besides, the little girl who had just woken up from a twenty-year sleep couldn't eat the food on the table.

Lan Junyan looked at the exquisitely delicate little girl, then at Jiang Xiulan with his wide face.

After silently marveling at how they didn't look like father and daughter, he was about to telepathically call the servants waiting outside the door.

Suddenly!

A clear cry of wailing echoed through the room.

For a moment, Qingyun and the Old Dean, who were communicating telepathically, Little White, who was hiding and eating a rabbit leg constrained by Yu Yaoer, and Lan Junyan, who was about to call the servants, all stopped what they were doing.

The little Taoist also looked in surprise at the crying little girl.

Jiang Xiulan was even more panicky, frantically wiping the tears from his daughter's cheeks, while asking what was wrong.

"Nan Er, what's the matter? Are you hungry? Don't cry, Daddy will get you something to eat right now!"

"Wuwuwu..."

The little girl just kept crying and did not answer Jiang Xiulan's question.

After crying for a while, she choked up, raised her hand, and pointed to a plate on the table where a roast rabbit was missing two hind legs.

"Wuwuwu~ Bunnies... bunnies are so cute, how can you eat bunnies... wuwuwu!"

Chef Jiang was stunned for a moment.

His daughter did indeed like small animals before she was deeply poisoned by Gu, but she shouldn't cry like this at the sight of a roast rabbit, right!?

And everytime he cooked, she used to eat joyfully.

What happened today?

While the top chef of the Nine Provinces was bewildered.

The Old Dean suddenly spoke up faintly from the side.

"Don't panic, Chef Jiang, this must be the side effect of the Seven-orifice Exquisite Heart Fruit."