Senior sister, stop working and go home for dinner.

Chapter 419 No Family Anymore

Wei Yiran looked at her, then suddenly remembered something.

"How old are you?"

"Eleven," Xiaoling said, "and after the New Year it will be twelve."

Eleven years old.

When Wei Yiran was eleven years old, she studied and learned to read and write under a tutor in the manor. Every morning she practiced calligraphy, and in the afternoon she learned needlework. At that time, she felt that the days were long, seemingly endless. But now, looking back, those days passed as quickly as a gust of wind, gone in an instant.

"Where are your family members?" Wei Yiran asked.

Xiao Ling'er paused for a moment.

She didn't look up, still staring at the half-eaten pastry in her hand. After a long while, she whispered, "I have no family left."

Wei remained silent.

She shouldn't have asked that.

But Xiao Ling'er suddenly raised her head and looked at her. Her round eyes were devoid of tears, only a calmness that seemed out of place for her age.

"Master is gone, and Second Uncle and Third Uncle are gone too," Xiao Ling'er said. "Now only Junior Uncle remains."

Master.

Second Uncle and Third Uncle.

Wei Yiran did not ask who "Master" was, or who "Second Uncle" and "Third Uncle" were.

Xiao Ling'er didn't say anything more, but just lowered her head and nibbled on the rabbit-shaped snack one small bite at a time.

Wei Yiran didn't ask any more questions.

She simply gazed at the clouds rushing past the porthole, feeling the small hand gripping her fingers, and a strange emotion suddenly welled up inside her.

She couldn't tell what it was.

Outside the porthole, the clouds gradually thinned, and the mountains and rivers below became increasingly clear.

Wei Yiran saw a silvery river winding through the lush mountains and forests, terraced fields stretching from the foot of the mountain to the mountainside like giant steps, and strange, square buildings that gleamed in the sunlight.

The wooden bird began to descend.

"We're almost there." Little Ling'er looked up, stuffed the last bite of her snack into her mouth, puffed out her cheeks, and said, "Sister Wei, look, that's where we're staying."

Wei Yiran looked in the direction she pointed.

Then she froze.

It was a town.

No, it wasn't any town she'd ever seen. There were no city walls, no city gates, no houses of varying heights or crooked shapes. The buildings were arranged in neat rows, as if measured with a ruler. The roads stretched straight ahead, dividing the settlement into square grids. Within these grids were green trees, working people, and children chasing each other.

Further away, a mountain peak stands majestically, its summit shrouded in mist, and the outlines of several buildings can be vaguely seen.

That is the Hidden Cloud Sect.

The wooden bird slowly descended and finally landed on a wide open space. The hatch opened, and Xiao Ling'er, holding Wei Yiran's hand, was the first to jump off the wooden bird.

"Let's go, let's go," Xiao Ling'er called back, "I'll take you to Xian Shan Fang for dinner first! Although Junior Brother Fatty is in seclusion, Junior Sister Sun Wei's cooking is delicious!"

Wei Yiran was pulled forward by her, her steps a little unsteady.

Behind them, Xuanzhenzi and the others disembarked from the wooden bird and were led in another direction by Huiming. Their faces were filled with undisguised shock as they looked around, like a group of country bumpkins visiting the city.

The last person to step down from the wooden bird and shrink it into his palm was Jiang Yun. Jiang Yun's face was flushed, and he was extremely excited.

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Chen Anran handed the wooden bird flying device to him.

Jiang Yun held the palm-sized wooden bird, turning it over and over to examine it, her fingers gently tracing the delicate patterns. He muttered to himself, "Wow, this is really too much..."

They even blurted out their Sichuan and Chongqing accents with excitement.

Wang Rui sidled up from the side, looked at him, and couldn't help but laugh: "Brother Jiang, you look like you've struck gold."

"Found a treasure?" Jiang Yun looked up, her small eyes gleaming with fervor. "You don't understand, this isn't just finding a treasure, this is... this is..."

He couldn't find the right words for a moment, so he simply held the wooden bird up a little higher and examined it carefully in the sunlight.

Sunlight pierced through the thin, cicada-wing-like wooden wings, revealing the dense patterns within. They were array patterns, but a hundred times more intricate than any he had ever seen before.

"You have no idea," Jiang Yun murmured, her voice trembling with an almost pious devotion, "before I transmigrated here, I was fortunate enough to witness Fellow Daoist Chen operating it once. Just that one time, and I watched without daring to blink. At that time, I thought, if I could touch this thing with my own hands in this lifetime, it would be worth dying for."

Wang Rui looked at him but didn't say anything.

Jiang Yun turned the wooden bird over and pointed to a very hidden pattern at the base of its wing: "Look here, this is the core pattern of the levitation array. Our Jiang family's weapon-refining manual mentions that in ancient times, there were great masters who could carve levitation arrays into palm-sized objects, making inanimate objects fly. I always thought it was just a legend. Many things in our Jiang family's weapon-refining manuals are now just fragments."

His fingers moved slowly along the lines, as if caressing some rare treasure.

"But look here, it's not just engraved, it's engraved so finely, so densely, so... so neatly." Jiang Yun's voice grew softer and softer, almost as if she were talking to herself, "How precise must this control be? How profound must this mastery of formations be? This must be..."

He suddenly stopped, raised his head, and looked towards the direction of the Cloud Hidden Sect on the mountaintop.

Chen Anran handed the item to him and said that he would be in charge of its care from now on.

Jiang Yun suddenly said in a serious tone, "Tell me, if I were to ask your 'Sect Leader of the Cloud Hidden Sect' to let me take this thing apart and put it back together, would he agree?"

Wang Rui was stunned for a moment: "Demolished? Also, isn't our Master Chen the sect leader of the Cloud Hidden Sect?"

"Take it apart." Jiang Yun nodded, her small eyes shining. "I want to see how it was built inside. Floating array, balancing array, shock absorption array... so many arrays engraved into such a small thing, how do they not interfere with each other? How do they work together? How is the spiritual energy distributed?"

He spoke faster and faster, becoming more and more excited, until he saw Wang Rui's blank expression and then he stopped.

Jiang Yun coughed twice. He knew that Wang Rui was not one of them, and he wouldn't understand if he said too much. It would be better to talk to Asheng after returning to Lingqiao Workshop.

Then Jiang Yun changed the subject and said quietly, "The position of sect leader of Yunyin Sect can't remain vacant forever. We need someone to lead us, don't we?"

………………

Wei Yiran was pulled forward by Xiao Ling'er, her steps a little unsteady.

She glanced back; the young man named Jiang Yun was still standing there, holding the shrunken wooden bird, examining it from all angles, his expression one of fanaticism, as if he had found some priceless treasure. Beside him, the young man named Wang Rui was laughing and saying something. Jiang Yun looked up, glancing towards the mountaintop, his lips moving as if he were saying something.

Wei Yiran couldn't hear what he was saying.

I highly recommend "Senior Sister, Stop Working and Go Home for Dinner!" Click to enter the story world.