Runes • Rifles • Reincarnation
101. Grand Elder Feng Lian

Jin Shu and Liu Hua stepped out of her room.

A rich, intoxicating aroma filled the air.

In the small kitchen, Ying stood over a pot, stirring.

Her long hair was tied back, kept neatly away from the food.

It revealed her face.

And her eyes.

Or rather—her lack of them.

Jin Shu froze.

The scars around her empty sockets were brutal, jagged.

Not a birth defect. Not a sickness.

Someone had taken them—violently.

Beyond that horrifying detail, she was the spitting image of Liu Hua.

A little younger—perhaps twenty, while Liu Hua seemed to be in her late twenties.

He must have stared too long.

Liu Hua turned to him.

He braced himself—expecting the worst.

Instead, she whispered, voice softer than he'd ever heard it.

“We were both born with heavenly physiques focused on our eyes.”

Jin Shu tensed.

“She awakened hers before I did… so they took them.”

There was no need to ask who they were.

The anger in her voice said enough.

Jin Shu glanced back at Ying.

She worked calmly, expression neutral, as if she didn’t hear—or perhaps, had long since accepted it.

Then, Liu Hua spoke again.

A murmur—so quiet, it was almost swallowed by the sound of boiling broth.

“…It should have been me.”

Jin Shu wanted to say something.

But what could he say?

Nothing would change what had happened.

Nothing would bring back what she had lost.

Ying turned toward them, setting a plate of food on the small dining table.

“Big Sis, um… and?”

“Jin Shu.” He answered.

She nodded.

“Big Sis and Jin Shu, come eat. I’ll go get Master.”

Without another word, she disappeared into the third room.

Liu Hua wasted no time taking a seat, already piling food into her bowl.

“You better start eating now,” she said, matter-of-factly. “This is your only chance to taste my little sister’s divine cooking.”

Jin Shu moved to take the seat across from her.

Clack.

Liu Hua tapped her chopsticks against the seat beside her.

“Not that one. This one.”

He raised a brow but sat down nonetheless.

A moment later, the bedroom door opened again.

Ying emerged and took the seat he’d just been about to sit in.

“Master will be out soon.”

She wasted no time, grabbing food as quickly as Liu Hua.

Jin Shu raised an eyebrow.

Why are they eating so fast…?

Still, he helped himself, picking out the best-looking dish.

The moment he took a bite—

His chopsticks stopped.

His eyes widened.

It was the best food he had ever tasted.

He barely registered the silence.

Barely noticed how the other two were focused entirely on getting more food into their bowls.

Creak…

The bedroom door opened again.

Jin Shu turned his head, expecting to see their master.

Instead—

His breath caught.

He nearly dropped his bowl.

Jin Shu expected to see a sage-like master, the legendary Grand Elder of the Immortal Phoenix Sect.

The strongest cultivator in the sect.

Before meeting her, he'd already formed an image in his mind.

An older woman, maybe with a cane, but with an unmistakable aura of power.

Dignified. Wise. Radiating strength.

That was not who stepped out of the bedroom.

A young woman—no older than Ying, younger than Liu Hua—shuffled into the room, rubbing at her tired eyes.

Deep, dark circles marred her face, like a panda.

Her long, dark hair was a disaster.

Matted in places. Sticking up in others.

The loose robes hanging off her body barely covered the essentials, looking like she had thrown them on with minimal effort.

Jin Shu stared.

She let out a long, drawn-out yawn and stretched, her arms reaching toward the ceiling.

“Yaaaawn… Did you leave me any food?”

Without even fully opening her eyes, she plodded over to the table and took the last open seat.

She reached for a bowl. Moved sluggishly.

Then, with all the enthusiasm of someone half-asleep, she lazily picked up food, placed it in her mouth, and chewed…

…slowly.

Jin Shu blinked.

This… is the strongest cultivator in the sect?

Something felt off.

He glanced at the food on the table.

Half of it was gone.

He did a double take.

Only a few pieces remained.

“What…?”

Burp!

The woman patted her slightly bloated stomach and let out a satisfied sigh.

“Ah~ that really hits the spot. Your cooking really is the best, Ying.”

Jin Shu stared at her.

Then at the empty dishes.

Then back at her.

Did she just eat all that food in the literal blink of an eye…?

Ha! She might be able to give Yin’er a run for her money.

His older soul laughed in the back of his mind.

“You gonna finish that?”

Jin Shu froze, chopsticks halfway to his mouth.

She was pointing at his bowl.

“Uh… yes…” he said carefully.

“Tch.” She clicked her tongue in disappointment.

Jin Shu hesitated before asking the question gnawing at the back of his mind.

“Um… are you really…?”

She sighed, clearly already knowing what was coming.

“The Grand Elder, Feng Lian? Yeah, that’s me.”

She shook her head.

“Everyone always asks the same thing, even those little chicks.”

She jabbed a lazy finger toward Liu Hua and Ying.

“Do I really not look like a Grand Elder?”

Jin Shu made direct eye contact with his rice and continued eating.

He didn’t hear a thing.

Nope.

Nothing at all.

Feng Lian turned to the sisters.

“So, who’s this?”

“I brought them here to craft me a powerful weapon,” Liu Hua explained.

Her tone was casual.

Too casual.

Jin Shu’s bad feeling intensified.

“You should’ve seen it, Master,” Liu Hua continued. “Ying got hurt, so I went to kill everyone involved—starting with them.”

She pointed at Jin Shu.

He choked on his rice.

Coughing, he barely managed to swallow as Liu Hua stood up and began demonstrating.

“But then they pulled out this strange spear-like weapon—except it wasn’t a spear! It had no point!”

She mimed holding his rifle, pulling an imaginary trigger.

“They pulled a lever, and BOOM! It made this huuuuge noise that shook the walls! I felt its power. It wouldn’t have killed me, but it definitely could’ve injured me.”

She folded her arms.

“So that’s why I brought them here—to make me an even stronger weapon.”

Feng Lian nodded.

“Okay, I’m going back to sleep.”

Without another word, she plopped her head onto the table. Snoring.

Jin Shu stared.

Then at Liu Hua.

Then back at the snoring Grand Elder.

What… just happened?

"Master has narcolepsy. That’s why she created a cultivation technique that lets her cultivate while sleeping," Ying answered his unasked question.

Jin Shu blinked. "She’s cultivating right now?"

Ying nodded.

Before he could fully process that, Liu Hua clamped a hand on his shoulder.

"Enough about that. Time to make me a weapon!"

The world blurred.

In an instant, Jin Shu found himself inside a forge. The air was thick with heat, the embers in the forge still smoldering.

He was still holding his bowl and chopsticks.

“…What?”

“You can find materials in that chest over there,” Liu Hua said, pointing to the corner.

Jin Shu followed her gaze.

A small chest sat there. Too small to hold anything substantial—only about four or five hands long and six or seven tall.

Before he could ask any questions, Liu Hua stretched.

"I'm going back to sleep. Wake me up when you’re done. Bye."

A flash of purple lightning—and she was gone.

Jin Shu stared at the empty space where she had been.

"Uh… what the hell just happened? Can any of the voices in my head tell me?"

Silence.

Not from lack of response—but from sheer, collective confusion.

Even the little creature inside of him had nothing to say.

Jin Shu sighed. “Guess there’s nothing to do but make her that weapon.”

He set his bowl down and walked toward the suspiciously small chest.

As he got closer, he noticed faint, faded patterns etched into the surface.

Runes.

He squinted. They looked familiar.

A spark of recognition struck him.

"Oh!"

He pulled off his earring and examined the tiny, densely packed runes carved into it.

Comparing them, he realized something—

They weren’t identical, but the chest and his earring shared similar runes.

"This must be a space artifact."

Jin Shu tried lifting the lid.

It didn't budge.

Frowning, he placed a hand on it and let his Qi flow into the chest.

In an instant, his mind was pulled inside—into a vast, grand space.

Rows upon rows of shelves stretched out before him, each stacked with precious forging materials.

Hundreds—maybe even thousands.

And those were just the ones he could see.

His gaze flickered from shelf to shelf, scanning the metals. Coming from a renowned blacksmithing family, he recognized most materials at a glance.

But there were tons—literally and figuratively—that he didn’t recognize.

“Collect the silver and black metals on the fourth shelf to your right, and the gold metal on the tenth shelf to your left.”

Jin Shu nearly had a heart attack.

“What the—?!”

Long Jinshu had suddenly spoken in his mind.

"You will need them for the weapons you’re going to craft," the dragon continued.

Jin Shu blinked. “Huh?”

"I am going to teach you how to strengthen your weapons by implementing formations."

Jin Shu frowned. “Formations? On weapons? But they’d break.”

"Not if you use the correct metals."

Jin Shu opened his mouth, then shut it.

He knew those metals.

They were used for formation discs.

That’s why he had immediately dismissed the idea—they were too brittle for weapons.

Unless…

"Are you making a melee weapon?" Long Jinshu asked.

“No… oh… oh!”

Realization struck.

He was right.