Bao Gu thought to herself, *“One person isn’t enough, so you want to stew two?*”
If Ba really wanted to stew and eat two people, Bao Gu had no objections in principle. But as a human, she really couldn’t bring herself to say something like, “One person isn’t enough, why don’t you cook two.”
Ba had starved for a whole year. If she wanted to eat an extra person now, why would she need Bao Gu’s permission? Even if she ate up all the rations for that year in one go, Bao Gu wouldn’t say a word. So what did she mean by coming over to say this to her?
Bao Gu stared at Ba, face full of question marks, her gaze asking silently.
Ba said,
“Um… don’t you not like me eating people? I can change my taste.
Anything that runs on four legs, flies in the sky, or swims in the water—I don’t mind. Just put in spirit-treasure medicines and you cook it.”
Bao Gu gaped at her, eyes full of shock.
*She’s… not eating people anymore? She wants to switch to… side dishes?*
Seeing Bao Gu’s reaction, Ba thought she was refusing. She glared and accused fiercely,
“You made me go hungry for a year.”
Bao Gu said,
“Didn’t I already give you an extra year’s rations as compensation?”
Ba stared stubbornly at her, refusing to back down.
“I want to change flavors!”
Then her tone shifted. She tilted her head, peering at Bao Gu.
“What, do you want me to keep eating people?”
Inside, Bao Gu screamed, *“Oh my god, Ba really isn’t eating people.”*
She instinctively glanced toward the outside, wanting to see if the sun had risen from the west today—only, of course, she couldn’t see any sun.
Wanting to “change her taste” didn’t necessarily mean Ba would never eat people again, but the fact she could even think of eating other things was already a huge step forward. Naturally, Bao Gu supported it. If possible, she was willing to put in the time and effort to drag Ba off the road of eating humans and onto the road of eating demonic beasts instead.
“I haven’t cooked in a long time,” she said. “Don’t know if I’m rusty.”
She thought Ba was actually quite pitiful. The same single dish, eaten every day for seven or eight years without a change—how could she not be sick of it? Anyone would be.
Thinking of that, Bao Gu couldn’t hide the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
*Poor thing. Does she not know there are different ways to cook?*
Pan-frying, deep-frying, stir-frying, braising, boiling, roasting—so many cooking methods, yet it had always been spirit-treasure medicine stewed with human meat, or human meat stewed with spirit-treasure medicine…
Even though Xuantian Sect had moved from the Xuantian Mountain Range to the Two Realms Mountain, the palaces and buildings built in the mountain range couldn’t be moved. Many furnishings and objects had been left behind as well, and the little courtyard where Yu Mi used to live had been kept exactly as it was.
Bao Gu couldn’t bear to touch Yu Mi’s things, so she searched elsewhere in the Xuantian Mountains and quickly found the kitchen where the old Qi-Condensation and Foundation Establishment disciples used to cook. She gathered up a full set of kitchen tools.
She moved out a long gold-inlaid jade table and set it up in the hall, then arranged a cutting board, kitchen knife, wash basin, serving plates, and so on in order.
The stoves were fixed in the kitchen and not easy to move, and she found them too bulky anyway, so she abandoned them. Instead, she took out the magic tool that stored earthfire, then pulled out a few blocks of Great Luo Red Gold refined into brick-shapes and lined them up on the table, leaving a gap in the middle to place the earthfire treasure. She set a delicate small pot across the Red Gold bricks.
A makeshift stove was done.
Ba stood off to the side, watching Bao Gu fiddle with everything, eyes brimming with curiosity. What Bao Gu was doing looked completely different from how she used her cauldron to stew human meat.
Once everything was in place, Bao Gu suddenly flicked her hand.
A three-foot-long live fish appeared out of nowhere, thrashing midair. Bao Gu grabbed it neatly just below its head and slammed it down onto the cutting board. Her other hand snatched up the kitchen knife. She flipped the knife so the spine faced down and—
*Smack!*
She struck the fish square on the top of its head. A crisp crack sounded as the skull shattered. The lively fish went limp as Bao Gu blasted its brains in.
That clean, ruthless motion left Ba staring dumbly.
She had known Bao Gu for so long and had *never* seen her kill anything. She definitely had never seen Bao Gu whack someone’s skull open with a “smack” without even blinking.
This was even more domineering than when she snapped people’s necks to eat them.
Before Ba could react, Bao Gu had one hand pinning the fish’s head while the other hand scraped the scales with the knife.
“Shua shua shua—”
In just a few strokes, the scales were scraped clean. She turned the knife, slit the belly, opened it up, then slid the knife tip into the cavity and gave a flick, neatly scooping out the innards but leaving the swim bladder. Then with a few deft picks of the knife tip, she removed the gills, quick and smooth.
Ba quietly compared it to how she processed people.
In terms of efficiency, she was absolutely not as clean and neat as Bao Gu was with this fish.
*So Bao Gu was hiding her skills all along!* she thought.
She didn’t even notice that she was staring so hard at Bao Gu’s busy hands that her eyes had gone glassy.
Bao Gu put the cleaned fish into a basin, took out a jade bottle that stored water, poured in spirit spring water to rinse it thoroughly, then sliced the fish and laid the pieces neatly on a plate. She added seasonings and spirit-treasure herbs, placed everything in a steamer, set it over the pot, and lit the earthfire to steam.
Steamed fish was best done whole, but the pot was only a foot and a half in diameter while the fish was three feet long, so she had no choice but to slice it.
Ba stared unblinkingly at the steaming basket.
*Such a tiny fish wouldn’t even fill the gaps between my teeth…*
The next instant, Bao Gu grabbed a brightly colored brocade chicken out of the air.
Her left hand twisted its wing and pinched its comb; her right hand plucked the feathers from its neck in a few quick tugs. She picked up the knife and sliced across the bare neck. Blood spurted out—spraying into the air.
Bao Gu took out a bowl, flicked her hand, and sent out a wisp of spiritual power that swept the floating, scattered chicken blood into a round glob and guided it neatly into the bowl.
Then she cleaned the bird with the same swift efficiency, set up a second little stove, and put the brocade chicken on to simmer into soup.
After that, she caught a rabbit and made a plate of stir-fried spicy rabbit cubes. Then she killed a big wild boar and cooked a huge pot of red-braised pork, plus braised pig head skin and pig’s feet.
Steamed, red-braised, soup, stir-fried—everything was covered.
Bao Gu thought for a moment, then rummaged around the Xuantian Mountain Range some more and found a few edible wild greens. She cooked a plate of stir-fried vegetables for herself.
The animals she caught weren’t demonic beasts with cultivation, so they cooked quickly. Before long, everything was done and brought to the table.
Her cooking skills really weren’t all that amazing. Back when she helped her father manage the household, she’d also overseen the kitchens and the meals for the long- and short-term workers, porters, and for the two of them. She’d had to show her face in the kitchen every day, and over time she’d picked up a few things and learned the basic methods.
That much was more than enough to deal with Ba, who had been taught to eat cooked food by her in the first place.
Besides, even if her cooking wasn’t top-notch, these were all mountain delicacies raised in a blessed land, with spirit-treasure medicines added in for good measure. Even she thought they smelled amazing. It should be more than enough to satisfy Ba.
She’d always been thorough in doing things. To be safe, she even added a pot of spirit-fruit wine for Ba. Monkey wine could only be brewed by little spirit monkeys, and once you drank a pot, there was one less in the world, so she didn’t use it. Instead, she used freshly brewed spirit-fruit wine. Although it couldn’t compare to monkey wine in aroma, it had its own fruity flavor.
When the food hit the table, Ba hadn’t even sat down yet before her claws went straight for the enormous basin of red-braised pork.
Bao Gu was cleaning up the cutting board and knife when she saw that. She whipped the kitchen knife up and threw it at Ba.
Her cultivation in Xuantian Sword had borne fruit; even a casual throw unconsciously carried the essence of the sword art. Knife light flashed, blade aura cold and sharp.
“Whoosh—”
The flying knife struck Ba’s claws head-on, the tip landing squarely on the back of her hand.
Ba had never imagined that Bao Gu would actually throw a knife at her. Her claw had already touched the red-braised pork when the knife collided with it. She hadn’t managed to dodge at all. Steel met flesh with a ringing clang like metal striking metal.
The end result: Ba’s hand was perfectly fine. The knife’s edge curled, then dropped straight toward the red-braised pork.
Ba’s eyes were fast. She snatched the knife out of midair and saved the meat from being ruined.
Bao Gu hadn’t expected to actually hit Ba’s claw, or that Ba wouldn’t dodge. She was scared silly for a second. She’d only wanted to stop Ba’s uncouth behavior at the table; she hadn’t meant to hurt her. Then she saw that Ba’s hand was unharmed while the knife’s edge was ruined and she was left speechless.
“Use chopsticks,” she said.
She quickly gathered up the tools, then walked over, laid out bowls and chopsticks on the table, gestured for Ba to sit, and shoved the chopsticks into Ba’s hand while taking back the abused kitchen knife.
She gave this fresh, soft-looking, rosy, yet absurdly sturdy Ba a deep, complicated look. She honestly didn’t know what to say.
Ba held the chopsticks and sat at the table, staring at the delicious spread until her mouth was practically watering. She glanced at Bao Gu, eyes crinkling with a smile, and picked up a piece of red-braised pork with her chopsticks, dropping it into Bao Gu’s bowl.
Bao Gu stared at her, dumbfounded, disbelief written all over her face.
*She… actually knows to put food into someone else’s bowl?*
The very next moment, Ba hauled the giant basin of red-braised pork over in front of herself. She jerked her chin at Bao Gu.
“That piece is yours. This whole basin is mine.”
“…”
*Are you kidding me?*
Bao Gu lowered her eyes to the lonely little piece of pork in her bowl, then looked back at Ba.
*Is this supposed to be splitting the spoils? You give me one piece and keep a whole basin for yourself?*
Seeing Bao Gu’s eyes almost pop out as she stared at the big basin of meat, even Ba felt she might have gone a bit too far. Magnanimously, she picked up another piece of red-braised pork and dropped it into Bao Gu’s bowl.
“That should be enough. I can’t give you any more.”
Bao Gu’s neck moved stiffly as she nodded.
Ba glanced at the chicken soup. After more than seven years of eating stew—water plus spirit-treasure medicine plus meat—she had *zero* affection for that kind of dish. So she generously gifted the entire chicken soup to Bao Gu, shoved the plate of vegetables over to her as well, then righteously hogged the fish and the rabbit for herself.
Faced with that, Bao Gu had nothing left to say.
She really wanted to ask, *“Where are your manners?”*
But then she thought about it. Expecting table manners from someone who ate people raw, and who’d sell herself for a bite of food… she was only making herself suffer.
Bao Gu didn’t care much about food to begin with, and she had even less love for meat. After watching Ba eat human flesh for years, she’d completely lost her appetite for meat. She quietly ate her vegetables, drank a little spirit wine, and kept Ba company.
She noticed that although Ba clearly didn’t *like* using chopsticks, her posture and bearing when she did were surprisingly good. She sat very straight. Her movements, while fast, were not crude at all. There was even a hint of refinement, as if she had been very well taught.
That stunned Bao Gu again.
Aside from herself, no one had ever taught Ba to use chopsticks, and she had definitely never taught her these subtle details of table manners.
*Could this be leftover habits from her previous life?*
A chill crawled up Bao Gu’s spine.
One corpse demon was already scary enough. If she regained the memories of her previous life and her full intelligence on top of that…
That would be more terrifying than a ten-thousand-year old monster.
Ba wiped out the red-braised pork, the rabbit, and the fish, then still felt she hadn’t eaten her fill. Seeing that Bao Gu hadn’t even looked at the chicken soup, much less touched it, she very considerately helped her “resolve” the chicken and the soup as well. As for the plate of “grass,” she didn’t spare it a glance.
She handed her bowl and chopsticks back to Bao Gu.
“Um… if you cook like this again next time, I’ll come eat.”
Bao Gu stared at her blankly, then silently nodded.
Facing a Ba who had recovered her memories and awakened her intelligence, she was afraid.
Ba thought for a moment and said,
“Um… if you cook me food like this, I won’t eat people anymore. But you have to make sure I get full.”
Bao Gu nodded again. She did feel a bit of relief at the “not eating people” part.
After thinking it over, she told Ba that her own cooking wasn’t very good. Among the cultivators, there were definitely people who cooked better than she did. She’d summon a proper cook to take charge of their meals—in truth, to take charge of Ba’s meals.
Ba felt that Bao Gu was pickier about food than she was. After a brief hesitation, she accepted the suggestion.
Bao Gu didn’t have that much spare time to cook for Ba. Once she had Ba’s agreement, she immediately went to recruit a cook.
Once the news spread that Bao Gu wanted to hire a cook on her ship, everyone with even passable culinary skills was overjoyed.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get close to the Token Lord. If you captured her stomach, how could you worry about not having a good future?
Quite a few people signed up. After a round of screening, all the half-baked amateurs were weeded out, and only six people who had actually worked as cooks and truly knew how to make dishes remained.
Bao Gu’s warship had three decks and was plenty spacious. Adding a kitchen wasn’t a problem at all. She immediately set aside an area for the kitchen and arranged living quarters for the cooks on the same ship. They simply weren’t allowed to enter or leave her private deck.
To win Bao Gu’s favor, the six cooks finished setting up the kitchen in no time.
After inspecting it, Bao Gu immediately handed over a batch of high-grade spirit-treasure medicines and demonic beast meat.
The six cooks looked at the mountain of ten-thousand-year treasures and seventh- and eighth-grade spiritual herbs piled in jade boxes, taking up half the kitchen storeroom, and their minds went blank.
*If the Cleaver Lord eats like this, is she planning to ascend in broad daylight?*
They had lived this long and had only ever *heard* of ten-thousand-year herbs or seventh- and eighth-grade spiritual medicines. They had never seen them with their own eyes. Now an entire pile was sitting right in front of them. Happiness had come so suddenly it bent their backs.
Just as the six cooks were being crushed by this avalanche of happiness, Ba arrived, face full of pure delight.
When she saw that half the kitchen storeroom filled with her future rations, her eyes curved into little crescent moons. She almost wanted to fling herself into Bao Gu’s arms and roll around, acting spoiled.
She looked at Bao Gu, eyes shining.
“Cheap Master, besides my dad, you treat me the best.”
Bao Gu sucked in a sharp breath of cold air and held it in her lungs for a long time before she managed to let it out.
Ba happily pulled out demonic beast meat and spirit-treasure herbs and dumped them on the long kitchen table.
“Today I’m eating this. Get cooking! I’ll be right here watching.
If what you make isn’t as good as Bao Gu’s, I’ll throw you into the pot and stew you.”
The six cooks all gasped and clamped their legs together in fright. One of them even lost control and wet himself.
*So the Token Lord didn’t recruit cooks for herself… but for the corpse demon?*
One cook’s eyes rolled back and he flopped over, fainting dead away.
The others collapsed weakly to the floor one after another.
Bao Gu sighed inwardly when she saw this.
“Don’t worry. Ba won’t lay a hand on you,” she said. “She’s counting on you to cook for her. If she kills you, she won’t have any cooks left.”
Then she turned her head to look at Ba.
“Out of three hundred thousand cultivators, only these few have actually worked as cooks. If you scare them off, you’ll be back to nothing but stew in the future.”
In the cultivation world, proper cooks were rarer than artifact refiners, pill refiners, talisman masters, or array masters.
Ba blinked, looking very innocent.
“I didn’t even do anything.”
*You don’t have to do anything to be terrifying right now,* Bao Gu thought.
She dumped Ba on the cooks, then ran off as fast as she could.
Never mind the cooks—*she* was afraid of this Ba, who had recovered her memories from her previous life and even remembered her father.
If Ba were just a corpse demon, a corpse-type monster, her behavior would be easy to predict and easy to deal with.
But now she had human consciousness and memories *plus* a corpse demon’s instincts. You could never be sure whether she’d act like a person one moment or do something no human could even imagine the next.
That unknown, uncontrollable factor was the most frightening part.
Bao Gu felt she’d managed to provoke an ancestor-level being.
