Under everyone’s stunned gaze, Qing Ying shamelessly scooped away three whole platters of grilled skewers, even taking Yu Mi’s beloved Daluo Scarlet Gold skewers with her. The people at the table were so shocked they just froze there.
Only after quite a while did Si Ruo finally exclaim,
“That was really the drought fiend that was sealed in the Desolate Ancient Mountain Range back then?”
Xue Qing said lightly,
“She dragged an Earth Immortal back to use as rations. What do you think? And the preservation isn’t bad at all.”
As she spoke, a pair of chopsticks appeared in her hand. She slipped them into the glowing, mist-shrouded cauldron that was currently stewing the Earth Immortal’s flesh, poking and prodding inside. From the movement of her hand, it even looked like she flipped a chunk of meat over.
Si Ruo was speechless.
…How had she never realized that this soft-spoken, gentle, enchantingly beautiful Xue Qing was actually this vicious?
Sitting beside her, Zi Yunshu crooked a finger and poked Si Ruo’s arm.
“Hey, next time the Kingdom of Yue runs into a drought fiend disaster, just send a few chests of spiritual treasures and pills. Guaranteed you’ll settle it without a single soldier getting hurt.”
Si Ruo shot Zi Yunshu a gloomy look.
“There’s going to be a next time?”
Yu Mi pulled out another chunk of beast meat. She summoned the Namning Lihuo Sword, drew in the Namning Lihuo flame coiled around the blade, then spun the sword in her hand. Sword light flashed; the White Tiger fiend beast at the Deification stage was sliced beneath the flow of sword shadows into long strips of tiger meat that fell neatly into the big basin below.
She cut those strips into pieces a bit over a foot long and two fingers wide, spread them evenly over a grill forged from Daluo Scarlet Gold, and sprinkled on seasoning in an even layer. She glanced back at the platters of beast meat everyone had barely touched.
“The meat’s not good? I’m waiting to get my skewers back so I can keep grilling.”
As she spoke, her sword flashed again, and half of the tiger meat strips turned into thumb-sized cubes under that radiant edge.
Yu Mi had them slide the meat off the skewers and return the skewers to her. As she was threading the cubes onto them again, she suddenly remembered what Xue Qing had just said to Qing Ying about not liking beast meat. She lifted her gaze to Xue Qing.
“Grandmaster Granny, you don’t like beast meat? I can grill something else for you.”
Her storage bracelet might not be high grade, but it was still a rare treasure. It contained a small inner world, and back then Bao Gu had planted a huge number of high-grade spiritual herbs and fruit seedlings in there. After several centuries of growth, there was plenty of good stuff to dig out.
As she talked, she rummaged around the mountain within the bracelet and pulled out something that looked like a bamboo shoot, but was pure white with a jade-like luster—a White Jade Shoot. Slow-roasted over a gentle flame, then peeled, the tender inner shoot was fragrant and delicious, and the innermost shoot marrow was an exceedingly rare delicacy, the best for nourishing and beautifying the body. It was one of the main ingredients for refining Snowface Pellets.
Xue Qing glanced at the White Jade Shoot Yu Mi tossed onto the grill. A hint of surprise flashed through her eyes.
‘She’s not actually going to make me eat vegetarian just because I said that to coax Qing Ying, is she?’
Making a meat-loving Celestial Fox face a table full of meat and then eat vegetables… was that bullying her, or just flaunting it?
“I only don’t eat fox meat,” she said.
Then her tone shifted.
“You should follow Bao Gu and call me Master’s Wife.”
“Yes, Master’s Wife,” Yu Mi answered promptly, and went on skewering and grilling.
They ate the beast meat Yu Mi grilled and drank the Supreme Monkey Wine brewed by the Duobao Spirit Monkey. The pure spiritual power from the meat and the wine surged through them, making all their faces glow with rosy radiance. They had to constantly circulate their own spiritual power to absorb it, feeling an indescribable comfort all over.
In the cultivation world, almost no one could drink Supreme Monkey Wine like this. Aside from the few of them, it’d be hard to find a second group. And not a single one of them felt the least bit guilty.
That thieving Duobao Spirit Monkey never cared whether someone was an acquaintance when “stealing” spiritual treasures and medicinal herbs. If it took a liking to something, its paw went out. Every last person present had been a victim of its uninvited “borrowing.” They’d all contributed, more or less, to the wines it brewed.
After more than an hour, the beast meat and all the Supreme Monkey Wine the Duobao Spirit Monkey had taken out were wiped clean.
A lustrous jade-like spoon appeared in Xue Qing’s hand, shimmering with rainbow light. She slipped it into the cauldron and stirred gently, the corners of her lips lifting.
“All right. We really have to thank Qing Ying for this feast. Don’t be fooled by how ugly male barbarian asuras look—their flesh and bones are perfect for boiling down into meat jelly. Taste it.”
As she spoke, she lifted her left hand. A delicate little bowl appeared in her palm at a glance clearly no ordinary item.
One spoonful went in, and soon there was a full small bowl for everyone at the table.
The Earth Immortal’s flesh had been simmered down completely; there was no trace of meat to be seen. The contents of the bowls were a milky, crystal-clear liquid, hazed with colored radiance, giving off a faint, utterly unique fragrance. It carried a hint of meat, yet also seemed like the combined scent of countless spiritual herbs refined together. Just smelling it made every pore in their bodies open up.
“One bowl each,” Xue Qing said. “No more.”
The Demon Saint, Xuan Yue, and Ling’er picked up their spoons, scooped a little, and slowly brought it to their mouths.
Yu Mi, Jade Shura, Qu Yirou, and Si Ruo just stared at one another. Turning an Earth Immortal with a humanoid body into “meat soup” was… a bit much. Their hands and mouths refused to cooperate.
Seeing this, Ling’er lifted her head.
“Go on, eat. The barbarian race isn’t the same as humans. Strictly speaking, barbarians are half-immortal, half-spirit, half-demon. It’s the same path as birds cultivating the phoenix form, insects and snakes cultivating the dragon form, barbarians cultivating the human form. Hawks still eat sparrows, don’t they? They’re all bird-shaped.”
Yu Mi thought it over, then picked up her spoon and tried a small mouthful.
The Earth Immortal broth melted the instant it touched her tongue, its taste vaguely similar to dragon marrow. Once it entered her stomach, it transformed into pure power that surged through the meridians of her body. At first it was like fine silk threads of water, but then she felt a mighty force flood into her limbs and bones, as if another divine strength had suddenly appeared inside her.
Then that force changed again, becoming a vast, pure life energy that nourished her bones and flesh, making her skeleton denser, tougher, and faintly sheathed in an almost imperceptible layer of pale golden light.
She understood. Earth Immortals, who bore the character “immortal” and had passed through the Ascension Tribulation, were on a completely different level than any spiritual treasure of the lower realms or mortal world. This really was thanks to Qing Ying. If she didn’t eat it, wouldn’t that be a crime against heaven?
As these thoughts turned in Yu Mi’s mind, her hand didn’t slow for a second; spoonful after spoonful went into her mouth.
Seeing this, Jade Shura whispered to Qu Yirou,
“I’ll try it first.”
She scooped half a spoonful and tasted it. Her eyes lit up. She snapped her head around to nod hard at her master, then grinned at Xue Qing.
“Senior Xue, you wouldn’t mind if I packed two extra bowls to take back, right?”
“Your cultivation is too low. You mustn’t be greedy,” Xue Qing said. “Your master can eat two extra bowls, but she’ll have to do it one at a time—finish and refine one bowl before she drinks the next.”
Once Si Ruo saw that Jade Shura and Yu Mi were fine, she lowered her head and started on her own bowl of Earth Immortal broth. After a single spoonful, she also wanted to imitate Jade Shura’s shameless, thick-skinned act and beg for two extra bowls to take away. Maybe her cultivation, which hadn’t advanced in two hundred years, could finally take a step forward.
Yu Mi, Jade Shura, Qu Yirou, Si Ruo, Xuan Yue, and Ling’er each finished a bowl, then sat cross-legged to meditate, circulate their techniques, and refine the Earth Immortal broth.
Only then did they understand why Xue Qing hadn’t allowed them to eat more. One bowl and they were already on the brink of being overwhelmed by the nourishment. If they’d taken another out of greed, the rampaging power charging through their bodies might very well have cost them their lives over a mere bowl of broth.
Xue Qing held a small bowl in hand, eating what looked like a bowl of thin “congee” without even side dishes, yet she savored every bite. One bowl, then another, and another, and another still—she ate so many even she lost count.
The Duobao Spirit Monkey stood beside the Myriad Spirit Cauldron that was barely taller than it was, a big ladle slung over its shoulder, a bowl in front of it. It drained one bowl, then filled itself another. That ladle never left its monkey paw as it scooped from the cauldron. It ate until sweat streamed down its furry cheeks, yet it kept letting out happy squeaks, as if yelling,
“Too damn good!”
One fox, one monkey—both from the Upper Realm, both once far beyond the Earth Immortal realm in cultivation, both still possessing immortal bones even now. They were treating Earth Immortal broth like some great tonic soup and just drinking away.
Not far off, Qing Ying sat on the roof of the palace where Bao Gu was in seclusion, furiously crunching down one precious pill after another that the Demon Saint had given her, grinding her teeth nonstop.
Her Earth Immortal meat. Her rations. They’d stewed it and weren’t giving her any!
She sat right there, perfectly visible if they’d just bothered to look up. But every last one of them had their eyes glued to the meat in the cauldron, glued to the broth in their bowls, and none of them remembered to so much as glance around.
She hadn’t even hidden her figure, and they were blatantly ignoring such an obvious presence!
Qing Ying stared at the Myriad Spirit Cauldron, eyes practically glowing. If that cauldron didn’t have a spirit and such a powerful aura, she would have absolutely rushed over, grabbed it, and run, and never returned that rotten Little Celestial Fox’s cauldron ever again.
Xue Qing downed more than a dozen bowls in one breath before finally stopping. She pressed a hand to her stomach and sighed.
“I’m stuffed.”
She turned her head to look at the Duobao Spirit Monkey and saw that its already-not-small belly was completely round.
“Stupid, you’re already fat enough!” she called.
The Duobao Spirit Monkey raised an arm and flexed hard, displaying its firm little muscles, then chattered in monkey-speech,
“Real men aren’t afraid of getting fat!”
Bao Gu and Yu Mi couldn’t understand monkey talk, but Xue Qing, descendant of the Demon Emperor, could understand it perfectly. Not just monkey speech—almost all the languages of beasts and birds, even some plants’ speech, were clear to her.
The sight of the Duobao Spirit Monkey puffing itself up made her laugh. This palm-sized, fluffy little stone monkey, born without gender, actually calling itself a “real man”! Converted to human age, it would be, at best, a six- or seven-year-old brat.
Soon enough, the Duobao Spirit Monkey was so stuffed it threw down its bowl and ladle, sprawled on the jade table with its belly up, and started hiccupping nonstop.
Cultivating a weapon-fusion art, Yu Mi absorbed and refined the Earth Immortal broth faster than anyone else. She was the first to finish, pulling in her power and opening her eyes. A sharp gleam flashed in her gaze. Her whole body felt brimming with explosive strength, her cultivation clearly having leaped forward by a large chunk. That growth didn’t show too much in realm, but the improvement to her physical body was obvious. She was certain the flesh of barbarian asuras was the most suitable food for body refiners.
She picked up the ladle the Duobao Spirit Monkey had been using and dipped it into the cauldron. She found that, though the ladle looked small, when it entered the palm-sized cauldron, its size didn’t change at all, only faintly wreathed in a strange aura.
The broth in the cauldron looked almost gone, pooled in a little mound at the bottom that didn’t even seem enough for half a ladle. Yu Mi blinked.
‘Master’s Wife and the little monkey can eat that much?’
“Want to pack some?” Xue Qing asked, giving Yu Mi a look, then flicking her eyes meaningfully toward the nearby Qing Ying who’d been staring at them the whole time.
“Uh…” Yu Mi made a soft sound and nodded a bit awkwardly.
Xue Qing took out a small jar and set it on the table. With a flick of her wrist, the cauldron flew up, its mouth tipping. The Earth Immortal broth inside poured out in a rush into the little jar. What had looked like less than half a ladle just kept flowing, as if it would never run out. It took a good while before the jar was filled to the brim.
Then Xue Qing produced several delicate, bowl-shaped storage artifacts and filled each with more than a dozen bowls of broth before finally emptying the cauldron.
Everyone present got two bowls to take away, no exceptions. On top of her two bowls, Yu Mi also had that jar full to the top.
After thanking Xue Qing, Yu Mi swept her sleeve and stowed away her two bowls of broth. Then she lifted the jar in her left hand and flew up to land beside Qing Ying, who was seated on the roof of Bao Gu’s seclusion palace. Smiling, she held the jar out.
“Hungry? Have this.”
Qing Ying had wanted to refuse with great backbone. But when it came to food, she really didn’t have that much backbone. Biting her lip in torment, she shoved the half-bottle of pills in her hand at Yu Mi, then took the jar.
“You didn’t even call me over when you started eating,” she said furiously.
Suddenly she thought of her cheap old master in the past. Her master had often not eaten, but would always prepare a lot of good food for her and sit off to the side watching her eat, never once starting without her. When she’d been with that cheap master, she had never been shorted on rations. She was always the first to eat; no one ever dared make her the last.
Her cheap master really had treated her the best.
Yu Mi sat down beside Qing Ying and, out of habit, produced a wine jug, taking a swig. Seeing Qing Ying drink straight from the jar, she fished out a spoon and handed it over.
“Use a spoon.”
Qing Ying took the spoon and gave Yu Mi a slanted look.
“You really are a match for my cheap master.”
The first time she’d eaten with that cheap master, the old man had forced her to use chopsticks. This girl was making her use a spoon.
Hugging the little jar, Qing Ying scooped up the Earth Immortal broth spoonful by spoonful, slowly feeding herself. Soon her mouth was smeared with soup.
Yu Mi chuckled and helped wipe her mouth.
“Eat slower.”
After swallowing another spoonful, Qing Ying asked,
“You’re not afraid of me?”
Yu Mi smiled.
“Over five hundred years ago, when I fell into your hands, I wasn’t afraid. Why would I be afraid now?”
Thinking of the past, Qing Ying gave a heavy, disgruntled snort and went back to burying her face in the broth. Only when she’d scraped the bottom completely clean, not leaving even a single drop, did she let out a satisfied sigh.
“I’m starting to find you less annoying than before,” she said to Yu Mi. “Mm… from now on, remember to call me first thing whenever you’re eating. Don’t just pack some up and bring it later. Makes it look like no one’s feeding me. It’s so embarrassing. So pathetic.”
Yu Mi couldn’t hold it in. She burst out laughing, “pff”ing aloud. Leaning against Qing Ying, she laughed so hard she couldn’t straighten up.
“Hey, then… who is feeding you?” she asked.
“My cheap master, of course. Stop laughing. Sit up straight. Do your bones not work?”
Qing Ying lifted a finger, about to jab it at Yu Mi—then suddenly remembered how fragile Yu Mi was. One poke from her would definitely punch a hole straight through. If she really stabbed a hole in Yu Mi, wouldn’t her cheap master go insane?
She thought about it and decided to endure. Fine. For the sake of half an Earth Immortal’s meat sitting in her stomach, she’d let it go.
Yu Mi forced her laughter down.
“How many barbarian asura corpses do you still have?” she asked.
Qing Ying turned to look at her.
“Why are you asking?”
Yu Mi patted Qing Ying’s shoulder lightly.
“The next time you want to stew barbarian asura meat, come find me. I’ll ask Master’s Wife to help you cook it.”
With that, she took the now-empty jar from Qing Ying’s arms, stood up, and headed off.
Qing Ying blinked, then turned around and flopped onto the roof, shouting down at Yu Mi who had already landed on the ground,
“Hey! Can’t we grill it? Have your Master’s Wife grill it for me! Stir-fry’s fine too! Steaming works as well!”
Without turning her head, Yu Mi just waved a hand.
“I’ll give you a cauldron. You use that cauldron to stir-fry one dish, steam one dish, and grill one dish for me, and then we’ll talk. Stir-fry needs a wok, steaming needs a steamer, grilling needs a rack. A cauldron is only good for stewing, simmering, and boiling.”
“You’re talking nonsense!” Qing Ying shouted angrily. “My cheap master steamed fish in a cauldron. She simmered meat broth underneath, then set a rack inside the cauldron with a plate of fish on top, covered the plate with a lid. Broth boiling below, fish steaming above, didn’t get in each other’s way at all!”
Yu Mi sucked in a deep breath, nearly choking.
‘Bao Gu, you’re something else,’ she thought.
She looked back up at Qing Ying.
“And your cheap master never put a pot-shaped lid on top of the cauldron and stir-fry for you?”
Qing Ying blinked.
“Well… no.”
She turned back around and sat properly. Full and content, she rubbed her belly with a blissful expression.
Life here, she decided, was pretty damn good.
