Xiaohe Valley.
True Monarch Feng Lan and Wan Linglong, who had rushed over eagerly to attend the feast, stared at the four dishes on the table, completely at a loss for words.
They were all meat!
Although the plating and colors looked very appetizing, this...
Exchanging glances, they both suspected that someone who had lived on wind and dew for three months must have been driven absolutely wild with craving.
"Master Uncle, Senior Sister, sit down!"
Gu Chengshu poured each of them a glass of wine. "Taste my braised pork. I specially picked the pork belly of a fanged beast, and I searched for a long time."
It was an upgraded version of wild boar. While cooking it, she had been worried she wouldn't do it justice, but she hadn't expected that an immortal cultivator's hands would come with their own immortal aura, and divine sense could penetrate right into the meat. Wow, wow, wow...
Before serving it, she had tasted three pieces just by herself.
It felt a hundred times better than the best braised pork in her memory.
If not for remembering that she was hosting guests, and remembering that there were still ginseng chicken, a large platter of fish, and roasted lamb chops...
"I guarantee that once you eat a piece, you'll want a second one."
"..."
Wan Linglong had wanted to refuse, but her Junior Sister was too enthusiastic, and looking at her radiant expression, it really did seem delicious.
Most importantly, True Monarch Feng Lan had already started eating.
"Eat some yourself too!"
"Mm-mm!"
Gu Chengshu used serving chopsticks to pick up a piece for herself as well.
The fiery red, tender meat and alluring aroma reached their absolute peak the moment it touched the tongue.
It was wonderfully springy, yet savory, sweet, and melt-in-the-mouth soft. Ah... she hadn't eaten such low-level monster meat in so long. Not only did it bring back the feeling of her youth, but the taste was also super-duper amazing!
Following Gu Chengshu's example, True Monarch Feng Lan quickly used her serving chopsticks to pick up a second piece.
"Master Uncle, I toast you with this cup of wine!"
Gu Chengshu raised her wine glass. "Thank you so much, Master Uncle, for making things go so smoothly today!"
"We're family, why stand on ceremony?"
Feng Lan drank it down in one go with her.
"Master Uncle, please try my fish!"
Gu Chengshu clipped the most tender part of the fish belly for her Master Uncle. "This is my specially made large platter of fish, you can't buy this outside."
Her little shop also sold some seasonings and medicinal herbs, and she had lingered there for quite a while before picking them out.
"Senior Sister, you eat too!"
After placing a piece on Wan Linglong's plate, she raised her second cup. "I toast Senior Sister with this cup. If not for Senior Sister, my family's debts... wouldn't have been so easy to collect."
"This is only right."
Wan Linglong drank the second cup with her.
As immortals of standing, she and Master Uncle Feng Lan had tasted the signature dishes of many famous immortal chefs everywhere they went.
Her Junior Sister's culinary skills... were truly beyond reproach.
Wan Linglong simply couldn't fathom why Yin Cheng, possessing such a wonderful Junior Sister, didn't know how to cherish her!
And Senior Uncle Yin as well...
Good wine and delicious food, coupled with the host Junior Sister being in extremely high spirits and showing the utmost enthusiasm, left Wan Linglong thoroughly stuffed by the time she left Xiaohe Valley.
Gu Chengshu cleared away the bowls and chopsticks, cast a few Cleansing Spells, and sat down beside her Master Uncle. "Master Uncle, having you here makes me so happy and so at ease!"
Although she was a soul from another world, the original owner's memories and emotional soul fragments had merged into her own divine soul.
When facing True Monarch Feng Lan, whatever feelings the original owner had originally held, she held as well!
"Rest assured... Master Uncle will make sure you stay at ease from now on."
Feng Lan stroked the Junior Sister whose face had flushed slightly from the wine, feeling a mix of heartache and warmth.
The little girl whom she and her Junior Brother had once held in the palms of their hands had grown up in such a pitifully desolate way while they were both away.
"You like cooking? It just so happens that Master Uncle hunted several high-level monster beasts here. Whenever you have time, help me cook them, and we'll split it fifty-fifty."
"That's too much."
Gu Chengshu had no wish to repeat past mistakes. "Master Uncle, nine-one split with you is enough. Even so, I'm the one taking advantage."
"..."
Feng Lan patted her hand. "I am your own direct Master Uncle. Are you trying to distance yourself from me? If not fifty-fifty, then sixty-forty. I take sixty and you take fourty, and no more haggling! When you become powerful in the future, Master Uncle will freeload off you."
"Pfft! Alright then!"
When she was little and lived with her grandparents, she had been so happy.
But a car accident took her grandparents away as they tried desperately to protect her.
Without legs, without health, she had still struggled hard to live on, never daring to speak of death.
Her biggest regret in life was that her closest loved ones had never once gotten to freeload off her cooking.
Gu Chengshu's eyes welled with tears. "Actually, I'm already very powerful now. Today, Old Uncle Yu and I used your influence to give the Yin Family a proper hammering."
She told her Master Uncle all about buying the grain today.
"Master Uncle, as long as you are well and I am well, if I push a little harder, I will definitely be able to support you."
"Alright!"
Seeing the tear fall from the corner of her eye as she leaned over, Feng Lan couldn't help remembering her Junior Brother who had passed away prematurely, her heart aching with tenderness. "Master Uncle will definitely be well."
Her Master was away from home; if she didn't stay well, what would their little girl do?
"In the future, if you suffer any grievances, don't hold them in, and don't assume that just because I'm not home, your Sect Master and the others won't manage things. Like today, making a fuss out in the open like that—your Sect Master and the others are bound by face, so they are certain to step in. Moreover, the more of a fuss you make, the less courage Yin Zhenghai will have to do anything to you."
Feng Lan knew there was danger in doing this; the Yin Family might seek someone outside to move against her. "Tomorrow, Master Uncle will take a few items from the Storage Ring your father left behind to ensure your life is protected.
Chengshu..."
She stroked her slightly burning cheeks. "You won't need to fear anyone from now on."
The kind of situation where she was angered to the point of vomiting blood was something she would never let her do again.
"In the immortal cultivation world, whoever has the bigger fist gets listened to. You must not learn from Jiang Pan, getting arrogant and drifting off after achieving just a sliver of success."
At this point, True Monarch Feng Lan sighed softly in her heart. "The path of cultivation is like sailing against the current; if you do not advance... you will inevitably retreat!"
"I understand."
Tonight, she had originally intended to rest for a bit, but now...
She would continue cultivating!
"Oh right, Master Uncle, when I was resisting the cold malice at the Cliff of Reflection, I discovered that by placing my palms and the soles of my feet opposite each other, allowing the heat of both to circulate and form a small universe within the human body, the circulation of the Heaven and Earth Formula becomes even more smooth and effortless."
"Is that so?"
A flash of surprise crossed Feng Lan's eyes.
She had originally thought her cultivation method was forced upon her by the bitter cold of the Cliff of Reflection.
"Let's try it together!"
Although her primary cultivation technique was not the Heaven and Earth Formula, the human body shared interconnected principles.
"Let's try!"
Gu Chengshu hoped to let her Master Uncle comprehend the philosophy of the human body as a small universe and heaven and earth as a vast body achieving harmony between man and nature, helping her take her cultivation to the next level.
Unlike the Cliff of Reflection where one had to stoop to retain warmth, the two of them sat in the lotus position right there on the spot, turning the soles of their feet upward and pressing their palms down, each running their cultivation techniques.
Feng Lan was a Nascent Soul True Monarch. Although trying this method for the first time, the moment her palms and the soles of her feet faced each other, she felt an unusual stirring of blood and Spiritual Energy within her body.
It seemed...
She felt the Spiritual Energy and blood qi in her meridians flowing joyfully, as if this was how they were happiest and most comfortable.
Pondering deeply, Feng Lan briefly severed the connection between the two; while the circulation of the cultivation technique continued, both its speed and volume fell far short of what they had just been.