Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 310 The Taiyi Sect's Family Feast
He sprinkled the peppercorns into the oil. The oil wasn't very hot yet, so he slowly extracted the aroma. After exchanging a few more glances with Xue Baoping, the peppercorns turned slightly black. Li Wuxiang scooped them out, then added scallions and ginger slices to continue extracting the aroma.

Has something happened in Jinshui?

“Some people died, but when we received your letter, we were in the place that Master Zeng found. It was surrounded by mountains, and we hid underneath them when the fire broke out, so no one died. We had also stocked up on a lot of food beforehand. Master Zeng was worried about us and said he would come to help, so we came.”

Li Wuxiang remembered that there were two other swordsmen who left with Zeng Jianqiu. One was named Yu Fenghu, and the other was... what was his name again?

But he didn't ask. Only Zeng Jianqiu and Xue Baoping came; the other two must have already met with misfortune.

The white parts of the scallions turned a tiger-skin color, and the aroma of scallions, ginger, and Sichuan peppercorns filled the air. Li Wuxiang squatted down, took a long breath, and then exhaled evenly over the firewood, instantly enlarging the fire. After waiting a while for the oil to heat up, he put the fish in.

Before he could speak, Xue Baoping took a ladle from the water vat and scooped a full ladle of boiling water from the pot of boiling yams, then poured it into the fish pot.

The oil in the pot turned milky white as soon as it met the boiling water. The water was used to cook yams, and some starch was also cooked out of it. When it mixed with the oil, it immediately made the fish soup slightly thick.

Xue Baoping added two more ladles of water, just enough to cover the fish: "Should we add some white pepper powder? I've searched many places along the way but haven't found it, and several people I've asked don't know either."

Li Wuxiang took a deep sniff: "That's about right. I reckon these people won't be bothered by the fishy smell; these days, where can you find so much coarse food?"

Xue Baoping burst out laughing, then leaned closer to him and whispered, "You've included Master Mei in your insults too."

"You spoke to her?"

"I kept talking to her on the way back. She's such a nice person. I was talking so much that I forgot she was a deity of the Yang realm. I asked her if we could not tell you we were here yet, and she agreed."

"She likes you quite a bit, doesn't she?"

Xue Baoping frowned slightly and thought for a moment: "I don't know. She seemed quite happy when she was talking to me, but she seems happy talking to everyone."

Senior Sister Mei must really like her. Senior Sister Mei is the kind of person who likes those who dare to take risks and have courage—she followed Zeng Jianqiu all the way to Dajie Mountain, and not many people have that kind of guts.

Bao Ping has changed. Li Wuxiang still remembers the little girl in Jinshui. But now, this beautiful girl with a knife at her waist is completely different from her, as if she has been reborn, and even her temperament has changed.

Perhaps it wasn't a "change," but rather a return to her true nature. Having shed many constraints, she finally unleashed her true self. This is a good thing, Li Wuxiang thought, and I'm happy for her too. I—

……and many more.

He paused, then suddenly understood why Senior Sister Mei had said "No rush, no rush" when he asked her to release Zhao Yu. He couldn't help but smile wryly to himself—Senior Sister, do you have some misunderstanding about me...?

The soup in the fish pot boiled again. Li Wuxiang removed two pieces of firewood from under the stove to make a small fire and simmered it slowly, then covered the pot with a wooden board.

“I like you because I’m happy talking to you. If I didn’t like you, you would have noticed right away.” Li Wuxiang smiled at her. “Let the fish stew first. Go and chop some garlic and cilantro, about the size of two fists each. I’ll chop the meat.”

He noticed it when he ate the Siming meat. Although the texture was similar to muscle, it wasn't exactly soft inside; there were some parts with a texture somewhere between well-cooked cartilage and tendons. He took out the stewed yam, washed the pot, and then put the Siming meat back in to stew.

Just then, Zeng Jianqiu walked over from a distance, and Li Ke also came over, drawn by the aroma. As soon as he entered the shed, he sniffed, "Senior brother, what are you doing? It smells so good!"

"Stewed fish."

Li Ke lifted the wooden lid and looked inside: "Fish can taste like this?"

He called out to the people in the distance, "Hey! Look at the fish my senior brother cooked!"

Perhaps thinking he had finished catching up with Xue Baoping, a group of people rushed over to look at the pot. Li Wuxiang moved aside to avoid them and sat down with Zeng Jianqiu to wash the cilantro.

There wasn't much to say between Li Wuxiang and Zeng Jianqiu. Seeing each other safe and sound was enough for them. They silently finished washing the cilantro, and then Li Wuxiang asked, "Is there anyone who doesn't eat cilantro?"

"No."

"No ah?"

"Who wouldn't love to eat that?"

What kind of vegetable is cilantro?

There don't seem to be any heretics.

He then asked the three men who said they didn't know what cilantro was to smell it. The three immediately frowned: "Coriander? Senior brother, we don't like it. It smells like stink bugs."

There really are some, but thankfully not too many. Li Wuxiang said, "Alright, I'll make a separate portion for the three of you."

Once the stew was ready, the three of them began to process the stewed meat.

Li Wuxiang inserted his hand into the meat, found the slippery, crunchy tendons inside, and pulled them out. The tendons were different from the meat; they were translucent white, and there were three or four tendons in a head-sized piece of Siming meat.

“Pull this out, let me see if I can make jelly.”

Zeng Jianqiu said, "Okay. What is 'dong'er'?"

"You'll find out then, bro. What's it like outside now?"

"It's a mess. There are many starving people, all sorts of evil sects have risen up, and there are even demon kings occupying mountains and rivers. There are also quite a few corpse demons. When we came here, we encountered a corpse demon in Fuguo, who was grabbing children. We were grabbed and questioned, and just as we thought, they wanted to eat people and devour the lifespan of children. However, they didn't say that it was eating people, but that it was to become immortals."

Those must be the ones who ran out a few nights ago.

Li Wuxiang nodded: "Senior Sister said that you will be dealing with the Blood God Sect next, so you'll be busy from now on."

Zeng Jianqiu looked up at him: "Us?"

Li Wuxiang went to Xue Baoping and asked, "Did my senior sister tell you about my situation?"

"Ah."

“We…we need to go alone. I’m being watched, so it’s best not to stay with them.” Xue Baoping looked at Zeng Jianqiu, then at Li Wuxiang: “Okay.”

He knew she would say that, but he still looked at her seriously and asked, "What was it like when you came here with him? That's probably what will happen to us in the future. It'll be very tough."

Xue Baoping smiled with narrowed eyes: "I'm not afraid of hardship. I actually find it quite interesting. The happiest time for me is after I leave Jinshui. Didn't I tell you before that I've wanted to travel far away since I was a child?"

Zeng Jianqiu frowned and thought for a moment: "Since you're being watched, wouldn't it be better for you to stay with us?"

Li Wuxiang shook his head: "I also practiced the Great Calamity Sword Scripture."

Zeng Jianqiu's expression hardened, and he let out a breath: "I understand. But the two of you walking together—"

“I should have a way to lessen my own tribulations and help you all. But I still need to find the magical artifacts of the Thirty-Six Sects. Also, like Treasure Aquarius, I want to travel around and see the world. We'll travel and search for magical artifacts along the way. If we come across a suitable place, we might even start our own sect. When some of you have reached a certain level of cultivation, I can occasionally come back to help you overcome your tribulations.”

“Senior Sister Mei used to travel around a lot, so you don’t need to worry about me now. Once I’ve found enough magical artifacts, I’ll be invincible outside the religious area, except for Senior Sister Mei. There’s nothing to be afraid of. I just need to be wary of the gods and ghosts in the Spirit Mountain. On the contrary, the more people gather around these things, the more difficult it becomes.”

Zeng Jianqiu nodded: "Then I won't try to persuade you anymore. It's good that you know what you want to do; only by knowing what you want to do can you live a truly fulfilling life. Hey—don't smell it anymore."

He turned to the swordsmen and said, "Go and make a table, a round one, a big one, so you can put the pot on it."

Li Wuxiang washed the stripped tendons with hot water again to remove all the remaining grease, and then added water to the pot to stew.

This stuff takes a little longer to stew, so he turned off the fire in the fish pot and talked to Xue Baoping while watching the swordsmen working in the distance.

The swordsmen, each a master of wilderness survival, were energized by the aroma of food. After finishing a large round table that could seat twenty people, they moved on to building the large house whose foundation had already been laid. The massive logs were lifted effortlessly, working together as if they were one. By the time the stewed tendons had thickened into a broth, all four walls of the large house were complete.

Li Wuxiang poured the clear broth, along with the soft and chewy tendons inside, into the large wooden platter that had just been dug out. At that moment, Xue Baoping was talking about Chen Xiu from the neighbors.

While in Jinshui, he had claimed to be the young master Li Jiye from Lijiawan. When he returned last time, Chen Xin mentioned that Chen Xiu and Li Jiye were getting married. Now, Xue Baoping tells him that the two are quite loving after their marriage, and Chen Xiu is pregnant. After the recent ordeal, the child has miraculously survived, and they've agreed that after the baby is born, Chen Xiu will recognize Xue Baoping as her godmother.

As the sun slowly set, Li Wuxiang felt he had heard another piece of good news. He found a spell in the book Mei Qiulu had given him, which he used to generate cold air to cool the soup and tendons in the wooden plate even faster. After a quarter of an hour, the collagen-rich soup solidified, a perfect success, almost transparent.

He poured out the frozen meat and asked Xue Baoping to cut it into small pieces about half the size of a palm and a finger's thickness—the cut pieces of transparent meat jelly contained milky white, crunchy tendons, trembling and chewy.

I rekindled the fire under the fish pot, took out half of the fish ribs and placed them on a separate wooden plate, then added three bunches of cilantro to the broth that had come to a boil again, and started to reduce the sauce over high heat. The flavor of the cilantro seeped into the soup, making the fishy smell less fishy and giving it a fresh fragrance—there was absolutely no stink bug smell.

Just then, the soup in the fish pot began to bubble and produce fine, milky-white bubbles. Li Wuxiang walked outside the shed and called out, "Hey! Time to eat!"

The newly made large round table was placed in the roofless room, and the swordsmen urged Mei Qiulu to take her seat and wait for the dishes to be served.

First served was a large fish on a wooden platter. The fish was large, and its skin was thick. The golden-brown skin was stewed until soft and tender, while the snow-white flesh trembled slightly. Li Wuxiang brought over a pot; the milky-white fish soup inside had thickened into a viscous sauce. A thin layer of this sauce coated the fish, making it glossy and oily.

Then came two large platters of shredded pork belly, two large platters of tendon jelly, and two large platters of steaming hot yam.

There were also four dipping sauces—three of them contained chopped cilantro and minced garlic, drizzled with hot oil infused with Sichuan peppercorns. The other sauce contained chopped chives and minced garlic, also drizzled with hot oil.

The people around them quickly made way for him and Xue Baoping, not bothering to speak, all staring at the dishes on the table, and then at Mei Qiulu. After the last plate was placed on the table, Mei Qiulu picked up her chopsticks, and just as she was about to pick up the fish, she noticed everyone's gaze, paused, and coughed: "Um... alright, that's enough. You've had a long day, let's eat!"

The Yang Shen realm cultivator's chopsticks moved as fast as a sword strike. After taking a large piece of fish into his mouth, he looked at Li Wuxiang as if he were seeing him for the first time, then smiled and nodded at him: "So you have such skills?"

Li Wuxiang smiled modestly: "The ingredients are insufficient, otherwise it would taste much better."

The crowd mumbled incoherently, shouting that Senior Brother Li was being modest. Taking advantage of this moment, Li Wuxiang swiftly placed a large fish rib on Xue Baoping's plate with his chopsticks.

The ribs are the meat on the row of large bones under the fish's head. They are very mobile and the meat is quite chewy. This fish is large, so the two large bones are almost as thick as chopsticks, making them look very much like spare ribs.

Xue Baoping smiled happily and shared half with him. When Li Wuxiang put it in his mouth, he felt that eating this meat was a real waste, but the moment the fish touched his tongue, he felt like his head was exploding—first, he experienced a slightly sweet layer of broth, and after biting into it, he could almost hear the sound of cutting the fish. The aroma of protein and oil exploded in his mouth, mixed with a hint of cilantro.

The flesh and blood that the True Lord of Fate had previously instructed him to grow seemed to have awakened his sense of taste as well. Eating was no longer a basic need to maintain the surface of his skin, but had become an enjoyment!

He immediately went to eat the meat jelly. He asked Xue Baoping to cut the jelly into half-palm-sized pieces, thinking that swordsmen liked to eat it in big bites, while he himself picked up half with chopsticks. He dipped this half in the sauce and put it in his mouth. The fragrance of cilantro, the spiciness of minced garlic, and the numbing aroma of Sichuan peppercorns filled his mouth instantly. The sauce contained oil, which coated the cool and bouncy jelly. The gelatinous texture and oil seemed to gently bounce in his mouth, and he could almost hear the crisp sound when he bit into the crunchy tendon.

Li Wuxiang had fought his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood since he came into this world, yet the praise he received couldn't compare to the amount he received for this one meal. Senior Sister Mei, being a Yang Spirit, hardly needed to eat, but she still ate about ten bites before stopping.

When Li Wuxiang first met her, he knew she liked to eat, and the swordsmen knew it even better. They all urged her to eat more, and Mei Qiulu reluctantly accompanied them to finish the whole meal.

Good food is meant to be enjoyed with wine, but Li Wuxiang noticed that these people were already quite happy because they had used all their suffering to lure Si Ming. Now, eating delicious food made them even happier, almost as if they had been drinking—Li Ke started, and they began singing the song Li Wuxiang had heard in the small courtyard at Da Jie Mountain before. Back then, the song had a rather tragic and desolate feel, but now, although the lyrics were the same, it sounded joyful.

As Zeng Jianqiu listened, he slowly ate the fish head from a large bowl. The rest of the group, caught up in the excitement, couldn't sit still and started playing and laughing while grabbing food. Li Wuxiang leaned back in his chair, still fragrant with the scent of fresh trees, and watched them with a smile for a while. Then he sighed and turned to look at Xue Baoping.

Xue Baoping was stunned for a moment, then realized what he meant and asked him with her eyes: Now?

Li Wuxiang nodded, stood up and walked away, and she followed him.

The two walked out of the roofless house and waited outside for a while before Mei Qiulu also came out.

The meal lasted until dark, so torches were lit inside. Mei Qiulu emerged, bathed in the warm yellow light of the torches, and was smiling. But as she descended the stairs, the moonlight bathed her in a bright blue, and her smile vanished. She stopped in front of the two men, looking at Li Wuxiang: "Are you leaving?"

"Ah."

"It's not too late to leave after tonight."

"I'm afraid that if I stay until tonight, I won't want to leave."

Mei Qiulu sighed: "In all my years, I've only been this happy two or three times. Well, if I were you, I might leave now too."

She pulled two talismans with little figures drawn on them from her sleeve: "Summon them out."

(End of this chapter)