Lu Yang and his two companions quietly withdrew their gazes, trying to make themselves less noticeable. The expressions on the faces of the five senior brothers looked fierce, as if they were ready to do something drastic.
"Speaking of which, do you want to guess what good food I ordered for you? It’s definitely something you like," Meng Jingzhou whispered, careful not to attract the attention of the five angry senior brothers.
Lu Yang was confused. How did Meng Jingzhou know what he liked to eat?
"How do you know what Senior Brother Lu likes to eat?" Tao Yao Ye asked in an even quieter voice.
Meng Jingzhou gave a thumbs up and flashed a bright smile that showed off his eight teeth. "I specifically asked the senior sister."
Lu Yang suddenly felt uneasy.
"Here comes the stuffed tofu!"
"Freshly made tofu pudding!"
"Tofu with scallions."
"Mapo tofu."
The waiter announced the dishes while bringing them to Lu Yang, presenting a feast of tofu that looked and smelled delicious. Even Tao Yao Ye, who wasn't particularly interested in tofu, felt tempted by the aroma.
With each dish that was called out, Lu Yang's face turned paler.
Meng Jingzhou seemed quite pleased with himself. "The senior sister said that you had a phase where you didn’t eat anything else but tofu, having it for every meal, and even called out ‘Tofu Celestial’ in your sleep."
"I figured you must really like tofu."
"You don’t need to be too touched. My family taught me that when inviting someone to dinner, you should find out their preferences to show sincerity. I don’t usually agree with my family’s views, but I agree on this point."
"I specially came to Bai Xiang Tower to order a whole table of tofu dishes. Don’t underestimate these dishes; they may look ordinary, but the soybeans used are top-notch spirit beans, and the side ingredients are aged spirit herbs. The water used is pure water melted from the essence of ice from the far north..."
At that moment, Lu Yang's face turned whiter than the tofu.
What preferences did you find out!
...
After the diners left Bai Xiang Tower, satisfied and patting their full bellies, the waiter quickly cleaned up the tables and dishes. He then remembered Lu Yang's question.
If someone ate a fasting pill, does that count as eating or fasting?
It seemed like a simple question, but it had deeper meaning, and the more he thought about it, the more philosophical it seemed.
It looked like this batch of newly recruited disciples had some exceptionally insightful individuals, and they would surely achieve something in the future!
"Hey, chef, I have a question for you." The waiter went to the kitchen and threw the question to the pig butcher.
The kitchen was filled with intense heat. If someone in the Qi training stage got too close, they could end up with burns that would haunt them for life. The unlucky ones could get their insides burned out, leaving only bones behind.
To cook heavenly treasures and rare ingredients, ordinary fire just wouldn't do. For instance, to burn the hair off a wild boar at the Nascent Soul stage, you’d need flames refined at the late Golden Core stage, which were incredibly powerful.
Ignoring the terrifying heat in the kitchen, the waiter casually waved the towel on his shoulder, and the heat vanished, replaced by a refreshing breeze.
"What’s up? Want me to teach you how to butcher pigs?"
The waiter rolled his eyes. "Why would I want to learn that? I thought of a philosophical question related to cooking and wanted to test you."
The chef, who had been washing the counter, chuckled, stopped washing, tossed the brush aside, and propped his legs up. "Go ahead, ask."
"If someone eats a fasting pill, does that count as eating or fasting?"
The chef snorted, ready to answer without thinking, but then fell silent.
Right, does it count as eating or fasting?
The chef looked at the waiter suspiciously. "Wait, your intelligence is well-known. How could you think of such a question?"
The waiter replied angrily, "Hey, don’t look down on me just because you’re a pig butcher!"
"So this question was your idea?"
"No."
After discussing, they felt it was too early for them to ponder such questions, so they decided to take it to the building's owner.
The aroma of tea filled the air, forming ancient characters that were obscure and mysterious. The owner prepared the tea, warmed the cups, and savored it, moving gracefully like flowing water, pleasing to the eye.
The owner was an elegant and beautiful woman, her skin as fair as jade, with a faint star pattern on her forehead.
She looked at the waiter and the chef with a helpless expression, wondering if they had too little to do and had time to think about such silly questions.
"Don’t be fooled by the name of the fasting pill. Its purpose isn’t really fasting; it’s a pill made from food that slowly breaks down in the stomach, allowing one to go for long periods without eating."
"In essence, the fasting pill is food."
"Got it?"
The chef pondered for a moment. "Got it. So the alchemist who makes fasting pills is actually in the same line of work as I am."
The waiter laughed derisively. "Don’t flatter yourself. You’re only in the same line as the fire-tending apprentices."
The chef became furious and grabbed a butcher knife, aiming it at the waiter.
The waiter wasn’t defenseless either; he whipped the towel on his shoulder, which transformed into a sturdy metal rod with a faint clink.
The two began to brawl, each wielding their weapon like street thugs, using all sorts of sneaky moves. The owner watched with a helpless expression, thinking that if these two weren’t so cheap to hire, she wouldn’t have let them stay.
The owner gently blew on the tea aroma, which thickened and wrapped around the two, momentarily confusing them. By the time they regained their senses, they were already downstairs.
A cool, slightly annoyed voice from the owner reached their ears: "Go fight downstairs. If you break anything, it’ll come out of your wages."
...
Lu Yang had no idea what happened at Bai Xiang Tower after they left. After finishing the foundation establishment feast and returning to Tianmen Peak, his face looked like he had just come back from the dead.
The senior sister was sitting cross-legged in a dark blue long dress, with a simple hairpin, meditating three feet off the ground like a celestial being, untouched by the mundane world.
Yun Zhi slowly opened her eyes, which seemed to hold a thousand worlds, sparkling like the night sky. The illusion flashed by, and Lu Yang rubbed his eyes, finding Yun Zhi calmly looking at him, without any strange phenomena in her gaze.
Was it an illusion?
"Why is your face so pale?"
Lu Yang replied grumpily, "You’re just pretending not to know. Meng Jingzhou heard from you that I had a phase of eating tofu every meal, and he invited me to a whole table of tofu to celebrate my foundation establishment."
Lu Yang suspected that his beloved senior sister was behind this.
"Meng Jingzhou asked me what you ate the most. In my memory, you ate several vats of tofu while practicing with it. I simply told him what really happened. What’s the problem?"
"That Tofu Celestial..."
Before Lu Yang could finish, Yun Zhi replied in her usual calm tone, "You shouted in your dreams about receiving a legacy and called out the words ‘Tofu Celestial’. I merely relayed that."
Lu Yang silently stared at Yun Zhi's innocent and desireless eyes, feeling defeated.
He always suspected the senior sister was playing tricks on him, but he had no evidence.
(End of Chapter)