A pale white light spread across the horizon like the belly of a fish at dawn.
Feng Mingfei, ever the early riser, was already busy.
The sweet fragrance of plain white rice drifted through the air near the main hall.
Xu Chengfeng floated beneath the upturned eaves of the side hall, looking down.
On the small wooden table in the courtyard were three sets of bowls and chopsticks.
Three bowls of thin porridge and two plates of wild greens.
The porridge had not been made with spirit rice, but with ordinary grain.
Though both dishes were the same kind of wild vegetable, Feng Mingfei had done her best to prepare them in two entirely different flavors.
From the effortless familiarity with which she prepared breakfast,
It was clear she had made this kind of meal countless times before.
That cultivators’ meals could be even worse than those of ordinary peasant farmers was something Xu Chengfeng had never expected.
“Grandmaster, Junior Sister Lingxue, it’s time to eat.”
Feng Mingfei was dressed in a loose, bud-green robe. It was common home attire. An apron was tied around her waist, the sash at her middle accentuating her graceful figure once more.
Her hair was casually secured with a bamboo hairpin, a few loose strands hanging down.
“Mmm~ Is the food ready?”
Bai Lingxue rubbed her sleepy eyes as she walked out of the side hall, a faint mark of drool still visible on her round cheek.
She wore a thin, lightweight top that barely covered her navel, and a pair of white under-shorts that did not even reach her knees.
Her snow-white tail swayed gently, causing the fabric to flutter softly.
“Lingxue, Grandmaster is here. What kind of appearance is that?” Feng Mingfei said softly.
Since all the disciples in the sect were women, Bai Lingxue had never paid much attention to how she dressed.
During the unbearable heat of midsummer, it was not uncommon for the female disciples to cool off in the nude.
“Is this what you usually eat?” Xu Chengfeng drifted down lightly from the corner of the eaves.
Feng Mingfei’s face flushed red. “The sect doesn’t have much left in terms of resources. To ensure the disciples can continue cultivating, all our remaining spirit stones have been spent on the pills required for training. So when it comes to food, we can only make do.”
The path of cultivation is like rowing upstream. If you do not advance, you fall behind.
Dietary nourishment merely serves as an aid to cultivation; it is not a necessity.
As long as one’s stomach is not empty, it makes little difference what is eaten.
It is only that cultivators who consume spirit rice progress more quickly, while those who eat ordinary food advance at a slower pace.
“Grandmaster, can we eat now… Lingxue is really hungry…”
Bai Lingxue lay sprawled over the small wooden table, looking completely drained.
Xu Chengfeng let out a soft chuckle.
“Go ahead and eat.”
“Yay!”
Although Bai Lingxue was starving, she understood proper etiquette. Even with Grandmaster’s permission, she would never begin before he lifted his chopsticks.
The rich aroma of rice porridge filled the air, and her stomach had already begun to growl loudly.
Her mouth watered, with saliva even slipping from the corner of her lips.
“I’m only a spirit body right now. I can’t eat. You two go ahead.” Xu Chengfeng looked at Bai Lingxue’s fox ears, which were swaying back and forth eagerly at the thought of food.
Bai Lingxue lifted her head to glance at Senior Sister Feng Mingfei.
Seeing Feng Mingfei smile and nod, she finally picked up the coarse porcelain bowl and gulped down a large mouthful.
“Mmm…Senior Sister, your porridge is as delicious as ever!”
Even while drinking, Bai Lingxue didn’t forget to give Feng Mingfei a big thumbs-up.
“Senior Sister, you added quite a bit of butter to these greens… it’s so fragrant!”
She stuffed another large mouthful of wild vegetables into her mouth, her cheeks puffed out like a little hamster.
Watching Bai Lingxue eat so heartily stirred Xu Chengfeng’s appetite.
Was it really that good?
Back when he had still been at the Immortal rank, he would occasionally enjoy celestial banquets. But after ascending to the Divine Realm, he had rarely eaten at all.
Seeing the way Bai Lingxue relished her food made him want to taste it again.
“Let me try and see what it tastes like.”
“But Grandmaster is a spirit body….how would you taste it?” Feng Mingfei asked, puzzled.
Xu Chengfeng smiled. “Gather the spirit, steady the heart, return to origin and receive the void…”
In the next moment, Feng Mingfei felt that familiar sensation reappear within her body.
Grandmaster had possessed her again.
Through Feng Mingfei’s body, Xu Chengfeng could experience the taste of the food.
He imitated Bai Lingxue, picking up a large bite of wild greens and stuffing it into his mouth, chewing a few times before suddenly freezing.
So bitter. So astringent…
It felt like a mouthful of sharp, sour, and bitter juice bursting across his tongue.
The liquid from the greens even scratched at his throat, making it difficult to swallow.
Xu Chengfeng quickly grabbed the bowl of porridge beside him and gulped it down.
Though the porridge was bland, it tasted a hundred times better than those wild greens.
Xu Chengfeng had already withdrawn from Feng Mingfei’s body, yet the unbearable bitterness still lingered in his mouth.
“Grandmaster, are you all right?” Feng Mingfei hurried to her feet and walked toward him with concern.
Still eating, Bai Lingxue turned her head toward Xu Chengfeng. “Grandmaster, even though Senior Sister’s Purple Jade Amaranth is delicious, if you stuff too much into your mouth at once, it does taste a little bitter.”
“Purple Jade Amaranth?” The name sounded strangely familiar to Xu Chengfeng.
Bai Lingxue nodded. “That’s right. It has a slight bitterness, but it’s very helpful for cultivation.”
It suddenly came back to him. Purple Jade Amaranth was an extremely common low-grade spirit herb.
Because its color resembled jade and it emitted a faint purple glow at night, he had once ordered many of them planted.
Though it contained a trace amount of spiritual energy, the taste was truly bitter and harsh.
Even newly initiated rogue cultivators rarely ate it.
He had never imagined that his own disciples would now be living on it.
“Is this what you usually eat?”
“Actually, before that bad woman took the sect’s assets away, once every month we could have spirit rice with Dangkang meat. Mmm… that was the most delicious food I’ve ever tasted in my life.”
At the thought of the rich, fatty aroma of Dangkang meat, Bai Lingxue’s white fox tail behind her began wagging excitedly.
As her tail swayed, it tugged at her short jacket, revealing her slightly rounded little belly.
“Grandmaster, what’s the most delicious food you’ve ever eaten?”
“As for me…” Xu Chengfeng looked up at the sky, recalling the past. He had tasted far too many delicacies.
It was hard to pick a single favorite. “The Immortal Feast of Xiqing Mountain was fairly decent…”
“Immortal Feast?” Like a curious child, Bai Lingxue tilted her head. “What’s an Immortal Feast?”
Xu Chengfeng replied, “An Immortal Feast is a banquet prepared by an immortal-ranked chef. The ingredients are exquisite, the flavor is excellent, and most importantly, it’s highly beneficial for cultivation.”
“A banquet made by an immortal?” Bai Lingxue tried to imagine how delicious it must be, but all she could taste in her mouth was the bitterness of Purple Jade Amaranth juice.
“Grandmaster, what kind of opportunity did you have to get to eat an Immortal Feast?”
“An opportunity?” Xu Chengfeng shook his head. “That little girl Yaoji from Xiqing Mountain insisted I teach her a sword technique, so she made Immortal Feasts for me for an entire month before I reluctantly agreed.”
Thinking back on it, Yaoji had truly been clever. Seventy-two dishes of Immortal Feast every day for a whole month without repeating a single one. She had certainly gone to great lengths just to receive his guidance.
“An immortal fairy begged Grandmaster for a whole month just to have him teach her one sword technique?!”
Bai Lingxue and Feng Mingfei cried out in unison.
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