Chapter 783: Beauty

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

In fact, he could already feel it when he practiced micro-meditation. The lack of Soul Power became the main reason he could not continue deepening his meditation, including the nuclear construction and diffusion that he had previously envisioned. Just the starting alone had already worn him out.

One can’t make bricks without straw. Truthfully, no matter how he tried to find a way, it would probably be extremely difficult to break through the bottleneck encountered during his micro-meditation in the face of insufficient Soul Power.

It was not that his method was wrong, but that his direction and the order of cultivation had issues. First of all, he had to reach the peak of the Heroic Soul Stage and wield sufficient Soul Power. That was the prerequisite for practicing Cellular Cosmology.

Frankly speaking, at this moment, Lan Daier seemed to have grown a little taller in Wang Zhong’s eyes. At the same time, Wang Zhong also felt extremely grateful to her.

No one in the Holy City would waste time advising someone else for free, especially those teachers. Other than fulfilling their basic task of imparting rudimentary knowledge to students, almost none of them would care whether the Holy Disciples actually processed the information or about the extent of their cultivation, let alone such detailed and targeted guidance. Everyone only cared about themselves. Being a teacher was nothing more than a job and about earning Holy Coins. Why would anyone give a sh*t about someone else’s path of cultivation?

Naturally, it was different for people like Solomon and Scarlet, as they had a personal teacher guiding them. For those like Carolyn, they might be able to get one-on-one guidance from the seniors in their family. They were another type of people who had absolutely no need to worry; they only needed to choose the right direction, and the rest would be taken care of for them.

However, for people like Wang Zhong — who were used to drawing up plans behind closed doors and exploring various methods on their own without attending lectures — once they deviated from the right path, they might really go down a path of doom. It was because the world was not isolated. When one took a detour, other people have already accelerated by in a straight line. One example would be Mo Wen. As an heir to the Mo Family, he decided to give up going to the Holy Land resolutely. Obviously, the Mo Family had their own considerations and training methods. Besides Mo Wen, there was also Mo Xingchen, the Heaven Bearer. The fact that Mo Wen asked Mo Ling to send word showed that they weren’t thoughtless actions.

Mo Wen’s defeat at the CHF was actually a valuable asset to him. His talent and effort were stimulated further. Their progress on the Heroic Soul Stage was a second contest between the two. At present, Mo Wen was far ahead of Wang Zhong.

After listening to Lan Daier’s analysis, Wang Zhong felt that he was sweating profusely, staining his clothes with cold sweat. His mistake was way too ridiculous. It would not be possible to succeed in going south by driving the chariot northward. Without Lan Daier’s guidance, he truly didn’t know how long it would have taken for him to realize his mistake.

After pondering about it for a long while, he took a deep breath, stood up carefully, and bowed to Lan Daier, bending down to about 90 degrees. “Thank you, teacher!”

“So I’m your teacher now? Haven’t you always called me, Sister?” said Lan Daier as she laughed. Ever since she grew familiar with this kid, it was rare to see him behaving so seriously and respectfully, but she still preferred their usual casual tone.

“Then should I do it again?” Wang Zhong’s earnest expression persisted for less than two seconds. His gratitude was heartfelt though.

“Forget it! You sounded more sincere just now.” Lan Daier replied with a grin. “Moreover, I only did it for my follow-up experiments. With your petite body, if you don’t speed up your cultivation, you might die from eating my dishes someday. It will definitely not be easy to find another suitable worker.”

“I’m a rather good worker, right?” Wang Zhong was in a good mood as he had finally solved the problem that had been troubling him. “I also think that I’m actually pretty good. Because you praised me, I will clear the dishes faster. How about I finish eating everything on the table in three minutes?”

“No need.” Lan Daier waved her hand at him. “After saying so much, how can I just let you eat this miserly amount of bugs? These are not for you. There are big ones for you.”

“Big ones?”

There was a mysterious smile on Lan Daier’s face. “It may be a little painful. Just try to bear with it.”

At the same time, she took out her Skylink and sent a message. “Just wait. The dish is on its way!”

Lan Daier cleared all the dishes on the table. It seemed like it wasn’t a joke. However, as she behaved with such secrecy and suspicion, Wang Zhong really wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.

Sure enough, she was adhering to the style of the Holy City. One’s harvest and the effort needed would always be directly proportional. There was no such thing as a free lunch in the world… What kind of big dish was it exactly? Based on Lan Daier’s cautiousness right now, it was highly possible that he might get diarrhea for an entire month.

Although the living room of Lan Daier’s house was large, it was not extravagant. It was more like a casual, simple, and practical layout. Only certain minor details, such as the flower arrangement, reflected Lan Daier’s preferences.

While waiting, Wang Zhong took advantage of the situation and asked about some major taboos regarding the spiritual cultivation of the Heroic Soul. Increasing one’s Soul Power was definitely the first and most important step, but if one had the ability, one still had to consider other things, such as one’s side job and research on other cultivation directions.

Basically, every other thing could be attended to, as long as it was not the kind that took up large amounts of time. For things like alchemy, the Mystic Sect and the Sparta Clan absolutely disapproved of Holy Disciples getting involved in this before they reached Peak Heroic Soul Stage. Even for the Tyrants, if the Holy Disciples had to use alchemy for their cultivation, they would be warned not to invest too much time on alchemy in the early stages of cultivation.

Lan Daier’s understanding of spiritual cultivation was obviously out of Wang Zhong’s league. Previously, she had only occasionally mentioned such things during their spare time; thus, he did not realize this. However, with her specialized explanation today, he realized that there was actually a huge gap between them. As she spoke, Wang Zhong could not help but keep nodding his head in agreement. It was a good thing for him to have his own ideas, but he should also hear out other people’s opinions at the same time. He really should take more time to listen to the various lectures offered by the Tyrants. At the very least, he could draw parallels from inference and make sure that he wouldn’t go wrong regarding the principles of the various cultivation directions.

Seeing that Lan Daier was in a good mood, Wang Zhong seized the opportunity to ask questions and gained quite a lot of insights. He would not follow her advice blindly, but he could learn a lot of things from Lan Daier. This was true for those who have had life experiences, and as a gourmet, Lan Daier’s perception was rather refined.

After chatting for about half an hour, someone knocked on the door. “Teacher Lan Daier.”

It was Ella. Wang Zhong had seen her several times before. She was Lan Daier’s chief assistant and could actually be considered Lan Daier’s disciple. However, teachers in the Holy City did not have the authority to accept disciples; that was only available to Great Teachers; thus, she could only address her as her assistant. This kind of relationship was often stronger than those relationships Successor Disciples usually had with their teachers. After all, unless the two had chemistry and was able to work extremely well together, a teacher would never show so much care for an ordinary assistant.

Usually, Ella and Lan Daier had tacit understanding of each other. Ella usually understood exactly what Lan Daier wanted or meant even without her having to speak. However, Lan Daier’s arrangement today obviously surprised her a little. It was so much so that when she entered the room, she wore a strange expression, a strange expression directed at Wang Zhong. She looked at Wang Zhong as though she was looking at something strange and unfamiliar, while carrying a little bit of indignation and doubt.

That shouldn’t be the case! Even as her formal assistant, Lan Daier had never treated her so nicely! What kind of luck did this guy have? She was really speechless. To her, Wang Zhong only had an average appearance and no talent. Of course, if she counted eating as a talent, that would really be…

Lan Daier remained standing on the side, and Ella did not reveal much of her emotions. Other than looking at Wang Zhong with a weird expression, she placed the cylindrical food container she held in her hand on the table immediately after she entered the room. Then, she opened the container carefully.

Slivers of cold mist emerged from the container, and it could be seen that there was a small box inside. Surrounding it was a pile of ice to keep the item cool. That little box was engraved with dense and numerous runic seals.

It was a sealed food container. Wang Zhong had seen this thing on his Skylink before.

The ingredients in the Holy City had always been rich and varied; even certain supposedly taboo items were common. Unlike humans — whose energy would completely dissipate after death — the bodies of certain powerful dimensional creatures could contain extremely powerful energy sources even after their consciousness was eroded. If one wanted to consume or preserve this kind of ingredient that contained extremely strong energy, one would need to use a special sealed food container. Firstly, the freshness of the ingredient would be preserved, and the contained energy would be prevented from seeping away. As such, the grade of the ingredient can be maintained. Secondly, sealed food containers could also prevent the energy of certain taboo food ingredients from causing too much destruction to their surroundings, reducing their impact and influence on the environment.

It could be seen that Ella was being extremely cautious. The way she lifted up the smaller food container was similar to how one would hold a time bomb. Originally, Wang Zhong did not think too much into it, but after witnessing Ella’s cautious behavior and expression, he could not help but gulp a mouthful of saliva.

After all, it was just food. Did she really need to act so exaggeratedly? What the hell was in the box? Why did she have to…? Was he really going to meet his doom today from eating it?!

Lan Daier noticed Wang Zhong’s slightly awkward expression, and the smile on her face grew wider. She was not as gingerly as Ella, lifting the small sealed food container rather casually. She then smiled at Wang Zhong and said, “One minute.”

As Lan Daier entered the kitchen, the atmosphere in the living room instantly grew a little awkward. Ella kept staring at Wang Zhong, as though she wanted to X-ray his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, and all other body parts with her eyes. Wang Zhong had always been rather shameless, but he too grew a little embarrassed from her constant staring. Then, he took the initiative to greet her. “Hi, Senior Sister Ella, long time no see.”

Before Ella could reply, Lan Daier had already come out of the kitchen with a small plate. She only went in for less than half a minute, and there was no sign of the usually world-shaking cooking. Wang Zhong did not even hear anything coming from the kitchen, not even the sound of the stove turning on.

The small plate on the table was only about the size of a palm, like a small saucer. The bottom of the plate was lined with black ice, and four pieces of glittery things could be seen on it.

It seemed to be some kind of meat, with the texture that only muscles of living things could have; it was also blood red and exuded an intriguing luster. Steam was produced from its surface, as though it just came out of the steamer. But the question was: this was obviously a few pieces of raw meat; furthermore, there was a cushion of black ice at the bottom; where exactly was the heat coming from? Nevertheless, the meat was cut into rather thin slices, similar to that of cicada wings and appearing completely transparent. If it was not for the prominence of the meat’s redness itself and the color contrast formed with the small porcelain plate, one might not even be able to notice the presence of the meat slices at all.

Although this red, transparent crystal-like meat was rather weird, it still seemed rather ordinary compared to what he had imagined from Ella’s prudence and the mystery represented by the sealed food container. At the very least, it did not seem too scary.

Wang Zhong heaved a sigh of relief. Although he was very confident of his own body, he also didn’t want to get stuck in the toilet for a month just from taste-testing a dish. “It looks very ordinary.”

Ella glared at him so hard that her eyes were almost about to pop out of their sockets. At the same time, Lan Daier sized him up with a spurious smile.

Having realized that he sounded a little rude, Wang Zhong coughed. “Wait, I mean that it is rare to see such a normal-looking dish. It looks rather appetizing.”

“Are you saying that my usual dishes are abnormal?” asked Lan Daier as she frowned. This remark was a little provocative to the dignity of a gourmet master.

“No, no, no!” The more he spoke, the more mistakes he made. Wang Zhong was at a loss for what to do; thus, he quickly grabbed the plate over. “I’ll help myself then.”

Ella could not help rolling her eyes at what she saw. Usually, she was never present when Wang Zhong worked with her teacher. Frankly speaking, although Ella knew that her teacher was very satisfied with this taste-tester, she never imagined that he would dare to speak so boldly in front of her teacher. It was really too casual. Who did he think he was? Also, was this guy going to grab the food directly with his hands?

“Here’s a fork!” Ella really couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Thank you, Senior Sister Ella.”

The first half of Wang Zhong’s reply was still rather normal, but the second half which he muttered under his breath nearly made Ella explode in anger.

“Why do I need a fork for such a meager amount of meat? It isn’t even enough for a starter dish. It’s too troublesome…”

Trouble— troublesome? What the f**k! A meager amount?! Even Ella — who always paid attention to her image and never used curse words — couldn’t help but swear in her mind.

Even as a gourmet who paid special attention to etiquette, Ella really felt like killing Wang Zhong. In her opinion, he was definitely letting the precious ingredients go to waste!

On the other hand, Lan Daier didn’t seem to care at all. If this kid didn’t act like that, he wouldn’t be called Wang Zhong. This guy didn’t seem to know the immensity of the universe and what should be revered. Instead of bothering with his thoughtless words, she looked forward to seeing how his body would react. She could sense that Wang Zhong actually had some natural talent, but then again, how could those who could come to the Holy City truly be that bad? Actions spoke louder than words; one should only speak based on facts.

Wang Zhong indeed poked all four pieces with the fork. The so-called exquisiteness of the food was worthless to him. That meager amount of meat actually made him a little nervous. Lan Daier knew that his body had toxin immunity. The fact that she had only given him a few slices… She must have estimated that something terrible might happen from eating just this much. However, unexpectedly, the moment he put the meat in his mouth, the taste of it overwhelmed him — it was absolutely delicious!

The texture of it was totally unlike meat but like a thin layer of pure energy. It melted in his mouth, with a hint of umami and sweetness. It directly stimulated one’s central nervous system through the taste buds, and there would be a hint of warmth transmitted from the tip of one’s tongue to the whole body. In an instant, he experienced an unprecedented warm feeling, as though his soul had begun to fly.

“Eh? It’s so delicious. That’s rare!” Wang Zhong couldn’t help but praise the dish. But before he could finish recollecting the pleasant flavor of it, in the next second, the warm sensation had transformed into terrifying raging flames, burning him from his abdominal area.

Frankly speaking, ordinary flames or usual high temperatures could not bring any pain or damage to Wang Zhong, but this heat was completely different.