Chapter 24: I Heard You Ate Tofu Every Day for a While?

Lu Yang and the other two quietly averted their gaze, trying to minimize their presence. Seeing the fierce expressions on the faces of the five senior disciples, it seemed they were on the verge of killing to silence any witnesses.

"By the way, do you want to guess what good food I ordered for you? I'm sure it's all stuff you like to eat," Meng Jingzhou whispered, afraid of attracting the attention of the five senior disciples who were eating the pig's blood stew.

Lu Yang was completely bewildered. How could Meng Jingzhou know what he liked to eat?

"How do you know what Senior Disciple Lu likes to eat?" Tao Yaoye asked in an even quieter voice.

Meng Jingzhou gave a thumbs-up and flashed a brilliant, eight-toothed smile: "I specifically asked Senior Sister."

Lu Yang immediately had a bad feeling.

"Stuffed tofu coming right up!""Freshly made tofu pudding!""Tofu with scallions!""Mapo tofu!"The waiter called out the dish names as he served them, presenting an array of visually appealing, fragrant, and delicious tofu dishes before Lu Yang. Even Tao Yaoye, who wasn't particularly fond of tofu, felt tempted to have a good meal just from the aroma.

With every dish announced, Lu Yang's face grew a shade paler.

Meng Jingzhou looked somewhat smug: "Senior Sister said that for a while you ate nothing but tofu, day in and day out, every meal, and even in your dreams you mumbled something about 'Tofu Celestial Venerable'.""So I figured you must really like tofu.""Don't be too touched. My family taught me that when inviting someone to a meal, you should inquire about their preferences to show sincerity. While I don't agree with my family's views most of the time, I do agree on this point.""I specifically came to Hundred Fragrances Restaurant and ordered a whole tofu feast. Don't underestimate these dishes; they might look ordinary, but the soybeans used are rare spiritual beans, chosen from a thousand. The side ingredients are aged spiritual herbs, and the water used is pure water obtained by melting the essence of ice from the extreme north..."

Lu Yang's face instantly turned paler than tofu."What kind of preference did you 'inquire' about?!"

When the satisfied customers, patting their full bellies, left Hundred Fragrances Restaurant, the waiter swiftly wiped the tables, arranged the chairs, and cleared the dishes. Once he was free, he recalled Lu Yang's question.

If you take a Bigu Pill, does it count as eating or as fasting?

This seemingly ordinary question concealed a profound mystery; the more he thought about it, the more philosophical it seemed. It seemed that among the newly recruited disciples this term, there was someone of exceptionally high comprehension. They were bound to achieve something great in the future!

"Hey chef, I have a question for you." The waiter went to the kitchen and posed the question to the butcher.

The kitchen was filled with intense heat. A Qi Condensation cultivator who got too close, if lucky, would suffer from a lingering fire toxin that tormented them for life. If unlucky, their internal organs would be burned through, leaving only a skeleton. To cook rare heavenly treasures, immortal flowers, and exotic delicacies, ordinary mortal flames were naturally insufficient. Not to mention, just to singe the bristles off a Nascent Soul stage wild bo*ar, one would need flames cultivated by a late Golden Core stage expert. Such flames were, of course, terrifyingly powerful.

The waiter ignored the dreadful heat in the kitchen. He casually fanned himself with the towel on his shoulder, and the high temperature completely vanished, replaced by a refreshing coolness.

"What's up? Want to learn how to butcher a pig from me?"

The waiter glared: "Why would I learn that? I thought of a philosophical question related to cooking, and I'm going to test you."

The chef, who was cleaning the stove, chuckled. He stopped cleaning, threw the brush aside, and crossed his legs: "Ask away."

"If you take a Bigu Pill, does it count as eating or as fasting?"

The chef scoffed, about to answer without thinking, but then fell silent.

"That's right, does it count as eating or as fasting?"

The chef looked at the waiter suspiciously: "Wait a minute, your intelligence is well-known. How could someone with your intellect come up with a question like that?"

The waiter retorted angrily, "Butcher, let me tell you, don't look down on people!"

"So you thought of this question?"

"No."

The two discussed it and decided that it was too early for their brains to ponder such a question, so they brought it to the Proprietress.

The fragrance of tea wafted, forming ancient, obscure, and mysterious characters. The Proprietress scalded the pot, placed the tea, warmed the cups, and then sipped the tea, her movements as fluid as flowing clouds and water, a truly delightful sight. The Proprietress was an elegant and beautiful woman with a noble demeanor, her skin fair as jade, and a faint, ethereal star-mark imprinted on her forehead.

She looked at the waiter and the chef helplessly, wondering if they had too little work to do if they had leisure to ponder such trivial questions.

"Don't be misled by the name Bigu Pill. Its purpose is not actually to 'fast' but to be a pill refined from food, which slowly decomposes in the stomach, thereby achieving the effect of not eating for a long time.""A Bigu Pill is essentially food.""Understood?"

The chef thoughtfully said, "Understood. So the alchemist who refines Bigu Pills is actually in the same profession as me."

The waiter scoffed, mocking him, "Don't flatter yourself. At most, you're in the same profession as the alchemist's boy who fans the flames."

The chef flew into a rage, grabbing his butchering knife and lunging at the waiter.

The waiter was no pushover either. He fiercely swung the towel from his shoulder, producing a faint metallic clang, and the towel instantly transformed into a large white iron staff. The two, one wielding a knife and the other a staff, began to brawl like hooligans, constantly employing dirty tricks. The Proprietress looked utterly helpless, thinking that if it weren't for their cheap wages, she would never have hired them.

The Proprietress gently blew a breath along with the tea's aroma. The rich tea scent enveloped the two, making them momentarily disoriented. By the time they regained their senses, they were already downstairs. The Proprietress's slightly displeased, cold voice reached their ears: "Go fight downstairs. If you break anything, it'll be deducted from your wages."

Lu Yang had no idea what happened at Hundred Fragrances Restaurant after they left. When he returned to Heavenly Gate Peak after finishing his Foundation Establishment banquet, his face was as pale as if he had been dead for three days.

The Senior Sister, dressed in an indigo long dress and wearing a simple daoist hair ornament, sat cross-legged three feet off the ground, meditating and cultivating, like a transcendent immortal untouched by worldly concerns. Yun Zhi slowly opened her eyes. They seemed to contain a thousand worlds, sparkling like the night sky. The illusion flashed and was gone. Lu Yang rubbed his eyes and saw Yun Zhi calmly looking at him, the strange phenomena in her eyes never having appeared.

An illusion?

"Why is your face so pale?"

Lu Yang grumbled, "You know perfectly well why. Meng Jingzhou heard from you that I ate nothing but tofu for a while, so he used my Foundation Establishment as an excuse to treat me to a table full of tofu dishes."

Lu Yang suspected his dear Senior Sister was behind it all.

"Meng Jingzhou asked me what you ate the most. In my memory, you ate several vats of tofu when you were training with it. I merely told him what truly happened. What's the problem?"

"And the 'Tofu Celestial Venerable'..."

Before Lu Yang could finish, Yun Zhi replied again in an even, flat tone: "You shouted in your dream that you received a legacy and cried out the four words 'Tofu Celestial Venerable.' I merely relayed that."

Lu Yang silently looked at Yun Zhi's innocent and detached gaze, admitting defeat. He always suspected Senior Sister was playing a trick on him, but he had no proof.