Chapter 586

"... This one is suitable for making sashimi and soup."

At the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Huang Rong peeled the shell of a lobster the length of an arm, tore off a bit of meat, and put it into her mouth to chew carefully. Only after a long while did she smile and say to Wu Pifu.

The so-called sashimi was actually similar to the various raw fish dishes Wu Pifu knew from later generations, and this was a very popular dish during the Southern Song Dynasty.

"But it needs to be sliced thinly and flash-frozen for a better taste. I imagine Father and Uncle Seven would definitely like it."

As she spoke, Huang Rong reached out to open a green-lipped abalone the size of a millstone. This time she didn't tear off any meat, but frowned as she looked at the abalone: "Although it's big enough, it hasn't been dried. Abalone without a sticky center is not as good as fish meat; it has no flavor. Let's skip this one."

After letting the abalone go, Huang Rong looked at a sea fish larger than herself. This sea fish had been caught by Wu Pifu. Huang Rong didn't recognize it, but in later generations, it would be the world-famous bluefin tuna.

This time, Huang Rong still reached out to touch and sniff it, then tore a small piece of meat from under its skin and put it into her mouth to taste carefully. A moment later, her eyes lit up, and she nodded slightly. Then she tore meat from various different parts of the fish, and after chewing and tasting each one, Huang Rong finally closed her eyes to ponder: "This fish is very good. It can be made into three different dishes, and it is also suitable for being sliced thinly to make sashimi..."

After trying the bluefin tuna, Huang Rong looked at the next seafood, which was a huge, incomparable Kun.

Huang Rong looked at Wu Pifu, speechless, and whispered: "Doesn't Brother Pifu know? This Kun is a divine creature; harming it is inauspicious..."

Wu Pifu shook his head: "Where does all this 'inauspiciousness' come from? This is just a beast of the sea, born and grown in nature, no different from other fish. As long as one doesn't overfish or kill indiscriminately, this is no different from fishing. Of course, once caught, one must eat it and not waste it."

If someone else had said this, Huang Rong probably wouldn't have believed it. After all, her home was Peach Blossom Island, which counted as a sea island, and she had heard these legends about the sea since she was a child. But since these words came from Wu Pifu—a Heavenly Being who was a myth in himself—she believed it without doubt. She walked up to the Kun, touched and sniffed it carefully, then tore an opening under its skin, pulled out a small piece of meat, and put it into her mouth.

It was just that this fish had thick fat. When Huang Rong first tasted the fat, she frowned, but then she tasted the meat under the fat. After tasting it carefully, she said in confusion: "How strange, this meat isn't like fish meat; instead, it's like... tender beef?"

Wu Pifu nodded: "Correct. This Kun is actually not a fish, but a beast, only it grows in the sea, so it looks like a fish."

Huang Rong was also amazed. It grows in the water, looks like a fish, and has the habits of a fish, yet it isn't a fish?

After pondering for a while, she said: "This Kun meat is suitable for roasting over a low fire, paired with spices; it is also a top-tier ingredient."

With Huang Rong, a master of the culinary arts, this trip to Australia was perfectly concluded. Wu Pifu fetched plant vines and tree bark from the inland, took a few selected large lobsters, several large pieces of bluefin tuna from various parts, and cut off a large piece of whale meat. The remaining whale that he didn't take was put back into the sea. As the saying goes, "one whale falls, ten thousand things flourish." It came from the sea, and in the end, it returned to the sea; this wasn't considered a waste.

After tying these ingredients up carefully, Wu Pifu supported Huang Rong's waist, rose into the air, and flew toward the Asian continent.

Along the way, neither of them spoke. Huang Rong held Wu Pifu's waist tightly, looking at the vast sea, her eyes filled with a sense of detachment for a moment...

"... Can we not go?"

In a daze, Wu Pifu seemed to hear this voice, but he didn't answer, nor did he react; he just continued to fly toward the Asian continent.

The day agreed upon with Huang Yaoshi and Hong Qigong was drawing near. Wu Pifu had also indulged Huang Rong in sightseeing. As the date approached, Huang Rong suddenly suggested that she and Wu Pifu look for some rare overseas ingredients to welcome her father and Uncle Seven back, and also to see Wu Pifu off for this battle.

This suggestion was naturally good. Wu Pifu took Huang Rong to wander around the world, collecting ingredients, birds, beasts, fruits, vegetables, and fat fish from all over for more than two days. Australia was the last stop, and today was the day agreed upon with Huang Yaoshi and Hong Qigong. Given the character of those two, regardless of whether they had obtained enough martial arts, they would definitely arrive at this time.

Flying back to the Asian continent from Australia, Wu Pifu took Huang Rong straight to Lin'an City.

In Lin'an City, Wu Pifu bought a large mansion. Although it couldn't compare to the imperial-bestowed mansion in the Song Dynasty Dream World, it still fell into the category of a luxury mansion in Lin'an City. Anyway, he wasn't short of money; let alone him, Huang Rong was also a person who wasn't short of money.

By the time they returned to Lin'an, it was already afternoon. Huang Rong was all smiles, as if the silence on the road and that vague sentence had never existed. She took out the ingredients and went to the cellar cold storage, took out the ingredients from other regions from the past two days, and began to process them carefully. Wu Pifu couldn't help with this, and Huang Rong had chased him out of the kitchen.

Just like that, Wu Pifu sat in the courtyard watching the sun gradually sink into the west. By dusk, a long whistle suddenly rang out from somewhere in Lin'an City, the whistling rolling as if carrying the roar of a dragon.

Hearing this whistle, Wu Pifu stood up. Before he could move, a flute sound suddenly came from the other side. This flute sound rolled like the sea, continuous and unending, and it also resounded throughout the city.

Huang Yaoshi, like Hong Qigong, had obtained the Immortal Martial Dao technique; this, naturally, goes without saying.

Wu Pifu stood up with a smile and likewise roared toward the sky, his voice like thunder and a tiger's roar, echoing the two sounds from afar. Not long after, Hong Qigong and Huang Yaoshi, both travel-worn, arrived together. The two were different: Hong Qigong came empty-handed, only with a face full of smiles, while Huang Yaoshi carried a large package on his back, filled with books, but with a face full of worry.

After arriving in the courtyard, before the two could speak, Hong Qigong's nose kept twitching, and saliva flowed from the corners of his mouth. He took a few deep breaths and said: "What is that smell? So fragrant. Is Rong'er making something delicious?"

Wu Pifu smiled and said: "Indeed. Rong'er took me all over the world, found many overseas ingredients, and is preparing a grand feast."

Hong Qigong was immediately full of excitement, his hands rubbing together incessantly, wishing he could rush into the kitchen to steal a few bites immediately. Then he glanced sideways at Huang Yaoshi, only to see Huang Yaoshi looking reserved, yet with a proud smile on his face.

Hong Qigong was immediately unhappy and said to Huang Yaoshi: "You old heretic, you really have been blessed. You have a virtuous wife, a clever daughter, and even your son-in-law... ahem, is a Heavenly Being descended to earth."

Huang Yaoshi coughed and didn't speak. At this moment, Huang Rong also walked out of the kitchen. Seeing Hong Qigong and Huang Yaoshi, her eyes lit up: "Father, Uncle Seven, you're back? Please wait a moment longer; the dishes will be ready soon."

After speaking, she didn't wait for the three to speak and dived back into the kitchen to get busy.

Because they hadn't hired any servants and this residence was only for temporary living, Wu Pifu poured fine wine for the two himself. Hong Qigong and Huang Yaoshi were not polite, each drank it in one gulp, and after each sat down, Hong Qigong was the first to speak: "I have not failed the mission! This trip really did yield some good things!"

Hong Qigong took a piece of rice paper from his inner pocket and said: "This is the mantra for the 'One-Finger Zen' and the 'Innate Skill,' written personally by Master Yideng."

Wu Pifu took the paper, and sure enough, the Main Brain's voice came into his mind. 'One-Finger Zen' was 10,000 points, and 'Innate Skill' was 6,000 points. These two martial arts could be learned for only 16,000 points. The amount of points confirmed his guess: the Main Brain consuming points to let him learn Immortal Martial arts was not judged by the strength of the martial art, but by the amount of information he had already obtained.

That wasn't all. Hong Qigong continued proudly: "There is also the fragmented text of the 'Six Meridian Divine Sword.' Because Master Yideng himself hadn't learned it, although there are still fragments passed down from the ancestors, they are not written down, so this old beggar could only transmit them on his behalf."

The Main Brain's voice sounded again. This time, the points were a bit more; the points required for the 'Six Meridian Divine Sword' were 50,000. The amount of information in this martial art was more than the 'One-Finger Zen' and 'Innate Skill' combined.

After Hong Qigong finished speaking about the 'Six Meridian Divine Sword' fragments, Wu Pifu silently closed his eyes for a long while before opening them and nodding.

At this time, Huang Yaoshi said shamefully: "Uncle Seven has gained much... My trip has lost my reputation. I didn't find the 'Innate Skill' in the Chongyang Palace, and the other techniques were truly not worth looking at. And the trip to the Shaolin Temple didn't go smoothly either. According to those monks, the 'Yijin Jing' has been lost for many years; even their damn abbot hasn't learned it. Moreover, they have sealed the mountain since the Northern Song Dynasty, and there are no extraordinary martial arts. So I simply packed everything up and brought all seventy-two unique skills. My disciple can see for himself what he wants to learn."

Wu Pifu was speechless, but this was truly something Huang Yaoshi would do. He simply flipped through the books in the package one by one, listening to the Main Brain's voice. The information in these so-called martial arts manuals was even less, ranging from one or two hundred to at most no more than a thousand. Although they were the seventy-two unique skills of the Shaolin Temple, they were almost useless to him.

Until he flipped to the end, he actually found three techniques with information amounts between 5,000 and 10,000.

"Vajra Indestructible Divine Skill."

"Golden Bell Cover."

"Iron Shirt."

Wu Pifu simply learned all three at once, along with the 'One-Finger Zen,' 'Six Meridian Divine Sword,' and 'Innate Skill.'

Unexpectedly, after learning the three Shaolin techniques, and after learning the 'One-Finger Zen,' 'Six Meridian Divine Sword,' and 'Innate Skill,' they each underwent changes.

"Judging... Judgment complete. Information from 'Vajra Indestructible Divine Skill,' 'Golden Bell Cover,' and 'Iron Shirt' fused, returning to the source, transforming into the 'True Martial Indestructible Body'."

"Judging... Judgment complete. Information from 'One-Finger Zen,' 'Six Meridian Divine Sword,' and 'Innate Skill' fused, returning to the source, transforming into the 'Star River Profound Origin Cannon'."

Wu Pifu was speechless, but his heart was also filled with joy.

The three chatted for a long while, and then Huang Rong began to bring out various delicious dishes with a beaming face. One didn't know how such a young girl had managed to prepare more than a dozen grand dishes in one afternoon, filling a large table.

The three were not polite, each drinking fine wine and eating delicacies. All were children of the Jianghu, and at this moment, their spirits were high, either talking about martial arts anecdotes or discussing the principles of martial arts. There were also stories about the "Heaven Beyond Heaven" told by Wu Pifu. Everyone was in high spirits, and Huang Rong, who was on the side, laughed the most happily, but it seemed as if there were tears in her eyes...

After the wine and food were finished and the table of delicacies was all eaten, the three looked at Wu Pifu.

Wu Pifu also knew that parting was near. He was not a sentimental person, but for a moment, he didn't know what to say.

After a long silence, Wu Pifu stood up and solemnly bowed to Huang Rong, Huang Yaoshi, and Hong Qigong.

"Then, I am going."

Wu Pifu was about to close his eyes to communicate with the Main Brain when Huang Rong suddenly cried out: "Brother Pifu, you must come back to pick me up! You must win!"

Wu Pifu was silent and nodded.

"I will win!"

The scenery before his eyes flickered, and Wu Pifu had returned to Gaia.

(End of chapter)