[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-lord-of-the-immortal-food":3,"chapter-lord-of-the-immortal-food-lord-of-the-immortal-food-chapter-39":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Lord of the Immortal Food",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2313162,4524,"Chapter 39: Chapter Thirty-Nine: Out of the Cage","lord-of-the-immortal-food-chapter-39",39,"\u003Cp>The scholar left the examination hall, his heart racing homeward; he seized his donkey and rode out of the city. But heaven refused to cooperate—just as he reached the halfway point, thunder cracked and rain poured down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rain was neither heavy nor light; it mattered little to the scholar himself, but his box of books was priceless. As he fretted, he spotted a small pavilion ahead—his face lit up, and he hurried over with the donkey to take shelter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under the pavilion, he unloaded the book box and placed it squarely in the center, then sighed in relief and turned to find a seat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But as he turned, he nearly fell over—standing silently just outside the pavilion behind him was a man!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No wonder the scholar was startled—he had walked the whole way alone, and in the brief moment he bent to lift the box, this man had appeared behind him, as if he had dropped straight from the sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though spring’s chill still bit, the man wore only a thin black robe, now soaked through by rain. His posture was upright, like a sturdy pine wrapped in dark cloth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing the scholar turn, he nodded in greeting, removed his straw hat, and wrung out his wet hair, revealing his face: thin lips, a high nose, hollow cheeks, and beneath sharp brows, a pair of long, bright eyes—with a thumb-sized pale red pattern extending outward from the outer corner of his left eye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unusual, handsome, sharp-witted, proud, composed, cold—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wait a minute—why is this so detailed?” Pei Ye interrupted, remembering that “The Azure Mirror’s Phoenix” was known for its spare prose, adding brushstrokes only where essential.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Siche glanced at him: “You speak, or I do?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You speak.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This is Xǐ Wuchou’s first appearance. If I don’t describe him thoroughly, how can you grasp his heroic bearing? Do you know Xǐ the Great Hero could have kept every drop of rain off his body? Here, he lets himself get soaked deliberately—to avoid frightening the scholar…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pei Ye now understood—it was his favorite character. “Then no need to explain. Just tell it as it’s written.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Siche rolled his eyes and continued: “In any case, the scholar was awed by the man’s appearance…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scholar and the man took shelter together under the pavilion; the man leaned against a pillar, arms crossed over his sword, radiating cold solitude. The scholar dared not speak, sitting quietly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the man suddenly asked him to help read a small note. The scholar took it eagerly—it contained classical prose, archaic in diction and syntax. He read it several times before realizing it described a place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet exactly which place remained obscure. Only one phrase, “Ghost Carriage heads north,” he grasped easily: the ancient name of the hill beside his village, Kuiju Hill, was “Ghost Carriage Hill,” and heading “north” from it led straight to his village.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rest of the passage could only be deciphered by consulting local Confucian scholars and poring over ancient texts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scholar admitted his confusion honestly. The man offered him a jade as thanks, but the scholar refused outright, deeming it too precious. As the rain showed no sign of stopping, the two began to talk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scholar had assumed the man was a reclusive cultivator devoted solely to martial arts, but their conversation soon astonished him with the man’s vast learning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man knew everything: literature, calligraphy, music, chess, cooking, wood and stone, architecture, horse connoisseurship, jade identification—he was utterly astonishing to the scholar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scholar felt a pang of self-reproach: even if he passed the provincial exam, he was merely skilled in reading classics and writing essays—in comparison, he was nothing but a dull bookworm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man said he too was a crude man; all this knowledge came from a learned friend. After the friend’s death, he kept reading his books and notes out of remembrance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As their conversation warmed, the man produced a flask of wine. They drank and talked as the rain fell—the scholar poured out his hardships, his ambitions, his longing for a beloved, his inner anxieties.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man listened in silence, his experience clearly profound; no matter what the scholar said, he offered wise, elevated insights.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus they exchanged names and forged a bond. Before parting, the man said he saw his late friend’s shadow in the scholar, and promised to return in two days after finishing his business, to drink and talk again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he left, a thread of true qi struck the scholar—he instantly sobered, his body refreshed and clear. He looked around—the black-robed figure was gone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Siche paused here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Keep going,” Pei Ye urged, unsatisfied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your turn,” Zhang Siche said, glancing at the door—where a blood-red shadow stepped in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pei Ye looked up just as the black-robed man spoke in a cold voice: “【Twenty-one】 wins. Next match: 【Twenty-three】 and 【Twenty-four】.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A massive shadow rose from the depths of the stone cellar—a man nearly two meters tall. Pei Ye had noticed him before, but now, as he stood, his full form was revealed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thick, tough skin, broad hands and feet, hardened tendons, his body covered in sprawling primitive totems… He walked over, grinning ferociously at Pei Ye, revealing two sharp tiger fangs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A barbarian.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pei Ye sighed silently, pushed himself up from the ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Listen again when you come back,” Zhang Siche grinned, his scarred face twisting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pei Ye stepped out of the stone cellar and saw the valley’s true shape for the first time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though night was deep, the moon shone bright as washed silk, stars studded the heavens; beneath its glow, the cliffs on either side rose and fell, jagged peaks jutting sharply.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The valley was long but narrow; Pei Ye looked up and felt as if he stood inside the mouth of a giant hound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Outside, there were fewer people than Pei Ye expected—only occasional black-robed figures scattered about. He even suspected more people had entered the caves than remained outside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that made sense: first, the Candle World Sect never expanded its followers aggressively; second, those who entered the caves—except himself and Zhang Siche—needed no guarding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet as he turned past the hazy mountain shadows, the sight ahead made his eyes widen—he wondered if he’d been wrong all along: perhaps there had been many people after all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the valley was a hound’s mouth, what lay before him was as if a great iron hammer had been driven straight into it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fangs shattered and fell away; sand and stone poured like blood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Candle World Sect had once erected scaffolds and pitched tents here—but now all had been ruthlessly destroyed by an unknown force. And it was clear: the force’s center was not these buildings or rocks—they were merely collateral.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Further ahead, a sight froze Pei Ye’s heart—a corpse lay beside the ruins. Even stained with blood, the robe’s color remained unmistakable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mysterious You Zun's purple.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scene flashed past his vision; his mind churned with thoughts—he had no time to ponder what blow had struck here, when the guiding black-robed man halted. Before them lay a new arena.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Around it, towering blue flames rose, forming a perfect circle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the ground within the circle, a fire rune—long unseen—was painted in liquid blue, vast enough to fill the entire arena.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Above the center of the arena, a pale blue, nearly purple orb floated. The residual blood from the previous battle still seeped from the dust, wisps rising and flowing into the orb.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without warning, the barbarian stepped forward into the circle, beckoning Pei Ye with a finger. His massive form twisted in the flame curtain, resembling a night demon.\u003C\u002Fp>",1276,"2026-06-20T13:17:09.438Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","4c8175502a49ecda3008b86f11629b5c54dc4849b8ed73438dbfa03b3a7e3986","lord-of-the-immortal-food-chapter-40","lord-of-the-immortal-food-chapter-38",771,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Flord-of-the-immortal-food-cover.jpg"]