Chapter 304: Golden Ginger and Jade Slices with Spirit Grain

Golden jade corn like broken gold was sprinkled in the amber-colored thick porridge of yellow essence rice, occasionally dotted with pitch-black heavenly pepper beans, served in a small bowl. Although it was the cheapest mixed grain porridge, it still contained ten times more essence than ordinary grain.

The bowl was still steaming, making it even more tempting.

Zhang Huaien looked at the hot porridge in Zhixia's bowl, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and gulped down the porridge in his own bowl, making a slurping sound.

Zhixia took out talisman paper, wrapped the small bowl containing the mixed grain porridge, and wrote a crimson talisman on it with cinnabar. He placed the small bowl at the tip of his nose, sat cross-legged, and after a moment of meditation, a Bai Qi like a small snake emerged from his nose, coiled around the mouth of the bowl, swallowing and spitting out the heat.

As Zhixia inhaled forcefully, the entire bowl of crystal-clear spirit grain porridge suddenly emitted a pure white essence, which was taken into Zhixia's body.

Immediately, this water-grain essence was slowly refined by the Ying-Wei Qi coiled in his stomach.

Zhixia's complexion also became visibly ruddy.

And the hot porridge in the bowl, crystal-clear and full of spiritual energy, immediately turned dim and gray, like something that had been left for a few days and was about to go rancid.

"What kind of spell is this?" Zhang Huaien asked curiously.

Zhixia rolled his eyes at him: "Why ask so much? Eat yours! If you don't eat it, leave it for me!" Having said that, he made a move to grab it, and Zhang Huaien hurriedly gulped down the last two mouthfuls of spirit grain porridge.

Zhang Huaien had just swallowed the porridge in his mouth, touched his stomach, and couldn't help but be somewhat distracted. He was still pitying himself, when suddenly he smelled a faint, ethereal fragrance, fresh and pure, the most authentic taste of water and grain. Just by sniffing it, his stomach felt a sense of fullness!

"What is that smell?"

Zhang Huaien asked curiously: "Why is this smell somewhat familiar? It feels very rich; one smell and I know it came from upstairs!"

He lowered his head slightly and saw Zhixia looking at him with a look of contempt, saying coldly: "This fragrance, one smell and I know it came from next door. You must have broken through your Foundation Establishment bottleneck in a secret room with pure spiritual energy, right!"

Zhang Huaien was somewhat stunned: "How did you know!"

"No wonder your inhalation of spiritual energy is relatively pure, yet you can't even distinguish which direction the fragrance comes from!" Zhixia sneered at his opportunism.

He twitched his nose a few times, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he immediately continued to meditate, the Bai Qi in his nose emerging again. This time, he inhaled the entire fragrance in the room in one breath, and two strands of white smoke spread from next door, which he swallowed into his chest.

Zhixia's face flushed, then sweat appeared on his forehead, and after a while, he calmed down slightly.

He opened his eyes and stood up, looked at the talisman in front of him, and whispered: "The Jade Dragon Hundred-Avoidance Talisman has no reaction; there is no poison in this fragrance!" Zhixia grabbed the long sword beside him with his backhand and said to Zhang Huaien: "Stay in the room honestly; I'm going next door to probe!"

Zhang Huaien said nervously: "What are you going to do? Sigh, don't leave me behind!"

"That fragrance is someone cooking next door, but just the water-grain essence of the rice fragrance is so dense, it's worth a bowl of yellow essence rice! Someone like this appearing next door is somewhat suspicious! Don't follow; you can't show your face!"

Zhang Huaien said: "What if it's a diversion?" He held a small yellow package, very nervous.

Zhixia thought for a moment and threw him a bamboo hat: "Wear it!"

Zhixia carefully climbed to the window of Qian Chen's cabin and stretched his head to look, only to see that in the direction of the window in the room, someone was steaming a small three-legged furnace with silver-threaded beast-head charcoal, and the rolling smoke was coming out of the furnace lid.

Zhixia, who was leaning against the window, felt a clear fragrance without any impurities permeate his heart and spleen. Even though it only turned around in his lungs and came out, it was like a top-grade spirit medicine, touching the Ying-Wei Qi in his blood and nourishing his whole body.

Zhixia withdrew his head and muttered to himself: "Inhale one breath, not hungry for a day. How expensive must this spirit grain be?"

Zhang Huaien said excitedly from the side: "This is not a question of expense..."

Zhixia looked at him in surprise, not understanding why he reacted so strongly: "Then what is the question!"

"This rice fragrance... I recognize it. It's not a question of whether it's expensive or not; without a certain status, you can't even touch it... The person sent by the imperial court to meet me has arrived!" Zhang Huaien trembled with excitement.

"Guest outside, why be a gentleman on the beam? You might as well come in for a while!" the person in the room said loudly.

Zhixia said: "Are you sure this is the person who came to meet us?"

"Even if not, it must be greatly related to the imperial court!" Zhang Huaien said decisively.

Zhixia still had some doubts: "There might not be fewer people in the imperial court who want to kill you!"

Zhang Huaien whispered: "Sigh! I'll tell you the truth! It's not that it's particularly close to the Sima family; it's that you won't be able to get it at all. Ordinary people in the world use gold and silver as currency, but at the level of cultivators, all kinds of resources are extremely precious and difficult to calculate in gold and silver. Therefore, the immortal gates, rogue cultivators, and noble families in the world mostly trade with the Three Mountain Talismans."

"But the Three Mountain Talismans are in the hands of the Dao Academy. You know the relationship between this Dao Academy and the imperial court..."

Zhixia shook his head: "No, I don't know. I am a rogue cultivator; what does this have to do with me?"

"It has a lot to do with it! The imperial court has to pay salaries; they can't use the Dao Academy's talismans either, right! I ask you, what did I use to pay you back?" Zhang Huaien inspired him.

Zhixia tentatively answered: "Spirit grain?"

"That's right! The imperial court controls the most blessed land and spirit fields in the world. Of course, they use spirit grain to pay salaries. This is a tradition passed down since the Immortal Han Dynasty."

"Even the official positions of the imperial court are measured by spirit grain. Among them, one hundred stones is the salary for minor officials, and four hundred stones are for local secretaries and supervisors! Six hundred stones is the honor of a county magistrate, and one thousand stones are for high officials of the imperial court... This official position is at the top, which is two thousand stones. Those are the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, high officials who bring glory to their ancestors! Of course, the truly great noble clans don't look down on this little bit of stuff, and they also have fiefs."

Zhixia was confused and said: "But what does this have to do with whether the person inside is reliable?"

"It has a lot to do with it! Do you think one hundred stones of spirit grain and two thousand stones of spirit grain are the same? The salary of a high official of the imperial court is only twenty times more than that of the lowest-level minor official? The one hundred stones salary is produced by the third-grade spirit fields in the county. In a poorer small county, it is the yellow essence rice we are eating now. Not to mention the heavy turbid Qi, the essence is also insufficient. One hundred stones of salary can only support one Penetrating Law cultivator and three Foundation Establishment juniors!"

"And the salary of four hundred to six hundred stones is produced by the spirit fields in the commandery. They are at least first-grade spirit fields, and even have first-grade spirit fields, mainly spirit grains such as blood corn, black corn, jade pearl corn, Hou Sheji, and green jade rice. The price of this kind of salary in major markets is dozens of times that of yellow essence rice. And the salary of one thousand stones is produced by major blessed lands, such as the Earth Lung Phoenix Valley, Gaishan Immortal Bamboo Fruit, Nantian Jade Paste Rice..."

"Wait, wait... is the spirit grain boiled here produced by a blessed land?" Zhixia was somewhat confused.

"Not only produced by a blessed land, but the thirty hectares of spirit fields in the Yuquan Mountain Blessed Land are irrigated by thirty-six spirit springs with different water Qi—light, spirit, nourishing, life-giving, clean, cold, and warm. Every year, thousands of cubic feet of spirit jade are buried, and even a magic treasure is used to suppress it all year round to stimulate the thunder essence to nourish it. Only then can the Purple-Veined Dragon Tooth Rice, which grows under the dragon veins of the Jin Ling Imperial Capital, be produced!"

Zhang Huaien said: "Noble clans like Wang and Xie, even if they reached two thousand stones, the Sima family would not be willing to give them this kind of offering. Only ministers close to the imperial family, the pillars of the country, have this kind of salary."

"Someone who can boil this kind of rice must be closely related to the Sima family. And the one who sent me to the southeast to investigate this time is the Emperor!"

Zhixia was half-understanding, hesitating: "So, can that person be trusted?"

Zhang Huaien hesitated for a moment and said: "Logically speaking... it should be possible. But someone who can have Purple-Veined Dragon Tooth Rice is either a high official of the Emperor's party in the court or a member of the imperial clan. A high official of the Emperor's party is at least one of the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers; how could they come to a small tower ship? And listening to the voice, that person is very young."

"If it's a member of the imperial clan..." Zhang Huaien was somewhat troubled.

Everyone in the world knows what kind of bird the Sima family's imperial clan is.

"As long as it's not the person pursuing you, you can probe it. At worst, if the identity is exposed, we'll turn over and jump into the river, and escape by diving!" Zhixia said, pushing open the door. Inside the door, Qian Chen's attitude was friendly, reaching out to signal the two to sit down.

Zhang Huaien saw Qian Chen's face clearly, hesitated for a moment, shook his head slowly at Zhixia, indicating that he didn't recognize this person either.

Qian Chen smiled: "Just now I noticed that someone was using the ancient Qi-eating method to eat flowing Qi without being stained by ordinary grain. I was curious, and just as I was about to turn around to greet the fellow Daoist, I saw the two of you come uninvited, so I was happy and spoke rashly!"

Zhixia said honestly: "It was our lack of manners, disturbing the fellow Daoist!"

"Since there are guests, why not share!" Qian Chen invited.

Zhixia and the two looked at each other, not knowing whether Qian Chen was polite or had other intentions, but in order to continue probing, the two still hesitated and could not refuse.

Zhixia wouldn't say that he was drooling at the fragrance of the steamed spirit grain, and his Qi-eating method made his gluttony grow. His spiritual sense sensed that if he could have a full meal, he could nourish the Ying-Wei Qi with the essence of water and grain to turn it into blood-Qi sword, kill the gluttony, shed the turbid roots, and greatly benefit his cultivation!

Lifting the lid of the three-legged furnace, the Purple-Veined Dragon Tooth Rice, after being steamed, was pure purple, soft, glutinous, and crystal-clear like purple pearls. Looking closely, there was a faint golden thread on the pearls, and the fragrance of water and grain rushed to his face, as if washing every pore of his body, with the wonder of washing tendons and cutting marrow.

Qian Chen was polite, first serving a bowl for Zhixia and the two, and casually picked up a fishing rod placed on the side of the boat. A spirit fish came out of the water, covered in broken gold scales, with two long whiskers like a dragon—a golden carp.

Qian Chen smiled: "Carp is suitable for slices; no need to use fire!"

Having said that, he took off a short knife from his sleeve and cut a plate of fish slices like gold and jade on the spot, taking garlic, ginger, golden silk orange, white plum, millet yellow, green yuan japonica rice, salt crystals, and shrimp paste to make golden ginger, used to dip the fish slices.

Zhang Huaien swallowed his saliva while secretly transmitting to Zhixia: "This person is probably not the person sent to meet us, but he must be a noble person?"

"Aren't noble people lazy, ignorant of the five grains, and have their eyes on their foreheads? How could he make fish slices for us!"

Zhixia's eyes almost fell into this dish of golden ginger and jade slices, and he was somewhat distracted when answering Zhang Huaien's words.

At this moment, he had a very good impression of Qian Chen. If it weren't for a trace of doubt, he would have opened his mouth and eaten it all!

Zhang Huaien choked upon hearing this, and then said: "You're not wrong! But the heat of this Purple-Veined Dragon Tooth Rice is just right, and even the dragon-patterned golden threads are very clear. You know... boiling such precious spirit grain is no less difficult than refining pills. You have to be an expert who has boiled it a hundred or eighty times to grasp the heat. And this golden ginger is also a secret treasure in the palace."

"Such a good person, it's a pity to enter the palace!" Zhixia sighed.

Qian Chen signaled them to help themselves and picked up his bowl to eat a mouthful.

Qian Chen had refined all the spirit grain sent by Junior Sister Si into Grain Bigu Pills. Since his Foundation Establishment was successful, Qian Chen had only eaten some things at the Qianqiu Grand Banquet in Chang'an. Since then, he had been taking Grain Bigu Pills for water and grain.

Now, eating the fireworks of the world again, fish slices with rice, the deliciousness made his tongue fall off.

The essence of water and grain was slowly digested by the stomach, rather than refined by true Qi, giving him more of a feeling of being a human. This made Qian Chen sigh that sometimes cultivation is too full, but he has lost many pleasures of being a human. Slowing down might allow him to better appreciate the scenery along the way of cultivation.

Zhixia made a Daoist bow as a courtesy and used the Qi-eating method to swallow the bowl of Purple-Veined Dragon Tooth Rice in front of him.

This time, the water-grain Qi was pure purple, containing a pure Yang meaning. After Zhixia swallowed it into his stomach, the essence merged with the Ying-Wei Qi, vividly killing the gluttony transformed by his own appetite.

Zhixia spat out a mouthful of turbid Qi, and Qian Chen reached out to cover the furnace lid and pointed at the turbid Qi.

Immediately, the Qi transformed into a small insect with two wings and six legs, flying toward the outside of the cabin door. Zhang Huaien's face changed, and he couldn't help but be nervous. Zhixia glanced outside, his hand already touching the long sword on his back.

At this moment, the small insect flew to the side of the boat and drilled into the wooden board of the boat. Immediately, a blood line flew out from the wooden board, drilling into the cabin where Zhixia and the others were originally.

"Gu insect!" Zhixia was somewhat solemn.

Zhang Huaien said in horror: "Who is it?"

Zhixia chased out and saw the blood line fall into the quilt first.

The blood line twisted, tied a green parasitic insect covered in flesh scales like a toad, and jumped out of the quilt. The blood line pierced into that Qilin Gu, and in an instant, it drained its flesh and blood.

The blood line, nourished by the essence of flesh and blood, became more and more ferocious, flying like the spiritual light of a magic tool, very fast and flexible. At the window, under the tea cup, in the water pot, and in that bowl of sour and smelly leftover porridge, it devoured one strange Gu insect after another.

Before long, it grew to the thickness of an arm.

That blood insect had eight eyes on the left and right, arranged like the Big Dipper, with several circles of sharp teeth in its mouth, and its gills opened like thorns. It opened its mouth and let out a hissing roar, its gills rubbing, making a rustling sound.

Wherever the sound went, dozens of Gu insects crawled out. Zhang Huaien's face changed; how could he not think... a small tower ship, hiding so many Gu insects, must be the pursuers who found the door.

Those Gu insects tamely bowed to the blood insect.

The blood insect turned its head, stared at Zhixia with two hidden eyes in its mouth, its thorns swaying, rustling. Immediately, it lunged out in horror, carrying a pile of Gu insects, and dived back into the great river.

Zhixia didn't know why, but he faintly felt that his spiritual sense actually had a trace of connection with that blood insect.

He could faintly perceive the ferocity, greed, and cruelty of the blood insect, but strangely, he also felt that this ferocious insect had no hostility toward him.

Qian Chen came to his side and smiled: "You raised that gluttonous insect well! That Gu insect got a trace of the turbid evil root you shed, and it actually broke free from the owner's control, devoured several of its kind, and became a climate."

"Now it is about to bite back at the owner, if it succeeds in biting back..."

"It might really achieve a few points of creation!" ===== CHAPTER 311 =====

"I dare say, you might truly be able to achieve some measure of good fortune!"