“Now listen closely, disciple. Since you’ve expressed a desire to learn the ways of the kitchen and have accepted me as your teacher, your face is now my face. You can spit at the heavens and split the earth, but you mustn’t lose me any face! Now pay attention as I instruct you on how to boil an egg.”

Kenja’s eyes formed slits, and his lips pressed together in irritation. Such powerful words led to a lesson on boiling eggs.

When did he express interest in cooking? When did he take Snail as a teacher? How come Kenja did not remember any of this?

And this snail stole the livelihood of a widowed mortal, yet he still thought he had face to lose?

Snail continued to explain while glancing at the book next to him to make sure he did not make a mistake, “Dump bottles one through nine into the cauldron and stir until I tell you to stop. After that, you can just dump the eggs in there and let them sit for a few minutes until they are clean.”

Kenja looked at all the things Snail brought out of his shell. He had arranged an empty cauldron next to the large bowl of eggs along with a countless number of vials, jugs, urns, cups and other bottles alongside it. The materials within them ranged from dried plants and leaves to spices and salts to viscous liquids and oils, and they were all labeled with a number drawn on a white paper wrapped around each container.

“Snail, we’re just—”

“Chef Snail! You must address me as Chef Snail right now,” Snail asserted. He used his eyeballs to pat the ceiling of the chef’s toque, emphasizing his role to Kenja.

Kenja held himself back from smacking the snail. “Chef Snail, we’re just boiling an egg. Why must they be cleaned?” Kenja looked to Zhu Jidan seeking confirmation.

It did not take a genius to boil an egg. The procedure required heating up an egg as it is submerged in water. Once the water had boiled for a couple of minutes, the eggshell would be manually removed and voilà, bon appétit.

Baba-san and Tori-san would often tell him that the egg would taste better if it was not rinsed before cooking.

“We are not just boiling an egg. We are boiling the perfect egg! How could the perfect egg be dirty?”

Unable to hold back from interjecting, Zhu Jidan approached the two with a grimace. “Cleaning the egg is unnecessary as the chicken’s plume is still actively protecting the shell from dirt and disease. If you attempt to clean the shell too much, the unwantables will seep into the shell’s pores and worsen the egg’s innards, ruining the flavor and jeopardizing its quality,” he lectured with the air of a professional that had travelled throughout the lands while cooking and tasting everything under the Heavens.

Snail responded with a frown of his own. “Hey, who’s the chef here? You’re just a Little Egg, yet you challenge my teachings!”

Forgetting his role as the test-taster, Zhu Jidan showed disdain towards Snail and his cooking instructions. With a shake of his head and a jiggle of his belly, he condescended, “If you do not know this much, don’t waste time and good ingredients. The chicken shouldn’t flap its wings in front of the eagle.”

Zhu Jidan was calling Snail out. All the other pillars stared at Zhu Jidan with starry-eyed expressions, admiring his bravery in standing up to the overbearing bully. This was their first generation elder, a true elder brother!

Snail’s eyes rested gently on the toque with a provoking air. “If Little Egg is so confident, then let us compete. Your piddling egg compared to my disciple’s pristine egg.”

Zhu Jidan stared back at him resolutely. Since meeting Kenja and Snail, his brothers had reported to him on the recent events in the Dragon’s Basin. He rarely paid attention to external matters, but he was now well-aware of Snail’s superior strength and shamelessness.

“Who will judge the food?”

Regarding Snail, wouldn’t he claim his dish was better even if he served dog poo on a platter?

Snail rolled his eyes and shrugged his eyestalks. “I don’t care. My disciple’s cooking will taste better, so it doesn’t matter who is the judge. You can do it if you want.”

Zhu Jidan’s eye twitched and his face would have turned red from anger if he still had blood flowing through his head. He was being cautious towards Snail’s antics, but in return, Snail openly disregarded him to such an extent. How dismissive must one be to allow their opponent to judge the competition?

Moreover, Kenja was surprised with Snail’s demeanor. He was still taking every opportunity to show off, but normally, he would seize any and every advantage possible for himself. Was he that confident, or was there a plot underneath a plot that no one else could see?

At this time, Xiang Xin, Huai Yi and the affable elder with the gentle appearance of a monk approached them.

“Please allow us to judge the food elder brother,” the monk gave Zhu Jidan a platform to step down from. Although the Pillars of Will were relatively of equal standing, Zhu Jidan was a first-generation elder when he was alive. It was natural for the other pillars to display some austerity towards his will.

Zhu Jidan gave them a nod before motioning towards the bowl of eggs. A singular egg rushed towards him and stood in air as if a soldier awaiting instructions.

“Whoa, whoa! Why are you stealing my egg, Little Egg? Can’t you afford your own?!” Snail mocked him with one eye standing above the other.

Zhu Jidan’s face inflated from anger once more. The other spirits were incensed as well. They were essentially floating rocks kept deep underground away from most living things. Forgetting the fact that spirits did not rely on food to survive, where would they obtain an egg? The chickens were stolen by Snail, yet he easily accused someone else of thievery with a straight face.

Seeing Zhu Jidan’s troubled face, Kenja clasped his hands and bowed towards him. “Something like this, it is disciple’s responsibility to provide for his elders. Disciple thanks elder for granting disciple this opportunity.”

Zhu Jidan’s angry expression softened at the bowing teenager. His various brothers had extolled Kenja’s character, but he was still surprised by Kenja’s dutiful attitude and quick wit. If he had not spoken up at this time, was he supposed to beg Snail for an egg or be forced to drink a forfeit?

Zhu Jidan nodded towards Kenja with a relaxed face. “Filial disciple.”

Snail scoffed, “Freeloader!”

Zhu Jidan’s pupils darted to the insulting snail in frustration before coming back to Kenja who had straightened his back once more. He placed a rare smile on his face and beckoned to Kenja, “Come, junior. As your elder, I will naturally show you how to properly boil an egg.”

The three judges as well as the other spirits silently gasped.

Was this still the immovable and venerable Zhu Jidan?

Similar to Elder Grunty, he had never taken a disciple when he was alive but that was because he had no desire to raise a disciple. He was wholly focused on finding and making new and exotic delicacies. While they were unsure of how often he had smiled while he was alive, they could not remember the last time his Pillar of Will had smiled, if ever. Most importantly, he was the one taking the initiative to teach someone else? This was unthinkable!

The spirits moved their gaze back and forth between Kenja and Snail. They were unsure whether the credit should go to Kenja’s appeal as a disciple, or Snail angering Zhu Jidan to the point of wanting to humiliate him. Probably a combination of the two.

Kenja displayed a troubled smile on his face before walking over to Zhu Jidan’s side. He truly did not care about cooking properly, so why did everyone suddenly insist on teaching him how? Fine! He could put up with it, but did it have to be about boiling eggs?

Kenja heard a swoosh to his right and turned to see Sakura floating next to him as if to audit the lesson with him. The kitchen bandana hung stylishly from her hilt giving her the aura of a veteran cook.

A sword did not need food, so why was she interested in learning how to cook? Wait…

Kenja stumbled upon another problem that he should have thought of earlier. Whether you looked at their rocky substance or the ghastly phantasms, the Pillars of Will weren’t living people. How could they eat food?

Kenja subtly shook his head and decided to hold back on asking the question. It would naturally be answered once Zhu Jidan served the food to the judges.

“When boiling an egg, you must prepare clean water.”

Zhu Jidan made a grasping motion and a body of water bigger than the pillar they stood on rose from the basin, but he did not place the egg inside it. Instead, his right index finger repeatedly drew a clockwise circle. The floating sphere of water began bubbling violently, and steam evaporated from its surface at a turbulent rate. He made a pulling motion with his left hand and continuously gathered the steam away from the body of water.

“Is that a new type of dance, Little Egg? It’s quite good,” Snail jeered from the side. He seemed to be preoccupied with rearranging bottles and vegetables on the table, but he still paid attention to Zhu Jidan’s actions.

With his belly jiggling after every pull and his finger constantly rotating, Zhu Jidan’s comical appearance drew a sharp contrast with his earnest face and lecturing tone.

A few of the other elder spirits that overheard Snail’s words stifled their laughter.

Kenja grit his teeth to keep from chuckling as he tried his best to focus on the lecture. On the other hand, Sakura was completely unmoved by Snail’s taunt focusing entirely on the lesson at hand.

Zhu Jidan ignored Snail and continued with his teachings, “You can ensure the water’s purity in this fashion.”

The steam condensed back into a ball of water slightly bigger than Kenja’s head. The water was so clear and spotless that Kenja suddenly felt a strong thirst and a desire to quench it. This came as a surprise to him considering how many times he had fallen into the basin in the past twelve hours.

Zhu Jidan waved the first body of water away, and it flew off into the distance before falling down. He then clapped his hands and separated them again, splitting the purified water into two equal volumes.

“You will need two portions.”

Kenja’s ears perked up. Preparing clean water was easy to understand, but he was unfamiliar with needing two separate portions for boiling eggs.

“An egg is made up of many different parts, but with regards to cooking, it can be simplified into two layers, the albumen and the yolk.” The egg moved closer to them and spun around as he talked, drawing Kenja’s attention to it.

Kenja was unsure what the albumen was, but based off of the context, it should be the white layer surrounding the yolk.

The egg’s spinning sped up before being submerged into one of the two bodies of water.

Zhu Jidan spoke out in a methodical manner, “When placing the egg in the water, make sure to keep it spinning. There are two reasons why we must do this. Care to guess them?” He gave Kenja an expectant look as his two index fingers rotated opposite of each other, one to raise the temperature of the water and the other to keep the egg spinning.

Kenja stifled a cough and hid away his guilt. He could not admit to the super serious elder drawing circles in the air that he was forcing himself to pay attention and that he had no care for why a boiled egg must be continuously spun. Kenja looked to his right to see Sakura’s hilt waving excitedly in the air as if saying that she knew the answers. With his guilt intensifying, he figured he should say something to show that he was listening attentively.

“Disciple does not know. Disciple is incapable of rotating the egg like elder.”

He delivered an honest answer without pretending to be knowledgeable in something he did not know. The chubby face gently smiled and nodded in understanding. “Naturally, junior should wait till he begins establishing his foundation before you can execute the fine movements required to boil an egg.”

Kenja’s heart ached. He did not cultivate to cook food, yet this venerable elder acted like the sole reason one cultivated the body and soul was for the purpose of improving one’s meals.

A cultivator’s goal was to ascend from the mortal world, be freed from human luxuries and limitations, and defeat the decay brought about by time.

Despite being considered a luxury, a craft such as pill-making and enchanting could supplement one’s cultivation through obvious means. Additionally, they could serve as a break from cultivating or offer a route to enlightenment, speeding up one’s advancement or allowing for an easier breakthrough during a bottleneck. But cooking could not be compared to those beneficial hobbies.

Food was the luxury of luxuries for cultivators. Their bodies eventually reached a point where they could sustain themselves entirely on the universe’s Qi, and the intake of food would instead introduce impurities that stockpile and hinder their cultivation. For a cultivator to consume food, the meal must be prepared exquisitely, not only in taste, but in quality as well. And even then, the benefits were so few that it would not warrant the risks to consuming a poorly-prepared entrée.

“The first reason is simple. I said before that we do not clean the egg, but it is inevitable when boiling that some bacteria can enter the egg through the shell’s pores. By utilizing a fast rotational speed, the tangential force ensures nothing enters through the pores, and the albumen and yolk retain a purer concentration.” He glanced at Kenja to see if he understood his explanation before moving to the next reason.

Kenja blinked cluelessly several times. He mostly understood the first part of what he said. Bacteria was supposedly something that could not be observed but caused sickness; it was one of the reasons the retired doctor living near Baba-san would remind him to wash his hands frequently and rinse fruit before eating it. But the second half was beyond his comprehension.

He scanned the faces of the judges and the crowd of phantasms, spotting many pondering and enlightened expressions. Even Sakura nodded her hilt as if to say, “I knew that!” A feeling of frustration erupted within him as he repeated the words to himself and looked at the spinning egg for a hint.

Seeing Kenja struggle to grasp what was said, Xiang Xin reminded Zhu Jidan, “Elder brother, he is a mere boy at the Qi Flourishing stage. Whether in terms of age or cultivation, he wouldn’t understand such an explanation.”

Zhu Jidan turned from Xiang Xin back to Kenja and sunk in thought without pausing the egg’s rotation in the water.

Most of the pillars and their original owners had reached the Nascent Soul stage, and, as a result, their minds were more evolved in comparison to mortals. Additionally, most had lived for several centuries and learned much in that time. Although such an observation of the world’s physical laws were quite simple for them to understand, perhaps he was too expectant of Kenja who was both much younger and inferior in cultivation. But before he could simplify his explanation, Kenja spoke up.

“Is it similar to how a wet dog shakes his head and the water flies off? With the egg spinning so quickly, there will be no opportunity for anything to get inside. Am I right?”

Zhu Jidan and the various elders were momentarily surprised before nodding their heads in approval, their impression of Kenja improving tenfold. Even though his performance in most of the earlier cultivation techniques were too embarrassing to remember, his temperament and intelligence was praiseworthy; even when faced with something he did not understand, he pieced together a solution from the hints given.

“Precisely. As for the second reason…”

The water had just begun to boil when the elder waved his hand away and sent the boiling water flying away once more. He placed his hands together and twisted them before pulling them apart as if he were opening a tightly sealed jar. Like the shattering of a large vase, a loud and deep cracking echoed throughout the basin.

The egg’s shell broke apart and was blown away in the same manner as the water.

“This…”

To Kenja’s astonishment, what was left behind was not a hard-boiled white egg that he was expecting but a swirling mix of white and yellow liquid within a semi-transparent membrane.

“Everything is founded upon Yin and Yang. Without one, you cannot have the other, and the egg is a perfect example of this. Without the outer layer, the center loses its protection, and without the center, the outer layer loses its heart.”

The swirling within the membrane sped up before the egg dived into the final portion of water floating nearby. With its temperature noticeably increasing every second, the water quickly came to a boil. Eventually, the swirling slowed down and the two colors melded into a soft, golden color before solidifying and merging with the membrane.

Zhu Jidan smiled in a delightful manner unlike his usual self. It had been a long time since he had cooked anything, and it brought him immense joy to see that his skills had not rusted after so long.

“But to reach the apex of taste and quality, one must wholeheartedly follow the principle of Yin and Yang by mixing the two together before it is completely boiled.”

He pointed to Kenja, and the finished egg flew over and did a spin in front of his face, basking in its own naked glory.

When he first saw the mixture of white and yellow, he had the impolite notion that Zhu Jidan was just scrambling the egg’s insides, but now that he had a closer look, the boiled egg had a shiny luster resembling gold. It had a strong, entrancing scent that could be vaguely described as ‘egg-y’ but not the usual egg smell; it would be more accurate to say that this was the true egg scent, and all other previous egg smells had been poor imitations.

Kenja knew it was originally just a regular chicken egg, yet he had an urge to stow it away as if it were a precious jewel. He was reminded of a fairy tale that Frederick had mentioned once before where a person found a goose that laid golden eggs and wondered if there was any truth to it.

“Be it the egg of a chicken, a salamander or a dragon, the first step is relatively the same in preventing any additional impurities from entering the shell. As for the second step, different stocks and styles can be used, but in my experience, simple, Qi-enriched water produces the tastiest egg,” he reviewed the recipe once more for the sake of thoroughness.

WIth that, Zhu Jidan nodded to the egg causing his double chin to jiggle. The golden egg was sliced into five equal cross-sections and placed on a plate for each judge and Kenja. The fifth plate was placed in front of Snail who was organizing some vegetables near a salad bowl for some reason.

Kenja carefully picked up the thin slice to examine it. As if solid gold, there was no difference between the inside and the outside. Its texture had an addicting smoothness that was less slippery than the boiled eggs he had eaten before and a springiness that made one want to place it in their mouth and chew on it immediately.

Kenja held himself back from eating to raise a question, “In the past, I’ve heard of a story where a mortal found an animal that laid a golden egg. I thought they were merely fables for children, but seeing a golden egg such as this, I cannot help but wonder. Does elder know anything about such tales?”

The judges who were about to partake in the food paused to listen to Kenja. Elder Zhu Jidan was puzzled that a Qi Flourishing child had the willpower to resist immediately consuming his personally prepared food. Had Kenja already eaten his fill, or perhaps he needed more practice with the original Zhu Jidan’s memories?

He pushed that thought to the back of his mind and pinched his double chins as he pondered Kenja’s question. Most of the elders joined him in looking through their memories for stories relating to golden eggs. It was the judge resembling a kindly monk who was the first to remember something that fit Kenja’s description.

“Could he be talking about Gourmand Feefai Phofumm and the mortal farmer Joke?”

As if stumbling upon the epiphany together, the pillars’ eyebrows shot up, and smiles appeared on their faces. Even Zhu Jidan began chuckling from remembering the story. How could he have forgotten that one. Seeing Kenja’s inquisitive face, he began retelling this Immortal’s tale.

“Gourmand Feefai Phofumm was a cultivator who lived in seclusion with his wife to follow the Dao of Food several millennia ago. While he is known for his pursuits in the kitchen, his infamy was immortalized by his wife after his passing. She recounted a time where he was in need of a cow for his next dish while there were none remaining on their mountain peak. He was forced to descend the mountain in search of a cow when he came across a neighboring village with a lone cow owned by a poor farmer.”

Kenja nodded along as the story coincided with several aspects of Frederick’s version.

“Someone at Gourmand Feefai’s stage had no use for mortal currency, so he persuaded the farmer called Joke to sell the cow in exchange for some of his homegrown vegetable seeds. While the seeds were not something rare for him, they were invaluable to mortals, producing vegetation overnight and being able to support several families for generations to come. After obtaining the cow, he immediately returned up the mountain to prepare his next dish.”

Compared to the one he heard years earlier, Kenja felt this story was more detailed and sensible aside from the farmer’s name. “Are you sure the farmer’s name wasn’t Jack?” What kind of person would call themselves Joke?

The pillars fell into deep contemplation as they used their memories to verify the farmer’s name.

“It was definitely farmer Joke, right?”

“Yes, yes, definitely farmer Joke. The story was much better because he had this name.”

“No doubt about it. Even the mortals remember the story as ‘Joke’s Grapevine.’”

“I thought the mortals referred to it as ‘The Fig Tree and Farmer Joke.’”

Kenja joined their discord hoping to resolve it, “It’s Jack and the Beanstalk.’”

“Oh, yes! ‘Joke and the Beanstalk.’”

“Mhmm, ‘Joke and the Beanstalk’ was the name. I remember it now!”

“I am still partial to ‘Joke and the Giant Peach.’”

They excitedly reminisced over such a pointless thing but unanimously agreed that Joke was the farmer’s name on the basis that it fit his role in the story. Subtly rolling his eyes, Kenja withdrew himself from the debate and allowed Elder Zhu Jidan to continue the story.

“After some time had passed, the farmer showed up with several new cows at Gourmand Feefai’s mountaintop palace above the clouds, but the gourmand was too busy boiling goose eggs at the time to speak with him. His wife served tea to farmer Joke and used her enchanted instruments to play a song for him as they waited for her husband. It was not until he had finished cooking that he was informed of the farmer’s arrival. He thoughtlessly carried the plate of boiled eggs with him and met with the unexpected guest. Shortly after purchasing a couple more cows in exchange for a couple of gold coins kept by his wife, they discovered that one of her harps and the goose in the backyard had gone missing.”

“Was Gourmand Feefai a giant?” interrupted Kenja. It was off-topic, but his curiosity was torturing him, and it became apparent that the elder had no intention of addressing this point of the story.

A look of befuddlement appeared on Zhu Jidan’s face. “Why must he be a giant? He was a gourmand living in seclusion, so be it taste-testing, taste-eating or just eat-eating directly, he had to do it all himself. Naturally, he’d be larger than most mortals after a few centuries of that, but he would still be smaller than a giant.” He slapped his gut and allowed it to jiggle in pride, a little unsatisfied that it was not bigger.

Kenja resisted asking about the different types of eating and acknowledged Zhu Jidan’s explanation.

He coughed once to let Kenja know that he was resuming the story.

“With his goose taken and his wife’s harp stolen, the married couple argued over who should go retrieve the items. Alas, name a man who has triumphed over his wife, and you will have praised a deity; the farmer was his guest after all, so naturally he should be the one to retrieve them.” Zhu Jidan and many of the male pillars shook their heads in tacit understanding while several female pillars looked to each other and smiled in agreement. As it should be!

“Since he had just made goose eggs for breakfast, he had no immediate need for the goose, so he postponed the trip down the mountain, telling his wife he would go the following day. Everyday, she would remind him, and everyday he would postpone it. It was not until several years later when he got another craving for goose eggs and was fed up with his wife’s reminders did he finally descend the mountain in search of the farmer.”

Kenja chuckled in disapproval at the gourmand’s laziness. His sister Yoshie acted in the same manner when it came to washing her clothes. They would form a pile behind her bed until Shizuka threatened to report the mess to Kenja. Guess some things could not be cured with cultivation, but his ability to procrastinate was certainly magnitudes higher than a mortal.

“He discovered that the farmer called Joke moved to a mortal capital. After following his trail, Gourmand Feefai found that the man had gotten himself executed and his property seized by the capital’s king.”

Kenja was shocked by how much the story’s path veered from what Frederick narrated. Sometime after stealing the goose, the farmer had supposedly tricked the giant to his death and then lived happily ever after. In reality, the farmer was the one who ended up dying, and some king entered the picture and forcefully snatched the thieving farmer’s belongings.

“Gourmand Feefai made an appearance before the king and requested that the goose and harp be returned to him. Although it was just an ordinary goose, it was his goose, so he felt it unreasonable to go look for a second one. As for the harp, needless to say that he wouldn’t hear the end of it if he did not bring it back. But the king was threatened and enraged by the gourmand’s abrupt demands. He had long lost interest in the goose since it could not lay golden eggs, but because the magic harp added credibility to the farmer’s claims, he had been reluctant to release the bird. And now this intruder came for the sole purpose of collecting the useless goose and magic harp?”

Kenja could already see where this was headed. “Did the king demand that Gourmand Feefai share the secret to having the goose lay golden eggs?”

In more ways than one, Kenja had not completely departed from the world of mortals. If he were in the king’s shoes, he would believe that the intruder knew the method for coaxing the magic goose.

Elder Zhu Jidan nodded his jiggling chins once more.

“Smart disciple. The foolish king refused to return the two items and was disrespectful to Gourmand Feefai, demanding he share everything he knew regarding their functions. Gourmand Feefai Phofumm was a very kind and friendly person to the point that he arranged a feast for the realm’s cultivators after his passing. Even after being treated in such a manner, he did not kill the king or his subjects. He forcefully took back the goose and harp while destroying the mortal palace and half the city looking for them.”

Huai Yi finished the tale for Zhu Jidan, “The story serves as a reminder for us to limit our interactions with mortals. Despite taking pity on a mortal and gifting them something beyond their means, his kindness was repaid with enmity. Their short-sighted greed and ignorance turned what should have been a short errand to fetch a cow into years of nagging from one’s wife and a wild goose chase that resulted in the demolition of a mortal city.”

Xiang Xin chimed in, “His wife shared this story in jest at the feast, and it has been retold countless times since. After having his city destroyed, the mortal king fabricated a different story regarding the dead farmer to hide his crimes and cause of humiliation. Now, no mortal remembers the king’s involvement, and they believe that a mere farmer triumphed over Gourmand Feefai after stealing his property. Truly, mortals can be disappointing at times.”

Everyone including Kenja nodded in agreement.

This story did fill in many of the plot holes that did not make sense before. He had felt put-off that a mysterious person appeared randomly in a small village and willingly traded magic beans for a single cow. Even if a beanstalk grew to the heavens, the idea that a poor farmer would climb to the heavens for no reason and without fear of falling made very little sense. A goose that laid solid gold eggs made less sense.

Strangest of all was that Frederick’s version did not teach any valuable lessons or morals. Jack—Joke—whatever he was called made a shady deal with an odd stranger, entered someone’s home without permission, stole their belongings, murdered the owner, and then lived freely with no penalty while benefiting from all his dishonorable deeds. If this was a cover-up to hide the king’s deeds while venting his resentment on Gourmand Feefai, then everything made sense.

“Mmmm. Elder brother’s cooking is unrivaled in this world,” complimented the monk. He had a content smile on his face, deeply appreciating the taste of Zhu Jidan’s egg.

Kenja’s attention was brought back to the three elders who were judging the competition. To his astonishment, all their plates were wiped clean with no egg in sight. Did he miss it?

“Brother’s food is truly remarkable. If only I had a disciple who could prepare such food. Don’t you agree, brother?” Huai Yi teased Xiang Xin, his former disciple.

Xiang Xin countered, “Isn’t it the master’s responsibility to teach the disciple how to do such things? But I do agree with you: elder brother’s egg was divine.”

Since Huai Yi was also a 1st generation elder like Zhu Jidan, they were true peers through and through, and he had no need to curry favor address him as elder brother.

Kenja looked at the slice of egg he had placed back on his plate. The irresistible urge to consume it welled up from within. He could no longer hold himself back and placed the slice of egg in his mouth.

…

Without realising it, he had already finished eating. It was like time had frozen as soon as the smooth, creamy gold touched his tongue. Then, he blinked, and it was gone. Just for a moment, he tasted an exotic flavor could only be described as the very essence of what an egg should taste like. Before he could savor and ruminate over the egg’s unique and otherworldly texture and flavor, his mouth ignored his intentions and swallowed it without warning.

Annoyed and filled with regret, his brows furrowed as he tried to recall this ambrosia’s features. He entertained the idea of asking Zhu Jidan to boil one more specially for him but decided against it since they were supposedly competing on opposite sides.

Seeing the bitter expression on Kenja’s face, Elder Zhu Jidan consoled him with an all-knowing smile, “Do not feel discouraged. It is normal for a Qi Flourishing boy to forget themselves when faced with this tier of food for the first time. You had already done a good job resisting its initial temptation; if you could decipher its taste on the first bite, my entire life would be considered a waste. Work hard, and I am sure you can boil your own eggs within two years after establishing your foundation. Then you can take your time tasting it carefully.”

Kenja’s heart ached once again. He was not cultivating for the sake of cooking good food. In fact, one of the benefits to cultivation that aroused Kenja’s interest was the money that could be saved on food! But after experiencing the taste of a simple boiled egg, he wondered if he should pick it up as a hobby. Eggs were cheap after all.

As he began re-evaluating his philosophy on life, he decided to thank the venerable elder for his lessons when an obnoxiously loud and sickening sound echoed throughout the basin.

“BLLEEEEUUUUURRRRRGGGGHHH!!!”