It doesn’t take long for Zhi, Zhao and Yongzheng to get to an empty room upstairs and sit back down to eat. Zhi, gives them each back their plate and then says. “Zhao, you can start.”

Zhao just shrugs and picks up his chicken and takes a bite, as he is chewing and moaning. Yongzheng looked over at the boy, his mouth hanging open and his eyes slightly wide. He just stares at the boy before slowly looking at Zhi, who smiles back at the man and says. “Now you see why they wanted us to leave, even you were making those noises while eating. Pity we can’t hear what the girls sound like.”

Yongzheng turns back to stare at Zhao for another moment before he instantly looks back at Zhi with a glare. Then he says, “And you were just going to let us eat in front of all the restaurant staff and not say anything weren’t you?”

Zhi just smiles back at the man and shrugs his shoulders, before saying. “Sooner or later a lot of people will taste my food and it will have the same effect. Might as well get it out of the way now.”

Yongzheng still doesn’t look pleased, but he lets out a sigh and just begins to eat like Zhao. The three of them spend the next twenty minutes or so eating, Zhi in silence, the other two not so much. Once finished Yongzheng is the first to speak, as he reaches over and pat’s Zhao on the shoulder. “Me and my family thank you for your consideration young Zhao, you are a worthy young man.”

Zhao nod’s his head in return and says, “Thank you for the praise boss. I will take the dishes and head down to start work.” Turning to Zhao, Zhi says, “I will see you tonight for dinner and more training.”

As Zhao nods his head in reply and begins to pick on the plates, cleaning the table up. Yongzheng says to him, “Clean and dry those, then set them in my office afterwards. And thanks again for your suggestion earlier.”

Zhao just nods his head in reply and walks out of the room with the gathered plates, while Yongzheng looks back to Zhi and says, “I would still like the recipe for this fried chicken, but I have to ask. What did you do to make it so delicious? The same thing for the rice and that salad of mixed greens.”

“I will let you know that the salad was mostly made by Zhao, I just made a simple dressing to go over it.”

Yongzheng’s eyes widen just a bit as he looks back to the door Zhao had just departed from, before turning back to look at Zhi and asking. “Was it part of his talent that helped?”

Zhi shakes his head and replies, “There might be something to his talent to help with cooking, but most of the extra flavor was from my skill in cooking. Anything I help to cook, just becomes better. I really have no better way to describe it.”

Yongzheng nods his head, then says “So this fried chicken won’t make people moan in bliss when they eat it, unless you cook it. But it is different then anything I have seen in town, or close by for that matter. Truly unique. What would you like in exchange for the recipe?”

Zhi sits quietly for a few minutes and then says, “I would like to train Xiulan and Meifeng the way I am training Zhao. I will also allow you to join us, so you can have peace of mind.”

Yongzheng looks slightly confused, before saying “You want to train them to be cooks?”

“No, I want to train them physically. If you know what I mean.” Zhi says with a slight grin on his face.

Yongzheng’s face becomes a scowl as he looks at Zhi, his eyes squinted together slightly. His ridiculous mustache quiver's, as his voice comes out tinted with a bit of anger in it. “You might be a cultivator and seem to be a more honorable one. If you try anything “physical” with my family, you will have to go through me first.”

Zhi begins to laugh unrestrainedly at the man, after a minute of Zhi laughing and Yongzheng’s face becoming more unsightly. Zhi calms down and looks at the man, a smile still on his face and says. “I just told you before, I wouldn’t mind you joining us for your peace of mind. But all you heard was I wanted to.” Zhi raises both his hands and does air quotes as he says, “physically” train your family. While both of those girls are lovely, they aren’t my type. I prefer my women like a good wine, aged well with a full body and slightly aggressive.”

Yongzheng’s face stops being flushed and he goes through a whole range of emotions, confused, upset, back to anger, then settles on curiosity. He looks at Zhi for a full minute in silence before saying, “How old are you really?”

Zhi considers the man for a few moments and then says, “About double your current age. But I have always lived by an old saying. “You are only as old as you feel” Ever since I was a young man, I never really changed the way I have acted. I just tempered my more childish actions with wisdom and a lot of mistakes. Although I do try to stop some of my more childish urges, I still end up doing a lot of simple pranks I find funny. Also, don’t call me senior or some other shit like that. Just Zhi is fine, or Chef when I am in the kitchen.”

Yongzheng nods along as he listens, then says. “Alight, Zhi. Now what did you want to do with my daughter and niece? You said some type of physical training you are doing with Zhao?”

Zhi nods in return and says, “Yes I am training Zhi’s body to help him better transition into a cultivator. It will take a while and constant, almost daily training. But I wish to train his body to the limit just before he steps into the Qi Distillation stage. Meifeng and Xiulan are welcome to join, along with yourself. I am planning to add Zhao's aunt and uncle in, once I find a proper place to practice. And if I am feeling generous I will even teach you a cultivation technique when you reach the peak of Xiantian stage.”

The man’s jaw is just hanging open as he stares at Zhi in shock. Zhi reaches over and pushes the man’s mouth closed after a minute and says, “You know, it’s not that big of a deal. Your family and the Hai’s seem like decent enough people. Zhao’s uncle might be a bit of a conman, but all of your karma is neutral aligned towards good. Even Qiang’s, which is really surprising.”

Yongzheng is still quiet for a little while, before finally saying, “You must be from really, really far away if you think training normal people to be cultivators isn’t a big deal. The cultivators around here guard their techniques with jealousy, and the big scet’s and families out there can be even worse. Or so I heard from people I talk to.”

A laugh comes from Zhi, before he says. “I don’t even know how far away I have traveled. I was kinda asleep for the whole thing, and I am not even sure how much time has passed since I left.”

[From the host's old realm to this one, the time spent in travel was 160,394 Years 231 Days, 9 Hours and 56 Seconds.]

Zhi’s face goes a little slack, as his mouth drops open. Before he blurts out, “What do you mean 160,000 years?!?!” Yongzheng stares back at the man in front of him, partly in wonder and a little bit of fear.

[Traveling between realms isn’t magic, it takes time and energy. Also different realms have different time zones. So while it might be one minute here, in your old realm one day has passed or possibly only one second, or a whole month. I don’t deal with temporal mechanics much so I honestly don’t know for sure. Also, you spoke out loud.] Buddha’s last sentence almost sounded like he was snickering at the end of it.

Zhi shakes his head for a moment, then focuses back on Yongzheng before saying, “Sorry about that, I was replying to a friend. But in my shock I said it out loud instead of in my mind.”

[We are not friends, more like work acquaintances if anything.]

You wound me sir with your words!

Yongzheng asks, “You are over 160,000 years old?”

Zhi shakes his head and says, “Maybe, but like I said. I was asleep for most of that, so I won't count it. So what do you say? Would you like me to train you and your family and possibly make them cultivators?”

Yongzheng doesn’t even think about it before he speaks while bowing down, “It would be me and my family's honor to train under you.”

“Good, let me find a proper place close by and check out Zhao’s uncle a little more. Then I will begin to train everyone. Till then let's go to your office and I will write down the recipe for Fried Chicken. I will also give you another recipe and set you up with a sauce that goes with it. You use boneless chicken instead and cover it in the sauce after it is done. The sauce can be made a few different ways also, so it can be sweet, sour, or spicy.”

Zhi stands up followed by Yongzheng, and then walks out of the room back to Yongzheng’s office. Once there, Zhi proceeded to write out his fried chicken recipe and all the proper steps to make it. Then modified it slightly to work with boneless, skinless chicken. Before he finished up with six different recipes to make sauces for the chicken. Some to be covered in it, others to be dipped into and explained the reasoning behind each one and what to expect on the flavor and texture of them. He also promised to test each one that is made over the next few weeks, while Yongzheng has some of his kitchen staff learn the recipes.

Saying goodbye, Zhi walks out of the restaurant’s back area and heads over to his divining spot to help some people learn their talents and make some money. He whistles a little tune as he walks down the street and out of view of the restaurant.

-----------------------------------------------

“Hey, don’t you think we should follow him and find out where he is going?” A man asks the person who is standing next to them, as they watch the monk walk away from the restaurant.

The other man just scoff’s and says, “Are you an idiot? The boss told us to watch the restaurant and find out info about the man. Not to follow the man around.”

“Oh yeah, I guess you are right.”

“Exactly. That's why I was the one who was put in charge and not you. Now shut up and keep watching the restaurant. I am gonna go inside and see if I can find someone we can talk to for information.”

As the one man walks toward the front of the restaurant, the other man doesn’t reply, but just watches the man walk away with doubt in his eyes.