The Journey of Immortal Cultivation
Chapter 66 - 62 Strive on, for Cultivation_2

Chapter 66: Chapter 62 Strive on, for Cultivation_2

Ning Xiaoxian was indeed as surprised as he had anticipated, her mouth forming an ’O’ shape. Does this mean that after 81 days, she can open the gates to Divine Skills? She can finally stop being a mortal who has to leave everything to fate? Her face flushed with excitement.

Changtian said with a smile, "Don’t be so proud of yourself just yet. These 81 days will not be easy; you have many tasks to complete."

"I’m not afraid! Bring on any torture, I say! Just so I can start to cultivate after 81 days!" Blinded by the wonderful prospects ahead, she recklessly made a bold declaration, completely unaware of the glimmer of shrewdness in Changtian’s handsome eyes.

This girl, spouting big words again! Within three days, he would make her understand the consequences of speaking without thinking, that some things can’t be taken back once said.

She remembered something else and asked, "Without the Golden Core Pill, how long would I need to solidify my constitution and begin cultivating Divine Skills?"

He pondered for a long time before leisurely replying, "If you only consume Cloud Fragrant Rice, you would probably need around 500 days." Watching her disillusioned expression had become a guilty pleasure he had only recently developed.

A year and a half?! Is her physique that poor? The Cloud Fragrant Rice grown from the soil has a quality ten times better than that of the Chi Xiao Sect! Even with daily consumption of such superior Spirit Rice as a foundation, it would still take 500 days? Oh, heavens!

She looked resentfully at Changtian. The man’s heart was truly wicked through and through; had he told her earlier that it would take over 500 days to even step into cultivation, whether or not she dared to head to the Western Heaven would be another matter. After all, she would still be a mortal for another 500 days; how would she deal with the difficulties and dangers along the way? There’s a limit to how much cleverness and luck can help.

He clearly understood what she was thinking, and he took a light sip of his tea: "If I had told you earlier, would you have dared to set out on your journey? If you hadn’t started, how would you encounter a turn for the better out of the blue?" This tea tasted quite good. Mortals have such short sight and lifespan, but their creativity is truly astonishing, like this cup of tea. 30,000 years ago, he only had water and wine to drink, and never such a wonderful drink.

Tea is a specialty product from the Southeast Coast of the Nan Zhanbu Continent, and though it has only been around for 200 years, it has already been designated by the privileged class among mortals as a must-have for cultured people and a top choice for gifts. Consequently, the consumption became massive, and even many cultivators and the Demon Clan were willing to savor this light and lingering flavor earnestly. Moreover, because tea has a light weight and small volume after processing, it is easy to carry, so it has always been one of the important goods that merchant teams carry with them.

At this moment, Changtian could hear the shouting voices from within the camp; it seemed that today’s journey was about to begin. As the saying goes, "The whole day’s work relies on a good start in the morning." It is a routine practice for the merchant team to break camp and set out before daybreak, and then look for a place to rest at night. Deng Hao is an experienced leader, and he generally doesn’t take risks like traveling during the night.

The cooks had already yoked the horses and mules to the carts and followed the leading team. The carriage was as bumpy as ever, but Ning Xiaoxian could no longer feel it; she was in the midst of her training in the God Demon Prison.

Steam rose from the clay pot lid, carrying the fragrance of rice. She checked the time and took out a carefully wrapped item from her storage bag—a cooked wild chicken. This wild chicken was a game offered by Bai Jing yesterday morning, and naturally, its blood had already been drained. The chicken was quite large, and she had put a lot of effort into cleaning it.

This wild game was different from domestic broilers; due to being untamed, it had a stronger gamey taste. The first step in removing the gamey flavor should have been bleeding it, but the little bat demon had unwittingly done that for her already. Even so, she still soaked the chicken meat in white liquor, tea leaves, and ginger slices for an entire day to barely remove the gamey flavor. Last night she boiled it twice before she had some chicken soup to drink, and this morning she planned to use a different method to deal with the large piece of chicken meat.

Eating well is the key to a good mood, a principle Ning Xiaoxian firmly believed in.

She put the whole chicken into a big bowl, scooped in plenty of mountain spring water, and transported it to the bottom layer of God Demon Prison.

Changtian was brewing tea.

Unlike modern Earth, the literati of Nan Zhanbu Continent at this time mainly drank tea cake. For the convenience of transportation, tea leaves were generally processed through seven steps: "picking, steaming, pounding, patting, baking, threading, sealing," with the end product being round cakes, similar to today’s Pu-erh tea cakes. That is to say, before drinking the tea, one must first grind the tea cake into fine powder before it could be brewed in spring water.

The tea leaves and tea utensils were all purchased from Deng Hao. This middle-aged man had a passion for tea and couldn’t resist brewing some after setting up camp at night. Ning Xiaoxian happened to see him and was invited to have a cup. The procedure of brewing tea looked both complicated and exquisite, which piqued Changtian’s interest in this novel activity, yet he could not get a taste himself.

Observing Deng Hao brewing tea with keen interest and asking an unusual number of questions, Ning Xiaoxian deduced that Changtian was curious, so she proposed an intention to purchase to the team leader. These days, she had gotten quite familiar with Deng Hao, and in the end, she managed to get two pounds at nearly the cost price, which nevertheless cost her 500 taels of silver, making the unit price 250 taels per pound! For the average folks, 250 taels was a significant sum, enough for a family of five to live comfortably for several years, which illustrates just how precious and luxurious tea was.

Changtian watched Deng Hao demonstrate the tea brewing process only once and learned about eighty to ninety percent of it. These past few days he practiced over and over again, now even outshining the skill of the team leader. Ning Xiaoxian saw him wave his hand, as the orange wood tea mill started moving on its own, grinding the tea cake into powder. He then sifted it carefully through a red tea sieve before adding it to the tea pot to brew, and finally pouring the finished product into a tea bowl, resulting in a clear and aromatic tea.

He carried out each of these steps with full concentration, capturing a sense of rhythm and beauty. Ning Xiaoxian knew that since being imprisoned, there were not many things that could fully engage him, and brewing tea happened to be one of them.

Influenced by her, Changtian had developed a habit of "appreciating tea" rather than the extremely popular "eating tea" on this land. Before drinking tea, people would first need to prepare the tea by putting tea powder into another container with a round belly and high neck, add seasonings such as green onions, ginger, salt, and pepper, and then pour boiling water over the tea and spices to form a paste, which is finally adjusted into a tea soup for consumption.

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PS: Tea was discovered by Shennong quite early and was initially used as medicine. For the needs of the plot, it is set that tea was discovered by humans only two hundred years ago.

According to the "Erya" by Zhang Yi of the Three Kingdoms Wei period, when drinking tea, one must first grind the processed tea cake, "put the powder in a porcelain vessel, pour soup over it, with green onions, ginger, and minced tangerine peel." In addition, seasonings like pepper, cinnamon, and salt were also used. So initially, people did not drink clear tea.

It was only after the Ming Dynasty, with innovations in tea processing methods and the rise of loose leaf tea nationwide, except for some ethnic groups in the border areas, no one added any seasonings to their tea. Emphasizing a clear drink and elegant appreciation, the pursuit was for the "true nature" of tea’s fragrance and genuine flavor, to experience the real delight of drinking tea.