Transcending Dreams - D2 - Chapter 41

Wang Xiaoling barged her way past the line, and any protests that could have been made had died when Fatty Xu saw her.

“Sister Wang! You’re finally here!” Fatty Xu lifted his skewer. “I found Moon Rabbit meat!”

“This might be your best one yet, Fatty Xu!”

William and Lan Yang followed her slowly, ignoring the disgruntled looks given to them by the twenty-ish people waiting in line.

“Why is Chef Yi cooking in a shack?” William asked quietly. “Shouldn’t he be in one of those fancy restaurants?”

“Don’t ask me how his mind works,” Lan Yang sounded bitter. “The sect paid a fortune to draw him here, and Chef Yi’s condition was that he could cook whatever he wanted, wherever he wanted. This is what he chose.”

“A shack,” William repeated blankly. “He chose a shack to make the best dishes possible.”

“Apparently,” Lan Yang frowned when Chef Yi spoke to Fatty Xu enthusiastically. They heard the specifics clearly when they reached the counter.

“Brother Xu, how did you spice it without eroding the essence of the moon rabbit? I have tried the same years ago before giving up!”

Fatty Xu looked displeased that he had to speak to Chef Yi when Wang Xiaoling was present, but that didn’t stop him from showing how he did it.

“Watch closely,” Fatty Xu used raw meat that William guessed was Moon Rabbit. A reddish glow appeared on his fingers before it blurred. Fatty Xu was literally attacking the meat, with a quickness that his eyes couldn’t track.

He expected the rabbit meat to be shredded at best, and erased from existence at worst. Neither happened. The meat looked untouched to the naked eye.

“After that, add the spices you want before cooking,” Fatty Xu pinched a bit of red powder and sprinkled it around the meat. They were immediately absorbed as if it was never added. “Never do it after it’s cooked. That will ruin the essence.”

“Amazing!” Chef Yi exclaimed. “Brother Xu, your preparation technique is one-of-a-kind. I could barely keep up with your movements! You have an envious control over your Qi! How long did it take you to create the technique?”

“It took a while,” Fatty Xu admitted before looking at Wang Xiaoling. “Sister Wang, are you ready to eat?”

William ignored Lan Yang, who was moving to join them, and narrowed his eyes at Chef Yi. He wasn’t able to see Fatty Xu’s movements at all. He looked at the chef’s basic status.

[Name: ? | Level: ?]

The guards were at the nascent soul stage, which William could easily accept due to the unique circumstances. But a chef being at the same level was hard to swallow.

Perhaps Lan Yang saying Chef Yi was the closest thing to an immortal chef should have clued him in, but that was stretching it. He was coming across cultivators in the nascent soul level far too much. Weren’t they supposed to be rare?

In the back of William’s mind, he was aware that the question marks in the basic status could also mean that Chef Yi was at a realm even higher than nascent soul, but that was so slim that he didn’t really consider it.

After all, it was highly doubtful that a spirit severing realm cultivator would lower themselves to cook for low-level cultivators.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Oh good, you’re here,” Fatty Xu interrupted his existential crisis.

“Me?” William pointed at himself, noticing that Wang Xiaoling was already digging into her skewer without hesitation.

“Who else? I said I would give you a good meal. Here it is,” Fatty Xu offered a skewer with bits of cooked meat on it. A kebab, basically, but one that was making him gulp down the saliva building in from the delicious scent.

“Alright, stop right there! It was fine for one person to cut in front of us, but now we have to let these two do the same? I don’t think so! They either get in line, or you’ll lose our business!”

William blinked in surprise, having forgotten that this was an open food stall and customers were waiting to order.

“I do apologize, but they already had their orders placed well in advance.” Li Jie played the part of a service worker well, but the large man, who was the only one complaining, wasn’t satisfied.

“I don’t care!”

At this point, William wondered why the man was bold enough to cause trouble when high-level cultivators were keeping close watch. He let the system show him the basic status.

[Name: Wei Si | Level: ?]

Core formation realm. The last name suggested that the man was from the Wei clan, but it wasn’t confirmed.

“Do you know who I am? I already had to wait for fifteen minutes like a peasant! It is already humiliating to eat food prepared in a stall!”

Scratch that. After that ‘I am very important’ speech, it was highly likely the man was from the Wei clan.

“Then leave,” Fatty Xu said without care. “The food I make isn’t fit for someone like you.”

Wei Si blustered briefly before sneering at them and turning around. “Fine! All of you, don’t give this place your Qi Stones. I’ll treat you to something much better! Come with me.”

William took the offered skewer from Fatty Xu and munched a bit of meat as he watched the show. That failed immediately since his eyes almost rolled into the back of his head as he let out an embarrassingly loud moan.

“And that brat is mocking me!” Wei Si roared. “Give me tha—”

He was vaguely aware of the rage targeted at him, but he was happy to ignore it as he absorbed the taste of the rabbit meat. However, the sound of choked protests forced him to take his attention off the most delicious food he had the pleasure of tasting.

Wei Si was a few feet away, a meaty arm extended over William’s head, hard wrapped around the previously raging man’s neck. It wasn’t a gentle grip. Wei Si’s eyes bulged in panic as he clawed at the hand choking him, making it clear how bad it was.

“I don’t care for your yapping, but you crossed a line by trying to harm Sister Wang’s friend,” Fatty Xu still sounded bored, but somehow that made it more menacing. “Let me show you out.”

William ducked to avoid Wei Si’s legs as Fatty Xu pulled the man closer. He protected his precious kebab and moved to stand next to Wang Xiaoling, just in time to see Wei Si get treated like a javelin.

He watched with wide eyes as Fatty Xu strolled a few feet away from the stall, hoisted Wei Si over his shoulder, cocked his arm back, and launched the man with a slight grunt.

With Wei Si’s fading scream in the background, Fatty Xu stared at the others in line. “Any more complaints?”

There was a unified shake of heads, and while they looked disturbed at what just happened, none left because of it.

“Good,” Fatty Xu nodded before returning to stall and frowned at William. “Is it not to your liking?”

He was still gaping at Wei Si’s increasingly smaller form, wondering if the man had just been killed because of his frustration over a few extra minutes of waiting. Still, he took another bite of the delicious rabbit meat on the skewer.

After swallowing, William licked his lips and said, “It’s so good!”

Fatty Xu grunted and returned to the stove to make more with Chef Yi nearby to observe every movement. He didn’t miss that Chef Yi seemed utterly uninterested in interacting with anyone else.

That was fine with William. He quickly finished the three other pieces of rabbit meat, hoping to get more afterward.

[+10 Agility]

[+5 Spirit]

[Spiritual Energy Capacity | 1055 —> 1080]

The alerts surprised him, but he quickly put as much focus as possible when not cultivating to direct the newly added Qi to his Kidney Meridian. There was no danger of the meridian rejecting the Qi since he was nowhere close to the maximum it could contain, so he wasn’t worried.

William stared at the clean skewer after he was done with greed. Fatty Xu’s cooking gave him additional attribute points, and more importantly, he wasn’t penalized with increased impurity.

“Delicious, Brother Xu. You are a talent.”

He looked up to see Lan Yang complementing Fatty Xu while holding a skewer of his own.

William needed more.

There should have been an increase in impurity. He could clearly remember Li Xinyue blocking him from easing too much in the Phoenix’s Nest due to his body being unable to handle it.

It had to be due to Fatty Xu’s cooking that there was no impurity to worry about. William needed to find a way to keep him close by, which meant Wang Xiaoling was the one he had to convince.