Dao of Cooking

The Jiangzhen Library rose like a peacock amongst chickens from the crowd of wooden and stone buildings that surrounded it. Sunlight bounced off of its marbled surface which looked clean as though scores of men had licked it an hour ago. The building stood a story higher than its lesser brothers, all white and polished, looking more like a church than a library.

A line of shuffling heads trickled in and out from its wide-opened doors, but somehow the entrance of the Library didn’t look crowded. It was probably because of the open space that sprawled before It, in the middle of which stood yet another statue that was made from the same white marble.

“Emperor Xia,” Lei muttered unknowingly when he stared at the statue.

Standing over ten feet tall, the figure depicted on the stone was surprisingly middle-aged and had a clean-shaved face, unlike the statues of those whiskered, white-bearded ministers of the court you’d normally see around the city. His right hand was raised high toward the skies, palm open as if he was reaching for something, and his other hand was clasped tight around a thick book.

“The Sage Emperor,” Fatty Lou said as he bowed his head to the statue.

It was the first time Lei saw a solemn respect in his face, but didn’t find it peculiar. On the contrary, it was warranted in this case, as the Eastern Continent owed its prosperity to this wise, and benevolent Emperor who ruled the Empire for two hundred years.

Though the previous owner’s memories about this Emperor couldn’t be considered deep, Lei knew that most people, especially mortals had somewhat deified him, for they thought they owed this man their way of life.

It was true in the sense that it’d been Emperor Xia who’d brought the common currency, cultivation license, and many other revolutions to this otherwise cruel, and quite frankly, primal world, but most importantly, he abolished slavery. His edicts had garnered no little amount of rage from the cultivators, but the man himself was told to be an Immortal, hence even though many tried, nobody could overthrow his rule.

Until, one day, he suddenly vanished.

Who knows, perhaps he was a senior of mine.

Shaking his head, Lei followed after Fatty Lou as they weaved through the crowd, passing by the statue and a group of children who stared admiringly at Emperor Xia’s green eyes which shone like two emeralds. There were others who sat cross-legged on the ground, some bald folk who seemed to have taken the place as a good meditation ground, eyes closed in deep pondering.

“Buddhists,” Fatty Lou said with a look over his shoulder, shaking his head. “Can you believe it? Just because of some rumours, they see Emperor Xia as a reincarnation of the Buddha. Hard to reason with that bunch.”

Different times, I guess.

And different people, too, Lei thought as they passed through the ante-chamber. Then he paused, mouth hanging wide open as he stared up at the giant dome of the Library, and down to the rows of bookshelves lined neatly across the first floor.

There must be hundreds… No, thousands of books here!

But how? Jiangzhen was supposed to be a remote city of the Empire, not some capital that had millions of people living in it. Why bother building a Library this big when you know the people around here were mostly farmers and simple workers?

“Shit,” Lei heard Fatty Lou say before blinking at him.

“What?”

“Bai Xiu’s here,” Fatty Lou said, then forced a smile as he waved a hand toward a group of girls. One of them, a young woman with long, dark hair had a mean scowl on her face, staring daggers at Fatty Lou.

“I’ll catch up to you,” Fatty Lou whispered, and not waiting for Lei’s answer, dashed across the distance, vanishing into the crowd.

Lei chuckled after him. He couldn’t say he was surprised as Fatty Lou had easily over a dozen lovers around the city. He was relieved, even, as he wished to take a good look at the Library by himself.

It soon became clear that the place had but few rules. Damaging a book was a serious offense, one that was often punished by flogging, or even death if the damaged book was something of a rare script. Taking the books outside to read was, as expected, forbidden, but you could use the tables and the chairs scattered around the Library for reading.

Big, wooden planks serving as signs made it easy to distinguish the rows from each other. History, Art, or even Math had its own lanes, but Lei had near fainted when he saw most people inching toward the staircase, to the point that there was a serious line formed by dozens of people.

Are you kidding me?

There was a single plaque hung from the roof of the first floor, near the staircase, with a set of simple characters written upon it. It read as ‘Novels’ in thick strokes.

He couldn’t help but wonder about what ‘Novels’ meant in this context, but he also found this oddly sensible. What else could give these people a break from their otherwise plain lives?

Get a printing machine, then you’re set for the rest of your life.

That thought sparked another question in his mind. Was there a way to imitate a printing machine in this world? Couldn’t be that hard when you have Immortals and Heavenly Sages who could probably hold the sky with one hand, right?

Lei shook his head as he made his way toward the ‘Plants’ part of the Library which had only about five or six bookcases further along on the first floor. Not a favorite subject of the folk here, it seemed, as Lei found no other soul in front of the bookcases.

The books themselves were made mostly from a different kind of leather that gave a papery feeling when Lei touched them. They were equally thick and their simple covers were adorned with elegant brush strokes. The authors’ names ranged from Immortals to renowned herbalists, which was another surprise as Lei didn’t expect to see this amount of knowledge being offered without a price to the normal population, not in a place as mortal as Jiangzhen, at least.

Couldn’t say he wasn’t glad, though, and he didn’t waste any time as he picked one of the thicker tomes. The name ‘Spiritual Plants and Roots I’ was more than enough to convince him, and the author, Sage Greenstone, being an Immortal certainly was a plus.

It was easily over a thousand pages, all crowded in elegant handwriting, with plenty of notes and depictions of the spiritual plants in the mix. The drawings were the most helpful, as Lei couldn’t even be considered a beginner in the field of spiritual plants, and roots, too, cause apparently that was a thing.

It didn’t take him long to find Rootremedy, thanks to the table of contents on the first page. The plant seemed like a twisted form of beans, with a huge stalk and a spiritual mist that got thicker as the plant slowly absorbed the spiritual energy through its roots. During the Mortal stage, it could grow as high as nine beans, and if it could cultivate enough to ascend high into the Earth stage, it then shed its stalk and planted its beans deep into the ground where they could become Bean Fruits which had a huge effect on Qi-related sicknesses.

A slight pain started crawling up his head as Lei kept reading. All these details and knowledge would surely be useful for an herbalist, but the real part that was important for Lei was that the plant wasn’t poisonous. It was safe to eat, though the author didn’t mention any recipes that used the plant as a base.

Trial and error. Guess I should’ve expected it.

Unfortunately, there was nothing resembling a cookbook around the Library, and the other authors didn’t give him much than the real use of these plants, which were often used in some sort of pill or medication, so Lei would have to put his virtuosity to work to make something out of these plants.

After he leafed through a couple of books, he turned and made for the doors, but took a mental note to himself that when he had time he would come and visit this place. There was so much to learn, so much to explore in the Library that a day, or even a week wouldn’t be enough.

I’ve got what I needed. At least we’re not dealing with poison or some sort of spiritual curse here. There’s hope.

…….

Lei poured the chicken thighs and the bones into a deep pot full of water and kindled the stove before cleaning the counter with a cloth. He then eased back onto the couch near Fatty Lou.

It was already noon when he got back to the house after a long visit to the Library. On the way he bought a full chicken to make soup for the kids, and had to listen to Fatty Lou’s rather charming story about how he managed to fool the girl into thinking that he would be moving away from Jiangzhen soon, hence he didn’t want to ‘hurt’ her feelings.

However, the bastard didn’t forget to use this opportunity to get a goodbye from the woman.

At least he didn’t bring her here.

“I don’t know who this cultivator was,” Fatty Lou said, waving a hand over the plants spread wide on the table, “But she did a damn good job at harvesting these plants. Look at these, not even a speck of soil left in these things!”

Lei nodded. “She knows her business, that’s for sure.”

“So what’s the plan now?” Fatty Lou leaned back on the couch, glancing at Lei.

“There are too many unknowns. We don’t know if the woman lives here, or if she’s just some cultivator passing by Jiangzhen. And I’m still not sure if I have it in me to cook something she would appreciate. Can’t go too strong, or too weak, I’m thinking. Have to find a balance in between.”

“You’re not wrong,” Fatty Lou said. “That rice alone was something else, but the fried one was one hell of a dish. I say start with a basic one. No need to put too much thought into it. Just cook something spiritual, have her taste it, then let us see her reaction,” Fatty Lou said. He leaned closer and took a stalk of Rootremedy from the table. “This… has the beans in it, no? Start with this one.”

Lei took the stalk from his hands and felt the beans with his finger. They were hard and around thrice the size of a normal pea.

I think I’m just going to boil one and try it to see how it tastes.

There were two other plants. The Gnarled Souls looked awfully similar to ginger but darker in color and easily twice as wide. They had a soft texture, an earthy smell about it. Lei could feel some sort of liquid under their darkish skin.

The Pettydiggers, on the other hand, were like a bunch of needles wrapped together by a thick rope that had a texture that was quite similar to a straw, but it was ghostly white and had layers bounding the needle-thin stalks, or whatever the hell these things were, which were nearly three inches long and thin like a fingernail.

These can make for a good toothpick.

There were his options, waiting before him. And Lei had to make a dish using all of these according to the mission they’d posted. The good thing was, that they would probably be left with enough spiritual plants to push them toward the Body Tempering Stage. The bad thing… Well, he didn’t know what the hell he should do with these alien plants.

“That Brother He… Did he say anything else?” Lei probed once more, frowning in thought. “We’re sure the woman can’t trace the connection, right?”

Fatty Lou barked out a laugh, “You should’ve seen him. The poor bastard’s been gone crazy these last days, always checking from over his shoulder to see if somebody’s trailing him. His eyes were bloody red.”

“That’s… dangerous,” Lei said, shaking his head. Fatigue could break a man’s focus. On top of that, they didn’t know what this woman was capable of.

The possibility of her being a real expert was low, but never zero. And there were scores of cultivators out in the world with different paths. A divination expert, for example, could probably become one hell of a detective who could go about solving cases like simple puzzles. Hell, there was no way of them knowing if a sound-focused cultivator was listening to their conversation right now.

I’m being paranoid. Jiangzhen is a little place in a big world. It’s not like we have a spirit stone mine here. I’m just a cook.

Fatty Lou clapped him on the back which made Lei glance at him. “You’re thinking too much,” he said, nodding as if he really meant it. “You’ve heard Brother He. And Spiritual Chefs can’t be that uncommon. Anyone who has some knowledge about spiritual plants and the means to get them surely can cook spiritual dishes, no?”

When Lei scowled down at the words, Fatty Lou shook his head at him, “You know what I meant. Your dishes are different and potent, like medicinal pills, but you are not even a cultivator. Being gifted is no crime, nor sin, Brother Lei.”

Just want to keep this head above my shoulders, is all. But yeah, I have to clear my mind, or else I’m going to get myself crazy.

“You’re right,” Lei said, smiling slightly. “I think I’ll have a try with these plants. Do we have a time limit?”

“Two days,” Fatty Lou said. “You’ve to prepare the dishes in two days. That’s the deal.”

“Two days, it is.” Lei nodded.

……