Three hours later, Chomper was looking at his own plate with an anxious look. There were two strange 'things' in front of him. The first one was a whole crab doused with a greenish-yellow gravy, with seaweed-like green clump decorating its periphery. On top of the crab itself, tiny red flakes were scattered around, giving a visual appeal to it. To his horror, the crab itself was actually a pseudo-spiritual beast! As a low-leveled spiritual beast who had barely started to cultivate, he was just a little bit better than the crab in terms of power level. And here it was, served to him on a plate, dead, and even being decorated. The 'plate' holding the poor crab was actually one of their own Clan Head's precious scale! 

 

He stole a glance at the real owner of the territory, the infamous notorious snake, and was jolted into an immense dread when their gaze connected coincidentally. The Lightning Serpent Lord was giving him a meaningful stare while glancing at the dish in front of him. Astute as he was, he knew he couldn't comment or ask unnecessary things to the mistress, especially pertaining to the strange meal in front of him or he will be the next one to be ‘served’. Chomper gulped his saliva nervously.

 

Another 'thing' that was peculiar was some white waterish slush presented in a large green fruit cut in half. There was even a tube-like soft branch at the side. Chomper was pretty confused with the arrangement. He stole another glance on his left to see a pseudo-spiritual bird looking hard at its own plate, ignoring all distractions; a small pot of soup with only the greenish clump of 'seaweed', and the white water at the side. It had a very impatient, ravenous look reflecting in its black beady eyes. He looked to his left and saw a similar gaze from the white stranger; albeit a little restrained.

 

"Stop looking around and be polite. The Mistress had worked hard on this. No matter if you like it or not, you must finish it." Shiro added stoically. In front of strangers, he had tacitly agreed with Kuro to address their mommy as Mistress. It was for their mommy's sake. They must help their mommy build a certain level of reputation for her to be respected in the circle of spiritual beasts. It was for the sake of her safety after all.

 

As she arranged the last dish in front of everyone in a circle, Hana exclaimed jovially, "Done! Everyone can eat now."

 

...

 

Kuro was still a little disgruntled with Hana's requests before. He had taken more than an hour of desperate searching to find the hive of bees and took it down for the honey that she wanted. Thank goodness that all the bees were just pseudo spirit beasts, and only the queen bee was barely qualified as a real spirit beast. Although he was very strong, the sheer amount of angry bees pursuing him nonstop had made him really annoyed. They were very persistent.

 

Then, he went to catch some crabs. Since they had just finished all the crabs from the fish trap, he needed to catch some by himself.

 

Why did Mommy want to eat crabs all of the sudden? He knew whatever was in Mommy’s mind, it will surely be delicious. Hence, he took extra care to get the best crabs available.

 

He was keenly aware that the experts from the girl slave's clan were around, hence he purposely targeted a few pseudo spirit crabs within a group of normal crabs just to intimidate the experts intentionally since a large number of them were high-leveled spirit crabs. In his heart, he really would catch them and ask Mommy to stew them, but he was quite worried that the chap at home would've tattletale on him to Mommy. Additionally, Mommy's constitution was not strong enough to consume real spirit beasts yet. So, better not burn any bridges for the time being Looking at the ugly expression of the strongest one in the group of experts with his spiritual sense, Kuro just sniggered with disdain.

 

Nonetheless, admiring the piles of crabs tastefully heaped on his plate made him smile with contentment; although he was somewhat dissatisfied with the same number of crabs on the smelly fox's plate too!

 

Before he could voice his discontent, Hana quietly sent a message to the public channel. Both of you contributed. Ku-chan, for sourcing the resources outside. Shi-chan, for helping Mom to prepare the food. So both got equal treatment. Please behave in front of the guest and don't make me lose face. She smiled amiably at the befuddled little fish. Little infighting within the family shouldn't be shown to outsiders. No need to wash dirty linen in public. People will look down on you as well as your family.

 

Hana broke the ice by starting to spoon the bracken shoots doused in the extra spicy turmeric coconut soup. Today, the spiritual chili was a little more than usual because she wanted to observe the effect on a certain newcomer over here. Additionally, she had stocked on a lot of chilies and bidara fruits courtesy of Markisah's daily gifts.

 

"Mmmm..." She closed her eyes to savor the distinct crunch with a hint of chewiness of the bracken shoots with contentment. She then used the tube-like soft branch placed diagonally inside the coconut fruit bowl to suck up the slurry of coconut water-honeyed milk ice cream combo like how one would use a straw. 

 

"Slurpppppp!" It was too good! The extra heat from the spicy turmeric soup had been extinguished by the cooling effect of the coconut shake. Her eyes turned bright as she now knew the value of her adorable instant 'ice-maker' beside her. So handy!

 

Seeing their Mommy already started eating and drinking, Kuro, Shiro, and Markisah started digging in without delay. It had been many days since the last time Hana cooked properly as she had immersed herself wholly in cultivation.

 

"Slurppppppp!!!!"

 

They instantly fell in love with the taste of the so-called coconut shake! Sweet, mellow and rich! The bits of flavored soft fluffy ice had increased the deliciousness many times over!

 

Even Kuro's gaze at his younger 'brother' had softened a lot. Brother, good job. Thank you for helping Mommy in the kitchen.

 

Kuro had finally discarded his mean way of addressing Shiro with 'smelly fox' to 'Brother', and truly acknowledged the Glacier Mirage Fox as a family member. He realized the benefits were endless with the innate frost-conjuring ability of his brother's. He anticipated greater deliciousness from the duo's cooperation in the future to come. It didn't matter if the job of becoming the ingredient scavenger became permanent! 

 

... 

 

 

The timid Chomper had not started eating as he observed all the others around him consumed the strange meal in front of them. However, he knew he shouldn't delay since the two existences on par with the Clan Head and the Grand Elder were eyeing him meaningfully. He started with the whitish slurry first, just a tiny bit, and copied how the others consumed the meal.

 

"Slurrrrrrpppp!" His eyes turned wide as he could taste an amalgamation of foreign flavors on his underdeveloped taste buds. The rich sweetness of honey with a slight tinge of spirituality; the mellow creamy milk, and the light and refreshing flavor of chilled coconut water had invoked a myriad of feelings within him; very positive ones. He could even taste a few chunks of a sweet and crunchy fruit which immediately cleared his mind once he consumed it. It was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted!

 

Coming from someone of extremely low status with a low talent, he had barely met end's meet, living at the edge of the Crystal-veined stream which was under the clan's territory. His diet had consisted of other ordinary fishes and sometimes insects. That was one of the reasons why his cultivation progress was so slow. Once he entered the clan's main grounds, the quality of food became better but was still 'savory' high-grade seafood. It was his first time tasting sweet delicious food. He was instantly in love!

 

 It will be good if I can eat this everyday. A fleeting thought full of longing passed through Chomper’s mind as his saliva nearly fell into the coconut shake.

 

A voice disrupted his  fantasizing, "The Mistress said, not too much. Eat the main meal first." Shiro pointed to the single crab served to the fish and smirked inwardly. The minnow must've noticed the 'grade' of his meal just now.

 

Feeling conflicted and helpless at the same time, he finally reduced the water bubble to only covered his back and used his strong jaw to bite the whole crab and chew it directly with the tough skin and all.

 

Everyone didn't stop eating but secretly peeked at the snakehead with great interest and anticipation in their minds.

 

Will this guy follow the precedence and went to achieve a breakthrough like all of them or was it all just purely a coincidence?

 

Will the aunty’s postulates turn into a verified theory?!

...