Chapter 12 - Tea Heart

 

…

 

Li Qu was ejected out of the portal, he calmed his nerves and took a look around him.

 

The mini pocket realm looked like some sort of a room, about the size of the old teahouse’s dining space.

 

It was bright inside the mini pocket realm, with clouds seemingly painted on the wall like wallpaper, the ceiling had a miniature sun painted on it that looked like it was imitating the outside sky.

In the middle of the mini pocket realm was a rectangular wooden table that had an enormous amount of materials from the Gold Spirit Tea's recipe piled on top of it, ready for Li Qu’s use.

 

Li Qu scanned the room with his spiritual sense and speculated with the knowledge befitting an old monster like himself.

“This is really interesting! This mini pocket realm doesn’t look natural. Naturally occurring pocket realms would always have a Realm Core hidden somewhere in it, but this mini pocket realm does not have one. It is nearly impossible for someone to construct a pocket realm without having a cultivation base of an Immortal Emperor.”

Powerhouses that were considered Immortal Emperors would be directly at the top of the food chain, the cream of the crop.

The number of Immortal Emperors throughout the realms was so little that it could be counted using one’s hands and feet. Li Qu was previously an Immortal Emperor himself, and at the peak of that realm too.

“Immortal Emperors are usually very territorial and obsessive, they would not give up their belongings willingly to even friends, and their artificially constructed pocket realms would be inherited by their descendants, a mini pocket realm as intact as this would be considered as rare as the *Three-Legged Golden Crows having a fourth leg!”

 

Three-Legged Golden Crows were Divine Beasts in charge of guarding the ‘Immortal Yang Realms’, that was governed by the Primordial One, Taiwang of the Sun, of the ancients since time immemorial.

These Divine Beasts were well known for having only three legs, but the history behind them remains unexplained as Taiwang of the Sun did not explain why did he create them this way.

But it remained a fact that they would be guaranteed to have and never more or less than three legs since birth.

“...!”

Li Qu sensed the flow of time in the realm with his body and was astounded.

“The time in here flows much faster than I thought, one day on Earth would be 500 days here in this mini pocket realm. Amazing, the Law of Space that needs to be comprehended to construct something as immaculate as this has already surpassed Immortal Emperor Shi Kong by a long mile!”

Li Qu subconsciously raised his hands to stroke his beard but stopped halfway as he thought of quitting his bad habit.

The more Li Qu thought, the more he felt that the System was mysterious. He badly wanted to unravel all the mysteries surrounding the System.

 

…

The handsome young man walked towards the table in front of him and contemplated his mistakes and on which part did actually missed.

“It was always on the last step that it failed to converge. What am I missing?”

Li Qu repeated what he did and closely examined each and every step he took.

 

“Yes, the third step, suck the moisture out of the Three-Colored Lotus and use the moisture to dampen the Gold Yang Tree’s Bark, afterwards…”

He slowly experimented.

1 tries, 2 tries, 20 tries, time slowly passed.

“...Just as I expected, I was bound to fail the 3rd mission that the System issued. I should have known things would not be that simple.”

Only after the 35th try had Li Qu comprehended something, but he could not confirm what it was.

[...]

[Host, let me give you a hint, it has something to do with your heart!]

The robotic voice of the System popped up in his head just as he comprehended an inkling of something lacking.

“The heart… The missing key! I understand, I was not sincere enough in my approach.”

As if there was a light bulb above his head that turned on all of a sudden, Li Qu finally had his eureka moment.

He sat down cross-legged and cultivated his mindset and the sincerity of his heart.

‘To brew tea is to brew life. When you carry the pot of tea and pour it, the meaning inside your heart follows as sincerity flows into the cup that people drink.”

Li Qu adjusted the direction of his thoughts and started slowly comprehending the mysteries that link the heart and the tea.

‘Brewing and creation is correlated. When one ingredient meets the other, an action causes a reaction, causing the dissonance in each ingredient. Find their frequency and synchronize it on the same wavelength. I can gradually understand what it means…’

…

Time waits for no one as it slowly marches on unendingly…

[Congratulations! Host: Li Qu has fully comprehended the Tea Heart!]

[Detected Host with Tea Heart, ejecting Host from the mini pocket realm in 5 minutes.]

[Issuing 3rd Mission once again]

[Mission: Successfully brew your first pot of Gold Spirit Tea 0/1]

[Mission Reward: Gold Spirit Tea will be registered on the Celestial Teahouse's menu for consumers to order.]

A series of notifications from the System broke Li Qu’s concentration as he comprehended the Tea Heart.

Li Qu slowly opened his eyes, let out a small breath and did a quick calculation on how long had time passed.

“Huu… It has been nearly two years in this mini pocket realm, huh. The renovation should be done and waiting for me when I step out here.”

At this point, Li Qu had high expectations for what the System could do.

‘What materials would the furniture and decorations be made up of? I’m anticipating it.’

He closed his eyes once again and waited for the System to eject him out after a few minutes.

[…]

[Ejecting Host out of the mini pocket realm.]

Li Qu appeared back in the newly renovated teahouse that belonged to him from now on, he glanced in appreciation at the new decors and furniture.

…

“F*ck, where did that Li b*stard go?! It’s like he just disappeared from the face of the Earth in an instant!”

Mike had received further details regarding Li Qu and was actually outside the teahouse a day ago when someone called him on his phone, and went to pick it up and talk for a short while, Li Qu was gone.

Mike’s face as black as the thunderclouds forming from a distance as he knew he had to report to his superiors about Li Qu’s disappearance.

The Shadow Bureau’s top-secret agent went back to the headquarters and reported his disappearance directly.

…

 

*Three-Legged Golden Crows: It's a mythological creature from the Mountain & Sea Scroll commonly seen and used in Chinese novels. 
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