When it came to Azure Harbour's haute cuisine, it had to be seafood. The markets were practically awash with all sorts of fish, crustaceans, molluscs and even seaweed brought in from the fishing boats, and even helped along by cultivators here and there. The choicest - and rarest - materials would either go straight to the local Sect or be put up for auction.
Or be bought by my family, for our own consumption.
The feast last night had consisted of countless delicacies and wondrous meals, cooked to perfection by skilled hands… and it hadn't stopped Zhou Cheng from quietly complaining that it still wasn't as good as my cooking. I'm pretty sure he was just biased in that regard, but I was flattered all the same. And it was a good enough excuse for me to slip into the kitchen.
Most of the servants were still familiar with me, and my parents had 'indulged' my little hobby of cooking enough that I'd even gotten to learn directly from the head cook. There was a little bowing and scraping, but otherwise they let me commander my little section of the kitchen with little fuss.
I'll never get used to being called 'Young Master' though. Eugh. Makes me feel like I need to apologise for being born.
But anyway. Seafood. Breakfast. Cooking.
As it was just breakfast, I wanted to make something quick, simple, and relatively easy, so I was going to make shrimp stir fry using Celestial Blue Shrimp. Plump, delicious, shrimp.
A quick trim of the legs and head, and then I carefully begin deveining them, avoiding any damage to the shell. Technically there's nothing wrong with not deveining shrimp, and doing it to small ones can be tricky and annoying, especially if there's a lot of them. Fortunately, I'm a cultivator, even if I'm only a 'weak' one. My movements are more controlled and precise, second only to a master chef so even though I arguably lack knowledge and experience, deveining even small shrimp isn't a matter of skill - it's just a matter of control.
The shrimp pile up on my table as I work, humming softly as I practically machine through them, and then, once I'm satisfied, I take out my wok and set it on an open flame with a drizzle of Stardust Sesame oil - a fairly pricey oil, even for my family…
… but one I stocked up on before leaving the Sect. What sort of cook would I be, if I didn't have cooking oil?
I adjust the heat gradually, controlling the output with careful nudges of Qi until the oil just began to smoke - then the shrimp goes in for the first fry.
It's at this point that I'm starting to get a bit of an audience. Not a captive one, by any means, but there's plenty of eyes on me as I work. Which is fine. I don't mind.
Once the shrimp is starting to turn a deeper blue, I take them out, adjust the heat, and fry them a second time. I have to be careful - there's a very fine line between 'perfectly cooked' and 'tasteless rubber' when it comes to Celestial Blue Shrimp. The best way to identify it is by a specific shade the shell turns and it's coming… about… now.
Strain them out, kill the heat, and once it cools down enough, I pour most of it off for later and use the rest to fry the aromatics - a handful of sliced Sunrise Ginger and Hydra Scallions. Let them fry for a bit, before adding Golden Lotus wine, some broth, a chunk of Mount Huo Sugar, and a healthy dose of black vinegar.
By the time I finish frying the shrimp for the third and final time - really more of a light reheating, just making sure they get nice and covered in that sizzling oil - I think just about every other person in the kitchen is watching me.
I briefly debate saying something but anything I'd say just makes me feel like I'm bragging. I don't even know if they're impressed or just gawking at the fact that the 'Young Master', the cultivator, is cooking a very basic Shrimp Stir Fry… with very fancy ingredients, but nothing I did was particularly special. Maybe they were expecting me to, I don't know, levitate the shrimp and dice it in the air or something?
That's silly. I only do that for fruit.
After making sure the side dishes are ready as well - just really quick and easy things, such as pickled vegetables and some grilled Azurefin Tuna - I load it all up on a small trolley and head to where Zhou Cheng and Tian Mingfei are waiting.
I don't have to serve it to them myself, but honestly, it's less awkward for me to do it than have one of the servant's do it. Half of them act like making eye contact will kill them.
The moment I push into the small side room they were both waiting in, sitting around a small round table, Zhou Cheng practically lights up from where he's sprawling out against the table. "Finally!" he whines, "I'm starving."
Cheeky little brat. "Then you should've eaten more at dinner," I retort, rapping his grasping hands with the rice spatula and making him pout.
"But it's not as good as Lian-er's cooking…" he mumbles, like that's going to sway me.
"It's still rude." I hand Tian Mingfei a bowl of rice first, ignoring Zhou Cheng's mulish pout, but he gets the second one anyway. "They worked hard on that. You should show proper appreciation."
He grumbles a little, but I can tell he's not being serious. I know he's just trying to show appreciation for me, but he can do it without putting other people down.
The three of us settle in to eat with relative silence, the only noise the clinking of chopsticks against bowls until finally everything has been devoured down to the last tiny grain of rice.
"So what's our next move?" Tian Mingfei asks, belching loudly with none of the decorum and grace that one might expect from her position.
I set my chopsticks down on top of my bowl and leaned back with a satisfied groan. I know I don't have to eat this much as a cultivator, but damn it, it's delicious. "I don't know if we have one. I only suggested Azure Harbour to visit my family for a little bit. It's not as though we have to be anywhere in particular."
Tian Mingfei inclines her head. "But even if we are walking leisurely, surely we are walking to a destination?"
That's fair, I suppose. And it's not like I'm opposed to leaving. It's nice being back, and seeing my parents, and meeting my baby siblings - still can't get over that - but… it's just kind of awkward being back as well.
"We have a few things to sort out," Zhou Cheng declares quietly, and his countenance turns deathly seriously. "Firstly… there is this."
He produces, from his spatial ring, some kind of… crystalline prism currently being held by a pair of detached glass hands. Disturbingly detailed and realistic glass hands.
I don't have a good feeling about this at all. Something about it… it sets my teeth on edge.
"This," Zhou Cheng begins softly, "is the Umbral Prism."
The explanation that follows is… disturbing to say the least. There is a temptation in me to see what happens if I touch it. If it… refracts souls or whatever, lets them be examined and seen then… what does mine look like?
It's a temptation. But it's not one I'm going to act on. Let's leave some questions unanswered for now, yes? "Cheng-ge. Why… did you bring that with us?"
He balks a little. "It was too dangerous to leave alone!"
I pinch the bridge of my nose. "And it's not too dangerous to bring with us? Cheng-ge. Zhou Cheng. It destroyed a village. It could destroy Azure Harbour City!"
"And it probably would in the hands of the Sect!"
I almost snap back that at least it would be their problem then, but I don't think Zhou Cheng would agree. I think, sooner or later, we need to have a sit down and talk about what happened over the past three years. He needs a therapist or something, which I'm not sure is a profession that exists in this world, and I can't invent it. I don't know enough.
I've been to therapy, so I know some strategies for communication and healthier thinking, but that doesn't qualify me to be one.
"... Then what do you intend to do with it?" I ask slowly, focusing my stare on the handheld fucking nuke.
He doesn't have an answer. Of course he doesn't. I want to blame him for not having one, but realistically, what answer can any of us provide? It's beyond us in every way, but he's not wrong to trust nobody else with it.
I'd suggest throwing it into the ocean, but I'm worried that'd lead to like, some super powered whale or shark or something deciding to wage war on land-dwellers.
"I suppose the only thing to do is to keep holding onto it," I mutter quietly, pinching my eyes shut, "And hope we can figure something out in the future." Which I'm not thrilled about, but well. I can't really fault him.
"There's one more thing," Tian Mingfei adds cheerfully, and what could they possibly add on to this? "You still have the Pearl, right, Brother?"
The amount of relief I feel when Zhou Cheng withdraws a perfectly normal Spirit Beast core is… I really can't put it into words. I was really worried it was going to be some other terrible artifact because it would absolutely just be the kind of thing that would happen. Of course Zhou Cheng would stumble across something like that. Why wouldn't he?
What's next? Is he going to receive an inheritance from some old terrifying monster?
… Had he? There was that meeting with Ao Long…
No. No, I need to stop thinking about that. If I seriously entertain the idea that Zhou Cheng is some kind of protagonist, I'm going to die of stress.
"I'd like you to refine it for me," he asks, snapping me out of my doom spiral.
Refine it for him? I certainly could. But… "As it is right now, I don't have anything that could really match the pearl, Cheng-ge," I murmur, scratching my chin lightly. If I had known before we left the Sect, I would've tailored my shopping spree. As it is, I mostly stocked up on things I thought would be most useful in a general sense. Medicines, for the most part. A few final tools. Things I might have trouble obtaining after. "But that is something that could easily be remedied."
We have the money now. We have the resources. So why not?
"Shall we attend an auction, Seniors?"
Noh.estheimn· Nov 8, 2023
