Gourmet of Another World

The old man stretched out his neck to stare at Blacky, and Blacky scowled back with his doggy eyes.

”What did this old man just say? That because this Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs was eaten by a dog, it’s throwing God’s gifts to the winds? A reckless waste?”

Blacky was instantly infuriated. ”Why can’t a dog eat Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs? What did this dog ever do to you, old man?”

Blacky snarled viciously at the old man, showing his teeth. Shreds of Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs still stuck to the crevices between his teeth…

”Hey ho, this dog is a hoot, what are you growling for? Surely you don’t want to bite this old fellow?” The elder waved the fan made of an unknown spirit beast’s feathers as he guffawed.

”Ah, but what a pity for the Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs.” The elder peered down at the gobbled up Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs in Blacky’ bowl, sighed lightly, and turned around to leave.

But in the split second that he turned around, a titanic force of pressure suddenly dropped on the elder’s body. The elder, with one foot lifted in the air, instantaneously felt drained, and almost fell to his knees.

The elder’s pupils shrank and looked around in disbelief. This daunting force of pressure… simply made his soul tremble. Here he was, a reputable seventh level Battle-Saint, who almost knelt in front of this store.

If his knees really did hit that floor, it would have been utterly mortifying.

Blacky stuck out his tongue to lick his dainty little doggy paws, grumbled, and lifted up his doggy paws, lightly flicking it toward the elder.

The elder was absolutely unaware of what went down. He had his back facing Blacky, and had no idea where this force of pressure, as if charging from all directions, came from.

Bam!!

The wrinkled skin on the elder quavered, and he felt like his entire body was crushed by a huge mountain. With a thunderous boom, he was sent sprawling on the floor, as if he had sunk deeply within the ground.

”What the heck? What’s going on! Why is this happening?”

The elder lifted up his dust-covered head, with a face full of bewilderment, but he still had no idea what happened. Somehow, out of nowhere, came an unseeable force of pressure that flattened him to the ground. Was he really this jinxed? Did he offend anyone? ” If you have the guts… then come fight this out one on one!”

The elder wanted to cry but simply couldn’t, and the sage-like gracefulness that he painstakingly built had just crumbled into pieces.

Blacky’s doggy eyes sparkled a hint of naughty delight as he licked his doggy paws once more. ”How dare you badmouth your Lord Dog right in front of him? If I don’t discipline you, I’m afraid you won’t even learn this Lord Dog’s name.”

Afterwards, Blacky reverted to shoveling his teeth into the porcelain bowl before him, it didn’t take long for all of the Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs within the porcelain bowl to be completely devoured.

The elder desolately picked himself up from the floor, his expression as rotten as if he was constipating. Was this little store deadly or what… Could it be there was a supreme being attending it? But he didn’t say anything disrespectful earlier, did he? He only said it was a waste that the Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs were eaten by a dog…

Dog… hmm? Dog?

The elder suddenly remembered something and suspiciously twisted his head to gaze at the tail-wagging, Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs feasting black dog…

The more the elder looked, the more his pupils shrank. He failed to closely examine this dog at first. Now, with careful scrutiny, he sensed a terrifying energy circulating within the big black dog’s body.

”This dog… is no ordinary dog!”

With a dreadful glance at the big black dog, the elder turned around to step into the store.

Upon entering the store, the rich fragrance of food drifted in the air and instantaneously bombarded the elder’s nose and mouth. It sent shocking shivers down the elder’s body.

”It smells so good! This kind of aroma… Its been years since I’ve smelled this!” The elder held up his dust-covered head and exclaimed in bemusement.

Ouyang Xiaoyi perkily walked up to the elder, and asked: ”Grandpapa, choose what you want to eat, Fang Fang’s Little Store has always uphold business integrity, fair pricing, and absolute honesty. You can take a look at the menu behind you and tell me what you want.”

The elder was taken back for a moment, but still twisted his head to check out the menu. If the price didn’t matter before he took a look, now, after a quick inspection, the elder’s face regained a look of ridicule.

”As the Ghost Chef, not even this old man charges this much for his dishes. This store… dares to demand such exorbitant prices?! And you call this fair pricing, absolute honesty?” The elder was dumbstruck and could not believe his eyes. In fact, anyone seeing the menu for the first time would be blown away by its intimidating prices.

”You little lassie are disingenuous, you call this fair pricing, absolute honesty?” The elder questioned in dissatisfaction.

”The price is very fair. See how, even though its costly, everyone here is happily enjoying their meals?” Ouyang Xiaoyi responded.

The elder was lost for words, he glanced at Fatty Jin and others stuffing their faces with food, and his countenance suddenly turned peculiar. He had just checked out the price of the Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs, one plate of ribs, fifty crystals…

A dog just ate a dish worth fifty crystals…

The elder felt a serious case of ”a man’s life is worse than that of a dog’s” after stepping into the store.

”Please give this old fellow an order of the Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs.” The elder pondered for a while, but still ordered the Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs at the end. He saw that Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs was the first dish on the menu, was already completely subdued by its fragrance, and thus decided to give the Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs a good try. So what if it was fifty crystals?

As the Ghost Chef, the elder was not short of money.

”Take a seat first,” Ouyang Xiaoyi said, then turned around, headed to the window of the kitchen, and shouted at Bu Fang an order of Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs.

Bu Fang nodded his head and continued to cook the dish he was working on.

The elder sized up the environment within the store. The atmosphere here was completely different from that of the restaurant he built in Qingyang Town. The former was mystifyingly secluded, generating an magnificently enchanting ambience. Yet the latter, because of its fervent and adventurous customers, could not compare in terms of its atmosphere.

”This is?!” The elder’s gaze froze, as if he saw something exceptional.

With a few quick and hurried strides, the elder reached the place where the earthen-yellow flower pot stood, and squatted down before the pot, with his face filled with solemnity and gravity.

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. The new leaves on the branches emitted a light wisp of spirit energy. This spirit energy, albeit not rich, unconsciously kept the elder enraptured.

”This… this couldn’t be the Five Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit Tree? But… didn’t Ah Wei say, this store owner had just received this prize? What’s the deal with this small, burgeoning branch of the Five Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit Tree?” The elder was flabbergasted. He suddenly felt like he could no longer understand this world.

Owner Bu should have only received a seed of the Path-Understanding Fruit Tree a few days ago. But having been plotted in this grotesque flower pot for a few days, the seed had germinated and sprouted out a branch, on which there were leaves imprinted with the Five Stripes Spirit Nets.

”He… he actually found a way to grow the Five Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit Tree? This Owner Bu… what kind of immortal being is he!”

The elder had exhausted the level of bewilderment he could reach, suddenly feeling urgent to meet Bu Fang.

”The successful growing of the Five Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit Tree is not a small feat. Emperor Changfeng had obtained the seed of this spirit tree for multiple years, tried to nurture it for so many years, yet never witnessed it germinating. Bu Fang had only planted it in this store for a span of couple days, but burgeoning Five Stripes Path Understanding leaves have already sprung out of the soil.”

The elder took a deep breath to calm himself down. Five Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit Tree, if this name promulgated, it would once again push this store to the cusp of public opinion.

And much more perilous this time around.

The Five Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit Tree would bear fruit, and the ordinary Three Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit simply could not compare with the Five Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit. Eating this Three Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit could bestow upon one the likely chance of achieving Path-Understanding epiphany.

What was unique was that as the Five Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit Tree grew, it would disseminate a mystifying energy, and those enveloped by this mystifying energy were more likely to achieve breakthroughs.

That was why nearly all cultivators understood clearly the preciousness of the Five Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit.

Here’s an easy example. The Five Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit is the sensational spirit herb that can help a seventh grade Battle-Saint arrive at the barrier to eighth grade War-God. All others aside, its capability of bringing a seventh grade Battle-Saint close to the barrier to eighth grade Battle-God alone is enough to drive plenty of people crazy.

As the elder fixated on this Five Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit Tree, a tickling sense of avarice even shot through his heart.

He was also a seventh grade Battle-Saint. How badly he yearned to touch the barrier to eighth grade…

There were countless seventh grade Battle-Saints in this realm, stuck at the transition between seventh to eighth grade. At this moment in time, a Five Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit could practically shine light on their desperate grasp for hope, and would naturally attract numerous pairs of greedy eyes.

”Within the Imperial City, a small store actually plants a growing Five Stripes Path-Understanding Fruit Tree… as the saying goes, the precious stone may land its possessor in jail… this little store, probably won’t be here much longer,” The elder muttered.

Bu Fang had finished cooking the Sweet ’n’ Sour Ribs, wiped off the drops of water from his hands, and sauntered out of the kitchen only to see a gray-robed elder squatting before the earthen-yellow flower and gawking at the burgeoning bud.

This scene caught him by surprise.

This old man… what was he doing gaping at the store’s plant? Could it be that the elder was familiar with the breed of this burgeoning bud?

Bu Fang was always curious about the breed of this sapling, and if the elder had answers, then Bu Fang had some questions to ask.