If he had any doubts before that, it was erased completely by that welcoming smell. When they reached the border, the mercenary organization they had hired, parted ways with them upon the completion of their mission. The eighth stage qi refinement cultivator thanked them and even paid them a little extra for all that they had done for them, to get them here in one piece.
Who would have expected that the moment they parted ways with the mercenary organization, he'd get attacked a few minutes later? The high of reaching his dream place got ruthlessly smashed down. In that moment, when the bandit was about to cleave him in half with his axe, for a brief second he thought maybe he was wrong and being an alchemist would have been better for him. He was about to die along with his family because he couldn't let go of cooking.
But here he was, alive and in the White Baobab Kingdom. He didn't quite know how to feel after the experience he had. Does he stay and continue on or does he take the experience he just had as a warning sign to change paths?
…
"What is the one food you've always liked cooking ever since you were a child?"
Just when he was lost in his thoughts, he saw a young man with green hair standing in front of him with a kind smile. For some reason unbeknownst to him, he felt some sort of affinity to the person.
That feeling has appeared to him four times in his entire life, that's with the green-haired man standing in front of him being put into account. The feeling seemed to follow no pattern, rhyme, or reason. Once was when he was a kid and there was a purple cat that had snuck into his courtyard when he was experimenting with a scrambled egg recipe. He got that feeling from the purple cat which to this date, he always felt that cat wasn't normal, he didn't know why, just instinct.
The second time it happened was with his wife when she came in as a customer the first time when he had just started up his restaurant, the third time was with the customer who had told him about the White Baobab Kingdom, and now with the green-haired youth standing in front of him.
….
"If I had to choose one, it would be scrambled eggs with tomatoes," he answered on reflex.
"Oh, I love scrambled eggs. There's something about it, no matter how much time passes by, one would always enjoy it, whether you are a baby, youth, or old. It's a timeless food and one can make many variations to it, so you can always surprise yourself…" the green-haired youth rapped on enthusiastically about scrambled eggs and the various neat tricks he has added to his, over the years.
The eighth qi refinement cultivator who had been heavy-hearted about what to do next, got sucked into the rhythm of the conversation about scrambled eggs and the enthusiasm of the green-haired youth, that he too started sharing his own experiences.
Within a few minutes, people who were complete strangers to each other were patting each other's backs as they laughed and talked with enthusiasm. At some point their discussion drew in another person, a slender, slightly mature lady with red hair holding a butcher's knife in her hands joined in on the conversation at some point. As time progressed, the crowd in the discussion group kept growing.
After fifteen minutes the crowd's number had grown to 12 people enthusiastically discussing different food recipes, their experiences; the good ones and the embarrassing ones while trading laughs.
In between those laughs, a makeshift barbeque was prepared by some members of the crowd. The green-haired youth slowly disappeared to the background without the eighth stage qi refinement cultivator noticing, as he was too engrossed in admiring the preparation of sweet and sour spare ribs, by one of the members.
…
"Longwei, it seems you have snagged another talent. Maybe I should quit the Order and just move here permanently." Yang Qing seemed like he was talking to himself as he sat atop Ellie while staring down at the small crowd below.
"I've told you over a hundred times that you should just move here, but you're always harping on about duty, justice, honor, and all the other values that definitely are just made-up excuses.
Feng Xin told me the real reason when he was last here. Qing how can you be so cowardly and you even have the cheek to call yourself the unrivaled spear of the Order? How can someone be so shameless?"
A grey vined crane suddenly appeared in front of Yang Qing, like it had shimmered out of thin air. There was a tall slender handsome young man seated atop it and ahead of him were dozens of plates filled with different kinds of dishes from poultry to beef, to seafood, to vegetable and soup dishes.
He currently had a bowl of soft noodles and boiled eggs in his hands that he was gently slurping away.
"Are you even going to share, you bastard?" Yang Qing asked with greed flashing in his eyes.
"Only if you have something of trade," the young man gingerly answered.
"Don't I get anything for helping you recruit a new member? He may end up being something special in the future," Yang Qing said as his gaze fell on a young blue-haired man who was nodding his head like a young chick, as he listened to some person who was cooking next to him. The blue-haired man was the eighth stage qi refinement realm cultivator that he had just been conversing with about scrambled eggs.
"I have to agree, there is something peculiar about him which I can't quite place,, it's almost ethereal. I think it must be the same for them, though theirs might be different than ours," said the young man as he took a bite of the boiled egg in his noodle soup.
"I wonder what interesting foods he will create," both Yang Qing and the young man simultaneously said as their gazes fell on the blue-haired young man.
They didn't know it yet, but a thousand years later that blue-haired young man became one of the premier cultivators to prove their dao through cooking and ended up becoming a soul formation expert.
When asked how he reached the heights he reached, his response was, "It started with scrambled eggs". This was why even his daoist name when he became a soul formation expert, was ' Daoist golden way scrambled eggs'.
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