Volume 3: Chapter 29 – A Journey’s Preparation
Xing Ao’s words gave me a burst of warmth. Smiling, I said, “Be at ease. We’re all part of the same battle squad, so I’ll never forget any of you. Dong Ri and Xiu Si, what’s the situation?”
“Although the injuries were very severe, they weren’t life threatening. So we’ll be fine after some rest. Enough talk. You should go rest now and I’ll call you once it’s time to eat.”
“Alright, I’m really struggling to keep my eyes open, so I’ll sleep first.” All of the problems have been resolved. While not perfect, it was still satisfactory. Feeling relaxed and at ease, I quickly entered the land of dreams.
After an unknown amount of time passed, I smelled a fragrant scent. The alluring scent which woke me from my dreams. I opened my eyes in a dazed manner. Wa! Everyone is already eating right now. I feebly asked, “Ah, is there any for me? I’m so hungry.”
Teacher Wen was also present in the room. After seeing that I had awoken, he smiled and said, “You awoke just as I was about to call you. You truly are too gluttonous. Get up and eat then.” A maid helped me into a half sitting, half lying position before putting a small table over the bed. She brought over a bowl of thick soup and a few pastries.
I shamefully said, “I’m sorry Teacher Wen, I didn’t accomplish the mission.”
Teacher Wen lightly shook his head saying, “Child, you have already done extraordinarily well. However, in the future you can’t rashly use your Life Magic, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to face Lao Yun. Bi Qi isn’t that unreasonable either. If it had been a fair match, we definitely would have won. In fact, losing might not necessarily be a bad thing for you. Your defeat has let you all learn where you are lacking. So in the future you must diligently practice. Let’s eat now.” His last few words were directed at everyone.
I was already unable to speak anymore due to the excessive amount of drool in my mouth. The pale yellow soup’s aroma assaulted my nostrils as I drank. Wa! So tasty! I couldn’t help but ask, “What soup is this? It’s so delicious!”
Xiu Si answered, “This a secret recipe of the Royal Court called the Immortal Soup. It was made using numerous kinds of wild animals, mushrooms, ancient mountain ginseng, reishi mushrooms, young deer antlers, fleece-flower root and many other precious high-grade medicinal ingredients and stewed for a long time. It’s extremely expensive! But this time it’s for you. Haha.”
My face blushed red as I mumbled to myself, “How can you say it’s only for me? Aren’t you all drinking it too?” Everyone burst into laughter from amusement. I couldn’t help but laugh as well, and only stopped after it began hurting. Like this thick soup, our companionship was covering the room. After going through a trial of life and death together, our relationship has grown much closer.
Like a tornado, I quickly finished my food while everyone else was still eating. I looked around and saw that Dong Ri was the slowest eater of them all. I asked him, “Are your pastries tasty?”
Dong Ri laughed when he saw my gluttonous expression and said, “Here.” I accurately caught the pastry he threw with my mouth. I turned around and said to Xiu Si, “Wow! Xiu Si your soup is so different from mine. What kind of flavor does it have?” Nobody could bear it after hearing my words. Gao De had pastry crumbs falling from his mouth. Sorrowfully, I said, “Don’t let your food go to waste if you’re not eating it.”
In the end, Teacher Wen had to break up our circle. “Ah, Zhang Gong. If you want to kill them then you can continue speaking. Their wounds will open up at this rate. You should just eat a bit less since your body is already so weak. Eating too much will actually be bad for you.”
After hearing Teacher Wen’s words, I could only lie down in dissatisfaction. I’ve never eaten such good food before. I’ll definitely eat a lot more during the next meal. When no one was paying attention, I stealthily told the maid to have the chef prepare more food for me next time.
Every day we had a great nourishing meal and soon the majority of everyone’s injuries were healed. After 10 or so days, we had basically fully recovered. However, I really didn’t want to recover so quickly. I still hadn’t eaten enough of the Royal Palace’s gourmet food!
Today Teacher Wen brought us to see the king after seeing that we had nearly fully recovered. I thought it would be like this. We couldn’t possibly have eaten such good foods for free. Obviously, we had to pay our respects to him.
I felt that the royal palace was very similar to a maze. In just a few minutes I had already become confused. The others weren’t faring any better either.
We arrived in front of an extremely grand and magnificent building. I heard from Teacher Wen that this was the King of Xiuda’s reception hall. After everyone entered, Teacher Wen instructed us all to kneel down. We followed him and shouted out ‘Long Live the King! Long Live the King! Long Live the King!’ After finish shouting this, I stealthily lifted my head and stole a glance.
This is the King of Xiuda? Sitting on the royal throne was a gorgeously dressed man that looked to be in his 70’s. He was sitting upright with lights glittering in his eyes.
“No need to be so polite. You may all rise.”
Xiuda’s King clearly recognized our worth as he asked us if we wished to take a position as government officials. No one uttered a word for a long time. I discovered that they were all looking at me. Ah, what are you all doing looking at me? I’m not even a citizen of Xiuda, yet I’m still forced to wear the crown of their boss on my head! You should decide for yourselves. It’s only that we are still young and the tournament has shown us how inadequate our skills are. We still had much to learn. Their future martial skills will definitely be of service to the kingdom. Seeing this, Teacher Wen secretly chuckled.
Fortunately, the King of Xiuda was really open minded. He didn’t pose any difficulties for us at all. He only said a few words of encouragement before letting us take our leave.
We finally returned to Teacher Wen’s small wooden cabin. Although there weren’t any delicious foods left, I still felt good here due to all of the freedom here.
After returning, the five of us were inseparable. Every day we would train both our bodies and our martial skills together. I taught them some of the basics of light magic while also learning a lot from them and Teacher Wen. Time quickly passed by and unknowingly, three months passed by.
Although I didn’t want to separate from my close comrades, I still had to go accomplish my mission. I found Teacher Wen and told him, “Teacher, thank you for instructing and taking care of me these past few days. I think it’s time for me to depart now and accomplish the mission entrusted to me by Teacher Di.”
Teacher Wen patted my shoulders and said with a sigh, “Truthfully, I don’t want to part with you. Right now you’re just like my own student.”
Smiling, I said, “I have always been your student. I will still return in the future and visit all of you.”
Teacher Wen sighed and said, “Fine then. Go talk with everyone else and pack up. You can leave tomorrow.” I nodded before heading toward the courtyard. Unexpectedly, they weren’t sad at all after I told them that I had to leave to finish the mission Teacher Di entrusted to me. This made me a bit depressed. I returned to my room to pack up my things and prepared to set off on my journey the next day.