ARLQLCC chapter 5

Faced with the question from the young woman in front of him, Chu Zhaoye fell into deep silence. Although Su Ji had agreed to let him order dishes, he hadn’t said he could order like this!

However, the girl’s eyes were shining brightly, and Su Ji gave him a little shake to urge him on. Chu Zhaoye still raised his paw and pointed straight at the potatoes in front of him.

The stall owner girl let out an “Aiya!” and praised, “What a smart cat! He really can understand human speech!”

Su Ji held back his laughter, put Chu Zhaoye down on the ground, and instructed, “If there’s anything you want to eat, just walk over and tell me. Go on!”

Chu Zhaoye did not stand on ceremony. As soon as all four paws touched the ground, he impatiently ran over to a row of water spinach, turned back to look at Su Ji, and meowed loudly.

The stall owner packed up the amount of vegetables Su Ji needed as she followed Chu Zhaoye’s movements. After leaving the water spinach, Chu Zhaoye stared at the vegetable stall for a while, then hurried over to the next vegetable and meowed once.

After that meow, he stopped moving. Su Ji knew he was done choosing. After picking him up again, he named a few other vegetables and, while taking the bag handed over by the stall owner, asked, “Do you take spirit stones here, or…?”

The stall owner hurriedly replied, “One low-grade spirit stone is enough!”

He took out a spirit stone from his storage artifact and handed it to the stall owner.

Although it was a mortal’s stall, most mortals who sold spiritual plants were employed by others, and they usually accepted spirit stones as payment.

After buying the vegetables, Su Ji took Chu Zhaoye to the meat stalls. As a kitten, he was naturally driven to want to eat fish. After Chu Zhaoye pointed at several fish in a row, Su Ji motioned for him to stop.

“Ma Tuan, you’ve already ordered four or five fish. Look at some other meat.”

Chu Zhaoye’s paw, which had been about to point at the next fish, stopped. After thinking for a moment, he pointed at a pile of fresh and tender chicken wings.

Su Ji efficiently bought enough for several days, then bought a bag of spiritual fish fry from the stall owner. After putting everything into his storage artifact, he headed toward the demon race territory.

Chu Zhaoye poked his head out from Su Ji’s chest.

The closer they got to the demon race territory, the clearer the familiar aura became. As the leader of the demon race, this was the first time he had faced his own clansmen after turning back into a cub.

But no demon should be able to recognize him.

Even Chu Zhaoye himself did not want to face such a round version of himself.

The items sold in the demon race market were not within Su Ji’s consideration. It was just that sword flight was forbidden inside the market, so he could only pass through the demon race market to reach the final cultivation market.

But he had to admit that the demon race market was indeed the liveliest and most prosperous section of the entire street.

One auction house alone had brought the whole street to life, and the demon race market was also a place where mighty figures from all walks of life often appeared.

Su Ji stroked the cat as he passed through the huge plaza in front of the auction house.

The plaza was filled with all kinds of shops and brightly colored stalls. The demon race people were generally open in temperament, and the sounds of shouting and hawking were endless. Compared with the mortal market, it was more than twice as lively.

The auction house stood at the end of the plaza, occupying an enormous area. It had five floors in total. Sunlight poured from the top floor all the way down to the first floor, coating the entire auction house in a golden edge. It looked magnificent and wealthy.

It was still not time for the afternoon auction session, so the auction house was not particularly lively, but there were still quite a few people coming and going.

Su Ji sighed, “It must have cost a lot of money to build this building.”

Curled up in his arms, Chu Zhaoye glanced at the five-story building in front of him when he heard this.

Not that expensive, right? He remembered that when the building was constructed, it had cost less than fifty million top-grade spirit stones.

Of course, there was no way he could say that aloud. If Su Ji heard it, he would probably roll his eyes at him.

Compared with the splendid and dazzling demon race market, the cultivation market was much more elegant. After wandering around for a while, Su Ji found the largest spiritual plant seed shop in the area.

Compared with the seeds sold by small vendors, this well-known shop with a proper storefront clearly offered a larger and more complete variety.

Spiritual plant seeds did not spoil, so he could stock up on more.

Su Ji selected quite a few corresponding seeds for the vegetables he liked to eat. Just as he was about to pay and go home, he noticed many shop assistants coming out from the shop’s back courtyard carrying fresh vegetables. Batch after batch, they stood on a formation and were teleported away.

He stood there and watched for a moment. With some curiosity, he went to the counter. While paying, he asked, “Shopkeeper, I just saw many assistants carrying vegetables. Where are all these vegetables being sent?”

The shopkeeper accepted Su Ji’s spirit stones and casually explained, “Oh, although the shop only sells seeds, this place is backed by a mountain, and there is a sizable plot of land in the back courtyard. Usually, there are dedicated people responsible for planting and fertilizing the vegetables. Every so often, they are transported to sects that cooperate with us to be used as ingredients for the sect cafeterias.”

Su Ji suddenly understood. He thanked the shopkeeper. As he left, he looked back once more at the formation, and an idea gradually took shape in his mind.

What he lacked most right now was spirit stones. If he wanted a way to earn income over the long term, there was one right in front of him—reopen the small cafeteria on Linggu Mountain.

Although every sect had its own cafeteria, there was no way buying and selling things could be free. Besides cultivating on their own and absorbing spiritual energy, cultivators could also digest the spiritual energy contained in the spiritual food they ate.

These spiritual foods also had to be purchased with spirit stones by the sect, and when sold to disciples, a fixed amount of spirit stones would naturally be charged.

And the place where Su Ji was staying happened to have a ready-made cafeteria. There was even a formation in the cafeteria that could connect to other sects. Although it was currently out of order, it might work again after some repairs.

If that worked, it could bring in a considerable income.

But the most fatal point at the moment was—

If he wanted to reopen the cafeteria, it would no longer be as simple as preparing meals for one person and one cat.

And the amount of food required would be far more than what the spiritual fields behind Linggu Mountain could provide. He would probably need to cooperate with suppliers like the seed shop from earlier.

The idea was beautiful, but Su Ji had no money.

At this moment, there was no way he could afford the spirit stones needed to purchase such a quantity of ingredients.

Still, it was a good idea after all. Su Ji decided to return to the mountain and carefully plan how to minimize the costs.

After thinking it through, he felt much more refreshed. Even his sword flight was noticeably faster than when he had come.

By the time he returned to the mountain, the sky was already darkening. Su Ji had tilled the fields in the morning and wandered around outside in the afternoon. He felt more tired than if he had spent ten years in seclusion.

Chu Zhaoye was placed back in the room, while Su Ji headed to the kitchen to begin preparing dinner.

The kitten had ordered far too many dishes today. There was no way the two of them could finish everything. Not to mention that he had also bought a whole vat of rice at the seed shop. If he cooked all of it, even if the kitten ate until his stomach burst, he still wouldn’t be able to finish it.

Su Ji chose two vegetable dishes and two meat dishes. The two vegetable dishes were stir-fried, one meat dish was braised, and the other was made into soup.

Three pots were lit at the same time, and the rice was the first to go into the pot to steam.

The chicken wings that needed to be marinated to remove the odor were scored, deboned, and left with only the meat before being placed in the seasonings.

While the chicken wings were marinating, Su Ji washed and cut the water spinach, separating the stems from the leaves.

To prevent the water spinach from turning black, the stems had to be blanched in the pot for one minute before being removed, followed by the leaves. After everything was blanched, they were rinsed in cold water, and then it was ready to be stir-fried.

As the minced garlic and dried chili peppers were added, a fragrant aroma gradually spread through the kitchen. Seeing that the heat was about right, Su Ji added two spoonfuls of salt. After stir-frying it a few more times, he took it out of the pot.

The cooked water spinach was placed in the waiting area. The potatoes that Chu Zhaoye had pointed to first today flew out of the storage artifact and landed squarely on the cutting board.

In just a few quick moves, he peeled them, shredded them, rinsed away the starch, and stir-fried them in the wok.

The second dish was hot and sour shredded potatoes, a very classic dish to eat with rice. But Su Ji was worried that the kitten would not be able to handle too much spice, so he did not add much chili.

After the shredded potatoes were cooked, the enticing aroma of vinegar still lingered in the kitchen.

The chicken wings had marinated enough. Su Ji tossed a handful of rock sugar into the pot. As the caramelized color deepened, the chicken wings were taken out of the cooking wine and added one by one. Once both sides were fried until golden, a rich aroma immediately burst forth.

One spoonful of soy sauce and one spoonful of oyster sauce went into the pot. After adding water until it covered the chicken wings, he put on the lid and waited for the sauce to reduce.

During this process, he cooked a bowl of egg drop soup in another pot and set it on the small table in the kitchen.

Judging that the chicken wings were almost done, Su Ji left the kitchen and carried Chu Zhaoye out from the bedroom.

On the way to the kitchen, he heard Chu Zhaoye’s stomach growl twice in a row.

As they got closer and closer to the kitchen, the rumbling in Chu Zhaoye’s stomach grew even louder, making the smile at the corners of Su Ji’s mouth impossible to suppress.

Chu Zhaoye had become used to embarrassing himself. With a calm expression, he was placed on the dining table.

Su Ji plated the final dish, then placed a small bowl filled with a fist-sized portion of rice in front of Chu Zhaoye and asked, “Do you want all the dishes?”

Chu Zhaoye nodded impatiently, his eyes practically glued to the braised chicken wings.

Seeing how hungry he was, Su Ji felt very sorry for him and picked up a lot of food to fill his small bowl. “Come on, Ma Tuan, eat well. You didn’t eat much at noon.”

What answered him was the round back of Chu Zhaoye’s head as he buried himself in eating without even lifting his head.

Compared with the restaurant at noon, Su Ji’s cooking skills were more than a little better. Chu Zhaoye also could not understand how such a young cultivator could cook so deliciously.

The shredded potatoes were sour and spicy, whetting the appetite. After the starch was rinsed off and the potatoes were stir-fried, they tasted crisp and refreshing. In the past, as the prestigious Demon King, Chu Zhaoye had never eaten this kind of home-style dish, and this was the first time he had experienced the power of a perfect dish to go with rice.

Although the method for cooking water spinach was simple, it was extremely savory. After being rinsed in cold water, the water spinach remained bright green, with both excellent texture and appearance.

Su Ji thoughtfully removed the bones from the chicken wings he had bought. With the bones removed, Chu Zhaoye happily ate the chicken wings one bite at a time.

With these three dishes, Chu Zhaoye finished the entire bowl of rice. Seeing that he was almost done eating, Su Ji served him a small bowl of soup to drink slowly.

This meal made up for the disappointment of lunch. Chu Zhaoye’s stomach was stuffed round. After Su Ji wiped his mouth clean, he lay lazily on the table with all four paws facing the sky, waiting for Su Ji to clean up.

Su Ji quickly washed the dishes and scrubbed the pots. After cleaning up the kitchen, he unusually felt a trace of sleepiness.

But he had worked the fields in the morning and run around outside in the afternoon. He was still carrying the smell of cooking fumes from making dinner. If he wanted to rest, he definitely had to bathe and change clothes first.

Thinking this, Su Ji turned his gaze toward the black furry ball sprawled on the table and said faintly, “I’m going to bathe here. Ma Tuan, do you want to keep me company?”

Chu Zhaoye let out a habitual meow, but in the next second his eyes suddenly flew open.

What bathing?

Su Ji was going to bathe?!

He sprang up from the table, trotted all the way to the kitchen door, turned back to meet Su Ji’s gaze, and let out a loud and energetic meow before turning around and running back to the bedroom.

Watching the kitten run so quickly, Su Ji sighed, “You’ve already eaten yourself into a ball, and you can still run this fast!”

 

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