I Shall Eat The Heavens

A sect that relies on luck and destiny (Part 4)

Bai Feng could feel the familiar smell becoming more and more distinct in his senses. It was almost as if some of his memories were being replayed in front of him.

The scene of his sister cooking chicken for him while he kept his thumb in his mouth while drooling like a dog.

It was almost as if the fried chicken from before was being waved below his nose and tempting him to open his mouth and take a bite.

Drool started to drip from Bai Feng's mouth as something strange started to happen in his body.

Mo Pian's eyes widened as he glanced at Bai Feng's rotund body, which was currently shrinking.

His senses told him that Bai Feng didn't absorb any Qi from anywhere nor that his strength was increasing, so why the hell was this happening?

Mo Pian's taught technique was given to him by the sect elders. Everyone got the technique as long as they were deemed talented enough, but Mo Pian didn't research much into it.

Bai Feng's current situation was unknown to him. What was currently happening to Bai Feng?

Bai Feng's eyes opened wide as he fell on his stomach. The clothes which were previously stretched on him now looked ready to drop from his body- as they were way too large for his current body, all of his fat dried up as if he became a dehydrated prune, he became skinny from the fat form that he was previously teased multiple times for by the other people of the village and even Mo Pian.

But Bai Feng didn't know what was happening as his eyes trembled. Mo Pian's knowledge of the basic cultivation technique was complete, even though he didn't know what was currently happening to Bai Feng. He knew that the previous fatty must have done something to incite such a reaction from his body.

He just didn't know what or how.

Bai Feng's eyes trembled open as he felt extremely hungry. His stomach rumbled as he looked at Mo Pian with a puzzled look, he had tried to cultivate according to his instructions, but all he did was smell a peculiarly familiar scent. Nothing else happened to him, right?

Mo Pian coughed as he said:

"Congratulations on your weight loss Bai Feng."

Weight loss? Bai Feng looked down at his huge clothes, which were hanging on him, and his eyes widened. He had been a little fatty since he was born as he was a relatively healthy child, and he ate a lot.

What the hell happened to him? Bai Feng felt strange as his stomach continued to rumble, and he looked towards Mo Pian, who could easily hear the commotion that was ongoing in Bai Feng's tummy.

"I guess we can eat first before I will teach you how to harvest these three items... they are the favorite ones of our usual customers at the kitchen, so we must have a surplus of them. However, most of the time they are either gambling all of their money. Making themselves unable to buy food or rarely come to the kitchen, so we should be okay for the time being..."

Bai Feng nodded quickly as he wanted to taste the heavenly dishes that the cultivators enjoyed. They should all taste great, right?

Bai Feng followed Mo Pian out of the 'back garden' of the kitchen and then directly into the building and onto the cooking area.

There, Mo Pian took a small pouch out of his pants pockets and threw a few slices of glistening meat on an already oiled pan that stood neatly on an oven which immediately started to work after Mo Pian snapped his fingers.

A divine smell started to drift from the sizzling meat on the pan as Mo Pian threw some spices onto it while cooking. Which puzzled Bai Feng, Usually, his sister would add the spices before she cooked the chicken, but Mo Pian was doing it while the meat was being cooked.

The green and red-colored spices started to meld into the glistening sizzling meat creating a special aroma that tickled Bai Feng's nostrils and made him salivate as his stomach continued to rumble aggressively, practically shouting for food.

Mo Pian continued to cook, unabated by the continuously loud rumbling sounds that came from Bai Feng's stomach.

After a short while of being fried in the pan, the meat was ready.

Mo Pian put it on a plate before he started cutting some green and black onions and spinach on the side that he transformed into a sauce by crushing them in his bare hands with so much strength that cracking sounds were heard through the air.

He dripped the sauce on the slice of cooked meat before placing the plate forward to Bai Feng's face before saying:

"Bon appetite."

Bai Feng was kind of surprised at the small portion of food, but he was so hungry that he didn't comment as he wolved down the food with no manners, using his hands, instead of using the cutlery that Mo Pian had laid on the sides for him you use.

Mo Pian was disgusted at Bai Feng's eating habits, so he averted his gaze, only for his eyes to widen dramatically as Bai Feng's former skinny figure started to fill up by a little after he finished the whole slice of meat.

"He got fat that quickly? It doesn't make any sense!"

Mo Pian exclaimed in his mind. He couldn't understand why Bai Feng would get skinny after he tried to use the basic cultivation technique, and he couldn't understand even further why he got fat again after eating only a small slice of Spirit Ostrich meat.

He knew that the ostrich meat was filled with calories for Qi apprentices to cultivate, and the abundance of Qi in it was good for a Qi apprentice to use for days on end, so what happened to the Qi that Bai Feng was supposed to exude right now?

Bai Feng didn't know how to retain Qi into his body and become a ki apprentice so the ki that came from the ostrich meat should have been currently leaking from a part of his body, slowly, but very obvious for someone like Mo Pian who was a true cultivator, a low-level one, but a true one nonetheless.

Mo Pian took a few steps towards Bai Feng as he tried to analyze him only for a loud fart to be heard making him forgot what he wanted to ask, Mo Pian's face turned green as he almost vomited and ran away from the kitchen while dragging Bai Feng outside with him, he almost wanted to give him a beating for what he did as he scolded him:

"Goddamit, you have no manners, don't you know that it's forbidden to fart in the place that we cook food in?"

Bai Feng poked his fingers together as he got a little bit guilty from Mo Pian's shouting, and he said:

"I... um. No one ever told me that."

Mo Pian sighed, he wasn't sure where Bai Feng came from, but he understood that he was surely from a low-level family, a peasant one for sure.

Usually, peasant families wouldn't have any chance to join sects. Especially one like theirs where connections were a very important thing to have.

Mo Pian decided to teach Bai Feng good manners and some other etiquette before he started onto the cultivation stuff, he didn't want the country bumpkin to get in trouble if he would ever leave the kitchen with other work, and he would need to serve the clients alone.

"Ok first things first, I will have to teach you how to behave before I teach you how to harvest ingredients properly and how to cook."

Bai Feng nodded and waited for the instructions to begin only for Mo Pian to wave to him and say:

"We need to wait for the kitchen to ventilate, so we will start the teaching sessions outside in the forest."

Bai Feng followed Mo Pian outside and they arrived at the cool shade of a tree before Mo Pian sat cross-legged under the tree and motioned for Bai Feng to do the same.

"Now, let's begin the first lesson in manners and etiquette."

Bai Feng kept his ears open as he waited for the precious teachings of his teacher.

"When we are eating food we don't chew loudly... as you do. We also don't eat with our hands and use cutlery to eat."

"We do not fart. And if we really have to we go outside to do it, not inside, but as you will advance in cultivation, some of these needs will disappear."

Mo Pian continued to teach him everything that he deemed useful for the country bumpkin. Then he asked him what he taught him to make sure he remembered correctly.

After Bai Feng responded to everything correctly, Mo Pian looked through the crown of the tree to see that it was almost afternoon and it was time for some customers to come. So he decided to teach him the second part, which was the harvesting of ingredients. Atleast the ones that he should be able to right now with his condition.

Mo Pian wasn't sure if Bai Feng grasped Qi or not, so he couldn't say that the guy was a Qi apprentice, but something was surely strange about his body, so he might give him a good surprise if he would be able to pick up the things he needed.

Mo Pian went directly to the soul mushrooms area and Bai Feng followed quickly behind him as Mo Pian crouched near a soul mushroom and started his instructions:

"To touch a soul mushroom, you don't use your physical body to do it."

"As it's stated in its name, a soul mushroom is not a physical object, but a spectral one that needs different handling, for instance, you need to pick this up with your Qi, which is inherently connected to both your body and soul, but mostly your soul."

Mo Pian closed his eyes as a green aura engulfed his left hand, then he easily picked up the soul mushroom into his hand before putting it in his pouch and continuing to do so with multiple other mushrooms until he stopped and looked at Bai Feng with a gaze that told him:

"Now, it's your turn"

Bai Feng looked down at the spectral mushroom under him and crouched near it, he closed his eyes just like Mo Pian did, and when he tried to pick it up, he realized once again that his hand went right through it...

Mo Pian shook his head as he looked at Bai Feng, a normal peasant couldn't be so talented as to unlock his Qi apprentice level in so few hours, but Bai Feng's body made him think that it was true prodigy might have joined their sect, but he didn't really care, it wasn't his job to scout out prodigies, so he decided to continue the harvesting of both the meat and vegetable ingredients by himself until Bai Feng took a hang of his Qi even if it took years, he now owed Shredder for canceling his debt and Qi wasn't needed to cook.

Bai Feng was extremely disappointed at his failure then he looked at Mo Pian who was glancing down at him:

"It seems you will have to work more on your Qi before I put you on the harvesting job. For now, I will do the harvesting for both meat and vegetables, but you can still cook."

Bai Feng's eyes lit up when he heard the word cooking. He wasn't really a fan of gathering ingredients as he liked the aspect of cooking more, he didn't usually cook as his sister did it for him, but he did have some basic cooking knowledge that he wanted to use with the special ingredients that the sect had, he licked his lips as he remembered how quickly he devoured the meat that Mo Pian cooked, and he couldn't help but imagine himself cooking multiple dishes like that and inhaling them like a black hole.

Bai Feng's smile gave Mo Pian second thoughts, but he already accepted Shredder's task of taking care of Bai Feng, and going against your word after you gave it to Shredder wasn't the smartest thing to do.