At Yang Qing's courtyard, the party was already well on its way. The fear Cao Ying's friends had earlier when they came had all but disappeared. They still had a little bit of reservation but they could now hold decent conversations, and be bold in the amount they ate as they joyously laughed at some of the jokes the party members were making. Though one couldn't know if it was because the jokes were genuinely funny or if they were just fawning over their seniors.
Yang Qing, Feng Xin, Yi Jie, Zheng Hu, and Dai Chen were currently in Yang Qing's backyard staring at the massive over 100-meter body of the green flowered babirusa.
Of the members present only Yang Qing and Feng Xin had come to carve up the beast while the rest had their own agendas. Zheng Hu wanted to see a spirit beast of the green fog region up close, Yi Jie wanted a little blood to add to his rising wave blood wine that was a mixture of powerful herbs and blood drained from powerful spirit beasts. It may be his potent wine yet. As for Dai Chen, the boozehound, he was dutifully following Yi Jie since he had carried the gourd with the hundred-leaf sugar cane wine with him.
"Will we be carving the whole thing up or do you just want to deal with the leg for the party?" asked Yang Qing as he greedily sized the babirusa.
Feng Xin hesitated for a bit as he pondered what would be the best course of action.
"Let's carve it all up at a go. There may be a potential loss in flavor if we carved it up partly," said Feng Xin.
"Great, I can't wait to see how many tonnes we will harvest from it," Yang Qing eagerly said as he took out what looked like a grey hide from his storage ring.
The babirusa was lifted and then laid on top of the grey hide which lit up with a few glyphs before it went back to normal.
"With this, no single drop or quality of the meat will be lost," Yang Qing said with pride in his tone.
The grey hide was a high-rank sky-grade artifact whose only purpose lay in the preservation of the quality of organic matter. Other than that it was useless for anything else. The main ingredient used in making the hide was skin from aquatic illusions perch a creature skilled in adaptability to its surroundings. The hide was also treated with a few herbs to make sure no fire or cold would affect it. It was also impervious to the stabbing.
Were it any other sensible person they would have fashioned the hide into armor due to its properties rather than a tarp for butchering meat.
Feng Xin nodded in approval once he saw the hide before Yang Qing and he went off to their grand undertaking. Zheng Hu, Yi Jie, and Dai Chen were made into assistants to store up the viscera and other parts that had niche eaters or parts that were better suited for alchemy than being eaten such as the fangs.
After thirty minutes the whole green flowered babirusa had been expertly carved with the loin, leg, blade, head, and other parts being carefully separated. Even its hide was neatly processed with not a single pound of flesh left on it. It was as smooth as a baby's skin.
Yang Qing and Feng Xin had their arms over each other shoulder to shoulder as they admired their handiwork.
"Feng Xin I have to say this time you got a steal. Look at the quality," Yang Qing said as his eyes glittered admiring the red-pink mountain of meat lain over the grey hide.
"I'm even a little tempted to keep it all for myself," said Feng Xin before he detected a murderous red glare coming from Yang Qing.
"I said tempted," Feng Xin said as he dryly chuckled.
"As agreed I will provide just a single leg no more," said Feng Xin with no room for debate before he hurriedly stored the rest of the meat leaving only a single hind leg and blood that Yi Jie was skillfully collecting.
"I can't wait to see how it thashtes," said Yang Qing as heavy drool affected his speech towards the end.
ραпdα nᴏνa| сom The group quickly hurried back to barbecue the meat. The moment the leg was placed over a flame the flavorful smell it produced left every stomach present grumbling no gender or race was spared.
Even Haishi who had said she would begrudgingly eat the babirusa if offered had forgotten her oath to her comrade. Her compound eyes filled with over a hundred lenses were flashing with lights like shooting stars were exploding in her eyes. Any sort of reservation she had went up in smoke the moment that flavorful scent hit her.
"This celestial shall allow you all to share half since I'm feeling magnanimous today," the celestial nesting weaver's lazy but arrogant voice sounded in everyone's ear as it too joined the glutton bandwagon.
"Oh allow is it?… I think someone is getting arrogant just because he is at the fourth stage of the palace stage. I think we need to reeducate you. A few stages in difference don't mean a thing sometimes," Yang Qing menacingly said as he pressed his knuckles together.
Almost everyone present had that menacing look on them even Cao Ying.
"This celestial is not budging, if a celestial nesting weaver lets go of its treasure then what is it? It's a matter of principle," the celestial nesting weaver arrogantly said still not aware of his circumstances.
It was only when four simultaneous punches, kicks, and even bites came in that the celestial nesting weaver knew it had said something it shouldn't have. However, the die had been cast, it had to go all the way. So even if it was being mobbed by everyone present its arrogant mouth never stopped moving.
It was only when the leg had been perfectly barbecued with herbs and spices and even slathered with one of the wine collections from Yi Jie did the beating stop.
Everyone involved in giving the celestial nesting weaver a beating were currently panting and wheezing while the celestial nesting weaver only had a few ruffled feathers but it looked otherwise okay infact better when compared to the rest.
"You think we'd be able to live how we want if we didn't have thick skin to accompany us? You need to have atleast dragon talons to penetrate my defense and not those soft noodles you call arms," the celestial nesting weaver mockingly said as its gaze lingered mostly on Kang Huilang who was the one that had thrown the most punches, kicks, and bites. Though there were two people who did nothing but bite it all this while, it couldn't help but look wearily at them.
"Let's carve," Yang Qing yelled like a commander going to battle trying to raise his soldiers' morale. The rest like loyal soldiers heading to the greatest battle of their lives roared accordingly while Bolin and Haishi chirped.
Pieces of the babirusa were passed around with cups of the vermilion fruit wine and the hundred sugar cane wine accompanying it.
Whatever everyone had thought the delicious-smelling babirusa would taste like, it went above their expectations that it even left Feng Xin and Yang Qing weeping as they took careful bites unlike how they voraciously gulped their other foods.
"Such a shame we don't have anyone among us skilled in the cooking dao..maybe next time we should invite Qi Shan over. With her skills can you imagine the levels this flavor would rise?" said Yang Qing as the rest sighed along with him including Haishi and Bolin who didn't even know who Qi Shan was.
It lasted only a second before the sigh was replaced with crisp crunching sounds, toasts, and cheers that eventually led to an arm wrestle between Huilang and Yang Qing, a marvelous guqin melody courtesy of Su Jinjing, and accompanying horrible vocals from Dai Chen and Zheng Hu who did nothing but bellow out like whales over and over.
The welcome party lasted till 3:00 am with even Chief Song joining the mix with a few other Order employees who happened to stop by to pick up their wine orders from Yi Jie.
Feng Xin had to give out a few more spare ribs when the company grew much to his displeasure and vehement refusal. It was only after sufficient bribery and threats did he finally relent.
When 3:00 am came the crowd started leaving one by one till finally only Yi Jie and Feng Xin were left. Yi Jie decided to just stay over since it was just a few hours till they had to clock in. Knowing Yang Qing's morning antics it was safer to keep a close watch on him.
They were currently enjoying glacial ice mint tea while Feng Xin was busy finishing up the leftovers.
"Which abode did you get Wen Yingjie?" asked Yang Qing as savored the mint tea in his hand.
"The fourth-grade spirit calming cavern," answered Yi Jie.
"Mmmh, well in terms of meditation and concentration it should support him well," said Yang Qing as he nodded in approval.
….
Spirit calming cavern IV
Wen Yingjie the rogue cultivator whose saber kept attracting lightning tribulations due to its budding spirit was currently in a dark room filled with water.
He was seated in a lotus position as he grimly stared at the rustic old dusty lamp before him. It was engraved with the image of a white octopus with ancient writings surrounding its tentacles.
The lamp before him was a treasured artifact that stored the blue-grade soul cultivation art that he would need so he could split half his soul and bind it to his saber before he went on to temper it with his saber intent.
Yi Jie had repeatedly warned him how painful the process would be which made him pensive even if he was going to be cultivating a blue-grade cultivation art.
"No time like the present. I only have four months to learn this art before it automatically gets wiped off my mind. Grandpa and the rest will have to handle things with the black jade syndicate and find out what they were doing with the prince. Now all I need to do is focus on my battle. If I survive this maybe the palace stage won't be that far off and I can finally return home," Wen Yingjie said as he gritted his teeth and used his spiritual sense to study the cultivation art stored in the lamp.
"The three hearts of the radiant octopus," Wen Yingjie silently muttered as the art's name appeared in his mind.
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