Chapter 176 Crystal Pork Shoulder (a)

Translated by Gumihou

Edited by Gumihou

 

As they sauntered across Dawn City, the two old men’s appearance did not draw much attention.

The pair of them strolled through cool green alleys and passed under flowering trees. The crowing of cocks and barking dogs were occasionally interspersed by children’s laughter. The scene was very idyllic and relaxing.

As they continued down the road, the alley opened up into a proper street and thin limestone tiles eventually gave way to thicker limestone brick floors. The noise of the animals and children disappeared as the walls grew higher and the patterns carved onto the walls became more intricate.

They have entered the rich households’ area, where the estates were surrounded by high walls and guarded by intricate-looking gates.

A few more twists and turns later, they finally stopped before a door.

“The Zheng Estate should be this one,” said the man in linen robes. “It’s been a long time since I was here, but I do believe the style of the gate had changed a lot.” In fact, it had gotten a lot fancier. He remembered this gate being a lot more ordinary-looking 80 years ago.

When the door boy saw the pair of guests standing outside, he could see from their demeanour that these were no ordinary people. These must the guests that his master had ordered him to look out for! He quickly rushed forward and greeted, “Is this esteemed master Elder Gu [1]?”

“Yes, where is your old master?”

“Our master was injured a few days ago. He’s now in secluded Cultivation and could not come and welcome esteemed guests. He bade this lowly one to keep an eye out for esteemed guest,” the boy replied quickly.

Elder Gu lost his smile. [2] He looked solemn as he motioned for the boy to lead the way. His companion, Brother Feng, followed them. Once they passed through the gates, the doorkeeper quickly informed the servants that the esteemed guest their master had been waiting for had finally arrived.

[2] The servants grew excited and ran off in different directions to inform their respective masters. Meanwhile, one of the servants deferentially led the two old men towards the elder’s residence. By the time the two guests arrived at the elder’s residence, it was filled with people. They all looked very tense.

In the middle of the room was an old man, his entire body was covered in injuries. Some of the wounds were still bleeding through the bandages. He looked very miserable.

When Elder Zheng saw his guests, he attempted to smile and called out, “Brother Gu! It’s been so many years but you still look the same. When I received news that you’ll be visiting me soon, I could hardly believe it.”

Elder Gu studied his injury and frowned, “Brother Zheng, your injuries…”

“Aih, it’s too shameful to say,” Elder Zheng sighed. “Let’s not talk about such a thing. It’s so rare to have you here. We should celebrate our reunion with some good wine. As for the rest, there’s no need to talk about something that’s over and done with.”

“But you’re injured all over, how can I be at eased?” Elder Gu said. “What happened to you? Come now, speak up. If I can help you settle the matter, I shall do so. It’s not too late to have that drink afterwards.”

Elder Zheng hemmed and hawed, looking very ashamed. In the end, one of his younger grandsons stood up, with a face filled with grief and resentment, he cried, “Grandfather Gu, my grandfather was injured by a Divine Transformation Master! A few days ago, a stranger appeared one day at Dawn City strutting about like a bully and murdered two of the Dawn College’s Deans! Grandfather could not bear this injustice and went to confront them.

Who would have thought that person would possess such high Cultivation!? He severely injured grandfather and was about to kill him when he was frightened off by news of Grandfather Gu’s pending visit! Had we not warned him about Grandfather Gu’s arrival, I’m afraid they would have killed off my grandpa. Grandfather Fu, you must avenge us!”

At the youngster’s passionate declaration, the people around him also grew excited and began to echo his words. Elder Gu frowned, “Is that so,” he muttered. He withdrew a jade bottle from his space ring and handed it to the young man, “Give this pill to your grandfather. It will help with his injuries. Now, take me to see that Divine Transformation Master.”

“Yes!”

Elder Zheng looked down, “To trouble you as soon as you arrive, I am truly sorry.”

“Now that our paths have intersected, I shall not shirk my duties to a friend. It is dishonourable to evade one’s duties to an old friend.” With that, Elder Gu made to leave. [2] His companion also went with him.

As soon as they had left, a smirk grew on Elder Zheng’s lips. He could tell that Elder Zheng’s [2] companion was also a Divine Transformation Master. Humph, now that he has two Divine Transformation Masters on his side, let’s see how long the Shi Clan could rampage about as they like!

There was quite a distance between the Zheng Estate and the Shi Estate, but it was nothing to Cultivators. Especially Divine Transformation Masters.

[3] Grandson Zheng ran ahead, leaping over trees and stepping over rooftops as he went for the straightest path towards the Shi Estate.

Behind him, Elder Zheng stepped into the air and leisurely followed the young man zipping about excitedly towards his target, his companion stepping gallantly behind him.

This scene soon drew the attention of the people below.

“Look! There are people in the sky!”

“Are they heading for the Shi Estate?”

“Look how easily they walk on the air! They must be Divine Transformation Masters!”

“Let’s go to the Shi Estate! We might get to see another good show there!”

Soon, a mob gathered and headed straight for the Shi Estate.

The gossip soon reached the City Lord’s mansion too. When City Lord Ding and his father received the news, they also made their way towards the Shi Estate.

 

Please read this at kitchennovel dot com ~

 

At the Shi Estate.

After practising for many days, Shiyu’s Cold Serve Rabbit has improved a lot. Though it was not quite up to Qing Xiang Place’s standard, it was at least much better than before.

Shiyu had already decided to try making the Cold Serve Rabbit recipe using a 3rd Rank Cloud Shadow Snow Rabbit which just happened to have its beast core. The only thing she was lacking was proper cookware that could hold in the Spiritual powers of the food. [4] She really did not want a repeat of that last great explosion that had severely damaged her mental powers.

“Looks like I’ll have to go shopping,” said Shiyu to Xiao Shu. “Do you want to come with me?”

Before Xiao Shu could reply, the three youths suddenly jerked their heads and faced the same direction. Shiyu followed their gazes and spotted three figures heading towards them. [5] One of them was leaping over rooftops while the other two were leisurely striding over the sky as though the very air was paved with flagstones.

Divine Transformation Cultivators!

 

Please read this at kitchennovel dot com ~

 

Eagerly, Grandson Zheng pointed point Shiyu out, “It’s her! She and her accomplices injured my grandfather!”

[6] Shiyu did not bother to stay back. instead, she leapt up to one of the Shi Estate roofs to sneer at what has to be the grandson of the man who led a group of soft-headed idiots to steal from another clan under the banner of ‘justice’.

When the girl came forward, Elder Gu was about to speak when he suddenly frowned and said, “Third Miss, why are you here?”

Before anyone could comment on his odd words, he shook his head and said, “No, you’re not Third Miss.” Third Miss would not look at him as though he was a stranger. Now that he had a better look at her, he could tell that though this girl has the same face as Third Miss, their personality was completely different.

Third Miss was an individual of outstanding talent. Though she was still young, she has already broken through to Divine Cultivation Level. Though he could not clearly see this girl’s Cultivation Stage, Elder Gu knew that she had not reached that level yet. Moreover, compared to Third Miss’ noble visage, this girl has a more carefree temperament.

Shiyu had thought it was odd that this old guy called out ‘Third Miss’ when he saw her. However, when he later shook his head and proceeded to mumble to himself, she decided to shrug the matter aside. [5] Considering the old man’s white hair and beard, there’s a possibility he had probably gone a bit senile. Could Divine Transformation Cultivators go senile?

Who knows?

Instead, she turned to the man accompanying this stranger and called out enthusiastically, “Grandpa Feng! It really is you!”

Grandpa Feng, [5] despite his strange tendency to accidentally destroy relationships while matchmaking, was modest and approachable. Therefore, he was still very popular among the younger generations.

Elder Feng looked surprised, “Didn’t Little Luo said you were going to Xuan Chu? What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been there and came back. In fact, I’ve been back for quite a while now. I even saw Feng Luo.”

“Oh? When did you see him?” Elder Feng quickly asked. I’ve been looking for that brat, but couldn’t find him anywhere.” [6] As a Divine Transformation Master, he should be able to locate people via their qi, but for some reason, he could not track down his own grandson. This worried him to the point that he made a deal with Elder Gu to come to see a friend in trouble.

[6] Otherwise, he would not be at Dawn City!

 

[Gumihou: Gently stitching plots together]

 

Recipe from Xiachufang – This is the homemade style. The ones from restaurants really do look almost like crystals

https://www.xiachufang.com/recipe/103857326/

Here’s a youtube on a scarily clear and very crystal-like ‘Crystal Pork Shoulder’

 

Gumihou is keeping track so that you don’t have to ~

凝氣	Condensation Stage	Stage 1
化丹	Core Transformation	Stage 2
凝丹(46)	Core Condensation	Stage 3
化神(52)	Divine Transformation	Stage 4
成嬰	Nascent Formation	Stage 5
合體	Unification	Stage 6
返墟	Revert Decay	Stage 7
歸真	Original Purity	Stage 8
成仙	Become Immortal	Stage 9

 

[1] Happy accidents: In fact, for the whole of the Dawn City’s arc, Gumi had accidentally used ‘Elder xxx or Elder yyy’ when they should be ‘Old xxx or Old yyy’. However, Gumi is glad for the accident now because another ‘Old Gu’ had just appeared…

Elder Gu is 穀老, Gǔ for ‘corn’ or ‘grain’

Old Gu is 顧老, Gù for ‘to take care’

[2] Creative Licence Taken: Changed ‘that old man who came with Elder Gu’ to ‘his companion’

I’m not sure, but the author might be trying to keep the suspense up by addressing ‘Elder Gu’ and ‘Brother Feng’ as ‘the old man in linen clothes’ and ‘that other old man who accompanied the original old man’ as though we have absolutely no idea who they are…

Very clunky and distracting; serves basically no purpose in terms of drama or exposition. Therefore, Gumihou replaced them with proper names.

[3] USMiC: Grandson Zheng.

While the author was busy writing a grand entrance for Elder Zheng, she must have forgotten that powerful though the Divine cultivators are, they had no idea where the Shi Clan is.

Gave Grandson Zheng the opportunity to lead the way

[4] A reminder of past failures, Gumihou enjoy doing this, no need to thank Gumi.

[5] Dramatic encounter, let’s take some liberties to make it properly dramatic

[6] Give more detailed information on why he and Elder Gu were travelling together.

 

If you love my translations, do consider dropping a comment at novelupdates!

Gumihou loves reading your comments, so gimme, gimme ~

( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

Or Supporting me via Patreon or Ko-fi ~

໒( ́ ۝ ́ )७