Little Cooking Saint – 0188 – Untitled (a)

Chapter 188 Untitled (a)

Translated by Gumihou

Edited by Gumihou

 

“Do you know what you’re saying?” Fat Cat looked at her. “Fire Spirit may be strong, but your Cultivation is too weak. At most, you could probably last for a few breaths. Even if you survive the Tribulation, you will be badly injured, the Fire Spirit will be revealed and trouble will follow you. Not to mention, you could die.”

“I know,” Shiyu was still staring at the approaching cloud. “I probably won’t die since I could escape to the Saint’s Dwelling. However, if even a bit of the Lightning Tribulation struck the city, a lot of people will end up as ashes. My conscience won’t let me live with if I know there’s something I could have done to prevent their deaths.”

The poor care only for themselves, the rich care for the world. [1] This was also true for Cultivators.

“Perhaps someone else would take the first shot,” said Fat Cat.

“If everyone thinks like this, nothing would happen. It’s fine, I have thought it through. As long as I don’t die, it will be fine.” The biggest problem was dealing with the pain. Great risk comes with great pain. She would have to go all out for this, “All I want to do is to live with a clear conscience.”

“You really want to do this?” Fat Cat asked.

“This is my way of life!” Shiyu nodded firmly.

“Very well,” there was a complicated look in Fat Cat’s eye. “In fact, you are quite similar to your master in this sense.” No matter how others looked at him, the master will always do what he deemed ‘the correct thing’.

No matter what.

With a sigh, Fat Cat stood straighter and said, “It’s not like there isn’t a safer way to do this.” Marble-like eyes narrowed, “Relatively safer at least. It all depends entirely on your wits, of course.”

“Really? What should I do?” Shiyu’s eyes sparkled as she leaned forward.

“The Lightning Tribulation is very fierce, people would normally stay away at all cost. Therefore, it’s not impossible to obscure your presence and snatch the Tea of Enlightenment into your space. If the Lightning Tribulation cannot sense its target, it will eventually disperse.”

Shiyu frowned, “To obscure my presence and fish in troubled waters… this would be quite difficult, ba?”

With so many Cultivators staring at the Tea of Enlightenment ready to leap forward the moment the Tribulation is over. If even a single person senses her presence…

Not to mention, with so many Divine Transformation Masters gathered here, possibly some even more powerful Cultivators hidden in the shadows just waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Fishing in troubled waters under everyone’s gaze was not something that should be done lightly.

“Of course,” Fat Cat gazed up at her solemnly. “Something that could conceal your presence yet cannot be destroyed by the Lightning Tribulation. There’s only one technique that fits both criteria. Illusion techniques.”

“Illusions? I can do that?” Shiyu asked excitedly.

“You’re not capable of it yet.”

“… …” then why did you bring it up, ah?!

Fat Cat looked towards the looming cloud and said, “An illusion is constructed from mental powers. Although you have not yet learned how to weave illusions, you have a good grasp of your mental and spiritual powers. Remember the time you conceal your body and your qi while escaping from Xuan Chu. As long as you can keep yourself hidden, I will take the up responsibility of shielding you.”

“No! There’s no need to shield me. That’s the Lightning Tribulation, just a graze could turn you into ash!”

Lightning was one of the most brutal and upright forces in the world. It will raze anything it considered vile or filthy, or even vaguely shadowy, off the face of this world. Fat Cat was already dead and Shiyu had no idea whether the Lightning Tribulations will have any effect on him, but she was sure that not even spirits could escape the lightning’s purifying powers.

“As long as the <<Soul Drawing Book>> exists, I will not disappear. You should worry more about yourself. You had better think of the best way to hide your presence.”

Believing that Fat Cat would not lie about such things, Shiyu sighed with relief.

Shiyu begin to think. Within her space ring was the black cloak she had used while travelling towards Xuan Chu. That could hide her physical form. As for her qi, she must hide her qi away so that nobody could tell who she was unless the Lightning destroys her cloak.

Should she use her mental power?

Wouldn’t it be great if she could create illusions?

While Shiyu was frantically pondering her options, the cloud suddenly stopped about two miles away from the city walls. The Tea of Enlightenment was still running desperately away from the Lightning Tribulation. It was already scorched black. From time to time, bits of burnt leaves and branches would fall off and turned into ash even before they touched the ground.

Natural selection was just too cruel, ah.

Despite racking her brains and building her courage to take action, Shiyu hoped that the stupid tea bush would veer off towards a different direction…

However, she still shook her head and sighed. Rather than depending on other people’s cooking, she had better prepare the dish herself.

Forcing herself to look away from the ominous thundercloud, Shiyu stared at the middle of her palm.

It takes mental powers to construct an illusion over one’s body. At the same time, it also needs to be fuelled with Spiritual powers… While she was on the run from Qi Clan people, she had to hide her qi as well as her physical presence in the woods.

Is it possible to mix the two elements and create something that would hide her entire body like a cloud or a fog? A fog… that’s it! [2] Although only consisted of only tiny water droplets, fog was denser than mist and could be thick enough to conceal a person. Like a portable cloud.

Right, she did not have to think of an elaborate disguise to fool people’s eye. All she had to do was cover her body in a dense cloud of spiritual energy and mental powers so that no one could see through her real identity!

Narrowing her eyes on her hand, Shiyu allowed her mental powers to concentrate and gather together like water droplets.

Since she was only focusing her powers on her hand, not much mental energy was consumed. [2] This was actually much easier than cleansing meridians since the purpose was to let the spiritual powers fluctuate and form around the hand rather than cleaning up fine pathways within the body…

[2] On the side, Fat Cat continued to observe the girl while thinking of the best way to assist her in this foolhardy quest when he suddenly stiffened.

Marble-like eyes widened in disbelief as white mist gathered over Shiyu’s palm.

At first, there was only a faint smoky trace, but then the white smoke began to gather slowly. Soon there was enough white mist to wrap around her entire hand. Fat Cat narrowed his eyes as he tried to pierce through the mist with his Spiritual powers. However, no matter how much he probed, he could not sense what was underneath the mist!

It is said that inspiration came in an instant, like a burst of clarity under a desperate situation. The cloud that had been worrying one’s mind for a long time would suddenly lift and a clear path appeared. Shiyu had been using her mental powers for all sorts of things until now, isn’t this just a matter of condensing one’s spiritual powers outside of the body?

Whether early or late, isn’t it fine as long as Shiyu achieved the result she wanted?

Moreover, compared to actual illusions, the fog was technically more difficult to create. After all, an illusion was merely a paper tiger whereas Shiyu was now constructing something tangible out of the intangible.

If one were to use the art of painting in comparison, a blank ink drawing was something that even a child could draw, whereas Gongbi [3] art requires a person to master several different kinds of brush strokes with different types of brushes before one could even be qualified to attempt a painting.

In this comparison, it was as though Shiyu has the experience of a child but was equipped with the skills of a Gongbi artist. In other words, she was like a mediocre player armed with expensive Magic Tools, pills and all sorts of other magical advantages that others could only dream of.

Fat Cat sighed.

How could some people’s luck and talent be so amazing?

It made him want to scratch the wall, ah!

 

[Gumihou: … *scratches wall*]

 

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] The poor care only for themselves, the rich care for the world – This is an interesting thought where the poor could not care less about lives of endangered animals, recycling, etc because they are busy surviving. Whereas the rich (not all of them, of course) would have the leisure time to invest in caring for endangered animals like Jane Goodall. Rich people are more likely to recycle and care for the environment because they have the time and money to do so.

In this instance, Shiyu being a more powerful Cultivator now has the leisure to care for the weak because she’s strong. Whereas when she was weak, she was more interested in caring for No. 1.

[2] Additional Details for Dramatic Reason: Shiyu was trying out a new technique, elaborate with easy to understand words and conceptualizations.

[3] Gongbi art – Very refined and technical painting that requires one to master several different kinds of brushstrokes and colour usage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gongbi

 

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