Little Cooking Saint – 0191 – Lardon Noodle (a)

Chapter 191 Lardon Noodle (a)

Translated by Gumihou

Edited by Gumihou

 

In the end, Wen Heng sent Shiyu back to the Villa. Moreover, aside from that little enigmatic smile, he did not comment on Shiyu’s action. As long as it had nothing to do with him, he was not interested in it. [7] Later, Shiyu found out that he had also helpfully arranged it so that it looked like someone rushed out of the thundercloud, but that was a completely different matter altogether.

When Shiyu returned to the Villa, she found herself alone in the house. None of the others has returned yet and the sound of the rampaging thundercloud was lessening with time. The sky, which had been darkened by the Lightning Tribulation, gradually lightened up and the sun eventually shone down on the people once again.

Just like that, the long-awaited Tea of Enlightenment’s Tribulation was over. People who had witnessed the Lightning Tribulation and lived to tell the tale were happy to brag about it for the rest of their lives. For these melon seed eaters, the mysterious disappearance of the Tea had nothing to do with them, it was merely part of an exciting story.

Not so for those who came from far and wide to scramble for the Tea of Enlightenment. Even when the thundercloud disappeared, they continued to investigate within the Imperial City, hoping to find a trace or trail of the Tea.

[1] Because of this, the inns and rest houses found themselves still operating at full capacity for the next three days. Restaurants and stalls experienced livelier business than usual since the Cultivators and melon seed eaters had flooded back to the city to talk about what had happened.

Shiyu spent these three days looking at the mound where she had planted the piece of Tea of Enlightenment. Perhaps she had been too used to the trees and plants growing at super speeds in the space, but it felt like nothing was happening with the Tea of Enlightenment.

As for the mysterious ‘Anywhere Door’ which had appeared right after she planted the Tea, Shiyu spent a bit of time studying it too. The world beyond the door was chaotic and random. If she entered the space from her room in the Villa, she’d find herself at different areas of the villa after stepping through the ‘Anywhere door’. Occasionally, she’d even find herself ended up in the mountains behind the school and sometimes in front of the Hidden Treasure Pavilion. Once, she stepped through the door and found herself in the middle of a crowded area, shocking the people who thought she had just appeared out of nowhere.

After a few more experiments, Shiyu understood that the door was possibly a backdoor of some sort. A way to escape from the original space. Say she was being chased and hid herself at a dead end, for example, normally she’d have to hide in her space until the person leaves or risk exposing herself to escape. Not anymore! Even if the enemy camped out in the area where she had disappeared, she could use this backdoor and randomly exit from the space into somewhere else.

Shiyu was very pleased with this added function. In the future, her escape route was set. All she has to do is disappear into the space if something bad happens, and get out through the Door to Wherever. Just how perfect is this escape route?

[1] Moreover… Shiyu’s eyes went over the little mound where the Tea of Enlightenment was planted, the door had appeared the moment she planted the golden root. Could the upgrades be related to the value or quantity of the things she planted here?

[2] The first time something like this happened, she had overstuffed the previously limited field with precious herbs. While most of them were not particularly valuable on their own, there were a lot of them. After planting a large number of herbs, the Saint’s Dwelling shook and chucked her out while it upgraded itself.

[2] The second time the Saint’s Dwelling shook was immediately after she had planted the golden root. The Tea of Enlightenment was no ordinary thousand-year-old plant, but one that has gained sentience and undergone Lightning Tribulation! Isn’t that a super rare kind of plant?

Shiyu could not be sure of anything right now, but the next time she picked up something valuable, she could test out this theory once more.

 

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[1] About seven days later, the Cultivators began to realise that it was futile to hang around the Imperial Capital hunting for clues. Their zeal had waned and one after another, they began to leave the city.

On this day, the Dean of the Imperial College suddenly [3] appeared at the Villa. He sat on the stone bench and looked at Lin Fan as well as all the rest of the occupants staying at the Bamboo Villa. Once everyone was present, he cleared his throat and began.

[4] “I’m here to ask you to do something…”

After listening to what the Dean had to say, everyone’s expression became a little odd.

“Sir, for us to parade around the city like this, surely it’s a little improper?” Lin Fan ventured.

The Dean glared at him, “You are a student of this College, how can it be improper!?”

Feng Luo gave a little chuckle, “Master Dean, the point is, there is no benefit for us to do this.”

Shiyu smirked and followed up with, “Naturally, we’ll be more than happy to do so, if it’s beneficial to us.”

“In the end, what you really want to do is to take advantage of the College!” the Dean glared at the little group of smirking foxes and solemn wolves. “Fine, I, your Dean, am not stingy. 10,000 Contribution Points.”

“Only 10,000? 50,000!” Feng Luo countered aggressively.

“You’re crazy! 50,000 per person? You want to bankrupt this College?!” the Dean bellowed.

“Aiyo, if the Dean did not wish to, then we have no choice but to give up on this wonderful opportunity.” Feng Luo pulled a long face, looking very regretful as he continued, “Unfortunately, the people who are qualified to be walking advertisements for the College aren’t many…”

The Dean’s eyebrows nearly rose off his head.

In the end, after some hard bargaining, they settled at 30,000 CP per person. Lin Fan and the rest were all quite happy with this arrangement. Meanwhile, Shiyu roped Qing Chen and Xuan Yin into the ‘Advertising’ bandwagon too. Naturally, when Xuan Yin joined, Dong-Fang Zhen was pulled in as well.

 

At exactly noon that day, a group of young men and women wearing the Imperial College uniforms marched out of the College and made their way towards the busiest streets in the Imperial City.

The age of the Imperial College students averaged around 17 to 18 years old. The oldest of them was in their early 20s. Each of them wore loose black Chinese gowns made of silk with the Imperial College logo stitched on the front left lapel.

Their sharp and uniform looks attract attention wherever they went. When people examined this group of young people’s Cultivation stage, they were taken aback.

[8] Most of them were Core Condensation experts!

Is this still the Spiritually poor Ninth Realm?

Normally, such young Core Condensation experts could only be nurtured on the Eighth Realm. Even if they do exist in the Ninth Realm, they were usually extraordinary genius supported by a huge sect and bred through careful selection. Just what is going on at the Imperial College? How could there be so many of them at once? Moreover, none of them looked like they had just broken through. All of them had been Core Condensation experts for some time already.

The Imperial College must be a very good Cultivation school to produce such results. If they were to send their descendants into this school, will they also achieve the same result?

The Dean’s advertising project certainly looked like it was working well.

The young men and women swaggered about the streets of the Imperial City, exploring all the busiest bits of the city such as the market and famous sites. After close to two hours of swaggering about, they ended up in front of a noodle restaurant.

“Come, come, come, after stomping about all over the place, I’m hungry now!” Shiyu’s nose twitch at the scent noodles and led her group of advertising companions in. [1] Without consulting the rest, Shiyu ordered a portion of the shop’s most popular dish for each of her fellow advertisers.

After all, one can’t go wrong with what’s most popular.

The noodle restaurant was a two-storey building. The first floor was already full, so Shiyu’s group naturally decided to go upstairs.

 

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There were quite a lot of people on the second floor as well.

One of the tables had only empty plates and bowls on it, the people there had clearly just finished their meal. One of them even sat back, stroking their stomach saying, “No matter what, I must admit that food on the Ninth Realm is still the best.”

“Just look at your attitude, just stay here if you like it so much,” snapped the person next to them. With a sniff, they turned to [5] Tan-Tai Chu and asked, “When are we going back?”

[5] Tan-Tai Chu swept her eyes around the table once, “In a few days.” Seeing that everyone was done with their food, she stood up. “Let’s go.”

At her cue, the others stood as well.

The group, led by [5] Tan-Tai Chu made their way to the stairs and was about to step down when a new group of people came in. [6] From the hushed whispers and unusual aura, as well as the matching uniforms with the crest in front, it was clear that this group of young people were highly regarded by the general public.

The young people were all fairly good looking and stood very straight, their aura of strength was clearly defined and powerful. When they looked up the stairs, most of them suddenly wore identical looks of shock.

[5]Tan-Tai Chu’s mouth curled up in a sneer.

Mere Core Condensation bugs.

None of them worthy of her attention.

 

Shiyu had just finished giving her orders to the waiter when she noticed that her group had not moved. “Why aren’t you going up?”

Her group of advertisers were just standing in place and looking up, so she too turned her head and looked…

 

[Gumihou: Hmm, the final scene is kind of tricky… Also, there are several movement issue, people moving to the stairs, people going up the stairs but then was not actually on the stairs when other people looked down. People leaving before they ‘decided to leave’ what the arrrggghh??!!]

 

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] Additional Detail for Dramatic Purpose: Well, not so much drama but more like giving it details to make the scene more lively and in the moment.

[2] Shiyu’s Thoughts – Reminisce a little as a reminder of what had happened before.

[3] Added Details for Logistic Purpose: Unsure where the Dean met them. His office? The hall? In a training field?

Gumihou opted for the Villa.

[4] Added Details for Dramatic Purpose: The Dean is asking for a favour. From the following dialogue, I think it was supposed to be funny? Also, the Dean seemed to be the forcefully benevolent kind, will adjust the scene according to this.

[5] Much faffing about. “Person next to the greedy person turned to the green-robed person and said, “Tan-Tai…”

Riveting.

All ‘green-robed person’ changed to Tan-Tai Chu or Third Miss.

[6] Adjusted Details for Drama, Consistency and Logistics: Original text “The eyes of the two leaders met, one from the foot of the stairs while the other glared down from the top.” There’s nothing wrong with this text except it doesn’t match the latter one. “Shiyu saw her friends all stopped, and looked upstairs curiously…”

Did you, or did you not make eye contact right off the bat?

Even if the ‘group’ made eye contact with each other and were stunned, Shiyu is also part of the group.

Solve the matter by putting everything under Tan-Tai Chu’s perspective. We will NOT be using her superhero name ‘green-robed person’.

[7] Patched a plot hole, read ahead and did not see this being addressed

[8] Patched a continuity error, one of them was revealed to be NOT Core Condensation later

 

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