Little Cooking Saint – 0259 – Meaty Pork Crackling Noodle (n)

Chapter 259 Meaty Pork Crackling Noodle (n)

Translated by Gumihou

Edited by Gumihou

 

The gates of the Imperial College was always guarded.

In the past, it was guarded by elders of the College [1] on a roster system. However, a month ago, this rotation system was replaced by a single gatekeeper.

The scruffy-looking old man stayed hidden inside a [1] small guardhouse all day and night. No one knew exactly who he was even though they passed the guardhouse by every time they enter or exit the gate.

Where there’s a mystery, there would be curious people. Most of the curious were the young. As the saying goes, ‘A Young Calf Fears no Tiger’. Like so many things with the young, it became a challenge to find out just who this old man is. Because there was no real risk to this challenge pretty much every curious young person [2] attempted to peek into the guardhouse to take a look at this mysterious master.

[2] When they found out they could not even approach the guardhouse due to the oppressive aura given off by the gatekeeper, it became sort of a game to try and approach the guardhouse and catch a glimpse of the old man’s face.

Even those with low Cultivation stage attempted this [2] ‘Guardhouse Challenge’. However, all were beaten back without even catching a glimpse of the man’s robes. Some even went to fetch their seniors in the College to take up the challenge but the result was the same.

From Condensation Stage to Core Condensation Stage, no one could [2] cross the invisible barrier to the guardhouse.

After a few days of confusion, students at the College guessed that this expert must be a great master of some kind. This must be a test! Those who could pass this test and see the face of this master would be accepted as his disciple!

It was all idle speculations, of course. However, guesswork became rumours and rumours eventually transformed into ‘truths’ by the third telling. The lack of accuracy did not prevent people from believing it to be true. Therefore, there were a lot of people participating in this ‘Guardhouse Challenge’ as a way to improve their Cultivation.

When the Dean heard about it, he did not bother to stop them.

It’s good for the students to have a goal. If they could overcome the aura of a Nascent Formation master, though they would not be accepted as disciples at the end of the challenge, they would still have improved their Cultivation by a lot.

Naturally, not everyone viewed this ‘Guardhouse Challenge’ as a real thing. Some sneered at this ‘short-cut’ method and prefer to Cultivate their strength steadily on their own.

In other words, even though everyone’s goal was the same, the routes they chose to reach the end goal was different.

Today, when Shiyu passed by the College gate, she saw more than a dozen people inching towards the guardhouse with red faces. All of them were gritting their teeth and trying not to collapse under some sort of invisible pressure.

Curious, Shiyu tried approaching too and she suddenly felt her momentum slowed down. It was as though pressure as huge as Mount Tai was crashing down on her. However, this pressure lasted only a few seconds before it suddenly disappeared.

Thus, under the dumfounded gazes of the people around her, Shiyu calmly crossed the few meters of space and entered the guardhouse.

“!!!”

 

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It was the first time Shiyu had been this close to the hunched old man after planting her mental power inside him. The wounds on his body have healed and he was currently wearing clean coarse linen clothes. He looked perfectly normal except for the dull eyes. Those eyes only brightened up when Shiyu gave him an order.

“Put on this human skin mask and never take it off,” Shiyu handed him the mask that she had bought when she first came to the Imperial Capital. She never had the opportunity to use it on herself.

Uncle Wang quickly put on the human skin mask. With the mask on, he did not look quite as miserable as before.

Once the mask was on, Shiyu sat down opposite him, “In the future, without my expressed instructions you are not to leave this place. Also, who are you? Why do you want to capture me?”

These were all questions she should have asked before. However, she had been wary of this [3] powerful master who had pushed her to the point that she considered suicide by detonating her Dantian. Moreover, even though he’s technically under her power, he’s still a Nascent Formation master. If she somehow lost her control over him, who knows what would happen?

The original plan was to wait and watch first. However, things had been so hectic that she actually forgot about this old man for a while. It was only the scene of these people trying to challenge the guardhouse that jolted her memory of this matter.

Uncle Wang’s eyes remained dull as he answered Shiyu’s questions like an obedient puppet, “I am a servant of the Tan-Tai Clan. For the purpose of getting hold of the Divine Tea, I came down to the Ninth Realm with Third Miss…”

For every question she asked, he answered.

Gradually, Shiyu managed to build a rough understanding of that so-called great Tan-Tai Clan. The patriarch of that family was one of the Eight Great Elders of the Eighth Realm Enforcers. While it was known that his Cultivation was at the Nascent Formation realm, not many other specifics were available.

The girl with a similar face as hers was called Tan-Tai Chu, the granddaughter of that great Patriarch Tan-Tai. Her talent is said to be most likely to surpass the current leader.

“How did you manage to break the Dao of Suppression that day?” this was what she really wanted to know. As far as she knows, there were only two people who could move unrestricted under the Dao of Suppression. The first was Wen Heng, of course.

She had no idea what Wen Heng’s current Cultivation realm is. However, in the original novel, if Wen Heng had not died at the end, even Heroine Xuan Yin would have been inferior to him in terms of power. Therefore, the current Wen Heng is likely to be one of the most powerful people now.

He is an immensely powerful and incredibly gifted individual, therefore, it would not be impossible for him to ignore the Laws of Heavens.

The other person is, of course, Lin Fan. Since that guy is the local protagonist here, it’s all very… reasonable.

All things considered, Uncle Wang is just a small fry among titans. For him to break the Dao of Suppression just once was already quite astonishing.

“Before we came down, the Patriarch gave me a jade talisman. The talisman will block the Dao of Suppression under the Ninth Realm for a quarter of an hour.”

“Jade talisman?” Shiyu was intrigued. “Do you still have it?”

“Only the remnants are left, they are in the storage bag.”

[4] The storage in question was something they had taken from Uncle Wang. Unfortunately, since it was protected by a seal, no one aside from the owner could safely take anything out of it. Shiyu had tossed it somewhere in the Saint’s Dwelling in case it contained something valuable and promptly forgotten about it until now.

Sure enough, Uncle Wang easily put his hand into the storage bag and withdrew a dull and ancient-looking jade. The energy within the jade was gone now. It was no better than ordinary stone.

Shiyu took the jade talisman and rubbed it carefully. “Is it difficult to refine this kind of talisman?”

“Very difficult. As far as I know, only very few have this talisman. Only the ones who have the Patriarch’s trust could wear them.”

“Is the talisman refined by your Patriarch?”

“I do not know,”

The interrogation was nearly over by then. Shiyu studied the broken jade talisman in her hand one more time before putting it away.

When she finally stepped out of the guardhouse, she found that it was still surrounded by people hoping to gain [2] discipleship through the ‘Guardhouse Challenge’. She stared at their wide eyes a few long seconds, before deciding that discretion is the better part of valour and used Chasing Clouds & Moon to flash away from this place.

In fact, if Uncle Wang really became one of their people, it would be great if someone on their side could rely on him as a master. However, whether it happens or not depends on a lot of things. After all, this old man had once raised his hands against the College not too long ago…

 

[Gumihou: So that’s what happened to Uncle Wang]

 

We now have Glossaries for Character, Cultivation Terms, Clan Names, Restaurants & Places

 

[1] Added Details for Dramatic Purpose: Like, watching the gate can’t be fun? So a rotation on who gets this shit job, lol. Also, added descriptions to the ‘small room’, guardhouse should be a more appropriate term.

[2] Added Details for Logistic Purpose: Like, details are missing on why they started bothering this poor old man…

[3] Added Details for Dramatic Purpose: Gave Shiyu better reasons on why she’s wary of Uncle Wang.

[4] Added Details for Dramatic Purpose: Expand the details in the following text ‘Shi Yu thought of the storage bag she had gotten from him before. She found it out and returned it to Uncle Wang’ since it’s a bit too perfunctory

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Come choose your Tier~

Have a Grilled Rice Ball

Cooking St – 259 Meaty Noodle with Crackling (n)

 

Or Try a Skewer of Grilled Intestines

Cooking St – 260 Meaty Noodle with Crackling (o)

Cooking St – 261 Meaty Noodle with Crackling (p)

 

Big Eaters, Have a Bucket of Mala Crayfish

Cooking St – 262 Meaty Noodle with Crackling (q)

Cooking St – 263 Untitled

 

For those with a Discerning Palate, How about some Grilled Matsutake?

Cooking St – 264 Pan-Fried Shrimp Bun (a)

Cooking St – 265 Pan-Fried Shrimp Bun (b)

Cooking St – 266 Pan-Fried Shrimp Bun (c)

Cooking St – 267 Pan-Fried Shrimp Bun (d)

Cooking St – 268 Pan-Fried Shrimp Bun (e)

໒( ́ ۝ ́ )७