"I'll just hug Cheng's thighs. Just stick with Cheng. What could possibly go wrong in the spooky forest of spookiness? Oh, I don't know. Maybe a cloud of mist will roll in and you'll get separated."
I let out an angry huff. Complaining wasn't going to get me anywhere. I couldn't even scream for help because any who heard me might just assume I was a lure for something nastier. Which was just lovely. I couldn't even tell which way I'd come in.
The only thing that stopped me from panicking was the certain knowledge that I hadn't gone in too far. The area around the mountain was as safe as any other place could be, given it was the area most regularly cleared out by cultivators.
I could either hang around here until someone found me or try to find my way out. Either seemed about as dangerous as each other. A part of me wondered if this was part of Cheng's plan to get me to grow - if it was, I wasn't going to make him any more nian gao.
If I die here, I will definitely return as a ghost to haunt you Cheng!
… I sighed. No point in dwelling over spilt milk. I trudged along much more carefully now, eyeing my surroundings. The air was thick with cool Mist Qi, and around me I was pretty sure was mostly Blood Oak trees - so called because when you cut them, they bleed. It's just sap, but it is red and if you open the bark up, it does weirdly look like there's veins. The sap was edible, if not particularly nutritious, if I recall correctly.
Also tastes slightly sweet. Not bad, but not on the level of Maple. The coppery tang is disturbing though.
It was enough that I could probably subsist on that, but I was more interested in shelter if I could find it. I might be here for a while, after all…
All I had on me was a low grade Qiankun pouch - it was barely better than a backpack in terms of storage ability, but it was at least much more portable. And all I kept in it was my cooking equipment. My kitchen knife made for a poor weapon, given it was made of pretty regular steel. High quality steel, but nothing special or fancy.
Well. Against what I might find in the forest it would do, I guess…
A little more wandering brought me to the small glittering river. The stones in it sparkled like gems, and the fish that swam were just as lustrous - they looked less like they were covered in scales but more like they had bony plates. Or… metallic plates. Steel plates, even. I didn't quite recognise them, but as far as weird xianxia animals went, they were practically sedate and calm things…
I wonder if I could catch them? I'd have to be careful. Those jaws look powerful, and I could see them nibbling and crunching the rocks. I guess that's how they got that armour.
Carefully I dipped a fallen twig into the water. They ignored it. With more caution and care, I dipped a toe in - worst comes to worst, I could live without a toe. The fish ignored it however, clearly not interested in anything that wasn't in some way geological. Okay. Good. The water seemed clean and clear, but I should maybe boil it anyway just to be safe.
I still had to be fairly close to the edge of the Forest - it could mess with my sense of direction, but I hadn't heard of it messing with your sense of Time, so whilst I had no idea which way was out, I had to be certain I was only an hour away on foot. Safeish.
As far as places to set up a base camp, it could be much worse. Now, hopefully someone would find me… that or I get powerful enough to escape on my own.
The latter sounds about right for how things go.
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I killed an Icefang Serpent today. I want to say it was clever and powerful of me, but mostly I held very still, tried not to panic, and then stabbed it in the head with my kitchen knife.
I probably damaged the venom sacs, which is arguably a shame because Icefang Venom is worth a decent handful of points, but I much preferred being alive. Can't use the points if I'm dead. Still, I ought to figure out what to do with the rest of it. The skin is useful as well, but not as much, and the meat and bones are… not particularly prized.
But, waste not want not. Flensing the skin off is a little tricky at first, as I've never skinned a snake (that sounds like a euphemism), but I manage not to ruin it too badly, leaving a… it looks like a tube of meat. Like a weird pale blue sausage. Figures the meat is kind of icy and cold as well. Hm.
A few spices, I think… I've got allspice, I've got a few others with fancy names - stuff like Red Heart Chilli powder, Snowdrop Mint leaves, Seven-Leaf Coriander - and I could make a nice rub with those. With a little sap, I could maybe make a sweet kind of BBQ sauce…
Before long, I have it roasting gently on a small thin stick, slathered in sauce and spices. I'm a little wary the smell will draw unwanted attention, but in a place like this, a part of me can't help but wonder if everything's evolved to avoid tantalising scents or sights. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a plant or animal that lured you in with sweet scents and then ate you. It would be just like this Forest.
Well, no point dwelling on it. Once the snake was sufficiently roasted to my eyes, I took a small nibble. "... Mh. Minty." That is a weird flavour. It's not bad, but the sweetness and the mintiness don't play well. Maybe something sour next time? The spice is fine, but it is disconcertingly like eating toothpaste-flavoured meat for my tastes.
I'm still hungry though, so I keep going. I'm a little surprised to find the meat is laden with Qi at first, but I realise it makes sense. Icefang Snakes are Spirit Beasts after all - the core is proof enough of that. The Qi itself is, unsurprisingly, cold and Yin in nature. Ice Qi I'd guess. It's… pleasantly chilly as I try to integrate it into my system.
Perhaps I should seek an Ice Manual? Or something Yin-based… if I get out of here, I remind myself.
Once I finish my meal, there's the question of what to do with the core. It's not particularly high quality, given it was just an Icefang Snake - those beasts could only be said to be in the first few Steps of Qi Condensation after all. I could eat the core now, get a boost to my Qi… but I'd have to be careful, I think, because I could create a faulty foundation that led to Qi Deviation further down the road if I was reckless.
Well, it's a problem for future me. If I live long enough to have a Qi Deviation, then that's a win in its own way. Down the hatch, I guess.
… Agh! Is it possible to get a Dantian freeze?! Cold! Much too cold!
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It turns out if you boil the sap from the Blood Oak's, you get a syrup that's just a few shades behind Maple. The Qi in it is somewhat denser once it's boiled too, although it's disturbingly… Yang. It's a few shades from being actual blood, if slightly sweet blood. It's disturbing, but still.
It goes well with that I'm pretty sure the nuts from a Ghost Tree. Ghost Trees get their name because they're translucent - and in the mists, borderline transparent. They look like glass outlines of a tree at times. The wood is quite prized, if you can manage to cut it in a way that doesn't turn it into splinters, but the nuts are what I'm after. Not particularly valuable, but they taste enough like chestnuts that roasted and drizzled in Bleeding Syrup (as I'm calling it), it's kind of like a dessert.
If I had fruits, I could make tanghulu, but nuts will have to do.
As long as I'm dedicated to not moving far from this spot, all I really have left to do is cook, eat, sleep and cultivate. I'm half certain this is part of Cheng's plot for that reason alone - I've spent more time meditating now than I have in a while.
The river water is clean, I've verified that enough, and the Water Qi present is fresh and clear, if slightly weak. Combined with the Yin nature of the Ghost Tree nuts, the end result is that I feel like my Gentle Mist Soul is kind of slowly approaching Gentle Ice Soul.
It's enough that I've slowly been exchanging my Mist Qi for Ice Qi, at least, and that feels better. I enjoy the cooling sensation of it.
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The real breakthrough though has not been cultivation related at all. I managed to saw a branch off a Blood Oak, and managed to find a vine to use as a line. The vine itself was some strange thing patterned with leaves that almost looked like eyes, but it didn't move and it didn't make noise so… yay?
It wasn't poisonous either. Checked that.
The fish ate rocks, so I just tied a small pebble to the end in lieu of some kind of hooked bait and waited to see if I could catch anything. I had no real guarantee the vine would hold or anything else about it, but at least fishing was something I could do whilst meditating.
I watch the fish swim about, seeming as relaxed and as languid as the slowly flowing river. I guess the armour must be pretty high quality… am I even going to be able to get past that if I catch them?
… I wonder what everyone else is doing. Are they still hunting? It's been a few days. They planned to be here for about a week but had some extra time allotted just in case, I wager. I wonder if they were searching for me. I hope so.
Honestly, if that bastard Cheng doesn't try to find me to make up for dragging me out here, I'll find him myself just to complain!
Tugging at the line draws my attention. Yes! I got a bite! I got a-aaand he just snapped it off the line and went on his merry way. Right. Need a better method of hooking them I guess. I can't… get a hook into stone, and anything that can crush stone isn't really going to care about a particularly hook-shaped rock so…
Hm. What if I used syrup? Make something sticky. Keep boiling it until it's more like a glue… is that how it works? It might work…
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Fishing Attempt 2: Sticky Syrup Boogaloo takes a few tries. The first attempt solidified too quickly, leaving a hunk of candied rock. Interesting, but not actually edible to me or the fish. The local butterflies seemed to love it though, so I left it out for them.
The second attempt wasn't sticky enough, and the syrup just kind of washed off the rock, leaving me back at square one.
The third time… was not the charm. Nor was the fourth or fifth. Just varied temperatures, no real result. Then I realised I was kind of going at it the wrong way, wasn't I? I had something that I knew would be perfectly sticky and gooey.
Nian gao.
The reason it's served at New Years is because you offer it to the Kitchen God - every year he goes up to the Emperor and basically snitches on you like he's Santa Claus' surveillance system, so you give him nian gao and it gums his mouth up too much to do any snitching. Apparently being a God means you don't write things down, you just say them. Also that you can't get around sticky rice. It's kind of a silly concept, albeit no more ridiculous than Santa, but it's a fun one nonetheless and potentially useful for my purposes.
Making nian gao was easy enough, although I did have to substitute my ingredients a little - instead of a rice cake, it's more like a… pressed nut cake? But the result is incredibly gooey, and with some crushed rock mixed in - enough to act as bait - it was surprisingly easy to land a fish. They could crush the rocks, but they couldn't do anything about the gooey cake except squish it.
Useful, and worth contemplating later. I'd landed one of the Steel Armour Fish now and… and now I needed to figure out how to kill it. It was thrashing around pretty wildly, and whilst I could wait for it to suffocate, that seemed needlessly cruel. The syrupy rock was kind of gumming up its mouth even as it crushed it with its powerful jaws - keeping my fingers away from there! - and I forced it against a flat stone I was using as a cutting board.
Maybe… when attacking armour, you go for the joints, right? So if I stab it-stop moving! Fuck, I nearly cut myself there, come on-okay, and got it. The knife slipped it right past one of the plates just behind its head.
The fish went blessedly still. Sorry fish. Now how am I going to de… armour you? If it were scales, I could do that, but the armour feels so much trickier. There's joints, but there's no… actually. Hm.
The plates are shaped like… ribs, in a way, if you don't mind a terrible analogy. They start at one side, curve over the top, then go back down the other side - but they sort of meet near the bottom. It's like a reverse spine, in a way. If I work my knife in there, I can-yes, I can sever the cartilage!
Score! The plates are flexible enough that I can sort of bend and pull them away now, leaving them to the side like discarded staples. I end up with a neat little pile of them, and a… surprisingly ordinary looking fish afterwards. There's no scales underneath, but a kind of smooth, slightly slimy, skin. A quick cut severs the head, another peels away the skin… the bones are shiny and metallic as well, perhaps unsurprisingly. Whatever mechanism it uses to grow the plates, they're probably equivalent to bone.
Still, I soon have it filleted and ready. I'll figure out what to do with the bones and the plates later, but now that I've figured out how to fish the fuckers…
I'm gonna eat well tonight! For now, I'll just have it raw, sashimi style.
Soft, pliant, with a faintly umami flavour. It's… not fishy at all. I was also expecting a more metallic taste, but no. It's mostly texture more than anything. Definitely needs sauce. It'd go well with soy, if I had any.
I'll have to make something with what I've got to go with it, I think. Maybe see if I can make a stock from the bones… well, thoughts for later. It's pleasant enough, although not quite as Qi-rich as I was hoping for…
Although perhaps it's all in the bones? I'll have to try it to be sure.
This is almost… I'm not going to say it. I'm not jinxing it further. You can't make me.
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"Lian-er!" calls a voice suspiciously like Zhou Cheng.
I ignore it though, in favour of stirring the soup I'm making, made of Steel Armour Fish bones and plate, and a pinch of spices. It smells a lot stronger than the fish itself had, and so far, tasted a lot more… fishy. The Qi in it was much richer too, strongly Yang Metal natured. An interesting blend, an interesting flavour.
It's pleasantly warming in the chill of the forest too, like all good soups. What I'd give for some crusty bread though… maybe I could grind the nuts into a flour? Ah, but I need an oven of some kind.
"Lian-er, you bastard!" the voice repeats.
"That's not very nice," I reply absentmindedly, sipping a bit of soup. Hm. I think it needs more salt… or how about some Seven Star Pepper? Just a pinch to avoid overpowering everything. Got to be careful I don't sneeze either. That stuff was strong.
"Hei Lian, we look all over for you and where do we find you? Sitting down with soup!"
I pause, glancing over. "... Heavenly Wind?"
Zhou Cheng, looking distinctly ruffled and disheveled, glares at me for a moment. "Rice Cake," he grumbles, advancing towards me. Behind him, the others trickle in as well, all looking like they've had a time of it, ruffled and disordered.
And here I am, completely calm, relaxed, and making soup.
I almost feel bad for them. Almost.
"I'm sorry, Seniors," I offer, kowtowing, "This foolish one has caused you trouble with his actions." I mean, all I did was get separated so that's hardly my fault but still.
Kong Meiling has managed, somehow, to appear almost entirely perfect despite the fact that she's clearly worn out, and she gives me a derisive huff. "You realise this entire trip was for your benefit? Now it's been a waste of our precious time and effort."
"Perhaps not entirely," Song interjects, eyeing the soup. "That's Steel Armour Fish isn't it? It's impressive that someone like you could even catch them."
Shan nodded as well, a calm but intent look on his face. "With such a bounty, Junior Hei surely wouldn't mind sharing some with us, since we have worked so hard to find him."
Ah. So it's to be like that, then? A small glance at Cheng tells me he has no objections to what they're doing, which is, I'll admit, a touch hurtful. What they are doing is technically against the rules, but outside of the compound, there is nobody to know or intervene - and even if I were to complain to the Elders, and even if they were to do something about it, it would only serve to make enemies of them.
I cannot risk that. I had kept a stash of the cores after the first few in order to exchange for points, but buying my safety is more important, and if I can continue to be on their good side - even as just a lackey - then well. Maslowe's Hierarchy. Safety first.
"Surely it is as Senior Shan says," I say genially, opening my small qiankun pouch and removing the handful of cores I've stashed, "This is the least this humble one can do to make up for the trouble I have caused."
There are ten cores in total - by unspoken agreement, each of them receives three each. After a moment of silent consideration, Cheng returns the final core to me. "We came here to help Hei-er progress," he says for explanation, "So it would be a true waste if he did not get at least one thing out of this."
Gee, that's kind of you, Senior Brother. I push my irritation away - it doesn't matter in the long run. Steel Armour Fish are fancy, but they're not strong.
"Can I interest my Seniors in some soup as well? It's all I have else to offer."
"Making them into soup is a waste, Lian-er," Cheng chides, "There are better ways to refine them."
I incline my head in acknowledgement. Cooking the fish does refine their Qi somewhat, it's true, but it's no substitute for Alchemy. Or at least, not at my level it's not. "That is certainly true, but I do not have a pill furnace on me, Senior Brother - and I did not know how long I would be here. I am not so talented that I can practice inedia." And neither are they, but they brought food with them.
Song takes a seat, legs crossed with a shrug. "It's already cooked, and it's not as though there's a shortage of Steel Armour Fish. If Junior Hei can catch more, then we can always catch more and refine those."
That at least seems to get everyone to concede the point, and soon enough I'm doling out bowls of Steel Armour Fish Soup. The faint noises of surprise and expressions of shock on their faces fills me with a warm satisfaction.
I know better than to brag though, and just carefully sip my own soup. It's nice enough, and leagues better than the gruel and vegetables we get served back at the compound, but it needs… more. Soup on its own needs rice, or maybe noodles. The question is simply what to use as accompaniment…