Chapter 11 - Gold Spirit Tea

…

Xia Qiu got off her car in the foyer of her mansion and she walked in to find her father while one of the staff in her household went to her car drove it to the garage to park it in.

"Dad. I'm here."

Xia Qiu knocked on the door of Xia Dong's study room gently, to which he gestured for her to come in.

"I heard that you hung out with a person for almost the whole afternoon, I want to know who he is, can you tell me how and why did you talk to him?"

Xia Dong inquisitively asked his daughter with a sense of authority from a veteran businessman.

"Dad, his name is Li Qu, but I was originally at the nearby shopping mall talking to Auntie Liu about Old Liu's teahouse and afterwards, when I was walking down the streets, I saw a handsome man that looked like he was cosplaying immortal cultivators of the legends! He looked super dashing and y-you know me… I went up to talk to him, but he gave me a weird look initially. Then…"

Xia Dong silently contemplated while his daughter was explaining her short story of the interactions between Li Qu and her while thinking of something else.

"So, you mean that he wants to rent Old Liu's teahouse?"

Xia Dong asked with an extremely doubtful countenance.

"Yes! I managed to help Old Liu rent his teahouse! Don't you think it's too much of a coincidence?! That Old Liu was having problems with not renting out the teahouse and Brother Li just appears out of nowhere and wanted to rent it?"

The more Xia Qiu talked, the more eager she got as she thought it was simply too much of a coincidence.

'What is a highly dangerous unidentified person doing renting a teahouse? I honestly don't believe in such coincidences happening. If so, someone must be orchestrating it, but what is their motive?'

Xia Dong subconsciously shivered a little at his own thoughts.

"Qiu'er, for the time being, please stay away from that guy. Let me tell you, I have a friend in the Shadow Bureau, you know what they do right? They reported an irregularity in the electro-magnetic field in a park in Hua Country's Jianghua City and the same exact irregularity in New Yolk's Hua Town just a few seconds later! It can't be that much of a coincidence."

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Xia Qiu appeared shocked, but she slowly mused.

"It can't be, is there a link with why Ying was unconscious?"

Xia Qiu asked to which Xia Dong replied seriously,

"He got knocked out by someone in the Shadow Bureau's top-secret unit. I can't tell you too much but please stay away from the guy from the time being until we figure something out."

"I understand… But what about Old Liu's teahouse?"

Although Xia Qiu was a young girl that was passionate for romance, she understood her position and listened to her father.

"I will investigate it; you don't have to worry. Go and take an early rest, it's bad for your health to stay up late."

…

[Issuing 3rd Mission!]

[Mission: Successfully brew your first pot of Gold Spirit Tea 0/1]

[Time Limit: 1h:59m:58s]

[Mission Reward: Gold Spirit Tea will be registered on the Celestial Teahouse's menu for consumers to order.]

[Punishment for Failure: Sent to a mini pocket realm with time flowing differently from Earth to learn tea brewing until you can successfully brew Gold Spirit Tea.]

The system issued Li Qu a mission with a vague punishment for failure, to which Li Qu frowned and asked.

"Sent to a mini pocket realm to learn tea…? This would be the first time that I enter a pocket realm just to learn how to brew tea if I really failed… A pretty novel experience, I must say."

Li Qu mused in amazement, as he thought back to the carnage that cultivators inflict onto the pocket realms just to search for treasures.

No pocket realms would remain intact as long as there were treasures to be found in them. Cultivators in the different realms were also secretly called 'Excavators' by their servants as they would bring in multitudes of treasures every time they found a pocket realm.

In any case, the ingredients would be provided by the system itself, so Li Qu had no worries of failing. He was overflowing with confidence as he thought it was just a simple tea brewing.

What could be so hard?

If he could not even brew a simple pot of tea, the number of years he had lived for would be wasted.

Li Qu took a look at the Gold Spirit Tea Recipe displayed on the interface in front of him after he summoned it from the system inventory.

[Gold Spirit Tea Recipe]

Ingredients: Three-Colored Lotus, Gold Yang Tree's Bark, Yin Spirit Chrysanthemum…

Brew Method: Grind the Yin Spirit Chrysanthemum into powder, infuse it with the Three-Color Lotus with boiling water for ten minutes… so on and so forth.

Li Qu thought that it was in fact easier than what he imagined it would be.

'So, this will be the first tea I will sell in the teahouse... Doesn't seem that hard.'

He had a bit of an experience brewing mortal tea when he was a young boy in his past life, but that was way too long ago for even someone like Li Qu to remember each and every step.

Li Qu proceeded to head to the brewing room that was available just at the corner of the old teahouse.

"For the first step, grind the Yin Spirit Chrysanthemum... Easy."

The Yin Spirit Chrysanthemum had the iconic yellow hue, with a subtle glow of a moon representing the aspect of Yin.

Li Qu snapped his finger as he directed his cultivation power to the Yin Spirit Chrysanthemum in front of him and ground it into powder.

"Second step, infusing the Three-Colored Lotus... Hmmm, this ingredient is not easily found in even in the wilderness of Black Heaven, but not too rare."

With bright pink, blue, red colors, the Three-Colored Lotus was simply beautiful to look at. The Three-Colored Lotus normally only grew in ponds that were filled with Spiritual Qi that accumulated for a few hundred years, which was why it was quite precious for mortal cultivators.

But for the Immortals, the time took to grow it was negligible as they could have closed-door cultivation periods for up to several hundred years at a go.

Li Qu proceeded to brew his first pot of tea following the steps

"…"

As the two hour time limit was approaching.

"Why? I did everything according to the steps but why is it failing every single time they converge at the last step! What is so hard about brewing a simple tea!"

[Time Limit – 00:10s]

"D*mn it. I have absolutely wasted my number of years living…"

The last pot of tea that Li Qu tried to brew, had without any doubt;

Failed.

The veins on Li Qu's forehead popped out and thickened.

Li Qu: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

[Mission: Successfully brew your first pot of Gold Spirit Tea 0/1]

[Time Limit – 00m:00s]

[Mission Failed Successfully.]

[…]

[Sending Host to the mini pocket realm, please work hard and brew the best tea you can, to make Celestial Teahouse the best on Earth and beyond!]

A portal appeared in front of Li Qu and sucked him into the mini pocket realm to begin his first tea brewing pocket realm adventure.

…