Leo had never properly cooked in his life thus he could only go by the gut feeling. Fortunately his two companions were too busy bickering to notice how clumsily he sliced off two fat pieces of fillet and cut them in smaller cubes. Then he went through the jars with spices Fan Lia piled up earlier and realized the only familiar things there were salt and a powder that somewhat resembled grounded black pepper.
Not willing to risk, Leo simply rubbed a bit of salt on the fish cubes, then sprinkled some black powder on and put them all on three long thin metal rods George fished out from who knows where.
There was a small incident when he put the skewers over the fire. The flame instantly incinerated the powder particles, for a brief moment interrupting the arguing couple, but luckily the fish didn’t burn and besides the cook getting a minor scare there was no real damage.
The sun had already set when the trio could finally sample Leo’s creation. It was nothing fancy, of course, but one really had to try to spoil a rainbow cod on purpose for it to turn out bad. All three finished their portions in a heartbeat, each for their own reasons wolfing the food down quickly, but seeing the hungry eyes of the other two indicating they wanted more, Leo got confused.
“Weren’t the Nascent soul stage cultivators be able to go without food for a really long time?” He asked.
“Theoretically yes.” George said, “But how many pleasures are there in life? What do YOU do in the free time?”
“I …” Leo was caught unprepared by such question.
He did fool around with the kids back on the island and sometimes dived in the bay all day long, but back home he never had real hobbies. Hanging around with Jack obviously didn’t count and passing towels to the ladies in the Voodoo sect was only a passing blissful moment in his life.
“I … mostly cultivate … I guess.” Leo said.
Suddenly he realized that since the moment he was left alone on the ship he spent most of his free time doing nothing but cultivating. Somehow, probably because of his father’s influence, it had become the most important thing in his life.
“So you love that.” George nodded, “It’s also fine. You see, the two of us love rune crafting, but that is also kind of a work. What can we do to relax? Eating good food and drinking wine is one of the best ways to enjoy your life.”
While saying that a bottle and three glasses appeared in George’s hands. He nimbly filled all three and passed one to Fan Lia who expressionlessly accepted it and Leo who got dazed by the alluring aroma of the Firewater. It took him all the inner strength he could muster to give it back with words ‘I can’t, thank you.’ George, of course, didn’t care and gladly took the glass back and emptied it in one gulp.
“You also argue a lot.” Leo suddenly broke the brief moment of silence, “Do you like that too?”
While Fan Lia slightly blushed, George sighed and said, “You see … we come from two families that … sigh … it’s complicated.”
“Ok.” Leo nodded.
The two were stunned by the lack of reaction, but then George laughed and asked,”Why don’t you say it then?”
“Say what?” Leo was confused.
“That we’re a weird couple.” George shrugged, “Everyone says that.”
“Oh?” Leo sounded surprised, “I don’t think so.”
Seeing the two were expecting an explanation, he continued, “You are definitely not a couple – you two obviously hate each other! Couples like to spend time together, love each other, you know ...”
Hearing this for some reason made both slightly upset, but before Leo could elaborate, George said in slightly annoyed voice, “Ok, what would you say to someone like miss Fan Lia?”
“Uhm … miss … khem … would you like a towel?” Was the first thing that came to Leo’s mind. She had a nice body for sure and he would not say ‘no’ if she asked to dry her, but seeing the weird expressions of his companions, he stopped daydreaming and rushed to explain, “You see, I prepared medicinal baths … you probably can consider it a job … and when the lady was done I asked if she needed a towel.”
George’s confusion immediately transformed into hysterical laughter, but Fan Lia for a moment couldn’t figure out if the kid was a pervert and she should slap him or he was actually a harmless child. Luckily for Leo she chose the latter.
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“First of all, don’t call me ‘miss’ – I’m not that much older than you! Call me ‘elder sister Fan’!” Fan Lia said and as always, there had to be a ‘but’, of course, “But from tomorrow on you’ll prepare baths for me! One in the morning and one after work.”
What she stated didn’t allow any objections and finally Leo experienced on his own skin what it meant to be in a company of a true aristocrat – the moment it became convenient he instantly was reduced to a regular servant.
But the miss was not done yet. She said, “George. Tomorrow morning you’ll help me to craft a tub!”
This part made Leo feel slightly better since a real Nascent soul stage cultivator became a servant at the same time as him. He didn’t take this part seriously, of course, but these two seemed to be much more approachable than the other Nascent soul stage people he had met, like the sect master of the Voodoo sect or lady Evelyn. If he met them on the street, nothing would hint at them being actual cultivation monsters.
When George and Fan Lia retreated for the night to their respective tents, Leo stayed at the bonfire still in daze from everything that transpired today. Obviously the fact that he met someone who will bring him away from here was great. Also the fact that he didn’t have to starve to death also was amazing. But the fact that his two rescuers were geniuses from the Immortal realm was simply unbelievable.
As expected during the next three months Leo was reduced to a role of a regular servant. He prepared baths for both Fan Lia and George twice a day and spent the rest of the time cooking the countless fishes, snakes and lizards George brought over, while the two worked on repairing the teleportation platform.
It wasn’t as if he didn’t learn a lot. Besides the obvious – the cooking recipes that came from the most respected chefs of the Immortal realm, he got to know much about the Golden Hand society and the Golden city where it resided.
Of course, he also learned much about the two Nascent soul stage geniuses he was stranded with. Both turned out to be quite chatty, obviously apart from the time they were bickering,
Each of them came from an ancient aristocratic artisan family residing in the Golden city and both had a mediocre talent for cultivation. But the love for rune crafting allowed them to propel to amazing heights even though they both were barely over twenty years of age. Because of the aptitude for the craft their families spent a mountain of resources to push them early into the Nascent soul stage thus guaranteeing their success.
This was where Leo for the first time learned the difference between regular mortals like him and those coming from the Immortal realm. He, his father or anyone in the Sacred Order had to practice like madmen to even have a slight chance to ever reach the Nascent soul stage, but in the Immortal realm one with enough background and resources would consider it only normal to get there.
The downside of quickly skipping the cultivation stages was the inability to ever become a true immortal, but for most people it didn’t matter anyway. Person at the Nascent soul stage already could live for thousands of years, but all it took to die during the terrifying Immortal tribulation was to blink at the wrong moment. That is why ninety nine percent of the Nascent soul stage cultivators never even attempted to pass the barrier and from those who did, one from a thousand succeeded at best.
Unfortunately neither Fan Lia nor George were able to guide Leo in cultivation. Their knowledge in this field was limited to their family techniques and there was no way for them to disclose those. In addition, Fan Lia despite her affinity for the fire element was unable to guide him regarding that as well.
Similar to George, who had the affinity for water, she was a genius in mathematics that was the basic requirement for runemaster, but a total novice regarding elemental manipulation. This was also the reason for both of them being the so called ‘non-combat cultivators’.
They suggested an idea though that Leo should look for an advice from master Zaraki, the protector of the Golden city. He didn’t teach per se, but didn’t shy off to give pointers to the younger generation now and then. He was an ancient monster who practiced the way of the sword and even if Leo couldn’t find a way to speak to him, maybe he could learn a thing or two by watching.
This was the moment Leo realized he will be actually be brought to the Immortal realm. Millions of people dreamed about it while even more didn’t believe it existed, but even if it was for a brief moment, he would have a chance to experience that. George mentioned something about the coordinates they needed to send him to the Aurora mortal realm, but Leo didn’t understand most of it.
The surreal expectations didn’t stop Leo for continuing to cultivate the Nameless technique every night. He also tried to practice the so called ‘way of the sword’, but apart from doing few chaotic, but cool looking swings he couldn’t think of anything.
The three months passed by in a blink of an eye. For both Fan Lia and George it took a month longer than planned to fix the teleportation platform, but the two didn’t care because the daily soaking in the tubs was a great way to spend time and the ever increasing quality of their meals let them enjoy their lives to the fullest. They didn’t even seem to mind the rainy season anymore, because after building simple canopies to shelter their tubs from rain, taking medicinal baths became the main source of entertainment.
Even when they ran out of ingredients they were willing to soak in plain water for a while, but when George’s bracelet, that had the same strange properties Fan Lia’s box did, ran out of wine, it was time to finish the job and return home.
Leo watched the two work in shock. It was as if someone had cast a magic spell on them – neither bickered nor complained and from what it looked like they could’ve returned at least a month earlier if they wished. Be as it may, the day came when under Leo’s stupefied eyes they packed up the many things they had and put them inside Fan Lia’s small box and stepped on to the teleportation platform.
Before they left there was a small incident though.
Leo asked if they could bring along at least some of the children from the island he lived on.
It’s impossible to describe how hard Fan Lia and George laughed when they realized that after all this time the dumbo hadn’t understood that the local aborigines were a race of pygmies that inhabited the larger islands in the region. They were half the size of a regular human and had no talent for cultivation. Their lifestyle as well as their language was incredibly primitive, but to think someone could live for months among them and still not figure out what they were seemed unbelievable.
When the two calmed down and Leo’s beet red face began to slowly regain its natural color, George one more time explained how they operated the platform and afterwards Leo was blinded by the familiar light.