CHAPTER 108 - THE WITCH'S HEX-TRAORDINARY BANQUET

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The main house was surrounded on all four sides by tall stone walls, and the main gate was at the southeastern corner. Directly behind the main gate was a spirit wall. According to folklore, evil spirits couldn’t turn around corners, so they would be blocked by the solid stone block spirit wall which was carved with dragons.

I thought everything was in order, but I hadn’t thought about an unimportant factor.

“Why don’t you have a proper menkan?” Lady Hoshi gave the door a horrified look.

“What do you mean?” The menkan, or threshold, looked fine to me.

“Something like this won’t protect the house.” Lady Hoshi held her hand around six inches above the current doorsill. “It’s way too low! It should be at least this tall.”

Was she talking about the jiangshi or hopping zombie of folklore? The menkan was supposed to be built high enough for them to be unable to hop over. I wouldn’t have thought that they had that type of belief in this world. I made a soft noncommittal sound since I wasn’t the superstitious type who cared about that.

The little girl gave me a look and then reached into her sleeve. Taking out a strip of yellow paper, she held out her hand to Meihui who handed her a brush dipped in vermillion ink. She wrote a few characters in cursive script. I jumped back in alarm when a loud crackling sound and yellow sparks appeared when she flung the talisman up to the lintel of the door.

“I did it! I blessed the cursed house!” Lady Hoshi flung her arms up in victory and did a little dance. She was almost unbearably cute, and I wish I still had my smartphone so I could record it.

“Can I touch it?” I pointed at the talisman. When Meihui nodded, I poked the piece of paper with a finger and stealthily tried to use the System’s [Examine] command, but nothing happened. Mostly, only Adventure Incarnate items could be examined in order to view their descriptions. “Wait a minute, it doesn’t seem to be attached to the door.”

The piece of paper was floating a fraction of an inch in front of the top of the door.

“What?!” Lady Hoshi stopped dancing and looked more closely at her talisman. “Oh no, did it fail?”

“It activated,” said Meihui.

“That’s true. I guess it did work,” said Lady Hoshi though she looked a little uncertain about it.

“I’m sure it did. That was very impressive,” I said.

“Our little clan leader is very gifted,” said Meihui. She patted her little girl on the head. “You did a great job.

Lady Hoshi giggled and shot me a victorious look. “Now your house is properly protected!”

“Wonderful. Thank you very much. Shall we enter?” I gestured towards the doorway. We passed through it into the outer courtyard where the household staff lived and then through the second gate, also called the flower-hung gate, into the inner courtyard.

“Why is your house full of dragon decorations?” asked Lady Hoshi.

“I just like it that way,” I said.

“Your house is much bigger and nicer than I thought it would be,” said Lady Hoshi.

The type of house and the number of buildings that one could build on their farm in Adventure Incarnate was limited by their farming levels. I could only build a Two-Courtyard House at the moment. At higher levels, I could build Three, Four, Five, and Even Six-Courtyard Houses.

During our stay in the southern desert, we had gotten used to living in a much bigger place, and I didn’t want to downgrade, so I had rebuilt the main house to twice the size that it had been last year and added a large garden on the eastern side.

“Thank you,” I said.

There had been a bit of a debate over where we should host our guests. My apprentices favored the inner courtyard, and Fengying suggested the main hall, but I wanted it to be held in the garden for a more casual experience.

Unlike the main house, which was composed of straight angles and perfect geometric symmetry, the garden was the opposite. A long, winding path offered half a dozen pretty views of the flowers, decorative bushes, weeping willows, and a small but very picturesque pond.

I wasn’t a particular fan of scholar's rocks, but an Asian garden was incomplete without them, so I placed three towering rocks strategically around the pond along with some bamboo. People liked the way that the limestone rocks had been sculpted into interesting asymmetrical curves. My household had dubbed the smallest one “Flying Fish Leaping over the Waves” while the two bigger ones were a set called “Lion Playing with an Auspicious Cloud.”

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Of course, I added plenty of rose bushes since I was particularly fond of that flower that reminded me of my mother.

“How elegant!” said Lady Hoshi. She hopped over to a nearby rosebush and smelled the flowers. She reached for the nearest blossom, then drew her hand back with a yelp. “Ow!”

[Hearts Garden Rose:

A deep burgundy red rose with ruffled petals and a heart-shaped center. Beware of its sharp thorns. Not poisonous.]

“Let me see.” Meihui examined her finger. “It’s fine, just be careful next time.”

“I should’ve known better than to touch flowers that were grown by a witch!” said Lady Hoshi.

“Hey, now, they’re just regular thorns. Let’s not exaggerate, okay?” I took a pair of scissors from my inventory and cut off the rose that she wanted, making sure to remove the thorns as well. “Here, a present for you.”

All of the System items in my house were bound to the house unless I modified them in some way. For example, the wooden tables couldn’t normally be taken out of the house unless I cut them up. Then the wooden planks could be used by other people. The rose bushes functioned the same way.

“Thank you,” said Lady Hoshi. “I’ve never seen a flower like this.”

I cut another one for Meihui and we continued walking towards the center of the garden where lunch had been set up with pretty white tables and chairs, lace tablecloth, elegant silverware, crystal glasses, and fine white porcelain.

The food was served Central Region-Style. The four God Clans of the Western, Eastern, Southern, and Northern regions had their own culture and cuisine, while the Central continent which was ruled over by humans was considered the most advanced. I heard that Central was currently undergoing a mini industrial revolution while the Westerlands was still stuck in the feudal agricultural era.

Thus, the Demon Chef who ruled over my kitchen decided to show off by preparing Central cuisine. He wasn’t an actual demon, but he was called that for some reason. Today he and his assistants had cooked a dozen dishes, all of them small servings, beautifully and ornately decorated on a large plate, that featured seasonal flavors. Right now that meant lots of fresh spring vegetables like bean sprouts, amaranth leaves, red toon shoots, kai lan, malantou, bamboo shoots, three-leaf clover, and so forth, which have mostly been foraged from the forest.

“I hope you like the food,” I said.

As was usual while in this hierarchal society, Lady Hoshi, Meihui, and I dined at a separate table from the rest of my household. Lari, Kharli, and Mo were waited on by the new maids and serving men that Fengying had hired while Fengying herself supervised the service at my table with our older, more senior staff. I noticed with approval that my three apprentices had all mastered their table manners, which was a nice change from all the whining I had to endure last year when they claimed that this type of etiquette was unnecessary for them to learn.

“Everything looks wonderful!” said Lady Hoshi as she admired the artfully arranged wild mushrooms, confit leek, and grilled demon pig belly.

Every time a new dish was brought out, Meihui tasted it before handing it over to Lady Hoshi. This was not to check for poison, but rather to investigate whether the qi it contained was gentle enough for a child to eat since everything that we served was, of course, full of spiritual energy.

They were all praises for the quality of the food and the picturesque setting. All in all, I would say it was quite successful. Afterward, I led them to the paddy where the [Purple Orchid Rice] was growing.

Lady Hoshi's eyes widened in horror. “I can’t believe it! The Fox Goddess’ rice is cursed, too!”

Though I couldn’t feel it myself, there was apparently some sort of force field that prevented outsiders from touching my crops. Shuye described it as an “aura of ominous qi.”

“The plants that grow on my farm are all protected by my bloodline inheritance,” I said.

“Your ancestors must be quite formidable,” said Meihui.

“Hmm. As you can see, this means that the rice is safe here,” I said.

“The qi in the air all around your farm is quite intense,” said Meihui.

“That’s how I’m able to grow spiritual plants,” I said.

Meihui and Lady Hoshi exchanged a glance of mutual understanding.

“It’s exactly like the Legend of the Witch of the Woods,” said Lady Hoshi.

“Well…” I shrugged.

The two of them simply shook their heads and then started on the blessing ceremony which consisted of them circling the field waving a small incense burner full of sweet-smelling tree resins and herbs which they held between their hands.

Before they left, they gave me a few bolts of fine silk as a gift, and I handed them a box of [Dewy Glow Potions].

Then Meihui took out a blank scroll and wrote a short poem on it in beautiful calligraphy. From the way the others reacted, this was obviously her showing me great honor, and that they were extremely impressed by her action.

Autumn's fiery red,

A fox dances through the woods,

Leaves rustle with secrets.

“Wonderful! Thank you very much for the poem,” I said.

Not to be outdone, I took out a silk fan and wrote something of my own. I had prepared a poem in advance since Fengying had told me that this was a tradition among the Fox clan. On Earth, I was considered pretty good at calligraphy myself, though it was not a very popular art form for people my age. Here, however, calligraphy was a basic skill, therefore I was considered just competent.

Nonetheless, I thought I did pretty well.

Underneath moon's glow,

Night whispers, a lullaby,

Blossoms unfurling,

Leaping birds in azure sky,

Overcoming shadows,

Cascading dreams take flight,

Keys to new worlds unlock.

Meihui picked up the fan and read the poem. She frowned and, suddenly, her eyes started glowing red. “What is the meaning of this? These characters you wrote…”

I didn’t know what she was talking about, but I took a step back as her entire body stiffened, and the temperature around her dropped.