A few hours later, we decide to host a dinner for the village for all the trouble I have caused them. Everyone from the governor’s office is already close except for Mo Di who seems to have trouble opening up to people. I already address everyone as uncle when we are in private.
As everyone is busy in the kitchen preparing chicken wings which I suggested and is seasoning them according to how I taught them using the seasoning I provided, I start talking to Uncle Cui.
“Uncle Cui, can you tell me about the realms of cultivation? My parents did not tell me much about cultivation besides that in my realm, I need to form whirlpools but no matter how I try, I keep failing.”
Uncle Cui then looks at me and sighs, “After what happened to your parents…sigh…you already know about Body formation and Qi flow so I will skip them, but after you have practised your cultivation technique to completion, your qi whirlpools will start whirling uncontrollably and as more qi is collected, it will eventually coagulate and you will enter the meridian forming realm. After the meridian forming realm, you will reach the core formation.”
He stands up and pats my shoulder, “As for why you are failing when trying to form the whirlpools, I cannot say much as it will expose my cultivation technique but you are probably trying to move your qi outside of your qi pathways which is incorrect. The whirlpools should be formed inside the qi pathways but since you have hardened your qi pathways, you should not try to cultivate until you have returned them to normal or you will shatter your pathways.” He leaves to get more chicken wings after explaining.
It seems like he does not want to mention my parents past. I had asked Uncle Tang about my parent’s past adventures but he too did not want to say anything.
Time passed quickly while preparing the numerous chicken wings we collected. We were able to collect so many wings because nobody eats the wings in this world. A meatless, bony and troublesome to eat part of the chicken is what they said so they threw it away.
Looking at the open fire where we are roasting the wings, Ding Sha is waving a huge stick around, trying to swat at Zhuge Pang who is running around the fire, drooling from the smell that the wings are giving off, creating a comical scene.
…
When nightfall comes, all the villagers are joining us at the village centre. Every family is also bringing a dish that they cooked since they didn’t expect us to cook enough for the entire village.
The atmosphere is rowdy and happy and the smell of the chicken wings is spreading all around. At first, people did not want to eat the chicken wings but watching Zhuge Pang gobble it up, not even spitting out the small bones and only bothering to spit out the big bones made them want to give it try.
The second they tasted the chicken wings, they could not put it down and started to fight over the wings. Soon everyone was busy roasting their own chicken wings.
Numerous villagers came to ask me for the recipe, as their children loved it and asked their parents to cook it for them. Honestly, I did not know it would come out so good. I had mentioned before but the taste of meat is different from Earth, as the meat is much more delicious.
I guess the standard seasoning of chilli powder, paprika, ground onions and garlic, cumin, ground thyme, oregano and salt will make all the chicken wings in the universe taste better?
I had wanted to use some honey as well but I could not find any in this village. The capital had honey but it was too bulky to bring around the jars.
Once the chicken wings were sold gone, some of those who opened a restaurant or chicken farms ran back home to get us more wings.
Watching the villagers happily gorging themselves with the chicken wings and chatting happily around the fire was a really nice experience. Ever since I was reborn into this world, I never really stop cultivating.
The only time when I did as I wished was before I turned six, as I could not cultivate. Every waking moment since was spent exercising, training and cultivating to prepare for the suffering that God planned for me.
I never want to let my parents suffer or see my brother and sister hurt and I have to get stronger! I tell myself as a clench my fists.
“I know what you are thinking, you have to get stronger if you want to protect this feeling right? the feeling of happiness…” Mo Di says while he sits beside me.
I look at him as he continues talking “I was like you, training nonstop every waking moment. Every time I see my friends die out in the field, I feel like part of the reason why he is dead is my fault. If only I was strong, if only I did this better, or didn’t do that and so on. Every night I’d reflect on my actions and place their death on my shoulders.” Mo Di sighs and shakes his head.
“You can’t defy fate.” He looks up in the sky with a sorrowful face.
He looks very lonely right now, although the atmosphere is lively and warm, he seems completely unaffected by it. His world is grey, I think to myself.
“I do not know if you are right or wrong, but all I know is that if I give up, I will never be able to live with myself.” I look Mo Di in the eye and leave.
…
Nothing happened much in the next two days and we left the village to head towards our next destination, LongXing village.
When we left, the entire village came to say goodbye to us. They gave us a bunch of chicken wings and the guards who received them gave me a wry smile. The villagers had been eating chicken wings nonstop for every meal the past two days and the guards are already sick of it.
Zhuge Pang still loved them but he mentioned that it was tiring to eat since, after the hundredth piece of so, you will find having to spit out the bones tiring.
LongXing village takes about a week to journey there by carriage but we took around 10 days as we had to stop to cook since we had to eat the chicken wings since they would spoil if they were kept for too long.
When we finally reached LongXing village, what we saw made our hearts stop beating. It was horrible.
“Are the people who did this still human?!” Zhao Keng roared in anger.
“it looks like we were too late, the bandits attacked this village already and they probably slaughtered the entire village because they resisted.” Ding Sha calmly said.
Zhao Keng stared at Ding Sha in anger at how unfeeling he sounded but knew that he was already used to seeing such sights so he did not release his anger on him since Zhao Keng too had seen many such sights during his time in the army.
The village was already deserted and run down. The air was stale and stuffy. There were spikes piled up outside the village and the heads of the old villagers were stuck on top of them. Some of the heads still had parts of their spine attached.
*blergggghhh*
I could not hold it in anymore and started vomiting. It was too gruesome for me. I had never seen a real dead body before and was different from everyone else. Even Sima Di and Zhuge Pang had seen mutilated corpses during their time at the investigation department.
