Hello everyone, this is just random story I am currently writing to entertain myself. Prepare for lot of random shi... I mean funny situations, cringwort... I mean unexpected story developments, and more retarde... just more... That's what this is about in a nutshell. Eccentric Egon Synopsis: Egon was a boy, who wanted to be a chef. But mix of betrayal, his spoiled character, his idiocy and his stubbornness has led him to the path of cultivation. And his path of cultivation has led him back to the kitchen. Warning: I think prologue is bit on a weaker side. Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Martial Arts, Romance, (Harem? Not sure yet) Content: Prologue Part 1, Part 2 Chapter one Chapter two Part 1 Part 2 Chapter three Part 1 Part 2 Chapter four Part 1 Part 2 Chapter five Chapter six Part 1 Part 2 Chapter seven Chapter eight Chapter nine Chapter ten Spoiler: Cultivation Ranks (Booring, don't even read this) Cultivation Ranks Awakening(commlon) Stages: 1st to 10th qi circle, can be ended before finishing tenth circle (most people cannot acheive complete 10 qi circles), but sooner you enter Refining rank, slower your cultivation will be after that. Ranks After Awakening: Body Path Body Refinining, Qi Disciple, Qi Adept, Qi Master, Qi Grand Master, Qi Champion, Qi Paragon, Qi Ruler, Qi King, Unknown, Qi Emperor Spirit Path Spirit Refining, Spirit Disciple, Spirit Adept, Spirit Master, Spirit Grand Master, Spirit Champion, Spirit Paragon, Spirit Ruler, Spirit King, Unknown, Spirit Emperor each rank divided into 12 stages.
Prologue Part one Spoiler Egon Smith was not a martial cultivator. Nor did he belong to any cultivation clan, sect, or a school. He had some talent in Qi cultivation, as he had his Awakening at the age of thirteen, but he never practiced any cultivation method seriously. He was just a teenage boy, who belonged to family of qi weapon craftsmen. His father was qi weapon craftsman, his mother was qi weapon craftsman as well and his younger sister was to become qi weapon craftsman in future. But he wasn’t and couldn’t be. Qi weapons could be crafted only by those who had qi-sense. He didn’t. It was not completely impossible for him to craft qi weapons, but for those who were not born with qi sense, they could only awaken it after they became spirit practitioners and reached seventh stage of spirit strengthening. For someone with his talent, he could probably reach that in fifty years of training, if he became disciple of some mid-grade sect. But with his talent, only low-grade sect would be interested in supporting him, and they would only let him be an outer disciple. Egon didn’t mind. He has given up on possibility of becoming weapon craftsman and he never really wanted to be a martial practitioner. He never really fought before either. Which was why his attack with a dagger against the third young master of the Dere clan was clearly not the smartest move he has ever made. Especially since young master Sun Dere was a cultivator who has reached the ninth stage of Awakening, and as a third young master of the younger generation of the Dere clan’s main family, he had quite a few defensive treasures on his body. Sun Dere stopped the dagger with the help of an armor talisman, and quickly has taken it away from him. Then he attacked back. It would be wrong to say that Egon didn’t expect this end. However, he was hurting so much that he felt like dying. After all, his childhood friend and fiancée was taken away from him by Sun Dere. And after few days of depression, Egon decided to do this stupid thing. He was actually expecting himself to die. But instead, the dagger held by Sun Dere merely slashed at his left eye, destroying his eyeball. Sun Dere would not give him easy way out. He was not vicious enough to kill him, but vicious enough to make him lose an eye. * * * When Egon was just six years old, his mother started to teach him their craft, but she quickly found out that he was not able to sense qi. To him, it meant he would never be able to succeed his parents’ job, so it was very inconvenient. But after learning that he could not become a weapon craftsman, both father and mother spoilt him all the time. You could even say they made him into most spoilt young master of Windburp city. Egon went to a private school, where he learned writing, math, and even some basics of qi arts. But Egon never really cared about any high social position this school was meant to prepare him for. Instead, he learned cooking from servants and by the age of twelve, he was part time assistant to the chef who worked at their house. As qi-weapon craftsmen, his family was well off and had high social standing within the city, so it would be inconceivable for young master of a house like that to work as chef. But because his parents listened to his every whim, and since they felt like they failed to give him what was supposed to be his, they allowed him to do whatever he wanted. His childhood friend, Elisabeth, was from a trader’s family. Her father, Shylock, was a minor merchant who was buying and selling low quality qi weapons from Egon’s parents and was also his father’s friend. So Egon and Elisabeth had been playing together ever since they were young, and after Elisabeth’s thirteenth birthday, they were affianced. Egon loved her, and she also liked him back. But in her heart, he only held second position. What she really loved, and loved way more than him, was the path of the cultivation. While Egon believed himself to be very passionate about cooking, maybe even overzealous, it was nothing compared to El’s fanaticism when it came to cultivation. She would spend ninety percent of her free time cultivating, trying to open her qi circles. She would even secretly cultivate during math and literature classes. Egon was honestly charmed by her dedication towards cultivation. But her talent was poor. Even with the insane amount of training, at the age of fifteen, she was merely at the peak of the third circle of Awakening, while Egon who was training very little was still at the early third circle of Awakening. But then she entered fourth circle of Awakening and fell ill. Doctors were clueless what was happening, so Egon’s parents used their influence in sects and invited Spirit Strengthening healer of low grade sect. Said healer then called his master, who then explained to Elisabeth’s parents that she had rare Qi closed body. Right now, her unique constitution was awakening, and after few days, fever would be gone and she would be completely healthy. But having Qi closed body meant that while her early stages of qi practice yielded little results, she would be able to clear all ten circles of Awakening and her cultivation speed would soon become very fast. It was very rare type of body, and those few who had it would be easily accepted as core disciples of mid-grade sect, or inner disciples of high-grade sect, and had high chances of becoming elders of those sects in future. When this fact was revealed, the Dere clan’s third young master came from the capital, Rhino city, in order to ask her to be his fiancée. The deal was too tempting for Elisabeth, who was cultivation fanatic. She would receive backing of the Dere clan, as well as their full support to obtain a place of core disciple in the Eagle Claw sect, the one and only high-ranked sect of the country, which had strong relations to Dere clan. And that was how it happened. Egon, who loved Elisabeth, fell into depression. He was spoilt, and never got used to how to deal with depressions, sadness and pain. Hence his stupid plan came to be. Now he has lost the sight in his left eye, but more importantly, he antagonized the Dere clan, strongest clan in the entire Seagull kingdom. It would not be weird if the Dere clan reacted to his attack by completely eliminating his family. But instead, they responded by sending gifts of apology for disturbing Egon’s engagement and injury, winning public sympathies completely and probably also Elisabeth’s sympathy. For the first time, his parents have screamed at Egon and his mother even slapped his behind few times. Egon knew he screwed up. This action of his could have easily destroyed his family. After big friendly gesture of the Dere clan, he could no longer do anything to Sun Dere without looking like a villain. But he was unwilling to just give in. So for the first time in his life, he did something that he thought would lead to him becoming stronger, and that something was probably even more stupid than his plan to attack someone who has half a dozen defensive treasures with nothing but a low grade qi-knife. He ran away from his home to practice alone in the nearby mountains.
Part two: Spoiler Egon was somewhat prepared for his trip. He had inferior quality space ring, which had stored about fifteen kilos of food inside, backpack and lot of pure water. This young master once went for a trip in the nature with the family of their chef, after all! Chef Bleu Rumsay, who had been supportive of his young master’s dream to also become a chef, had taught him a lot and Egon respected him as his teacher. He was also friend with his children. Bleu had daughter Pan and son Kay, and while Pan was older than Egon by a year, Kay was younger by two. Two of them visited him many times while his eye injury was still healing and he himself was grounded. But now that he was in the mountains, Egon could not cook proper dishes every day. Most of his food was rations he bought for a few gold coins he had. Since he was at the early third cycle of Awakening, he would be able to survive with about half the food people who had not achieved Awakening needed, but it was still limiting factor for him. So when an old man appeared in front of him out of nowhere and invited him to come into his cabin, saying that if Egon were to cook for him, he would provide him food to cook, he accepted. The old man asked him about his story, and Egon willingly told him everything while they were traveling to the cabin. Then, the old man asked him a question. “Do you want me to fix your eye?” Egon was surprised. “You can do that?” “Well, of course I can. I have pair of Beholder’s eyes, and I can put one of them into your eye socket. Not only will you see again with your left eye, you will even be able to see qi. What do you say?” Hearing an offer he could not refuse, Egon instantly agreed. He could not believe his luck. So, after they arrived in cabin, old man, who called himself Elder Thong, started preparing a table for implanting eye surgery. There were many potions and mixtures prepared, that he needed to use. Egon was very happy. He could not believe he found someone who would help him gain something as useful as qi vision so early on his journey. Elder Thong was also very happy. He was just about to find some low grade sect disciple who was gullible enough to let him experiment on him, and he had this much luck to find someone so close to his own meditation cave. Moreover, the boy lacked an eye and was completely willing to do the procedure. Heavens must love me, Elder Thong thought. So he led the boy to nearby abandoned cabin. He has long since desired to have Beholder’s eye. Being able to see qi, wouldn’t that be ultimate beauty? But when he tried it first time, subject died of poisoning in three hours. Second time, with the help of some elixirs, he died after thirteen days. But now, he had many more elixirs ready to support the assimilation of Beholder’s eye. Beholder’s eye, his ultimate desire, was so close. It looked like a black gem, completely dark ball that was of size of a human eye. He had to kill young Beholders to obtain them, since adults had much bigger ones. Now he was about to implant one of them into the sleeping boy, who willingly drank sleep potion. He was reluctant, as he only had eleven beholder’s eyes remaining, after wasting two during previous experiments, but it was worth it. He used all the elixirs in correct order, and then planted the eye into the eye socket. After that, he had to wait patiently. After six hours, he started checking boy’s body. At first, he was very happy, as everything looked fine, but… “Damn! Again! Poison is starting to enter the boy’s body. It’s slower than last time but… he’ll still die in two, no, maybe three month. Fuck it. I thought I already had it figured out, but it’s still incomplete.” Entire body of Beholder was toxic, and it was very weird type of toxicity. No matter if one was a mortal or a Qi Master, poisoned person would have to face a same struggle against it. So after his first two human victims, elder Thong spent last two decades experimenting on mice. Only now that he believed he found solution, he tried it third time, but sadly, it was still a failure. “Well, back to the drawing board I guess.” he said aloud, as he was used to talking to himself due to his isolation from society. He left sleeping Egon behind. When Egon woke up, he felt a bit weak. However he paid it no mind. He looked around, but was unable to find the old man. Since he wanted to ask him to train him, as he finally realized the old man was a cultivation master, he waited for him for two days. But the old man didn’t return. Finally, he could wait no longer and decided to leave the shack. Walking away towards a nearby mountain, he called the old man quite a few nasty names in a silent voice, fearing that the old man could still be somewhere close. * * * Three days later, as he was cooking some squirrels, it started raining. It poured heavily, and Egon started regretting that he left the old shack. Right now, he would prefer its leaky roof over this rain. Luckily for him, there was a cave nearby. Hiding inside the cave, he suddenly noticed weak qi formation on the wall of the cave that he could only see due to him having a Beholder’s eye. Fascinated by it, he touched it. Formation started shining strongly and then, he disappeared. And somewhere far, far away, one idiot has appeared in a cave not so different from the one he was transported from. Next Chapter
I havent read a single thing yet but this makes me thinkk that he either cooks for his wife or his cultivation has something to do with cooking
Well, right now, only prologue is out and it's not in prologue. What it has to do with him cooking... well, let me post chapter one where it's properly explained, I don't want to wait till morning with posting it anyways.
Chapter One Spoiler An old man and a young man stood in front of the old man’s cultivation cave and shook their hands. “Master, do you really have to leave?” “I am sorry, but I really have to. I need to visit my family. I have not seen them for eight years.” “Can’t you stay for a month more? I am sure that I will have a break through and become a Qi Grand Master if you guide me for one month more. I really wish to do so in order to really show them for looking down on me!” “My disciple, you are already strong enough. You can’t let your heart be consumed by the desire for revenge. Dao of cultivation is about pursuit of self-improvement, not about using your force against others. If you follow the path of being wild power, you will not be able to progress much further, my disciple.” “I understand, master. Forgive my forgetfulness; I shall follow your words and forge my own Dao! I promise not to shame your name as your disciple, master.” “Now that’s the spirit! With that, you will easily become Qi Grand Master, no, even Qi Champion in the future.” “Master, your disciple is unworthy of such kind words. Alright, I wish you the best luck. I will really miss your guidance as well as your cooking, master.” “Is that so? Then visit me after I open my own restaurant.” “Yes, master.” Saying those words, old man kowtowed on the ground. “It was an honor to have you as a teacher, master Egon.” the old man said, with his forehead on the ground. “You have also made me proud as a disciple, sect master Piper.” the young man responded. “I shall never forget my debt to you. If you ever wish to stay at our Jackhammer sect, you will be treated as the VIP of VIPs.” “I will come and visit you then. But only if you let me cook for your sect’s elders.” said young man laughing. Then, he quickly flew away. Old man stayed kneeling on the ground until a few minutes later. Usually he was very proud, but to his master, he would give all the respect he deserved. * * * Few months ago, sect master Piper was sitting in his cultivation cave. Well, to be precise he was sitting on the ceiling of the cave, upside down. His hourglass meditation technique was a very profound art he developed himself, but it required him to act opposite to normal. So he could only practice when in isolation. But he had to interrupt practice as suddenly, the earth itself started shaking. “Earthquake? I have to escape! If there’s a cave in, this cave will become my coffin!” He ran as quickly, as possible, his feet basically hovering over the ground. Then he finally left his cave. But to his surprise, someone was standing in front of it. “Fellow Daoist, forgive me, but I’m really sorry, already reflecting on my mistake. I think I knocked too strongly.” said a young man who looked twenty at most. He had brown hair and blindfold over his left eye. It took Piper about a quarter of a minute before he realized what young man meant. “Young Daoist, I’m sorry, but this is my cultivation cave. I don’t really like people intruding. Moreover, the earthquake… say, what?!” Finally, after saying some things he now wanted to unsay, he realized young man implied he was one who caused the earthquake. Piper activated his qi sense and suddenly felt like someone placed a pacifier in his mouth. Youth was surrounded by calm, peaceful aura that had relaxing effect on him. But this relaxing effect couldn’t suppress his shock. After all, this amount of energy, Piper was sure that even a late stage Qi Grandmaster wouldn’t compare to it. Piper himself was only an early second stage Qi Master. Of all the low grade sect masters he knew, his cultivation was the shallowest and his sect barely qualified as low grade. Now, facing an enemy who was two or even more ranks above, he felt fear crawling up his spine. But his fear was partially forcibly suppressed by the calm aura of the young man. “Fe-fellow Daoist, no Daoist master, forgive my previous insolence! May I politely ask what might have led you to my cultivation cave? Do you perhaps want to borrow it? I will gladly lend it to you! No, not lend, I mean, take it as a gift!” he quickly mumbled. “That is very friendly offer from you, but I have no need for your cultivation cave.” “Of course not. This humble cave obviously does not enter sight of such a supreme master. Forgive my insolence.” “Please, fellow Daoist, could you calm down? I am not here with any bad intentions. I have merely spent last seven years away from the civilization, so I feel like I need to slightly restore my common sense. I decided to find a fellow Daoist with similar circumstances, to ask him for assistance. Of course, it will not be for free.” said the young man, and pulled out very small branch filled with qi, giving it to Piper. Unable to recognize the wood type, Piper asked: “What kind of tree is this from?” “It is four thousand years qi paragon golden oak treant’s branch. It should be worth some money.” young man said. Piper gulped. Qi paragon treant?! Worth some money?! This was a gift worth more than an entire high grade sect’s treasury! But he wouldn’t be able to really exchange it for high grade sect treasury even if he wanted to because they would just kill him instead. That’s the kind of treasure it was!! “Is that not enough?” young man asked. “No, not at all. Actually, I am afraid I am unworthy of such a gift.” Responded Piper truthfully. He would rather receive something that would not make him target of all sects of the Donger empire. “Oh, and I thought this was cheap enough.” silently said young man to himself, but Piper clearly heard it. ‘My god, he’s probably not even Qi Champion, he might be Qi Paragon. Real Qi Paragon!’ said Piper inwardly. In his sect’s ranking, young disciples were those who were only Awakened, while most were those in Body Tempering phase, and then there were higher ranked Qi Disciples, who were either very talented younglings, decently talented middle aged men, or untalented old farts. Above them were low stage Qi Adepts, who were given lower functions such as hall masters, herbal garden’s master, and on, and on and on, then there were while those Qi adepts who reached stage six or higher were Elders. There were also two grand elders who reached Qi master phase and he himself who was also same. There was also same ranking for Spirit practitioner, but as his sect was one of the lowest of the low, Piper had no spirit practitioner in his sect. In a middle grade sect, you could increase everyone’s cultivation by half a rank, making their sect leader late Qi Master to first stage Qi Grand-master. Even high grade sects were led by mid to late stage Grandmasters, and in some very distant countries, there were Earth rank sects which were led by Qi Champions! Qi Paragon was even rank above that! It was a monstrous existence in this area, someone who could flip the mountains with a palm of his hand and destroy sects with a wave of a finger! “I see. Well, what about this? Grand Master rank River Clam. Is that better?” youth asked, pulling another treasure, this time more reasonable, out of his storage ring. Looking at the ring, it was thrash tier item, type of item where Piper would never allow such treasures to be stored in there due to fear of its malfunction. “Thank you very much. I shall accept your gift. Whatever you need, just ask me.” Piper quickly accepted. While he was afraid of the presence of a Qi Paragon, he had no way but to oblige. “Alright. Do you have any food here? I am hungry.” said youth. “No. I am fasting. I cannot eat when I use my cultivation method.” responded Piper. It was not precisely true, but since his cultivation method required him to do things in reverse, he could not eat using his mouth, and so he would rather fast than eat. “That’s unnatural. You should eat and excrete, that’s the cycle of nature. If you are forcibly stopping the natural cycle, your cultivation will have slower progress after you reach the rank of Qi Paragon.” responded the young man. “Well, I don’t fear I will ever reach rank of Paragon, so I guess there’s no drawback for me.” “What? You don’t have much time to live? Fellow Daoist, if you need, I have some medicine that can give you a decade of life more! Do not give up on reaching Paragon realm yet!” Piper gulped? What was that old monster in shape of a young man saying? Was he implying he could reach the Paragon realm in under a decade?! Was he perhaps not a Paragon, but even something more monstrous? ‘No, think rationally, what is chance that you would meet some stronger than a Paragon monster. Nothing! Nil!’ said a voice one in Piper’s head. ‘Don’t listen to him. If you asked yourself yesterday what chances there are you would meet a Paragon today, what would you respond? Same thing! Just because it’s impossible, it does not mean it just didn’t happen to you.’ said a voice number two. “Might I ask, fellow Daoist, what do you exactly expect from this friendly visit in my cultivation cave?” Piper tried to deflect the discussion. “I would like to study hum… I mean local qi cultivation methods and other practices. I need to prepare myself for how to communicate with local Qi Paragons and Qi Rulers politely, and not to insult them by not knowing how to conduct myself. So I hoped fellow Daoist would help me learn that.” Piper couldn’t help but laugh a bit. Moment later, he was overcome by a fear, as he realized what he just did. Did I insult him, he thought. Will he kill me, he asked himself. “Forgive my insolence, supreme Daoist master, I am not laughing at you, but you see, there are no Qi Paragons and Qi rulers in a fifty thousand miles radius. You would have hard time finding a Qi Champion, to be honest. “Is that so? They told me that mere Sky grade Sects have Paragons as sect masters. I guess many things have changed since they last visited here.” Sky grade sects? Were those things even real, Piper cursed. He always taught his students that Sky grade sects don’t exist, and it is something people imagined when they heard about Earth grade sect. Since the Sky is above the Earth, then Sky sects must be above Earth sects, that was their flawed reasoning, was what he concluded. But in the end, they were real? “I see. Very well, I shall settle for Qi Champion then. Fellow Daoist, I ask you to give me pointers.” “Gulpsaywhat?” “Pointers! Pointers about the etiquette. Did I speak impolitely to you? Did I use some words you didn’t understand? I don’t want to be laughingstock when I meet some Qi Champion and talk with him.” “Eh… in that case… maybe don’t ask for pointers that way. To ‘Ask for pointers’ is a challenge to a duel.” “A duel? You mean training match?!” “Sometimes. It depends on context. When talking to your best friend, it’s a friendly match. When talking to someone else, it’s usually bloody fight.” “I see. Forgive me for confusing you. I did not mean to challenge you to a duel, fellow Daoist.” After that, Piper started teaching etiquette to young looking man whose name was Egon. He tried to ask him where he came from but Egon rejected answering that question. Few weeks later, Egon made soup out of Grandmaster Clam he brought as gift, and it helped Piper break through from the second to the fourth stage of Qi Master rank. But then, their relationship changed. While Piper advised Egon on etiquette, Egon started advising Piper on cultivation, which led to him taking a leap up the ranks. Piper who realized how much he has profited from these advices begged Egon to accept him as a disciple in name, even if it was only for a few months. And in the end, Egon agreed. At that time Egon also started cooking food out of ordinary resources every day, but the way he cooked was itself extraordinary. Have you ever seen someone cutting carrots midair with four knives infused with qi or cooking with a legendary flame? And his passion when he cooked was also extraordinary. One day, he suddenly asked Piper to leave the cultivation cave for a day and after he emerged from the cave, his face had deep focused expression. “Disciple, I will have to leave very soon.” Piper who was very punctual when he was teaching Egon etiquette has forced them to use master-disciple addressing to train him at it, so Egon would call him a disciple. There was also for another reason, as Piper knew that no matter where Egon went, fact that he had had such a powerful teacher would still remain true for him, and he could proudly say to his grandchildren that there was a Paragon who once called him a disciple. “Master, what’s going on?” Piper asked, looking at the heavy expression on Egon’s face. “You see, Piper, I finally realized it. I was stuck in my cultivation, unable to progress, so I decided to travel the realm in order to obtain insight from others’ cultivation methods. After all, something could inspire me to break through my bottleneck. But truth is, I was wrong all the time. Reason my bottleneck was there was not because I didn’t understand some profound truth about Qi. It was because I failed to understand important thing about myself and my Dao.” “What was it that even you failed to understand it, master?” “You see, when I was just a kid, I started pursuing the path of the cultivation for a similar reason you did. Something happened to me and it made me feel worthless. I wanted to prove to myself that was not pathetic. To show those who were looking down on me that I am better than them. It was very shallow reason. After my teachers started teaching me, I started enjoying the path of cultivation of Qi, but it was not because I liked it but because I liked them. They were the greatest teachers to ever exist, patient, generous, and wise. But in the end, the path of cultivation was never for me. Since I was young, I always wanted to be a chef. So, I should give up my false Dao of cultivation, and walk the only true Dao that there is for me. Dao of cooking. It is irony, because I realized this just as I broke through the bottleneck. What held me down in Qi King rank was this reality, that I was never meant to walk this path. So I shall return to my hometown, give up on cultivating and become a chef.” Piper gasped in a shock. What kind of nonsense was this? How many people have reached Qi Champion rank of cultivation? They strived hard their whole life just to reach just that. And this young man claimed that he reached into realm of legends, and at the same time he said that he was not even suited to cultivate at first place? What kind of nonsense was that? Qi King! Above Qi paragons are four rank of legends, first is Qi Ruler then there is Qi King and Qi Emperor. There is one more rank between king and emperor, but people have forgotten its name, and can’t agree on what the name of it is. If someone who is unsuited for cultivation reached a rank that high, then what were martial geniuses of this era? A bad joke, that’s what they were! That’s what Piper felt like. “Master, please think about it again. Even if you can no longer cultivate further, with your rank, sect you would create would rule supreme over any other sect. You shouldn’t really say something like giving up on cultivation.” “Disciple, tell me how do you feel when you reach new rank? Excited, am I right? Satisfied. But today I realized that it is not same for me. Whenever my cultivation grew while I was with my teachers, I felt happy, satisfied and excited but only because I knew they would praise me and be happy about my progress. Now I see that rather than perfection of my cultivation, I simply wanted their approval. But after cooking for you, I remembered that feeling when I was child. When I helped our chef in kitchen to prepare a dinner, and when people said that my food made them want to eat more - that feeling, my disciple, was extremely fulfilling. You reminded me of that. And I realized that in truth, that was what I always wanted to do, what I was meant to do.” Piper wanted to protest, but he could feel the weight of the words Egon said. He also had something that he wanted to do when he was little boy. That he felt passionate about. But he was pressed on this path by his parents and his sect. Hearing these words, he could feel the Dao Egon was speaking about physically move the wind. It was Dao insight deeper than any advice Egon ever gave him. “I understand, master.” * * * Now that his master was gone, Piper started packing his things up in order to return to his sect. He laughed as he imagined expression of other low grade sect master as they realized he jumped eight stages in less than a year. He also created half a dozen new cultivation methods thanks to the insightful guidance of master Egon. And now, he was the tenth stage Qi Master, fearsome existence that could rule a middle grade sect. “I need to pass down some of my knowledge and find a new sect master. Master Egon was right, I should also chase after my dream, but as a sect master, I have to be responsible. I still should have at least hundred years to live, so I can spend a decade or so teaching my successor and giving him my sect.” he said loudly to himself, as all crazy old dudes living in the caves do. “Hmm, I am looking forward to achieving my dream! Not even an army of Qi Kings shall stop me to fulfill that one desire of mine!!!” he screamed with fist risen provocatively towards sky and with wide and possibly lewd grin. Spoiler: Please click this to read the end of the chapter … … … … … … … … By the way Piper’s dream was to become a preschool caretaker. Next Chapter
That prologue tho..... that connection between the two tho..... Im sure something will be connected later down the road..... maybe the Dere (heh heh heh... which is it? kyuu? tsun? yan?) clan will show up again.... EDIT: NVM, I somehow fucked up.... switched the old man and egon EDIT2: MMKAY, either I got this or im clueless as hell 1. Egon is now 7 years older than when he left 2. Egon was most likely taught by non-humans/non-human techniques 3. Egon is giving up his path of cultivation to cook 4. Egon's teachers are some badass mofos
Damn, it was meant to be a joke but did it confuse the situation that much? You start with dialogue where you assume that disciple is young one and master is old one, and suddenly, it's twisted. I guess that was fail. 1. Well, now eight, after he spent about 9 months teaching Piper. 2. Yes. 3. Yes. 4. Yes.
no... what I did was something like this..... read first couple of lines, saw 'master egon' mentally placed old man as master egon piper was his disciple and i skipped to the end...... then I saw ;as all old crazy dudes do; and as like TF is happening went back and re-read..... understood
Added response into edit of previous comment. Also Was the 'Why I'm giving up cultivation' speech good? I worked hard on it, but maybe too hard.
Chapter 2 Part 1 Spoiler Dramatically standing on the bottom side of a cloud, Egon observed the city of Windburp. After he traveled a hundred thousand miles, he was now finally back. “This is where it all started.” he said to a bird crazy enough to fly past a man standing on the bottom of a cloud with a half a mile distance between them and the ground. “Father, Mother, forgive me that it took me so long but I am back now. It took me eight years… but your son has returned.” he added, making a bird mock him with its eyes. “Alright, mocking bird, you shall be for a dinner.” Egon said, grabbing the bird by its wings. * * * “They do not live here.” “Say what?!” “I said they do not live here. They had to move out.” said old man, scratching his ass. When Egon arrived in front of his house, instead of Smith’s Weaponry, there was now undergarments shop of a naughty old man. Actually, it was Undergarment Shop of The Naughty Old Man, at least according to what was written above the entrance. What could have happened here? Could it be that Dere clan had taken revenge against his family after he disappeared? “After their young master ran away from home they turned their finger to Dere clan, accusing them of murdering the young master.” No! What a stupid thing had I done, Egon thought. Just because of me… “Dere clan was not willing to tolerate their accusations, so they helped with a search for Smith’s young master. After that, they found some old crazy in the forest who remembered him. They inspected his mind and learning that he has killed their young master and punishing him, Dere clan has invited Smith family to join their personal weapon craftsmen in capital. Very noble people, this Dere clan, I ought to say.” Egon sighed with relief. Apparently, Dere clan was not these evil monsters he had them for. Quite opposite, actually. After learning that, he slowly strode through the market, trying to learn something about chef Rumsay, who taught him cooking. Luckily, after some time, he learnt that he opened restaurant named The Young Lord’s, in memory of young Smith who wanted to become chef but died before he could. That made Egon shed a few tears as he was touched by his gesture. “Alright, I should visit them after I exchange some items for money.” he said and made his way towards an auction hall. After waiting for a half an hour in line, he entered one of four exchange rooms, where people could trade off some worse items. Young man has welcomed him with a nod and pointed towards a chair. Egon sat down, taking out few things he found during his journey home. Qi Disciple rank core of hundred year Teal Deer Patriarch, that he hunted to feed the hungry children in a village he passed by. Taking it out, he licked his lips, remembering Deer Patriarch meatballs he cooked for the hungry children. Other items were antlers of the Deer Patriarch and, captured in a lantern, Spirit Refining wisp that has been killing people in a swamp he passed through. In a low grade sect, these items would be seen as decent hunt, while mid and high grade sect would find nothing special about them. But once again, this was not a low grade sect. While there was a mid-grade sect in the Windburp city, it was not related to this ordinary auction hall. And in the eyes of merchant representing the auction hall, these items were treasures. But their value made the merchant doubt their origin. Were they perhaps stolen, he thought? After all, for items like this to be sold at this hall must mean that the person in front of him didn’t want to or couldn’t sell it in any better place! “I shall inform my superior about this transaction, if you don’t mind. I do not have approval to trade with sums as large as this one.” he said and excused himself. After leaving the room, he ran quickly towards hall master. “What? Qi Disciple Teal Deer Patriarch’s core and antlers? I do not know about core, but I remember Elder Bong having Deer Patriarch’s antlers in his workroom. Inform him and the Drunkensword sect immediately.” Hall master ordered. Not even five minutes later, Elder Bong arrived. “I have been informed about some seller wanting to sell Teal Deer Patriarch’s antlers and core. My own antlers are still in their place, but I am rather interested in buying one more pair. Lead me to your client.” he said with domineering attitude. This little auction hall was nothing in his eyes. After all he was elder of mid-grade sect. Being fourth stage Qi Master, his cultivation was higher than many low grade sect masters. He only came because he found it interesting. After entering the room, he probed the young man who sat there with his qi sense. Elder Bong was not like most other cultivators. Usually cultivators would focus either on Body Refining, to improve their strength, or Spirit Refining, to improve their utility. It was not weird for Qi Master to be only Spirit Disciple. But Elder Bong, while not giving spirit refining as much attention as body refining was still stage eight Spirit Adept. Apart from being skilled qi-weapon maker, his qi-sense was very good. But unlike when he met Piper, Egon was completely suppressing and hiding his aura right now. No matter how much Elder Bong probed, he couldn’t gain even a hint of other party’s strength. Was the man in front of him just ordinary merchant who bought the items from a dubious source? Or was he an expert hiding his cultivation? Most of cultivators would rather assume second option than assume first, since overestimating a merchant is much better than underestimating and angering an expert, but Elder Bong’s ego didn’t allow him to do so. “These items, what is their dubious origin? You have bought them from someone shady, am I right? I am quite sure these items are stolen!” he accused Egon. Egon blinked twice, and wanted to protest, but the Sect Elder didn’t give him time. “Listen, was this not for this old man’s goodwill, you would not be able to sell such dubious items of an unknown origin here. I offer you three spirit coins.” said Elder Bong. Merchant who was following Elder Bong was shocked. These treasures, if their trading hall bought them, they could sell them to sect for at least thirty spirit coins. Egon was not sure what market value of those items was, but he remembered value of spirit coins. One was worth a hundred gold! Even his parents would make only about forty spirit coins a year altogether. “I accept.” he responded. * * * After he left, Elder Bong nodded his head with satisfaction. He obtained another pair of Teal Deer Patriarch horns, and other two items he could sell to earn himself some snack money. No matter who were these items stolen from, with his authority, no one would dare to ask for compensation from him, well no one who would care about these cheap items at least. * * * At the same time… Egon jumped about ten meters into the air, heavily restricting his strength. ‘Yeah, whole three spirit coins! That’s a good start. With these coins, I should be able to buy some decent place to start my restaurant at. Well, but I will also need some cooking necessities. What to do now?’ It was extremely easy to just hunt some beasts, but that was against what his masters taught him. Kill to feed yourself and protect yourself, but never kill simply to profit. Once you cross that line, it’s easy to fall down the spiral of viciousness. When he killed the Deer Patriarch to feed the starving children, he was already crossing the line slightly. He wanted to visit chef Rumsay’s restaurant, however, that was last thing he had to do before that. His path went towards qi equipment trading house, where he bought cheap mid-grade storage ring for ten gold coins. While he stored items in his personal storage space and didn’t actually need storage ring, in order to not look suspicious by pulling things out of the air, or pulling massive objects out of the inferior quality storage ring which they obviously couldn’t fit into, he bought this ring. Now, with two spirit coins and ninety gold coins, he walked towards the restaurant Young Lord’s. Second Part of the Chapter
Part 2 Spoiler A red haired young woman stood in front of a girl, bowing slightly. She had simple clothing of a sect disciple, while the girl had teal dress with many beautiful accessories. The young woman did not look very beautiful; actually her face was more on the rough side. However unlike the girl in front of her, she had quite a large breast. Normally, this narrator would not dare to talk about breasts, but while the young woman was twenty years old, the girl was actually twenty four years old. But due to the Loli physique of the Loli clan, she looked like a young girl who has yet to reach her teens. And this woman who looked like a little girl had complex about that, so even on normal days, she would berate young red haired woman to make herself feel better. But today was not a normal day. *Smack* The red haired young woman fell on the ground after being smacked by the woman who looked much younger than her. “Young mistress, what did I do to offend you?” she asked while bowing to the girl, not daring to stand up. “What did you do to offend me? Are you really trying to pretend that you don’t know? You vixen, you were trying to seduce my Ruoh. And yet you’re now trying to pretend that you don’t know, you whore!” Serving young woman gulped. She tried to seduce Ruoh?! Nonsense! Ruoh from Gya clan, that terrible womanizer would try to hump basically anything that moved, just like a dog. It was truth that he was trying to get between her legs, but so was he trying for any other woman who had any breast at all. And young servant believed that the way she persistently resisted him should have been enough to not make her target of the young Misses abuse. Ruoh was fiancée of young mistress Tan. And Tan was extremely jealous about him. “Pack your things and get the hell out of the capital. Don’t even bother trying to ask me to forgive you. I will inform your sect that I kicked you out tomorrow and if you ever dare to find yourself in the Rhino city, I will make sure to have you whipped.” Young serving woman finally realized how dire her situation was. “Please, young mistress, forgive me. Please, do not…” “Silence!” the girl interrupted. “Don’t wag your tail at me like you wagged it at him, bitch. I am not going to let you off. Leave the city this day and never return.” girl said and kicked the serving woman. The young woman held back groan of pain, as tears ran down her cheeks. * * * She was an orphan, growing up in the orphanage in the capital. Somehow, she managed to barely qualify to become low grade sect’s disciple. But while other disciples fully used scarce resources sect gave them to cultivate, she sold them to support other orphans in the orphanage. That was why she was only at the late eighth circle of Awakening, even though she was already twenty years old. But then her low grade sect received that request, request for one female disciple to become a servant of the young mistress of Loli clan, one of five founding clans of Eagle claw sect. It was well paid request, yet few competed for it. It was suspicious. But sect has forced this request onto her, claiming that if she can’t enter body strengthening rank, she should at least contribute to the sect. Four months. For four months she managed to survive young mistress’ temper. She received quite a large amount of low grade herbs and even six spirit coins every month, and even after her sect took away half of that, she still felt like she was doing well. She had to shoulder constant abuse of young mistress, but she was alright dealing with that. But now, she was kicked out of her sect, out of capital and could do nothing against it. Her orphanage would lose the money she contributed monthly. Since she started working for young mistress, she managed to save a lot of money for them, but they would still use them in a year or two. As someone kicked out of a low grade sect and below body refining rank, she also had probably no future in the cultivation world. But she couldn’t give up now. After travelling to Windburp city, she was now searching for a sect to accept her. From the very start, she, who sold more than a half of the low grade herbs she received from her sect just to have more money for the orphanage, was doomed to lag far behind all those favored disciples born in a clan or with some kind of rare physique. Her physique was not that rare, it was just high ranked ordinary physique. She had six solid Awakening circles, two unstable ones, one fractured and one shattered. Solid Awakening circles were those that could be cultivated easily, unstable could be cultivated with some difficulty, fractured could not be cultivated but would open upon reaching Qi Adept rank, and shattered would never open. Amount of opened Awakening circles before entering Body Refining would translate into cultivation speed. Those who had all ten circles opened would automatically obtain better benefits from herbs and their cultivation method. Having eight openable and one fractured circle was actually deemed as better than mediocre talent for low grade sects. But because she didn’t use herbs properly, she was now stuck and unable to finish her final eighth circle and enter Body Refining rank. Two low grade sects she visited had already rejected her. And now, to make things even worse, a group of thugs was standing in her way. Well, at the first sight, they might look like thugs but she felt much stronger danger from them than an ordinary group of thugs could provoke from her. “Miss Imoto, young mistress Loli is sending her best regards.” said leader of thugs, grinning lewdly. “She said that we should come and help you get used to life that awaits you in the future.” he added, licking his lips. Six men behind him laughed. “Do not waste your time resisting. Us six brothers are only at early stages of body refining, but eldest brother is at ninth stage of body refining.” said one of them. “You should thank us for this lesson that there are some people you should never offend, Miss Imoto.” added another one. Young woman weakly fell to her knees, losing her will to fight completely. Unfair! This world was such unfair place. One person was born to be spoiled from their childhood to their adulthood, while others were born as beggars of the worst kind. One person had everything served to them on a golden plate while other was struggling to obtain even a slice of bread. As tears filled her eyes… “Hello, my lady, do you perhaps know where I could find a restaurant called The Young Lord’s?” another person arrived at the scene. * * * This city was his hometown. He was walking from the general store area to the third housing district. The sixth housing district, place well known for its crime, was in the opposite direction. So how did he end up here? “Like the hell I know! There’s no way I would get lost in my hometown!” he swore towards the narrator. As he searched for his way out, he arrived into an abandoned alley. Well, it was not completely abandoned. There was a young woman and seven scary looking young men eyeing her. Was he feeling inclined to help? Not really. He tended to not interfere in cultivators’ affairs. Yes, he helped the starving children who were too pitiful to watch, since he respected his teacher’s values of protecting the little and helpless ones. But young woman in front of him was not helpless. Almost at the peak of eight circle of Awakening, she was just slightly weaker than some of those men in front of her. As far as he was concerned, it was usual occurrence in human cultivation world. Piper even told him that human cultivators oppressing each other and fighting to death was completely normal scene, as natural as female mantis eating its mate. While this went completely against his principles, he felt no reason to get involved. As someone who grew apart from humans, he didn’t really have much sympathy for their struggles on the path of Dao. He would protect those who did not walk the path of cultivation, but to other cultivators, he was indifferent. With Piper, they had a deal both benefitted from, but that was only because Egon needed to prepare himself for something he now gave up on. But he needed someone to guide him out of this area and lead him to the restaurant. So he could as well do a good deed of the day and save the young woman at the same time. “Hello, my lady, do you perhaps know where I could find a restaurant called The Young Lord’s?” he asked as he arrived at the scene. “Get lost. This junior sister offended daughter of the Loli clan’s master and we are simply delivering the justice here.” said leader of seven men. For Egon, smashing them flat would be a matter of a thought. Actually, he could probably smash the entire city into the ground with a finger. But he promised his master, the teacher of his teachers, that he would not use his power wildly. “Young sprout,” she said to him, “you will now return back to the human world, and as far as I know, the human world only has Qi Kings as its ultimate rulers ever since the Great War when all the emperor influences were exterminated. There might be some Qi Half-Emperors, since they could have improved ever since I last visited, but ordinary human Half-Emperor cannot compete with you, even though your cultivation is still merely at the peak of Qi King rank. It would be very easy to go mad with power there. When you see an injustice, you will rush in to fix it, for the sake of justice and good.” “At the beginning you will only use it in obvious cases of injustice, but then, you will start enforcing your own ideas of what is just. Suddenly even those who don’t agree with your definition of justice will be seen as unjust, and worthy of elimination. At the end, you will simply become another tyrant, losing your own principles and shattering your own Dao. So, I forbid you from solving the conflicts you come across with force, instead, solve them with your own Dao.” There were few non-violent ways to solve the situation. Retreat, pacify them with his aura, or simply scare them off. But that was not what she advised him. ‘Solve them with your own Dao.’ For Egon, that meant using Dao of cooking. Maybe he could feed them some good food and make them more willing to leave? “Fellow Daoists, I beg you to spare me some face. I have some remaining Qi Disciple Teal Deer Patriarch meat. I can make you some tasty meatballs. Not only are they tasty, meal like that will surely help with your cultivation.” With those words, Egon pulled out about half a kilo of meat out of his storage ring, as well as a small cooking knife. Piece of meat levitated in front of him. Seven men had a confused look as they observed levitating piece of meat. Then, Egon infused qi into his knife and started cutting it. No, he was not just cutting it, he was mincing it with a single knife, that was the speed he had shown. In a less than five seconds, meat was completely minced and formed one big ball. Egon put away his knife, and placed both his hands on the ball of the meat. Qi from his hands was slowly entering the meat, changing its color. Then, he once more pulled out knife and four shining suspicious herbs, and in next second, those herbs were cut into very small pieces that then mixed with the minced meat to serve as a spice. Then, the big ball of meat split into nine smaller balls, and formed a cube with one meatball in the middle. Suddenly, meatballs were surrounded by purple flame, making all seven men and young woman take a step back in shock. Flame disappeared just a three seconds later, leaving nine finished meatballs. Egon didn’t even bother to wave his hands, and made seven meatballs fly with a thought towards the seven men who were still in a shock. But their shock did not prevent them from taking ten steps back. “Don’t run away, they are very tasty, I promise!” he shouted, but at that moment, seven body refining sect disciples ran away with full speed. Egon, seeing them leave, sighed. “What a waste of a good meal.” he said; storing three of meatballs into his storage ring and then splitting remaining six between girl and him. “At least you should eat them, it would be waste to just let them get spoilt.” he said. The shocked young woman finally moved. Then, she fell to the ground and kowtowed towards him. “Daoist master, I know am unworthy, but I have to ask, would you consider making me your disciple?” Egon, feeling a bit surprised, bit his lip. “I have no time to accept a disciple.” he said. Then, he measured the girl from her toes to her hair, and suddenly his non-blindfolded eye brightened. “But would you be interested in being a waitress?” Announcement: I might be clearing some terminology later today or tomorrow. Also please, if you like the story, give likes/follow me. And forgive me this sentence of self-promotion.
Chapter 3: Part 1 Spoiler “You were threatened by some cultivator?” she asked. “So what? You should have just beaten the guy.” “Mistress, forgive us, but that was impossible. That guy was a monster. His qi, his spiritual power, I am sure he was at least in late stages of adept rank in both qi and spirit cultivation. Possibly even a master in one of those.” he responded. They believed that they would be able to have some fun since the woman pissed off their young mistress. They had no idea some cultivation master would interfere and then do that insane demonstration of his power. He shown them spirit flames, telekinesis and also that even in close combat, he would turn them into mincemeat. They were lucky he did not choose to chase after them. “Do you think I am interested in your nonsense? You are all dismissed.” Young mistress said and sighed. Loli Tan sat down and breathed in, breathed out. These bastards, she sent them to scare that vixen seductress to make sure she would never even dare to come close to her, but they ran back to capitol like whipped dogs. She still could not contain her anger. Three days ago, when her fiancé visited, his first question was about where the serving woman was. Why was he such as breast lover? Why couldn’t he be also attracted to her beautiful delicate figure? Looking at her little hands and her non-existent breast, she sighed. With Loli physique, one was stuck in the looks of twelve to thirteen years old. After few decades, she would probably reach the look of fourteen years old, but that was the limit. And her fiancée was attracted to different body type. She sighed again but then, she encouraged herself. At least, her situation was less tragic than her elder brother’s. Her body was extremely rare Greater Loli Physique, giving her many advantages over casual cultivators. For example, before reaching Qi Adept rank, those with Lesser Loli Physique would cultivate faster by a half, those with Intermediate Loli Physique twice as fast, and she who had Greater Loli Physique three times as fast. Moreover, people with Loli physique lived few decades longer than other practitioners. With nine solid and one unstable qi circles, she was only fourteen when she entered Body Refining rank, seventeen when she became qi disciple and two years ago, she finally became Qi Adept. Right now she has only reached late second stage, but that was still more than enough to make her number two talent of younger generation of Loli clan. Number one position was taken by her brother, but she was not envious at all. Only thanks to her brother could she enjoy life to some extent and wasn’t force to spend all time cultivating. Her elder brother, while only two years older, has already reached first stage of Qi Master rank. It was expected he could become next sect leader and possibly elevate Eagle claw sect from high grade to earth grade sect. She was happy this responsibility was not hers to carry. She had very rare Greater Loli Physique, which only appeared once in few generations, which would usually make her focus of clan, but luckily her older brother had Ultimate Loli Physique. Moreover, his Loli physique has reached fourth stage already, Loli twin tails formation stage, and his hair was now long and he was unable to cut it, else his Loli physique would revert back to third stage. Due to the effects of physique many old men have been giving lecherous looks whenever they saw him, like predators eying their prey. He looked like a fragile young lady more than Tan. She acknowledged that herself. His life would be hard one, she thought. So, why was she thinking about her older brother? That was because she was right now walking towards his room. While she had some influence in the sect, compared to the influence of her brother, it was still nothing. She had decided that if that vixen seduced some mid-grade sect’s elder, thinking that would make her safe, she would not let her get away with that. But in front of the room, two qi adepts stood a guard. Tan would usually feel no guilt about interrupting her brother’s cultivation, but two guardians’ presence meant he was at important breakthrough point. Therefore, was she to interrupt him now, he would be angry with her. Especially considering that her reason of visit was quite childish. ‘It can wait.’ she told herself. 'I can keep holding a grudge for few days more.' * * * As she led him through the city, young woman was still thinking about her own situation. She felt like she was completely incapable of understanding what the cultivator meant. ‘Let me be your disciple!’ she said. ‘Would you be interested in being a waitress?’ he responded. Perhaps, did he mean to tell her that with her talent, she should give up on martial path and just work as a normal person? But with someone like Loli Tan being after her, she was damned if she didn’t become stronger. “Master Daoist, would you please forgive my insolence in asking you this, but is there really no way for you to accept me s a disciple?” “Impossible. I have too many things to do. I need to find a good spot for my restaurant and buy it, get some better cooking tools, write down a menu, find meat, grain, and vegetable suppliers and so on. Even if I was interested in taking a disciple, I wouldn’t have time. But even if I had enough time, I am not really interested in taking disciples.” he responded. Young woman gulped. This Daoist master, was he serious? Did he really want to open a restaurant? Why? She thought that whole demonstration of his cooking skill was indirect threat towards those seven sect disciples, but was he seriously cooking? She took out one of three meatballs out of her pocket where she placed them previously. Most people would not carry food in their pocket, but as orphanage child, she was all but interested in Dao of hygiene. Taking a small bite, she suddenly lost her footing and knelt on the ground. Qi erupted from the bit on her tongue, entering her body. In three or four second, qi circulated through her body and then was absorbed, leaving behind extremely comfortable feeling. Warm feeling emerged from her stomach for a second, disappearing quickly, only to erupt once more. She released moan of pleasure. Even comparing that feeling to when she was alone in the room, thinking about Disciple Zhu with hands under her blanket, this feeling was ten… no, hundred times better. She felt lightheaded; her eyes having a vacant look, as she slowly started returning to reality. “Are you fine?” asked young cultivator, as he pulled her up. What kind of food was that? Was there some drug inside? How come it felt so… “Hmm, I guess using Qi Adept Dragon Fern Herb as spice was too much. I should not use it when I cook for normal people, I guess.” man said silently to himself. What? Qi Adept herb? What kind of nonsense was that? Even Elders of her sect would be lucky if they used dozen of high grade Qi Disciple herbs during their lifetime. Compared to high grade spirit monsters, high grade herbs were much rarer. For a second, she looked at young man’s storage ring green with envy. What kind of treasures were possibly hiding inside? However, little did she know that storage ring of Egon was completely empty. Ever since he reached Spirit Grand Master rank, he was able to open personal storage space. Only reason he bought mid-grade storage ring was because he would look suspicious if he pulled too much 'out' of his previous one. He had no intention to reveal his spiritual cultivation level. He remembered what did those annoying monkeys made him do when he told them he reached spiritual Grand Master rank. He promised to himself to never reveal his true spirit cultivation rank to anyone but his teachers, and to never ever make any spirit forged weapons. And by these two promises, he would stand. Young woman returned meatball back to her pocket, and continued leading him towards the restaurant he wanted to go, but all she really thought about were three meatballs in her pocket and six more that young man had. She could easily guide him in this city because she spent two years on a sect mission here before she took a job as Miss Loli’s servant. Finally, after hundred more meters, they arrived in front of the restaurant. It was quite a nice building, and it looked like they had lot of customers, with people leaving and arriving like a flood even now. Egon, looking at the restaurant, had hard time suppressing tears. Chef Rumsay, I am so happy you are doing well. Thank you for teaching me everything, he said silently in his heart. He bowed deeply towards the building, like it was his ancestor. Young woman, right next to him, had no clue what was happening, but used the moment to take very little jot of meat ball out of her pocket and place it in her mouth. More qi entered her body, but much less than last time, since it was much smaller than previous piece. She did not even lose her footing this time. But the comfortable feeling was still great. It was like a drug. Suddenly, young man stopped bowing, turned around and looked at her. “Thank you very much for taking me here. Now that I paid respect to my teacher, I will go around in order to see if there’s any place I could buy for my restaurant. So, I would like to ask, are you going to become my waitress?” She looked at him with desire in her eyes, thinking about meatballs she had in her pocket, meatballs that he had in his storage ring, and meatballs he would cook in future. “Yes, I do.” she responded, barely being able to suppress her urge to drool. Second Part
Part 2 Spoiler Waking up shortly before sunrise; she checked her pocket for any remaining meat from yesterday’s dinner. After her new employer accepted her as employee, he gave her a gold coin and told her to find some inn to stay in for the night. Moment she entered the room of a closest inn, hungrily, she threw herself at three meatballs. What followed was hour of supreme pleasure, as she slowly ate three meatballs. Every time she took a bit, her body would be filled warmth, and she would lose her mind to the calling of gluttony. Again and again, she told herself she would only take one more bite, but instead, she ate until not even jot was left. Now, she felt regret, because she no longer had any remaining. However, there was one thing that made her feel very suspicious. What was the qi from those meatballs doing to her body? Whenever she would take a bite, she could feel qi entering her body, but her cultivation didn’t grow an inch. She still felt like she had a little time before she had to go, so she sat down to cultivate. Focusing on her awakening circles, she suddenly gasped. Her constitution of six solid, two unstable, cracked and fractured Awakening circles has turned into seven solid, two unstable and one cracked circles. One of her unstable circles has turned into solid, her cracked circle has turned into unstable, and her shattered circle became just cracked. With just three meatballs, her physique became something most of mid-grade sect inner disciple would be envious of. Moreover, one of her solid Awakening circles had changed its color from pure white to silvery white. What that meant, she had no clue, but she could feel traces of something profound from the silver color. Completely forgetting about her intention to cultivate, having her thoughts dominated by his meatballs once again, she stood up and ran towards their meeting place. * * * She waited for him for more than an hour, because she arrived too early. “So you came.” he said, as he approached her. “I honestly thought you wouldn’t show up.” he continued, smiling. Wouldn’t show up? Who would not show up after being shown power of those meatballs? “So, miss employee, since from now on, we will be working together, introduction is at hand. My name is Egon.” he said, offering her hand. They shook their hands, as she suppressed her meatballs filled thoughts. “My name is Imoto, Imoto from Moe orphanage in capitol, former disciple of low grade Cause Pray Sect.” she introduced herself. “Former disciple? Were you perhaps forced to leave your sect by those people from yesterday?” While conclusion that Egon arrived to was not completely accurate, it was close enough, so Imoto decided not to correct him. “So that’s why you were willing to become a waitress? Lucky me, then.” he said with self-satisfied expression. At first, she wanted to respond to this remark with anger. How could he be so heartless as to not care about her circumstances? How could he be happy about profiting from her bad situation without feeling any guilt? But she stopped herself as she realized that in the end, she was one who would profit from this the most. While he just obtained nothing more than a waitress, she would be quite likely able to obtain way to return back to cultivation world. Even if she had to travel ten thousand miles to escape wrath of Loli Tan, if her physique changed just a bit more, she would turn into an unparalleled genius. Sects would compete over who would give better support to Moe orphanage just to make her pick their sect. “Martial Uncle Egon, perhaps, could you give me more of those meatballs?” she asked, trying to act meekly in order to obtain the most important thing. She was not really person who was able to use womanly charms, so she went for familiar feeling instead. “Uncle? Do I look like an uncle to you?” he asked surprised. “Do not joke with me, uncle. Expert like you, I dare not ask how many decades have you walked this world.” she responded with respect in her expression one would have for wise and aged family member. After laughing a bit, Egon decided that correcting her would probably cause her shock, so he stayed silent on the topic of his age. “Whatever. About the meatballs, I ate them for dinner yesterday. There’s one more but I already bit into it, so…” “Can I take it, please?” she begged. “If that doesn’t disgust you...” he responded, throwing her meatball. Hungrily, she ate the meatball as fast as possible. After finishing, she decided to ask him what was going to happen next. “Well, to be honest, I have no idea. I have never ever started restaurant before. I thought about asking teacher Ramsay from Young Lord’s for advice, but since I am going to become his competitor, I would feel bad about asking him.” Egon responded honestly, with dejected voice. “I see. Might I ask, Uncle Egon, why do you even want to open a restaurant?” Once more ignoring being called ‘Uncle’, Egon responded with wide smile. “It’s simply because I want to become chef. Ever since I was young, cooking for others made me happy. I later started walking the road of cultivation because of special circumstances, but at the end, I realized I was not suited to be a cultivator.” “Not suited to be a cultivator? Someone as powerful as you?” she asked surprised. “Being or not being suited for something is not just about talent. It’s also about whether or not can you put your full heart into it. I realized that I don’t feel complete just cultivating, so I returned back to cooking. Because when I cook for others, seeing their happiness, I also become really happy.” he responded. “That’s what being suited for cultivation means, it is to enjoy challenging yourself. Not just to be able to fully dedicate yourself to self-improvement, but also for it to be your desire.” he added. As he said that, some unpleasant memories resurfaced. Long time ago, these memories caused him to feel pain, but now, he felt as if they no longer meant anything to him. While being betrayed still left bitter taste on his tongue, he had long since lost any desire for revenge or even to show off in front of them. Thanks to his teachers, he was given power to forge his own path and now he realized what path he should take. Actually, he thought that maybe he should be thankful since if it was not this betrayal, would he ever meet his teachers? “I understand.” Imoto nodded, not really understanding much. After all, her daily struggles were about getting money for orphanage. For her, rather than something that would make her happy, something that lets her earn enough money is more important. “But does it have to be a restaurant? I mean, cooks in restaurants usually don’t see satisfied faces of their customers much. While restaurant is fine, how about starting with a food stand?” she says. These words are not something well thought, actually, she is just mumbling out first thing that entered her mind while she is trying to find reason within what Egon said. But to her surprise, hearing her, Egon freezes. Then, he hugs her like a bear. “Indeed. That is great idea! I could start a food stand! Miss Imoto, thank you very much.” He says releasing completely surprised young woman from his grip. * * * And so, six hours later, late afternoon, crowd of about thousand people gathered at plaza to observe insane show of Egon cutting the meat mid-air, herbs and onion to make meat skewers, boiling soup made from awakening rank monster bones, and meatballs cooking with use of spirit flames. This time, ingredients are slightly more normal. Most of meat is from ordinary animals, having only some small parts added which belong to awakening rank beast. This beast was terrorizing village with no cultivators, so Egon helped them by killing it, and stored it, since leaving it behind to rot would be waste. Herbs were also awakening rank. Imoto who was taking orders tried one meatball, and felt very little satisfaction from it. But while she was not satisfied, customers were actually singing it praises. “Such an exquisite taste.” “I have never eaten anything so good!!!” “More, I need more!” Merely after an hour of work, money they earned was close to half a spirit coin. That meant since they were selling for one silver and six coppers for a portion, that more three hundred people sated their hunger. With help of Egon’s spirit flame and his qi infused knife, he was able to prepare food that fast. And with show he was providing, he was able to attract attention of that many customers. Originally, he wanted to sell the food for much cheaper, but luckily Imoto was able to convince him that if he was using Awakening beast meat, he should charge more than normal restaurants. At first, some rich merchants bought the food. While it was about two times the cost food in luxurious restaurant had, having a strong cultivator cook for you added quite bit worth to cost. But now, even lower grade sect disciples passing through joined in buying it. They watched preparation of food in awe, and ate it with passion. Most of them were Body Refining youths, with some Awakening rank teenagers. As per their agreement, Imoto asks all sect disciples if they want special spice that is not suited for non-cultivators. Most of them agree, even though it doubles the cost. “Uncle Egon, what kind of spice is that, actually?” she asked silently. “Well, it’s mixture of Spirit Disciple and Qi Disciple plants. It should be quite weaker than those meatballs I did previously. But it should be helpful as well.” he responded and threw her a skewer. As she bit into it, tears poured out of her eyes. This! It was completely different than those meatballs! If she were to describe taste of those meatballs, their taste was wild, violent, strong but delicious. Mere taste of it was able to make you lose power in your knees and cloud your mind. But this skewer, while its taste was much milder, it filled you with energy and cleared your mind. Finishing single piece of meat, Imoto felt like she would be able to climb a mountain easily and stay awake for a week. And once more, qi from the food enters her body. Not just Qi, this time, also spirit energy from Spirit Disciple plants is mixed in. Imoto can’t help but wait to check her Awakening circles. Another two hours pass and resources that Egon had prepared were already used, ending the day for them. After packing all things into storage ring, two of them leave the plaza. Altogether, they earned more than two spirit coins. “Thank you very much for your help.” Egon says, as they walk towards the inn. Then, he takes out spirit coin and gives it to her. She can’t help but be surprised. “You earned it. Your idea with food stand was great.” “Thank you.” she thanks him for the money. “So tomorrow, meet me at the same place as today.” he says. “We will be selling tomorrow as well?” she asks. After all, they used all their “No, tomorrow, I will give you some cultivation pointers in the morning and then you will help me buy some meat. As long as it’s herbs, I have tons of them, so there’s no need to buy more.” * * * That night, in three low grade sects… Suddenly, about fifty Awakening disciples rushed towards their masters. “Master, our fractured Awakening circles… they are gone!” “They turned from fractured into cracked circles!” If it was single disciple, they would probably think of it as some kind of miracle from heaven, but of all three of those low grade sects, each had at least ten people who had this happen to them. After long inquisition, three sect masters arrived to same conclusion. It was not some miracle with unknown source. There was a one man’s weird cooking behind this blessing to their sect. Three sect masters, who were friends, secretly met each other to have a talk about this event. Nickname they gave to this mysterious Daoist during their meeting was Eccentric Chef.
Chapter 4 Part 1 Spoiler She stayed awake almost entire night, cultivating. Well, at least half an hour at the beginning, she was simply jumping around with delight. Her Awakening circles all turned solid. Now, she had ten solid Awakening circles! Even high grade sect would find that kind of constitution very appealing. But one thing she noticed was that silvery color of her first circle has disappeared. But she paid it little mind compared to her having now perfectly solid physique. While it was still inferior to those with rare physiques such as Miss Loli’s Greater Loli physique or talents with Closed Qi body, but at least compared to those with Intermediate Loli physique, she would be slightly better. She was now certainly someone who could easily become Grand Elder of high grade sect. That made her so excited she couldn’t fall asleep and so she cultivated instead. That, in turn, made her oversleep. She arrived entire hour after sunrise. But Egon was not pissed. “I see. Your Circles stabilized at Full Solid Circle. That’s good.” He said, with no trace of anger in his expression or voice. “Uncle Egon, forgive my late arrival.” she said after she caught her breath. “It’s not an issue. Actually, it was helpful, I long since needed to feed my Rage Deity with some anger. And one who is losing their time is you, not me.” His answer surprised her. She had no idea what ‘Rage Deity’ was, but just hearing those words made her feel it was something terrifying. “Uncle Egon, there’s one thing I wanted to ask…” “How was I able to improve your foundation? It’s simple. I have been toying with herbs for couple years, testing different type of fire and ice flames on it. I found different methods that allow me to do many unusual things with them. I can purify herbs, make them temporarily strengthen your body or spirit, improve your foundation, remove herb impurities from your body, and even clear your cultivation blocks to some extent.” “Meatballs I gave you were originally meant to appease those seven Body Refining disciples, so I used very strong herb combination. I thought your body would be able to handle it, but I found out your foundation was quite destabilized yesterday. You were developing one silver circles, while rest of your foundation was not solid, so I used some Foundation stabilizing mixture. Now, all your Awakening Circles are solid, which is first step towards true cultivation.” Egon explained, smiling. Imoto was surprised about his explanation. Word ‘foundation’ was new for her, but she instantly realized he meant Qi circles. But she also felt that possibly, there was more to it than just Qi Circles. “What do you mean by foundation, Uncle?” she asked to make sure. “Well, foundation is foundation. All those fancy things like improving your constitution to pure Awakening circles, using methods to open secondary qi circles, qi veins or similar cultivation boosters. Things that improve cultivation speed. Really, those kind of methods… hmm? Now that I think of it, from what my disciple told me, low grade or even high grade sects should have no such methods, or very weak one at most.” “Could you teach me such methods?” Imoto asked. Egon scratched his chin. “I cannot teach you methods I received from my teachers. Only if they acknowledged you would I be allowed to do so. But there are some methods they made me develop as part of my training. They are vastly inferior, but if you don’t mind that, I can teach you one or two.” Then, he took out three meatballs and threw them at her. Imoto quickly caught them, afraid they would fall to the ground. “With herbs, it is only possible to achieve silver Awakening circles, which are only one step better than solid circles. After that, you will need to improve them with Awakening Transformation mantra I will teach you. You might not be able to achieve Pure Circles, but I am confident it is possible to achieve translucent ones.” These words, that sounded like woo nonsense to you sounded like nonsense to Imoto as well but she nodded. Then he taught her the words of meditation mantra. “Struh ti. Gninrub era yehtyllaer. Erifno era sllabym.” he said as he wrote the words down. Then he instructed her on tone of mantra as well as how she should rotate her qi in her Awakening circles. “Next thing I will teach you is Thirty Two Qi Veins Formation. While it is lesser foundation method, it can be combined with one very good foundation method, Sixty Four Qi Points Opening. If you are able to develop Sixty Four Qi Points Opening to Full Qi Points Opening later, it should be at least somewhat decent foundation.” Again, nothing he said seemed to made sense. “How fast my cultivation would I be after that?” she asked. “Well, that’s complex question to answer. Let me count it in solid awakening circles. If you turn your ten Awakening circles from solid to translucent, it’s same as if you had 2 more awakening circles. If you finish Thirty two qi veins formation, it’s same as having 4 more. If you finish Sixty Four Qi Points Opening, you can add 8 more, and 8 more if you develop it into Full Qi Points opening. Overall that makes 22 bonus solid circles worth of cultivation. Well, in theory at least.” He explained. “Truth is that you can’t really use this way to count it, because there actually are people who have more than ten awakening circles. Merely obtaining one new Awakening circle does not increase your cultivation speed from 10 to 11 stable cultivation circles, but rather to 22. And if you found someone with legendary twelve Awakening circles, their cultivation speed would be equal to 36 stable circles counted that way.” He said, sighing. “Obtaining just one additional Primary Awakening Circle means that efficiency of all circles rapidly increases. At 11, it doubles, at 12, it triples.” He added. “How can I obtain more Awakening Circles?” Imoto asked. “You don’t. Only those with really rare physiques do obtain more Primary Circles. There are methods that create secondary Awakening Circles, but those are false Circles. They don’t have same effect. You should be comfortable with my method that will give you almost as good foundation as those who have achieved twelve circles have.” He responded. ”I’m sorry for giving you this incomplete method, but I can’t give you anything better right now. Unless my teachers allow me to do so, I can’t teach their methods to you. But since this method is incomplete, it’s possible for you to even find some way to improve the effect of this foundation and make it more complete.” Imoto smiled. What he was giving her would already qualify as world breaking for high grade sects. She was not sure about earth grade sects, but she doubted there would be such a big difference between high grade and earth grade sects. She would probably be skeptical about what he was teaching her, if she didn’t know about effect his food had on her Awakening Circles. But he has already proven that his abilities were common sense defying, so what was there to doubt about what he was teaching her? What kind of figure this eccentric Daoist was, she had no clue. Was he some kind of forgotten disciple of Sky grade sect who spent millennia in isolation? Elder of Earth grade sect who left his sect and obtained some Dao enlightment? Regardless of what he was, she found it incomprehensible why this person was not leading some supreme sect, fighting supreme beasts, collecting supreme treasures and was instead here, cooking meat for ordinary customers at his food stand. But trying to rebuke him would be useless. He already declared he no longer considered continuing on his path of cultivation and was instead fully dedicating himself to his cooking. “Then, is there a cultivation method you can teach me?” she asked. “You are already nearing the peak of eighth stage of awakening. That is more than enough to use Awakening Transformation mantra. After you turn your first cultivation circle to Translucent and all other to silver, I might think about teaching you very good cultivation method I developed. I don’t want to sound proud, but it’s almost half as effective as what my teachers taught me.” He said. This useless Uncle! Imoto swore. Why was he so proud about not even reaching half of the efficiency of his teachers? Wasn’t that just admitting utter defeat? On the other hand, what kind of teachers must this uncle have had if even his own methods, far inferior to theirs, would be greedily desired by high ranked sects. “Now, our time is out. Let’s go buy some meat, grain, and other things we will need for tomorrow.” * * * Three elders were waiting at the market. They were sent by their sect masters to politely welcome Eccentric Chef in the city and offer them hospitality of their sects. Three low grade sects, Rabbit Shoe Sect, Deer Milking Sect and Micro Elephant Sect cooperated usually, even though mid-grade Drunkensword sect was trying to make them into bitter enemies. There were four low grade sects in this city, and one of them, Drunkenstick sect was branch sect of Drunkensword sect. Drunkensword sect was afraid that one of three independent low grade sects could rise to power and become second mid-grade sect of city. Three sects obviously wanted to survive and grow, so they were forced into alliance. After centuries, this alliance was now strong that they would give to almost no temptation. But this temptation was too big. If there was way for one sect to make exclusive cooperation with the eccentric, they would betray other sects in blink of an eye. But at this moment, they were still trying to hide that. All three sect masters understood well that with help of this eccentric, they could turn their sects into mid-grade sect in few decades. Even if full extent of his abilities was to turn fractured Awakening circles into cracked ones, that was enough to prepare next generation to overtake Drunkensword sect. And if he was capable of more, then even becoming high grade sect might be possible goal in this century. For such possibility, they were willing to break their alliance this instant. But they were not sure if it was possibility, so while they were prepared to back stab one another and avoid being backstabbed; they also tried to keep friendly faces. Thankfully, only their disciples and few rich merchants were present that day. Rich merchants would not notice change in their Awakening circles and possibly, it would not even affect them, since disciples who had their Awakening circles changed all had ‘special spice for cultivators only’. If this information reached ears of Drunkensword sect, they would likely want to scout this eccentric as well. And honestly, there was nothing they could offer to this eccentric that Drunkensword sect couldn’t offer either. That was what they all agreed on. And surprised they would be when they learnt how wrong they were. But not today, becuse today, Egon didn't open his food stand at all. Part 2