Chapter 15: Shopping

Chapter 15: Shopping Shen Xu looked at Zhen Yuan and frowned. With some irritation, he tugged Zhen Yuan's arm and the other stopped mid-stride. "What's wrong?" Zhen Yuan asked. "That's what I want to ask you." "What do you mean?" Zhen Yuan was at a loss and didn't understand what Shen Xu was going on about. "You have been a little preoccupied since we met them. Are you still thinking about Bai Guo?" Shen Xu queried with a little sourness in his voice. Hearing that, Zhen Yuan looked at the person, and his lips curled upwards. The gloom in his heart lessened a little, but his eyes remained solemn. "XiaoXu, do you feel anything?" "What do you mean?" Shen Xu asked with a confused look on his face. "That person is the protagonist and your partner in the original book. Did you feel anything when you met him?" As he asked this, Zhen Yuan carefully looked at Shen Xu, as if afraid he would miss something if he dared to blink. When he heard the question, Shen Xu didn't answer right away. He recalled everything that happened since he met Xiao Weimin, and his brows creased in concentration. A moment later, the brows uncreased, and his eyes brightened. "Why? Are you uneasy? Do you feel jealous?" He teased. Unexpectedly, Zhen Yuan didn't deny it. He looked a little awkward, and his eyes were somewhat dull when he looked at Shen Xu. "Don't worry." Shen Xu stopped teasing when he saw the person was genuinely worried. "I felt a little uncomfortable when we met, but I was more concerned about Bai Guo." "That's good." Zhen Yuan said and sighed in relief. "It's a good thing we formed a Taoist contract. Otherwise..." Shen Xu shuddered at the thought, and Zhen Yuan couldn't help but rub his hair. "There is no 'if'. Our Taoist contract has been recognised by heaven and earth. Xiao Weimin can't get between us." "If you know that, why are you so gloomy?" Shen Xu asked and chuckled. For some reason, he was in a good mood when he realised that Zhen Yuan was jealous of his book relationship with Xiao Weimin. "Where should we go next?" He asked. "We have already bought the herbs and seeds you need for alchemy. Do you want to buy spirit food?" Although a lot had happened, Zhen Yuan had not forgotten that Shen Xu liked to eat. Since that was the case, he was willing to indulge his wife. "I almost forgot about that. Let's go quickly." Shen Xu said and pulled Zhen Yuan towards a spirit foods store. The store was smaller than the Myriad Treasures Pavilion. However, it had a wider variety of ingredients, and Shen Xu couldn't help but be excited. "Two guests, what ingredients do you need?" A middle-aged woman asked. "We want spirit rice." Shen Xu said, and the woman smiled. "We have five types of spirit rice in our store." The woman started and led the two to the right side of the store. Soon after, she stopped in front of five bags of rice. "From left to right is white rice, green rice, yellow rice, brown rice, and black rice." "What's their difference?" Shen Xu asked. Although the original Shen Xu was born in the cultivation world, he knew nothing about food ingredients. If Shen Xu wanted to learn, he couldn't rely on the original's memories or Zhen Yuan. "Among the five types of rice, white rice has the least aura while black rice has the most." "Green rice can detoxify some common poisons, yellow rice is good for the skin, and brown rice can slightly dredge the meridians." "What about black rice?" Shen Xu asked. "Black rice is good all around, but it's also the most expensive." "How much do they cost?" "A kilogram of level one white rice is two spirit stones. Five spirit stones for green rice, ten for yellow rice, twenty for brown rice, and one hundred for black rice." "So expensive?" Shen Xu asked and frowned. "What about level two rice?" When the woman heard Shen Xu's question, she was a little frightened. After all, Blue Spring town was a small and remote place. Unless it was the Myriad Treasures Pavilion, higher-level ingredients didn't appear in Blue Spring town. "Young masters, our Blue Spring town only grows white rice and green rice. Everything else is brought from outside, and we can only get level one rice." "Is that so?" "It's really the case young master." After thinking about it, Shen Xu sighed and took out some spirit stones from his storage bag. "We want five hundred kilograms of black rice." He said, and the woman looked at him in surprise. She didn't expect them to buy so much rice, and she was momentarily speechless. However, she quickly recovered and prepared their rice. "Is there anything else?" She asked after Shen Xu put away the rice. After that, Shen Xu went all out and bought everything he needed. Cooking oil, dried fruits, salt, sugar, dried spices, ... When that was done, the two left the store and went to other places to buy cooking utensils, meat, and wine amongst other things. "You look happy?" Zhen Yuan suddenly said. "Mmmm." Shen Xu agreed and nodded. It had been days since he arrived in the Canglan continent. However, everything was different from his original world, and he always felt a sense of unreality. This time, he bought ingredients and finally felt a sense of reality. "I didn't expect there are special ways of preparing spirit food." He said excitedly. "My mother was a mortal, and her cooking was ordinary. However, there are spirit food masters who have special ways of cooking spirit food." When buying ingredients, one of the sellers mentioned spirit food masters and Shen Xu was immediately attracted. Unfortunately, there were no introductory books in the Myriad Treasures Pavilion or other places in Blue Spring town. "Don't worry, we will look for books as we travel to the Dragon capital. Even if there are none along the way, there should be some in the Dragon capital and the Divine Rainbow Academy." "You will definitely like my food when I learn the special ways of making spirit food." Shen Xu said excitedly. "I will like everything as long as it is cooked by you." Zhen Yuan said with a doting smile on his lips. He didn't care about eating and drinking. However, he was willing to share in his wife's interests. No matter what Shen Xu made, Zhen Yuan was sure he would like it. "Since I have a fire root, I originally thought of learning weapon refining. However, it will be difficult to learn alchemy, weapon refining, spirit food cooking, and winemaking at the same time." Shen Xu said and frowned a little. "You should learn if you are interested." "What about time?" "Have you forgotten?" Zhen Yuan asked with a smile in his eyes. "Forgotten what?" "Don't you have a golden finger?" When Shen Xu heard that, his eyes widened. If Zhen Yuan hadn't reminded him, he would have forgotten there was a time difference between the chaos flame space and the outside world. Now that he remembered, he couldn't help but be excited. "You are right." He exclaimed. In fact, the reason he wanted to learn weapon refining was because he didn't want others to know he was an alchemist. This was because talented alchemists were too rare. Since he and Zhen Yuan didn't have a powerful background, the chance of a disaster falling on him was higher than that of alchemists with a strong background. If he was unlucky, he would be captured for his alchemy inheritance or worse, he would be forced to become the exclusive alchemist of a force or family. "Ayuan, do you mind if I learn weapon refining first?" Shen Xu suddenly asked. "You can do whatever you want." Zhen Yuan answered. He understood Shen Xu's thoughts, and he agreed. If Shen Xu learned weapon refining, he could enter the Academy's weapon refining school. This would not only allow him to hide his alchemy inheritance but also allow him to learn weapon refining. After all, he had an alchemy inheritance and could learn by himself, but he didn't have a weapon-refining inheritance. In that case, what Shen Xu needed was not an alchemy teacher but a weapon-refining teacher. "It's decided then." Shen Xu agreed with a clap. "Let's go to buy what you need for weapon refining." "Good." In this way, the two walked around buying everything they needed. By the time they finished, it was almost time to meet the protagonist and his entourage. "Are you ready?" Zhen Yuan asked as they walked toward the teahouse. "What's there to be ready for?" Shen Xu rolled his eyes, but he was a little tense. Despite his nonchalance, he was always aware that Xiao Weimin was the book's protagonist. The world loved the protagonist, and his enemies never had a good ending.