Li Nianfan touched the golden antlers and with a smile said, “These are incredibly high-grade antlers. We’re so lucky to get this.” Thinking about it, although he had eaten many kinds of game meat since his transmigration here, he had not eaten much venison meat. Therefore, he could not wait to use up every part of the deer. In his previous life, a deer’s existence was akin to a divine beast for its pure ability to extend one’s lifespan and clear the body’s meridian points. Not to mention, its diet was made up of beneficial plants and thus, making its meat and antlers highly sought after for traditional Chinese medicine.
“Brother Li, how are we going to cook the venison?” asked Nanan who was helping him carry the deer into the yard. She could not stop drooling at the thought of the feast. The others, too, could not wait for the feast to begin. The deer was another Wisdom Elite and would surely provide them with another opportunity to advance in their cultivation after they consumed it.
“There are many dishes we can make with this venison meat. We can even have an all-venison feast! Venison meat’s known for its tenderness, good taste, and lean meat. It’s not only nutritious but easily digestible by our bodies. It’s truly one-of-a-kind meat,” said Li Nianfan.
In fact, the strongest effect of venison meat was to invigorate the spleen and Qi, warm the kidneys, and invigorate Yang. It could be said to be the most potent of all Yang food. Not only that, it could invigorate five internal organs, moisturize the blood vessels, promote good body fluid, and protect against Yang deficiency. It was especially good for newly-weds, elderly people with deficiency in their kidneys, and those who were prone to coldness in their extremities. Of course, Li Nianfan would never admit that he had chosen to eat venison for these reasons, simply because he did not need it.
At this moment, the rainbow deer was slowly waking up and making cute sounds as if it was scolding them.
“Oh! It’s awake,” said Li Nianfan, flashing a friendly smile at the rainbow deer. “Please, stop struggling and just enjoy the last moment of your life. I hope you can maintain a happy feeling in your heart so the dish can turn out better that way.”
‘Who’s this guy? Is he going to turn me into a dish? Maintain a happy feeling? He must be joking!’ thought the rainbow deer as it stared at Li Nianfan with a lost expression on its face. Li Nianfan’s words did not calm it at all and made it struggle harder instead.
“I remember now! I was put into a coma by that stupid bald dog! Ah! I won’t let this guy make me, a Wisdom Elite Demon Emperor, into a dish! He must be out of his mind if he expects me to not struggle. Don’t be so cruel!” It thought it was speaking the words out loud but all the others could hear was the grunts of a deer. Thus, he was carried into the four-part architecture.
As soon as it was brought inside, it could feel the aura of Wisdom swirling around every inch of the yard, causing it to shudder involuntarily. Not only that, its eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
‘What a thick aura of Wisdom! It’s so thick that it seems as if it had become a tangible existence playing in the yard. What’s this place? Are all places in the seventh dimension like this?’ it wondered before its mind went blank. ‘The people here are the people who attacked me! Even that bald dog’s here! Is this where they got their shovels and brush? Wait a minute, is that pond made up of Chaos Spiritual Water? And what’s that black sword in the corner? My, the murderous intent sure is strong in that sword. I don’t think I’ll survive an attack from it. How is it possible for so many Chaos Divine Firefinches to be here… Holy sh*t, are those eggs coming out of their buttholes? I must be hallucinating! No way a place like this exists in the universe.”
The rainbow deer was beginning to doubt whether it was still alive. It quickly picked up an important point as it rested its gaze on Li Nianfan. Although this person in front of it looked as ordinary as anyone could get, the others seemed to revolve their will around him. There was only one explanation for this—his level of cultivation was the highest amongst them all.
‘He must be monstrously powerful!’ thought the rainbow deer after combining everything it had seen since being brought inside the yard. It was in such a state of shock that it felt its heart nearly explode. What had it done to offend a person such as Li Nianfan? If it had known it was going to end up like this, it would not have come to the seventh dimension. It wished it could travel back in time to tell its past self not to come here no matter what.
It cried out in despair as the tears flowed out of its eyes. Li Nianfan, who was sharpening the kitchen knife, turned around and smiled at him. “There, there, little deer. I’ll make sure the knife’s sharp enough so you won’t feel any pain.” At this, the rainbow deer could only curl up in a trembling ball of fur as despair wormed its way into its heart.
It took a peek at the hotpot bubbling not far away. They had even brought out some soy sauce, cooking wine, spring onion, ginger, garlic, and other seasonings. ‘Is that where I’m going to end up later? Are those side dishes made from Spiritual Roots? Again, what kind of place is this? Well, I guess I can always comfort myself with the thought that they deem me worthy enough to be taken with Spiritual Roots.’ At the last moment of its life, it could not control its thoughts anymore.
Li Nianfan passed the sharpened knife to Xiao Bai and said, “The knife’s sharp enough now. Go let out the deer’s blood and make sure you don’t spill any of it.” The only reason he did not do it himself was that he could not bear to take any creature’s life.
“As you wish, my beloved Master.” Xiao Bai took the knife and walked over to where the rainbow deer was.
The rainbow deer attempted the last struggle as it looked at Xiao Bai with those big sad deer eyes, hoping against all hope that it would not slaughter it. Those eyes might have worked on Li Nianfan but not on Xiao Bai, for it was dead inside. Xiao Bai raised the knife and slit the rainbow deer’s throat with a practiced move. The rainbow deer’s blood gushed out instantly into a wooden bucket that Xiao Bai had prepared beforehand. Xiao Bai’s hands did not stop there. It continued to butcher the deer into many pieces until all that was left to do was to rinse the chopped pieces in water before cooking.
“I’ll cook four types of dishes for you all this time—braised venison, steamed velvet antlers, deep-fried tail, and stewed ginseng venison soup,” said Li Nianfan as he prepared the dishes. “Actually there’s a lot of things we shouldn’t take with venison such as abalone and pheasant. If taken together, it would produce a bad chemical reaction in our bodies which won’t be good for our wellbeing.”
His movements were extremely natural, and every step was like the moving clouds and flowing of water. It was very pleasing to the eye. The often extremely complicated cooking process was made to seem effortless when he was the one doing it. With the help of Xiao Bai, he cooked the four dishes all at the same time using the mise-en-place method which made his work easier. Now, they only needed to wait for the dishes to be fully cooked.
The soup began to bubble as if wanting to remind everyone that they would soon be digging into a feast. The aroma of delicious food drifted into their nostrils, causing them to drool involuntarily. It made them more excited for the feast.
Li Nianfan watched speechlessly as a long trickle of drool dripped down from Little Fox’s chin to the ground. “Little Fox, go tell your sister that it’s time for the feast.” It was such a shame that a beautiful lady like Little Fox did not care about her own image at all.
“Okay.” Little Fox reluctantly pulled her eyes away from the hotpot. “Don’t start eating without me!” she said before turning to leave. Then, with a speed as fast as light, she went to get Daji and Fire Phoenix from their rooms.
When everyone was seated, Li Nianfan finally said, “Dig in, everyone!”
“Yay! Thank you for the food!” said Nanan and the others with their chopstick already in their hands.
Nanan picked up a big piece of braised venison and shoved it into her mouth which immediately made her cheeks bulge. Thick shiny oil rolled down her chin. She experienced foodie fireworks as soon as the venison was inside her mouth and the taste became better the more she chewed, making her close her eyes in enjoyment. Moreover, she could feel the warmth seeping through every pore of her body as the venison worked its magic. Her mana began to spin crazily with the speed of growth while her mind rang with the resounding sound of Wisdom.
Although the Wisdom Elite venison lacked the punch of the Wisdom Elite fish, its effect was nonetheless still very powerful. Nanan’s aura began to increase step by step until she had reached the peak of the Heavenly Realm, only a tiny step away from being a Wisdom Elite.
“Hehe, dibs on the tail!” Dragin was the first to pick up a piece of the tail which she proceeded to quickly shove into her mouth. A crisp crunching sound could be heard with every bite she took. The deep-fried tail was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, making it incredibly satisfying to eat. “Yummy!” cried Dragin more than a few times as she chewed and chewed.
As for Little Fox, she had her eyes on the golden velvet antlers. The antlers had softened after the steaming process and were emitting a slight medicinal fragrance. Her face instantly turned red after a single bite. First, it was because it was very delicious, and second, because she could feel her body being expanded by a powerful energy. She did not even have time to ponder what was happening before energy like a tsunami broke through her bottleneck and pushed her into the Heavenly Realm.
Both Daji and Fire Phoenix had advanced in their cultivation, too, although it was not obvious to an outsider for they were already Wisdom Elites—even a little improvement in their cultivation was terrifying enough.
“Don’t forget about me, too, Master!” said Blackie. He rushed out from where he was and made circles around Li Nianfan.
Li Nianfan bent down and patted him adoringly on the head. “Don’t worry. I’ve kept some for you. By the way, give some of the stewed ginseng venison soup to the chickens as a reward for providing us with many eggs.” The chickens became excited when they heard that and started to flap their shiny wings wildly while clucking at the sky.
While Li Nianfan was watching everyone enjoying the feast, the Heavenly Palace people had already entered the fourth dimension to conduct an investigation. They did the investigation in pairs and kept their auras under wraps for fear of being detected by the beings in the fourth dimension.
Goddess Nuwa and the Empress, who were both on a Merit Cloud, were making their way to Tiandang Mountain. The area they were in was bigger than they expected. Behind Tiandang Mountain was a dense forest and the wild beasts and demons there seemed to have been frightened by something as they were maniacally running around.
“They must’ve been frightened by the battle we had with the rainbow deer and are now running for their lives,” said Goddess Nuwa, not taking the scene before her to heart. “The fourth dimension looks a bit similar to our dimension.”
The Empress nodded her head and furrowed her brows. “I find it a little more suffocating though.”
“It must be because we’re still in a desolate area where the Spiritual Qi’s the thinnest,” said Goddess Nuwa.
They continued forward and just as Goddess Nuwa had guessed, Tiandang Mountain was a completely desolate and barren place with little to no Spiritual Qi. Most of the people living there were mortals.
Suddenly, Goddess Nuwa’s expression changed as she looked toward a particular direction with confused eyes.
“What’s wrong, Goddess Nuwa?” asked the Empress.
“I sense something calling me there,” said Goddess Nuwa in a confused voice. She knew she could trust her intuition, for she had reached a level of cultivation where her intuition was always correct. However, she found it hard to believe that she would have anything to do with the fourth dimension. It could not be a treasure, for how could a barren land like this give birth to one?
“Let’s go check it out,” said the Empress in all seriousness.
Meanwhile, in a village somewhere, a group of people was fighting off a tide of demons with arrows and other weapons. There were heavy casualties on both sides as blood sprayed into the air and the corpses blanketed the ground.
“Kill! Kill all these animals!”
“We mustn’t let them set one foot into the village no matter what!”
“D*mmit! Something must’ve happened for them to go berserk like this. There’s no end to them!”
None of the demons nor the humans were of high-level cultivation, making those at the Foundation Stage the strongest. Most of the beings there were made up of wild beasts and mortals. Among them was an elderly man, coldly slaughtering as many opponents as he could with the sword in his hand. The elderly man was so old that his hair had become pure white, his face was full of wrinkles, and it seemed as if he could be blown over by the slightest breeze anytime.
However, his eyes were cold and stern as he held his sword tightly, and every time he swung the sword with his seemingly weak hand, a demon head would inevitably roll off as he complied with the laws of the universe. Among the humans, he was the one who had the most demon corpses lying around his feet.
