Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Little Silver’s answer made everyone immediately freeze in place.
Odd Zhuo had specially done his homework before entering Beast King’s Remains, and in particular had studied the map of the eastern region of Beast King’s Remains which scientific research teams had already explored previously.
So Odd Zhuo knew that the soil in this forest was of edible quality…
This wasn’t a secret. The last time an expedition team had explored Beast King’s Remains, they had posted information on the soil on the state’s authoritative scientific data website. It was said that in order to confirm the soil’s functional use, the research team had specially engaged the food critic Yuan Zhou to taste it.
After eating the soil, Yuan Zhou said that his eyesight was clearer, his back was better and it seemed that even his skin was more delicate than before – these powerful effects were produced on the spot.
However, Yuan Zhou also said that after eating the soil, if he was grading how unpalatable it was on a scale from one to ten…
This soil was an eleven…
Thus, before coming to the remains, Odd Zhuo had actually been quite curious about how unpalatable the soil was and wanted to have a taste.
But after listening to what Little Silver had said, Odd Zhuo broke out in a cold sweat right away.
“Why are you so sure?” Odd Zhuo looked at Little Silver and asked.
Little Silver pinched his nose and said, “Human cultivators who smell this soil probably think it smells very, very appetizing! But for us who grew up in the holy beast village, we would come in contact with Devil King when the village had its annual meeting. Once you encountered Devil King and then smelled this soil, it smells bad! Stinks like shit!”
After saying this, Little Silver felt that his words were a little ambiguous, so he hurriedly corrected himself. “Ah, wrong, it’s shit to begin with!”
Odd Zhuo: “Why did Devil King leave a pile… here…”
Little Silver casually pressed his nostrils and sealed his sense of smell before folding his arms with a knowing expression on his face. “The remains were originally the tomb Devil King left behind for himself. When he had been building the tomb back then, he had taken into consideration a lot of fengshui issues, and some of the spirit plants and whatnot had to be specially arranged. It was precisely because of fengshui that His Highness Beast King decided to create a whole forest. But he also suffered a lot to build the forest.”
“Could it be that these trees can only grow in this ‘soil’?” Fatty Luo theorized.
“That’s one reason, but that wasn’t the hardest part.”
Little Silver nodded and then said, “In order to build this forest, the most difficult part for His Highness Beast King was to hoard his shit.”
Everyone: “…”
For some reason, Odd Zhuo suddenly found that he already couldn’t look directly at this soil on the ground which smelled so fragrant he had once wanted to try it.
…
The picnic activity in the evening was basically DIY cooking that students would carry out under the guidance of the lead teachers. Most of the small groups used local ingredients to cook vegetable and spirit fruit soup, but the taste of the soup depended on how the students combined the ingredients together. The lead teachers’ guidance was nothing more than helping to check if students had put poisonous spirit plants in their soups.
Even if they had, it wasn’t a big deal, but the summer camp experience would also count to their overall study points. If students did put poisonous spirit plants in their soups, they would lose points.
And these overall points would directly affect their evaluation for graduation from high school.
While collecting spirit fruit, Little Peanut came up with a lot of ideas for cooking them, but Super Chen and Dopey Guo didn’t have any appetite.
This was because when they were collecting the fruit, these two people hadn’t been able to resist the temptation of the sweet soil underfoot and couldn’t help eating some – in the end, they almost spat it out.
The scene reminded Wang Ling of a magical lyric: “Have you ever eaten tasty baked gluten (soil) 1 …”
Super Chen and Dopey Guo in fact weren’t the only ones who were affected. A lot of the other students hadn’t been able to resist the temptation of this “edible soil” and had tried it on the sly, only to still feel a little nauseated until now.
According to Super Chen, this stuff was salty and had a fishy smell, like salted fish that had been fermented for one thousand years in lao tan 2 pickled cabbage beef noodles… The taste was completely different to how it smelled!
And it was because of this taste that many students directly had no appetite that night.
When Wang Ling and Little Peanut were preparing their team’s vegetable and fruit soup, they saw many students from No. 60 High as well as from other schools holding their stomachs as they leaned against the trees, their faces deathly pale and looking like life wasn’t worth living.
“Good thing I didn’t eat it…” Little Peanut looked at this scene in alarm and couldn’t help shivering.
Because Super Chen and Dopey Guo had been K.O’ed one after another halfway through, the bulk of the work of collecting ingredients this time had fallen to Wang Ling and Little Peanut.
Actually, it was still Little Peanut who did most of the picking and gathering.
When the group returned, Little Peanut was carrying a bamboo basket on his back full of spirit plants which looked pretty strange. Feather Lin who had come poking around from next door mocked him when she saw this. “What did you pick?”
She grabbed a strange spirit plant that was black, purple and green in color and looked a little like a turnip, and couldn’t help the skeptical expression that crossed her face. “Is this stuff edible? So ugly!”
Little Peanut pursed his lips. “This soil smells good, but in the end it’s so unpalatable… Two of our men here are already down, but don’t you know that when push comes to shove, the only direction to go in is in reverse? Ugly things won’t necessarily taste bad! Stinky tofu smells bad but tastes great!”
This explanation instantly left Feather Lin speechless.
Then it was time to wash the vegetables and boil the soup.
Because this group lacked Super Chen and Dopey Guo as two important sources of manpower, the whole process was slower for them. When Wang Ling set up the pot, the aroma of tasty soup was already in the air from the front of a military tent not far away.
The soup was indescribably fragrant, and the aroma wafted far enough that even Super Chen and Dopey Guo, who were leaning against a tree after eating the soil, felt slightly less nauseated for a moment.
Everyone’s appetites were almost instantly triggered.
“Whose soup is that? How delicious…” Little Peanut craned his head to look into the distance.
Someone coming back after going over to take a look replied, “It’s that lead teacher, Teacher Zhai Yin!”
Wang Ling: “…”
Zhai… Zhai Yin?
That Zhai Yin who had almost killed one of the Ten Founding Generals with a dragon pork chop?
Wang Ling was astonished.
But to his surprise, he noticed from a distance that there were actually people already drinking the soup. Furthermore, everyone’s faces were brimming with happiness, and nothing untoward happened at all.
Wang Ling pondered this, chin in hand. Had Zhai Yin’s cooking improved recently?
The students drinking the soup all sighed emotionally. “Wow! I’ve tried several bowls of soup already, and this bowl is the best! It’s actually a tasty salted vegetable soup!”
“Most of the soups cooked by the other groups are sweet! Some even made fruit soup…” someone complained.
That was because all the ingredients were local and no one was allowed to add their own seasoning, which directly led to many people making sweet soup.
Now that Zhai Yin had made a pot of salted vegetable soup, it was promptly praised by various students and teachers.
“Whoever marries Teacher Zhai Yin will be so lucky!”
A lead teacher of another small group praised, “Speaking of which, what did Teacher Zhai Yin add to the soup? Why is it so tasty?”
Zhai Yin, who was embarrassed by the praise, said a little bashfully, “It was nothing, just a bit of dirt.”
Everyone: “…”
Zhai Yin: “I heard the students just now say that the soil’s very salty, so I added a grain or so. I didn’t think the effect would be so good!”
Everyone: “…”
