Chapter 12: Chapter 11 – Hills to die on and Situational awareness…?

Yin Hu stared down at what could only be considered the most unpalatable food he had ever put in his mouth. It was a basic vegetable stew and plump bread. It all looked quite pleasing to the eye and delicious, but it could not have been the exact opposite. It took just a moment and he already came to a firm decision.

There was no way in hell he would eat this.

It felt like dirty sludge of mud and filth. The taste was even worse. There were only two reasons why anything could taste so bad, the first was quite simple. Xinyi could be the worst cook to have ever touched a pot. But Hu Shui ate with relish. Wasn’t she part of an illustrious family, they should have a better palate than this.

The second was what would be considered his most horrifying nightmare. Was the rice he had that special? He had figured out that it gave him a boost in strength and health, but to consider it would ruin normal food for him. Yin Hu shivered. Would he never be able to taste the culinary masterpieces of this world?

Hu Xinyi cleared her throat. She had calmed down and even looked abashed at her sudden breakdown. “I-is something the matter, ancestor?”

He thought for a moment. Was it worth the suffering to keep her oblivious and happy? Should he lie and say the food was decent? In those scant seconds, he came to a final decision. There was no way in hell would he put another morsel into his mouth!

That was his bottom line!

Don’t mess with my food!

He took a deep, foreboding breath. Yin Hu did not care if she cut him to pieces, this was the hill he would die on.

Both girls put down their plates. They looked at each other with worried looks. Yin Hu looked down at them with a raised chin. He tried his best to exude arrogance and disdain by channeling every ounce of hatred he had for the sludge he stuffed into his mouth.

“You call this food?!” he roared.

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Xinyi stared at his back. Yin Hu wanted to run more than ever. His plan to find someone to pamper him has been delayed further and further into the future! This dream of his seemed impossible with the very world conspiring against him.

Instead of somehow convincing the girls to take care of him, he ended up cooking the damn rice again! His spacial rice bag sat heavily to his right. Every once in a while, he would have to smack Shui’s curious hands. She sat on a chair unwilling to look away from it. There was no way he would allow a kid to get hold of one of his most prized items.

All his wealth and future potential living in luxury depended on its safety.

“Done!” he said. He carried the pot of food and placed it on the low to ground table set up they had. They sat on the ground and ate at a comfortable height.

No spices. No salt. Nothing but plain rice he ate for eons. Yin Hu struggled to keep his tears down. He was thrown into a new world and was still stuck eating this mess. The girls looked in wonder at the plates before them.

Xinyi’s eyelid twitched. “Y-you didn’t put any salt.”

He harrumphed. Unwilling to say he didn’t know how to cook and worse yet, that was the only thing he consumed. His ego and persona depended on this very moment. “Why would I taint the quality with mundane ingredients?”

He lowered his head and resigned himself to another bowl of rice. He got to work chomping.

The girls hesitated. But he would not address the elephant in the room. Nope. They could suffer with him! Especially Xinyi! How dare she put such horrible things before him?!

After moments of silence and the scraping of their bowls, he prepared himself for the inevitable corus of groans and barfing. He had already prepared an entire spiel on how this generation were weak and unworthy. Only in suffering could one rise to the cultivating peak! This was just another test in a life filled with them.

“Woah!” Hu Shui exclaimed.

It started. He looked up with a disdainful look. They would have to go through his rant to ease his ego!

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“How is this possible?” Hu Xinyi looked him in the eyes. Pieces of rice sticking to her cheek. It was like she stuffed her face into the food. “How could food so good even exist?”

Yin Hu looked far off channeling his old master persona. “A toad in a well does not see the heavens in its entirety…” Wait. What did she say?

He turned back to find a bowing Hu Xinyi, she held Shui’s head down too. “We are not worthy of your magnitude. To think we would get to eat heavenly rice so casually… I could not even begin to show my gratitude.”

… “A-as long as you know.”

He quickly finished, but the two ate very slowly. They kept looking at him with sparkling eyes almost matching. They whispered between themselves. The back of his neck burned red, they kept mentioning how fast he had eaten the food and didn’t have any effect on him. Did they expect him to choke?

Maybe he should have suffered the sludge food in silence.

“Tell me, Xinyi.” he kept his raspy voice slow and deliberate. Act like you mean business! “The guards seemed to be high strung. Just my mere presence caused them to act like wild animals.”

“Don’t be harsh with them, Ancestor. They’ve suffered greatly and only wish to regain their family's own honor.” Xinyi said with a kind smile. She did disarm them without striking at any of them. They let her go afterwards.

“What do you mean?”

Realization dawned on her face. She flicked her head. “Forgive me. I'll explain properly. It all started nearly sixty years ago. All righteous sects and clans rushed back to their peaks and shut their gates from the outside world. Rumor was that a monster from outside this realm broke through the natural barrier of this world.”

She paused to eat a couple more tiny chopstick fulls. He had used his hands, when Hu Shui tried to eat like him, Xinyi had smacked her head.

After moaning with arched eyes she gulped and let out a breath. She cleared her throat. “Anyway, Every sect and clan activated their ultimate array formations and the ones that didn’t entered practiced seclusion in massive caverns they shut. My father said that they were stuffing their patriarchs and strongest members to break through to the Heavenly Realms. Only when they were strong enough would they come out and fight a world ending calamity.”

“A calamity? Sixty years and still nothing happened?”

Xinyi nodded. “It's unusual. And instead of a monstrous being that would make the world a wasteland, demons and evil cultivator sects and clans appeared. They would, in normal conditions, be forced into the shadows incapable of making such grandiose acts, but with the disappearance of the righteous clans and sects, they had free reign. Smaller families and clans that could not hide themselves attempted to band together, but they were too weak.”

Her hands turned into shaking fists. “Anyone that stood in their way was killed. Any family that did not kneel to local hegemons were rooted out to the very last member. That’s how our Hu family ended. We were lucky to escape and find protection with the Bandit Leader. He carries just enough power for the evil sects to not want battle, but not enough to be independent. And that is where the guards come in.

The local hegemon, The Spider Valley Cult, sent a missive a few weeks ago. They demanded an exorbitant amount in taxes this year. It will be impossible to satisfy them without crippling this entire town. Sentiment to fight back has been growing and it has affected even the guards who also struggle to feed their families.

If you ask me, it’s suicide to fight the Spider Valley Cult. Forget their Elders, which have two Pinnacle Immortals both rising not a decade ago, even their geniuses are extraordinary.”

“I…see.” Yin Hu had a lot to think about. The way the guards reacted also made sense. He dressed like a sect or clan member. Long flowing robes and ostentatious designs. But that was because he had nothing else and had, over the years, gotten used to it.

He could even say he enjoyed the freedom it allowed him.

“Tell him about what they did!” Hu Shui chimed in trying to be part of the conversation.

“What did they do?” That didn't sound good.