Chapter 665: May the Host’s Life Experience Be a Pleasant One
"I wonder, does Imperial Brother find this concubine's cooking more to his taste, or Elder Sister Ruxue's?"
Qin Siyao looked at Xiao Mo with a warm smile, her voice gentle as she asked.
"Well..." Xiao Mo considered a moment before speaking.
"It has been said that one's cooking reflects one's character. Even using the same recipe, different hands produce different flavors. Ruxue's cooking is mild and warm. Siyao, yours is rich and full of presence. Wangxin's has a clean, refreshing quality. The styles are different, but all of them are delicious."
Xiao Mo offered an answer perfectly calibrated to offend no one whatsoever.
Hearing this, Qin Siyao only raised a hand to her lips with a soft laugh, her eyes blinking at him. "Imperial Brother truly does have a way of pleasing the ladies."
"I am only speaking the truth." Xiao Mo took a mild sip of his wine.
"It is precisely because Imperial Brother is always speaking the truth that this concubine is so pleased." Qin Siyao rolled back her sleeve and poured Xiao Mo another cup. "If Imperial Brother enjoys the food, this concubine will cook for Imperial Brother every single day."
"Brother Xiao, try some of Xue Kui's cooking too!"
Hearing Xiao Mo praise the others, Xue Kui stood up eagerly on her chair beside him, chopsticks in hand, and began piling food into his bowl.
This was Xue Kui's first time in a kitchen, though her confidence in her own culinary skill was entirely unshaken.
"All right, I'll try some."
Xiao Mo smiled, feeling rather like a judge at a tasting session, sampling a bite here and a bite there. He picked up his chopsticks and ate a piece of Xue Kui's stir-fried tomato and egg.
A single bite told him something was not quite right. To be fair, Xiao Mo had helped considerably during the cooking, and tomato and egg was the simplest dish of all. Yet somehow, what Xue Kui had produced carried an indescribable complexity, at once a little sweet and a little bitter. He strongly suspected the child had taken advantage of a moment of inattention on his part to add a few creative embellishments of her own.
"Well, Brother Xiao? Is it good?" Xue Kui looked at him with bright, expectant eyes.
"Ahem, ahem..." Xiao Mo coughed once, picked up his teacup, and rinsed his mouth. "It is good. But little Xue Kui can do even better with more practice."
"Hee hee hee, I will try hard!" Xue Kui said with delight.
Jiang Qingyi sat to one side, casting glances at Xiao Mo with a hopeful look in her eyes, then glancing at her own dishes. She seemed to want Xiao Mo to try something she had made, but could not quite bring herself to say so.
Xiao Mo had naturally noticed Qingyi's expression, and had a fair idea of what she was thinking.
"Let me try Qingyi's sweet and sour pork ribs," he said.
He smiled and reached out with his chopsticks toward the dish Jiang Qingyi had made.
At that precise moment, the expression on Jiang Qingyi's face, which had been carefully indifferent, began to shift, growing quietly tense. The hand resting in her lap pressed tighter.
"Very good. The heat is well-judged, the sweetness balances the acidity, and the flavor is genuinely fine." Xiao Mo said it with complete sincerity.
When the praise reached Jiang Qingyi's ears, her eyes brightened with a sudden flash of delight but very quickly, she composed herself.
"It was just something thrown together. Passable at best. You are making it sound far better than it is. I begin to think the Imperial Kitchen's cooks are not all that impressive either."
With that, Jiang Qingyi turned her head away, and a faint color rose in her cheeks.
Xiao Mo only smiled and said nothing further.
He went on to give his comments on everyone else's dishes in turn, and naturally every single one received his praise. He even praised Little Hundun's contribution, a plate of unseasoned boiled beef sliced into thick pieces and cooked without so much as a pinch of salt, and declared it delicious.
Little Hundun, upon hearing this, circled the table twice with pleased coils, then landed on top of Xiao Mo's head and gave his skull a series of tiny, satisfied taps with her wings, as though to say: "You may not be much as a master, but your taste is impeccable."
Of course, Xiao Mo absolutely did not go back for a second bite.
Once Xiao Mo had finished his commentary, the mood around the table grew considerably warmer, and everyone at last began eating in earnest. At the New Year's feast, all present were on their best behavior, setting aside whatever grievances existed between them. The festival called for good cheer, and no one had any desire to be the one to spoil it. Whatever needed settling could wait until the year was done.
After the New Year's Eve feast, everyone remained in Lingxin Palace to keep the night watch with the Empress Dowager as tradition required.
During the vigil, having nothing particular to do, they occupied themselves with small amusements. Xue Kui and Little Hundun set about building a snowman in the courtyard. Xue Kui had wanted to build one that looked like Xiao Mo, but that proved beyond her abilities, so she looked at Little Hundun for a moment and decided to model it after her instead. In Xue Kui's view, Little Hundun was essentially just a round ball with a pair of wings and four stubby legs, so building a Hundun-shaped snowman was really not that difficult.
Meanwhile, Yu Yunwei produced a box of chess pieces and walked up to Bai Ruxue.
"Consort Xue, we have nothing to do in the middle of the night. I wonder if my lady might be inclined to play a game of chess with me?"
Yu Yunwei smiled pleasantly, her eyes curved with apparent good nature.
She had considerable confidence in her own chess. She might not be able to beat Bai Ruxue in a fight, but surely she could beat her at a board game? Being at the Ascension realm meant nothing where chess was concerned. Cultivation was not an all-purpose advantage, or why would there be schools of specialists across the realm? If cultivation resolved everything, no one would bother visiting the Tianji City Lord for divinations. They would simply calculate everything themselves.
Not to mention that Yu Yunwei's primary cultivation method, the Illusion Heaven Art, allowed her to project and deduce the flow of events to a degree. In a match of wits on a chessboard, she absolutely ought to be able to trounce Bai Ruxue.
Bai Ruxue was, when all was said and done, just a stinking dragon. Good at fighting, and nothing more.
"Of course." Bai Ruxue answered softly. "Please, Sister Yu."
"Please."
Yu Yunwei nodded and the two settled themselves on the stone stools in the courtyard.
Half an incense stick's time later...
Yu Yunwei, who had begun the game brimming with confidence, stared at the positions on the board and felt a dull ache spreading behind her eyes. The hand holding her piece had developed a slight tremor.
Never mind routing Bai Ruxue. In the space of half an incense stick's time, against all possibility, Yu Yunwei had lost two games.
This was simply beyond reason.
In all her years, since the Illusion Heaven Art had reached its fullest development, she had never once lost at chess. Not once.
For a moment, Yu Yunwei found herself doubting everything she thought she knew.
"Well? Does Miss Yu wish to continue?" Bai Ruxue looked at the woman before her with a composed smile, her eyes warm and untroubled.
Yu Yunwei looked up at Bai Ruxue's perfectly serene expression and felt her teeth clench.
In her view, this was nothing short of deliberate provocation.
"Yes! Again!"
Yu Yunwei said through gritted teeth.
The first two must have been accidents. There was absolutely no way she was going to lose a third.
Beyond the chess match between Yu Yunwei and Bai Ruxue, Qin Siyao and Jiang Qingyi had both found the vigil somewhat long and produced between them a magical artifact called a Combat-Spell Box. Into it they each projected a thread of sword-qi and spear-qi, then infused it with a fragment of their divine senses, creating from each tiny figures that were perfect likenesses of themselves. Within the confines of the little box, Qin Siyao and Jiang Qingyi directed their miniature selves in furious battle.
Wangxin, meanwhile, sat nearby in peaceful conversation with the Empress Dowager about the Dharma.
Sili, attending at Xiao Mo's side as always, found herself watching the various scenes playing out in the courtyard with no small amount of curiosity, her expression carrying a slightly dazed quality.
For good reason. She simply could not comprehend how so many Upper Three Realms and Ascension realm cultivators had managed to gather in one small inner palace.
And all of it because of a single man.
At the same time, some thirty li beyond the city walls of Chuanshui County in the northern reaches of the Zhou Kingdom, at the foot of a great mountain, a boulder bore two carved characters: Ink Sect.
Looking further up, what had once been an unbroken stretch of mountain range had, with the help of the Chuanshui Prefecture Governor, been transformed into a series of halls and towers rising tier upon tier. With the exception of the protective formation array, which was not yet complete, everything else about the Ink Sect that Luo Yang had founded was essentially ready. After the New Year, the sect could be formally established and begin accepting disciples.
"Husband, when the sect is formally opened after the New Year, which distinguished guests would you wish to invite?" Wang Yue sat beside her husband, asking with a smile.
"Junior Brother Xiao must certainly be invited, and then a handful of old friends still remaining in the Ten Thousand Laws Realm." Luo Yang shook his head with a smile. "All these years have passed, and there are not many left in the world. The founding ceremony can be a modest affair."
"If Master Xiao comes, shall Shang Jiuli be invited as well?" Wang Yue asked.
Luo Yang thought about it, and in the end let out a quiet sigh and nodded. "Invite her. There is no point in my junior sister hiding forever. She and Junior Brother, the truth is, ought to see each other."
"But enough of that." Luo Yang changed the subject, drawing out a letter and passing it to his wife. "This arrived."
"What is it?" Wang Yue asked with curiosity.
"A letter from the Confucian Academy. Have a look." Luo Yang said.
Wang Yue took the envelope and unfolded it to read. The further she read, the wider her eyes grew. "The Confucian Academy... wishes to have Master Xiao take part in the selection for the great contest thirty years from now?"
"Yes." Luo Yang nodded, smiling.
"The Confucian Academy knows something of my junior brother's situation. They know his talent is extraordinary, and they know he advances a full realm every year, which is genuinely rare throughout the entire Ten Thousand Laws Realm. So they want him to take part in the Ten Thousand Laws Realm's selection of ten fighters, and if he passes, they intend to have him represent the Ten Thousand Laws Realm in the contest."
"The nerve of the Confucian Academy." Wang Yue frowned, her expression sharpening. "How did they treat Master Xiao during the second great war between humans and demons? And now they have the audacity to ask Master Xiao to risk his life for them again!"
"That is my feeling as well. But the terms the Confucian Academy is offering this time are such that even I am inclined to urge my junior brother to accept." Luo Yang said.
"Terms?" Wang Yue asked, puzzled.
"One layer of the Ten Thousand Laws Realm's total fortune." Luo Yang turned a finger across his knuckles, smiling. "Tell me, is that significant, or is it not?"
…
The night passed, and as the first pale light of dawn spread across the horizon, the sun gradually rose. A new year had come.
In accordance with Zhou Kingdom custom, everyone was free to sleep through the morning and rise at noon. The vigil over, the party dispersed, and Xiao Mo, too, returned to his quarters to rest.
But just as Xiao Mo was drifting into sleep, a voice he recognized yet could not quite place rose in his mind.
[Book of a Hundred Lives life experience: 'Ancient Divine Spirits' is ready. Does the Host wish to enter?]
Hearing the Book of a Hundred Lives speak, Xiao Mo's mind jolted with surprise.
For a long time now, the Book of a Hundred Lives had given no sign at all. He had even nearly forgotten about it in the busyness of recent days. He had not expected it to be ready with the next life on the very first day of the New Year.
"Enter the life experience."
Xiao Mo said to the Book of a Hundred Lives calmly, within his mind.
In truth, he was far from calm. He knew that everything that unfolded within the Book of a Hundred Lives would become real.
The moment the decision was made, he felt his consciousness grow hazy.
As his awareness slowly cleared, he found himself within his own inner sea of consciousness. Before him floated the Book of a Hundred Lives, its pages turning without pause.
At last, the Book fell open to a blank page and went still.
In the next instant, the inner sea transformed. The Book of a Hundred Lives vanished, and the sea was replaced by an expanse of pure, unmarked white.
As Xiao Mo looked around, that vision appeared before him once more, as it had before: a woman in a white gown, standing upon a mountaintop, a long sword in her hand, looking down upon the world.
He had seen this vision before, when the Book of a Hundred Lives gave its preview of the next life. But this time it was far clearer, as though she were on the verge of stepping into full life.
[This time, the Host may not choose their own name. The character's name defaults to 'Xiao Mo.']
[This time, the Host's life experience will carry no assigned tasks. The rewards for this life experience will be issued upon its conclusion, calculated according to all the Host's actions during the experience.]
[Upon entering the Book of a Hundred Lives, the Host will lose all memory of their present life, and will undergo an entirely new life experience.]
[Does the Host wish to enter the Book of a Hundred Lives?]
As the Book finished speaking, two large characters appeared in Xiao Mo's mind: Yes, and No.
Without further hesitation, Xiao Mo stepped forward and pressed his finger to Yes.
The instant the Book of a Hundred Lives finished speaking, the white inner sea began to fracture and dissolve.
With it came a wave of overpowering drowsiness. Xiao Mo felt his consciousness sinking rapidly. His eyes slowly fell shut and in the last instant before his eyes closed entirely, the phantom of the woman before him turned slowly around but in the end, Xiao Mo did not see her face in time.
Only the Book of a Hundred Lives' voice remained in his ears as everything faded.
[The Host has made their choice and will now enter the Book of a Hundred Lives. May the Host's life experience be a pleasant one.]