Nick will never forget this image of Lily for the rest of his life, but he swore that he would try.
"So Big bro Nick do you want to work this job with us?" Mike asked again. But deep inside he was shocked. Nick seemed to be immune to his sister's nearly invincible technique, the man hadn't gone blind or run away, which was incredible!
Nick snapped out of his thoughts, and was, of course, curious about what kind of job Mike was talking about. Seeing their living conditions, and the shady look in Mike's eyes, he knew it wouldn't be anything good.
"We will talk about that later, but right now I would like you to tell me a little bit about this world, starting with its name. Those guys must have roughed me up real good as you said, I don't remember anything except my name and some basic things."
Nick knew he had little to no knowledge about the new place he was in, he had gained the old Nick's memories and would have been considered knowledgeable if he wasn't thrown into this new place. Nick didn't even know if he was in the same world anymore.
So, Nick used the story Mike came up with, as a reason to ask general questions.
Lily once again returned to her cooking, only nodding her head as a show of approval, allowing Mike to tell Nick what he wanted to know.
"Damn them! If we run into those bastards again, then I will definitely teach them a lesson for you, Big bro! How badly did they mess you up for you not to remember anything! This name of this world is, Zora. And there are three continents in it that we know of, namely, the Continent of the 1st, the Beast continent, and the Dark continent."
"We are currently in the Continent of the 1st, specifically the wastelands under the Nova Empire. As far as I know, there are the nine realms to cultivation..." Mike was trying to recall as much beneficial information for Nick as he can. But Nick interrupted him midway.
"Nine realms?!" Nick couldn't help but interrupt, he was just surprised since he knew that in the other world, which Mathew booted him out of, there were only five stages with the Transcendence realm experts being at the invincible peak.
Mike was given a fright by Nick's abrupt interruption and thought, 'This fucker must be doing this on purpose! He must be trying to get back at me for the little prank I pulled earlier, can't people just forgive and forget anymore?'.
"Yes...they are the Spirit realm, the Profound realm, the Origin realm, the Gathering realm, the Transcendent realm, the realms I just mentioned are also called the Mortal realms collectively, then there is the immortal core realm, the immortal foundation realm, the immortal king realm, and the immortal Emperor realm, which are known as the Immortal realms collectively!"
"But you should forget about cultivating. Seeing that you haven't even started yet, you should focus on getting enough money to live your life in comfort with your family instead.."
Nick guessed that the Immortal realm wasn't the peak of cultivation, because reaching the peak would just be too easy if that were the case. But the mere thought of achieving immortality delighted Nick.
As for living in comfort and making a family as Mike suggested, Nick didn't even consider it. He had come to a world where magic and wonder were everyday life, where strength reigned supreme! Only a hormonal perverted sex maniac would think about girls at this moment.
And Nick was never the kind of guy to just settle down in comfort, he would rather enjoy a life of excitement and adventure creating legends wherever he went.
Just thinking of the countless opportunities that await him Nick suddenly got the overwhelming urge to explore the world right away, but Mike's next words just poured an ocean of ice water on his burning ambition.
"In the cultivation world, death is a common commodity. The weakest people in this wasteland alone are at the profound realm, with the strongest cultivators reaching the origin realm!"
"I can be considered as a powerhouse around these parts since I have already reached the 1st rank of the Origin realm. But my sister is even more amazing. She is only twenty-three years old, but she is already at the Gathering realm!" Mike was very proud of his sister, and himself.
Nick was sad right now, he had believed, that after reaching the 9th rank of the Spirit realm, he could be considered a tiny expert. He had thought about how he would show benevolence and take this brother and sister duo in front of him as his followers later, by demonstrating his newfound strength.
But the reality was cruel, he wasn't even stronger than these two weirdos that lived in this dilapidated shack. But this also made him curious. Why would they live in this kind of situation if they could rival the strongest experts around here? Were they hiding from someone, maybe?
But Nick didn't raise his doubts though, because he wasn't a nosy person...okay, who would believe a lawyer wasn't nosy, of course, Nick didn't do it because he was scared of them. These two siblings were two powerhouses, with a messed-up sense of beauty to boot.
Nick then shook his head and turned his attention to Lily for a second, who had been cooking for hours now, yet didn't seem like she was close to stopping. But what terrified Nick the most, was looking at her add a large brick of salt into the pot and stirring it while humming a joyful tune! Nick shiver...was she perhaps trying to dehydrate a desert with that amount of salt?!
Honestly curious at what she was cooking up, Nick slowly walked up to the stove and stood right beside Lily to see what the hell the food in the pot was. But what he saw made him quiver in rage, oh the horror, how can someone ruin perfect boar meat like this...this, was utter blasphemy!
And he noticed a large batch of failed experiments in the garbage can as well, with some large pieces of meat either extremely overcooked or just choked up with too much seasoning until the meat was completely covered by them, apparently, Lily hadn't been cooking one boar this whole time, but was experimenting with many.
"Are you crazy?! What are you doing?! These boars will wage wars against your ancestors in heaven if they knew they died so pointlessly! Go sit down, I'll cook!" Nick snapped at Lily, startling her.
"Humph, let us see if you can do any better!" Lily was startled and furious at the same time. How could a beauty like her know how to cook as well?! Wouldn't that just be too unfair for the other girls…
Nick noticed a weird red stone was being used as a constant source of heat for the stove, and it only took about a minute or two of fiddling to figure out how to use it.
Lily knew her cooking wasn't as good as those chefs and maids in her old house, but she was certain that her cooking wasn't that bad either, it only took a little longer to get used to that's all. Even her brother had only complained the first time, but he then quickly relented after she used the deep, and violent convincing technique, she learned from her father.
'Nick doesn't know how good my sister's cooking is but he will know soon enough.' Mike thought as his eyes went into a violent twitch remembering his own experience. He had to learn that the hard way too.
20 minutes later.
"Hmm…what's that smell?! It smells so, wonderful, doesn't it, Mikey?" Lily sniffed the air entranced by the smell.
"Sister, your cooking smells much better!" Mike yelled, constantly twitching.
What was wrong with her brother, Nick's cooking skills were miles above hers, even she could admit that?
Sometimes she even wondered if her brother was alright in the head...
"Bon appetite!! Get it while it's hot." Nick announce proudly.
Nick put the sizzling pot of Boar meat on the dining table as he sat down with them. Nick had cooked for himself and the other kids on the streets growing up.
They had an arrangement of sorts; they would steal some money to buy groceries and he would make sure that all of them were well fed. And since there were dozens of them, Nick had gotten used to conserving resources and hated wasting food as a result. And cooking in this world wasn't any different, meat was still meat, and salt was still salt, so Nick didn't find it challenging in the least.
Even as a rich lawyer he never let his chef throw away leftovers but had them deliver it to the shelters instead, cause only those that have experienced genuine hunger could understand that pain.
The brother and sister duo didn't even hear what Nick said as their eyes and ears were all focused on the steaming pot.
"It looks so good! Thank you for the meal." Lily said sweetly.
"This is nothing, if I had better ingredients, I would have made something ten times better than this."
Nick was bragging with his head held high expecting more compliments when he noticed the duo were a little too quiet. Confused, Nick lowered his head back down and his eyes bulged, half of the pot was already emptied by the two beasts while he was talking.
'Fuck your daddy! If you are going to be two-faced like this, at least make one of them pretty! Wait, please wait for me!'
Nick no longer spoke. He lowered his head and started eating with a vengeance.
"Mmm...this is delicious!" Lily exclaimed.
"Sister's cooking is better!" Mike voiced out of nowhere. He was now eating the food with a smile, while tears rolled down his cheeks, with his body violently twitching, as he tried to fight his programming.
Sigh...these youths nowadays should really stop taking drugs, Nick thought. He had seen the same reaction on a Pro Bono case he worked a while back representing a drug addict.
"About this job you were talking about... what is it?" Nick asked.
But the only reply he got was a violent chewing sound by the duo.
And he didn't get another word either until the two had finished eating. Only then did the two lift their heads from their plates reluctantly. And the two siblings told Nick about their plan.
"Are you sure this...is ok?" Nick asked. If there was trouble these two had high cultivation and could escape, but what about him? Their plan was just too dangerous.
"Don't worry, this is a full proof plan, nothing will go wrong…I think." Lily said calmly. She was proud of the plan since he had come up with it.
"Yeah, just trust us, Big bro, we saved your life, so we won't put you in the situation where you will lose it again." Mike patted Nick on the shoulders, assuring him of his safety. But also using a little strength to warn Nick against refusing.
'These two must be devils! They are just asking me I will join as a courtesy, I can't even refuse if I wanted to, right?' Nick thought as he looked at both of their grinning faces. Just wait for this daddy to level up, I will definitely teach both of you a lesson!