The two quickly arrived at the entrance of the old tomb which was like a cave. The interior was extremely humid and wet. Ling Tian lit a fire, and looked for some dry hay to spread on the ground. He apologised to Erza, "Sorry, this might be a bit of an inconvenience for you."
"No worries." At the next second, Erza brought out a comfortable sleeping bag from her storage ring. She seemed to understand Ling Tian's intention. He wanted them to rest first for tonight to fully recover from their injuries before starting to explore the tomb tomorrow.
Seeing Erza took out a bed from her ring, Ling Tian was dumbfounded. He realized that Erza's background must be really big, because only the leaders and great elders of Nanda Empire's big four clans possessed storage rings.
"Do you have something for us to eat first before we go deeper into the tomb?" Ling Tian asked her as he assumed that she should have some foods inside her storage ring as well.
Erza nodded her head and brought out a blue-eyed deer. "How shall we cook it?"
"Please let me do it." Ling Tian proposed.
Erza nodded and gave him the deer.
Afterwards, Ling Tian took out a knife and began to skin the blue-eyed deer. His hands moved like the wind. The manner in which he sliced open the deer seemed chaotic and messy, but after several minutes, Ling Tian actually grasped at it and ,with his hand, extracted more than a dozen strips of white tendon from the deer.
Erza's eyelids jumped. It seemed that Ling Tian had not been randomly cutting with his knife, but had actually been removing the white tendons from the blue-eyed deer. These white tendons crisscrossed each other and were woven like a net. To remove them was an extremely tedious and complicated task.
But Ling Tian had used a very short time to complete this, and not only that, but the white tendons that he pulled out had not broken, the flesh had been cleanly sliced off.
Erza was a bit clueless on how it had been done. To achieve this level of finesse, one would have to be very familiar with the body structure of the blue-eyed deer, and also have to undergo years of knife training. This was something that only a chef would ever do.
What was this? Why would such a talented young practitioner be a chef? And looking at the way his knife had achieved such a consummate degree of skill, this young man had probably been a chef for many years already.
Ling Tian saw Erza blankly gazing at the white strips of tendons in his hands and explained with a smile, "Blue-eyed deer has a very good flavour, but it has too much coarse tendon; it will affect the taste, so it's best to take it out."
As Ling Tian spoke, his hands were not idling. He used the knife to cut open the deer and dress it. Then, he made a few more seemingly random cuts and pulled out a pile of bones.
Ling Tian then took out a thick branch, hung the blue-eyed deer on it, and began to grill it over the fire.
Erza found that the deer Ling Tian had hung over for grilling had already been neatly marked and patterned by Ling Tian. The distance between every cut was even; it was extremely neat and structured.
Seeing this, her expression became increasingly strange. What sort of background did this young man have? If she met him in different circumstances, she might have thought that he was some famous cook.
After a quarter-hour passed, the deer meat began to turn into a glazed, golden yellow colour. A little bit of fat had been melted by the flames, dropping into the fire below with a sizzling sound.
As for the white tendons and bones, Ling Tian did not waste any of it. He asked for a pot from Erza and placed the bits into it with some water, then placed it over the fire to cook as soup. Erza was not surprised that Ling Tian knew how to cast 'Fireball' or 'Waterball'. After all, they were basic skills to survive in an adventure.
The soup boiled; the barbecue was sweet and savoury.
Soon, the cave was filled with a delicious fragrance. Even though Erza was trying her best to control her image, she was unable to stop drooling as she smelled that delicious aroma.
The flame had roasted the meat, the cuts on the deer meat had risen; just looking at it caused one's appetite to increase.
Even though it had been grilled for so long, there was not a single charred bit on the barbecue. It was a delicious golden-brown, glistening with melted fat. Erza was impatiently waiting. Of course, she was careful to conceal her eagerness and continued to appear tranquil and calm.
At this time, Ling Tian took out a collection of bottles and jars from his small bag. After opening them, it turned out to be salts and various other spices.
Ling Tian looked at the wide variety of seasonings and chose some to sprinkle on the barbecue. He had a very relaxed and enjoyable expression as he moved. The woman was completely speechless; was this really a practitioner?
She had never seen a clan elder or any talented disciples ever bring out seasonings and pots when going out on adventures. This was more like a chef than an actual practitioner.
After a considerable amount of time, Erza finally heard the long awaited words from Ling Tian, "It's done grilling, you can eat it."
"Mm, yes… Thank you." Erza seriously nodded.
"Here, this is yours." He tore off a piece of the deer leg and gave it to Erza.
Erza received the barbecue slice. As she attempted to take a bite, she saw that Ling Tian was staring at her.
"Anything wrong?" Erza was puzzled.
"Nothing. I just have a feeling that you are younger than how you look. May I know how old are you?"
"Tell me about yourself first."
Ling Tian could only chuckle. At the next moment, he tore off a piece of the deer thigh and chomped on it.
Erza was focusing on eating the tender deer meat. Oil flowed through her lips and teeth, and the fragrance flowed into her mouth. At this moment, Erza had a strange feeling; delicious, this was just too delicious.
In fact, people that originated from large clans and families would rarely eat food like this. They mostly eat foods and vegetables that were filled with abundant heaven and earth essences energy. As for meats? They were mostly done neatly in a steak.
They could be the abundant treasure troves of clans. They grew while continually absorbing heaven and earth true essences which embedded into the fruits and vegetables themselves. Eating food like this long-term was advantageous to enhancing one's practice. Even in the academy, they still provided foods and vegetables which were filled by a certain degree of energy essences.
Previously during her travel, Erza decided to skip some of her meals, or simply ate some snacks and dried foods to fill her stomach. She did not know how to barbecue a meat, it was either burnt or not cooked well. This deer was actually a leftover which Erza has not used yet in her 'experiment'.
Therefore, this was the first time Erza had eaten such a proper barbecue.
"How does it taste?" He tore down a big chunk of meat and ambiguously asked his question. He had full confidence in his cooking skills.
"It's very tasty, but…how do you know how to prepare food?" Erza swallowed a bit of meat and sent a puzzled look towards Ling Tian. This young man was just too unique.
Ling Tian continued eating the barbecue. He replied without looking up, "My family previously owned a restaurant."
"Uh…." Erza suddenly choked on her food, "What did you say?"
"My parents owned a restaurant, that's how I know how." Ling Tian looked up. He did not feel this was anything to be surprised about.
"No…I see." Erza was bewildered. She was actually surprised that with such a background, Ling Tian still managed to reach the middle stage of Knight Realm at this age.
This was simply a talent that was not much worse than hers. She was just lucky that she was raised in a preeminent clan, while this young man did not.
Recently, Erza was thinking to build her own faction and influence like a small guild, something solely belonged to her. She had long realized that it would be a bit hard to gather the full support of Valentine Clan, especially dealing with the first household. But, since she was too young, it was hard to convince others to join hers.
However, now, a good candidate was right in front of her eyes. Erza decided that she needed to try to pull him into her side if an opportunity appeared.
Thinking this, Erza asked, "Where do you learn your practice method from?"
"The Ling Clan…" Ling Tian hesitated before he responded.
"Oh…."
"Mm…good soup." Ling Tian felt it was about time, so he took the lid off the pot. A rich aroma wafted into the air.
He scooped a bowl and handed it to Erza.
She lowered her head and blew away the steam, before gently sipping it. This soup really was quite delicious.
A blue-eyed deer could be made into barbecue, but it could also be made into soup. The barbecue was a bit greasy, but when complemented with the tasty, clear and cleansing soup, it was simply perfection.
"I'm sure you have long realized that I will be your competitor to get whatever was inside this old tomb. So why did you help me?"
"Do I need a reason to help someone else? Especially for a beautiful girl like you?" Ling Tian chuckled before continuing, "Besides, I'm not sure if my power is enough to obtain whatever is inside this place. I might need a help later on."
Erza was silent for a moment before she spoke up again. "I'm Erza Valentine. What's your name?"
"Ling Tian." He was not too surprised that Erna was a fake name.
"Do you know where I come from?"
"Nope. But I guess it must be stronger than this empire."
"Mm.. Do you know Black Snow Empire?"
"Yes." Ling Tian replied without thinking much.
"I'm from there and I was raised in the Imperial Clan."
"I see… so?"
"Help me get whatever is inside this place, and I would give you something of an equal value later on. What do you say?"