In the oasis, Red and Shuli had decided to rest for the day. Red was preparing a barbeque of zerg meat on a grill he had brought in his storage ring. Shuli eyed him as if looking at a savage while quietly nibbling on some jerky she had brought with her.
Cultivators didn't need to eat much since they could absorb energy from the heavens directly. So food wasn't as much of a worry as much as water, but Red couldn't not eat food. He had thought of experimenting on Zerg meat. Underneath their hard carapace, they had meat much like crab in texture. A few taste tests told Red that the sonic zergs tasted the best and he had been collecting their meat.
As smoke billowed from his grill, Red hummed a tune from his childhood. He didn't remember the lyrics, but somehow remembered this tune, though he couldn't trace where he had heard it. At that moment he heard the commotion of a few people talking. Red and Shuli weren't surprised because they had long spotted this group of humans approaching them.
The group was the group of the young man, young woman and the core formation experts following them. They all wore bright yellow robes that was in stark contrast to the surroundings, as if they had come to take a stroll in a garden. The core formation experts were fawning on the young man and woman. The man was enjoying it but the woman had a cold detached look on her face. She only conversed with one core formation expert in the group, who was a woman and the young woman's personal guard.
The group arrived at the oasis and saw two people calmly sitting on chairs. The girl was eating some jerky and the guy was calmly grilling what looked like crab meat on a grill as he hummed a tune. The scene would have been fine if it weren't for the fact that they were on a barren high gravity planet infested by Zergs. The bizarre situation stunned them and the group immediately became alert.
Red and Shuli completely ignored them. They treated the oasis as a common rest area for all, so they assumed the other group to be strangers and behaved in an aloof manner.
The young man from the group noticed that the humming boy had just broken into foundation establishment and the woman was only at peak of foundation establishment. While he too was only at peak of Foundation Establishment, he was from one of the most powerful sects in the human alliance and implicitly assumed that he was unbeatable within the same realm and thus looked down on the both of them.
"Who are you two? What are you doing here?" The young man authoritatively interrogated the two. Shuli looked at them, then ignored them entirely. Red looked at the young man and then saw the behavior of the core formation experts who looked ready to defend the young man lest anything went wrong.
He nodded at them. "We are here on holiday. Nice to meet you." Then got back to humming the tune and picked up a grilled piece of zerg meat and ate it. The meat was truly delicious.
One of the core formation experts who wanted to fawn up to the young man yelled. "How can you disrespect the young master like this? This is the junior sect leader of the Radiant Sect, master Lu!" When the young man heard that, his heart puffed with pride. After all, he knew that Radiant Sect was feared throughout the human alliance as one of the powerful super sects.
Red nodded. "Greetings to Master Lu and friends. I apologize, for I do not know what the Radiant Sect is!" When Shuli heard that she coughed and thought to herself. 'Are you the human or am I the human?'
Shuli spoke out. "I've heard that the Radiant Sect is one of the super sects in the human alliance. They are supposedly a very powerful force, so Master Lu must be the only son of the Sect Leader of the Radiant Sect."
When Master Lu heard that he was happy. "Good! I am indeed that Master Lu! We will take residence at this oasis, if you do not mind." He wasn't one to forget his manners, but the tone wasn't one of a request, but of an authoritative assertion, stating his superiority in deciding the matter single handedly.
Red simply shrugged and gestured. "Suit yourself." Then he got back to eating the grilled meat, before he asked their group. "Oh, I'm grilling some meat, would you like to eat? I've got more than I can finish on my own."
The young Master Lu declined and so did most of the core formation experts. However, the young woman from the Radiant sect whispered something to her female guard who then talked to Red. "Young man, where did you collect so much fresh meat from? It looks like crab meat."
Red laughed. "It isn't crab meat, it is from the Zerg." The woman guard got surprised. "Zerg meat? Is it edible? I've heard some people in ground troops in the army try it, but it supposedly tastes disgusting."
Red nodded. "They must've tasted those worker zergs. They are indeed too bitter and have a weird metallic taste. This is a different variety of Zerg, it's meat is somewhat sweet and on grilling it, it acquires a slightly spicy aftertaste." He gestured to the core formation woman to try some of the meat and she obliged.
With slight hesitance, she picked up a stick of grilled meat and ate a bite. Suddenly her eyes widened, for she felt the refreshing taste the young man had mentioned earlier, as well as the fact that on eating it, a small bit of energy entered her body.
The young woman saw the shocked eyes of her guard on tasting food and was curious. She had actually asked the guard to investigate the food, because she wondered where the man got fresh food from. Shuli looked at the reaction and was also surprised. She wondered if the meat was really that good.
"How come you didn't tell me that the meat tasted good?" Shuli said as she took a bite as well and was surprised at how good it tasted. Red simply shrugged. "I did tell you, but you just looked at me as if I were a savage."
The young woman from the radiant sect came near the barbeque and politely asked. "Would it be okay, if I tasted a bit of this meat?" The guard raised her eyes, but didn't speak. Red nodded. "Sure, go ahead."
The young woman took a bite and was shocked. She quickly finished her stick of meat and quietly took another piece to eat.