In front of the nine family heads and the leaders of her own family, Huang Si was kneeling in front of a very small table. On it were several tea tools made from porcelain and jade. There were grandiose engravings and paintings on the teapot, on the teacups and on all the various handcrafted tools. Huang Si appeared perfectly calm as a pot of water was slowly heating on a stove.
The stove was very ordinary. Tea was not the domain of extravagance. Even though fine art and minute details were important, the actual process of brewing tea was ancestral. Some historians even thought that it predated Emperor Nuwa. A few went beyond and claimed that this art had existed since the Legendary Era but no actual document had ever been able to prove such an assertion. Still, it was one of the major ceremonies among nobles, and a must-do for anyone harboring any political ambition.
Huang Si was following the perfect ritual of tea, the Road of Milk and Peace. It was made of twenty-four steps that one had to adhere to. On her right were a few incense sticks burning slowly while she had asked some friends to play a specific music. After kowtowing to her audience, she took a small pot of tea leaves. The moment she opened the lid, a faint fragrance was detected by the Spirit Warriors with their superior senses. Those leaves were Exquisite Purple Jasmine, this was one of the most rare and prized tea in the Hongchen Kingdom. That was the very tea that Chief Elder Suxian had lost and won back with his bets against Chief Elder Luoming.
Using her hearing, Huang Si was trying to determine when the water was at the right temperature. The moment she decided that it was good, she stopped the fire and took the water pot. As a Mortal Warrior, she could have used her Qi to make all those movements. But while brewing tea, it was best to stay humble and modest. As such, she had to behave as though she was a mere mortal.
In front of her, she had put the teapot inside another plate and several teacups all in the same formation. There were five servings made of three cups each, also set up into small plates. Their position was strictly the same and they were all thought out in regards to the rest of the tea tools. Just before her, there was a bowl that was a bit smaller than the teapot itself.
At first, Huang Si poured the hot water in the teapot and in the cups. With a small pincer, she took each cup and emptied it into the plate it was in. That way, she washed the cups, warmed them up and kept them warm with the hot water that was now in the plates they were in. She also did the same with the teapot and the tea bowl.
Before going to the next step, she changed the incense sticks. Then, she filled the teapot with the rest of the hot water, closed its lid and put the water pot away.
With a tea scoop, she took several dried leaves of Exquisite Purple Jasmine. She smelled them and put them back. Several times she repeated the process until the fragrance was exactly was she was looking for. Now satisfied of her leaves, she put them into the tea bowl. When brewing tea, one had to consider every single detail and adjust their brewing to the environment around them. Every single leaf was different and Huang Si wanted the perfect tea for this ceremony. She wasn't just being pretentious. In fact, right now, she was wholeheartedly focused on her tea brewing. Even the competition with Huang Cixi had disappeared from her mind. Having peace of mind was essential for the tea ceremony.
Moreover, the spectacle surrounding the brewing of tea was also part of the tasting itself. Seeing the process being artistically done before their eyes would enhance the savor of the tea for the audience.
With a small mortar, she ground the leaves into a fine powder. Although she was a Mortal Warrior, she didn't use much strength at all and the process took quite some time. At the end, all the incense sticks had been burned away.
Once more, she changed those incense sticks. Taking the teapot in hand, she began to pour a very small amount of almost boiling water on the Exquisite Purple Jasmine powder. As the hot water came into contact with the tea powder, many bubbles formed and a faint aroma spread in the air. Huang Si took a chasen, a tea whisk. Expertly and with utmost care, she whipped the water and the powder. After several minutes of effort, a white foam had appeared on the surface of the water and was at least five times the actual volume of water below.
Again, she poured hot water into the bowl in a circular motion. And just after that, she whipped the bowl to maintain the white foam. During a tea competition, this white foam was known as the milk surface. It wasn't milk of course, but it was white and had the consistency of milk. Many times, Huang Si repeated the same process until the bowl was completely full. In fact, half of the bowl volume, at least, was made up of the milk surface.
Each time, new fragrances and aromas, combined with the incense sticks she was using, spread throughout the crowd. Even the incense sticks she was using had been carefully selected to complement the natural fragrance of the tea with no alteration. Trying to do too much was also an error during a tea competition. Simplicity and humility were important.
When finally the milk surface almost spilled out of the bowl, Huang Si stopped. It was adhering to the bowl and formed a thin dome over the tea bowl. The time had come to serve the tea. Just like she had done at the beginning, she used the rest of the hot water to rinse a wooden tea ladle. Then, she delicately went through the milk surface, taking great care not to rupture it. If the tea became visible through this milk surface, this would be a failure on her part. The tea bowl had to keep this thin layer of white foam at all times.
Now that both the tea and a layer of the milk surface was in the ladle, she poured it into a first set of three cups. Huang Si continued the process until all of the fifteen cups got filled completely. Putting down all other tea tools, Huang Si tried to grab the teacup that was the closest to her. When her hand touched the cup, she realized that it was still a bit too hot and waited a few instants.
After several seconds, she was satisfied by the temperature of the cup and brought it to her mouth. First she smelled the tea. Then, she drank a small sip to make sure that everything was perfect. And it was. This tea was undeniably a 5-star Heaven tea. As she was done, she simply gestured for her guests to drink. Five servants came to take each serving and brought them to the audience. The serving in which Huang Si had drank one of the cups was brought to Huang Lü and Huang Cixi while all the other cups were brought to the family heads and the table of Matriarch Huang Yufeng.
No one dared take a sip before the matriarch, but they all brought the cup to their mouth in order to smell the tea fragrance. Clearly this tea was at least a 1-star Heaven tea. Many arts and crafts were judged according to the same system of Earth, Human and Heaven. There were also two last grades which were Spirit and God. Each grade was always different in nature, while each star was just different in degree. An Earth tea was what any mortal could brew. A Human tea was able to not only calm the body and mind, but also infuse Qi into someone's body. In fact, it sometimes had a small impact on the Jing, the very essence of someone.
Finally, a Heaven tea was able to act upon body and mind, upon Qi and Jing, and upon the very soul of someone. For Spirit Warriors who were nurturing a Soul Embryo, such a tea was heavenly. According to the legends, one day a mortal had consumed a God tea. In only a few days, he went through all the stages of cultivation and reached the Spirit Warrior realm. As no one had been able to drink such a nectar, it was impossible to know how exaggerated this tale was.
All the audience was salivating before this tea. Everyone was impatient but Matriarch Huang Yufeng was not hasty. After a thorough analysis of the fragrance, she finally took a sip. That was the signal the other family heads were waiting for. One by one, while respecting both status and seniority, they took their first sip.
What they felt was incredible. The bitterness didn't last long and was soon replaced by sweetness and calm. The heat of the tea spread through their entire bodies. They could feel their muscles relax and get infused with a quiet energy. Then, their very Dantian, both the Lower Dantian and the Middle Dantian, got filled with energy as the heat of the tea was melding with their own Qi. A few of them were able to feel some surges of energy going into their Jing, their vital essence and producing a bit more Qi for some time.
Then, this quiet energy entered into their Upper Dantian and into their souls. As most of them were Spirit Warriors, they also felt it enter their Soul Embryo, no matter how developed it was. Not only did this tea appease their minds, it also impacted their very souls. There was no doubt at all that this tea was a 5-star Heaven tea. This was the highest grade a tea master was able to reach in the current era. Moreover, Huang Si was only thirty-two years old. To tell the truth, some of the family heads were not sure whether they would be able to brew such a tea themselves. Hall Master Fang Shaolong was sure that he wouldn't as he had very little interest in the art. It was an art for the nobles and those who wanted to ascend to power through aristocracy.
Hall Master Fang Shaolong was at his core a merchant and a financier. Among the three great characters of the city, he had the weakest cultivation and he wasn't particularly versed in the Five Imperial Arts. However, he was knowledgeable enough about them because he needed to interact with people who were and because he needed to be able to evaluate the value of almost any product. Just by watching Huang Si brew the tea, Fang Shaolong had known that the result would be a 5-star Heaven tea thanks to his experience.
The last ones to taste the tea were Huang Cixi and Huang Lü. Both of them had to admit that Huang Si was quite talented indeed. Huang Lü looked at the girl she now strangely felt closer to, Huang Cixi. Seeing that her face was as calm as ever, she wasn't sure whether she was confident or just hiding her worries.
Soon after, the family heads began to speak among themselves.
"Isn't the water used Tranquil Melancholy Raindrops?"
"Indeed, this is almost as rare as the Exquisite Purple Jasmine itself."
"But the quality of the ingredients is not the main attribute of this tea. Both Huang Si's state of mind and adherence to the rituals helped enhance their effects. A bad tea maker could easily spoil such fine ingredients."
"Quite right. But I do find that she went a bit extravagant, what with both the music and the incense..."
"Come on, old man. Young people want to impress their elders, that is only natural. And neither the fragrance of the incense nor the melody of the guqin were too heavy. They stayed in the background and only complemented her work. Tell me, old man, when did you savor such exquisite tea for the last time?"
The old man who had spoken got reprimanded by an even older woman and got annoyed.
"Tss... Who is old here? But you do have a point..." He then took another sip and stayed silent.
A bit annoyed, the old woman calmed herself so that the taste of the tea didn't get spoiled by her state of mind.
During several minutes, all the family heads gave their impressions. The younger audience and the elders surrounding the main table had no way to distinguish the true quality of the tea. But after witnessing Huang Si's methods and hearing the comments, they realized how talented she was. Unfortunately for her, she already had a great reputation. As such, her accomplishment didn't cause much of a surprise. In fact, it was more or less expected of her by the crowd.
After the discussions finally stopped, all eyes turned toward Matriarch Huang Yufeng.
"Sirs, do you have an opinion?"
The first one to answer her was Elder Huang Jian.
"I do not think it is proper of me to give my impressions yet. I do not wish to influence anyone before Huang Cixi can show off her own competence."
"Indeed. Elder Huang Jian is right. We have to witness both contestants before reaching a conclusion. Any word we would use to talk about Huang Si's tea could be interpreted in many ways. It is best for us to stay quiet until all our esteemed guests have been able to give their own impressions and pass their own judgment."
Matriarch Huang Yufeng smiled at these answers. In Huang Yi, she suspected a bit of favoritism for his own granddaughter, but she knew he would stay fair in his final judgment. On the other hand, Elder Huang Jian strangely seemed to favor the young girl as well. It was very subtle, but she could sense something in his way of talking. After all, she knew him very well. Without letting it show on her face, she was somewhat surprised. Huang Cixi seemed to be even more capable than she had initially thought.
"You are indeed both right. We cannot let inconsiderate words sway the final judgment of the family heads. Huang Si, can you wait for our opinion a little while?"
Huang Si was still kneeling in front the main table with her tea tools in front of her. Before answering, she kowtowed.
"This junior understands, Matriarch. I am sure that my junior sister will also present a formidable tea to our esteemed guests."
Without standing up, she walked backward. Finally, she went back to her seat. After her, some servants took the tea tools away and set up new tools in their stead. And at last, Huang Cixi went in front of the small table and knelt, ready to prepare her own tea.