Ye Xiruo stood up, facing the newly risen morning sun. She could feel the benefits brought by the brief cultivation session just now, and a gentle, curved smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
Light as a feather, she leaped down from the roof. Ye Xiruo fetched two buckets of water and placed them beside the vegetable garden, then started watering. Chinese cabbages, green peppers, baby bok choy, and cucumbers – these were all her favorite vegetables. Moreover, Aunt Wang had mentioned that if there were any leftovers, they could be sold.
At present, she was truly penniless. She guarded a space that was barren, not a single blade of grass in sight. She had thought about going to the back mountain to search for treasures, but she was afraid of encountering danger. After all, she still had no idea who the enemies of this body were.
Half an hour later, Ye Xiruo finished watering the vegetable field. Along the way, she picked a few cucumbers and a handful of green beans. It was time to prepare breakfast.
She boiled water, washed the rice, and cooked porridge. Then, she made a cold dish. The green beans would be stir-fried with garlic, scallions, and ginger later. Recalling that steamed buns required steaming, Ye Xiruo stared blankly at the half bag of flour in her arms. The flour here was light yellow, a shade lighter than cornmeal, but it tasted the same.
There was no baking powder here. How was she supposed to steam buns? Was she going to drink porridge every day from now on? An idea struck her. She could make a few scallion and egg pancakes first. Luckily, Aunt Wang had brought over a few eggs yesterday. Without further ado, she kneaded the dough, chopped the scallions finely. It was so spicy that she stuck out her tongue while adding garlic, green peppers, and other seasonings, stirring them carefully.
Half an hour later, the dough had risen almost enough. She divided it into five pieces, rolled them flat, added the scallions, rolled them up again, and then flattened them into pancake shapes. After she had finished all of them, she put them into the small pot at the back and started baking.
A few minutes later, a rich scallion aroma wafted through the air. Ye Xiruo inhaled deeply. It smelled so good! She flipped the pancakes. They should be ready to eat soon.
By now, the kitchen was filled with a delicious fragrance. Ye Xiruo couldn't bear it any longer – she was afraid she might gobble them up raw. So, she simply ran back to her father's study to see if there were any books on history or geography that could give her a general understanding of what this world was really like. After all, from Aunt Wang's description alone, Ye Xiruo couldn't get a sense of the distribution of various forces in this world, the division of strength among the experts, and her own future plans. Was she going to stay in this small mountain village and grow vegetables? Or was she going to venture out with the mysterious system and make a name for herself?
With great difficulty, she found a book titled "Strange Tales of the Continental Geography". Fortunately, the characters were traditional Chinese characters. Otherwise, she really would have cried. She found the introduction to the Rui Kingdom: a small border country, a wild and barren land, with scarce spiritual energy, rarely producing outstanding talents or rare spiritual objects. Specialties included low-level Yueguang Grass, Shenmu Heart, and Leiguang Fruit. And that was it.
Ye Xiruo slumped onto the chair. What? Just a few dozen words to summarize the entire Rui Kingdom. The author was really straightforward! Should she leave this place? It seemed that there were no abundant resources required for cultivation here. Without resources and strength, she feared she would meet a tragic end.
"Oh no, my scallion pancakes!" She hoped they hadn't burned.
"Eh!" Where were her pancakes? There was only one left, and half of it was burned black. Could it be that Aunt Wang had come? No way! She was now cultivating, after all, and she could tell the footsteps of ordinary people.
Now, Ye Xiruo was almost certain that either a person or a beast had stolen her pancakes. Humph! If I ever find out, I'll never forgive the thief. The grudge over the stolen pancakes was unforgivable.
She had worked so hard to make them, and she hadn't even had a single bite. Yet, someone had snatched them away. Ye Xiruo was furious. Feeling aggrieved, she served herself a bowl of porridge and reluctantly cut off the burned part of the remaining pancake, then took a vicious bite.
"Thief!" Humph, what was this? A jade buckle as big as a little fingernail, made of emerald. Looking at the color and texture, it was lustrous and translucent, without a single impurity. There was also a red cord tied to it.
This was payment for the pancake. Although the value of the jade was much higher, she had worked hard to make the pancake too! Moreover, because of the ingredients (mainly the spirit eggs), the pancake was really delicious. The remaining one was quickly devoured by Ye Xiruo. She licked her fingers, still wanting more. She cursed, cursed deeply...
"Ah-choo." A peerlessly elegant immortal in white, who was normally as lofty as a celestial being, sneezed rather ungracefully, startling several junior fellow disciples behind him.
Before the group could recover from their shock, the immortal in white calmly took out a scallion pancake that still emitted a tantalizing aroma from his spatial ring and ate it with an unruffled expression.
"Second Senior Brother, hit me. Am I dreaming?"
"Junior Sister, don't pinch me. It hurts." Fifth Junior Sister clutched Third Senior Brother's arm and pinched it hard, clearly unable to believe what she was seeing. Their eldest senior brother, who had long since achieved the state of bigu and abstained from mortal food, was now eating earthly food.
Suddenly, a scream came from behind them. It turned out that Fourth Junior Brother couldn't bear the shock and fell off his flying sword.
The remaining few people looked at each other in dismay, at a loss for what to do.
The immortal in white in front, without any visible movement, flashed a white light from his sleeve. Soon, the still-shaken Fourth Junior Brother returned, standing on an ancient flying sword.
"Eldest... Eldest Senior Brother."
The remaining juniors also stared at their eldest senior brother with shining eyes. If they weren't dreaming, then their eldest senior brother must have been possessed.
"Alright, this mission is rather important. I shouldn't have brought you along in the first place. Pull yourselves together." After everyone had calmed down, Xiu Qiyu calmly took out another scallion pancake from his ring and continued eating. That little girl had good skills.
Ye Xiruo was completely unaware of all this. At this moment, she was in the study, flipping through books about the continent. Several hours later, Ye Xiruo stretched, yawned, and closed the book.
This was only the tip of the iceberg of the continent. She hadn't forgotten that the author of the oldest book had asserted that beyond the Taiyan Continent, there were other continents. Beyond this space, there were other spaces. Therefore, strength was the most important thing.
Ye Xiruo used her spiritual power to slowly "open" the "Myriad Medicine Canon" in her sea of consciousness. The "Myriad Medicine Canon" contained a total of 156,720 kinds of medicinal materials. The only fortunate thing was that there were simulated images, like 3D images, which could clearly show the leaves, leaf veins, roots, and fruits. It was like having a cheating device.
Ye Xiruo's brain started working at high speed. She automatically began to classify the medicinal materials. Those with similar medicinal properties or appearances were grouped together. Then, she only needed to remember their most distinctive features, and this group of medicinal materials was considered mastered.
The pages of the pharmacopoeia in Ye Xiruo's mind flipped faster and faster, and she seemed to enter a mysterious state. Three hours later, Ye Xiruo took a deep breath, and a faint green light flashed in her eyes. After confirming that she had memorized over a thousand kinds of medicinal materials, she was so excited that she almost jumped up.
"Damn girl, open the door!" The deafening voice and the violent knocking on the door made Ye Xiruo frown.