'Wait...!'
Xu Kai's eyes snapped to the food on the table.
He stared at it for a long mont.
'Huh?!'
He didn't understand how this had happened, but, this wasn't how the dishes had looked just a few seconds ago.
Monts earlier, every plate on the table had sat practically untouched. The only exceptions were the sauce dishes, and even those weren't completely empty. Just... well-used.
The other plates still held plenty.
But one entire, full dish? Suddenly empty.
And it hadn't been that way before.
'Must've been the wind.'
Xu Kai gave up with a light shrug.
Just as he reached for his chopsticks again—
'What the—'
His gaze darted back to the table. He fixed the dishes with a look that suggested they owed him money.
And in a way, they did.
Not money, exactly. But food.
'Again? How?'
This ti, another full dish had been wiped clean. Spotless.
'No. The wind didn't do this.'
He squinted, scanning the table.
'But who—no, what creature did this?'
He hadn't seen anyone take the food. All he'd caught was a blur, and then... gone. One plate, vanished.
The situation had turned into a mystery case with no leads.
Xu Kai glanced at Chen Xi.
She was the only other person here.
The girl sat in front of him, eating her al. Innocently, if you didn't notice the speed. Stuffing was the right word, yes, but she didn't look like a suspect. She didn't look like soone who knew anything about disappearing food, either. Her focus stayed locked on her plate, utterly absorbed.
And besides, there was no way she could've finished two plates in a few seconds.
Chen Xi had a flawless figure, the kind that could casually rob every girl on social dia from his past world of all their followers.
She was literally a jade beauty.
Or rather, she would have been one, if Xu Kai hadn't already seen every embarrassing side of her.
So soone like that couldn't possibly eat that much.
'Two whole full plates? Added to her first one? In seconds? And still look like that?'
Xu Kai shook his head, dismissing the thought.
'Impossible. She would've weighed a ton by now.'
He closed his eyes and sighed lightly.
'Probably just lack of sleep playing a prank on .'
That had to be it.
But when he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw put his brain on hold.
Another dish was missing.
And—
Chen Xi licked her lips, reached for another plate, and dropped an empty one in its place.
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Without looking at Xu Kai. Without acknowledging the wide-eyed, slack-jawed expression on his face.
She just kept eating.
Throughout the rest of the al, Xu Kai couldn't say a word.
He was traumatized.
****
"Master, I need more food! Is there any left?"
Chen Xi rubbed her flat stomach, then sighed and began muttering to herself.
"Master forgot the food isn't enough. Usually he cooks more than this... Tch. I hate mory loss."
Xu Kai was still struggling to recover from what he'd witnessed.
Chen Xi had eaten everything on the table. Every last dish.
She'd even eaten his portion, not that he could have stopped her. He'd been too shocked to react.
And yet, after all of that, all she could say was I need more?
His brow twitched.
'This black hole!'
If he hadn't known Chen Xi, hadn't seen what she could do, and soone told him she'd polished off a dish ant for more than four people while still looking like she was on a healthy diet, he would've thought they'd lost their mind. Maybe he would've called a nearby hospital for them.
But seeing it with his own eyes? Knowing it was true?
'Seems like I'm the one who needs a ntal check-up now.'
That hit differently.
Xu Kai sighed and ignored her.
He leaned back, resting against his chair, and asked.
"The food we just ate, it wasn't normal, right?"
"Of course it isn't! You made it. Your cooking is always extraordinary." She said it like the answer was obvious. "That's why I rarely eat outside the house. It's not like I just make the decision out of the blue and leave, I only do that when you're seriously busy and can't cook, or when you're not ho with no plans to co back early, which leaves all alone..." She paused, then pointed toward a small table. "Not actually alone, because you leave a watching artifact to monitor ."
Honestly, Xu Kai felt a flicker of pride when she praised him.
But he shook his head.
"No. I wasn't talking about the taste. I was talking about the feeling of it."
Chen Xi's gaze dropped for a mont, as if she were thinking.
Then her eyes widened.
"Ah, that!"
Xu Kai nodded, relieved she finally understood.
Then she deflated, tilted her head, and asked.
"What's the difference?"
He facepald.
'This girl.'
He'd jumped ahead because of her reaction. Now he saw the truth, she had no idea what he ant.
Xu Kai made a ntal note: 'Never move ahead of himself when it ca to Chen Xi.'
He took a deep breath and explained.
"The food we ate, especially the ats, vegetables, rice, and everything else—" He rolled his eyes. "—including the dishes I didn't touch... they don't feel normal." He paused and glanced at Chen Xi, who still wore that confused expression. For the sake of being specific, he added, "The rice is spirit rice, right?"
In his past life, Xu Kai had read about things like that in cultivation novels.
But he didn't know if the sa rules applied here. This place was reality, not a piece of writing.
And most importantly, this wasn't a novel he'd read and then transmigrated into, like so many transmigration stories.
That's why he asked.
Although Xu Kai had cooked the food, he hadn't fully known what went into it.
The day before, he'd picked up a cooking book by accident, skimd through it, only catching its na and an illustration, and decided to make the recipes the next day. He'd been too tired to cook that evening, for a reason he didn't understand.
He'd shrugged it off as an effect of the original Xu Kai's failed ascension. Most cultivation novels said such attempts took a great toll.
But that was all he'd done: skimd a cooking book and decided to make the dishes he recognized from his past life.
So of the foods had looked familiar.
Chen Xi's eyes widened again in understanding.
"Ah, that!"
Xu Kai just stared blankly, offering no reaction.
He couldn't tell if she understood or not. He was keeping his expectations low.
"Yes, Master, you're right. It's not normal." She sat up a little straighter. "So cultivators don't like eating what normal mortals eat. It contains impurities that take ti to refine away."
She paused, giving him a chance to ask questions. He had none, so she continued.
"So we eat spirit food instead. You can get it from various places, but I mostly buy from a cultivator's market in Ham City, it's the closest one to Lud Forest." She gestured as she explained. "The rice is spirit rice. Nothing special about it, just the regular kind. And the chicken is called the Four-Legged Mountain Chicken. The one I bought is a rank one True Beast." She smiled. "Like the na suggests, it's a chicken with four legs. Extrely delicious when its fate is decided... in the pot, of course."
"Wait, wait." Xu Kai held up an arm. "You an a chicken with four legs? Like, literally four legs?"
He'd cooked the food, yes, but he'd found it already cut. He hadn't done the butchering. For all he knew, it could have had a wing.
"Yes, Master. That's what I said."
"And you—we ate such an abomination?"
"...Yes."
Xu Kai paused, ntally picturing a four-legged chicken.
It was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen. Or rather, ever thought of.
'I'm too young for this shi—'
Right then, he knew...
This world was no place for a pure soul like him.
"Abomination?" Chen Xi echoed, replaying his words. "Master, it's a True Beast. And it's extrely tast—"
He held up a hand.
"I think I'm good with the details you've given."
"...Okay." She nodded reluctantly, clearly not understanding her master.
She was used to the strangeness of the cultivation world. She'd once been mortal herself, so things like this no longer fazed her. They had at first, of course. But that was normal for anyone who'd lived as a mortal for a long ti before becoming a cultivator.
What she didn't consider was that Xu Kai wasn't used to any of this. Physically, at least. He'd seen weird things like this in fantasy fiction, yes. But seeing wasn't experiencing.
"As for the others," Chen Xi started, tapping her chin. "Hmm... what was in it again?"
Xu Kai didn't know why, but a bad feeling began creeping up his spine.
"Oh, yes." She snapped her fingers. "The mushroom. It's a rank one True Beast."
'A mushroom? A True Beast?' Xu Kai thought, slowly growing unsettled.
"It's called the One-Eyed Mushro—"
He fainted.
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