Chapter 4: The Story of Chicken Cutlets

“Chickens.” After a pause, one fellow disciple replied.

“? Kun?” Lin Xi reflexively blurted out.

A few of his sect-mates gave him strange looks: “What’s ‘Kun’?”

Lin Xi gave an awkward laugh, “Ah, nothing, nothing. Just a special name for chickens back in my hometown.

“Anyway, you said there are lots of chickens, but what do they eat to grow?”

What if they were raised on Phoenix-Immortal Golden Stamen or Red Spider Lily? Then it’d be over.

“They all eat spirit plants. But for flowers like Red Spider Lily and the like, they won’t touch them. Chickens do have brains, after all. They won’t eat what’s bad for them.”

Lin Xi’s inner thoughts: Why does that sound kind of wrong?

(…So basically, people were dumber than chickens.)

He pressed on: “Then, those spirit plants that chickens eat—are any harmful to humans?”

His fellow disciple dismissed the concern: “Of course not. Those spirit plants are beneficial to the body. That’s why the chickens that eat them grow especially plump and strong. Honestly, their feed is better than what we eat. Can’t chase them away either. So many spirit plants were wasted!”

“Wait, you’re not thinking…”

Without another word, Lin Xi dashed out of the cave dwelling.

After a while, he returned carrying several chickens.

Looking at the enormous dead chickens, his heart was filled with emotion.

As expected, chickens raised on spirit plants were top-notch. Just one of these could feed several people.

“Brothers and sisters! Do you want to be self-sufficient, instead of spending piles of spirit stones buying pig slop? Listen to me! Let me make you fried chicken cutlets!” Lin Xi shouted loudly.

A group of sect-mates fell silent.

Then, murmurs broke out: “Do you really think he can do it?”

“If we go along with him, are we sure nothing will go wrong? Why do I seem to remember that he can’t cook?”

“Also, what’s a fried chicken cutlet? How come I’ve never heard of it before?”

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Never even heard of fried chicken cutlets. What a shallow bunch.

In the end though, the disciples sharing the same cave with him still decided to watch, half out of curiosity, as Lin Xi took some crushed steamed buns, the poor “Kun”, and an inexplicable flat-bottomed pan with oil, and fried up a bunch of strange patty-like things.

In his previous life, Lin Xi’s mother had been a chef. She had studied ordinary dishes, high-class cuisine, and all sorts of recipes.

Though Lin Xi hadn’t inherited her culinary mastery, he had at least learned a little—especially the knack of cooking for a large crowd.

Before long, a pile of those patty-like things was placed in front of his fellow disciples.

Someone nervously asked, “Lin Xi, how come I’ve never seen anything like this before? Are you sure it’s not poisonous?”

Faced with such doubts, of course Lin Xi had to fiercely defend the dignity of modern cuisine!

Among them, there was always one reckless type who liked to “try” new things. That disciple took a small, cautious bite.

Afterwards, he gave a big thumbs-up: “Although the taste is a little unusual, it’s leagues above the slop in the cafeteria! But… you must’ve spent quite a lot of spirit stones, right? Really made you break the bank.”

Lin Xi smiled mysteriously, “All of this together still costs less than a single portion from that black-hearted cafeteria.”

Everyone in the cave dwelling was instantly stunned.

In the next moment, cheers and applause erupted endlessly, making the usual nobody Lin Xi feel for the first time what it was like to be “the moon surrounded by stars”.

Before they could even finish cheering, a fellow disciple from a nearby cave suddenly came out, looking irritated for some reason.

“What’s all this noise?! The cafeteria’s already annoying the hell out of me, and now you guys are here—”

The whole place went silent.

A quarter of an hour later…

“I heard some cave came up with a new dish?”

“Then what are we waiting for? Charge! Charge! Charge! I never want to pay for that pig slop again.”

“Hey, our Silver Moon Sect is really full of hidden talents! Last night, I heard someone fainted from food poisoning and ended up meeting Young Master Xue, and today we’ve got another guy obsessed with researching new recipes.”

“Hooray! We’ll never have to risk our lives sneaking out of Bi’An Sect for food again! No more begging for meals from Qingxing Sect either!”

Disciples of the Bi’An Sect weren’t allowed to casually wander among the common folk without permission, so they had no other options besides the cafeteria.

Now, things were different. They finally didn’t have to go hungry eating pig slop anymore.

Lin Xi who was buried in the crowd: …

“Quiet down!” Lin Xi suddenly roared, and his ravenous fellow disciples instinctively froze for a moment.

“Don’t think you’re eating for free! You have to pay!”

Complaints immediately broke out, “What the hell, so you’re trying to squeeze us too? No way! Let’s just grab it!”

Lin Xi was speechless, “Come on, is it really okay to just dine and dash? And besides, seven low-grade spirit stones for one serving is already pretty cheap!”

The disciples changed their minds again.

After all, if they really just snatched it, Lin Xi might not cook again.

So… they decided to go along with him. It wasn’t expensive anyway, and compared to the cafeteria, it was heaven and earth.

And so, Lin Xi successfully went from being just an ordinary disciple to becoming the sect’s head chef.

His “roommates” were loyal too, running around busily to help out.

Some hauled stacks of dry buns, some grabbed chickens, while Lin Xi put on quite the show working at the stove.

Of course, with a whole group of “roommates” guarding him, no outsiders managed to steal their cooking secrets.

Before long, a crowd of satisfied, well-fed “customers” expressed their gratitude to Lin Xi.

Sure, they still had to spend spirit stones, but at least he was a conscientious merchant.

Compared to their Silver Moon Sect Master, Lin Xi could be considered very kind.

“By the way, you can spread today’s business to more fellow disciples, but under no circumstances can you let Sect Master Yue find out.” Lin Xi reminded them: “Otherwise, it won’t do you any good either.”

Of course, there were always those who loved to fan the flames. “Everyone, swear it! I, Li Si, hereby swear that I will never breathe a word of this to the Sect Master, nor let any other higher-ups know. If I break this vow, may I die a miserable death!”

As he watched everyone solemnly swear oaths, Lin Xi crouched behind the curtain, happily counting his money.

To his surprise, he had made over two thousand low-grade spirit stones in just one day.

After deducting costs, he still had more than a thousand left.

Exchanged into high-grade spirit stones, that was about ten.

What he owed Xue Mufeng was one hundred high-grade spirit stones.

At this rate, he could pay off his debt in less than ten days.

Lin Xi absolutely didn’t want to be labeled as a deadbeat debtor, especially not when it came to the second male lead.

Fortunately, his “roommates” were simple and honest people. After helping him bustle around for half a day, they still refused any payment, which touched Lin Xi deeply. In the end, he forcefully shoved some spirit stones into each of their hands.

He secretly gloated: Yue Chuyin, you damn turtle, I wonder what you’d think if you knew right now.

Meanwhile, on Yue Chuyin’s side, he was indeed full of doubts.

“You’re saying the cafeteria was nearly empty today?”

“That’s right.” Ye Mei rubbed her forehead.

She felt a little pity for those disciples. “Maybe… they’re unhappy, so they didn’t come?”

Hearing that, Yue Chuyin relaxed on the contrary. “Then it’s fine. In the end, they can’t leave the mountain. Sooner or later, they’ll have to come back.”

He didn’t believe his disciples would rather starve to death than pay.

If they really would, then this batch of blockheads wasn’t worth keeping anyway.

His mind was fully occupied with pursuing Xuan Hou. How could he possibly imagine that all his disciples were currently burping happily, faces glowing with satisfaction?

If Lin Xi had been there, he would definitely have sighed: “As expected, falling in love lowers your intelligence!”

Ye Mei secretly sighed.

Yue Chuyin’s cultivation was indeed decent, and his character used to be barely passable, so how did he end up falling for someone like Xuan Hou? That pretentious woman was a disgrace to all female cultivators. She had dragged down not only his intelligence but also his moral character.

This colleague was clearly a lost cause. If kept around, he’d probably drag down her and her good sister Kou Yan’s intelligence too.

Suddenly, Xuan Hou’s shrill voice sounded outside the door.

“You have no eyes! Can’t you see I’m here to see the Sect Master?”

Ye Mei’s beautiful brows furrowed. Without a word, she turned, leapt straight out the window, and disappeared into the night.

Yue Chuyin: ? Why did she look at me so strangely… Could it be she secretly likes me?

Ye Mei: Like your ass. You’re really a master at guessing!

(Friendly note: Miss Ye Mei is actually asexual—a pure career woman through and through.)

Over the next few days, Lin Xi’s earnings poured in like water. Every day his income skyrocketed, to the point his hands got sore from counting spirit stones.

He didn’t slack on researching new recipes either, even coming up with new dishes like braising rare flowers and exotic animals together into red-braised pork belly.

Normally, small animals were the ones eating spiritual plants. Now, they were cooked together with the very plants they used to eat. Truly, what goes around comes around, and the heavens spare no one!

Before long, Lin Xi’s cooking had spread to every male disciple in the Silver Moon Sect.

In the past, whenever cultivators saw chickens or ducks, they would chase them off. If they saw a wild boar, they’d quickly drive it to another mountain to prevent it from wrecking spirit plants and flowers.

Now they realized how foolish they’d been!

Whenever they saw these cute little animals, their mouths watered instead!

And of course, where there were male cultivators, female cultivators would follow.

Even though the men’s and women’s quarters in Silver Moon Sect were far apart, that didn’t stop some special couples from sharing juicy news with one another.

So, starting from the fifth day, a group of excited female cultivators appeared…

“Um… do you still have red-braised pork belly? I don’t care how many spirit stones it costs!”

They only wanted a good meal!

And just like that, the entire Silver Moon Sect reached an unspoken consensus.

Lin Xi was in charge of cooking and earning spirit stones.

They were in charge of eating.

“Finally, no more swill and pig slop!” the cultivators cheered.

“Finally, I can pay off my debt!” Lin Xi cheered.

The only one still completely in the dark was that idiot Yue Chuyin. Even as chaos broke out below, he hadn’t noticed a thing.

As expected, falling in love really does lower your IQ!