Xu Fei had already realised what happened. Staring at this huge pot of spiritual rice, he was also somewhat stunned. He understood it was his own oversight. Chong’er did not know about these things. It was he who forgot to remind him.
The key was that he usually did not concern himself with cooking matters. Chong’er cooking did not need instructions. It had always been about ensuring he was full. So this was how it turned out.
Xu Fei scratched his head awkwardly and said, “Brother Shiheng, this really cannot be blamed on Chong’er…”
“Stop!” Yu Qing raised his hand, also let go of Chong’er. His palm slowly pressed against his own heart. It was real heart pain, genuine heartache.
He had beaten his senior brothers half to death just to snatch a few taels of silver? This little bookboy had casually stewed away a thousand taels of silver for him. If his three senior brothers found out, how could he face them? Yet he had no place to reason it out.
Who told him to let his mouth run wild and say “eat until full”? He had forgotten that Xu Fei practised external arts with a tough horizontal training style. Such people usually had huge appetites. They needed to eat and drink massively to maintain their body’s consumption. The type who, upon sitting in a restaurant, could slap the table and order several jin of meat and several jin of wine.
How could he have made such a basic mistake?
He could only comfort himself. Even horses stumble sometimes. For a moment he had been outside the jianghu, blinded by the other’s identity as an examination candidate. A huge miscalculation!
After thinking it through, Yu Qing waved his hand grandly and said with extreme grief and indignation, “Eat! All of you eat fiercely for me. Eat until it’s all gone. From now on, no one is allowed to mention this to me, not a single word, or don’t blame me for turning hostile!” With that, he picked up his rice bowl and started wolfing it down with loud slurps.
He just could not understand. Why did something always go wrong whenever spiritual rice was cooked? Last time it injured someone. This time it had severely cost him money again.
Chong’er wiped away a tear and said with a choked voice, “Young master, we can save some for tomorrow. Tomorrow I can heat it up and it will still be edible.”
“Ugh…” Yu Qing, who was gulping it down, nearly choked to death on the spot. He raised his head, neck stiff, eyes rolling back. He thumped his chest heavily twice before catching his breath, then immediately looked for water to drink.
Xu Fei was also there, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. “Chong’er, this is spiritual rice. It is different from ordinary white rice. The value of spiritual rice lies in the spiritual energy it contains. There is a layer of membrane on the surface sealing the spiritual energy. Once cooked and the membrane bursts from swelling, the spiritual energy cannot be locked in anymore. It will slowly dissipate. So after cooking, it cannot be stored for long. It must be eaten as quickly as possible within a certain time. Otherwise it will be wasted for nothing.”
He had eaten spiritual rice before too, but only occasionally. Eating it regularly was something he could not afford.
All martial cultivation practitioners knew the benefits of eating spiritual rice, but how many were blocked by the threshold of “cannot afford it”?
Xu Fei’s family was considered wealthy in their small place. How wealthy? It could be explained with an example.
For an ordinary family, ten taels of silver were enough for a household to eat for half a year.
His family’s business could easily earn several hundred taels a month without issue. It counted as a modestly wealthy household.
So occasionally tasting something fresh was possible, but treating spiritual rice as regular food was impossible. Something like eating away over a thousand taels in one meal was even more impossible.
“Stop wasting words. Eat!” Yu Qing could not swallow his resentment. He roared again.
Xu Fei saw his frustration. He chuckled and did not hold back either. He rolled up his sleeves and dug in.
Chong’er wiped his tears while serving more rice to the two of them.
The more they ate, the less loss they would suffer. Yu Qing held this mindset and tried hard to eat.
However, his stomach capacity was simply not up to it. It was fine for a person to want to fight back, but the belly would not cooperate. After a few bowls, he was stuffed solid. The rice was already pushing up to his throat and sloshing. He really could not eat any more.
He wanted to lose less, but he could not stuff himself to death either. He had no choice but to stop. He could only watch as Xu Fei ate voraciously.
The more he watched, the angrier he got. He did not want to see Xu Fei taking all the big advantage alone. Plus, seeing Chong’er looking quite pitiful beside them, Yu Qing then forced Chong’er to eat together.
Chong’er naturally did not dare. In the end, after being threatened by Yu Qing’s outburst, and with Xu Fei also urging him to calm things down, Chong’er reluctantly ate.
Chong’er wanted to eat just a little for show, but Yu Qing forced him to eat three full bowls.
Of what remained, more than half was easily stuffed into Xu Fei’s belly. Seeing him pat his stomach with a slightly regretful look, it was obvious he still did not feel full.
Yu Qing hugged his overstuffed belly with both hands and went back with unspeakable pain…
One clear and sunny morning, seventy carriages and over a thousand escort personnel. This was Liezhou’s formation for escorting the candidates to the capital.
The three hundred and eighteen candidates thus left the academy where they had been staying temporarily. The whole group left Liezhou’s prefectural city in a grand procession.
After leaving the city, dozens of riders cleared the way ahead. All personnel within three li in front of the procession were driven off the official road to find places to avoid. They could only continue travelling after the procession had passed.
Of the seventy carriages, forty were for the candidates to ride in.
One carriage seated eight candidates, in a three-three-two arrangement: three on each side and two at one end.
Although it seemed a bit cramped, it was relatively quite good. After all, they had carriages for transport the whole way.
It was impossible to assign each candidate their own carriage. Three hundred plus carriages would mean what a long procession line, and how many people would need to be dispatched to escort?
The reason for arranging seventy carriages was that it was the best choice after integrating various conditions and careful calculation.
Compared to the over two hundred accompanying bookboys, the escort team only gave them ten carriages. It was impossible to squeeze over two hundred people into ten carriages. Moreover, the candidates’ main luggage was still their burden.
The main purpose of the ten carriages was to carry the candidates’ luggage. The accompanying bookboys took turns resting in the carriages. Most of the time they walked behind the carriages. The over a thousand escorting soldiers were mostly walking too. What complaints could mere bookboys have?
Yu Qing did not get to ride in the same carriage as Xu Fei. He saw Xu Fei being pulled into a carriage again by those four fellows who stuck together like wearing the same trousers wherever they went.
The seven others sharing his carriage, Yu Qing did not know any of them, nor did he want to interact with them. He put on a cold and indifferent appearance, deliberately keeping distance from his carriage mates. Listening to the seven chatting in refined literary tones, he did not know if these people knew about the demon threat planning to kill the candidates. He himself secretly stayed vigilant, turning his head to observe the movements outside.
In the escort team there were over a hundred people wearing grey cloaks. From their attire, it was clear they were from the Sinan Prefecture. This time Yu Qing had come into close contact with them.
Xu Jue Ning and Tang Bu Lan had also changed into the same clothes and were in the team. Yu Qing saw them, but they did not notice Yu Qing.
What attracted Yu Qing most were some accompanying archers. The bows these archers carried were matte black metal bows that did not reflect light. If he guessed correctly, they should be “Ink Shadow Bows”, a type of powerful bow that could not be drawn at all unless one’s cultivation had entered the True Martial realm. Once drawn, the arrow’s shooting power was astonishing. Piercing monuments and cracking stones was nothing.
Those who could handle the “Ink Shadow Bow” with ease were basically only one kind of person: great archers!
Just from what Yu Qing temporarily observed inside the carriage, there were already over ten people carrying Ink Shadow Bows.
After the team set off, they did not stop during the day on the road. Unless special circumstances, they had to reach the next designated town on the same day. It was only because the group was too large that ordinary post stations along the way did not have the capacity to receive them. At the very least, the accommodation could not meet the minimum requirements.
The post stations were only responsible for supplying water to the team or for repairs and replacements when individual carriages or horses had issues.
Lunch was always dry rations. Only after reaching the designated town would there be hot meals and corresponding resting places.
At the designated spot, eat dinner and rest. Wake up, eat breakfast, then set off again. Lunch again dry rations. A similar cycle lasting two or three months until arriving in the capital. Despite having carriages, it was actually the speed of walking.
The first destination on the first day, being close to the prefectural city, the team arrived before evening.
A county town’s military camp had been temporarily cleared out for the examination team to use.
A military camp originally stationed with one thousand people suddenly had one thousand seven or eight hundred arrive. It immediately felt crowded, but fortunately there was plenty of open space.
As Yu Qing, who had alighted from the carriage, looked around, his pupils suddenly contracted. He saw an old man with greying hair get down from one carriage. He was also an archer. What he carried on his back was actually a wooden bow whose body looked like twisted tree roots, charred black in colour, with many rings of silver spots on the surface, resembling eyes of varying sizes.
If he guessed correctly, this should be the “Coiling Dragon Bow”. It was said to be made from the roots of a certain tree that grew on cliff faces. Impervious to water and fire, indestructible for ten thousand years. Only after special forging could it become the body of a Coiling Dragon Bow. It was a powerful bow wielded by Xuan-grade great archers.
Looking again, the archer old man had come down from the lead carriage. Those qualified to ride in the head carriage, their identity was self-evident: Xuan-grade great archer!
From that carriage also alighted the highest-ranking official of the entire team, who was also the escort envoy for this journey, as well as the person in charge among the Sinan Prefecture escort personnel.
Not just one. In the procession gradually entering the school field, another archer carrying a “Coiling Dragon Bow” got down from a middle carriage. Similarly, one also got down from a rear carriage.
One Xuan-grade great archer was already a terrifying assassin-level existence. For this journey, three appeared at the same time? Yu Qing was secretly shocked. Upon closer inspection, he discovered there were also forty or fifty Wu-grade great archers.
Just these people alone could hold off thousands of troops and horses. While Yu Qing sighed in amazement, he also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. With such powerful escort strength, the demons along the way should not be something to fear…
Sleeping rooms in the military camp were also insufficient. The best rooms were reserved for ranked civil and military officials. Those great archers naturally could not be neglected either.
Next came the candidates. All slept on communal beds, ten people per room.
The miscellaneous rooms were left for the soldiers. Some tents were also pitched before there was enough space.
The accompanying bookboys also had some sleeping in tents. Tents were insufficient, so some bookboys had to sleep under the eaves.
In previous years going to the capital, it would not be like this. Bookboys could squeeze into their masters’ rooms to take care of their daily needs. This time, the escort personnel for the journey to the capital had doubled and doubled again.
When Yu Qing finished eating and found the bookboy Chong’er, Chong’er was squatting on the ground in a circle with a group of bookboys, around a wooden bucket. Each one reached out to grab a ladle, scooping out some mush mixed with vegetable leaves into their bowls to eat. He did not know what it was, but it looked no different from pig feed anyway. Some bookboys from better-off masters sniffed the smell and frowned. After a slight try, their expressions showed it was hard to swallow.
After tasting a mouthful, Chong’er continued scooping it into his mouth in silence.