Speak Like a Human!

The stars glittered in the night sky, starlight and moonlight cascading down and swaying in the night breeze, as though the heavens themselves were falling. The entire world became even more dazzling and magnificent beneath this wondrous sight.

The night wind swept gently past the lakeside, quietly brushing through their hair as a faint fragrance drifted on the breeze.

The cries of owls came from the distant forest, faint and far-reaching, making the night seem all the cooler and clearer. Yet on the grass by the lake, the chirping of mosquitoes and insects sounded somewhat restless.

Beside this magnificent scenery, a thick stench of blood spread through the air, so strong that not even the floral scent carried by the night wind could conceal it.

The agitation of the insects nearby had arisen because of this. Their buzzing rang without end as fist-sized black shadows flitted through the darkness, making Wu Chu's heart pound.

Fortunately, Yibao was seated on his shoulder, keeping watch for the approaching shadows at all times.

Once the bear hide had been stripped off and soaked in the alkaline plant solution, Little Moon Spirit raised her cleaver. The rank smell of entrails soon replaced the scent of blood, making those black shadows even more frenzied.

They pounced toward the blood and other unidentified fluids flowing across the ground, only for Little Moon Spirit to flick her sleeve lightly and sweep them straight into the lake.

From the great black bear, Wu Chu obtained a rather large gallbladder. As for the other organs, he kept only a few selected parts. But when Little Moon Spirit saw the intestines and stomach, the expression on her little face clearly turned strange.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Little Moon Spirit wrinkled her delicate nose and shook her little head.

Yibao, sitting on Wu Chu's shoulder and swinging her pinkish-white bare feet, covered her mouth and giggled. "I'd guess she remembered the days before she took human form, when she ate raw meat and drank blood. You know, when wild beasts eat prey, they always start with the organs. It's practically like eating in a pile of—"

"Urgh!"

Little Moon Spirit retched.

Wu Chu glared at Yibao. "Speak like a human, will you!"

"Giggle, giggle, giggle..."

"Are you all right?" Wu Chu asked Little Moon Spirit.

Little Moon Spirit shook her head, smiled at Wu Chu, then prepared to use her magic power to toss the bear intestines and stomach into the lake.

Wu Chu smiled and stopped her. "Don't be fooled by how disgusting these things look. As long as we cook them properly, even things that seem revolting can become delicacies. There are no truly bad ingredients in this world, only chefs who don't know how to cook them."

After all, this was the Primordial World of this era. Everything was an innate ingredient.

"Th-these can be eaten too?"

Little Moon Spirit wrinkled her delicate nose even more deeply, her whole little face scrunched into a ball. Her adorable appearance was exceptionally cute.

Holding his breath, Wu Chu carried the bear stomach and intestines to the lakeside. Using the cleaver, he cut off a section of large intestine and a section of small intestine, then had Little Moon Spirit toss the rest into the lake.

Seeing the foul-smelling black substance flow out of the intestines, Little Moon Spirit could not help pinching her delicate nose. With a flick of her fair hand, she tossed the remaining intestines straight into the lake.

Though Wu Chu found the foul-smelling bear droppings rather disgusting as well, he endured the revulsion to set an example for Little Moon Spirit. Forcing himself to appear calm, he said, "As a chef, you can't be afraid of dealing with these things. If you're scared even of this, you'll never become a real chef."

"A Chu, your lesson is correct. I have learned from it!"

Little Moon Spirit furrowed her two caterpillar-like brows and gave Wu Chu a solemn bow.

Wu Chu beckoned to her and called her over to the lakeside. First, it would be easier for Little Moon Spirit to protect him nearby, lest some monster in the lake drag him down when he was not paying attention.

Although, as a humanoid creature in this Primordial World, he looked like a great demon that had taken human form, so others could easily misunderstand him as such. The chances of him being attacked by demons were not actually high. Still, one should always prepare for the worst. What if he ran into a foolish demon?

Second, he could hand this cleaning job over to his little helper.

"What a pity we don't have flour. Otherwise, we could use it to remove the mucus from the bear stomach and intestines. Forget it, we'll scrub them with salt instead. We can even recycle it afterward."

"A Chu, do you mean this stuff?"

Little Moon Spirit lightly scraped the bear stomach with one jade-like finger, peeling off a layer of grease. The grease floated over her fingertips, and somehow it no longer looked disgusting.

"So magic power can be used like that too. Very good, keep going!"

After clearing out the bear's abdominal organs, Wu Chu collected quite a bit of fat in bamboo buckets. Apart from the fat in the abdominal cavity, the bear meat itself also had a fairly thick layer of fat.

Wu Chu felt that he could render quite a lot of bear oil, enough to use for a long time.

Of course, by "a long time," he meant Earth time. By the standards of time in the Primordial World, it probably would not last very long.

His digestion was rather strange, and he had no idea what caused it. A postnatal creature's body digesting innate substances so quickly was clearly abnormal. By all logic, after such a long time, his body should have gradually adapted to some of the laws of this Primordial World. He should not have felt hungry again so soon.

But clearly, he had overthought it.

By the time standards of the Primordial World, he had actually been here for less than a day.

After obtaining the fat, Wu Chu began building a fire to render the oil. At the same time, he said to Yueling, "Little Moon Spirit, you can go look through the forest for a wild beehive. Later, we can make honey-steamed bear paw. If you can find Wild Mountain Ginseng, that would be even better..."

"A Chu, what is Wild Mountain Ginseng?"

"..."

Wu Chu had no choice but to gesture and describe it, until Yibao finally had him take out his phone and find a picture of Wild Mountain Ginseng for Yueling to see.

After looking at it, Yueling nodded, turned, and flew into the air, vanishing into the darkness.

"Since when did my phone have a picture of Wild Mountain Ginseng?" Wu Chu asked Yibao as he tended the fire.

"It didn't. I reverse-manifested the image of Wild Mountain Ginseng from your memories onto the phone..."

"Y-you can do that?"

"I couldn't before, but I can now! I can program myself."

"Programming can't solve a problem like that, can it?"

"It's not difficult. When you communicate with Little Moon Spirit through divine sense, as long as you open your mind to her, she can see the image of Wild Mountain Ginseng in your divine sense too. I merely used my own method to display the image from your memories on the phone. I'm a Phone Sprite, after all. I can manage something this simple."

"Then can you restore movies and things I've watched before from my memories onto the phone?"

"Of course. Even those little movies..."

"Stop right there. We're both respectable people. Let's discuss something respectable."

Yibao brushed back her golden hair and said with a look of disdain, "As if I don't know you. There's no one else here, so why are you pretending to be innocent with me? I know your measurements inside and out."

"..."

There was no way to continue this conversation!