Drink Less When You're Away from Home

The sun set in the west, and dusk closed in.

Huo Yuhao and the other two were preparing the Fire Cloud Leopard's meat. Gu He set down the prey he was carrying, doing his best to look away from the utterly out-of-place steamer, then walked over and said, "Magic beast meat is extremely tough and hard to chew. It might not even taste that good."

"If you want to try it, let me see if I can think of something..."

Gu He had just taken several medicinal herbs from his storage ring and was about to devise a recipe to tenderize the meat when he heard the three of them speak in unison.

"There's no need to trouble yourself, Senior."

Gu He paused slightly and looked up at Huo Yuhao. Huo Yuhao gently ran his fingertips over the ribs in his hand. A layer of fine ice crystals appeared, then quickly vanished.

Sensing Gu He's probing gaze, Huo Yuhao calmly explained, "I condensed countless tiny ice crystals inside the meat to force apart the fibers. That way, the meat becomes tender and juicy."

Gu He: "..."

At that moment, Xiao Yan spoke up, and Gu He turned to look at him. Xiao Yan was practicing his fist technique on a piece of leg meat. Every punch sent ripples through the flesh, and he looked exceptionally excited.

"I drove the hidden force of Eight Extremes Collapse into the meat and used it to destroy the muscle fibers. That'll definitely soften it."

Gu He: "..."

Gu He instinctively turned toward the third person. Before his gaze even reached Little Fairy Doctor, her explanation came over.

"I'm using poison Dou Qi to corrode part of the muscle fibers. Don't worry about it being poisonous. I can absorb the poisonous gas produced after the corrosion."

Gu He: "..."

The medicinal herbs in his hand silently slipped to the ground.

After a moment of silence, Gu He finally came back to his senses. He picked up the herbs and put them back into his storage ring, then asked in confusion, "How do all of you know how to do this?"

Xiao Yan explained, "After all, we've been training in the Magic Beast Mountain Range for nearly three months. At first, Yuhao cooked for us, but we couldn't just sit around and wait to eat, so we helped prepare the ingredients."

Before Gu He could ask anything else, Xiao Yan immediately called out, "Senior Gu He, go rest for a while. The food will be ready soon."

So I'm the one waiting to eat, huh? Gu He was speechless.

Once Huo Yuhao finished preparing the food, Gu He naturally fell before Huo Yuhao's cooking skills as well, praising them endlessly. Yet Xiao Yan's remark about waiting to eat still stuck in his heart. After a brief hesitation, he took out a jar of medicinal wine and several cups from his storage ring.

"This is medicinal wine I carefully brewed using Seven Star Grass, Illusion Leaf Vine, Exquisite Fruit, and other herbs. It nourishes the blood and Qi and clears the meridians. Back then, even President Fama wanted some, but I couldn't bear to give him any!" As Gu He spoke, he opened the jar and poured everyone a cup amid a sweet, refreshing aroma of wine.

Under the moonlight, the wine in the cups shimmered with a faint silvery glow. Huo Yuhao lifted his cup and sniffed it lightly. A sweet fragrance rushed into his nose and soothed his heart.

Rather than drink immediately, Huo Yuhao asked Yao Chen through Mental Sharing.

"Teacher?"

"There's no poison. You can drink it."

After receiving Yao Chen's approval, Huo Yuhao took a sip. Seeing this, Little Fairy Doctor and Xiao Yan also tasted it before draining their cups in one gulp.

"It tastes great! I never expected Senior Gu He to be skilled not only in alchemy, but in brewing wine as well!" Xiao Yan praised.

"Remember, you mustn't use Dou Qi to dispel this medicinal wine. You have to let its medicinal properties dissipate naturally. Also, it has a very strong kick, so it's easy to get drunk."

Gu He became interested and kept refilling their cups. He drank quite a bit himself, and his face had already turned somewhat red. But when he proudly turned to see the three youngsters' drunken states, he instead met three pairs of bright, clear eyes.

"How is that possible?!" Gu He grew agitated, and the alcohol rushed to his head. He immediately became a little tipsy and pulled out several more jars from his storage ring.

"Come on, keep drinking! I refuse to believe it!"

However, Gu He failed to notice that aside from that first small taste, Huo Yuhao had not taken another sip.

As for the wine Little Fairy Doctor drank, the moment it entered her body, it collided with a wisp of purple-gray poisonous gas. The poisonous gas of her Calamity Poison Body had been suppressed far too harshly these past days. Now, ravenous with hunger, it refined and absorbed everything indiscriminately, whether the wine was medicine or poison. Thus, Little Fairy Doctor's face remained calm and her heart steady, while her Dou Qi slowly grew stronger.

And Xiao Yan was...

"Aren't you raising fish with that cup? Come on, bottoms up! Let me tell you, with alcohol this weak, it'd only count as juice where I'm from! Back then, I took down my entire class by myself!"

"Haha! Let me tell you, that old man Yun Shan..."

Huo Yuhao and Little Fairy Doctor had long since set down their cups and gone off to cultivate. By the campfire, only Xiao Yan and Gu He remained, competing in drinking.

"Brother Xiao Yan, I-I think your cultivation technique... doesn't seem to be of a very high grade?" Gu He's face was bright red. One hand rested on Xiao Yan's shoulder while the other patted his own chest.

"Your teacher, heh, heh! He's really no good, giving you a Yellow Rank cultivation technique."

"Brother Gu He, you can't handle much either. You're drunk after so little! My master can drink way more than you!"

Xiao Yan did not seem drunk yet. Taking advantage of Gu He's muddled state, he accepted the form of address of "brother." Still, judging by the words coming out of his mouth, he was probably not all that sober either.

"Cultivation technique... Big Brother has a good one. Here, look at this." Gu He took out a scroll containing a cultivation technique from his storage ring. It was a low-grade Earth Rank technique that the Misty Cloud Sect had specially found back then in order to recruit him, the Pill King.

"Practice th-this!"

"Let me tell you, this cultivation technique of mine, don't be fooled by its low alcohol content..."

Just as Xiao Yan was about to let something slip, Huo Yuhao appeared behind them like a ghost and raised his hand for a chop.

Thud! Xiao Yan collapsed to the ground.

"Ha, ha, still... you're the one who can't handle it..."

Gu He was overjoyed. Although he did not understand why he was happy, seeing Xiao Yan fall made him very happy.

"Hey, Huo... Huo kid, you... have an ice attribute, right? Th-that Mittel Family, have you heard of them? Their family... specializes in ice attributes. I'll introduce, introduce you... to their family head." After saying that, Gu He pulled out a scroll, grabbed some unknown object at random, and tried to write on it. He was clearly no longer aware of what he was doing.

"Thank you, Senior Gu He. Allow me to return and consider it."

"Why call me Senior? Call me Big Brother!" Gu He shouted in dissatisfaction. Then he started laughing again and continued, "Little Fairy Doctor, our Misty Cloud Sect has some good poison-attribute cultivation techniques. You, you can join the Misty Cloud Sect."

"I'll return and consider it," Little Fairy Doctor gave the same answer.

"If you're willing, I-I'll introduce you to Yun Yun. Yun Yun, you, you know her? She is..."

Before he could finish, Gu He could no longer hold on. His voice became slurred, and he collapsed as well. Soon, he and Xiao Yan began snoring together.

"Tch!" Huo Yuhao pulled the scroll covered in illegible scribbles made with grass-stem juice from Gu He's hand, then dragged the two men stuck to the ground into the tent. He could not help complaining inwardly, This Pill King Gu He seems even more like Xuan Lao.

"Achoo! Achoo! Who's cursing me?!"

"Hehehe! Yuhao, now's a good chance. Want to let this 'Pill King' learn how harsh the world can be?" Yao Chen had started imitating his old enemies again.

Huo Yuhao was silent for a moment before saying quietly, "Senior Gu He... is a good person."

"Haha, I was only joking."