Meng Chuan sat across from the Lord of the Forbidden Zone. Two attendants stood behind the Lord, and for a moment, no one spoke.
First, they tasted the tea.
Meng Chuan felt the flavor of the Lord's tea leaves burst across his tongue.
It was neither fragrant nor sweet.
It was bitter—fiercely bitter. His tongue went numb, and then his whole body followed.
No sweetness came after the bitterness. Sometimes, the promise that sweetness followed suffering was nothing more than a comfort.
Once that fierce bitterness passed, sour astringency took its place, seemingly without end.
This sour feeling seeped straight into the depths of his Ling soul.
This was no ordinary tea. It could not aid enlightenment, nor did it offer a fragrant sweetness. It held only bitterness and astringency.
The Lord of the Forbidden Zone had grown it himself. It had begun as an ordinary tea plant, but the one who tended it had made it something different.
Its bitterness and astringency alone could kill someone with a low cultivation level.
Well, Meng Chuan's cultivation was low too, but his case was somewhat different.
As the two flavors ravaged his taste buds, Meng Chuan narrowed his eyes, almost savoring them.
He found it bitter and astringent too, yet to him, it had a flavor all its own.
Meng Chuan gazed at the sapphire-like lake before him, taking in the view as he tasted the tea.
The lake was beautiful, its waters crystal-clear and dreamlike. When the wind stirred, ripples spread across its surface.
Each ripple was a sea of stars swaying.
It was a cosmic lake formed from countless seas of stars.
Only after the taste had faded from his mouth did Meng Chuan voice his praise.
"Good tea."
The Lord of the Forbidden Zone smiled at his verdict.