Flight sickness

The Restaurant had earned over two hundred taels of silver within an hour of opening. Judging by the satisfied customers leaving with full bellies, earning a thousand taels a day in the future should be no problem.

He would soon recoup the cost of renovating the Restaurant and buying ingredients.

Shen Leyan asked Qingli to take good care of the Restaurant while he was away in the Southwestern Territory, and not to stint on anything Qingli wanted to eat or drink.

When he returned to his quarters to pack, Chen Jing came knocking.

"Leyan... you... why are you packing?"

Shen Leyan stopped what he was doing and answered, "I'm planning to leave the sect for a while and head south to buy some different ingredients for the Restaurant."

"I see... actually, I came to say goodbye today too." A hint of anticipation and excitement appeared on Chen Jing's face. "This is my first mission since joining the Inner Sect. I'm going with a few senior brothers and sisters. I hope I won't hold them back."

Shen Leyan wished him well. "When you get back safe and sound, Senior Brother Chen, drinks are on me!"

"All right!" Chen Jing scratched his head, his voice suddenly dropping. "If I'm unlucky enough to die out—mmph, mmph, mmph—"

Before he could finish, Shen Leyan darted forward and clapped a hand over his mouth, warning him with a frown.

"Don't raise death flags! You can't say things like that before heading out on a mission."

Based on his experience with the tropes in all sorts of novels and TV dramas, people who said things resembling last requests generally came to bad ends.

Chen Jing looked at him blankly and nodded.

Shen Leyan released him.

Chen Jing asked, "...What is a flag?"

"It's a foreign word. Don't worry about what it means for now. Anyway, when we set out on a mission, we need to be full of confidence and believe no obstacle can defeat us. No defeatist talk."

"All right, I'll listen to my junior brother. No defeatist talk! Then I'll go back and get my things ready... shall I head off first?"

Shen Leyan nodded.

Chen Jing reached the door, then suddenly turned and waved at him. "Junior Brother, two of my classmates managed to get seats at your Restaurant today. They said it really was Delicious Enough to Dip Your Shoe Sole In!"

"Bring your friends next time, Senior Brother Chen. I'll give you a discount."

"That's exactly what I was hoping you'd say!"

A month later, in a small border town in the Southwestern Territory.

It had just rained, and the sky was still overcast. Clouds obscured the sun, and the air was hot and humid.

Rain had left the marketplace's dirt paths muddy. People came and went in straw sandals, some bare-chested, others with their sleeves rolled up.

Young girls wore jewelry unique to the southwest, their skin a healthy wheat-brown. With bright smiles and sweet voices, they held flowers and pushed carts of fruit, calling out their wares.

Several children in coarse cloth clothes laughed and played in the mud. One happened to glance up at the sky, then pointed into the distance and shouted in a clear voice.

"There are immortals flying in the sky!"

"Where? Where? Where are they?!"

"Urgh—" Shen Leyan crouched on the Jiangxue Sword, dizzy beyond belief. He covered his mouth and dry-heaved for a while, nearly coughing up his stomach before the churning nausea eased a little.

The journey by Sword Flight from the Cloud Radiance Sect to the Southwestern Territory should not actually have taken so long.

But because he had yet to master grain avoidance, they had to stop for a meal whenever they passed a town. Originally, only he and Senior Brother Zheng had been going, but Lu Yuanyi had joined them just before departure.

At every meal, Lu Yuanyi told Zheng Ziheng to teach him grain avoidance, yet ate every bit as much as he did!

On top of that, Sect Master Lu's sense of direction was not particularly good.

At night, the Jiangxue Sword flew through the sky on its own while they slept. The next morning, they discovered they had become separated from Senior Brother Zheng.

A glance at the map revealed that the Jiangxue Sword was already heading toward the eastern territory. If they kept flying, they would reach the sea!

At times like these, Lu Yuanyi would coolly reprimand the innocent Sword Spirit of the Jiangxue Sword, then sneak a look at the map behind Shen Leyan's back and correct their course.

Shen Leyan was speechless.

With all that wasted time, it took them over a month to reach the Southwestern Territory.

He opened the flask hanging at his waist and drank a few mouthfuls of cold water to soothe his throat, then tilted his head up to look at Lu Yuanyi, who was using Sword Flight behind him.

"Sect Master Lu, look, it's almost noon, and there happens to be a marketplace down below. Shouldn't we... I hear the Southwestern Territory's spicy and sour pounded chicken feet are especially good!"

Lu Yuanyi's handsome, aloof face showed no reaction to the first half of his sentence. At "spicy and sour pounded chicken feet," he lowered his eyes and glanced at him.

"Where is this shop you mentioned?"

...Sect Master Lu, could we at least pretend a little?

Shen Leyan sighed inwardly. "I don't know where the shop is either, but someone in the marketplace must sell them. We'll find it soon enough if we go down and look around."

The Jiangxue Sword immediately sped up. Shen Leyan grabbed Lu Yuanyi's sleeve to steady himself. "I get flight sick—"

"You get dizzy because you're hungry. We're here."

They landed in a secluded alley in the marketplace, and Shen Leyan sat on the ground for a while to recover.

Zheng Ziheng pressed the back of his hand against Shen Leyan's forehead with concern. "Are you feeling unwell, Junior Brother? Be careful of heatstroke."

Shen Leyan shook his head. "I'm fine."

He let Zheng Ziheng pull him to his feet.

"I think I smell food."

Zheng Ziheng chuckled. "Then let's go. I checked the map. The Southwestern Jungle, where we're going to gather herbs, isn't far from this marketplace. We can eat before heading over."

The spicy and sour pounded chicken feet seller was a girl who looked about Qingli's age. Behind the stall, her parents deboned chicken feet and chopped chilies, onions, lemons, and other ingredients.

The girl wore a dress with alternating black and blue stripes, and her movements as she added chicken feet and seasonings to the bowl were already quite practiced.

"You're carrying swords, big brothers. Are you cultivators?"

Shen Leyan grinned. "You even know about cultivators?"

"Of course! Cultivators often pass through here on their way to the Southwestern Jungle... but lots of the big brothers and sisters who go in never come back out."

The Southwestern Jungle was full of venomous insects and demonic beasts, so naturally, some cultivators lost their lives there.

The girl divided the spicy and sour pounded chicken feet into three portions, wrapped them in oiled paper, and handed them over one by one.

When Lu Yuanyi's turn came, Shen Leyan gave a sly little chuckle and asked the girl, "Do you know how old this white-haired man is?"

The girl hesitated. "This big brother's hair is white, but he looks like he's only in his twenties, right?"

"Nope. He's lived for over a thousand years."

"Wow! A big brother over a thousand years old!" the girl exclaimed, counting on her fingers. "Wait, my grandpa is only sixty this year. What should I call someone over a thousand? Great-grandpa? That's not right either..."

Shen Leyan caught a slight twitch at the corner of Lu Yuanyi's eye and burst into delighted laughter.

He ducked over to Zheng Ziheng's side as he laughed, asking Senior Brother Zheng to take him along for Sword Flight later so he would not have to ride the Jiangxue Sword with Lu Yuanyi and face the consequences.