Chapter 86

Xie Juanhan simply sprinkled Spicy Clam powder and grass seed powder onto this high-quality, aged Demonic Beast meat, and the aroma immediately filled the air.

Especially the golden-brown, translucent fat inside, sizzling and dripping with oil, when coated with spice powder and grilled again, is incredibly fragrant.

The barbecue is ready, Xie Juanhan's marinated fish is almost done too.

Similarly, the tea he was brewing on the stove had become too strong.

This tea was then mixed with the sugar syrup Xie Juanhan had prepared beforehand, along with his pre-cooked local-style "pearls," and finally poured over heated Tata Fish milk.

The sweet, brown milk tea is ready in an instant.

Xie Juanhan glanced around, just about to tell the furry creatures to lay out a picnic blanket.

Without him saying a word, the furry creatures immediately scrambled to grab the picnic blanket from the basket.

The picnic blanket was only a little over two meters long and wide, but ten fluffy creatures, each grabbing a corner of it, tore it open and laid it flat on the rocks.

"Chirp chirp!" Harper and the others even brought stones to weigh down the picnic blanket to prevent it from being blown over by the wind.

"Well done!" Xie Juanhan praised, patting their heads. "Time to eat."

The furry creatures. "Aww!"

The Tata Fish wriggled their tails and swam as far as they could to the edge of the reef, their eyes wide with anticipation as they watched them. "Click, click!"

Xie Juanhan waved his hand. "Don't rush ashore anymore, or we'll run aground."

The Tata Fish obediently stepped back a little. "Click, click."

Xie Juanhan then praised them, saying, "Great!"

Under Xie Juanhan's direction, he and Telingewei sat on one side of the picnic blanket, with the furry creatures lined up on either side, and the remaining Tata Fish all crowded on the outermost side of the picnic blanket, which was in the sea.

And so began our first big family gathering of the year.

==========Author's Note:=========

See you tomorrow!

Chapter 86 [VIP]

After their feast, the furry creatures were even more sleepy, and even the Tata Fish were dozing off in the sea.

Xie Juanhan pulled Telingewei along, saying they needed to go get something.

Most of the little guys didn't react. Harper and a few others twitched their ears, and even Moli was usually the most enthusiastic, just wagged his tail.

Xie Juanhan chuckled, ignoring them, and simply pulled Telingewei forward.

Telingewei transformed into a giant dragon, carrying Xie Juanhan to another bay.

It was the bay where they had previously harvested the Demonic Core.

Telingewei looked at the seawater below. "Looking for Demonic Core the bottom? In such a short time, they shouldn't have accumulated many."

Xie Juanhan: "I'll look for it, and while I'm at it, I'll dredge up some silt and seawater."

Telingewei tilted his head slightly, looking at him with a puzzled expression.

Xie Juanhan smiled and said confidently, "We'll dredge up some silt and seawater."

Telingewei nodded. "Okay."

After thinking for a moment, Telingewei added, "I'll try to retrieve it."

Xie Juanhan hugged him. "It's okay, I'll be done retrieving it soon, it's not cold."

Telingewei had no choice but to wait upstairs. "I'll wait for you here."

Xie Juanhan transformed into a dragon and plunged into the sea, searching directly at the bottom.

Unfortunately, in such a short time, not much Demonic Core has accumulated below.

He searched around and found two level-one Demonic Core and one level-two Demonic Core.

The silt underneath remained as fertile as ever.

He filled two large sacks with silt and stuffed them into the space arm ring, and also filled three water sacs with seawater.

"Alright." Xie Juanhan surfaced, looking up at Telingewei. "I told you it would be quick, I wasn't lying, was I?"

Telingewei gestured to his back. "Get on quickly."

They returned to the small island where they had barbecued, carried the little guys on their backs, said goodbye to the Tata Fish, and flew towards home.

The Tata Fish had just finished eating, watched them go from behind, for a very, very long time.

The next day.

Xie Juanhan moved a large vat out from behind the kitchen and placed it in the yard.

This large vat was previously used for fermenting berry wine, but it's now empty.

Xie Juanhan happened to need it, so he washed it and put it in the yard.

The little ones, thinking he was going to make some delicious food again, all crowded around, watching curiously.

Xie Juanhan took out two large bags of silt and three large water bags of seawater from his arm ring and poured them into the large vat with a "whoosh".

The putrid, salty silt was murky from being washed by the sea.

This large vat, which smelled slightly of wine, was filled with a vat of muddy soup.

The little guys tilted their heads back, their Changmao flying wildly in the wind stirred up by Xie Juanhan pouring seawater.

"Chirp!" The Companion Beast widened their eyes.

Xie Juanhan smiled and said, "I didn't mix in any fertilizer; it just smells a little like mud."

Companion Beast: "Chirp chirp."

Moli didn't seem to mind the smell. She gently placed her two front paws on the rim of the jar, sniffed it, and found the scent somewhat familiar. "Awoo?"

Xie Juanhan reached out and covered its chest. "Don't get its fur wet."

Harper curiously tried to paw at it. "Chirp?"

Xie Juanhan: "We need to plant something."

After emptying the seawater and silt, Xie Juanhan cleaned the water bags and cloth bags and laid them out in the yard to dry.

He picked up the bucket and went outside. "I'm going to gather some water plants."

A whole yard of furry creatures immediately followed him, walking out with him.

In the dead of winter.

The snow in the wild showed no signs of melting; on the contrary, with each snowfall, it piled up thicker and thicker.

Many creatures hibernate in caves and never come out.

The people on the other side of the river are also hibernating.

Apart from the smoke coming out of the chimneys and the occasional person coming out in a horse-drawn carriage, there was hardly anyone to be seen.

Xie Juanhan controls the cold and is not afraid of the cold at all.

The little ones have thick fur and aren't afraid of the cold.

They walked into the woods and then onto the edge of the field.

Xie Juanhan rarely comes out here, and there are few traces of him on the road.

The little guys, on the other hand, each had clearly visible paw prints, and if you looked closely, you could even see their palm lines imprinted on the snow.

Xie Juanhan took a look and found that most of the time when the little guys came out, they would repeat the same paw prints.

The Griffin were the most meticulous in their tracks; apart from one long claw mark, there wasn't a single second claw mark to be seen.

Harper and his Companion Beast shared a single paw print, leaving behind a fairly neat paw print.

Moli's claw marks will be a bit messy, but not too messy.

Xie Juanhan found their claw marks amusing and imitated them, leaving only one footprint.

They walked across the wilderness, their footprints dividing it in two.

Until we reached the vicinity of the pond.

In this cold weather, their pond has frozen over.

Xie Juanhan turned his head and looked around, thinking of finding a stone to knock a hole in the pond.

As soon as Harper saw Xie Juanhan, he opened his mouth and spat out a small fireball with a "whoosh".

The fireball landed on the ice, melting a small hole in it.

The other Companion Beast followed suit, skillfully spitting out fireballs.

The small hole melted into a large hole.

In the blink of an eye, the shimmering water surface appeared.

Xie Juanhan looked at the water.

There were several obvious patches on the ice of the pond that had melted and then frozen over.

He looked at his Companion Beast: "You guys have been coming over quite a bit to steal fish to eat lately, haven't you?"

The Companion Beast immediately stopped looking at him and began to look around.

Xie Juanhan chuckled, "No wonder you guys always get caught red-handed by Telingewei when you do something bad."

It seems I can't ask them for favors anymore; they're so guilty, they really can't hide anything.

Xie Juanhan raised silverfish, Spicy Clam, and aquatic plants in the pond.

All three of these farmed animals come from the Inner Land.

He really liked the spiciness of the Spicy Clam.

Spicy Clam has a spicy, pungent, and sweet flavor, unlike the bitter-tasting spicy plants found in the area; it's closest to the chili peppers from his hometown.

Because he liked it, he always released his Dragon Power into the pond, hoping that Spicy Clam would grow better.

The silverfish and aquatic plants benefited from the good weather and also grew very well.

Xie Juanhan came here this time to collect some seaweed and see if this kind of resilient and Magic Power plant could grow in seawater.

Xie Juanhan dipped the rake into the water and dug up several aquatic plants.

Silverfish swam around, trying to reach the ice surface to breathe fresh air.

Xie Juanhan hadn't originally intended to eat them, but seeing that they had swum right up to his hand, he simply scooped up two of them.

The silverfish are so plump and delicious. Later, I'll fillet the fish, pan-fry the head and bones, and then add some pickled cabbage made in early winter to make a pickled cabbage fish dish. It'll definitely taste great.

He had never tried the pickled vegetables made here before, and he didn't know if the pickled radishes here would taste very different from those back home, so he figured he might as well give it a try.

The children's eyes lit up again when they saw Xie Juanhan catch a fish.

Moli tried to help. "Awoo."

Xie Juanhan stopped it from carrying the fish. "Help me carry the bucket instead."

Moli obediently carried the bucket in her mouth and yelped.

When Telingewei returned, Xie Juanhan had already planted aquatic plants in a large tank filled with silt and seawater, and had just cooked sauerkraut fish, ready to serve.

"You're back?" Hearing Telingewei open the fence gate, Xie Juanhan peeked at him. "Guess what I made today?"

"Fish? Pickled vegetables?" Telingewei sniffed the air carefully. "What a peculiar sour smell. You cooked fish and pickled vegetables together?"

Xie Juanhan snapped his fingers, "You guessed right."

Telingewei, shivering in the cold, darted into the kitchen. "This is the first time I've ever seen anyone combine these two ingredients to create such a flavor."

Xie Juanhan: "Don't we have sauerkraut here too? I saw Orfrey's sauerkraut jars when I went to buy milk before."

Telingewei: "They soaked it in water, so it didn't smell as good."

Xie Juanhan: "That's true. I also added some scallions, and marinated it at a low temperature with low salt, which made it extra fragrant."