Chapter 15

"Could you help me pass a message to Telingewei?" Xie Juanhan had no choice but to ask. "Tell him I'm inviting him to a barbecue, just the two of us."

He wouldn't have to eat them himself; only Telingewei would.

The little ones had no objection to that.

A few of them were especially excited and looked up at him. "Chirp chirp?"

Xie Juanhan glanced at the sky. "You can go get him now. I'll get everything ready in the meantime."

The little ones immediately dashed off. "Chirp chirp!"

Xie Juanhan prepared the ingredients.

Before long, the little ones dragged Telingewei over by his trouser legs.

Telingewei had brought a bottle of wine along. "Good day."

Xie Juanhan looked at the wine he had brought. "Why did you go to the trouble?"

"It'll go better with the meat." Telingewei showed no sign of distaste for Chimerao meat. He only asked, "Need a hand?"

"No, the ingredients are ready. We just need to sit down and start grilling."

Xie Juanhan took two cushions and placed them on either side of the stone slab, inviting Telingewei to sit facing him.

He took two pairs of tongs and brushed oil onto the stone slab, ready to grill and eat with Telingewei as they went.

When the little ones saw Xie Juanhan bring out a large plate of sliced meat, they kept their distance.

Xie Juanhan glanced at them but said nothing, merely setting out dipping dishes for Telingewei.

Xie Juanhan had prepared two kinds of dipping sauce.

One was made of crushed nuts and chili flakes, like the dry dip he used to eat often.

There was a local pepper called the Pupirui pepper. It was spicy and fragrant, with a slightly bitter taste, and tasted excellent when mixed properly.

The other was a sour sauce.

A small berry grew in the forest that tasted extremely sour when unripe.

The locals would pick them and take them home to pickle.

Xie Juanhan had tried some at Orfrey's home and found them delicious.

He had picked some as well when he went into the forest.

He had brought them back and pickled them at a low temperature. The finished berries were salty, sour, and fragrant. Ground into a smooth sauce and paired with rich grilled meat, they tasted absolutely superb.

Xie Juanhan picked up two pieces of meat with the tongs and placed them on the hot stone slab.

The meat sizzled as its fat rendered, sending up a richly fragrant mist.

Telingewei, who had been looking down at the dipping sauces, immediately raised his head.

A hint of pride showed on Xie Juanhan's face. "Smells good, doesn't it?"

"This is Chimerao meat?" Telingewei stared at the meat on the slab. "How did you do it?"

"That's a secret for now." Xie Juanhan grilled the meat until both sides were golden brown, then put one sizzling, oily slice on Telingewei's plate. "Give it a try."

Telingewei sniffed it first.

The meat no longer smelled like Chimerao meat at all. There was only a rich, complex aroma.

Skeptical, he picked it up and took a small bite.

In an instant, the rich flavor exploded on his tongue, like a whirlwind sweeping through his mouth.

Chimerao meat was extremely high in both fat and energy.

Perhaps because the content was so high, its flavor coated the mouth when untreated, making it unbearable for dragons with their keen sense of taste.

Now that Xie Juanhan had prepared it, the meat's flavor had mellowed considerably.

A great amount of energy was fully released, accompanied by abundant fat and the aroma of grilling.

The different flavors collided like a whirlwind in his mouth.

Intense, rich, and complex.

The ultimate taste experience struck Telingewei, leaving him momentarily dazed.

Seeing Telingewei's pupils dilate again, Xie Juanhan set two crystal glasses on the table and tapped them with a fingertip, rapidly chilling them.

He opened the wine bottle and poured the clear liquid into the crystal glasses with a gentle tinkling sound.

Under the influence of Xie Juanhan's Dragon Power, the wine turned icy cold.

"Have some wine." Xie Juanhan pushed one of the glasses toward Telingewei. "I had some ready too, but yours looks better."

Telingewei said, "Dwarf wine. It has a very refreshing taste."

With that, Telingewei took a sip.

The icy wine filled his mouth.

Its crisp bitterness collided with the rich fat, ultimately neutralizing the cloying sensation brought on by the fat and energy.

The collision of intense flavors brought another kind of stimulation.

This time, Telingewei didn't wait for Xie Juanhan to help him and picked up a piece of meat himself.

Xie Juanhan smiled and picked up a piece for himself too. "Good, isn't it?"

"Excellent." Telingewei gave it his full approval. "I never imagined Chimerao meat could taste like this."

Xie Juanhan said, "I was surprised too. Here, try it with some sauce."

Telingewei tentatively tried both sauces, and their flavors soon captivated him as well.

Without anyone teaching him, he also learned to dip the meat in the sour sauce, then the chili sauce, and pop it into his mouth in one bite.

Xie Juanhan thought it was delicious too.

Taking big bites of meat and feeling the energy release rapidly was a truly wonderful experience.

The two of them grilled one piece of meat after another, filling the area with the aroma of barbecue.

The little ones, who had avoided the Chimerao meat before, all came back.

They watched from the side, and when they met Xie Juanhan's gaze, they looked longingly at the meat on the slab and chirped softly. "Chirp."

Xie Juanhan considerately asked, "Want to try some?"

The little ones answered in unison, "Chirp!"

Smiling, Xie Juanhan took out a stack of plates and began grilling meat for them.

The little ones' tastes were actually very similar to Telingewei's.

Telingewei loved the grilled meat, and so did the little ones.

They ate until their bellies were round.

Once full, they lay motionless at the side, listening to Xie Juanhan and Telingewei chat.

Xie Juanhan brought up building a house and asked whether Telingewei knew any Dwarf craftsmen.

Telingewei frowned slightly.

Xie Juanhan saw that something seemed off about his expression. "What's wrong? Aren't Dwarf craftsmen very skilled?"

"They are, but they're expensive too." Telingewei turned to look at the materials Xie Juanhan had collected. "A house like yours would cost at least five level-four Demonic Cores for one room."

"The same kind of Demonic Core as the Chimerao's," Telingewei added.

Xie Juanhan said, "Huh?"

Telingewei frowned slightly. "Dwarves are obsessed with money."

"They covet other people's gold coins too."

So Telingewei said.

==========Author's note:==========

See you tomorrow.

Thanks to Nana, Miaomiaopi, Nanzhi, Full-Sugar Zero-Fat Herbal Tea, Everleaf, Master Falcon, Yuyan Liushuang, Identifying Popular Creatures of Terra, and Moonlit Breeze for the landmines.

Chapter 15: Chapter 15

Telingewei spoke with complete seriousness.

Xie Juanhan looked at his expression.

Then he thought of the gold piled high in Telingewei's cave-

Silence.

Silence spread between them.

Xie Juanhan picked up the wine bottle and looked at it.

Then he looked at Telingewei.

Telingewei didn't look drunk.

Telingewei sat there with little expression on his face, though a subtle hint of displeasure was visible.

Xie Juanhan asked tentatively, "Did they steal your gold coins?"

"They didn't succeed," Telingewei said. "After that happened, I threw them out of the Magic Forest."

Looking at Xie Juanhan's expression, Telingewei said, "We've been enemies ever since. If they come to the Magic Forest to build a house, they'll charge a lot."

Xie Juanhan finally understood why he had gone to such lengths to set this up. He laughed. "It's fine. If they really are obsessed with money, they wouldn't charge cheaply even if you weren't enemies. And even if you are, they'll still take the money."

Telingewei breathed a silent sigh of relief.

Xie Juanhan said, "I've been saving up Demonic Cores lately. I'm still a long way from having enough to build a house, so there's no rush."

If he hadn't known how skilled the dwarves were at building, that would have been one thing. But now that he knew they could build the best houses, he couldn't just settle for having someone else build one.

He would save up some more Demonic Cores.

The biggest problem was that there weren't all that many high-level magical beasts in the Magic Forest.

The higher a magical beast's level, the fewer there were, and the greater the impact.

Xie Juanhan wasn't likely to wipe out all the high-level magical beasts currently in the forest just to build a house.

That would upset the ecological balance.

His worries showed on his face.

Telingewei looked at him, then at the wineglass in his hand, seeming to consider whether to speak.

"Do you have something to say?" Xie Juanhan smiled. "If you want to lend me Demonic Cores, don't bother. You can help someone through an emergency, but you can't rescue them from poverty."

Telingewei's thought caught in his throat.

Xie Juanhan raised his glass to him. "Thank you."

Telingewei took a sip of wine and gave serious thought to a solution for Xie Juanhan.

A few seconds later, he said, "Are you good at controlling water? Can you go into the sea?"

Xie Juanhan immediately understood. "You're suggesting I hunt magical beasts in the sea?"

Telingewei nodded. "There are very few high-level magical beasts in the forest, but plenty in the ocean. They don't have fixed territories and migrate with the seasons and ocean currents, so they're easier to hunt."

Xie Juanhan sat up straight and looked at him with shining eyes. "To tell you the truth, controlling water and ice is what I do best."

"You have to go into the open sea to hunt high-level magical beasts. I need to collect whale blubber in the next couple of days. If you don't mind, I'll take you out to sea once I'm done."

"Of course I don't mind!" Xie Juanhan lightly clinked his glass against Telingewei's to thank him, then asked, "What do you mean by collecting whale blubber?"

"It's the whales' breeding season. They come back every spring to breed near Whale Grave Island."

"Some old and weak whales die from the long journey and become food for their companions."

"Too many whales die, and their bodies pile up on the shore. We can harvest the fat from them, and what we bring back is enough to last a year."

Listening to Telingewei's deep voice, Xie Juanhan found it hard to imagine.