Chapter 179 — The Returning Elixir Great Tonic Divine Art
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
This utter disregard for life and death -- were they trying to rebel?
"Young master, how does it taste?"
From Shen Mu's courtyard came the conversation of a youth and a fox. Shen Mu's voice answered, "Not bad. Only it wasn't salted first, so it's a little bland. Fish is best salted a day and a night; then it eats crisp and tender and fragrant. This fish is enormous -- where did it come from?"
"Out of the lake."
"I see. I once fished by the lake with the Grand Libationer and saw several big red fish, though we only caught a Nine-Dragon Crucian, a tiny thing, but it was wonderfully fresh when cooked. Roasting the fish over mulberry wood was a good idea; there's a sweet-and-sour fruit fragrance of mulberries to it."
...
The scholars of the Scholars' Lodge all wore expressions of gloating. Qu Ting laughed softly, "Doctor Shen is a dead man!"
In the courtyard, Shen Mu turned a thick wooden stake, rotating the Red Dragon Carp over a roaring fire, while the Dragon Qilin governed the heat of the mulberry-wood flame, roasting the great fish crisp without and tender within.
The Dragon Qilin controlled the fire, letting its force seep into the fish's flesh and bone; the mulberry was green mulberry, carrying moisture, and so there was a touch of smoke, and the Snow Fox governed the wind, letting a little of that smokiness work its way into the flesh.
They had also stuffed the fish's belly with mulberry leaves, scallion and ginger; the belly was full of tender fish oil, and as it roasted the oil dripped with a sizzle into the fire, and the blue smoke of the burning oil smelled so good it set the appetite racing.
When the whole fish was roasted through, the Snow Fox at once wielded wind-blade curved knives to cut the flesh from the belly, the fattest, most succulent part.
Her knife work was excellent; every slice was cut just so, and she governed the plate as well, so that each slice fell onto it, each slice translucent, like pieces of soft, springy mutton-fat white jade.
Shen Mu pressed down the fire to lower the flame, and man, fox and Dragon Qilin sat around the fire eating the roast fish.
Something stirred in Shen Mu's heart: he recalled a strange art in the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture called the Spirit-Returning Elixir Great Tonic Art. He roused his essence and set the art in motion to speed his digestion, and soon his belly was empty again; then his mouth never stopped, and he went on eating the roast fish around the fire.
The art's name was strange, and the art itself stranger still.
The Spirit-Returning Elixir Great Tonic Art was cultivated chiefly by eating.
This art could turn whatever one ate into the body's energy, or into essence, strengthening the frame and bones and raising one's cultivation; hence it was called the Spirit-Returning Elixir Great Tonic Art.
Shen Mu's body was thin and weak now, and he needed to make up the flesh he had spent in these days; with a roast fish so absurdly large before him, it was the perfect chance to use this art to greatly restore his body.
This fish was, after all, of a strange breed, living year in and year out in the Imperial Academy and absorbing the nine dragons' qi: first, it tasted delicious; second, its blood and flesh were nourishing. Shen Mu was at the very moment of his body's depletion, and as he drove this strange art, he felt what he swallowed swiftly turn to sustenance and be absorbed by his four limbs and hundred bones.
His shrunken muscles were swelling little by little; slowly, to be sure, but Shen Mu reckoned that once he finished this fish of two or three zhang, his muscles would grow back.
The Snow Fox truly could eat no more; the Dragon Qilin was used to the Scarlet Fire Spirit Elixir and found fish flesh little to its taste, and after a few mouthfuls it stopped. Only Shen Mu still sat there, eating with gusto.