The savory aroma—a mix of the rich meat from the old hen, small mushrooms, big-foot mushrooms, and Black Truffles—was so intoxicating you could practically bite your own tongue off!
'I haven't eaten anything this delicious in years.'
'Worthy of its name as a potential Spirit Chicken.'
'In a big city, you couldn't be guaranteed a meal like this even for several hundred—no, several thousand.'
'Especially the Black Truffles. The amount in this one pot could probably be stretched to make twenty or thirty portions at a Michelin restaurant.'
'Besides, were the so-called "free-range chickens" in big-city restaurants really free-range?'
The hen from Li Xiang's home had grown up eating insects, vegetables, and grains, without a single speck of commercial feed. It frequently flew onto rooftops and into trees, ran all over the hillsides, and was a purebred, local mountain Silkie chicken.
Li Xiang's family raised two main types of chickens. One was the Qing-legged mottled chicken, and the other was this mountain Silkie. Both were common local breeds with firm yet tender meat and high nutritional value.
To welcome her dear grandson home, his granny had butchered the more precious of the two: the Silkie.
"Granny, you should eat more. This is so delicious!"
Granny's face broke into a wide smile. "It is delicious! My grandson is such a good cook!"
"Granny, you have the drumstick."
When he was a child, the drumsticks had been exclusively his. Today, he gave both to his granny.
But his granny gave them right back, saying he was still growing and needed to eat more.
Li Xiang was speechless. 'I'm 1.8 meters tall, a big guy, and I'm still growing?'
He looked down at himself. 'Hmm, I suppose compared to the self I'd become after tempering myself in the apocalypse of my past life, this body is a bit slender.'
After dinner, he played a quick game of "chicken dinner" in the courtyard, effortlessly dominating the other players and achieving an impressive record of 38 kills in one match.
He mused that it might not be a bad idea to do a gaming stream sometime. 'A skill-based stream. It would be absolutely solid.'
"Granny, I'll go, I'll go!"
When he saw his granny pick up a bucket to go fetch water, Li Xiang naturally leaped up to stop her.
Some families in the village had running water installed, but Granny Li Xiang couldn't bear to spend the money, so she stuck to the old tradition of fetching water from the creek.
Li Xiang grabbed two large buckets and headed out.
The creek gurgled, its water so clear you could see the bottom. Li Xiang filled two buckets, and on the way back, he thought to himself, 'The water is nice, but it's a real pain to carry it back and forth. To think that Granny, at over seventy years old, still has to haul water... it's too hard on her.' He mulled over getting running water installed.
But on second thought, he decided against it.
'For one, tap water has disinfectants in it; its quality can't compare to the sweet taste of the mountain spring water.'
'Second, I'm back now. Why would Granny need to do such hard labor anymore? She won't have to!'
'I can make two trips a day, which is four large buckets. That should be enough. If not, I'll just make more trips. I can treat it as a workout. That's what the monks at the Shaolin Temple do.'
HUFF... HUFF...
Li Xiang hauled a total of four large buckets of water to fill the household's water tank, panting heavily. In his current physical state, the work was still a bit strenuous for him.
A single large bucket weighed about thirty kilograms, meaning one trip was a sixty-kilogram load. The main issue was the difficult mountain path, which had a rugged section that went up and down.
He slowly practiced a set of his Body Techniques and a Breathing Technique, and only then did he feel normal again.
"Granny, I'm going to visit my maternal grandparents, and I'll make a trip to the county town while I'm at it." Li Xiang loaded the gifts he had prepared onto his three-wheeler and headed out.
The two Dahuang dogs chased after him. Li Xiang told them to go back, but the two loyal dogs wouldn't listen, pursuing him all the way to the village entrance. Only after Li Xiang shouted at them did they turn around.
This is what Li Xiang had yelled: "You two mutts! Granny is home all by herself! Why are you following me instead of going back to guard the house?"
The two dogs were very Spiritual; only then did they bark and start running back.
His maternal grandparents' house was several miles of mountain roads away from his home. It had been truly inconvenient before he had a vehicle, but now with the three-wheeler, he could go whenever he pleased.
His maternal grandparents were naturally overjoyed at his arrival. His aunts, uncles, and their spouses were all working out of town, so only the two elders were at home. The children hadn't returned from school yet.
The old couple supported each other through thick and thin. They were a little younger than his paternal granny, and with their grandchildren for company, their days were relatively comfortable.
The two elders wanted to have Li Xiang stay for dinner, but when he said he had business in the county town, they didn't insist.
His grandfather brought a bag of chestnuts out from the house. He said he'd gathered them from the mountains a few days prior and had already shelled them all for Li Xiang to take home.
There were chestnuts on his own family's mountain too, so at first, he didn't want to accept them. But his grandfather insisted, stuffing the bag onto the three-wheeler. It was a heartfelt gift from an elder; refusing would be disrespectful, so he had no choice but to take it.
"Xiang'Er, come visit more often!" The old couple escorted Li Xiang all the way to the village entrance before reluctantly heading back.
Li Xiang went to the county town and got his driver's license sorted out. He also stopped by the telecom office to get a local SIM card and scheduled an appointment for broadband installation.
300 Mbps service cost 816 for the year.
The young woman at the service center said a technician would be there in about two days.
When Li Xiang returned, he found the backyard in an uproar. The two Dahuang dogs were barking nonstop, "WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!" and his granny was hiding behind the door in fear, not daring to go near.
Li Xiang peeked through a crack in the door. Holy crap. A Red-Chain Snake, over a meter long and as thick as a child's arm, its body covered in brilliant red markings, had its triangular head raised high. It swayed from side to side, flicking its tongue.
"Granny, don't be scared! This snake isn't venomous. Watch, I'll go kill it!"
Li Xiang grabbed a club, darted outside, and pulled the back door shut behind him to keep the snake from getting in and frightening his granny.
This type of Red-Chain Snake, the fire-red variety, is quite aggressive. When threatened, it often flattens its head into a near-triangular shape, and its vibrant coloration causes it to be frequently mistaken for a venomous snake. In truth, it has no fangs and thus poses no venomous threat to humans, though its oral secretions can have a certain effect on the body.
Some studies have shown that upon dissection, venom glands (Duvernoy's glands) have been found under the scales of a Red-Chain Snake's upper lip.
However, the Compendium of Materia Medica states: "The red-chained snake, with its alternating red and black sections that resemble the roots of the chinaberry tree, is not highly venomous."
'In short,' he thought, 'it's a paper tiger. Looks fierce, but its venom is weak. Easy to handle.'
Li Xiang approached slowly, then suddenly swung the club. It whistled through the air, and a strike as fast as lightning instantly broke the Red-Chain Snake's back!
He had fought his way through mountains of corpses and a Sea of Fire in his past life. Although he hadn't cultivated any Extraordinary Energy after his rebirth, his Fighting Technique was still first-rate in today's world. His moves were all refined from actual combat, not flashy performance routines, but pure killing arts.
The two yellow dogs barked even louder, as if cheering for their master.
The old tabby cat on the roof let out a couple of meows—MROW, MROW—as if to say, 'If I wasn't expecting kittens, I would have gone down and taken care of it myself!'
A message from the system popped up right on cue: "Congratulations, Host, for slaying the Tier Two Exotic Beast, Black Cloud Red-Training Snake. You have received a surprise reward: three Tier One Mutated Purple Gold Giant Matsutake."
"The reward has been sent to the System Warehouse. Please check to receive it."
With a "DING~" that only Li Xiang could hear, his consciousness visited the System Warehouse, where he saw three Purple Gold Giant Matsutake, each as large as a bowl.
'Holy cow, are these matsutake or Lingzhi?'
But it was obvious these were not Lingzhi, but mutated Purple Gold Giant Matsutake containing Spiritual Power.
'This is great stuff,' Li Xiang thought, secretly delighted. 'Things like this contain a high concentration of Extraordinary Particles. If I eat them, I might be able to cultivate Extraordinary Energy and embark on the path of the Extraordinary ahead of schedule.'
'If Granny eats one, her health will definitely improve, and it'll add years to her life.'
Li Xiang picked up the dead Red-Chain Snake. It weighed a good three or four pounds. He was pleased, yet also conflicted. "A big snake like this... is it better to steep it in wine, or to eat the meat?"