Lia's Cooking

Retracing their path, Lin Ke and Lia arrived back at the cave. Lin Ke pulls out the dead red chicken from his spatial storage space and looks at it, wondering how they were going to cook it.

"I can cook it." Lia says. From Lia's spatial ring, she pulled out a compact cooking stove as well as a chopping board and knives.

Lin Ke looked on in shock, clearly wondering why she had a cooking stove in her spatial ring. Lily, as if sensing something, looked over to see the surprise written on Lin Ke's face.

She smiles sadly. "This spatial ring was prepared by my grandfather in case something went wrong… It's supposed to have everything I need inside of it. There's a stove, a bunch of Chaos Stones, weapons, accessories, clothes, and many other things. I left it in my closet because I didn't think I would need these things, but now they're super useful. Too bad…" She shakes her head, and puts on a beautiful smile instead.

Lin Ke couldn't help but appreciate the effort that Master Sal had gone through to prepare for every situation. Clearly, he foresaw that someone might end up coming after them, and would catch them eventually.

Lia took out a Mid-Grade Chaos Stone, opened a hatch in the stove, and stuck it in. Lin Ke looked on with his mouth hanging open.

"Are… are you using that Mid-Grade Chaos Stone to cook?" Lin Ke asked.

Lia looked up at Lin Ke, and nodded her head innocently. "Mhmm. When you use a higher tier Stone, the food turns out tastier and more rich in energy."

"Ohhh, I see, that makes sense…" Lin Ke said, when deep inside, he was in fact, crying. Why was there such a huge difference between them… She could use a Mid-Grade Chaos Stone to cook, meanwhile, had 5 in total. Lily's rewards were way too cheap in comparison.

'Speaking of rewards.' Lin Ke thought, glancing at Lily. 'Lily? What's my reward for this mission?'

Lily replies, 'Well, you said I get to choose… sooo can I choose to give you nothing?'

'NO!��� He yells in his head.

'Oh… Well… Well, how about 15 Mid-Grade Chaos Stones and a cultivation increase by one sub-realm?' Lily asks.

Lin Ke thinks about it and decides to nod his head. That seemed fair enough for this quest. Plus, Lin Ke had been promised a Divine Grade Energy Core too, so there was that to look forward to.

While Lin Ke and Lily were discussing this, Lia had already begun to dissect the chicken. Cutting out the inner entrails and dissecting it perfectly. She handled the knife beautifully, and with perfect, precise cuts, and in a matter of minutes, had already begun to roast the chicken over an open, bright blue fire.

From her spatial ring, she pulled out all sorts of different spices, including what Lin Ke assumed to be salt, black pepper, and a few other things. Sprinkling the spices in even, calculated amounts, Lin Ke was getting super impressed with Lia's professionalism. She was so good at preparing food and cooking that Lin Ke wasn't sure if she was actually from a family of chefs or a family of artists.

Looking at the beautiful, eloquent and talented Lia, Lin Ke couldn't help but reflect upon himself. What skills did he have that Lia didn't? He was a C-class artist, but Lia was at least a B-class, he couldn't fight to save his life, whereas Lia managed to hold off a dude from a higher realm, the best food he could probably make was frozen food reheated in a microwave and Lia is literally Gordon Ramsay.

Sighing deeply in his heart, Lin Ke felt his inferiority weigh down on his shoulders. He sat down on one of the chairs, watching as Lia tended to the roasting chicken, and lost himself in his own thoughts.

He thought about what was probably going on on Earth, whether his parents miss him, and are grieving for him, whether he would end up on the new, whether whether whether whether. Sitting there, listening to the sound of sizzling meat and smelling the appetizing smell, Lin Ke couldn't help but feel melancholic at the life he lost. It had only been two days… A short two days since he 'died', but so much as happened in the past two days that Lin Ke almost couldn't process it all.

Lin Ke was interrupted by a waving hand in front of his face. "Lin Ke? Lin Ke?"

Lin Ke looked up to see a beautiful charming face quite close to his own, looking at him concernedly. Her black hair was flowing around her fair face, with strands of it getting in her face. Suddenly snapping out of it, he almost stumbled backwards and tipped the seat over.

"I'm alright, just thinking about some things." Lin Ke replied, giving Lia a nervous smile.

Frowning a little, Lia hands him a plate with half of the chicken on it, the chicken overall wasn't extremely large, but enough for at least 3 or 4 people to share without an issue. "Well…" She squirms a little. "Tell me what you think." She said nervously.

Accepting the plate, Lin Ke inhaled deeply, and took in the scent of the roasted chicken. He could feel his mouth salivating in the moment. He took a bite under the watchful eye of the nervously waiting Lia. Biting into the chicken, Lin Ke felt the crispy goodness of the skin, the tender juicy meat underneath, all cooked to perfection.

"Mmm! This tastes great!" Lin Ke complimented. "It's more than great! It's so amazing!" He said as he ate. If it was normally, Lin Ke would not talk with food in his mouth, but he could hardly remember such etiquette in the face of such good food.

Lia walked him wolf down the food with a satisfied expression on her face. Slowly, she cut out a chunk for herself, and also gave some to Lily, who licked at it a few times before slowly biting her way through it. "Mmm! It's good!" Lily said while eating.

Quickly, they finished the entirety of the chicken, and at this time, the sky had already gone completely dark.