Taste

Despite having power walked throughout the entire day, Xuan Yueji made little progress. His happiness earlier on was starting to diminish when the sun had started to disappear behind the leaves. This discouraged him and he eventually decided to build a firecamp to rest for the night.

Calculating with what he remembered, he probably was not even halfway to the inner layer. He remembered the White Tiger Forest was a circular form. The outer layer was very thin but appeared thick due to illusions.

The layer that he was currently in was thick but barely populated with animals and had little food. Well, it had lots of meat. There were predators walking around and stalking somewhere.

It was just that he had no weapons to use, so he could only try to avoid the animals. He did not wish to become a prey to any of the animals in this kingdom. Thankfully, the white tiger lived in the second layer, so there were minimal activities of the creatures here and the majority of them became herbivores.

Imagine being a carnivore that was forced to become an herbivore. He could only shake his head in sympathy for the animals living here despite feeling cheerful that he would not get eaten. However, he was still unsure of the percentage of creatures that stayed on a vegetarian diet, so he was being cautious.

Once again lighting a fire with the stones and sticks at hand, he looked at the marks he left on the trees. Though he had more sunlight in this layer, sometimes the sun could still be blocked by the tree tops. He had no other choice but to leave a few marks as a reminder about which way was north and which way was south.

Standing up from his crouching position, he called out, "Chi Chi, please help me again."

Maybe because Chi Chi was still mad or currently angry at Xuan Yueji for calling him such a childish name, he did not respond. At the same time, it could be that he was ignoring him.

Trying once again in a pitiful tone, he called, "Chi Chi… If you don't help me, I'm going to die."

"Dumbass, learn how to get food yourself," Chi Chi reprimanded. "Didn't you say you were going to teach her survival skills?"

"Chi Chi, you know that I'm not good at memorizing things," Xuan Yueji said. "The only skill I have besides fighting is basic first aid and hunting."

"Hunting is a part of fighting, idiot," Chi Chi snapped back.

"Haha… Is it? I didn't know," Xuan Yueji embarrassedly said.

Sighing, Chi Chi instructed, "Look around for me. I can't see what's nearby with the fire blocking my sight."

"Ah, sorry, sorry," Xuan Yueji apologized, moving to another place that the smoke did not reach. "Is this better?"

"Yes," Chi Chi answered while scanning the area.

"Chi Chi, have you found anything I can eat?" Xuan Yueji asked, his stomach grumbling.

Hearing the rumble, Chi Chi immediately responded, "You see those stalks? I think they're wild onions and garlic. Go pick some and smell it for me."

"Okay," Xuan Yueji moved to the stalks of grass and pulled some out by the root.

After smelling the plant, Xuan Yueji informed Chi Chi, "It smells like onions and garlic. Why did you tell me to smell it?"

"If you want to eat toxic lilies, I wouldn't mind telling you to consume it straight away," Chi Chi snapped.

(A/N: Toxic lilies go by many different names depending on which region you are from. However, the basic explanation is that they are the lookalikes to wild onions. If you are a naturalist and like to go harvesting wild herbs or weeds outside for food, please be careful because toxic lilies are not exactly consumable.)

Shaking his head, Xuan Yueji thought, 'Chi Chi, how are you going to ever get a wife with your rude attitude?'

"Uh… Chi Chi, is there anything else to eat?" Xuan Yueji asked.

God forbid it, if there were other sources of food, he would rather have those. Heavens knows that he hated onions and garlic the most. How could he eat something he hated raw?

"You're lucky it's still early spring," Chi Chi told him. "Those bright green leaves with the tiny white flowers, pick some or lots. Up to you. It has the best taste out of the rest of the herbs here."

With bright eyes, he went to the plant and started harvesting the entire thing. There was pretty much almost nothing left when he finished. At the end, Chi Chi was even twitching his brow at Xuan Yueji's gluttony.

Wiping a stalk of the plant on his clothes, Xuan Yueji ate it. After tasting it, he decided that he was going to grab a lot of those to munch on. Good tasting food was something he had not tasted in a while.

Though the plant was not as good tasting as meat or cooked food, it was better than the rest of the bitter leaves he has been forced to eat. He almost wanted to cry after chewing the plant. Not only that, while harvesting a bit more, he started munching on the plant.

Seeing the behavior of Xuan Yueji, Chi Chi admonished, "Idiot, no need to rush. There's lots of those chickweeds. Even if you run out, there's still ground ivy that you can eat."

Hearing the name, Xuan Yueji rejected, "I refuse to eat ground ivy again."

Ground ivy was a nightmare to him. Chi Chi had told him that it was from the mint family, but he could not understand how it did not have the refreshing and relieving taste of mints. It was because of the strong flavor and the overpowering taste that made him remember this weed.

His favorite food was bland food with little flavor. He did not understand how those nobles can eat so fancily. Adding all the spices and seasoning were unneeded.

"Oh wait, idiot, I see some plantains," Chi Chi paused Xuan Yueji's munch. "Don't you like eating plantains?"

(A/N: Search up broadleaf plantains. These are not banana trees. Lol.)

"Oh, yeah," Xuan Yueji answered. "Where is it?"

"Right next to the ground ivy," Chi Chi replied.

Putting the chickweeds near the fire, Xuan Yueji went to pick the plantains. Plantains were one of the weeds on his list of favorites. It tasted like spinach and he liked spinach, so he made sure to remember that name.

When he finished harvesting, he cleaned the weeds with his clothes and started eating them in a rushed manner.

Chi Chi who was at the forefront saw this and criticized, "What are you? A monster? There's no need to eat so fast. They're not running from you."

Speaking only after he finished chewing, Xuan Yueji said, "Chi Chi, you don't take over as much as me, so how can you understand the feeling of hunger?"

"Naturally I cannot," Chi Chi responded. "I'm not a picky eater like you."

"Must you be so rude?" Xuan Yueji pitifully asked.

"Stop it with your fake pity voice and tell me where you're going," Chi Chi admonished. "All the alternates are wondering what you're doing.

"Ah, I'm going to the inner layer of this forest," Xuan Yueji answered. "There's lots of plants and animals living there. Also, there are lots of caves that we can inhabit for the meanwhile that I'm teaching the little girl to survive in the forest."

"Is that all?" Chi Chi asked.

Chi Chi was sure that teaching Bai Shuixian survival skills was not the only reason why.

"Chi Chi, have you heard about the Temple of Clairvoyance?" Xuan Yueji seriously asked.

A little more interested now, Chi Chi answered, "No. You know that I'm not human. How would I know about the human world?"

"Plants are from the human world," Xuan Yueji remarked.

"We were originally from another world, okay?" Chi Chi snapped back before going back to the topic, "So, why did you ask me about the temple?"