Harvesting Wheat For Steamed Bun (3)

"I'm going to collect the water first!" Yuan Ling left the house with a bamboo stick and two wooden buckets. After repeating the same process a few times, she finally refilled the vat with freshwater.

Next, the lass ignites the fire in the stove for cooking later. All they could afford was steaming their food based on their family condition.

This seems to be a repeating process of Yuan Ling's daily responsibility after school.

It was pretty late by the time Long Yuan was halfway done with the flour. If his estimation wasn't too much off, he would need to work until midnight to get everything done. And that means it will be too late for them to have their dinner.

Part of the delay was mainly due to the insufficient Spiritual Essence inside him. As a mere first-stage Foundation Realm cultivator, the essences he had in his is merely enough for him to work for an hour before he needed a rest.

Using what he currently had in hand, Long Yuan's superb culinary skill was displayed when it came to cooking. The barely sufficient wheat flour was quickly kneaded into a dough as he showcased his skills in making the Mantou.

(Mantou: Chinese / White Steamed Bun. It can be made either plain or with fillings. A staple carbohydrate since a long time ago and still enjoyed by everyone, including your author, daily as breakfast)

Because there's no yeast needed in making this unfermented steamed bun, all it needed after kneading the dough is to allow it to proof a little. The gluten within the dough would soon get together to the state it was ready to be kneaded again.

Long Yuan soon divided the dough evenly into four equal-sized portions in the time just enough for the water to boil.

They were further kneaded until it was shaped and placed within the steamer for cooking. Fifteen minutes later, the cooking was finally completed.

Four beautifully made, fluffy steamed buns were nicely resting inside a plate made from fired clay.

"Yuan Ling! Dinner's ready!" Long Yuan raised his voice as he tried to get his sister's attention. He then made his way into the house just to notice that the girl had been sitting on her chair waiting for food.

"Wow! Look at the steamed buns. Looks like I can't say that you had no talent in cooking anymore!" Yuan Ling said. Her words were like a bomb dropped at long Yuan as he realized something obvious.

It didn't come across his mind at all that Yuan Long's culinary skill might be questionable. All he had in his head was how horrible was the bun made by Yuan Ling yesterday, but not about how good Yuan Long's cooking skill was.

"Was my culinary skill that bad as you said?" Long Yuan embarrassedly asked after placing the plate on the table. Since the food was already made, there's no point for him to hide what he could do any further.

He might as well use this opportunity to falsify some of his newly found skills under the disguise of sudden enlightenment after almost dying to the ferocious beast.

"Long-Gege, you can't treat this like it never happened. It's not a secret to everyone that you're the worst cook around here. Did you forget how many times you ruined all those food?" Yuan Ling said with a reminding tone.

"I... Forget..." Long Yuan cluelessly acknowledged everything the younger sister said. It wasn't him anyway, so there's no point for him to feel shame or embarrassed from being reminded like this.

Furthermore, as someone low-profile like Long Yuan, what could be better than hiding his skills until the time he needed them?

As an outsider that didn't originate from this Shiyuan Continent, the delicacies and recipes in his head were akin to heavenly treasure waiting to be unraveled one after another.

"It's alright, Long-Gege. Ling-Er is here to cook on your behalf, so all you need is just get stronger. When I grow up, I'll protect you instead." Yuan Ling said. There's no malicious intent behind her words, but Long Yuan had no idea why her words hurt a part of his manly pride.

"Stop talking nonsense and eat the steamed buns. I'll have to finish what I've yet to finish, so you'll be handling the dishes after eating." Long Yuan said. The painful part of his manly pride made him change the topic while laying his hand at one of the piping hot steamed buns on the plate.

"Let me give the steamed bun a taste first!" Yuan Ling snatched one of the spiraling-shaped buns away and tasted it. Although her sense of taste wasn't that well developed, she could still taste some of the natural sweetness within the steamed bun.

But there's a hint of weird flavor other than that mild, natural sweetness. The earthy taste from the wheat flour was heavier than the expectation when Long Yuan gave the steamed bun in his hand a bite.

In texture-wise, the steamed bun he made was close to getting a perfect score. He would easily score 10 out of 10 in texture alone if Long Yuan served them in a bamboo steamer instead of a fired clay plate.

The plate could hardly preserve the food's temperature from dropping after all.

'Is there a reason behind the green, musty flavor in the steamed bun? Did I miss a step or two before and after my kneading process?' the unwanted taste that hid within the food made Long Yuan question his ability.

At the same time, he seemed to be forgetting that this was merely a steamed bun's recipe. Even in this Shiyuan Continent alone, over a hundred recipes are available on how to prepare this staple food.

Yuan Ling soon noticed the serious expression on her older brother's face when she grabbed the second steamed bun from the plate. Feeling that she should behave as promised, she cleared her throat before speaking.

"Long-Gege! The steamed bun you made is deli..." a hand surprisingly interrupted Yuan Ling as she was about to finish her sentence.

"No... This doesn't count." Long Yuan said. He had lost himself in his pursuit for perfection in his dishes. The steamed bun he made is evidently better than what Yuan Ling fed him last night. Still, his pride was unwilling to swallow this victory easily.

To someone as stubborn as Long Yuan, this was a flawed victory worth dog-shit to him. His competitiveness made him unwilling to rest this case. At least, not until he finds the reason behind the earthy flavor behind each bite.

'Did something wrong happen to Long-Gege? Don't tell me he really turned into an idiot after getting mauled by the ferocious beast?' Yuan Ling's eyes were staring blankly at her older brother that was currently in his own thoughts.

"Long-Gege... What's wrong with... Eh?"

Yuan Ling was surprised as the Spiritual Essence brazenly tried to escape from her body. This spectacle sight can only be seen from a cultivator that just consumed something comparable to an elixir.

This was precisely the perfection a human cultivator painstakingly searching for. All of them were greatly sought after, from food, medicine, and treasured tools due to their efficiency in restoring and providing a cultivator with a considerable amount of Spiritual Essence.

It didn't come across Yuan Ling's mind that her older brother could actually initiate such a spectacle from a mere steamed bun he made. The food he made can be said to be the simplest of the recipe, but without sufficient effort, it would at most be served as a stomach-filling meal and not an elixir-grade food.

Without further ado, Yuan Ling retreats to her bed and joins her hands together around the tip of her fingers. A ball of verdant Spiritual Essence gradually appeared within the confined space around her fingers as it created a ball of cloud that was slowly sucked into Yuan Ling's body.

The increase of Spiritual Essence from the two steamed buns was hardly worth mentioning. Still, this was a luxury to a family of farmers like them.

Yuan Ling opened her eyes five minutes later. She looked more lively than before. The slight fatigue from attending the class from morning to afternoon and going straight to fetch the water after returning home seemed to be gone from her face.

Right now, Yuan Ling looked like a lass that just woke up from an afternoon nap.

But to her surprise, she wasn't the one that got the most benefit from eating the two steamed buns. Instead, it was her older brother.

Everything was happening to him unconsciously, without the need to properly harness and direct the Spiritual Essence that escaped from his body.

Long Yuan was in the dark as his body digested the Spiritual Essence internally without allowing a hint of the essence from escaping. There's no doubt that even Yuan Ling would be jealous of her older brother's incomparable luck.

"Hmm? Why are you staring at me like this? Is there something stuck on my face?" this was the first thing Long Yuan said after he came back to his sense. He seemed to be clueless about his state of mind earlier.

"N-Nothing... Do you need some help?" Yuan Ling stuttered. Even she had no idea why she would feel that her heartbeat was faster by hearing a simple sentence from her older brother.

"Oh? Then clean the dishes for me. I'll have to continue with what I've left from the afternoon. Go to sleep first if you're tired." Long Yuan said. It seems that he's clueless about how much he recovered from eating the two steamed buns.