Advance (3)

'Did this girl promote her cultivation last night? I couldn't think of anything else reasonable to describe her current Spiritual Force.' Long Yuan spoke to himself while staring at his drooling little sister. This girl is undoubtedly a foodie for sure, based on the growling noise her stomach made.

"Gege... What is that sweet smell? Why does it feel like you made something outrageous again?" the young girl's mouth seemed to be quite bratty in the morning. Perhaps it was still too early in the morning.

She would likely keep apologizing to Long Yuan when she remembered the words she used at him.

"Go wash your face and get ready for school. I won't be giving you anything to eat if you're late, you hear me?" said Long Yuan. He knew that it was still early right now, and there was more than enough time for her to prepare.

But he wanted her to enjoy the new steamed bun he made while it was fresh from the steamer. Unlike the plain steamed bun that won't have a change in its taste in hot or cold, the fruity-flavored one might be too sweet or tangy when they're no longer warm.

And precisely because this was the first time he tried this recipe, Long Yuan wanted his sister to decide whether it was a success or a failure.

If it flopped, all he needed was adjusting the content of the Silvergrass Fruit or changing the way he made the compote for the bun.

After all, the one he made today was merely a trial version.

Unless he had magic that could miraculously turn the state of the ingredient to whenever and however he wanted, there's always a success and failure in the attempt of creating something new.

"Gege, I'm done." Yuan Ling doesn't seem to know why Long Yuan asked her to prepare this earlier in the morning. All she thought was Long Yuan might worry that she wouldn't have enough time to ask after school ended.

But she quickly caught Long Yuan's intention after coming out of the house.

Obviously, the plate with plain and fruity steamed buns was for her. If it wasn't, her beloved Long-Gege wouldn't be waking up so early and getting himself busy.

"Hey! Careful! Don't you see that steamed bun is still piping hot?" Long Yuan was nervous when he saw how reckless Yuan Ling was with her Mantou-driven appetite. Half of the plain bun was already on its way into her throat when Long Yuan finished his sentence.

Still, even with Long Yuan's words, it was not enough to make her stop. Like she was afraid that someone would snatch the second bun from her, Yuan Ling didn't even allow her mouth to rest.

She grabbed the bun with Silvergrass Fruit without giving it a second thought. But as she was about to shove that bun into her mouth, she was stopped by Long Yuan.

"This girl... Did you get possessed by a gluttonous ghost or something?" Long Yuan flicked her forehead for behaving like someone that didn't eat anything for an entire week.

"I've told you that the steamed bun might be scalding hot, correct?" Long Yuan continued to lecture her. But he quickly noticed the reason behind Yuan Ling's behavior.

The steamer was indeed hot to the point it would burn someone if they tried to move the rack aside. But to those protected by Spiritual Force, the scalding hot temperature was nothing to be bothered.

Long Yuan could hardly resist the heat since his cultivation was in the intermediate level of Foundation Realm's first stage. Still, to Yuan Ling, it was a piece of cake. With the strength of a third stage, she won't even feel hot while holding the burning hot plate barehanded.

Realizing the fact made Long Yuan feel a little embarrassed.

Meanwhile, the lass doesn't seem to notice that at all. Her eyes were entirely focused on the sweet bun that was now in Long Yuan's hand.

"Long-Gege... Can Ling-Er eat that too, please?" Yuan Ling's voice was like a puppy begging for food. Her tail would definitely waggle around if she had one.

"Erm... Of course, you can. Eat it slowly. I want you to taste it and tell me what do you think." Long Yuan stuffed the sweet bun he held into his mouth and grabbed another one for the lass.

While he was intended to pass the steamed bun onto Yuan Ling's hand, that lass just had to lunge over and take a bite from his hand. Both of her hands were holding firmly at Long Yuan's waist while he was surprised by his sister's act.

"Its... Erm... Delicious..." Yuan Ling was trying to speak while she was chewing the sweet bun. The fluffiness of the bun made it easy to be chew and swallow, but at the same time, the impact of this sweet bun is mediocre at most.

Although Yuan Ling knew nothing much about food, she could differentiate between salty, spicy, sweet, and sour.

The sweet bun was delicious, but the bang just wasn't as good as the plain steamed bun.

Judging from Yuan Ling's response, this sweet bun recipe was a failure.

"Long-Gege! It's delicious! I assure you!" Yuan Ling quickly changed her tone to replace the hardly excited speaking manner earlier. Unfortunately, it was too late for her to deny what was in her mind before this.

"It's okay. This was the first time I was making some changes on the steamed bun we're having, so there's nothing wrong at all for the flavor to go wrong. It's not like your Long-Gege is an extraordinary cooking genius or what..." Long Yuan smiled.

He could feel that there was a hint of disappointment in his smile.

"Are... Are you unhappy with my answer?" Yuan Ling lowered her head and played with her hair. Obviously, that was a look of someone guilty of something. But it's not like Long Yuan can blame her at all.

The fact that the fruity-flavored bun was not as delicious as the plain version was obvious to Long Yuan.

"Hehe..." suddenly, Long Yuan had the urge to laugh at this lass.

"What about telling your Long-Gege what was wrong in the fruity bun? Was it the flavor, or its the texture?" Long Yuan rubbed her head gently with his hand.

Although the lass said that it wasn't as good as the plain steamed bun, she still finished the remaining part of the bun in between Long Yuan's fingers.

At first, Yuan Ling was slightly shocked by Long Yuan's question. But she quickly realizes why after finishing what was left.

"Hmm... If I have to say..." the lass was scratching her head for being clueless about how she should describe this. It wasn't like the fruity bun wasn't delicious.

In fact, it was very delicious.

The taste from the fruity bun was memorable. To Yuan Ling, it was an entirely new experience for her to taste the rich sweetness and a hint of zest from the concentrated Silvergrass Fruit Long Yuan left overnight.

Added with the fluffiness from the dough kneaded by Long Yuan and left to stabilize to a particular state, these small factors helped the sweet bun turn out great.

But no matter how great the texture and flavor, Long Yuan overlooked one possible outcome.

Such a rich sweetness and zesty hint is fantastic but overkill simultaneously. Long Yuan might have the skills to produce good food, but not all good food was equal.

For farmers already used to the less refined texture and bland flavor from their food, suddenly having such a full flavor would definitely turn them off from going for the second bite.

After explaining using her own set of vocabulary, Yuan Ling quickly escaped from Long Yuan's questioning by making her way to school earlier. Of course, that was after she collected her meal box.

She was given four plain and two sweet buns for lunch today.

As for the leftover, Long Yuan was thinking about giving some to others, such as Old Wen and the middle-aged man who taught him how to harvest the Jinqian Wheat.

The number of buns left was enough to distribute them equally to the few mentioned. Long Yuan picked up the same equipment without further ado and made his way out of the house.

Of course, that's after he had one of each of the bun just like Yuan Ling did. His opinion was the same as that lass, where the sweetness could indeed make one feeling surfeit before going for another.

Unless they had a sweet tooth for food like this, going for the plain steamed bun would definitely be the best idea.

"Old Wen, had you eaten breakfast?" the first person he saw was the elder that offered to give him some of the sprouted Sweet Emerald Grass when available.

"Breakfast? Do I look like someone from a wealthy household?" the elder jokes. It was a harmless reply and somewhat showed Long Yuan the mentality of a poor farmer. His response was straightforwardly hinting that they do not have the leisure nor extra resources to have so many meals in a day.

Managing to prepare one meal for one day and finish the leftover before they went wrong was considered a luxury.

"In that case, would you like to eat the steamed buns I've made?" Long Yuan pulled a wrapping cloth out and handed it to the elder. He did this out of consideration that his hand might be dirty from working on the soil around the field.

"Not bad looking at all, brat... Your cooking skills seemed to improve after making so much horribly tasting bread." said the elder. It seems that Yuan Long was a terrible cultivator and cooking too.

'Yuan Long, you twerp. How terrible is your survival talent?' Long Yuan smiled awkwardly at the elder. But inside him, he was cursing the original owner of this body.

Mauled to death by a ferocious beast, terrible in cooking, talentless, and so on. This made Long Yuan wonder if there's anything else he's yet to hear from the others.