Chapter 8: Five Hundred Years of Pickled Vegetables

The Nian Beast didn't seem particularly afraid of people; it just looked puzzled for a moment, wondering why this person was different from what it usually encountered and how they could fly in the sky. Then, it went about its business.

Chasing after the Nian Beast, Luo Lin arrived at a relatively flat piece of land on the mountain. Here, she found very obvious signs of cultivation: crisscrossing field ridges, irrigation channels long neglected and blocked by silt, and most importantly, various weeds growing rampant, even low shrubs covering the "fields."

As for the Nian Beast, it flew into the nearby woods with a twig in its beak, attracting a cacophony of chirping echoes.

"Thank you for bringing us here," Luo Lin softly spoke, looking at the fluffy balls hidden in the leaves, her mood suddenly lifting.

"I remember where this is. This is where the old antique usually grows vegetables!"

The Herrscher of Sentience couldn't help but pop out of Luo Lin's mind and loudly speak, "Luo Lin, lend me the body of 'Valkyrie - Accipiter' for a moment!"

"Okay!"

The Herrscher quickly took over the summoned body. She immediately changed into a plain blue practice robe, replacing it with asymmetrical Shenzhou-style clothing that matched the aesthetics of Herrscher of Sentience.

"This looks too messy..."

With a wave of her finger as if it were a sword, Herrscher of Sentience effortlessly removed the weeds and shrubs from the field, leaving behind mostly wild vegetables.

Especially the Spring Eternal, which overwhelmingly dominated this area—after all, hundreds of years ago, this was where Fu Hua planted Spring Eternal. After so many years of neglect, the wild growth was natural.

The Herrscher of Sentience took a few steps, bent down, and pulled out a Spring Eternal, sighing, "This one's quite old... it won't taste good pickled. This one looks good though..."

Luo Lin watched the Herrscher of Sentience pick and choose, asking, "You seem to know a lot?"

"It's not me who knows; it's the old timer who knows a lot. After all, she's been pickling vegetables for hundreds of years. No matter what, after hundreds of years, she's become quite the expert, right?"

After picking a few more, the Herrscher of Sentience suddenly realized something.

She looked troubled as she stared at the vegetables in her hand, "Wait, why am I picking these? I'm not planning to pickle vegetables now..."

Luo Lin hinted, "Why not pickle some and bring them back for Fu Hua to try? After all, my system space is quite large, so it doesn't matter if you want to take pickled vegetables with you..."

The Herrscher of Sentience was somewhat speechless, she tossed the vegetables to the Valkyrie. "Then you take them for now. We'll look for the pickling jars in the house later... It's just around the corner from here."

The two continued forward and soon saw another larger flat land, and beyond it, a weathered little house.

Looking around, Luo Lin was puzzled, "Why does it look so small? It's different from what Fu Hua remembers."

"Because this is just a facade. The rest has been sealed off by the Honkai... This room was exposed because part of the seal failed."

Herrscher of Sentience waved her hand, and with a wave of Edge of Taixuan, like dispersing mountain mist, revealed the true form in front of them—

Several long houses forming a courtyard appeared in front of Luo Lin and the Herrscher of Sentience amidst the distorted airwaves. The remaining buildings were well-preserved, looking as clean as they did hundreds of years ago.

The Herrscher of Sentience looked at these things with complex emotions, silent for a long time before sighing, "Now thinking about it, I really don't know how the old antique managed to live here for hundreds or even thousands of years."

Luo Lin asked, "Do you want to take these things back to Fu Hua?"

"No need. Fu Hua decided long ago to leave everything on Mount Taixu alone."

Herrscher of Sentience's fingers brushed across the tabletop, where there were still some porcelain bottles and teacups. She said softly, "After all, this place is her place of heartache... those damn traitors chose to betray here..."

The Valkyrie naturally knew who the traitors mentioned by the Herrscher of Sentience were. She patted the Herrscher of Sentience's shoulder and said, "I'll follow your lead."

The Herrscher of Sentience led Luo Lin forward, and they soon arrived at the kitchen. There were many woven wooden racks here, perhaps used to hold vegetables, but now they were empty.

"Here, these are the jars for pickling."

Following the direction pointed out by the Herrscher of Sentience, Luo Lin discovered two not particularly large clay jars in the corner of the kitchen, with stones pressing down on the lids.

The Valkyrie walked to the jars, carefully lifted one, and found something wrong with it.

Luo Lin said with a subtle expression, "Senti, I feel like there's something in the jar... Don't tell me it's pickled vegetables from hundreds of years ago..."

"Huh? This..."

The Herrscher of Sentience raised an eyebrow, took the jar from the Valkyrie's hand, shook it slightly to confirm that there was indeed something inside, and then reached out to open it.

Luo Lin hurriedly stopped her somewhat reckless move, "What if it's really pickled vegetables? They should have gone bad after hundreds of years, right? It wouldn't be good if a strange smell filled the house after opening it!"

Thinking of that horrible scene, Herrscher of Sentience shuddered and quickly said, "You're right, let's go out and find an open space to open it..."

The two hurried outside and prepared (using Edge of Taixuan to cover their noses and mouths) on the other side of the small square in front of the "Fuyun Pavilion" door.

Carefully, they opened the jar—

"Wow! It's not spoiled at all?"

The pickled vegetables in the jar still looked tender (?) and fresh, at least they appeared edible, not as bad as Luo Lin imagined.

After removing the protection, the two didn't even smell any strange odor, which was really inexplicable.

After analyzing for a while, the Herrscher of Sentience concluded that this thing was preserved until today because it was influenced by the power of Honkai.

—Isn't the power of Honkai amazing?

Luo Lin held the jar, lost in thought.

"This should be the original pickled vegetables of Jingwei... It's risky to eat them directly, so let's take them back to the laboratory to test if they're edible..."

"You really plan to eat them?!"