Chapter 10: Temptation (Part 1)

The journey this time went smoothly, and the four of them quickly found the ruins. It was also a city, but they didn’t search for items there, as it was a ruin already swept clean by the Tianling Clan—otherwise, there wouldn’t have been such precise coordinates. Even before arriving, Li Ran and the others knew it held no value, but it was still a good place to rest.

They found an empty house and went inside. The room was completely empty, with nothing in it. Guo Shier smiled and said, “They really cleaned things up thoroughly—nothing left at all.”

Selin said, “That’s inevitable. Any item here would be valuable if taken outside, especially for a large race like the Tianling Clan. These are items left by their ancestors, so everything here means something to them—every single piece. Their motives are different from those of other races. Like us, we’re only interested in precious and valuable items; we don’t care about anything else.”

A word popped into Guo Shier’s mind: antiques. Perhaps these items were valuable antiques to the Tianling Clan.

With a wave of his hand, Li Ran summoned a gust of wind that swept away all the dust in the room. Then he sat cross-legged and said with a smile, “Shier, it’s been a long time since I’ve eaten the talisman food you made. Make some for us. Hehe, I’ve been too busy traveling these years and haven’t had a proper meal of it in ages.”

Qi Wu Zhen also knew how delicious the talisman food cooked by Guo Shier was. She raised her hand and said, “I agree, Shier. Make more delicious ones.” At that moment, she turned back into a cute girl and added, “And also… bring out the fine wine you brewed. I want the best!”

Selin asked in confusion, “What is talisman food?”

Li Ran replied, “It’s a special dish cooked by professionals from our clan of spellcasters. Well, you’ll know once you try it.”

Guo Shier smiled and said, “I’m almost forgetting what talisman food tastes like. All these years, aside from bread, I’ve only eaten various kinds of braised meat and dried meat. I’m tired of it by now. Hehe, it’s good. I still have quite a lot of fresh meat stored.” As for vegetables, wild herbs, and fruits, there were countless in the altar’s secret realm. They were collected and grown there regularly, managed by the old man. Many edible plants that had ripened were pickled by him into various kinds of pickles and dried fruits, so he had an abundance of ingredients.

As for liquor, in Guo Shier’s secret realm, there was a super-quality Water Soul Spring used for brewing wine—far superior to the best wines he had seen in his past life. Moreover, the handsome old man had added water-related runes to the wine. The brewed wine was stored in a dark corner of the secret realm, the ideal place for fermentation, making it even better.

After years of fermentation, with just a little blending, it became a unique and excellent wine. Of course, if the pure wine was consumed directly, its taste would also be unbeatable, though drinking it straight was rather wasteful. The handsome old man sometimes blended some wine and stored it in a large storage room, where it needed to settle for a while, but he had plenty of time.

Guo Shier casually took out four rune bottles containing the later-brewed and blended baijiu, saying, “One bottle per person. Each bottle holds about thirty jin.” The characteristic of these rune bottles was that they had a slightly larger space, so when filled, they could hold not just one jin of wine but between thirty and a hundred jin.

Qi Wu Zhen picked up a bottle, gently wiped the seal rune on the mouth with his finger, and that way, it could be drunk. Guo Shier handed a bottle to Seraphine, also removing the rune from the mouth—otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to drink from it, as she wouldn’t know how to remove the rune.

Seraphine hesitated for a moment before curiosity overcame her. She imitated Qi Wu Zhen and took a sip of the wine. As soon as it touched her tongue, she was stunned. After a while, she said, “This… this… what’s so good about it?”

Qi Wu Zhen smiled slightly and said, “Drink more and you’ll know.”

Seraphine gulped it down foolishly, taking several big sips. Her constitution was different from ordinary people’s. Although baijiu was a bit spicy, she didn’t mind it. After drinking seven or eight sips, she was still confused because she felt nothing.

Guo Shier shook his head and said, “You’re wasting my good wine.”

Li Ran laughed heartily. People of different races were different—not everyone would fall in love with wine, and drinking became addictive gradually. Drinking like this, few people would like the taste of wine, even if it was good wine.

A warm flow entered her stomach, and Seraphine felt slightly dizzy. She had drunk too quickly, almost finishing an entire bottle in a few sips. She said, “Why do I feel a bit dizzy?”

Guo Shier replied irritably, “With your way of drinking, of course you’ll feel dizzy. Drink later. Wait for me to prepare the rune food. Eat it while drinking.”

Cerisine still didn’t understand why drinking alcohol made her dizzy, but she was obedient and immediately put down the bottle, saying, “Oh… okay.”
Guo Shieru took out specially made cooking utensils—various clay pots and woks. The handsome old man had made quite a few cooking tools in his free time, all enchanted with runes. He did it out of fun, and since Guo Shieru found them useful, he kept them. These utensils were much better than the original ones. Even Li Ran was surprised when he saw this set of utensils; it was the first time he had seen runes applied to cooking tools.
Li Ran smiled and said, “You’re almost becoming a master chef. Without mentioning anything else, just this set of utensils is amazing!”
Guo Shieru replied, “Of course! It’s essential!”
He was skilled in frying, stir-frying, boiling, and baking. With his skills from his past life combined with the techniques unique to rune casters, his cooking had reached an extraordinary level. If he returned to Earth now, he would surely be the best chef in the world.
Thanks to the runes on the cooking utensils, Guo Shieru could cook dishes incredibly fast. In no time, a table full of deliciously flavored dishes was ready.
Guo Shieru didn’t prepare any special dishes. From Earthlings’ perspective, they were just ordinary home-cooked meals. The difference was that the vegetables and meats were not of Earthly varieties, and the portions were astonishingly large—each dish of braised pork weighed over a hundred pounds, and each piece of sweet and sour spare ribs weighed five or six pounds. Although there seemed to be a lot of ribs in the bowl, there were actually only a few pieces.
There were also many stir-fried vegetables and several pots of hearty soups, making for a very lavish meal. Guo Shieru specially cooked a pot of rice and steamed a pot of large meat buns.
Guo Shieru said to Cerisine, “Please taste our rune caster-exclusive rune food.”
In fact, these dishes and rune food were quite different from what Guo Shieru had cooked on Earth in his past life. They were somewhat similar, but the flavor was a hundred times stronger because Guo Shieru used top-quality ingredients—impossible to obtain in his past life.
Of the four people, only Cerisine had never eaten rune food; the others had eaten it countless times, which was why Guo Shieru introduced it to her.
Cerisine looked somewhat flattered and asked, “Can I eat it like this?” She reached out to grab it. Guo Shieru quickly said, “Wait.” He handed her a pair of chopsticks and said, “Use these to pick it up and eat it.”
Li Ran couldn’t help but laugh and said, “Forget it. It’s better to give her a knife and spoon; otherwise, she won’t be able to eat.”

Cecilin glanced at Guo Shier and then at Li Ran, at a loss. “Can’t… can’t we just grab it with our hands?” She usually used a small knife when eating, as it was mostly meat, often roasted, with little use of cooking in pots. Even when cooking in large pots, huge pieces of meat and bones were put in, cooked, and then cut up with a knife—so grabbing food with hands was quite normal. Thus, faced with such delicately prepared food, she didn’t know what to do. The food emitted an extremely tempting aroma, and she didn’t need to think to know it must be delicious.

Finally, Cecilin tasted her first piece of braised pork. Her eyes almost popped out of her head—she had never eaten such delicious meat in her life. She was completely awestruck; every dish amazed her. Soon, Cecilin threw away her knife and spoon and started grabbing food with her hands, as it was the fastest and simplest way—just pick up the food and put it in her mouth. She had no interest in rice but loved the large meat buns.

Eating a large meat bun for the first time, Cecilin couldn’t understand it at all. Amidst her confusion, she couldn’t help asking, “How… how is the meat inside?” She couldn’t see any cracks and couldn’t figure out how the meat was placed inside.

Li Ran laughed heartily, while Guo Shier shook his head and said, “Don’t worry about how it’s done. Is it tasty?”

Cecilin’s eyes shone as she mumbled, “It’s delicious, really delicious. It’s the best I’ve ever eaten in my life… I never knew… it could be this good. Um, now I understand… being able to eat this food is my luck, my fortune. I… I want to eat it again…” She kept eating as she spoke, like someone starving who sees a pile of food and can’t bear to stop, forcing herself to speak while eating.

Li Ran, Qi Wu Zhen, and Guo Shier ate much more gracefully, as they had eaten this many times before. None of them gobbled hungrily; instead, they drank fine wine, chatted casually while eating, looking relaxed. Only Cecilin was frantically eating, reaching for two different dishes with both hands. The three of them couldn’t help but laugh at her manner of eating—even a pig couldn’t compare. Though smiles appeared on their faces from time to time, they didn’t find it strange, as they had seen many people eat Guo Shier’s dishes for the first time, and without exception, each of them looked like a starving ghost reborn.

Gradually, only Cericlin continued to eat nonstop, while the other three held their wine bottles and sipped slowly, chatting casually. By this point, they were completely relaxed; the wine served merely to help them unwind, as no matter how strong it was, it had no effect on them. With their physical constitution, even if they were immersed in alcohol, they wouldn’t get drunk at all.
Li Ran said, “We need to go further. I’ve found a clue—this place might well be a passage to leave the Projected Starry Sky. Based on the royal military relics, I believe… they crossed over through this rift. For some reason, they can’t return anymore. The so-called Ancient Tianling Clan is a human race in the greater universe.”
Guo Shier said cheerfully, “That’s great! So… we’ll have a chance to get out soon?”