As it turned out, Yan Ping only knew how to cook rice, soup and porridge. Anji did not mind. Her teacher was still amazing, even without culinary talent. Besides, it was difficult for a blind person to cook in the first place. She ate her sweet potato leaf and mushroom soup with white rice. It did not have much seasoning apart from some salt, but that was fine. After all, hunger was the best seasoning that made any food delicious.
While Yan Ping conjured water and cooked, Anji spent the rest of the time putting away and rearranging everything she had removed from the storage shed. Her effort paid off when the storage shed looked a lot better than it did previously. The items were categorised, and there was space for people to walk around without risking bodily harm. Moreover, Anji found the tools she wanted to bring with her for foraging in the afternoon before dinner.
Using the water that her teacher conjured to wash up before lunch, Anji realised that she still hadn’t done any proper studying. However, she was already tired from doing so much physical activity. Would her teacher scold her for taking an afternoon nap?
"Once you finish the food, take a two-hour nap. After your nap, I’ll teach you how to activate simpler seals on external objects even without a golden core."
Perking up a little at the mention of actual learning, Anji suppressed a yawn and offered to do the dishes. It was only right that she washed after her shifu helped cook.
Leaving the washing to Anji, Yan Ping left to refill the water using a spell. Then, she collected the twenty pebbles and a few other items around the hut. Anji worked very quickly and cleared the table within minutes. There was not a single spec of food on the table, so Yan Ping arranged the items accordingly while waiting for her student to return. From the main hall, she could hear Anji washing the pots and bowls in the backyard. She doubted the young princess of the Celestial Dragon Sect knew how to wash the dishes. The blind prophet expected a few broken bowls.
Surprisingly, Anji returned after ten minutes without a single broken kitchenware. Yan Ping inspected the washed items in the kitchen and was surprised by how clean they were.
"You learned how to wash the dishes from someone before?"
Anji giggled. "I watched how the cook does it. Lizi helps him sometimes, and when they are in a rush, I get to help sterilise the chopsticks and cups in hot water before drying them."
Contrary to her first impression, Anji was more down-to-earth than her siblings. If it were her other siblings, Yan Ping might have to beat common sense into them. Her student was different. Anji did not only mingle with students. She had an exceptionally great relationship with the non-cultivators in the sect. The servants loved her and looked out for the precious tofu princess, as Doctor He had called her. Thɪs chapter is updated by N0v3l.Fiɾe.net
"Well done," Yan Ping acknowledged. "Take a nap now. I’ll wake you up for lessons later."
Obeying her teacher, Anji yawned and marched herself to bed. The bedroom was smaller than her usual bedroom back at the sect, but the mattress was just as comfortable. The quilt was thick, so Anji ditched it. It was approaching summer, and the weather was getting warm.
Within minutes of tucking herself in, Anji fell soundly asleep. Yan Ping listened to the even breathing before putting up a defensive spell around Anji’s room.
Grabbing her staff, the prophet put on her veiled straw hat and left the abode. Zhao Mingfeng’s energy was nowhere near, so she assumed he had left after confirming that his daughter was in capable hands. She couldn’t let Anji go foraging in the afternoon as it was too risky. The sun set quicker than most people noticed. Once it became dark, locating a lost child became harder.
Somewhat familiar with this part of the mountain, Yan Ping grabbed the bamboo basket and set off for food. She had already used up all the ingredients Anji collected earlier for lunch. Although she did not eat any of them, there was barely enough food for the small child.
Using her enhanced senses, the blind cultivator quickly followed the sweet smell of fruits. There were quite a few in the area. Not to mention, she wanted to give Anji a little more nutrition than vegetables. The Mystical Qilin Sect wasn’t strictly vegetarian. However, there was a rule that you needed to prepare your own meals. Truthfully, Yan Ping found eating to be a chore even before she reached the level of not needing physical sustenance. Hence, her vegetarian lifestyle was strictly a personal preference.
Listening carefully to the small animals, Yan Ping passed up on the squirrels and birds. She wanted to catch a pheasant or a hare because pigeons were too small and bony. Alternatively, fish would work as well. However, they were very quick in the water, and it was a bad match for Yan Ping, who was visually impaired.
Circling the area a few times, Yan Ping used her light footwork to scale up a tall tree, grabbing onto its branches. Inside the bamboo basket were already several peaches and the plums Anji found earlier. Yan Ping simply took the liberty of collecting them before they fell to the ground and became bird food.
In addition to fruits, Yan Ping dug up some root vegetables like yam, garlic, mugwort, bamboo shoots, fern fiddleheads, asparagus and burdock root. There were more than sweet potatoes that Anji missed, not that Anji would find any sweet potatoes if she dug up the plant. Those can only be harvested in autumn. It was still late spring and early summer.
After rounding up all the edible plants she could find with her second vision, Yan Ping waited on top of a tree and increased her second vision’s range to see if there were any animals she could hunt for Anji in the vicinity.
Two hundred metres away from where she was, Yan Ping sensed a group of wild pheasants. She only needed one, so the decision was simple. Leaping off the tree, she landed on the ground and started making her way over to the unsuspecting group of mountain hens. They were going to have pheasant soup tonight.