Lucia’s still Lucia no matter where she is. Only she would think of a tempering formation as a cooking utensil. Normally, I enjoy the smell of her cooking, but this soup of hers…, it’s almost completely made of alcohol. I don’t really like the stinging sensation of alcohol fumes flying around, but Lucia doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, she seems a little happy about it. Or … very happy. Don’t tell me she’s drunk off the vapor…. I’ve seen her drink while we went around doing good deeds, but she never drank herself to the point beyond what little self-control she has. She said it was to cope with the loss of Sister Ilya, but now that she’s met Sister Ilya again, why is she still drinking?

“And I stir, and I stir, and I stir, and I stir, and I stir….”

Yes, I think she’s drunk. I’ve only seen her drunk one other time: it was during the celebration thrown for her for becoming the Shadow Devil Sect’s sect leader. There was lots of destruction, and a few unfortunate disciples were seriously injured…. And she wasn’t even in a bad mood; she just didn’t know how to control her strength. Now that she’s stronger than that old man who was attacking us, there’s no one here that can stop her if she decides to go on a rampage. Maybe if all the quasi-immortals in the area decided to team up….

“And then I chop and mash and squish and pound. Mash, mash, mash!”

Right now, Lucia’s adding all kinds of strange things to the soup. She said she added enough things about twenty times now, but every time she goes to put something away, she finds something else she wants to add. I didn’t know she kept Mr. Feathers’ wings that she had cut off over a decade ago, but apparently, she did. I wanted to stop her from adding them to the soup since Mr. Feathers gave his life to save me, and it felt wrong to watch her throw bits of him inside, but how am I supposed to stop her when a simple brush of her tail can send me flying? Mr. Feathers was pretty pitiful at that time. Lucia cut off and restored his wings over a dozen times, thinking she’d have an infinite meal of phoenix, but she couldn’t cook them in the end. Will they cook here? I’m not sure.

“It’s ready! Now, I’ll put my pounding stick away, and … is that a tiger? Wow! When did I get a white tiger? It must’ve been in someone’s life pouch…. I don’t recognize this pouch…. it’s really fancy too. I wonder how a tiger tastes like in turtle soup. Mm, there’s no time to prep you, so … in you go!”

I…, I can’t watch anymore. At least she killed the poor thing before throwing it inside the boiling liquid. I think I’m going to sit in the passageway with that old man and his disciple. Sister Ilya ran away a long time ago. She must’ve known about the fumes getting Lucia drunk but chose not to warn me; though, I probably would’ve stayed even if she had.

While walking to the passageway, there were a lot more splashing sounds followed by the thumping of the giant pillar knocking against the sides of the tempering formation. When I arrived around the bend, Hu Shen, the disciple of that old man, bowed at me. “Is it over?” she asked. Miraculously, the bones that were broken when Lucia dropped a giant tortoise on her were already healed. It seems like her regenerative ability was almost on par with Lucia’s. She lifted her head and stared at me, so I shook my head. It definitely wasn’t over, and considering the state Lucia was in, it wouldn’t be over for a very long time. According to Sister Ilya, all the interspacial rings of the disciples who had their arms and legs cut off were handed over to Lucia, so she’ll always find something new to throw in just by browsing through them.

I’m not sure how long I sat there in silence with the two members of the Holy Beasts Sect. Well, we were silent, but the sounds coming from Lucia were not. I even heard more liquid being poured in at one point, most likely because the majority of the soup base had already evaporated. There were splashing and thumping and pounding and grinding noises echoing past us nonstop. At one point, Mrs. Feathers hobbled over to us with a fearful expression. I think Lucia almost tried to cook her too. It was at that point I decided to cultivate and locate the extra energy that Sister Ilya said was hiding within my body, but even after extensively searching every part of myself, I couldn’t find it. In the end, I just cultivated normally by digesting Lucia’s impurities.

“It’s done! Who wants some!?” Lucia’s voice pulled me out of my meditation. “Ilya? Softie? Mrs. Feathers? Where are you guys!? I’ll beat you all up and lock you in my life pouches if you ditched me!”

“I’m right here, Lucia!” Thankfully, even as an injured earth-realm expert, I’m still able to teleport. However, even though I was an earth-realm expert, the fumes inside of the room made me dizzy the instant I inhaled them. A bowl thumped against my chest, and I held out my hands to catch it. Inside, there was a brown liquid with chunks of unidentifiable pieces of meat.

“Eat up! There’s plenty where that came from.”

“T-thanks.” If I eat this slowly, around one sip per half an hour, I’m sure Lucia will finish the rest before I’m done. I’ll be able to avoid a second bowl that way. However, with Lucia staring at me with such strong expectation in her eyes, I’ll take a big gulp for the first taste….

This … actually tastes delicious. I’m surprised! There’s no taste of alcohol at all, and when it enters my stomach, I feel … like I’m going to explode! There’s so much qi flowing through my body from one gulp! Even if I were to cultivate from scratch, I could become an earth-realm expert with the amount of energy flowing inside of me right now. Could this be the effect of the tempering formation? Lucia’s drinking one bowl at a time with a single gulp. At this rate, she really could become an immortal! In fact, she might become one before even finishing her soup!