In the World in a Basin, the nine inhabitants would wake up consciously every morning. Although some wanted to sleep in, as soon as they dozed off, their dreams would be filled with someone nagging, giving them such a headache that they might as well get up early. Even the three-year-old Little Ninth had developed the good habit of not sleeping late.
Being forced into a healthy lifestyle was truly miserable.
Among the nine, the most diligent was the cold and aloof girl, The Third. She had only one daily task: swimming in the lake. By the time Xin Xiu got up and started preparing breakfast with the village girl The Sixth and the youngest Little Ninth, The Third had already finished her swim and brought back the freshest vegetables and meat.
This seemingly aloof but actually very considerate young girl brought back a section of lotus root, a small piece of lotus, and a little fish from the lake. The fish was small relative to the lake, but to Xin Xiu and the others, it was as big as a person. Catching this fish was thanks to The Second, who swam along with her. He had entangled the fish in water grass, riding it until it was exhausted, allowing The Third to finally capture it.
The Second also woke up early, not out of diligence, but because he had boundless energy. He would get up and start playing with birds, insects, and fish.
After delivering today's fresh ingredients to them, The Third dug out the chubby jade girl The Seventh from her blanket and took her along to swim. This plump little girl also needed to learn water-based magic.
While Xin Xiu and the others went to cook by the blacksmith's furnace, the young master The Fourth took the chubby golden boy Little Eighth to roll around on the nearby mud hill.
The little beggar The Fifth had very little presence, following behind everyone, watching as they left in groups, and quietly going to the orchard to plant trees and vegetables on his own. Although the village girl The Sixth and The Second also needed to plant trees, they chose to follow the leader Xin Xiu to cook first.
When Xin Xiu was surveying at the foot of the mud hill, she found a bunch of rusty iron blocks from the mud pile. She couldn't identify the material, but some were shaped like swords and knives. She dug them all out and brought them back, cleaning what needed to be cleaned. After all, making use of waste materials is a fine tradition of the Chinese people.
She let The Third take the iron sword-shaped piece with her when swimming in the lake, as it could be dangerous there. Last time, The Third encountered a small crayfish... well, a big crayfish, a prehistoric beast-like crayfish that almost pinched her. So this iron sword was for the young girl's self-defense.
Xin Xiu and The Second pondered over the sharp-edged iron sheets, added a handle, and gave it to the little beggar The Fifth for digging holes to plant trees.
After finding what could be used, Xin Xiu threw the rest into the broken furnace. She had never learned forging, so she just burned it all and hammered it flat. The broken furnace had several holes, and after lighting the fire, flames would shoot out from these holes. Xin Xiu not only used this furnace for forging but also for cooking, such as grilling fish.
She skewered sliced fish meat onto thick tree branches. These branches had red bark that, when burned, would release a kind of sweet oil. After smelling the fragrance when burning these branches as firewood, Xin Xiu decided to use them for grilling meat. The effect was excellent, elevating the flavor of the meat to another level.
There weren't many seasonings here, only salt, which came with the broken stove. They had to explore and find other seasonings on their own.
"It smells so good! Can we eat now?" The Second crouched beside her, eagerly reaching out to touch the fish meat. Xin Xiu swatted his hand with a small stick, "What's the rush? It's not ready yet."
She called out to The Sixth, "The Sixth, make the fire a bit smaller."
The village girl The Sixth was used to cooking at home and controlled the fire well, at least better than the foolish The Second. If The Second were in charge of the fire, he would just keep adding firewood, creating a big blaze that would burn the food.
"Is it ready now? I can smell the aroma!" The Second said again after a while.
Finding The Second annoying, Xin Xiu waved her hand, "Go forge iron somewhere else, or play with mud if you want."
The Second said "Oh" and ran off to play with mud. As soon as he left, Xin Xiu leisurely plucked a piece of fish meat and gave it to Little Ninth, who was sitting obediently nearby, drooling. "Is it tasty?"
Little Ninth mumbled with his mouth full, "Tasty."
Soon, the young master The Fourth's thunderous roar came from the mud hill: "The Second! You bastard, you hit me again! Don't run if you've got the guts!"
Clearly, the troublemaker The Second had gotten carried away playing with mud and started a game of throwing mud at people. The Fourth, along with the golden boy Little Eighth, joined forces to resist the evil The Second. Soon, the angry shouts turned into giggling and playful noises. These little boys always seemed to grow closer through their fights. Before long, the three of them, with their heights resembling signal markers, would be arm in arm, coming down the hill covered in mud for dinner.
Xin Xiu focused on cooking. She was known as the BBQ master before, skilled at grilling various meats and vegetables, and could also make cakes, baked bread, and cookies. She didn't like "cooking" in the general sense, but enjoyed making various snacks and extra meals. All her close friends from before loved her grilled meat.
Compared to Xin Xiu's refined barbecue style, The Sixth's cooking was rough and ready. She would bend an iron sheet into a pot, place it on the stove, pour in water, throw in a mishmash of ingredients, cover it, and when it was cooked, serve it up with a brusque "Eat up!" as if feeding pigs.
Only The Fifth, who used to be a little beggar, could drink that strange vegetable soup with a normal expression, even with a hint of satisfaction.
When it was time to eat, Xin Xiu picked up a hammer made of iron nuggets and struck the large iron sheet hanging in the thatched pavilion. The clanging sound could travel far, and the scattered children would flock over to eat like they had heard the school bell.
The table was brought out from the big house. As the temperature here was always pleasant, they simply ate outside. The nine of them sat in a circle, almost all scrambling for the meat Xin Xiu had grilled. Ever since tasting Xin Xiu's grilled meat, everyone became even more convinced of her leadership, and this growing sense of respect and importance even gave Xin Xiu the illusion that she had become a mother.
"Hey, The Second, how much have you eaten already? Stop grabbing! Leave some for The Fifth!" Xin Xiu snatched the last piece of meat from The Second's hand.
The little beggar The Fifth waved his hands repeatedly, "No, no, I'm full. I can just drink the soup."
He had probably been a beggar for too long and couldn't relax. Even at the table, he didn't dare to grab food like the others. Xin Xiu ignored his behavior, grabbed a handful of grilled meat skewers and threw them into his bowl, saying two words: "Eat up!"
As The Fifth ate, his eyes reddened. He held back tears and said chokingly, "My mother, before she passed away, she was like this too, putting all the meat in my bowl."
Xin Xiu: "..."
She suddenly felt goosebumps all over her body.
After eating, everyone went back to continue their "cultivation," which Xin Xiu felt was more like children playing house. But who cares, why think so much about it? They were just a bunch of kids after all, and playing however they liked was the best.
In her view, if cultivating immortality wasn't enjoyable, what was the point of cultivating at all?
Because everyone had received different numbers of manuals, they would forge iron for a while, then go play with mud, then plant some trees. Only Xin Xiu and Little Ninth, who had a single fire spiritual root, stayed by the furnace. Xin Xiu hammered iron sheets, poked at iron blocks, and pondered how to use the furnace to make some food.
Her attitude was very casual, and so was the food she made. She would hammer iron sheets into thin pieces to use for grilling meat, or place sliced fruit on them and slow-roast over low heat to make dried fruit. Some attempts were successful, some weren't.
The fruits were brought by The Fifth. After his "mother" comment, Xin Xiu felt like he really saw her as a mother to be filial to. When he found tasty fruits while planting trees, he would bring some to her. Xin Xiu reciprocated by stuffing a bag of roasted dried fruits for him to snack on.
Watching the child happily run back to plant trees, and then looking at the naked three-year-old munching on dried fruits beside her, Xin Xiu froze.
Damn, wait, hadn't she really become a mother?!
After discovering that bringing things over would result in being fed, the others followed suit. Whenever they found something edible, they would pile it up near Xin Xiu. With nothing else to do, she would pick through them, innovating and creating snacks like fried lotus root chips, dried fruits, fish floss, and spicy pepper strips.
Among all the dishes, the spicy bean curd strips conquered everyone. Indeed, children from any world cannot resist the charm of spicy strips. These were made from bean skin, using giant beans they had found, with each bean lasting for a long time. However, grinding these beans into a paste was inconvenient, and Xin Xiu was considering when to make a stone mill.
Every day, they would pry off a piece of bean, grind it into paste, and after boiling, it became soy milk. The layer of oil skin that formed on top was the bean skin. This simplest way of eating was already quite impressive to others. Xin Xiu would then dry and pickle the bean skin, lightly fry it, and sprinkle it with chili and Sichuan pepper powder. The aroma was incredible, and every time it came out of the pan, it was devoured clean in no time.
The most essential part of these spicy strips wasn't the bean skin, but the chili. Xin Xiu was someone who couldn't enjoy food without spice, and her happiest discovery here was finding chili that suited her taste. There was a large chili field near the orchard, probably planted by previous inhabitants. She was grateful to these predecessors for benefiting future generations, as the powder ground from these chilies tasted exceptionally good.
In the Cloud Pavilion, those watching the World in a Basin gradually shifted from discussing the qualities and temperaments of the few people to discussing their food.
"It does smell delicious. How does that little girl come up with so many food ideas?" An elderly man with a beard waved his hand over the jade basin, as if fanning out the aroma, and took a deep sniff.
After the initial excitement, the number of viewers had decreased, with only a few people watching daily. The bearded elder, Jing Chengzi, was also a disciple of LingZhao Immortal, and the uncle-master of Caixing and others. However, his gentle personality often made him blend in with his junior disciples, and Caixing and the others weren't very afraid of him.
Jing Chengzi had been coming frequently these days, just to see what new food Xin Xiu had made.
"I wonder what it tastes like," Jing Chengzi muttered to himself. With a flick of his finger over the basin, one of the spicy strips from the plate on Xin Xiu's table quietly disappeared and appeared in Jing Chengzi's hand outside the large basin. However... while the spicy strip was of normal size for Xin Xiu and the others in the World in a Basin, in Jing Chengzi's hand outside, it was only about the size of a fingernail.
Ignoring his junior disciples' looks that seemed to say "what a shameless old man," Jing Chengzi put that tiny spicy strip in his mouth.
He smacked his lips, savoring for a while, before saying with disappointment, "Such a small amount, I can't really taste it. But it should be good with wine."
"Uncle Master Jing Chengzi, you're taking without asking, that's not right," Caixing said with a smile.
Jing Chengzi stroked his beard and nodded, "Stealing food is indeed not good. So, I'll just go eat openly."
With that, his entire body dissipated into a puff of blue smoke and entered the World in a Basin.
Caixing: "...???"
Caixing: "Did Uncle Master Jing Chengzi just go in like that?"
Yufeng: "He went in, so what? You think you can control what your uncle-master does?"
Xin Xiu had just poured a bowl of soy milk and only taken two sips when suddenly an old man with a white beard appeared in front of her. If he wasn't dressed in colorful clothes, this would probably be the image of a cultivator that best matched Xin Xiu's imagination.
"I am Jing Chengzi, the twenty-second disciple of LingZhao Immortal," Jing Chengzi said, adjusting his sleeves with an immortal air.
Xin Xiu's response to this was to clang an iron plate loudly, signaling mealtime. The mud monkeys rolling on the mud hill came tumbling down, the sisters swimming in the lake wrung out their hair and dresses and came running, and the children planting trees shouldered their shovels and rushed to gather.
Xin Xiu called out, "We have a new task, quick!"
Originally planning to make some not-so-aboveboard food trades with Xin Xiu, Jing Chengzi didn't expect it to turn out like this. Seeing the children standing in a row before him, their eyes full of curiosity and expectation, he could only tremble his beard and carefully said, "Actually, I came to take on disciples. Originally, it would have been a year later when you leave this place that we would start taking disciples, but I think you're all good children, so I came to take a look first."
Xin Xiu understood. It was like HR recruiting fresh graduates.
Xin Xiu: "What kind of disciple are you looking for? First, the zodiac signs must match, right? What's your field?"
As she spoke, she called The Second to bring a stool for Jing Chengzi, poured him a cup of soy milk, and set out some dried fruits.
"I'm in the earth and wood dual system," Jing Chengzi said, somehow finding himself seated with food and drink in front of him. But with refreshments available, he didn't struggle and contentedly sat down to taste the milky white soy milk and the sweet and sour dried fruits, squinting his eyes a bit happily.
"Earth and wood, huh." Xin Xiu pushed forward the young master The Fourth and the little beggar The Fifth, "These two are earth and wood respectively, both suitable."
Then she pulled the village girl The Sixth, "She's earth, wood, and fire, also suitable."
Next, she pointed to the chubby golden boy Little Eighth, "He's metal and earth," then pointed to The Second, "He has all five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth."
"Next, it depends on whether you want a male or female disciple. Our Sixth has a simple personality, caring and easy to teach. The Fourth, although a bit silly, is diligent in his work and good-looking too, pleasing to the eye every day, isn't he?"
Xin Xiu was like a salesperson, finally putting her arm around The Fifth: "And this one, I recommend the most. Look at his aptitude, I'm not exaggerating, it's definitely top-notch among us. His personality is a bit quiet and introverted, but he's very filial."
Jing Chengzi thought: How are you so practiced at this?
Jing Chengzi originally didn't really intend to take on a disciple, but now, holding the soy milk, he was actually a bit moved by her words. He pretended to be in deep thought, while his hand reached for the spicy strips on the table, stuffing them into his mouth one after another, chewing at a steady pace.
The children were originally eagerly waiting for the old immortal to make his choice, but seeing him nearly finish their snacks, their eyes began to twitch, especially The Fourth, the silly young master, whose expression was quite pitiful until Xin Xiu secretly pinched him to make him behave.
After finishing a large plate of spicy strips, Jing Chengzi withdrew his hand, shook the chili powder from his beard, and smiled ethereally at the little beggar The Fifth, "I think highly of you. I hope we can have a master-disciple relationship."
With that, he took two steps forward, his form dispersing into white clouds. At the same time, small boxes appeared in front of each of them, and Jing Chengzi's laugh echoed in the air: "A little gift for you all."
They looked at each other excitedly and opened their respective boxes. Inside were two sets of clothes that felt exceptionally soft to the touch, smooth and silky. Xin Xiu tried them on and found that they didn't collect dust.
They hadn't been here long, but their clothes were already tattered and dirty. Without these clothes, they might have had to resort to stripping tree bark to weave clothes, reverting to a primitive lifestyle.
Everyone was happy to have new clothes to wear, and no one felt disappointed. They happily washed in the lake and changed into their new clothes.
"These clothes feel so comfortable, it's like wearing clouds," the girls said as they sat on the shore combing their hair after bathing. The cold The Third was combing Xin Xiu's hair, while The Sixth was combing The Seventh's. On the boys' side, because of the mischievous The Second, they had started another water fight, splashing about non-stop.
Xin Xiu leaned against a smooth large rock, feeling drowsy.
The cold The Third behind her suddenly asked, "Sister, can we also be chosen and taken as disciples by those immortals like The Fifth?"
Xin Xiu crossed her legs and smiled, "Of course you can. Didn't you hear? LingZhao Immortal has so many disciples, surely one of them will be willing to take you on. You're all good children, don't be afraid of not being wanted. Besides, even if LingZhao Immortal's disciples don't take you, don't they have disciples of their own? Don't you have even this much confidence?"
The Third's cold little face finally broke into a smile, "Now I have confidence!"
Perhaps stimulated by Jing Chengzi's visit, the children became even more diligent, especially The Third, who spent almost the entire day soaking in the lake. Except for meals, she wouldn't come out unless Xin Xiu called her.
"It's terrible, Big Sister!" The chubby jade girl The Seventh came running from the lakeside one morning, crying loudly, "Third Sister is hurt, she was injured by a big crayfish, there's so much blood!"
Xin Xiu, who was lounging with her feet up while cooking sesame paste on the blacksmith's furnace, heard this and stood up, abandoning her task: "Let's go take a look!"
