Chapter 32: Do You Even Know What “Divine Master” Is Worth?

Baique Street was bustling and lively, just like the imperial capital of a dynasty in his previous life.

Because the street was enormous, Xu Gu had originally planned to take a shuttle skiff.

But Huan Caiyi insisted on experiencing what it felt like to fly with a sword as a proper sword cultivator.

Then the two of them got hit with two fines.

“We weren’t speeding!”

Huan Caiyi protested with her hands on her waist.

“Flying swords are forbidden ahead without a valid flying-sword license.

“You two don’t have sword-flight permits.

“Since it’s your first offense and your cultivation is still at the Qi Refining stage, the fine is twenty spirit stones, and you’re barred from applying for a sword-flight license for three years.”

The law enforcer from the Suspended Sword Division, the bureau in charge of air-traffic swords in the Great Shang Dynasty, spoke expressionlessly.

His motions were skilled and practiced as he operated a few times on a dark-brown token shaped like a miniature sword, then handed each of them a slip of paper.

After the officer from the Suspended Sword Division left—

“Aren’t you supposed to be very familiar with Baique Street?”

Xu Gu looked at Huan Caiyi, completely speechless.

Good thing he wasn’t a wanted man.

If he’d exposed some “heinous criminal” status just because he followed her into flying illegally, that would’ve been a real loss.

“I am very familiar.”

Huan Caiyi was puzzled too.

She propped her chin with one jade hand, genuinely confused.

“Even though I’ve never been here.”

“…”

Xu Gu’s whole head was full of black lines.

You’ve never been here—what exactly are you familiar with?

Huan Caiyi explained,

“Zhao Jingang’s elders are all body cultivators.

“Their brains are generally not very… flexible.

“So when they run businesses, they just copy outright.

“Baique Street here is known as Little Yellow Crane Street.

“It’s a one-to-one imitation of my family’s Yellow Crane Street—same construction, same management.

“I’m very familiar with Yellow Crane Street, so isn’t that the same as being very familiar with Baique Street?”

“Hiss… that actually… kind of makes sense.”

Xu Gu frowned, fell silent, then after a moment of thought, gave a small nod.

Seeing that she’d been “acknowledged,” Huan Caiyi’s confidence swelled immediately.

“Back on Yellow Crane Street, I fly my sword all the time, full throttle, and nothing ever happens.

“No one ever checks me.

“It’s so weird—how come the moment we went up here on Baique Street, we got stopped?”

Xu Gu’s brows twitched.

Nonsense.

You’re flying on your own family’s street—of course you can fly however you want, who would dare check you?

He opened his mouth a few times but really didn’t know how to respond.

From her point of view, she honestly wasn’t wrong.

This must be the cost of being a second-generation rich kid.

You’re bound to cause the occasional “Why don’t they just eat meat?” kind of joke.

“These are all small things anyway.

“You’re the one paying the fine.”

Xu Gu didn’t dwell on it.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to split it; he just had no money.

The Demonic Abyss was practically a slum.

Even though his status was special so he didn’t have to pay to clock in, and he got a stipend, the spirit stones he received each month weren’t many.

Barely enough for his cultivation.

On top of that, he still had to exchange some for gold, to use with his talent.

Good thing this wasn’t his previous world, or any passerby who saw this setup would definitely call him a “shrimp-head man.”

“It’s all Zhao Jingang’s elders’ fault.

“They don’t know how to run businesses to begin with, fine, but if they’re going to copy, how do they not copy everything?”

Since Xu Gu wasn’t chasing the matter any further, Huan Caiyi’s smile returned, all bright and innocent as she shifted the blame.

“Maybe.”

He wasn’t sure if this was the Zhao clan’s fault or not.

But there was one thing he could be sure of: he could always hear an instinctive, matter-of-fact contempt in her tone whenever she mentioned Zhao Jingang’s clan.

The kind born from habit and upbringing.

Maybe this was just the status of body cultivators.

Body temperers being looked down on had long since become a historical leftover problem.

“Good thing Zhao Jingang didn’t come,” Xu Gu muttered inwardly.

After that, the two of them meekly took a shuttle skiff.

The flourishing scenes along the way only deepened Xu Gu’s impression that the Demonic Abyss really was just a slum.

No wonder any cultivator with the slightest talent would choose to join a righteous sect or serve the government instead of the Demonic Abyss.

If he didn’t have such a firm heart for the demonic path, even he might start wavering.

Boom.

The moment they arrived in front of the Baique House, before they’d even truly approached—

A surge of vast, majestic pressure blasted out from within and soared into the sky, then spilled in all directions.

If there hadn’t been powerful formations and restrictions everywhere, the nearby buildings would probably have been flattened in large swaths.

Xu Gu felt his face flush and his breathing clear.

In that instant, his cultivation seemed to rise noticeably.

Several cultivators nearby, who seemed to be higher realm than him, also stood in the shock wave, unharmed.

Instead of worry, their expressions were full of excitement as they shouted in surprise:

“Wow! Is this the food cooked by Baique House’s Cooking Divine Master?

“I heard if you eat his cooking, you can easily break through a bottleneck, and even just smelling it gives you insights!”

“But his food must be expensive, right? Normal people probably can’t afford it?”

“No way! It’s all honest pricing!

“And even if the effects of other master chefs’ dishes aren’t as good as the Cooking Divine Master’s, they’re not that far behind either.

“Most importantly, they’re much more affordable!”

“Seriously? I have to try it!”

“Whoa! My goodness! Their dishes actually glow?! That’s amazing!”

…

“This is real?”

Xu Gu’s face went a little stiff, his brows drawing together as he looked ahead, unsure whether to believe or scoff.

The reactions of those passersby looked very exaggerated, sure—

But the food really was glowing while they cooked.

And just smelling it did make him feel like he might break through.

“Impossible. They’re all paid shills.”

Huan Caiyi shook her head, shame and anger mixing on her face.

“How shameless can those Zhao clan people be?

“It’s one thing to copy the Yellow Crane House…

“But these paid food-shill tricks are really vile.”

If she didn’t know the Zhao clan’s body cultivators so well, she honestly would have suspected they were deliberately mocking her family’s Yellow Crane House, Angler’s Terrace, Celestial Pavilion and other famous restaurants.

“So they are shills…”

Xu Gu’s smile froze.

He didn’t even know why, but he wasn’t surprised at all by this conclusion.

“So the ‘breakthrough effect’ from eating their food is because…?”

Xu Gu took out a little notebook and a brush, humbly ready to fill in a gap in his worldly knowledge.

“They put breakthrough pills in the dishes.”

Huan Caiyi said it flatly.

“…”

The veins on Xu Gu’s forehead popped.

“And the glowing stir-fry?”

“There’s a glowing formation on the wok.”

“…”

Xu Gu silently put away his notebook and brush, let his emotions simmer for a bit, then managed only one line:

“What a pure and simple marketing strategy.”

He’d thought they were doing something clever.

Turned out it was just this crude.

What a waste of his feelings.

He quickly washed his ears metaphorically and tapped the side of his head, worried that their crude operations would contaminate his mental database.

“Just goes to show what happens when you’re ignorant.”

Only after a while did Xu Gu sigh.

If he understood this world better, or his cultivation was a little higher, he wouldn’t have hesitated even for a moment.

“So that ‘Cooking Divine Master’ title is fake too then?”

He kept asking.

“That part is real,” Huan Caiyi said, for once nodding seriously.

“Real?”

Xu Gu was baffled.

“If they have a Cooking Divine Master sitting in town, why bother with these food shills at all?”

“The ‘Divine Master’ title isn’t rare. They’re everywhere.”

Huan Caiyi spread her hands, sounding bored.

“That title exists in every line of work.

“Back then it was worth a bit more—each industry only had a few.

“For example, someone who refined magic treasures for long enough and got somewhat proficient might get called a Treasure-Forging Divine Master.

“Someone who drove carriages for a long time became a Carriage-Driving Divine Master.

“Later, once the trades got subdivided further, they added more modifiers.

“Someone who drove only white horses became the White-Horse Carriage Divine Master.

“If he used four-wheeled wagons, he was the Four-Wheeled Carriage Divine Master.

“If he used a pink riding crop, then he was the Pink-Whip Horse-Driving Divine Master.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely everywhere…”

The corner of Xu Gu’s eye twitched, and he couldn’t help commenting.

“Oh, right.”

As if suddenly remembering something, Huan Caiyi giggled.

“Originally, they wanted to call them ‘Immortals.’

“That was suggested by a great Confucian scholar:

“‘In all three hundred and sixty trades, every trade can produce an Immortal.’

“Why should only cultivators who reach the pinnacle be called “Immortal”?

“Why can’t people from other professions be Immortals too?

“Then that great scholar got dealt with by the actual Immortals.

“So they had to use ‘Divine Master’ instead.”

The moment he heard that the scholar had been “dealt with,” the deep furrow between Xu Gu’s brows finally eased.

He actually felt happy.

As expected, he’d been punished.

If Immortals hadn’t cleaned him up, Xu Gu was sure that once he ascended in the future, he’d go back and clean that guy up himself.

Who the hell comes up with this kind of trend…

Even he, a demonic cultivator, couldn’t stand it.

“You two customers have been standing out front for a while.

“Thinking about coming in to eat at Baique House?

“Please, please, come in, we’ve got seats!”

Just then, two runners from Baique House noticed Xu Gu and came hustling out to welcome them.

Bare-chested, they puffed up their muscles and struck poses, faces full of fierce, brutish lines.

“Please, honored customers, inside!”

(End of this chapter)