Xiuying Ten Jiang 14 - Noodle-Making in the Secret Realm
According to Xiuying's copy of Meti's Sword Manual - Annotated Edition, which had a lot of information hidden within to help any fledgling cultivator through their cultivation, the golden sheaf of wheat that Xiuying had found was known as Thousand Year Spirit Wheat. As their name suggested, due to growing in a qi-enriched environment for at least a thousand years, the Thousand Year Spirit Wheat held potent qi within their grains, making valuable ingredients for alchemists and cultivators. As a noodle vendor, it was clear to Xiuying that the best way to prepare the Spirit Wheat was to turn it into flour and make it into noodles.
If an alchemist was to learn of what Xiuying was about to do to such precious ingredients, they would have surely coughed out blood in shock and anger at what they would perceive as a massive waste. Unknown to most alchemists, however, the best way to bring out the full potential of the Thousand-Year Spirit Wheat was to prepare them as a food ingredient and use them to make a delicious meal. The reason why this piece of knowledge was not well-known in the cultivation world was that it was very hard to prepare the wheat for cooking - with even the slightest misstep in preparation resulting in significant degradation of the Spirit Wheat's properties.
This high difficulty in actually cooking the Spirit Wheat was why it was more common to simply make a pill using the Spirit Wheat, despite some loss in qi. It was better for most who got their hands on the Spirit Wheat to refine it in a pill for some minor loss in qi potency rather than ruin it completely by improper cooking preparations.
Ignorant to how most of the cultivation world usually used the sheaf of Thousand Year Spirit Wheat, Xiuying began preparing the wheat to make noodles out of them. To start with, Xiuying needed to turn these stalks of wheat into flour. Rather than go through the process of threshing them first, winnowing, and then milling them into flour, Xiuying decided to just do those major steps in one swoop.
"Right then! First up! Chaff removal!" Pulling out her favourite knife, Xiuying started removing the chaff directly from the wheat with extremely fast and precise cuts. As soon as the grains were removed from the chaff, Xiuying's knife would immediately crush and shred the golden grains into a fine golden powder that would fall into a bowl next to her. Such a method of separating and grinding wheat would have been impossible for a normal mortal but for a cultivator, it was a swift and efficient technique that Xiuying developed as her cultivation slowly advanced. After a few minutes, Xiuying was done with a bowl of golden flour at her side. "Okay! Chaff removal and crushing done! Next up is sifting!"
After Setting up another bowl, Xiuying took out a sieve and carefully poured the unsifted flour into the sieve. Carefully Xiuying started sifting the flour, shaking the sieve at a steady pace of three times a second. She didn't really know why she was doing it like that. If someone was to ask her, she'd just say it was a feeling. In any case, it didn't take long before the flour was perfectly sifted.
"Wow, this looks like really good flour. Okay...what water should I use?" Pleased with the results, Xiuying could now start turning the flour into noodles. To make it into dough, she needed to add water to the flour. Thanks to the food cart's mysterious powers, Xiuying had a variety of water available to use. From ice-cold water that was supposedly melted from ice taken from the top of a frozen mountaintop to mineral water from the purest springs, Xiuying was flushed for choice in regards to water, at least according to the labels on the water taps. "Which one though...Alps Water...Air Aqua...Delicineral Water...Soda Spring Water...Let's try Air Aqua!"
Pouring out a cup of Air Aqua, Xiuying added it to the flour only to frown when she realised the flour instantly absorbed the water and yet it still looked as dry as before. This flour was quite the mysterious stuff. Experimentally, Xiuying added even more water, only to see it be absorbed with no visible change to the flour. Rubbing a bit of the flour between her fingers, Xiuying realised that this flour was insanely dry. A cup of water for this single serving of flour was like a drop of rain in a scorching hot desert. She was gonna need to add in a lot more water before she could start kneading it. Setting the flour under the tap, Xiuying let the water flow, watching carefully as it was absorbed at a frightening rate by the flour. Surprisingly, the water and flour seemed to mix together by themselves without Xiuying needing to do anything.
By the time Xiuying determined the flour had absorbed enough water to start kneading it, she estimated that around a hundred litre of Air Aqua had been added to the flour before it was ready to be kneaded. Rolling up her sleeves, Xiuying reached into the bowl and began to knead the flour into dough.
"Ooooh, that feels good…", Xiuying almost threw the bowl into the air when she heard the dough let out a sound that could only be described as an old man moaning as they were being massaged. It didn't take long for Xiuying to realise due to some weird property of the wheat, it made sounds according to how well it was kneaded. Continuing with her kneading, Xiuying did her best to ignore the groans and moans coming from the flour-water mixture.
She did not expect that it would take several days of kneading to perfectly prepare the dough. It had been a trying task to continuously knead the dough nonstop with barely any rest. As she kneaded the dough, the sounds that resembled an old man moaning and groaning that came out from it began changing to a younger and more feminine one. By the time Xiuying figured she was done kneading, the voice coming out from the dough sounded like a young celestial maiden moaning in pleasure.
With the dough finally done, Xiuying allowed it to rest overnight after which she was finally ready to turn the dough into noodles. With her own hands, Xiuying repeatedly pulled and folded the dough, stretching it out into thin strands. To her surprise and bemusement, the dough proved to be incredibly elastic, easily stretching beyond the point where regular dough would have snapped and broken. She had to move outside since, despite its space-warping properties, the kitchen within the food cart was too small to fully stretch out the noodles. When she finally stopped pulling and released her hand, the dough snapped back and clumped together into a small pile of perfectly hand-pulled noodles.
It was time to cook the noodles.
For these special noodles, Xiuying decided to make it into a simple chow mein. Chicken, garlic, carrots, beansprouts, cabbage, mushroom, onion and shallots were quickly brought out from the mysterious pantry and cooling cupboards that the food cart provided. The chow mein sauce was made by mixing together cornstarch, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, sesame oil, white pepper, and cooking wine along with a secret ingredient to give it a little extra kick that Xiuying enjoyed in her meals. The chicken had been pre-marinated in a little bit of chow mein sauce beforehand, allowing it to obtain greater flavour.
The stove was lit and the noodles were boiled for a minute and were drained once they were done. A wok was heated and oiled. Garlic was chopped into fine pieces before being dropped into the wok and stir-fried until it started turning golden. The marinated chicken was added into the wok soon after and was lightly browned on the surface. The vegetables soon joined the chicken and together they were tossed and stir-fried for about a minute. Finally, the noodles along with the chow mein sauce and a dash of water were added into the mixture of stir-fried vegetables and chicken.
Perfectly controlled the wok, the food was tossed into the air and stir-fried to perfection, filling the kitchen with a mouth-watering aroma. The bean sprouts and shallots were added last and cooked until the dish was complete. With a flick of her hand, the food was tossed out of the wok and onto a waiting plate where they landed and glistened like gems in the light of the kitchen.
Xiuying's Spirit Wheat Chow Mein was finished.
Looking at the dish, as much as Xiuying wanted to just dig into it and scarf it all down, she couldn't help but feel that eating it in the kitchen was in poor form. Tapping the control sigils of the food cart, a simple yet elegant table and chair appeared outside waiting for a diner to take a seat.
Xiuying carried the chow mein out of the kitchen and placed it on the centre of the table. She quickly filled herself a cup of air aqua and grabbed a pair of chopsticks before taking her seat. Licking her lips, Xiuying clasped her hands together as if in prayer.
"Thank you for the food." Xiuying humbled said. It was a small ritual that she had picked up from her master. An unknown amount of time and effort from both nature and whoever originally cultivated this wheat had gone into growing the ingredients for this meal. It was only right to give thanks to those whose labour had given birth to such wonderful food.
Having said her thanks, Xiuying picked up her chopsticks and took in the aroma - a fragrant mix of sweet mushroomy, chickeniness - before taking her first bite of the Spirit Wheat Chow Mein. The moment the food touched her tongue, Xiuying's mind was blown. Never before had she eaten such delicious noodles in her entire life. Even the Thousand-Year Heavenly Noodles seemed to pale in comparison to these Spirit Wheat noodles! The first taste was wondrous with the sweetness of onions, ginger and garlic layered in umami goodness of a light sauce of oyster sauce, soy, mushroom, chicken and the crunch of fresh vegetables with the tender strips of chicken. As she chewed, Xiuying took note of the wonderful crispy crunch backed by chewy, fragrant noodles. As she ate, the flavours seemed to intensify, bringing Xiuying into an endless abyss of flavour.
Xiuying barely noticed as a large amount of qi, absorbed from eating the spirit wheat chow mein, filled her body. Unconsciously, she began cycling her qi as she ate, spreading it out through her qi channels and strengthening her meridians and dantians. Perhaps it was instinct or perhaps it was a minor property of the noodles. Regardless, while being fully absorbed in her meal, Xiuying had broken through half a dozen small realms, ascending rapidly in her cultivation at a rate that only talented people would be capable of without external aid.
By the time Xiuying finished the last bite of her spectacular meal, Xiuying's cultivation had reached the ninth heavenstage of Qi Condensation. Not a small feat for someone less than half a century old. Letting out a sigh of satisfaction that was accompanied by a black impurity filled smoke as her body cleared itself of impurities, Xiuying basked in the aftertaste of the Spirit Wheat Chow Mein. Though great effort went into procuring the Spirit Wheat, such efforts were transformed into great satisfaction.
Xiuying sat there for a while in silence before she realised that she had broken through to ninth heavenstage in one go. Any elation that she might have felt about such progress was postponed when she caught a whiff of the impurities that had oozed out from her body, dirtying her clothes.
"Ew."
It would take some time and training to adjust to her new strength but before she did anything else, Xiuying decided to take a shower.
If there's one thing she really hated about cultivation, it was how impurities that was expelled from the body, when it was purified and strengthened through cultivation, would wind up ruining her good clothes.
Every goddamn time.
