"Not at all—Aunt Qing's cooking is far better than mine. I learned half my dishes from her. If I could cook half as well as she does, I'd be more than satisfied." Yu Yuanyuan smiled and exchanged a glance with Ergoudan. Her days now were spent at home doing chores, and occasionally she'd follow Ergoudan and the others out to the fields. She had seen the splendor of the world beyond, yet she preferred this simple, plain life. If she hadn't, she never would have ended up with Ergoudan in the first place.

"Aunt Qing's cooking is fine, all right—a pity I don't get to enjoy it..." Wei Zhao shook his head and sighed with a look of deep regret.

"What do you mean? Haven't you been eating Aunt Qing's cooking these past few days?" Yu Yuanyuan asked, puzzled.

"Brother Wei Zhao can't out-snatch his granddad, that's why!" Ergoudan explained, gulping down his food between words.

"A disgrace to the family name—I'm ashamed to let you see this." Wei Zhao thought Old Man Wei was a man with no sense of propriety at all. An old codger his age, and he could still snatch food from a junior with such nimbleness—not a shred of dignity about him.

"Pfft!" Yu Yuanyuan burst out laughing and covered her mouth. She had run over to the Lin house often enough to learn cooking from Aunt Qing, and Old Man Wei had always been thoroughly proper in front of the younger generation. She'd never imagined he had such a mischievous old-child side to him.

"Never mind, never mind, let's not dwell on such sorrowful matters. By the way, Ergoudan—has the gu poison's hold on you weakened a lot by now?" Wei Zhao changed the subject.

"No, it hasn't." Ergoudan shook his head.

"Then how is it that you spent three days in West Star Mountain and come out looking fresh as ever after fighting a skilled hand like Sun Baixu? In the old days, you'd have been drained and reaching for the spirit spring water by now, wouldn't you?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled.

"Because I wasn't going all out," Ergoudan said, and the words landed like a thunderclap.

"What? You beat Sun Baixu half to death and you still weren't going all out? You didn't go all out against the blood-corpse worm either?" Wei Zhao was startled. He had been astonished enough to see that Ergoudan possessed such strength, and seeing him still lively as ever after the fight, he had assumed on instinct that the gu poison's influence had weakened. He never expected that this wasn't even Ergoudan's true strength!

The blood-corpse worm alone was a fearsome monster of no small order. Sun Baixu was a cultivator at the peak of Foundation Establishment. Wei Zhao had lent a small hand from the shadows, true, but the bulk of it had rested on Ergoudan's own strength. If that wasn't his full power, what would going all out even look like?

"No. I was holding back more than half my strength. Otherwise, if I went all out, my body would turn weak and feeble like I was sick, and I'd have to drink spirit spring water quick to ease it. That feeling's just too awful." Ergoudan still shuddered at the memory. It had happened plenty of times when he first started practicing his punches, and it had left him with a lasting mental scar, so no matter when, he instinctively held back—lest he repeat the same mistake.

"So if you really went all out, then whether it's Sun Baixu or the blood-corpse worm, I suppose one punch each would've finished them. Heh, you really are a monster, kid." Wei Zhao clicked his tongue in admiration.

"I'm not that strong, really." Ergoudan scratched his head, looking simple and honest.

"..." Wei Zhao was left speechless. True, from the perspective of Cloud Terrace Island, a mere peak Foundation Establishment cultivator hardly deserved to be called "strong." But this was the mortal realm! If word of what Ergoudan had just said ever got out, it would make people cough up blood in sheer fury.

Ergoudan had no notion of such things at all. In his eyes, whether it was Lin Dongfang or Wei Zhao, both were stronger than him by heaven knew how many times over. He didn't think killing Sun Baixu with one punch was any great feat. In the end, it was simply that he had never truly seen the world beyond—otherwise he wouldn't take it so much for granted.

"Oh, that reminds me—I've thought of something that might be able to hold spirit spring water. That way, Ergoudan, you could go out and about whenever you liked," Wei Zhao said, his eyes suddenly lighting up. Ergoudan had his heart set on going out to see the wider world, and as his elder brother, Wei Zhao certainly couldn't forget about that.

"What is it?" Ergoudan perked up at once.

"The Everlasting Spring Wood Box. Anything of a medicinal nature placed inside keeps its properties exactly as they were. Maybe spirit spring water works too. Come on, let's go try it." Wei Zhao was excited.

For both Old Man Wei and Ergoudan, spirit spring water was indispensable. Old Man Wei was a bit better off—going out and about for a stretch wasn't much trouble for him—but Ergoudan was another matter. As he himself had said, the moment he fought at full strength he'd turn weak and feeble. He simply couldn't do without spirit spring water. And spirit spring water was peculiar stuff: no matter what you stored it in, it lost its effect, making it all but impossible to carry out. Still, the Everlasting Spring Wood Box was worth a try.

At that, the two of them abandoned their meal and rushed outside, eager to test it. But no sooner had they poured a little spirit spring water into the Everlasting Spring Wood Box than they stared at each other in dismay—the box leaked!

The Everlasting Spring Wood Box could perfectly preserve the medicinal properties of all kinds of herbs, so even though it looked like nothing but an ordinary wooden box, Wei Zhao had naturally assumed it had to be fully sealed—how else could it preserve those properties? Who'd have thought it really was just a wooden box: the spirit spring water went in and leaked straight out on the spot, not a drop left...

"What do we do now?" The two stared at each other for a long while. Then Wei Zhao had a flash of inspiration. He fetched a mineral water bottle, filled it with spirit spring water, and put that inside the Everlasting Spring Wood Box. That way it surely wouldn't leak out.

As it turned out, it truly didn't leak anymore—but perhaps because of the mineral water bottle's insulation, the spirit spring water inside lost its effect as well, becoming no different from ordinary spring water.

Wei Zhao was speechless for a long while, and finally could only shake his head and say, "I'm out of ideas on this one. Looks like I'll have to wait until I'm back on Cloud Terrace Island and think up a way to re-upgrade and refine this Everlasting Spring Wood Box. Shouldn't take too long, I'd think. Ergoudan, for the time being you'll just have to stay in the village a while longer."

"It's fine, I'm not in a hurry. This way I can focus on practicing my punches in peace." Disappointed as Ergoudan was to some degree, he wasn't all that set on going out to make his way in the world. Besides, until he'd mastered his punching, he'd be too embarrassed to go out anyway—what if he made a fool of Wei Zhao?

"Good. I'll come back for you one day." Wei Zhao clapped Ergoudan on the shoulder. This was his most important brother from childhood days, and this one wish of his had to be fulfilled.

After lunch, Wei Zhao took his leave of Ergoudan and Yu Yuanyuan, then personally escorted Old Man Wei and Aunt Qing to Shennongjia... (To be continued~^~)