Chapter 221: Taking Advantage of Others

After arriving here, Mu Yanxi and the others finally understood why the Warehouse Area had fewer and fewer people—because disciples delivering goods to other places were being conscripted by Senior Sisters.

“Hurry, bring the soup pot over!”

“The cold dishes that have been cut can be served first.”

“Fan the fire quickly! If the fire weakens, this dish will be ruined!”

The Senior Sisters’ shouts rose and fell.

As for those elite class disciples, some were lying by the stove fanning the fire with divine artifact fans, others were running around carrying tall steamers, and some were helping wash vegetables at the sink.

Mu Yanxi guessed that they themselves probably didn’t want to go back to the warehouse, because here, those Senior Sisters from the Housekeeping Department and Service Department would teach them many practical little culinary arts. Most importantly, they could also sneak bites.

Just as they arrived at the Seafood Processing Area holding the sea clams, a Senior Sister said, “Good work. Just put the clams there. Come, try the sashimi I just sliced.”

“This… can we really eat this?” a girl asked in disbelief as she put down the black jade clam.

“Of course. During the cooking process, the chef naturally has to taste the food. Besides, with so many ingredients, the teachers can’t possibly finish them all. We have to deal with the leftovers anyway. So sharing the burden early is only right.” The Senior Sister smiled.

Everyone looked at the big fish—even though half of it had been sliced, it was still almost thirty feet long.

Then they looked at the other demonic beasts, each bigger than the last, and nodded in agreement, thinking that there was simply no way to finish so much food.

They all picked up the thin slices of sashimi from the plate and put them into their mouths. Mu Yanxi also took a slice.

The texture was truly crisp, fresh, and sweet. It was chewy yet easily torn apart thanks to the delicate knife work. The fish meat was fragrant and delicious, incredibly tasty even without dipping sauce.

Even just a small slice of fish meat was rich in spiritual power. More importantly, the spiritual power and nutrients contained in the fish meat were all locked into the thin slices by the Senior Sister’s miraculous knife skills, with no loss at all.

The abundant nutrients were more than enough to meet their physical cultivation needs.

“Actually, sashimi tastes even better when paired with side dishes and dipping sauce. But they’re still making the dipping sauce and garnishes over there. You can dip the slices in some sauce for now.” The Senior Sister pointed to another cooking station.

Over there, a Senior Sister was cutting side dishes. They had only noticed the eye-catching main courses before, but now they realized that the side dishes and accompaniments were each also incredibly miraculous.

The scallions were plucked from the back of a scallion spirit shaped like a baby. The ginger root had already grown into a humanoid form and trembled when cut.

The garlic grew on the backs of a group of golden toads. Fresh lotus roots glowed with a white jade light. Mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms were cultivated on immortal wood.

Kelp had eyes and squirmed like snakes. Even bean sprouts were hydroponically grown with spiritual liquid.

Those Senior Sisters deftly took down these accompaniments, placed them on cutting boards, and chopped them up with lightning-fast knife skills. Some were placed directly into dipping plates for arrangement, while others were sent to other cooking stations as ingredients.

Although they couldn’t fully identify the specific names of every side dish, just looking at their magical appearances made it clear that these were also no ordinary items.

“You guys help me cut the fish. It’ll take forever to cut such a big fish, and I still have to process the black jade clams.” The Senior Sister instructed.

“Um, Senior Sister, we don’t know how to slice fish.” Bai Jia looked troubled. The other girls also shook their heads as they looked at the thin fish slices.

Not to mention that they couldn’t cut sashimi that thin—they didn’t even have the knife skills to lock all the spiritual power into the slices. Cutting badly would anger the teachers and honored guests.

“I didn’t ask you to slice sashimi. We have enough sashimi already. The rest needs to be cut into chunks for frying and making fish cakes. The cut quality doesn’t matter much. Just do it like this.”

The Senior Sister casually cut a few pieces, producing some irregular fish chunks.

“If that’s the case, we can do it.” Shangguan Yun said.

So they each picked up knives and began cutting the fish meat. The work was relatively simple, at least better than the Red Meat Area next door.

Mu Yanxi saw a Senior Sister instructing her Junior Sisters: “Take fifty pounds of lean meat. Finely mince it all into filling. Make sure there’s not a speck of fat on it.”

Then she saw Wei Ling next door activate her four-armed state. Holding a cleaver in each of her four hands, she unleashed a storm of hacking on the cutting board meat until it was reduced to paste.

“Take your time cutting. If you get hungry, eat a few pieces yourselves.” The Senior Sister said, picking up a pointed knife and walking toward the black jade clam.

First, she skillfully tapped the shell with the back of the knife. Then she inserted the blade into a gap and pried, easily opening the clam. Next, she stabbed the knife inside, swiftly ending the life of this centuries-old black jade clam.

Then she fully opened the shell, carved decorative cuts into the huge clam meat, expertly extracted over a dozen black jade pearls, and began marinating with large amounts of minced garlic, immortal brew, and prepared sauce, nearly burying the clam meat.

Although the black jade clam was extremely delicious, its true value lay in the pure black pearls it produced.

Black jade pearls could be ground into powder for pill refining and weapon refining, or used directly to store spiritual power. Hence the name “black jade clam.”

Then they watched as the Senior Sister stuffed all the collected black jade pearls into her Terminal Ring and went to open the next clam.

The rich aroma from the marinating made many disciples feel ravenous, and they couldn’t help eating a few pieces of raw fish to fill their stomachs.

Earlier, they had lamented that such an old black jade clam was being killed directly as an ingredient, but now they saw the Senior Sister take the pearls for herself.

A girl asked, “Senior Sister, can we directly take these black jade pearls?”

“Hmm? Of course. These aren’t ingredients—they belong to the chef, naturally.” The Senior Sister said matter-of-factly, already skillfully killing a second black jade clam and extracting its pearls.

“Oh, right. According to the rules, everyone present gets a share. Take one each.”

The Senior Sister waved her hand, and ten pearls flew to each girl. They were still a bit hesitant to take them.

“Since the Senior Sister is giving them, accept them. Thank you, Senior Sister.” Shangguan Yun smiled and naturally accepted the black jade pearl. Although one pearl’s value meant little to her, her taking it made the other girls bold enough to take theirs, and also saved the Senior Sister from losing face.

“Thank you, Senior Sister.” The other girls also took the pearls before them.

Mu Yanxi was the last to take one, sighing. She had to repeatedly remind herself that she had decided not to stick her neck out and to blend in.

“That’s right. You should know that as female cultivators of our Spiritual Moon Sect, we have to take a portion of the good things in the middle of service.”

“That’s how we can walk far on the path of immortality. Take this black jade clam—not only can you take the pearls, but you can also take the shell after eating.”