YC Chapter 166.5 Cuisine of the Demon Cage Realm

"Please try some," Azure City Lord humbly said as he placed a plate full of food in front of Tianyi, and plates of food were also placed in front of Daoyi and Xi Ry by the servants.

The aroma of the food carried a slight sting that brought forth the appetite of whoever smelled. Not only that, but Tianyi could tell that a generous amount of seasoning, spices, and effort was placed in this one dish. He only had one problem with it.

The main ingredients of the dish were worms, literal worms.

On closer inspection, the worms looked to be kind of an insect called mealworms on earth, except that its shape was closer to that of a pill and the size of an adult's fist. The skin had been roasted to a lovely brown. No doubt the shell would be crisp.

"The main ingredient is the infant form of a monster known as tri-horned burst beetle. It's a monster that accumulated qi during its larval stage, so the food made from it is incredibly beneficial to the body." City Lord Azure Leaf said, a hint of pride filling his bones.

Tri-horned burst beetles could grow up to reach the waist of an average human, and their horn was known to be incredibly hard, their shells impenetrable by fists, and most of all, they were also known to explode if pushed to a corner.

City Lord Azure Leaf was proud to say he was the only human in the whole of the Demon Cage Realm who could breed these dangerous bugs as livestock. However, a tri-horned burst beetle needed fifteen years before it can reproduce and needed that many years to accumulate qi within them. If they were slaughtered too early, then the payoff would not be worth it. For this banquet, aside from the ones kept for breeding, City Lord Azure Leaf cooked all of them.

With an expression of expectation, he watched as Tianyi eat one. Or, he would have had Tianyi actually move his chopsticks. Tianyi didn't even take a look at it. Instead, he sipped some wine and gazed outside.

Disappointed, City Lord Azure Leaf turned towards the other two "immortals' and saw that they had taken a few bites, unlike Tianyi. However, their expression was terrifyingly calm, as if the food they were eating was something that you could anywhere, like some crude roasted rat meat.

Daoyi would daintily take a bite after every few sips, thoroughly treating it as some common snack. Xi Ri would only occasionally eat one before looking at Daoyi or Tianyi, clearly conversing with their spiritual senses.

City Lord Azure Leaf would have been happy if they disdained the food instead of the nonchalance all three showed. It seriously hurt his pride and only further accentuated the difference between the two groups. Not taking it lying down, City Lord Azure Leaf wanted to get some reaction from the three at the very least, so he ordered a servant to bring out his best wine, one he had been fermenting for over a hundred years.

"You two are seriously eating them?" Tianyi said, his tone full of disbelief.

"Why not? It's decent. Plus, compared to using a pill, eating food to gather qi is much more efficient." Xi Ri said as he took another bite.

"But it's a giant bug!" Tianyi couldn't help but scream through his spiritual sense as he saw Daoyi take another dainty bite. It would have lovely to the point that she could get hundreds of subscribers on a video site from that one action alone were it not for the fact that she was eating a bug.

"Bugs aren't that bad. I remember eating far worse tasting ones." Daoyi shrugged and reply.

"When!? I don't remember you going out in the sect, and I definitely don't recall ordering such food for Jade Peak!" Tianyi also roared that. Did something happen when he wasn't aware?

"No need to fret. It was during the apocalypse back on Earth. Large animals like pigs or cows didn't have the highest survival rate, and there weren't enough plants to feed us all, so we had to look for alternatives." Xi Ri said with a sigh as he reminisced about the hard times.

"You too? I thought my group was the only one to stoop so low to eat bugs." Daoyi said with a bell-like laugh. The picturesque scene was ruined by the giant mealworm-esque bug she held in her chopsticks, though. "Why, I even remember one of us died because they ate a poisonous bug!"

"You too? About five from my group died because of that!" Xi Ri said as he and Daoyi began to exchange information.

Tianyi just sat there with his scalp numb as he listened to Daoyi and Xi Ri share how far they were willing to go to survive. Just listening to it made Tianyi want to vomit from imagining the scenes.

"Grandmaster Xi, please try this." City Lord Azure Leaf renewed his attempt to get Tianyi to sample something, or at least show some reaction to the food.

The next plate of food brought to Tianyi was laid atop a wide-rimmed plate with large, cicada wing-like leaves lining the bottom. It was as if someone had shaved off an extremely thin piece of stained glass and used it as decoration. At the center and atop the leaves was something like pulled pork, only the flesh was white like crab meat, and some sort of brown-shelled crab legs with numerous spikes larger than king crab legs.

Upon seeing this, Tianyi felt some interest. Is this crab? I haven't had some for a while.

Only to lose any and all interest. In fact, the dish was made from his second most hated animal.

"This is a meat and legs from a beast known as the jewel winged cockroach. The bug is known to grow extremely large to the size of a house, but this one is still a juvenile. Its flesh is also a great supplement to the body, since the qi within is extremely pure and gentle. It's something that can only be obtained through chance!" City Lord Azure Leaf bragged.

But no matter how much he said, Tianyi didn't even take another look at it. Even Daoyi and Xi Ri treated it as the same as the previous dish composed of tri-horned burst beetles.

Seeing this, City Lord Azure Leaf gritted his teeth. His servant had already served up his most precious wine, but there was no reaction at all like the dishes. Only Tianyi tried the wine, but the aged city lord couldn't consider this a victory.

He paused for a moment, wondering why he was so intent on gaining acknowledgment on soon-to-be-dead people? Perhaps, he just wanted to prove that the cultivators of the Demon Cage Realm were not useless and incapable to the immortals. Or maybe it was just guilt, so he wanted the three's last meal to have some meaning.

Whatever the reason, City Lord Azure Leaf brought out his killer dish, the Eight Treasure Supreme Feast!

The dish was brought out atop a giant jade plate where lotus leaves were laid out and mimicked a real lotus flower. Those were all embellishments, the real dish was the baos stacked like a pyramid. Each bao was a different color, some jade green, others fiery red, some white as snow, and others a dazzling gold.

Tianyi felt his interest rise again, but after experiencing the letdown from the previous dish, he raised his guard.

Sure enough, he was right.

"The flour to make these baos are from plants that I especially grew. However! The main attraction is the meat! It comes from a beast of legendary renown that I had slain, the eight precepts spider!" City Lord Azure Leaf's eyes began to shine as he recalled his glory days when he thought he could shoulder the sky for every human within the realm.

"The eight precepts spider is a demon known far and wide. It is called so because it can unleash eight devastating abilities and utilize eight different types of qi! Through a special process, I manipulated the flesh so that when cooked, the eater's body will be strengthened and even gain a special ability or gain a unique type of qi!"

The attendees watched with awe and envy. They had heard about the eight precepts spider, it was the local overlord before City Lord Azure Leaf had slain it. Some even said that Azure Leaf City was built atop the spider's lair.

City Lord Azure Leaf watched with anticipation at the three honored guests. However, to his shock, none of them moved their chopsticks.

Daoyi and Xi Ri didn't because they were aversed to the side effects of eating such a dish. Gaining a special ability or condensing a unique type of qi might sound amazing, but it was something that carried serious drawbacks.

Daoyi had condensed true qi of nether while Xi Ri had condensed true qi of space. So what would happen if the food forcibly gave them another type of qi? In the best case, it would dilute their true qi's strength, and in the worse case, the new qi was contradictory to their existing qi and might even unleash cultivation deviation.

As for special abilities? It meant that their body would be modified. Honestly, from the way City Lord Azure Leaf explained the miraculous effects, it seemed that eating the baos was like rolling a slot machine.

It might be fine for the people of the Demon Cage Realm since most humans rarely made it past the Body Transformation Realm, but it would surely spell doom for most people who wanted to enter the Acupoint Opening Realm. The newly developed ability or qi might interfere with their ascension and formation of a martial body.

Tianyi's reason for not eating was far simpler. He despised spiders, and Tianyi might have even suspected that the city lord was picking a fight with him had he known that City Lord Azure Leaf did not know of his fear of spiders.

Still, Tianyi considered teaching City Lord Azure Leaf a lesson he will never forget. Or just kill him, and all he needed was a justifiable reason.

Then the nine demons attacked.