Chapter 214 – Lucky (2/2)

Li Qingshan said, “Allow me to toast you with tea instead of alcohol. Thank you for taking care of Zijian.” He drank an entire cup, and the flow of heat directly reached his belly, expanding from there. It made him feel warm all over. The fragrance did not just linger in his mouth, but in his heart too.

Being able to drink a cup of this on a cold, winter night was absolute bliss. With a cup down, he felt like all of his various distracting thoughts had been washed away. He felt languid. Both the tea leaves and water contained pure spiritual qi. It was even better than regular pills. His mind and body benefited tremendously.

“It truly is good tea!”

Mu Zhicong and the others drank slowly instead. They were indescribably relaxed. Their arrogance had vanished when they looked at Li Qingshan now, and they were even more polite when they spoke, just like how they could not bite the hand that fed them. They were not shameless enough to continue mocking Li Qingshan.

Cheng Jiali’s gaze towards Li Qingshan became slightly gentler. She could tell that Li Qingshan was not a broke independent cultivator who wanted to impress them. Instead, he was truly a generous man who would not be troubled by a mere twenty or thirty spiritual stones. That was always a likeable feature to women.

Li Qingshan smiled. “The tea truly lives up to its name of Worriless.”

Only Mu Zhicong was unable to cheer up. Originally, he was the central figure of this group, but all of his attention and glory had been stolen from him by this brute with his pot of tea. He would never just relent like this. “Fellow Niu, it is a bit of a waste of this tea with how you drink it.”

Li Qingshan raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

Mu Zhicong had been waiting for that. He smiled. He went on a ramble, going into the essence of tea ceremonies to display his great knowledge. Cheng Jiali and the others praised him quite a lot.

The two bumpkins, Li Qingshan and Yu Zijian, held their teacups and listened in as they drank.

When Mu Zhicong finished his speech and wanted to moisten his mouth with some tea, he discovered that Li Qingshan and Yu Zijian had already ‘wasted’ away all of the tea. He immediately became stunned.

Yu Zijian said in admiration, “You know so much, senior brother Mu.”

Li Qingshan said, “I think you’ve enlightened me too.”

Yu Zijian had been drinking in small, short sips, but Li Qingshan actually drank like an ox, tipping cup after cup into his belly. You’re drinking my tea, yet you still have so much nonsense to spout. You might as well not drink it.

Cheng Jiali and the other two were glad that they had been fast. They did not forget to drink tea as they listened on. They managed to steal a few cups from Li Qingshan’s mouth, which saved them half a month’s worth of cultivation. The spiritual tea was unlike regular tea, where several pots could be made from the same leaves. The tea brewer used special techniques to extract all of the flavour of the tea leaves into the spiritual water so that none of it went to waste. As a result, there was only a single pot.

Yu Zijian rubbed her belly. “How warm!”

Li Qingshan said, “Exactly.”

The two of them looked at each other and smiled. All Yu Zijian noticed was that the whites and pupils of Li Qingshan’s eyes seemed so clear-cut. His gaze was no longer as sharp as when she first saw him. Instead, it seemed calm and clear, like he had gone from a vicious tiger to a gentle ox. He seemed much gentler.

She suddenly found that it was even more difficult to maintain eye contact with a gaze like that than the sharp gaze from the other day. Her eyes avoided him, and she lowered her head.

Mu Zhicong felt like everything he had said earlier had been pointless. He ground his teeth. “Fellow Niu, do you understand just how profound tea culture and tea ceremony can be now?”

Li Qingshan smiled. “I’m a coarse, unsophisticated man. I can’t remember that much.” Then he turned towards Yu Zijian. “What do you think, Zijian? Do you want to go back with me?”

Before Yu Zijian could even answer him, Mu Zhicong said resolutely, “She can’t. Without master’s permission, Zijian can’t leave the Green Vine mountain.”

Cheng Jiali tried to persuade him softly. “Senior brother.” She only wished for Yu Zijian to be further away, but when two men began to fight over something, it would not just be about who it ended up with in the end. It was about their pride as well. They could not be easily persuaded by others.

Li Qingshan did not look at Mu Zhicong. He only asked Yu Zijian, “What do you want?”

Yu Zijian immediately became uncertain. The disciples of the Green Vine mountain had taken great care of her during these days. If she just left like this, she felt like she was letting down their kindness, and it would probably make things difficult for Niu Juxia.

“Think it through. Don’t worry about anything else. Go with what you want. I believe the Green Vine Elder is a great, understanding, and reasonable senior. Don’t forget about the way I taught you to handle decisions.” Li Qingshan could understand what she was feeling. He patted her shoulder and ignored Mu Zhicong’s ugly expression. He stood up and arrived before the tea brewer to pay the bill, but just as he fished out twenty-seven spiritual stones, the tea brewer asked him a question.