8 Night and Day at the Inn

"Sir cultivator, this is the caravan head."

"Sir Abdul, this is the cultivator I talked about earlier.

The caravan head nodded. He observed me as I observed him. Unlike the people I've seen here, he was different. With a simple glance, you could already tell that he wasn't from around here. His face was square-shaped and he had a long nose which made him seem wise. The long beard he had was curly, unlike everyone here who had straight ones. The final nail in the coffin was his clothes. He wore a turban and a one-piece tunic which was not local to this place.

"Salam, sir cultivator. This humble merchant's name is Abdullah Rahsyid. I travel these lands in order to buy those pills and weapons your kinds created. They were rated very highly back home, and I saw the opportunity back when I was a lad to gamble my riches here."

"Salam, Mr Abdullah. I am but a humble cultivator without any fame to himself. I am looking for the opportunity to travel far and wide to deepen my connection with the mortals in order to not forget my goal as a cultivator. You can just call me Joe, sir."

"Ah, Mr Cho. What a very humble man you are! I would love to help your journey. You can join my caravan and I shall give you food, lodging, and silver taels for the cost of your protection!"

"I thought I already said to…" I gestured to the fighter. "Excuse me, I never got your name, did I?"

"Ah, my name is Wu Lin, sir Cho."

"Right. I already said to young Lin here that I won't be needing anything else but food and lodgings."

The caravan head stroked his beard. He nodded slowly, formulating his words.

"In my humble opinion, sir Cho. I believe I still have to pay you for your labour. It was my own pride as an employer and a train of thought from my hometown. Since we have nothing but dry sand dunes there, we appreciate the labour of our brothers and sisters more. I'm afraid that if I started forgetting my roots, I won't have anything to hold me back from the whispers of the devil. Our tradition states, we shall not let our guests go home with an empty belly."

"Then I shall thank you in advance for that."

"You are very welcome, sir Cho."

The caravan head ordered all kinds of food and drinks for his employees. He knew who likes what and ordered accordingly. Everyone seemed to love him. The fighter said that he only had great praise for the caravan head. The man conducts his deals with honesty and he was trusted everywhere. Though, while they were having fun, I had something to discuss with the system.

'System, an explanation, please? I thought there are only eastern people in this world.'

[How did you come to that wrong conclusion?]

'I read novels about this stuff and they almost never touched anything but eastern people.'

[You read too many novels, man! This planet houses 35,512 intelligent races with 950,155 different cultures. Its radius was approximately 34,955,500 kilometres which was the reason why most of the intelligent races here never saw each other. However, they were all united under the same system which is cultivation. Every race and culture had different names and paths for cultivation, but all of them were about increasing their own capabilities by ingesting all sorts of energy. And once they were capable enough, they started gleaming the laws of the universe.]

'So that means there are all sorts of people on this planet?'

[Yep, that's right. Though you'll mostly see people with eastern features in where you were right now.]

With that knowledge in mind, I turned in for the night after having fun with the whole inn. Man, the caravan leader has some moves. He could really dance. The sword dancers really wanted to have some 'alone' time with me and because I knew their true identities, I felt unsafe chasing them away. Thankfully, the fighter helped out because of his kind nature even though I already gestured to him not to. I felt bad for him since he'll be targeted by five immortals now, that's why I will ask the ladies tomorrow not to mind him.

Daylight came later than expected. Maybe because my body had been modified, I felt very refreshed when morning came and woke up earlier than the sun itself. With a lot of free time in my hand, I decided to get out and farm PP. Maybe I could find someone in need of advice.

My first target was the innkeeper and her daughter. Okay, I don't want to make this weird or suspicious in any way. They were going to be my target in a wholesome way. I will only give out advice, maybe about cooking or cleaning stuff. Not stuff, but things around the inn. Fuck it, you got the idea. Anyway, as I went down the stairs, I could hear a small yelp coming from the kitchen. As a good samaritan, I immediately ran to the kitchen in order to see what was happening. The daughter who was cooking some fish in a pan of oil was the source of the sound.

"Mr cultivator! Did I wake you up?" She fidgeted.

"No, no. I usually woke up around this time."

"Phew… that's good. Mother always scolds me because I can't hold in the pain when I'm cooking fish. But it hurts so much! The oil always splattered here and there, and I was bombarded by oil splashes!" Her hands gestured animatedly.

I stroke my nonexistent beard, trying to look mysterious and dignified.

"How about I tell you a magical secret that will protect you from oil splashes because you're such a help to your mother?"

'System, I need a way to defeat oil splatters ASAP'

"Will you really?!" Her eyes twinkled.

"I am a man of my word."

'Oi system?'

[You can prevent oil splatters by adding a pinch of salt to the bottom of the pan when you are pan-frying stuff. A spoonful of flour would also be useful if added to the oil when you're deep-frying stuff. There you go, dear master.]

'Thanks, bro!'

"To understand the magical secret, you must keep a simple truth in your heart."

"What truth?" She slightly tilted her head.

"That everything has its cause and its effects. Have you kept that truth in your heart?"

She looked confused for a little while, before finally bobbing her head up and down.

"Good. Now, look at the cause and effect of the oil splatter. The fish was cold and wet and the oil was hot while also wet. The problem here lies when cold meets hot. The hot oil changed the shape of the water into the air which was dry and hot. Because the air was very light, it quickly rises up from the bottom to the top of the oil, making it splatter. You can prevent such a splatter from happening by adding a pinch of salt to the bottom of the pan if the oil was not that much. But if the oil was like what you used today, you better add a spoonful of flour to the oil, or use it to coat the fishes."

Ah. Looks like what I spouted was too much for the poor girl. She emptily looked to the air as if I had just lectured her on nuclear science.

"Well, if you don't really understand what I said. Just think of it as there was always a reason for everything. If you know the reason for a problem, you can experiment in order to find a solution for that problem. About what I said, the solution was to either add salt or flour to the oil. How about you try it right now?"

She nodded and added some salt to the bottom of the pan since she was making a pan-fried fish. She readied herself for the oil splatter, but none came. She looked at me in delight and jumped in joy.

"Thank you very much Mr Cultivator! Now I don't have to face the pain of hot oil splatter every day."

[PP +3. Total PP is 7. System notes: That's quite small… yikes.]

How come it's a PP +3? I looked behind me and the innkeeper along with the sword dancer was watching me from the door with a deep look on their faces.