While Maikeru and the caravan decided to run right through the desert of the Desolation to get to the northern part of the empire. There were a more peaceful pair of cultivators decided to take the longer way and go through the middle of the continent. When they left Toyo, they stopped by the capital city of Kawaguchi to restock their depleted supplies finally.

  It was a sunny but chilly day, and Mei sat close to her fiery, always running hot husband Jin. While he drove the wagon, he idly wondered what it would be like to have a spirit ox like Maikeru had. Betsy? What an odd name for an ox. Jin started to see a spark of something in Ping’s eyes, but it wasn’t there. The consciousness of a spirit animal was on the cusp.

  “Maybe we should feed Ping more of my cooking,” he said.

  “Hm? It would be nice to be able to get places faster,” Mei agreed.

  The countryside through the middle of the empire was lush and green. Rolling hills and a lake that cut through from the oceans to the middle of everything. They were driving across a bridge over that lake when Mei tapped Jin on the shoulder and pointed off in the distance.

  “There’s a large military camp that way,” she sighed.

  It was late in the day, and Jin assumed the camp was just constructed. “Well, maybe they’re hungry.”

  Mei scoffed. “I doubt they have the coin, and besides, dealing with them is always so troublesome. They never pay, and they always assume we’re treacherous spies.”

  Jin shrugged as Ping crossed the threshold back onto land. “Maybe these troops will actually have money? You never know. Maybe they have one of the nice captains and decide to buy their entire troop some delicious food instead of whatever it is they normally eat.”

  Mei groaned. “I believe I have a bridge to sell you if you really think that’s true, my love.”

  Her husband with a smirk and a shrug. “Besides, you know how bad it can be for some of the troops. They’re probably hungry.”

  Mei sighed as Jin directed the pair of oxen to the right at the fork after the bridge that led them off to the army encampment. She wouldn’t argue; she knew he was right. In their journeys, especially lately, they’ve come across more and more army troops. There were also the rebels in the southern part of the empire, though they never seemed to give the Chens too hard of a time.

  It didn’t take long before the couple rode up to the camp, and a couple of guards stopped them on the road. They looked worn, tired and dirty. They wore deep crimson armor that was trimmed with black and gold. The guards crossed the blades of their naginatas over the road, and one of them held a hand up. Mei looked around and found people still putting up the jade green banners of the empire trimmed with the gold seal of the empire; a sixteen-petal chrysanthemum with designs all around and then the characters for the family written in the old language of the empire.

  “You have to go around,” the one who raised his hand called to the Chens.

  Mei frowned at the man, but Jin smiled. “Ah, no, you see. We’re a lowly food cart looking to ply our trade. We wish to feed the brave troops of the Empire.”

  Mei frowned again, this time at her husband.

  The other guard, who just a moment ago had looked beaten and tired, got a hopeful expression on his face and a big grin. “Really?”

  The main one scowled at him and then looked back at Jin. “We have our own rations.”

  Jin nodded and was about to start to explain how a meal that came from him would be better than whatever dried, half-rotten rations they got from their quartermaster when a third man walked up from behind the guards.

  Jin didn’t know why, since he couldn’t quite feel spiritual power yet, but just looking at this man, he knew he was powerful. He wore cultivator robes of a mix of deep green and blue color. A seal different from the one of the empire was on the man’s shoulder, but it was a long dragon sewn in gold in the ouroboros design. He had long white hair in a topknot and deep green eyes. The pair couldn’t tell what he looked like below the eyes because he wore a mask fashioned into the mouth of a dragon in some sort of hard material.

  “What’s going on?” The cultivator asked.

  The guards seemed to shift from being on the offensive to the defensive. While Jin knew the symbol and colors of an Azure Dragon cultivator, he didn’t tense like Mei had. She grabbed his elbow hard and pulled on it.

  “Move, go turn around. Do something, we can’t,” she pleaded.

  Jin just looked at her and tried to pull his elbow away from his wife’s much stronger grip. “Stop that, you’re hurting me. Why do we have to go?”

  When Jin turned back to look at the three of them, they were all standing there staring at him. Jin gave a nervous smile. “Hi there. Like we were just telling the guards, we only came to feed the army.”

  “And you expect to charge the empire enough so you can live like fat rats? Is that the plan?” The cultivator asked as he glared between Jin and Mei.

  Mei was thinking of that, actually. This wasn’t a small camp, and if they were going to put in all the work of cooking and feeding the soldiers, they should make a good amount of coin.

  Jin, however, looked insulted. “No sir. I was actually planning on just hoping you’d be able to pay for the food itself. My wife and I’s time would be free. Just pay the cost of the supplies and your troops can eat better than the Emperor himself,” Jin boasted.

  Mei pinched him again, and he gave another yelp before he glared over at her. “Stop that.”

  “Cultivator,” the man spat. He had a sort of old voice, but strong. Refined. He was someone who had always had money, Jin thought.

  Jin looked at him and raised his eyebrows. “Hm?”

  “I’m a cultivator if it wasn’t obvious. You should address me as such.”

  Now, Mei squinted at him. “We aren’t exactly regular old chickens ourselves.”

  Jin put a hand on his wife’s shoulder and cut off the man before he could retort. “Of course, Sir Cultivator. As my wife said, we are cultivators ourselves, and we’re just traveling down our path…”

  Jin looked at the road and then at the man. “Both spiritually and figuratively. My cooking is part of my path.”

  He crossed his arms against his chest, and Jin instantly felt the cold sweeping pressure of his spirit being scanned. Jin frowned at the man. He may have been a newer cultivator and still building his body, but he knew it was a rude thing to do.

  “Hey, more powerful or not, that isn’t proper without permission,” Mei called out.

  The man glared at her, and then he shrugged. “Then stop me.”

  The pair could hear the sneer under the man’s mask when he said it. Mei just glared and Jin sighed.

  “Honored Cultivator,” Jin said but then paused. “I’m sorry, I don’t believe exchanged pleasantries yet. I am Chen Jin, and this is my wife, Chen Mei. Like I said, I am but a humble chef looking to ply my trade and feed the Emperor’s soldiers. What was your name?”

  The man sighed heavily through his mask. “I am Qinglong Zhenhai of the Azure Dragon Sect. I am a representative here at Advisor Zhao’s command as the sect and the emperor grow ties.”

  Jin brightened at the man’s name. “Ah, a fellow native of the Song region, eh? Yes, The Glorious Sect of the Empire does have rather strong ties since Advisor Zhao was named chief advisor.”

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Qinglong frowned behind his mask. “You know that isn’t our name, and I was born in the Song Region, yes. Now I believe…”

  Qinglong frowned. “You’re the Chens of the Roaming Restaurant?”

  Now Mei smiled, and Jin puffed out his chest a little. “We are one and the same.”

  The Azure Dragon cultivator glared hard at the pair and then motioned for them to go around. “Find another way to wherever you’re going. Just because that foolish Lotus Pavilion or whatever believes you have power doesn’t mean I do.

  Jin tried to argue, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he felt the spiritual pressure from the more advanced cultivator. Mei felt it as well, but not as much. She could fight against it a little more than her husband.

  “Alright! Alright! Stop!’ Jin yelled and pleaded with the man to stop.

  Mei glared until Qinglong released the spiritual pressure, and the cultivator glared back.

  ”Go around.”

  Mei waved him away dismissively and made sure Jin was alright. Her husband was breathing heavily and sweating more than he usually did when he was cooking, but he nodded and put a hand on her leg.

  “I’m alright, I’m alright,” Jin assured his wife as he picked up the reins to the yoke for Ping and his companion ox. Mei watched him apprehensively as he shouted some commands and got the oxen moving so they could go around the large encampment.

  The pair stayed quiet for a little while until Jin looked over at his wife with a sly grin. “We’re just going to set up on the other side of the camp and let the smells of food lure in hungry soldiers.”

  Mei groaned and put her head in her hands as she shook her head. “No, Jin. That man is an elder from the Glorious Sect of the Empire.”

  Jin grinned at the nickname the sect had been given. “Yeah, well, he can’t kill us.”

  He said it with such certainty that Mei didn’t want to break the news to him. The man could kill them both and then tell the Emperor himself, and nothing would happen to him. He was obviously someone important and, on top of that, an elder of the sect the emperor had adopted as his own. Instead of all of that, Mei just clapped him on his shoulder and said. “If you say so, dear.”

  It took forever for the pair to backtrack and make it through to the other side of the encampment. They had to go down some trails that did not look very good. He figured they’d be safe from bandits with the army so close, but you never really knew for sure. Besides that, the bumps in the road made him wish to get back onto the Royal Road. It was so well groomed and taken care of Jin hated any time they had to leave it. Especially now with this extra-long wagon. The bumps seemed a little more bumpy.

  When they finally made it around, they were just on the other side of the army encampment and had a little river that branched off the lake. Mei was setting up tables and Jin was making his broth and noodles and getting things ready for customers, if anyone happened by. Though they were far enough away that he wasn’t sure any of the camp would smell the scents of his cooking.

  He was busy making his noodles while his broth simmered on a burner behind him. The chef stretched and slapped them against the new, nice, long work table he had. He looked out of the little window in the wagon they had made and called out to Mei. “It’s too bad there wasn’t anymore wind. Really get the breeze wafting over the smells.”

  Instead of responding with some sort of shot about how he was silly or something, Jin just heard Mei stutter a little. He frowned and put the batch of noodles he was working on down and tilted himself out of the window. “Mei?”

  Jin found his wife on her knees, and her forehead pushed down to the ground. He instantly thought the worst and figured that the elder from that sect had come to visit them from the encampment. He shouted in rage if he had done anything to his wife. Jin didn’t care how much more powerful the elder was; he would make him pay.

  Jin ran from the back of the wagon, and as soon as he stepped onto the grassy dirt of the field they had set up in, his eyes went wide. Standing over Mei was a skeletal being that wore tattered robes and a straw cone hat.

  “Stop that, get up,” the skeleton said and waved down at Mei. He seemed uncomfortable with the posturing. He sighed a sigh so loud it seemed to echo on the wind when Minoru turned and found Jin now kowtowing as well.

  ”Lord kami!” Jin shouted as his forehead hit the ground.

  Minoru frowned as much as a skeleton could as he looked between the pair and shook his head. “I just wanted to try your cooking. I’ve heard about you two.”

  They both looked up wide-eyed at this. “You have?!” they asked in unison.

  Minoru nodded. “I hear about many things on the wind. Come now, get up. Enough of this. Feed me.”

  Jin’s eyes, if possible, went even wider. He took a second to say that he wasn’t worthy or something of the sort, but it was one of the literal gods asking to eat his food. He jumped to his feet without another word and ran into his wagon. Mei was only a beat slower, but she jumped up and ran to find tablecloths for one of her small tables and to set up a chair.

  Minoru walked along and moved closer to the wagon before he waved Mei away. “No, no. I wish to sit at the window. Or stand if you don’t have a stool.”

  Mei stood there a little awestruck at the idea. “I…”

  How had she never thought of that? Mei blinked and looked between the god and then at her husband. “Do you mind if he…?” But she didn’t finish the question. How could she?

  Jin almost looked offended and then cleared off a spot on the window table. Usually, they just used it as a window for Mei and Jin to speak and for him to work and put completed orders up. This was an interesting idea.

  “I’m sorry, Lord Kami, I don’t have a stool. No one has ever asked..” Mei said with a bit of tremble in her voice. What if the skeleton god was upset? Would he bring the Heavens down on them? He didn’t seem the sort, but you never knew.

  Minoru shrugged. “Then I shall stand. I like to watch noodles being made and like to watch food being prepared. It shows me what can be done with the grains and things my sister has domain over. It’s..”

  The Kami struggled for the word. “Comforting.” He settled on eventually.

  Mei scooted back some of Jin’s utensils, and he stopped working with so many noodles at a time. If a Kami was there to eat his cooking, he would focus only on that god’s dish.

  Minoru stayed silent as Jin worked the noodles nice and long and slurpable for the Kami. He then hung them on a rack off to the side and then went to work on the tare for the bowl of ramen. The chef chopped garlic and ginger and onion. He even had a bit of chicken skin that he’d rendered down to use the fat.

  “Did you want anything else besides the bowl of ramen, Lord Kami?” Jin looked up while he was chopping.

  Minoru thought it over and then shrugged. “No, but let me try that broth. I’m getting a whiff of something.”

  Jin now looked worried and looked back at the wok of pork broth that was simmering. His broth was his pride and joy. He had put so much time into working and perfecting the recipe. If there was something wrong with it. He even used the last bit of that soy sauce he got from the auction to make it.

  “Of course,” he said at once and gave a little bow.

  Mei stepped up and grabbed the chalkboard they used to write the prices down. She had the tables and chairs and everything set up. It was a bright but chilly day, so she set some umbrellas over the few tables she had and a little stone that would emanate some heat to keep whoever came warm. She looked on, worried, having heard what Minoru had said about Jin’s broth.

  “Oh, that’s right. I must pay you,” Minoru said absently.

  Jin, while grabbing a small bowl and pouring a bit of the broth into it, started to refuse payment. Mei was there in thought as well. Even the woman who was always watching the bottom line couldn’t accept payment from a Kami.

  Minoru simply waved away their objections and dug through his tattered robes. “I have something, wait actually two something.”

  Now their eyes went wide again, and they had started to try to object, but the Kami glared at them in a moment of seriousness, and they instantly stopped. It took him a minute, but eventually he set two things down on the counter in front of Mei.

  First, there was a rather unassuming little scarecrow-looking doll. The second was a bag that was loose and too light to carry coins.

  Mei and Jin looked greedily at the objects, wondering what they could be.

  “First you have a Not Today Talisman,” he said and motioned towards the scarecrow doll.

  The Chens who at first looked greedy with getting not one but two offerings from a god,wind-dried now just looked confused.

  “The what?”

  Minoru smiled at them favorably with their confusion. “It’ll protect you, keep trouble away.”

  “From what?” Jin replied a bit dumbstruck still from the name.

  “Exactly,” Minoru responded with a firm nod of his head as if this told the couple everything they needed to know about the object.

  “Next, you have a sack of wind-dried rice. It’ll act as a sort of calling to my brothers and sisters and may bring you both good fortune,” Minoru explained as he picked up the small bowl with a bit of the broth.

  He took it to where his nose would be and sniffed deeply. The god ignored their confused reactions to both of his blessings. Mortals were so funny sometimes. He explained what both of them did perfectly. The charm would keep bad things away, while the rice would attract the other Kami and more powerful yokai.

  “There is something wrong,” he grumbled.

  Jin looked at the god seriously now. “Something wrong with my broth? Dear Lord Kami, I’m sorry if I offended. If it’s not good enough, please forgive me. It’s the best I know how to make.”

  Minoru glared at Jin once more and then refocused on the broth. “Not exactly with your broth. With something that it was made from. Pork bones, yes? Were the animals you used a little deranged? Crazed? The ones who supplied these bones?”

  Jin looked hopeless, unsure what to say.

  Mei was the one who answered. “We don’t know Lord Kami. We got them from a butcher back in the capital of the region.”

  Minoru nodded his head and then tasted the broth. He instantly spat it out, away from the pair.

  Jin looked like he might die right there on the spot. Mei wilted. They both tried to stammer an apology now.

  “Stop,” Minoru said once more, and the wind picked up all around them, blowing the umbrellas.

  They instantly stopped, and just stood there, scared. Scared of what an angry god might do, who had just been served broth that had turned sour.

  “The problem isn’t with your broth. Not really. Any mortal will love this, I’m sure. The problem is deeper than your broth. Deeper than the parts that made it.”

  Minoru sighed a deep, heavy sigh and then looked up towards the sky once more. It was close to the end of the day, so the sun had already started to descend. He breathed. “Oh, Mother, what are you up to?”

  Jin and Mei’s eyes stared at the god.

  “I must go. Thank you for the hospitality,” Minoru said suddenly before he nodded to the pair and then walked away.

  The last thing the Chens heard from him was the slightest mumble that the winds that walked with him seemed to carry away. “The moon’s shadow is growing longer and longer these days.”

  Patreon

  Which is usually 15ish chapters ahead.

  Discord and start a conversation.