Chapter 156: Dismissing Liu Chengping

Yu Yan dived to the bottom of the lake and retrieved over thirty experimental mirage pearls.

She also found a small section of a mirage dragon's skeleton and an incomplete mirage dragon scale, both of which she had used in her previous experiments.

Bursting out of the water, she cast a final glance at the cavern that had brought her countless harvests, and without hesitation, she made her way back up the cliff along the cavern passage. Then, amid the sound of rushing seawater pouring out, Yu Yan emptied the debris from six to seven hundred mirage pearls one by one.

Aside from seawater, most of the contents were devoid of any spiritual energy.

If there had been anything with spiritual energy, the mirage worms would have long since eaten it as food.

This at least spared Yu Yan the trouble of rummaging through a pile of garbage to search for any potential treasures.

As for why she didn't do this inside the cavern?

Although the cavern was large, there was very little space left between the water's surface and the cavern ceiling. Moreover, Yu Yan had previously cleaned out over a hundred mirage pearls to store spiritual beast blood and carcasses. Once the debris and seawater from those hundred-plus pearls were emptied, they would have almost entirely filled the cavern space!

Even if she had wanted to continue dumping "garbage" inside the cavern, there simply was no room left for her to do so.

If the Grade-D dungeon "Terrifying Mirage Sea" had any miraculous features, it probably lay precisely within this cavern space.

Now that the interior of the cavern was almost completely destroyed, "Terrifying Mirage Sea" no longer differed much from any other Grade-D dungeon for Yu Yan.

Yu Yan exited the dungeon and, seeing that it was already late, headed straight back home.

Chen Biqin had been busy crafting spiritual beast leather armor lately and could not spare the time to cook. At first, household meals were assigned to Zhang Zhenye, but Zhang Zhenye clearly lacked any talent for cooking, and what he made was, at best, barely edible.

Eventually, they hired a cook from among the villagers with a "generous salary" of ten unranked spiritual beast meat portions a month.

The cook was named Liu Chengping, and he was said to have been a chef in the past.

Yu Yan did not mind this. She had him cook a trial meal, and finding it quite tasty, she kept him on.

He would come over three times a day to cook and leave right after finishing.

When Yu Yan stepped through the door, Liu Chengping had just finished preparing seven dishes and one soup, washed his hands, and was heading out.

"Chef Liu, wait a moment."

Yu Yan frowned, stretched her right foot out over the threshold, and blocked Liu Chengping's path.

"Wh-what is it?"

Liu Chengping's expression flashed with panic before he quickly steadied himself.

Wasn't it normal for a cook to be stained with the scent of ingredients? He had merely pocketed a small piece of spiritual beast meat used for cooking, and not even the highest-grade one among the ingredients at that. There was no way Yu Yan could have found out.

Besides, the spot where he hid it was so well concealed!

Yes, that must be it; he mustn't scare himself.

"What is that stuffed in your crotch?"

"Don't tell me you have a habit of hiding your household's spiritual beast meat in your pants."

Yu Yan's voice was flat.

Cold sweat instantly poured down Liu Chengping's face. "I... I, that was Grade-1 spiritual beast meat my son hunted and brought back from the dungeon last time. I couldn't bear to eat it myself, so..."

"So you hid it in your crotch?"

Yu Yan was almost amused. "I recall your son is called Liu Zhengqing, and the 25th Hunting Squad he belongs to has only entered two dungeons recently: the Grade-E dungeon 'Black Wood Cliff' and the Grade-F dungeon 'Qingming Water Stream'."

"I haven't heard of any Earth Bears appearing in those two dungeons. Could it be that I remembered incorrectly?"

Earth Bears came from the Grade-D dungeon "Bloodthirsty Cave."

Although they were only Grade-1, they roamed in packs, and with bodies as sturdy as oxen, they were extremely troublesome to deal with.

During this period, the special assault team led by Lou Yuhui and the youth team led by Yun Duo'er went there whenever they had free time to train their coordination of supernatural powers.

Along the way, they brought back quite a lot of Earth Bear meat.

Earth Bear meat, especially Earth Bear paws, tasted absolutely divine whether stewed or braised.

Naturally, it had become a regular fixture on Yu Yan's family dining table!

"...R-right, right, right, I'm sorry!"

Unable to withstand the immense pressure, Liu Chengping collapsed to his knees.

"This is my first time! I hope the Sovereign will be magnanimous and forgive me this once! I promise I will never do it again."

As he spoke, he hastily fished out the piece of Earth Bear meat and held it out toward Yu Yan.

With an expression of disgust, Yu Yan kicked it away. "Take your Earth Bear meat and get lost. Don't come to my house to cook ever again."

What on earth?

Pulling something out from one's crotch—who was he trying to disgust?

"Please don't do this, Sovereign!"

Liu Chengping wailed miserably. Ten unranked spiritual beast meat portions a month was a very decent income for someone like him who didn't dare enter dungeons. Even though his son was in the hunting squad, the spiritual beast meat Liu Zhengqing received was mostly consumed by himself.

Competition in the hunting squad was fierce, and Liu Zhengqing was a young man with strong opinions and ideas.

In order to enhance his own supernatural powers, he wished he could hunt down even more spiritual beast meat from elsewhere, so how could he bear to let Liu Chengping waste it?

As a result, after a whole month, Liu Chengping couldn't even get his hands on two portions of spiritual beast meat.

It wasn't until he came to cook at Yu Yan's house that he could occasionally indulge his cravings every few days.

Having tasted the alluring flavor of spiritual beast meat, the thought of returning to the days when he couldn't eat meat made Liu Chengping shudder just imagining it!

"If you say another word of nonsense,"

Yu Yan walked into the house unconcernedly, "your son won't have to stay in the hunting squad anymore."

Liu Chengping...

He glared with resentment as Yu Yan sat down to eat, her demeanor as indifferent as if firing him was nothing more than swatting away a fly.

And she was eating the very meal he had worked so hard to cook!

He desperately wanted to rush inside and argue with Yu Yan—on what grounds was she firing him just like that? Then, thinking of Yu Yan's previous words, the image of his son's furious face flashed through his mind—if his son lost his place in the hunting squad because of him, his son would definitely make him pay when he got home!

In the end, Liu Chengping didn't dare make a scene and left, looking back with every step he took.

Of course, before leaving, he didn't forget to pick up the piece of Earth Bear meat that Yu Yan had kicked away.

Yu Yan maintained a placid expression and continued eating her meal.

No one else at the table dared to speak.

"Mom, you all don't need to deliberately wait for me to come home for meals in the future."

"Eat first whenever you're hungry; my return time isn't fixed, just keep a portion warm for me in the pot will do. Besides, I don't care who you find to cook at home, but at least exercise a little caution and don't bring this kind of person into the house."

Yu Yan wasn't completely opposed to petty corruption and embezzlement.

Clear water breeds no fish, and her household wasn't short of this little bit of spiritual beast meat.

If Liu Chengping hadn't pulled such a stunt, Yu Yan might even have rewarded him with a few extra portions of spiritual beast meat by the end of the month.

What Yu Yan could not accept was that this fellow had actually hidden the Earth Bear meat in that place!

Heaven knew how many times he had done something similar.

The mere thought that the several consecutive meals of Earth Bear meat she had recently eaten were prepared by hands that had reached into such a place almost made Yu Yan retch.

Moreover, this Liu Chengping was not respectful to her in daily life.

Despite calling her "Sovereign" so glibly just now, before he was caught today, he had never once addressed her by that title. Whenever he bumped into her by accident, he would follow her mother's lead and call her "Yan'er," taking verbal liberties with her both overtly and covertly.

Part of the reason Yu Yan had tolerated him was for Chen Biqin's sake.

Another part was that she felt such trivial matters weren't worth making a mountain out of a molehill, so she hadn't confronted him until now.

"Well, Yan'er, these spiritual rice peanuts were fried by me this morning, not made by that Uncle Liu... oh no, not by that scoundrel Liu Chengping. At least eat a few, don't just drink water." Chen Biqin wrung her hands, not daring to meet Yu Yan's unsightly expression.

She pushed over a plate of small, granular fried treats...