The fragrance of tea wafted over the entire tea mountain. Emerald green tea trees spread layer upon layer along the mountain's contours, stretching as far as the eye could see.
Fujin led Coppelia and Columbina, lightly stepping over the damp ridges of the fields.
"Look, Old Man Li is picking tea over there!" Fujin pointed. Not far away, an old man wearing a worn straw hat was bent among the lush green tea bushes. His callused hands deftly pinched a tender bud, gently plucking it. The plump green bud silently fell into the bamboo basket at his waist, his movements fluid and graceful.
The three approached quietly and saw that all the tea buds in Old Man Li's basket were plump and uniform.
Columbina was drawn to the vibrant green and couldn't help but crouch down, curiously examining the tea tree before her.
Her gaze swept over the tender buds, finally settling on a dark green leaf with fine serrated edges.
The leaf looked quite lively, so she casually plucked it, using her fingertips to gently brush away the water droplets on its surface, and then directly put it into her mouth to chew.
However, as soon as she took the first bite, a strong astringent taste immediately spread through her mouth, followed by a coarse bitterness that rushed to her tongue.
"Ptooey, ptooey..." Columbina suddenly furrowed her brows tightly, hastily standing up and spitting out the chewed leaf fragments. Her tongue felt slightly numb, causing her to let out a low whimper: "Ugh..."
"Which foolish girl..." Old Man Li heard the noise and initially thought it was a mischievous child from the village who had sneaked into the tea field and mistakenly picked an old leaf, making them jump from the bitterness.
He turned around with a smile, about to scold them affectionately as usual, but what came into view was the immortal Fujin and two elegantly dressed, extraordinary-looking foreigners.
Old Man Li quickly put away his casual attitude and changed his words. "This... immortal, you've picked the wrong one. This leaf isn't for eating directly."
Coppelia stepped closer with a smile, reaching out a hand to gently brush away the tiny leaf fragments stuck to Columbina's mouth.
Old Man Li put down his bamboo basket and walked over, carefully holding a few freshly picked tender green buds in his rough hands. He patiently explained:
"Please don't fault her. This old leaf cannot be chewed directly. It has grown on the branch for half a year, enduring wind and sun, absorbing the 'fierce energy' from the ground, and gathering all the astringent flavors from the branches, so it is naturally extremely bitter."
As he spoke, he held a tender bud in front of Columbina. "Smell this. The tender leaf has just sprouted; its nature is the gentlest, and it hasn't gathered that fierce energy yet. Although it's a bit bitter when chewed, it won't sting the mouth. After drying and steeping in water, the bitterness fades, and you can taste the sweet aftertaste, just like the green fruits on the tree, which must wait until they are fully ripe before their sweetness is sufficient."
Columbina leaned in as instructed and indeed smelled a fresh and elegant herbal fragrance, completely different from the unpleasant astringency of the old leaf—much more comfortable.
"But these freshly picked tender buds cannot be steeped directly," Fujin continued, pointing to a few houses in the distance where wisps of green smoke were rising. "People must first pour the buds into a heated iron pan to 'kill the green,' stirring them with their hands until the leaves become soft and turn dark green, then quickly scoop them out to cool. Next is the kneading and rolling, repeatedly rubbing the tea leaves in the palm to extract the tea juice, making it fragrant when brewed. Finally, they spread them out to dry slowly in the sun and breeze, carefully removing the broken stems... After all these processes, it becomes the dry tea we can drink."
Listening to this intricate process and recalling the bitter astringency she had just experienced, Columbina suddenly felt that the seemingly ordinary tender green tea buds in her hand had become extraordinarily precious.
...
In the following days, Fujin, as the host, took Coppelia and Columbina to visit several wonders of Chenyu Vale.
At Mount Xuanlian, the Qianxun Waterfall was like a huge white silk cloth, hanging from the green cliffs, its roar deafening, stirring up mist that shimmered with rainbows in the sunlight.
Fujin pointed to a green stone beneath the waterfall. "When I'm bored, I sit here alone, gazing at the sea of clouds to the south."
At the Red Wall of Chizhang, there were only collapsed and dilapidated ancient stone buildings, overgrown with weeds, silent and desolate.
Fujin's tone became low and respectful. "When our ancestors first migrated from the Chasm to here, they built a towering altar here to communicate with the heavens using beautiful jade. Unfortunately... later, the heavens no longer responded to the people on earth, and this place gradually fell into ruin."
At Mount Linghao, they coincidentally met the immortal Lingyuan leisurely strolling in the mountains. Fujin enthusiastically asked Lingyuan to transform into human form to show the two guests her beauty, but Lingyuan politely declined.
Fujin sighed:
"What a pity... Lingyuan's appearance after transformation is extremely beautiful and moving..."
Finally, they climbed Mount Mingyuan. This was the source of the Bishui River and the residence of the lord served by the three immortals.
Standing at the peak, the view was vast and open. To the north, the distant high seas of Fontaine shimmered; to the south, the rolling peaks of Chenyu Vale were all visible.
Coppelia looked into the distance, her gaze fixed on the southwest. That was the direction of the future "Sea of the Old Days." At this moment, the land of the "Sea of the Old Days" had not yet sunk and was still level with the high seas of Fontaine.
'It seems that the Kingdom of Remuria has not yet sunk into the sea...' Coppelia carefully recalled the research she had read before traveling through time. 'Remus seemed to have left the desert and built a nation on the high seas only after the 'rise and fall of the Throne of Juer.''
'The City of Juer was built only after the death of the Flower God...' Coppelia looked again at the area of the high seas of Fontaine in the southwest, trying to see some traces of civilization, but found nothing.
'Could it be that Remuria hasn't been established yet...'
On the other side, Columbina's attention was drawn to the Qingxin flowers growing on the mountaintop, and she was talking with Fujin.
Fujin introduced:
"This flower absorbs the spiritual essence of heaven and earth and contains no mundane impurities. The disciple of the Lingyun True Lord likes to eat it. This spiritual plant is very compatible with the bloodline of the immortal beast Qilin..."
Before she could finish, she saw Columbina had already casually plucked a few pure white petals and was about to put them directly into her mouth.
"Hey, wait!" Fujin hurriedly stopped her. But it was already too late.
The moment the petals entered her mouth, a bitterness dozens of times more intense than the old tea leaf she had chewed earlier exploded in Columbina's mouth!
The bitterness not only occupied all her taste buds but also rushed straight to the depths of her throat, even causing her abdomen to spasm.
Her entire small face instantly scrunched up, her body uncontrollably trembling violently. She instinctively bent over and retched a few times, tightly covering her mouth with both hands, her throat emitting intermittent whimpers. She stood frozen in place, as if even her breathing had been choked by the extreme bitterness.
Seeing this, Fujin felt both heartache and amusement, quickly stepping forward to gently pat her back, helplessly laughing:
"I should have told you earlier... This Qingxin is sweet as honey for immortal beasts, but for other creatures... it's just bitterness."
___
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