I Can Give Talent

Chapter 24 – Stone

Two days later.

Tal and Tasya finished their preparation. In order to not attract the townspeople's attention, Tasya asked Tal to piggyback her during their shopping. However, it still made them suspicious of where they got the money. However, it was still better than being bombarded with questions if they knew she was completely healed.

In the Flowing Inn, Leyvi and the group were having breakfast. They were enjoying different fillings of steamed buns. Tal and Tasya were also enjoying the steamed buns. They were wearing new outfits that they bought yesterday. 

Lilian was inspecting the kids with curiosity. The last time she saw these kids, they were tattered and their bodies were not in good condition. But now she could sense that they were already able to absorb spiritual energy steadily.

She looked at Leyvi as she wondered what happened that night, but she suddenly blushed. She kept remembering the sound of Leyvi and Anda when they were having a great battle next door. She had to isolate herself with a sound barrier to prevent herself from getting distracted.

"Master, where are we traveling to?" Tal suddenly breaks the silence.

"Ah, we are going to the Bara Volcano, Anda needed to find something over there. Don't worry, we will rent a place for you kids to cultivate while we are out." Leyvi explained.

Suddenly, a small monkey appeared. It was Stripey. He had been wandering the town these two days but there was not much he could do. The town was relatively peaceful with the worst thing happening was just some starving people stealing food. Most people have been helping each other since the disaster.

"This is Stripey, my spirit beast." Leyvi introduced Stripey to the kids.

"Stripey, this is Tal and Tasya. Mine and Anda's disciple." He continued.

"He is cute!" Tasya picked up Stripey and praised him.

"Um, I'm not cute! I'm a handsome monkey!" Stripey talked to her in monkey language, disagreeing with her. While everyone didn't understand what he said like always, Leyvi did. He can understand what Stripey is saying without using their mental connection. 

Now he confirmed that the Universal Language enables him to talk with animals. Leyvi wondered what kind of other effect it has. Could he read and understand ancient texts? Other civilizations? Holy! This benefit is quite useful. Maybe he could be a historian or translator in the future. Leyvi, the Humanity Coolest Translator. Leyvi's mind drifted again.

"Stripey said he's not cute, he's handsome." Leyvi translated it to Tasya. With this, Leyvi started his journey to become a translator.

"Ah, I'm sorry. What a handsome monkey!" Tasya immediately corrected. 

"Um..boss you can understand me now?" Stripey looked at Leyvi and asked in monkey language. He was quite surprised. No, he should not be surprised because he had seen the boss climbing trees like monkeys before. The boss should have a monkey bloodline.

Leyvi just nodded to his question.

"All right, everyone is done eating, so let's go!" said Leyvi as he stood.

---

Leyvi and the group were already out of the town. They traveled by walking alongside the river going upstream. 

Tal and Tasya were still watching the town behind them becoming smaller and smaller while walking. They have been there their entire life so it was a bit sad leaving it.

"Don't worry, one day you can come back here again. Once both of you are strong enough, flying to here will be a piece of cake." Leyvi tried to comfort the kids.

"Then master, why do you walk?" Tal was curious. He now knew that cultivators were not immortals and there were a lot of cultivation stages dividing them. But his master should be able to fly at his level.

"We decided to walk and slowly enjoy the journey. What's the fun of flying all the time? Look at those stupid birds flying up there. They always run into you while flying." Leyvi explained and added some jokes.

"I prefer walking too." Tasya expressed her opinion. She has been disabled for 2 years, so now she just wants to enjoy as much walking as possible.

Leyvi and the group continue going upstream. They stopped more frequently because Tal and Tasya needed to rest. They haven't become a cultivator after all. While they were resting, Tal and Tanya would use this time to absorb the spiritual energy and guide it to their dantian.

During the night, they would be camping near the river. Leyvi instructed Tasya to cook the demonic beast's meat for everyone. 

"Master's husband, I don't know how to cook." She couldn't even stand up for two years, how could she learn to cook previously?

"Stop calling me master's husband next time. It sounds so awkward, just call me Brother Leyvi. It sounds better. I'm still young anyway. Don't worry, your master will teach you how to cook, just follow her instructions. It's not that hard, even a panda can cook." Leyvi joked a bit but he was immediately attacked by a meat twister.

Afterward, Anda left with Tasya. Leyvi called Tal to his tent. 

"Let's play a game of Chess! You have the chess set right?" Leyvi intended to see how his chess talent works.

Tal quickly set up the chess board and started playing a game with Leyvi. After a few moves, Tal started looking at Leyvi confusedly. What was this weird voice in his head? Is it master? Ultimate Dao Chess Engine? What is that?

When Tal looked at the chessboard, he would see numbers all over the board. There are positive and negative numbers when he thought of moving a piece. When he moves a piece according to the positive numbers, he would gain advantages against Leyvi. Conversely, when he moves a piece to a negative number, he will soon be at a disadvantage. This intrigues Tal.

After he lost the first game to Leyvi, he immediately asked for a rematch. Leyvi smiled and agreed. 

This time, Tal decided to move the pieces only to the positive numbers. Soon he found out that the bigger the numbers, the bigger his advantages from the move. Layvi lost the game to Tal easily.

Leyvi and Tal would play another ten games and in the last game, Tal decided not to use the Ultimate Dao Chess Engine. He played his usual style of aggressively attacking using the Queen against Leyvi. In the end, he resigned. His Queen's sacrifice was not enough to bring a real advantage to his attack.

"Alright, let's go and eat. They should be done." From the games with Tal, he deduced that the talent that he gave Tal could somehow guide or show him the most precise move that could be made. Even in a game where he made no mistakes, he would be crushed easily. Leyvi wondered if Chess could be useful in the path of cultivation.

Lilian and Stripey were also back from a little bit of exploring the nearby area. Since her space bag was full of treasure soil, Leyvi gave her another space bag to use. It was the space bag gotten from the bandit. She brought Stripey to collect some beautiful river stones, more soil, and a bunch of fruits and seeds that she could plant later.

Anda approached Leyvi and sent a sound transmission to him. "It seemed like Tasya had an ability similar to my Alchemy Vision. I just taught her some basic cooking skills and when she did it, she quickly was able to improvise every step."

Leyvi nodded and then told her about Tal's ability. It was a pity that both of their talents wouldn't be able to help them much in cultivation.

 After everyone gathered, they began to eat the food prepared by Tasya. There are roasted demonic beast meat, rice, and simple vegetable stew.

To everyone's surprise, except for Leyvi and Anda, all the food tastes so good that they keep praising it. Even the rice tastes better than usual. How was this possible? It was better than the food they ate in Flowing Inn. Tasya kept blushing when everyone praised her cooking especially when Tal complimented her.

She was also confused. When she was cooking, she could see what she should do in detail. She could see which part to include, and which part to leave out. The amount of water needed, how much heat to use, every detail. Even without proper seasonings, the way the ingredients were prepared could bring out its own exquisite flavor.

The Recipe of All Things. 

It was something a mysterious voice told her when she started cooking. She felt goosebumps when she heard it. What do you mean by that? All thing? She can cook anything? No, there's no way she can cook a stone and eat it right? No! if Tal saw her cook a stone, he would think that she was a weird girl!

"Miss Lilian, what were you doing around the area previously?" Although Leyvi knew what was going on from his 24/7 spiritual sense, he still asked to start a conversation with her.

Lilian then showed all the things she collected for her garden to Leyvi and explained what she would do with them via sound transmission.

"Oh..what a nice-looking stone. It's heart-shaped." Leyvi was trying to flirt.

"No... Tal! I won't cook a stone! I'm not weird!" Tasya suddenly screamed when she heard someone say stone.

Everyone: "???????"