Chapter 9. A warm feeling (mango bubble tea)

Phương smiled as the two ate their bún bò Huế.

Seeing them eating and no longer provoking each other, Phương prepared a bowl for himself and sat at the dining table opposite Long Quang.

Long Quang didn’t raise his head as he ate his noodles.

Phượng Hoàng Vũ’s head didn’t rise either. He ate deliciously and drank deliciously. When he was done, he leaned back, patted his stomach, and burped. “Satisfied! You’re a good human, you’re not scared and you don’t want my tail feathers! Have as much gold as you want!” He directly held out the two sacks to Phương.

The sacks were too full and the material was too poor—one of them ripped and spilled out most of its gold nuggets and gems.

“The fallen gold and gems is more than enough,” Phương said with a smile, waving to his sword to collect them. “Would you like some dessert?”

“Yes!” Phượng Hoàng Vũ said. He finally put the rest of the sacks away into his spatial storage. At that moment, a loud chirping noise came from an ornament hanging off his waist.

Phượng Hoàng Vũ froze. The chirping noise continued.

Long Quang shot him a look. “Well?”

Phượng Hoàng Vũ shook off the sudden shock and picked up the chirping jade ornament. He reddened as he disabled the chirping sound. “My father is calling me home. I can’t stay for dessert.” He deflated sadly.

“I’ll make you some starfruit bubble tea to take away,” Phương said.

“Okay…” Phượng Hoàng Vũ said. “Make that many cups!” He took out several more large gold nuggets which fell with a heavy ‘clunk’ on the kitchen counter.

Phương glanced at the gold nuggets and prepared twenty cups of bubble tea for Phượng Hoàng Vũ, along with a small package of extra candied starfruit and a glass container with some of the dessert.

“I’ll be back for the starfruit cushions and more starfruit desserts!” Phượng Hoàng Vũ promised.

Phượng Hoàng Vũ transformed back into his large phoenix form, chirped at him, and flew away over the ocean.

Long Quang watched for a minute before confirming that the phoenix wouldn’t suddenly return. He drank some bubble tea, feeling annoyed. Why was that phoenix so chatty? And so wealthy?

Phương’s lips twitched in amusement at little Long Quang’s disgruntled expression. “Are there politics between your dragon kingdom and his phoenix clan? I thought you would be friendly with each other.”

“They smell.”

“Have you considered that you might smell to them too…”

Long Quang huffed.

“Do you want dessert, little Long Quang?”

Long Quang pouted. “Why do you even have to ask?”

Phương scooped out a generous serving of dessert for Long Quang and a smaller serving for himself.

Long Quang’s lips parted as he pulled the plate closer to himself. “What is it?”

“Green tea tiramisu, have a taste,” Phương said.

“Ti-la…” Long Quang gave up on pronouncing it and tasted it. His eyes widened and he immediately went back for more.  The slightly bitter green tea flavour, soaked into deliciously sweet biscuits was combined with a sweet soft cream that made him feel like he was eating a delicious cloud!

“How do you come up with such delicious food?” he mumbled. “I think you’re even better than the Imperial chefs!” Long Quang only had the opportunity to eat food made by the Imperial chefs once a year, but this was a lot better!

Phương’s lips curled up. “This isn’t my recipe,” he said. “The human world, well, where I came from, recipes for thousands of dishes were freely available.”

“Freely? How about cultivation manuals? Were those free too?”

Phương mused. Technically self-help articles were about cultivating one-self, right? “Some were.”

“Then…” Long Quang closed his mouth. He forgot, human cultivation manuals wouldn’t work for dragons anyway. And even if Phương had cultivation manuals, they would be for refining artefacts, not combat.

“Did you figure out how to control your ice spheres?”

“Yes…”

Phương raised an eyebrow. “Come on, don’t be shy, show it to big brother.”

“Why do you have to sound so weird?”

Phương laughed. He pointed to his display case. “Look, if you show to big brother, I’ll give you one item from there for free.”

Long Quang gritted his teeth. “Fine.” Getting free things from this human wasn’t easy! He produced a tiny ice sphere with the spiritual link and kept it hovering in the air. “When do you want it to explode?”

Phương examined the sphere-link set up. “Now.”

On command, the spiritual link broke and the sphere exploded.

Phương nodded. “Not bad. You have good potential, have you ever thought about being a weapons refiner?”

“…Potential?” There was a touch of bitterness in Long Quang’s voice.

Phương smiled. “Yes! Potential! Come join me and become one of the best refiners in the world!”

“You’re just a random human,” Long Quang retorted.

Phương raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “Am I? Well, I guess I am retired. But being able to create new techniques is a very special skill. It shows that you have good comprehension about the underlying mechanics.” Phương patted his chest. “You should become a refiner like me. But if you really insist on cultivating by combat, why not develop a new style? Then you’ll become the best in your style!”

This human was just saying this because he knew nothing about dragon cultivators, Long Quang thought. Yet, he couldn’t suppress the anticipatory feeling in his chest. If he could become the founder of a new style…

Long Quang head snapped up and he glared at Phương. “If I’m the only one with my style, then of course I’d be the best because there’s no one else to compare to!”

Phương laughed. “Work hard, little Long Quang.” He stood up and went to the display cabinet. “So, what do you want?”

Long Quang looked over.

“These are cups and straws for bubble tea. These are handmade notebooks—the same kind of notebooks that I use. This is a blender which is indispensable for making fruit smoothies, and these are light orbs.”

Long Quang’s eyes narrowed. Those chubby animal ornaments were actually light orbs?! There was a bird, a bear, a cat, and a little dragon!

Phương suppressed a smile and took out the little chubby dragon and placed it in front of Long Quang. “How about this one?”

Long Quang picked up the chubby dragon. Just like the round light orbs, there was a discreet activation symbol at the base of the dragon. Upon pressing it, the chubby dragon let out a soft glow.

I need to hoard all of them! Long Quang’s instincts activated.

The round light orbs were vastly inferior to dragon pearls. But dragon pearls weren’t in the shape of little dragons!

Long Quang looked at the prices of the other animal-shaped light orbs…and his burning need cooled down. This human was an evil profiteer! There was hardly any spiritual energy in these light orbs!

He turned calmly to Phương and held the dragon ornament close to himself. “I want this one.”

“Have it then,” Phương said. “It’s cute, isn’t it?”

Long Quang turned off the glow and tucked it safely into his spiritual storage. “If I make other moves and show them to you, will you give me something else?”

Phương grinned. “I don’t know, depends if I feel like it,” he teased.

“…Anh Phương.”

Phương laughed, finding Long Quang extremely cute. “Let big brother give you something now.” Phương rummaged through his spatial storage and dropped several jade slips on the table. “These are various cultivation manuals, from methods of combat to refining, alchemy and so forth. I only refine artefacts but I find that a well-rounded knowledge base can be really helpful. As a refiner, I can gather a lot of inspiration and ideas from other cultivation fields.”

Long Quang scowled. “Human cultivation methods aren’t good for dragons. Do you want me to have a cultivation deviation?”

“Little Long Quang, don’t worry, I have devices to help reduce deviations,” Phương boasted. “But if you’re making new moves, it’s clear that you’re not following a traditional method.”

Long Quang couldn’t refute that. Aside from the initial training that he received as a young dragon, a lot of his recent progress was done all by himself. He hadn’t been good enough to attract the attention of any older dragon mentor. He had never seen so many cultivation manuals in front of him before.

His hands wanted to touch them.

Internal Dragon Quang #1: Those are human cultivation manuals! Don’t touch them, what if they’re poisonous!!!

Internal Dragon Quang #2: But what if we could use them to improve our cultivation…and finally become a strong dragon?

Internal Dragon Quang #3: Just get them! They’re free anyway, you don’t have to look at them! Just hoard them!

Internal Dragon Quang #1: …You’re right, if the human profiteer wants to give you things for free, just take them!

With a stiff face, Long Quang gathered the jade slips. “Thank you,” he mumbled.

“Make some new moves for me to see,” Phương said. He gave Long Quang another generous serving of green tea tiramisu.

“And make me more drinks to take away,” Long Quang added. He took out a few spiritual stones. “And snacks.”

“Any particular flavours?”

“Everything you make is delicious.”

Phương chuckled. “You have a sweet mouth.”

Given the ingredients on hand, Phương made several cups of mango bubble tea, starfruit bubble tea, honeydew bubble tea and brown sugar milk tea. He placed the completed takeaway cups of bubble tea in front of Long Quang.

Long Quang hid the drinks away in his storage. “How many types of drinks can you make?” he asked.

Phương mused, “I don’t know. I can make a lot of drinks, but not all of them would be delicious. Imagine if I made fish sauce bubble tea.”

Long Quang looked at him, confused.

“Do you have anyone you want to trick?”

“...With a bad-tasting drink?” Long Quang frowned. “Why?”

“Why indeed,” Phương said. “You’re so innocent.”

“I’m not innocent!”

Phương chuckled. Long Quang’s words only made him look even more innocent and cute!

Long Quang: I’m not innocent!

Phương: ho ho ho, you’re not~?

Long Quang: (,,>﹏<,,) b-baka!

Notes:

Anh: means big/older brother~

Baka: means ‘idiot’ in Japanese, often used by tsundere characters~