An massive line-up of trays filled with all manners of dishes were piled atop several large tables. Baiyun furrowed his eyebrows as divine touch swept over the dishes.

  Repulsive... utterly repulsive!

  Boiled eyeballs, skewered and roasted poison sacs, unidentifiable giant insect organs stewed deeply... all manner of discarded beast parts were used in the dishes.

  The organs were not well cleansed either, still tinged with impurities and even slightly rotten from being left out too long. Even traces of faeces had leaked from beast intestines and cooked deeply into the dishes, along with other impure substances oozing out from unclean bladders, kidneys and livers.

  And with how barbaric the inmates were, they showed little care when filling their plates, using the same tongs and ladle for every dish, carelessly mixing the contents of trays with each other, as well as spilling their food all over the tables and floor.

  So this was what the foul smell stemmed from... A few passing inmates laughed as Baiyun wrinkled his nose in disgust.

  "You can tell what's in the trays?" Gale said awkwardly. "I thought you might have been fine eating if you didn't know..."

  "I do have a nose." Baiyun said.

  "Ah..."

  Tsk. What was that kid even doing being all excited bringing him here? Perhaps dragging him here had been his idea of a prank.

  "Should we return then? The only thing edible here is the porridge..." Gale said awkwardly.

  Baiyun paid no heed and continued examining the dishes. Worse than their contamination, something else bothered him on a far deeper level.

  Without care for the element of the beast, all the organs had been tossed in and jumbled up at random, mixing all 9 elements without cohesion!

  Competent spirit chefs would separate ingredients by each element, only placing flesh of the same element into each dish, ensuring improvement to the diners' cultivation.

  But because of the incompetence of the cooks here, all the essences had reacted with each other poorly. The food was already choked with impurities to begin with, but now they were also filled from toxic compounds from all the negative reactions!

  The more Baiyun thought about it, the more irritated he became. Could this garbage even be called food?

  He never liked spirit chefs to begin with, as he believed all ingredients were better used in alchemy. The servant canteen softened that side of him slightly, but at this rate, his elitist discrimination against innocent cooks would return.

  Baiyun sighed as he took up a tong and an empty bowl. He carefully sensed the putrid trays with divine touch, carefully picking out the best organs he could find, dense in earth qi and useful essences. But if any had soaked up too much filth, he would simply ignore them.

  He filled another bowl with coarse rice porridge, taking 2 other spare bowls as well before turning back in the direction of Stone's table. Gale still stood there hesitantly however.

  "Oh?" an inmate grinned mockingly at Gale. "Your friend from earlier is brave enough to eat. But you're still just a kid, huh?"

  "What... Don't look down on me! I'll eat it!" Gale shouted defensively.

  Baiyun shook his head as laughter from the inmates echoed behind him.

  Soon, the two returned, though Gale had much fuller bowls. He did not take any porridge unlike Baiyun, after being goaded by the other inmates.

  Stone glanced at them as they took their seats, his eyebrows furrowing for the slightest moment as he saw the dishes the two brought back, though he hid his distaste quickly.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "Stone! Why do the dishes here have to be like that?" Gale suddenly burst into tears.

  "Hah... it can't be helped. The sect doesn't care for animals like us, so they'll feed us with worthless scraps from the invading beasts." Stone sighed. "If you want to eat good, you'll have to pay out of your own pocket."

  He held up his half-eaten wheel of stone pastry proudly.

  "You could also make your own dishes. I brought the ingredients, then ground and baked them myself!"

  Baiyun wasn't surprised. There wasn't exactly a huge market for wheels of rock inedible to those without high cultivation. Most Core Shapers didn't eat mortal food to begin with.

  He glanced down at his bowl of organs. It was only filled to the quarter point, as he had been very strict with his selection.

  Any earth organ he picked needed to be relatively clean, with essences that melded well together. Even if bowel filth was harmless to a Qi Gatherer, he adamantly rejected the idea of ingesting any.

  Using a gourd of water from his bag and a spare bowl, he carefully washed off as much of the stew as he could from his selection of meats.

  Stone and Gale watched quizzically as he took out a knife and a cutting board, dissecting the organs and removing the parts filled with impurities or tainted by filth. They were then washed a final time in the 2nd spare bowl.

  Baiyun mixed the cleansed ingredients into the crude porridge and ate slowly. The taste was fine, but it was incomparable to the delectable servant dishes he previously had. Perhaps WanLing saw their inmates as beneath even servants.

  "Blindfold, you really do have some sort of strange sense, huh?" Stone said.

  Baiyun nodded.

  A blind person using sharp hearing was still believable, but being able to cut out specific bits from his food was odd. It was also clear to anyone with cultivation that he had taken only earth-aligned organs.

  But if he had to fight for his life here, how could he afford to hide such abnormalities on the battlefield? There was no point to hiding it if it was just going to be revealed later. Establishing he had such abilities before he stepped onto the battlefield would also be less suspicious than suddenly revealing them mid-crisis.

  "Blindfold..." Gale said lowly. "Then... can you help me clean my dishes?"

  Baiyun felt speechless as the kid stared at him with a pleading gaze. He "glanced" at the giant pile of garbage Gale had been goaded into taking and shook his head.

  "Do it yourself."

  He didn't want to get close to Gale to begin with.

  "But... but..." Gale whined. "Please!"

  Stone sighed and placed a hand on the kid's shoulder, finally stopping him from bothering Baiyun.

  The meal continued in silence.

  As Baiyun ate, he felt the essences from his food beginning to meld and nodded inwardly. In a weird sense, after his careful selection, his porridge had turned into a crude body strengthening elixir.

  Very conspicuous if the spirits were bored enough to examine his bowl closely, but the sect already thought he had the Unparalleled Insight constitution. He preferred if the inmates remained unaware of his faked constitution, but he doubted the spirits would tell them.

  Once he fully absorbed the meal, he estimated his physical strength would be improved by roughly 1%. Minor for now, but it would add up greatly with each passing day. Not that he intended to rely solely on the filthy food here to get stronger.

  Meanwhile, Gale closed his eyes before taking his first bite, only for a look of surprise to come over his face. He seemed to like it more than expected and began eating with gusto. Even then, he had taken so much that he could barely finish it.

  Baiyun felt somewhat sick as he listened to the eating sounds, at the thought of how much intestinal filth the dishes had been laced with. Gale didn't have the air of a young master at all, so perhaps the kid was from a poor family in WanLing, leading to a less refined palate.

  Stone watched in silence, taking out a 2nd wheel to munch on.

  "We'll be heading to the battlefield after this meal." he warned as he chewed. "I'll do my best to keep you safe, so don't do anything reckless."

  Baiyun and Gale nodded. There was a certain reassurance to having a powerful cultivator who was likely a Core Shaper protecting them. But would it really be that easy?

  The deafening bang of a gong suddenly rang through the dining hall, accompanied by the shrill whistle of a flute. It was almost as if it was on-cue.

  "Death soldiers!" Crow's amplified voice boomed from an artefact. "You have 10 minutes left to eat, so finish up quickly!"

  A few disgruntled noises came from the inmates, but they picked up the pace. Some immediately stopped eating, wiping off their mouths and marching off. Empty trays and bowls were left all over the tables.

  The air seemed to lighten subtly as the inmates filed out. But a distant buzz soon followed.

  One by one, flies began to flock into the dining hall, avoiding any inmates still present. Not a single fly was in the room moments ago, but the buzzing grew louder as more and more flooded in.

  Hundreds. Thousands. Millions.

  The dining hall had never been pristine to begin with, but the black masses of buzzing that filled it made it the embodiment of filth. Only the murderous aura of the gathered inmates kept them at bay before, but they now had free reign.

  Stone furrowed his eyebrows. Even with his aura repelling the flies, he quickly dragged Baiyun and Gale away.

  "Ah..." Gale said, his bowl still unfinished.

  The tsunami of flies rushed in and engulfed his food, in such number that the entirety of the table was blotted out. Bowls writhed under masses of black as every last edible speck was devoured.

  Far in the distance, metal clanged as the rows of food trays met the same fate.

  Such density of pestilence... this abnormality was a symptom of death that hung over the borders.

  Baiyun furrowed his eyebrows as he marched onwards.