Duncan's head felt groggy as he blinked while laying in the rubble.
Luckily, Foodie Chen hadn't punched him using any qi. The punch Foodie Chen had thrown him was a pure physical punch. Even then, Duncan's head was a little addled due to that.
The wine he had drunk was only now just taking effect. Combined with the punch, Duncan felt as if the whole world was rotating non-stop in his head. The feeling almost made him puke out. But, Duncan gritted his teeth and endured it not willing to let go of any wine he had drunk.
He sat up slowly and cleared his head a bit and looked over. He saw the man who was sitting in front of him glaring at him angrily. But, Duncan couldn't help but be bewildered seeing his actions.
While the man was indeed glaring at him, his hand was busy stuffing his face as well. The sight was so bizarre that Duncan almost felt like laughing out loud. But, a small part of his sanity prevailed and he only looked at the man curiously.
"Senior Brother, is this any way to greet your junior? Can't you be magnanimous and excuse this junior," Duncan asked with a bright and shameless smile as he hugged the wine pot.
The man's eyes narrowed and his gaze fell on the wine pot Duncan was hugging.
"I don't share food," the man growled out in reply.
Seeing him stuffing his face still, Duncan actually believed the man. But, this was the first wine he had got his hands on after three long weeks. There was no way he was going to give up on it so easily.
"Senior Brother, don't be angry. Haven't you heard that sharing is caring? Think of this wine pot as your greeting gift to your junior brother," Duncan said shamelessly causing the man's eyes to twitch uncontrollably in anger.
"You shameless bastard, not only did you steal my wine, you now want me to give you the whole pot as a gift, huh? How despicable! I have never seen a shameless person like you," the man roared as he finally stopped stuffing his face.
"Come on, Senior Brother. If you don't want to give this as a gift, then consider this as compensation?" Duncan said cheekily as he stood up staggeringly.
"Compensation? What compensation? Why do I need to give you that? That punch was your punishment for stealing my wine!!!" the man said agitatedly and started walking towards Duncan angrily.
"Ahem… Senior Brother, you actually ate my food as well," Duncan said sheepishly looking behind the man.
Foodie Chen froze in his place and turned to look at Duncan's plate as well. The moment he saw the plate, he knew he had been tricked. When he turned around, he couldn't find Duncan as he expected. Looking into the distance, he saw Duncan speedily making his getaway.
"You shameless bastard!!! You dare steal my food and run away! I will find you and beat you to a pulp," Foodie Chen roared in anger and gave chase.
The disciples standing around to watch the commotion winced in sympathy. Even they had been fooled by this junior brother's shameless lie. Actually, it wasn't their fault either.
It was a common occurrence to see Foodie Chen stuffing his face when he was angry. And when Foodie Chen was angry, his hands would automatically start to stuff his face not minding where the food was coming from.
So, in the throes of his anger, Foodie Chen has stuffed other people's food into his mouth many times. So, it was only natural for both them and Foodie Chen to be deceived by such a base lie.
Also, no one expected the junior to be that shameless.
It didn't take long for Foodie Chen to actually catch up to Duncan. After all, the difference between their realms was too huge. Within a few minutes, Foodie Chen reached Duncan and sent him crashing down with a vicious kick to Duncan's behind.
Duncan was sent flying and wine pot also escaped his grasp and flew into the air. Foodie Chen jumped high into the air and caught hold of the wine pot, not paying much attention to Duncan.
The moment he caught the wine pot, Foodie Chen's expression stiffened further. From the weight of the pot in his hands, it looked as if Duncan had already consumed half of the wine in the pot while running away from him.
Duncan knew that he had no chance of outrunning this senior brother. So, the only reason he ran away was to give him enough time to drink some more wine. As for the consequences, Duncan wasn't in the right mind to care about them.
He only cared about drinking the wine. And the more he tasted the wine, the more intoxicated he became. So, his actions became even more unruly and he started to guzzle it down with abandon. Thus, when Foodie Chen caught up, there was only half a pot left.
"You despicable bastard!!! How can you be so shameless?!!!" Foodie Chen raged seeing only half a pot of wine remaining. "You actually drank while running!!! What if you wasted this wine?"
"Hic… Hic… No wine got was… hic… ted," Duncan said drunkenly as he lay on the floor.
"You!!!"
Foodie Chen was really angry when he saw Duncan sprawled out on the floor drunkenly.
For the first time in his life, he felt at a loss on what to do with this person before him. He didn't know how to react. As much as he wanted to beat up this junior brother, he was also reluctant to beat him up while he was drunk like this.
As a foodie himself, Foodie Chen always respected every kind of food or drink. He felt that beating up a drunken person would be like someone picking on him while he was in a food coma. He absolutely despised it happening to him. So, he didn't want to be the person doing it.
Moreover, the wine in his pot was truly potent.
This wine was called Jade Jasmine Wine. It was potent enough to even send him into a stupor. Not to mention this little junior brother who was only at the middle level of the Qi Gathering realm.
While he was running, Duncan hadn't paid much attention to the potency of the wine. His entire mind was concentrated on drinking as much as possible before this senior brother caught up. So, he hadn't taken time to savor it and explore its taste.
As a result, when the potency truly burst forth, he was almost on the verge of passing out from drinking. Apart from the one time he had drunk in the Grasslands while escaping from the wild beasts, Duncan had never tasted cultivator wines.
And Jade Jasmine Wine was not some low-quality wine like the one Wang Clan had given to him. As a glutton, Foodie Chen only went after the very best item that could be available to him. Hence, the potency of the wine was not something Duncan could contend with despite how much of an experienced drinker he was.
So, it was only natural that Duncan passed out after drinking such a potent wine.
Foodie Chen felt his heart bleeding when he looked at the passed-out Duncan. This was the first time he had suffered a loss when it came to food-related issues after he stepped foot inside Heavenly Demon Sect. Duncan's peaceful snores almost made him discard his principles and beat up Duncan then and there.
"He he he… When have I, Chen Wangjie, suffered such a loss? Junior Brother, I will let you sleep for now. When you wake up I will show you why no one messes with me when it comes to food," Foodie Chen grit his teeth angrily.
With a whoosh, he picked up Duncan and left the place.
*****
Duncan had a peaceful sleep with the aid of the wine.
He hadn't slept properly ever since he was thrown into the cave. While cultivators at the higher realm can forego sleep and use meditation in its place, his body hasn't strengthened to that level yet.
Moreover, Duncan had been wound up tightly for the past week. Constant battles, hunting, and evading cannibals in the cave had taken their mental toll on them. Even though Duncan looked energetic on the outside, he was actually exhausted mentally and physically from his ordeals in the cave. Especially, the last few days have been really tough on him both physically and mentally.
So, drinking the Jade Jasmine Wine provided him the much-needed relaxation. Moreover, Jade Jasmine Wine wasn't some ordinary wine. It was made with countless valuable herbs and had a mystical quality to it. The spirit energy within it was really abundant.
As Duncan slept peacefully, a lot of changes were happening in his body. With the aid of the spirit energy in the wine, Duncan's regenerative system automatically started healing his body while he slept. Even before drinking the wine, Duncan's vitality was top-notch among the people at the same level. After drinking the wine, with its aid, Duncan's body quickly repaired itself.
That wasn't the only change that happened in Duncan's body. Duncan's foundation was really shaky. He had broken through four levels of the Qi Condensation realm within a single week.
Even though it was only the Qi Gathering realm, and one can break through it as long as they accumulated enough qi strands, the rate of Duncan's progress was a bit too fast. So, it was only natural that the foundation wasn't properly established.
Furthermore, demonic cultivation techniques were not known for their stability. While they gave immense power and allowed people to progress easily at the earlier stages, they left a shaky foundation in their wake. This only became apparent when one progressed further in their cultivation.
That was the reason that there were always several powerful demonic cultivators in the lower and medium levels of cultivation realms. But, when it came to higher levels the number of demonic cultivators would never match the orthodox path.
While those who reached the higher levels were powerful compared to normal cultivators at the same stage, they would never be able to match up with peerless geniuses of the righteous path as well. This left a void at the apex for a truly demonic cultivator.
This was the reason for the righteous path always having an edge over the demonic path.
Those demonic cultivators who actually reached the later stages of Golden Core will always take a long time to stabilize their foundation before trying to break into the Nascent Soul stage. It was one of the major things that held back demonic cultivators from truly flourishing.
As Duncan slept, the abundant spiritual energy from the wine started cleaning the foundation of his cultivation and patching up the drawbacks in it as well. As a result, Duncan's foundation became truly stable.
This whole thing made Duncan who was in deep sleep feel completely relaxed and light.
*****
A/N: Hey folks!
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You can also check out my other book [Booking Glory] and see if it is to your liking.
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