Under One Person: The Taoist Priest Descends the Mountain

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Cheng Mo took the last piece of braised pork, Xia He grabbed the last piece of fish, and Er Zhuang poured the remaining soup into his own bowl.

All three people put down their chopsticks at the same time.

The plates on the table were spotless, with hardly any soup left.

The mice came over to clear the dishes; some carried plates, some held bowls, and some wiped the table, working together seamlessly.

Erzhuang rubbed his stomach and leaned back in his chair, saying with a pained expression, "I'm still not full."

Cheng Mo nudged Xia He and said to Er Zhuang, "Didn't your sister Xia He want to know how to cook? Er Zhuang, why don't you take her to make a few more dishes and fill up your round little belly a bit more?"

Er Zhuang lowered his head and rubbed his stomach, frowning as he looked at Cheng Mo: "Senior brother is talking nonsense, my stomach is clearly flat."

But the thought of eating good food again immediately cheered her up. She jumped off the chair, grabbed Xia He, and ran towards the kitchen: "Come on, sister!"

In the kitchen, the mice were washing dishes and tidying up. Some were standing by the sink rinsing the plates, while others were squatting on the stove wiping the countertop.

Erzhuang ran inside and started rummaging through the ingredients, finding a piece of pork, a few green peppers, a bunch of greens, and two scallions, which he piled up next to the automatic food processor.

She fed the ingredients into the food processor one by one, explaining to Xia He as she did so, "Sister, look, this is how I cook, and it's so delicious!"

Xia He leaned closer to look: "What is this? How do you use it?"

After stuffing the ingredients in, Erzhuang opened the lid to check the seasoning box, making sure there was enough salt, sugar, soy sauce, etc. He then closed the lid, placed his hand on the food processor, and slowly channeled his Qi into it.

"This is called an automatic food processor. My martial uncle said it was made by my senior brother," she explained while channeling her Qi.

Xia He was taken aback: "When did your senior brother make this? How come I didn't know?"

Erzhuang shook his head: "I don't know either."

She tilted her head and thought for a moment: "Besides, I feel that this is not very automatic. Like my rice cooker at home, you just put the rice and water in, plug it in, and press the switch. This one has to keep supplying it with energy."

Xia He suddenly remembered—it must have been back in Fengtian, when Cheng Mo went to see his martial uncle alone. She was shopping with Gao Dazhuang at the time.

She glanced at Er Zhuang's earnest little face as he channeled his Qi, and said with a smile, "Later we'll give your senior brother a suggestion so he can improve it. Even Village Chief Ma can create a fully automatic 'Ru Hua' (a type of food), but he can't even figure out a fully automatic food preparation machine."

Erzhuang asked curiously, "Who is Village Chief Ma?"

"The person who taught your senior brother how to make this kind of thing."

"Wow—" Erzhuang's eyes lit up. "He's amazing!"

"He's really impressive." Xia He nodded. "He's created a lot of powerful magical artifacts."

At this point, looking at the still-busy mice, she suddenly had another idea: "That's it! We can have your senior brother make another fully automatic dishwasher! After eating, just put the dishes in, and it will wash them clean by itself. How convenient!"

Erzhuang slapped his free hand on the table: "This is great! This is great! It'll be much easier for me to wash the dishes now!"

Xia He chuckled inwardly—her senior uncle seemed to dote on Er Zhuang, but when it came to getting her to do chores, he never missed a single one.

Ding--

The food processing machine has stopped.

Erzhuang opened the small drawer below and took out the dishes one by one—stir-fried green peppers with pork, stir-fried bok choy, and a bowl of scallion and egg soup.

She turned to Xia He and asked, "Sister, are you still eating?"

Xia He glanced into the food processor—it was spotless, without a trace of oil, just like new.

She picked up a pair of chopsticks: "Let's use them together, we won't give them to your senior brothers and uncles."

Erzhuang's eyes crinkled with laughter: "Okay!"

The two of them stood by the stove, taking turns eating with their chopsticks.

The mice had already washed all the bowls and chopsticks clean and neatly arranged them on the shelf. Several mice squatted beside them, staring at them with their beady eyes.

Erzhuang waved to them, "You guys go play, I'll wash the rest myself."

The mice squeaked twice and ran out of the kitchen.

Xia He and Er Zhuang finished all the food and soup, and then stood by the sink to wash the dishes.

After washing up, Xia He carried the food processor to the table, patted it, and looked at Cheng Mo: "Little Taoist, this isn't smart at all. Even the 'Ru Hua' food made by Village Chief Ma can run on its own, but your food processor has to constantly supply Qi. Aren't you tired?"

Cheng Mo sat on the rock and raised an eyebrow: "Old Ma made a Divine Core to store Qi, but I didn't make one of those things."

"Can't you do it?"

"I really can't."

Xia He was completely bewildered: "???"

Cheng Mo shrugged: "Back then, I didn't have any Qi sense, so I thought you would be my humanoid driver. Since you're the one who has to channel Qi, why should I bother researching something I can't use?"

Xia He was silent for two seconds: "...So you didn't even think about making things easier for me?"

Cheng Mo said with a serious face: "Only by using Qi frequently can you control your Qi more flexibly and increase your Qi quantity."

Cheng Huihui nodded in agreement: "Indeed, there are many benefits to frequently using one's own Qi."

Before Xia He could even feel happy, Cheng Huihui abruptly changed the subject: "But—"

Before Xia He could even feel happy, Cheng Huihui abruptly changed the subject: "But—"

He stroked his beard and said slowly, "Weapon crafting is meant to make things easier for the user, which is inherently a lazy approach. To emphasize training while being lazy is just incongruous. So—"

He looked at Cheng Mo: "Xiao Mo, you should study that so-called Divine Core and make it as soon as possible."

Cheng Mo nodded: "I do have this plan. These everyday magical artifacts don't use much Qi in a day, so their training effect is limited."

He counted on his fingers: "The Divine Core is still better. As long as we make more, we can continuously recharge the Divine Core. This way, we can ensure that our daily Qi usage reaches wartime levels, accelerating the improvement of these little guys' Qi and control."

Erzhuang was laughing heartily on the side, thinking that he could be even lazier in the future, completely unaware of his senior's "sinister intentions".

Xia He understood, and glanced at Er Zhuang with a smile, but didn't say anything.

"That's more like it. There's one more thing—" She patted Cheng Mo on the shoulder, "You've already made an automatic food processor, why don't you get a dishwasher? Washing dishes is such a time-consuming and laborious process."

Cheng Mo asked, puzzled, "How much effort can washing dishes take?"

Cooking requires washing and preparing vegetables before cooking, and it's normal for the whole process to take one or two hours.

Washing dishes and wiping the table takes at most half an hour, and most of the time it only takes ten minutes.

How much effort can it take?

Xia He put her hands on her hips: "Isn't all this just to save time and effort? If the dishwasher is too much trouble, just get a Ru Hua and let Ru Hua do all these things."

Cheng Mo thought for a moment and said, "Well... I think Ru Hua is more troublesome."

A comprehensive humanoid robot and an automated mechanical device focused on a single function are not on the same level of complexity.

The same applies to weapon crafting. Ru Hua's body and limbs must be made into modular components and individually tuned. After they are combined, they must be integrated and tuned. It is possible that some performance of individual components will have to be sacrificed to match the integrated tuning.

"Let's put the dishwasher thing aside for now," Cheng Mo waved his hand. "We'll talk about it when we get back to Liangyi Temple. Anyway, there are plenty of rats here with my uncle, so washing dishes together won't take much time."

Cheng Huihui nodded, "I don't need to arrange a dishwasher here. Newly awakened mice need to do more similar activities. They are very skilled at using Qi, but it is more challenging for them to use their paws flexibly to do these daily activities."

"Yes, yes, it's up to you, Master Uncle." Xia He nodded obediently.

Er Zhuang's expectant heart sank to the ground with a thud.

I thought I could finally slack off.