The Jade Dagger of Kunlun

Union

The Mortal Realm

The Mortal Realm trip had been a lot of fun for all of them, though because of Bai Zhis warning, Chang Shan insisted that they all stick together, which meant they all had to assist him with the noodle competition.  

"This has to be a first.  Second Senior is actually allowing us to help him cook." laughed Cheng Bao with his hands in a large vat along with the rest of them.

"Does dough actually feel like this?" Si Yin asked screwing up his face as his hands came away covered in globby flour and feeling very sticky.

"Yes, but don't stop kneading it, we have to get all the air bubbles out." Chang Shan ordered as he turned to the side where others were also kneading their large vats of dough.  He would have done it on his own, but the competition was so stiff, and the vats so big, he had no choice but to have them help him.  

"Keep adding the herbs Ye Hua, a little at a time." he added which saw Ye Hua once again dipping his hand into a nearby bowl that had been filled with the flavourings that Chang Shan had put together using herbs from Kunlun and the rest from the Market Stalls.  Then sprinkling it out as evenly as possible, the three sets of hands continued to push and pull on the stiffening dough until eventually it reached the consistency that he was happy with.

"I'm going to have very manly arms after that workout." Si Yin said laughing which had them all laughing.  The thought of a muscular Si Yin just didn't seem possible, the boy was far too dainty to ever hope for muscles.

"Well be prepared for muscular legs too, because its time for stretching." Chang Shan winked at him, which had them all groaning.  Kneading the dough had been hard enough, but having caught the competition bug, they were soon hauling the dough out of the large vat.  With every set of hands on the dough, they quickly arranged themselves into a line while pulling the dough as they went.

Around them, other teams were also hauling out their dough and it was then that the competition began to heat up.  Laughter and loud heckling could be heard as each team began to stretch out their dough.  A very long stretch of the market place had been cleared so all teams had plenty of room to move.  And though other teams that had plenty of experience in stretching out such a large amount of dough without breaking it, Chang Shan had his team moving slowly while giving out orders as they went.

The heckling at one stage became so loud that it was almost impossible to hear him, but slowly their dough stretched out thinly as they moved forward, leaving a trail of thin dough in their wake while stretching out the rest.

It was tiring and Si Yin was struggling to keep up, but as the heckling grew louder, he realized it was aimed at their team because they were still stretching out their dough while the rest were gathering in their long stretched out noodle for cooking.

"Chang Shan, surely this is long enough." Ye Hua groaned.  They still had a quarter of the dough left to stretch out.

"There is no time limit, so we keep going until it is all stretched out." he replied before pushing them all to keep going.  

By the time they had it all stretched out, the noodle was so long, it took all of their effort to gather it back up without breaking it.  But with lots of encouragement from Chang Shan, and more heckling from the onlookers, their noodle was soon in the pot and cooking even though everyone else had completed theirs.

By the end of it all, Chang Shan finally won his competition.  With a small jade flute to take home as his prize, he promised them all that, for their hard work,  the next meal would be of their choosing, then allowing them each half an hour to do as they pleased, Ye Hua quickly left his group to buy a trinket he had seen while they were creating Chang Shans noodle.  It took him a mere few minutes to haggle down the price, but he got what he wanted and once he had it firmly hidden away in robe, they were all ready to return.