Fang Yuan didn't bat an eyelid at the hidden intention behind the remark.
"That fight feels like many years ago," Fang Yuan remarked. "Even though just a few weeks have passed..."
Shang Qing Qing couldn't help but feel inwardly that it did feel like it had just happened - and yet he was somehow Rank 6!
Part of the reason she had even bothered to meet up with him was curiosity as to how he had achieved such a feat.
"Indeed, well," Shang Qing Qing said before glancing at her cup. The tea was nearly transparent, clear as water with a small specks of something resembling tea leaves within.
It reminded her of her youth - of playing on the beach near the sandy shores and watching seawater trickle through her fingers whenever she tried to pick it up in a futile effort to cup it in her hands.
"This tea is exceptionally clear," Shang Qing Qing noted. "It reminds me of the sea... ahaha, Junior Brother, this isn't seawater, now then is it?"
"It isn't seawater, of course," Fang Yuan said. "Do you think I would be so shameless as to serve someone a cup of seawater and call it tea?"
"Of course not, I simply jest," Shang Qing Qing said. "I have simply never seen a tea quite like this..."
"That is because it is one of my own creations," Fang Yuan explained.
Tea ceremonies were a common way for Immortals to gauge one another's strength in an indirect manner, particularly among the Righteous Path.
It was quite similar to the way that wearing fancy clothes was a way of showing off one's power and influence among mortals.
Making first-class tea was an arduous effort that involved various aspects.
One was the availability of materials - whether Immortal or mortal materials were used in its preparation would greatly affect its quality. Fang Yuan had used only mortal materials, and yet, he was still confident in it.
Shang Qing Qing took a sip and immediately felt refreshed. The tea was cold but not too cold, but more than the soothing effect it had on her throat was the soothing effect she quickly felt in her mind.
Tranquility blossomed throughout her head. She was reminded of former times back when she was a young girl, being brought up in her father's aperture and being treated like a princess. Back before the cruel, harsh reality of the world began to set upon her.
She turned her head to see the stillness of the prairie, completely at peace. Any annoyance or reservations she would've had with the tea had now vanished.
She took another tiny sip and felt the same effect once more.
It had not been a fluke!
"This is excellent," Shang Qing Qing said, savoring the feeling of the tea. She began to see Fang Yuan in a new light now - there was no way that she could prepare tea of this grade even if she so desired. But no matter how jealous she felt inwardly, the feeling did not greatly affect her simply because of the tea's effect! "I would say your skill is better than some Rank 7 Immortals when it comes to making tea."
This wasn't empty praise. She had tasted the tea of some of the higher-ups of the clan and she could count on one hand what she had tried that had tasted this good or felt as refreshing.
She continued to sip on it, with the hours trickling by but feeling like seconds until nearly half of it was finished.
Although she could tell that Fang Yuan only used mortal ingredients, the taste was exquisite.
"How are you able to achieve such an effect?" she asked. If Fang Yuan could do this using only mortal materials, imagine if he had been given Immortal materials to work with? It might be worth inducting him in the Shang Clan as an external elder simply for his ability to make high-quality tea!
She remembered being embarrassed by one of the Wu Clan Gu Immortals at a prior tea ceremony.
Displaying one's skill in making tea was important not only for oneself, but for one's clan as well. And yet, she had fallen far below the mark, and still remembered the backhanded taunts and reassurances she got when they had drunk what she had made.
"Ah, Qing'er, don't worry, not everyone can get it right on the first try..."
"...indeed, this is pretty good... for a novice that is..."
The worst part was that she knew that her brew wasn't up to standards! And yet she couldn't help but feel angry whenever she remembered that incident.
How much would she like to pay that insult back...
The tea she had tasted then was indeed better than what Fang Yuan had given her, but only marginally so, and had used Immortal materials. She was sure that Fang Yuan, with his current skillset if this tea was anything to go by, would be able to surpass that if he had the support of the Shang Clan's resources.
She felt a pang of sympathy for Fang Yuan then. He was only a Rank 6 Immortal and newly ascended - of course he could not use Immortal materials in his tea even if he had the talent to work with them.
If she knew that Fang Yuan had over 50,000 Immortal Essence Stones in his possession and more Immortal Gu than any of the Rank 6 Shang Clan Immortals, who knew what kind of face she would make at that moment?
That said, she still needed to figure out if Fang Yuan had indeed made this himself or if it had been purchased from someone.
"I happen to dabble in Emotion Path," Fang Yuan explained.
"I see. The emotional resonance is incredible," Shang Qing Qing said.
It was not just the ingredients which determined how good a batch of tea was.
Tea was, ultimately a fusion of many paths - Food, Emotion, Refinement, etc.
Most teas were made with the purpose of eliciting a certain kind of emotion. Even in the mortal realm most teas were of the Emotion Path.
And what was that but an interplay of Dao Marks?
Fang Yuan had used his Emotion Path Great Grandmaster attainment to manipulate the natural Dao Marks of the tea. He had derived the recipe from Paradise Earth Immortal Venerable's Soul Soothing Tea, creating a mortal tea that almost rivaled immortal brews when it came to emotional appeal.
He had done so through incremental improvements, first making a mortal brew which he served to the other clan elders near Qing Mao Mountain using one or two simple ingredients, then building on it based on his experience with more complex formulas and Dao Mark manipulation to resemble something like the Soul Soothing Tea, but with his own signature flair to it.
But that wasn't all there was to this cup of tea.
"There is another secret," Fang Yuan said, pointing to the bottom of the cup. "If you will take a closer look."
Shang Qing Qing thought that she had seen small tea leaves in the tea, but with her investigative methods she realized they were something else. They were small specks, almost transparent and blending into the tea completely, but they were actually gu worms!
Not just one, but hundreds of them within the brew! "What kind of gu worms are these?" she asked.
"Those are Rank 3 Pill Path gu worms. They were added to enhance the emotional effect," Fang Yuan said. It was like adding sprinkles to ice cream - a small bit could greatly enhance the flavor and emotional effect, which was what he was going for. The Pill Path did not clash much with other paths, especially when consumed, and so there was no loss of flavor because of this.
With that said though, this was a rather brutish method since all he could do was add a large number of them to the tea rather than blending it properly. There was no conflict with Dao Marks, but there was little synergy with the tea's effect either.
It also would have been near-poison to give so many Pill Path gu worms to a mortal - their liver wouldn't have been able to take it. The body of an Immortal, however, could easily digest a large number of mortal Pill Path gu worms without much issue.