Journey to the West: Starting by taking Sun Wukong as my disciple!-Chapter 724 - 723: Everyone Eats Crawfish

Although the meal was already prepared, Xiong Daoren had invited several guests, and they chatted awkwardly while waiting for others to arrive for the Buddhist Robe Assembly.

About an hour later, the guests invited by Xiong Daoren had all arrived one after another, and as he had said, most of them were practitioners of good deeds, with hardly a few monsters among them.

Even the monsters that were there looked refined and cultured, which put Xuanzang at ease.

Once all the guests had arrived, the Buddhist Robe Assembly officially began.

With more guests present, the banquet was set, and although there were said to be vegetarian dishes, there were actually very few.

There were only one or two vegetarian dishes, and Sun Wukong was not interested in making them. If not for Xiong Daoren’s insistent request, he would definitely not have prepared them.

The most grandly presented dish on the banquet was the crawfish, but the sight of it was intimidating to those who had never tried it, and no one dared to touch it.

The guests only ate the other dishes, and after each bite, they praised the food lavishly, saying the dishes were so full of flavor and deliciousness that they were lost for words, to the point that everyone seemed to forget the original purpose of attending the Buddhist Robe Assembly and acted as though they had come simply to dine.

In no time, several plates of food were wiped clean, but the bowl of crawfish remained untouched, as no one dared to make a move.

It wasn’t just the guests; even Xiong Daoren himself didn’t dare to go for it. He looked at the crawfish several times, wanting to try, but each time the sight of the intimidating creatures made his reaching hand retract.

One of the guests, who had a good relationship with Xiong Daoren, couldn’t resist asking, "Brother Xiong, what exactly is this thing? It looks so strange, almost like insects."

"Ah, erm, this thing, actually tastes really good. It’s incredibly aromatic just by the smell. You really should try it." Xiong Daoren glanced at Sun Wukong but seeing that he was in his human form, he couldn’t ask and had to casually brush off the question.

Sun Wukong sat nearby and chuckled. He was waiting for Xiong Daoren to eat the crawfish. If he didn’t take the initiative, Sun Wukong wouldn’t go for it either.

Xiong Daoren kept making eye signals to Sun Wukong, but the latter simply ignored him.

Having no other choice, Xiong Daoren could only motion for the guest who had spoken earlier to try it.

Although the guest listened to Xiong Daoren’s words, the look of the creature still intimidated him and he dared not touch it, "No, Brother Xiong, what is this thing called?"

Xiong Daoren was able to answer this question right away, saying, "This thing, called crawfish, is actually spicy. Give it a try. It tastes the same as shrimp; it just doesn’t look very presentable, but the taste is really good indeed."

Even with Xiong Daoren’s high praise of how delicious it was, the guest still didn’t dare to eat, "I see, so why aren’t you eating, Brother Xiong?"

"Me? Of course, I’ll eat. Why wouldn’t I?" Xiong Daoren laughed drily and apprehensively reached for a crawfish, but upon getting there, he really didn’t dare to eat. Not only did he not dare to eat, but he also didn’t even know where to start.

Sun Wukong unnoticeably picked up a crawfish from the plate and said with a smile, "I haven’t had crawfish in a long while. After the last time I ate it, I’ve been thinking about it constantly, and I didn’t expect to get to eat it again today."

"Ah?" Xiong Daoren didn’t catch on to what Sun Wukong meant at first, and it was only after Sun Wukong stepped on his foot that he realized.

"Ah! Yes, you’re right. I had completely forgotten about that, I did take you to eat it last time."

Sun Wukong skillfully twisted off the head of the crawfish, then held the tail and cracked open its shell segment by segment, placing it in his mouth.

The crawfish was spicy, juicy, and had a bouncy texture, with the unique freshness of seafood. It was simply delicious, alas, the only thing missing was a beer.

Though the gathering was not primarily for dining, it didn’t matter if there was no beer—eating a bit reluctantly would do.

Daoren imitated Sun Wukong’s method, twisting off the head and extracting the meat from the tail into his mouth.

"Hmm!" This unprepossessing thing was unexpectedly delicious!

Daoren’s eyes lit up, but he tried desperately to restrain himself, only chewing the shrimp meat, and after swallowing, he exclaimed loudly, "Yeah! It’s still that taste! So delicious!"

The few people around him had been watching Daoren since he took the crawfish.

When he showed a look of delicious satisfaction, they couldn’t wait to ask, "Xiong, is the crawfish really that tasty?"

Daoren gave the person who had just asked a glance, "What do you mean, you don’t believe me? What’s the point of lying to you? What do I gain from that? If you want to eat, eat; if not, then don’t ask. This little thing isn’t even enough to get stuck in my teeth. If you don’t eat, all the better—I’ll finish it all!"

The person could tell it was definitely delicious by the look on Daoren’s face and had asked because he couldn’t resist, then he smiled after getting his answer.

"Look, I was just asking out of curiosity. I’ve never eaten this before. I’ve tried all the dishes here, and they’re delicious; my tongue could almost fall off! It’s just that this thing looks a bit too scary. Now with your word, I can rest assured."

"Hmph, so you want me to test for poison for you?" Daoren shot him a glance.

"I never thought that way," laughed the man, "It’s just that I’ve never eaten it before, didn’t know how to eat it, and felt too embarrassed to ask. Seeing how you ate it, now I know how!"

This type of behavior, if not openly acknowledged, would be self-deprecating, but when it is acknowledged, it’s seen as cheerful.

With one person setting an example, several others who wanted to eat but hadn’t dared to also chimed in, "Exactly, I’ve never eaten this either. Watching you start, Xiong, now I know how, so I’ll give these crawfish a try too!"

"I’ll try it too!" A bunch of people echoed and started peeling the crawfish, imitating Daoren’s motions.

They mimicked Daoren, breaking open the crawfish and putting it in their mouths, then showed the same surprised expressions as Daoren.

This unsightly creature turned out to be so tasty!

Everyone present who could eat meat had tried the crawfish except for One, the Six-Eared Macaque.

Xuanzang had been scared by the sight of crawfish as soon as they were served. He looked at the crawfish, thinking it’s no wonder it’s a monster; its eating habits were monstrous too.

When others ate meat, Xuanzang would silently chant prayers for these slaughtered animals. When they started eating crawfish, Xuanzang couldn’t even continue his prayers.

The crawfish’s appearance was so off-putting that Xuanzang had never seen such a creature alive, and their eating manners were so strange—altogether, it did not seem like a creature meant to exist in the mortal world, and Xuanzang was so surprised that he forgot to chant.

The Six-Eared Macaque watched the creature silently; he had seen it before.

It was not in this Black Wind Mountain cave abode, but previously while he was in the mortal realm. There, he had seen a tremendous number of these creatures, so many that they were nauseating, and later they were taken back. He truly hadn’t expected that this creature was edible.

The Six-Eared Macaque only observed for a while and then picked up a crawfish from the plate, imitating their way of breaking it open and putting the shrimp meat in his mouth.

The spicy and numbing crawfish broth was both tingly and hot, the crawfish roe had infused into the soup during stir-frying, and the broth carried the unique freshness of crawfish.