[With One Blow, She Cracked the Meng Po Pot: She Cooks Souls on Her Way to Godhood]
Xue Zao'er transmigrated through eight worlds. Auctioneer, feng shui master, forensic examiner, interstellar mercenary: with every world she passed through, she came one step closer to going home. When the eighth world ended, she finally returned to where it all began: the Great Yong Dynasty, the Cold Palace, a deposed empress.
She had left as Meng Po, but returned as Xue Zao'er. Between those two lives lay the memories of eight worlds and a rusty iron hammer.
No matter. A hammer can break rocks, and rocks can be sold for money. Money can buy scallions, scallions can go into a stir-fry, and a good meal can ferry souls onward. Ferry enough souls, and she can become a god. She sets up a street-food stall outside the Cold Palace. Her first customer is an old ghost who has been hungry for three hundred years and is eager to taste her cooking.
Later, she notices that the emperor who sent her to the Cold Palace is looking at her more and more strangely. He brings her paper kites, osmanthus cakes, and braised pig's trotters with white clouds, as if trying to confirm something bit by bit. She finishes his osmanthus cake before he dares ask, “Was it good?” His voice is so soft, as though he is afraid of shattering something.
He doesn't know how to tell her: he has waited a thousand years for her.
She is Meng Po reborn, and he is the Netherworld Sect Master reborn. A pair of old partners from the Bridge of Helplessness a thousand years ago, one in charge of the soup, the other of guiding souls onward. Then she leaped into reincarnation, and he followed. She wandered through eight worlds; he waited for her in the mortal realm for a thousand years. He waited until she finally came home, until she was finally willing to call him “husband.”
He waited quietly. He didn't disturb her, pressure her, or explain.
[The deposed empress Meng Po, home at last after transmigrating through eight worlds × the emperor and Netherworld Sect Master, who waited a thousand years for her | Cooking Souls to Godhood × Meng Po]
