Ten-Year Whale Rubber?

The second benefit of working part-time at the Fish Roast Restaurant was that cooks were provided meals. Every cook could enjoy a free lunch or dinner from the restaurant.

The food was made from leftover Soul Beast meat. Though it was like gnawing on chicken bones, the nutrients within still helped strengthen the body to some extent.

After entering the Fish Roast Restaurant and having dinner with a forty-year-old cook, Xia Liang put on his chef's hat and entered the kitchen to begin the day's work.

Since his six-year-old body was not even as large as a fish-type Soul Beast, tasks like killing fish were handled by the other cooks.

With Boss Cui's permission, Xia Liang was only responsible for preparing various seasonings before the kitchen opened.

Some of his seasonings could only be found on Blue Star. It was precisely these special seasonings that made his fish different from the other cooks'—novel and delicious.

Inside the spacious kitchen.

There were eight cooks in total. Some were killing fish, some were heating their woks, and some had already begun cooking.

Six-year-old Xia Liang stood on a tall stool. Dressed in his chef's uniform, he used Soul Power to strengthen his arms and began tossing the wok. Fish chunks seasoned and colored with vinegar and cooking wine soared through the pan. Sparks scattered as a rich fragrance filled the air.

Although they had seen Xia Liang cook a week ago, the cooks around him were still dumbfounded. They were all ordinary people without Soul Power, so they unanimously believed that children with Soul Power were all as capable as Xia Liang.

"A Liang, did you learn your cooking from your family?" the old cook killing fish beside him could not help asking.

The sizzling and popping from the oil-filled wok was too loud, so Xia Liang did not hear him. He appeared fully focused on stir-frying, but he was actually thinking about how to earn money to buy Cultivation Resources.

Teacher Mo had said that soaking in an Advanced Medicinal Bath would cleanse some of the impurities within a Soul Master's body, which was more conducive to the circulation of the meridians and enhanced the effects of cultivating Soul Power.

However, Nuoding Primary Spirit Master Academy primarily provided its students with the basic knowledge required of Soul Masters and assistance in obtaining Soul Rings. It would not give away Cultivation Resources such as Advanced Medicinal Baths.

To obtain similar Cultivation Resources, one either had to join a Soul Master clan or save up money to buy them personally.

Xia Liang could only choose the latter, because he had no intention of joining any faction.

Working part-time as a cook earned him fifty Copper Spirit Coins a day.

At that rate, even with a year's wages and bonuses, he could earn at most twenty Gold Soul Coins.

Yet an Advanced Medicinal Bath cost at least one thousand Gold Soul Coins on the market.

Saving money through a cooking job alone was clearly not enough.

Ever since deciding to work part-time at the Fish Roast Restaurant, Xia Liang had considered whether he could develop seasonings and braising sauces unique to Blue Star, allowing him to create all kinds of recipes found only on Blue Star.

Selling those recipes to high-end restaurants in major cities should earn him more money.

Then, he would have the funds to purchase all kinds of Cultivation Resources.

Only then did Xia Liang hear someone speaking beside him. He set the wok over the stove, lowered the flame, and turned toward the old cook killing fish behind him.

"Uncle Chen, were you calling me?" Xia Liang asked in confusion. "Is something wrong? The wok was too loud just now, so I didn't catch what you said."

"No, it's nothing. You're quite serious about your work." The old cook looked at him in astonishment. "Are you really only six? My child is the same age as you. He awakened his Martial Soul but has no Soul Power, and he's still back in the village playing in the mud with the other children."

"I used to play in the mud too." Xia Liang smiled. "Ever since my parents were killed by Soul Masters, I haven't had any interest in it."

Hearing this, the surrounding cooks exchanged glances. They could all see the shock and sympathy in one another's eyes.

His parents had been killed, and by Soul Masters at that. With such an experience, his temperament was naturally different from that of children his age.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know about that," the old cook said apologetically.

Xia Liang shook his head, then his attention was drawn to the large fish the old cook had pinned to the table.

It was a fish nearly three meters long. The fish that appeared at the Fish Roast Restaurant were basically all ten-year Soul Beasts.

It was said that water-type Soul Masters from coastal cities caught them using water nets created with Soul Skills. Many restaurants specializing in fish purchased their stock from these water-type Soul Master clans.

The large fish the old cook was killing was called an Iron-skinned Whale, a juvenile whale that had just reached ten years of cultivation.

The Iron-skinned Whale's hide was covered in a layer of scales as hard as iron, and the scales had to be seared at high temperatures to melt completely.

Once deprived of the scales' protection, the Iron-skinned Whale's skin naturally wrinkled, producing a very crispy texture. When prepared by frying, it became the Fish Roast Restaurant's signature dish: Crispy Fish Roast, crispy on the outside and soft and glutinous within.

Having spent a week in this kitchen, Xia Liang had also watched the old cook clean an Iron-skinned Whale's internal organs before, but this time was different.

After splitting open the Iron-skinned Whale's skull, the old cook dug out various strange-looking organs. He tossed some unwanted organs into the trash bin at his feet along with the fish's entrails.

It was this very action that caught Xia Liang's attention.

Among the entrails and organs thrown into the trash bin was a crystal-like substance.

The old cook said that crystal contained an extremely strong fishy odor and, like the Iron-skinned Whale's entrails, could not be used as an ingredient.

Xia Liang jumped down from the tall stool and retrieved the discarded crystal from the trash bin.

It was a crystal stained red with blood, no larger than a baby's thumb, and it gave off a strong bloody stench.

After washing it clean, the crystal in his palm had faded from red to pale yellow.

Is this it?

Staring at the pale yellow crystal in his hand, Xia Liang was overjoyed.

A special substance produced in the brains of whale-type Soul Beasts—this pale yellow crystal should be the Whale Rubber mentioned in the original work.

With his cooking skills, Xia Liang was not only good at making fish. He was also highly experienced with chicken and duck.

But why had he specifically chosen to work part-time at a restaurant specializing in fish?

The initial reason was that Uncle Meng had business dealings with the restaurant owner, and an introduction through an acquaintance would save him a great deal of trouble.

But the most important reason was that restaurants specializing in fish purchased all kinds of fish from coastal cities.

The Fish Roast Restaurant in particular imported sea fish, mainly ten-year Soul Beasts.

Among the many sea fish, the Iron-skinned Whale was naturally his first choice, as it was the Fish Roast Restaurant's signature dish.

The original work had stated that Whale Rubber was produced in the brains of whale-type Soul Beasts. It had excellent restorative effects for Soul Masters and could increase the endurance of muscles, bones, and meridians.

It was absolutely one of the best resources for strengthening the body.

Without money to purchase Whale Rubber, he could only try his luck at a shop connected to whales. That had been Xia Liang's original motivation for working part-time at the Fish Roast Restaurant.

Over the past week, the old cook had slaughtered no fewer than five Iron-skinned Whales, but unfortunately, no substance resembling Whale Rubber had appeared.

Xia Liang had originally thought that whale-type Soul Beasts with only ten years of cultivation could not produce Whale Rubber. He had not expected to encounter it today.

The method for verifying whether this pale yellow crystal was Whale Rubber was simple.

The original work said that Whale Rubber had to be heated with high-temperature flames before it would soften enough to consume. Moreover, during the Douluo I era, Whale Rubber was mainly known as an aphrodisiac.

If this pale yellow crystal needed high heat to dissolve and made one burn with desire after consuming it, then it was most likely Whale Rubber.