Drawing a New Pastry Recipe

Inside Xiao Yan's room in the Xiao Clan.

Xiao Yan was cultivating inside a wooden tub.

Suddenly, the concentration of Dou Qi within Xiao Yan's body rose considerably.

The Dou Qi within him circulated, and just like that, he broke through to the seventh stage of Dou Qi.

Slowly opening his eyes, Xiao Yan sensed the Dou Qi within his body and could not help but smile.

"Finally, the seventh stage of Dou Qi."

"The progress is fairly decent."

Old Yao floated out of the ring, stroking his beard with satisfaction as he looked at Xiao Yan and nodded.

"Teacher, you said that once I reached the seventh stage of Dou Qi, you would teach me a High-Grade Profound Tier Dou Skill."

Xiao Yan looked at Old Yao with eager eyes.

"Why are you so excited? It is only a High-level Profound Tier Dou Skill. It is merely trash to me."

Hearing Old Yao's casual words, Xiao Yan's mouth twitched.

To me, it was a treasure, but to you, it had become worthless junk that could be found everywhere. There really was no comparison.

"Close your eyes and focus your mind. I will pass it on to you."

As Xiao Yan closed his eyes, Old Yao gently pressed a finger against his forehead.

Then Xiao Yan felt a slight pain in his head. A massive amount of information immediately flooded into his mind, but there was too much of it, making his head feel slightly swollen.

Information about the Dou Skill appeared in his mind.

Eight Extremes Collapse: High-level Profound Tier Dou Skill, a close-combat Dou Skill renowned for its formidable attack power. When mastered to perfection, each strike contained eight layers of hidden force. With all eight layers stacked together, its power rivaled a low-grade Earth Tier Dou Skill!

After his mind cleared somewhat, Xiao Yan waited for a while before roughly examining the Dou Skill. Seeing that the attack power of this Profound Tier Dou Skill could rival an Earth Tier Dou Skill, he could not help but suck in a breath of cold air.

At present, the strongest Dou Skill in the Xiao Clan was only a Mysterious Tier Intermediate Dou Skill. Moreover, even this High-level Profound Tier Dou Skill would become the target of countless people fighting to obtain it throughout the Dou Qi Continent.

Although this Eight Extremes Collapse was only a High-level Profound Tier Dou Skill, its attack power was truly terrifying.

If he could truly learn this Dou Skill, then with his strength at the seventh stage of Dou Qi, he would definitely make a name for himself during the clan assessment. When fighting others, he would no longer be completely unable to fight back.

"Do not be so shocked. Although this Dou Skill does not have particularly high requirements for Dou Qi, you actually could have started learning it when you were at the Fifth Stage of Dou Qi. But I thought it would be better for you to be more steady, so I did not pass it to you too early. Besides, Eight Extremes Collapse is a close-combat Dou Skill. With your current physical strength and those skinny arms and legs of yours, you would probably break yourself apart the moment you struck."

Old Yao's calm words were like a bucket of cold water poured over Xiao Yan's head, sobering him up considerably.

Xiao Yan grew anxious. If he could not learn it, what use was it? He hurriedly asked.

"Then how can I improve my physical strength?"

"Dou Qi is the best energy for tempering the body. The higher your Dou Qi realm, the stronger your body will be. But that alone is still not enough. You need some other methods to stimulate it."

Old Yao narrowed his eyes, seeming to harbor ill intent.

Looking at his teacher's expression, Xiao Yan had a bad feeling. He swallowed and spoke.

"What kind of stimulation?"

"Getting beaten, of course. The harder, the better."

Old Yao smiled strangely.

Xiao Yan's face froze, and he felt like cursing inwardly.

Did it have to be this cruel? Getting beaten? It was not as though he was practicing the Golden Bell Shield. Was he supposed to have seven or eight people beat him with sticks?

Just thinking about it was terrifying.

"Um... Teacher, is there no other way?"

Seeing Xiao Yan's near-tearful expression, Old Yao stroked his beard and thought for a moment.

"There is another way, but the progress will be slower."

"What way?"

Xiao Yan asked instinctively.

"Eat Ruyi Zhai's Honeyed Shortbread every day. While eating it, circulate the Cultivation Method I gave you. Do this every day, and eat at least one jin of Honeyed Shortbread a day."

When he heard that he had to eat one jin of Ruyi Zhai's Honeyed Shortbread every day, his face immediately fell.

That was a luxury item that cost one hundred Gold Coins per jin. One hundred Gold Coins a day—how long would he have to keep eating it?

"Teacher, how long do I need to eat Honeyed Shortbread?"

"Well... perhaps, maybe, probably, not necessarily. In any case, eat it for half a month first and see the results. But I would prefer that you choose getting beaten."

"If there is a safer method, why would I choose a way to make myself suffer?"

Xiao Yan hurriedly shook his head.

"Why do you not trust your teacher? I have a way to make sure you do not suffer too much."

Old Yao kindly tried to persuade Xiao Yan to choose the first method.

But Xiao Yan still shook his head.

In the end, Old Yao failed to persuade him and could only say, "Since you refuse to choose getting beaten, then take it slowly. As they say, haste makes waste."

Old Yao returned to the ring.

Xiao Yan sighed in relief, but he also secretly resolved that he had to learn Eight Extremes Collapse.

Closing his eyes, he began his tedious cultivation once more.

It was already noon.

Xiao Cheng was baking cake layers in the back kitchen. Since there were two reservation slots this time, one for Xiao Ning and one for Xiao Mei, there were two cake layers in the oven.

This tested Xiao Cheng's control over the temperature. If he was not careful and the cakes cracked, he would have no choice but to start over.

Whether Xiao Cheng had been blessed by Xiao Yan's heaven-defying luck as the Son of the Plane, or whether his luck was simply decent today, the second batch in the oven unexpectedly went without mishap.

The cake layers were completely intact, baked just as well as the first batch.

This put Xiao Cheng at ease, and he followed yesterday's steps to make them one by one.

After spending a little over an hour, the two Cream Cakes were finished.

Xiao Cheng was drenched in sweat from exhaustion, but he smiled and muttered, "Making pastries every day and chatting with the people around me... this kind of life is not bad either."

After simply tidying up the ingredients and tools in the back kitchen, he packaged the two Cream Cakes and temporarily left them there.

He could deliver them to the two of them tomorrow.

When he returned to sit in front of the Glass Cover, Master Gu Ni arrived before he could even take his seat.

With a smile on his face, Gu Ni said, "Shop Owner Xiao, Miss Ya Fei has agreed to the cooperation method you mentioned this morning."

"Oh, she agreed. In that case, we can sign an agreement. Once it is signed, I will provide you with one Cream Cake every seven days. If there is enough time, then two."

"No problem, Shop Owner Xiao. Happy cooperation."

"I trust the reputation of your Mittel Auction House. Happy cooperation. Let us make a fortune together, haha."

"Oh, and give me ten pieces of Peanut Candy as well. I have no use for anything else."

"Please wait a moment, Master Gu Ni."

Xiao Cheng packaged the Peanut Candy for Gu Ni and handed it to him.

After seeing Gu Ni off, Xiao Cheng clenched his fist and shouted excitedly in his heart.

"Finally, I can make a name for myself!"

Excited, Xiao Cheng began dancing around.

"Check the Personal Panel."

Xiao Cheng waved a hand as he spoke.

Host: Xiao Cheng Identity: Shopkeeper of Ruyi Zhai in Xiao Family Market Shopkeeper Level: Level One Shopkeeper (61/300)

Realm: One-Star Dou Zhe Martial Skill: None Items: None Evaluation: You are only a rookie who has just started out. You could be wiped out by an expert at any time. Develop carefully, for the happiness of yourself and everyone else.

Main Quest: Please sell one hundred jin of Honeyed Shortbread (13/100)

Quest Reward: One God-tier Mung Bean Cakes recipe Quest Failure: Wear the Baby Three-Piece Set for seven days Quest Time: Seven days Side Quest: Please sell one hundred portions of Peanut Candy (106/100)

Quest Reward: One random pastry recipe Quest Failure: Host must dress as a woman for seven days and may not take it off Quest Time: Seven days

Seeing that his Experience Points had reached sixty, already one-fifth of the way there, Xiao Cheng felt that it was not bad.

Suddenly, he heard Xiao Dian's system prompt.

"Host's Side Quest has been completed. Would you like to claim the Quest Reward?"

"Oh, the Peanut Candy quest is already complete? Claim it."

"Would you like to draw a random pastry recipe now?"

"Draw it. I do need some new pastries to add more variety."

Then, after a ding from the system, the draw was complete.

"Congratulations, Host, you have obtained..."

When he saw the pastry he had obtained, he immediately became delighted.

Seeing that there were no customers, he hurriedly ran to the back kitchen to prepare the ingredients.