Li Xiuchang glanced at the Length Value in the lower-left corner of his vision.
Five days of practice had raised his Length Value from "1.13" to "1.28," more than twice the growth rate he'd achieved while practicing martial arts.
Of course, this was also because he practiced more diligently now.
When he practiced martial arts, he was still a mortal. Every day, he needed to sleep, eat, drink, and relieve himself.
Now that he had become a cultivator, he didn't need much sleep, and he could replace meals with Grain-Aversion Pills, saving him quite a bit of time.
"At this rate, I'll only need a little over a month to save up an inch of length. Saving up five inches in half a year won't be difficult."
"And this is while I'm just blindly figuring out how to practice Cultivation Techniques on my own. With a famous master's guidance, my progress would only be faster, and my Length Value would grow faster too."
In the past, Li Xiuchang had only saved up one inch of length after working as a chef for a year, and two inches after practicing martial arts for half a year. This length had come hard, so he couldn't bear to use it recklessly.
But now, he could increase his length by at least a foot—ten inches—a year. Li Xiuchang felt that he could use his length for some experiments.
After all, wasn't "length" precisely what he was aiming for by sacrificing his cultivation time and devoting all his energy to improving his Cultivation Techniques?
So this "length" had to be worth the cost. At the very least, it needed to make up for the cultivation progress he was losing by practicing techniques.
He had to put his "Length Cheat" to use as soon as possible, rather than letting it remain nothing more than a decoration.
He planned to wait until he had two inches of length, then take out and use one inch. That way, he would ensure that he always had at least one inch in reserve, so he wouldn't be left empty-handed if an emergency suddenly required him to use his length.
In another five days, Li Xiuchang would be going to Wangping Mountain to undergo Elder Zhao's test for accepting disciples.
Li Xiuchang planned to buy some Spirit Grass and spirit wood while he was there, and see whether they could assist his cultivation of the "Fire Starting Skill."
Under normal circumstances, absorbing Wood Attribute Spiritual Power from the outside world could indeed accelerate cultivation of the "Fire Starting Skill." But Li Xiuchang had practiced it incorrectly and turned it into the "Charcoal Burning Skill," so whether Wood Attribute Spiritual Power would still be useful was hard to say.
Of course, before then, he still had to continue practicing the Way of the Spirit Chef.
"I bought that Artifact Fire Furnace but haven't used it yet. It'll be just right for practicing the 'Blanching Method' later."
Among the ingredients Li Xiuchang had purchased this time was a large piece of Yellow Ox meat that wasn't ranked.
It was probably a Yellow Ox raised by some farmer that had accidentally eaten Spirit Grass. Its flesh and blood had gained a little Spiritual Power, but it hadn't truly transformed into a demon beast.
This kind of beast meat was an unranked ingredient, and its price was far cheaper than that of genuine demon beast meat.
The most commonly used method for processing meat ingredients was the "Blanching Method": putting the meat into a pot of cold water, then gradually adding various supplementary ingredients to remove the meat's gamey smell while regulating the violent Spiritual Power within it.
This step required fire, and the low-grade Artifact Fire Furnace Li Xiuchang had purchased could finally come in handy.
Ordinary flames lacked sufficient power. Whether used for artifact refinement, alchemy, or cooking spirit dishes, they were simply not up to the task.
Only spirit fire would do.
The function of a furnace artifact was to stabilize the fire source and amplify the flame's power. It did not possess the ability to start a fire.
In terms of starting fires, cultivators who practiced Fire Attribute Cultivation Methods had an innate advantage, as they could use their own mana to produce spirit fire.
Cultivators who practiced other Attribute Cultivation Methods could only rely on external objects, such as purchasing spiritual-material fuel or borrowing Earth Vein Fire.
Although Li Xiuchang had not cultivated Fire Attribute Mana, his Charcoal Attribute Mana could also start fires, saving him the expense of starting one.
However, starting a fire with his mana had a side effect: it produced smoke...
The Quiet Room on the first floor of the building was originally meant for outer disciples to practice their techniques. But to avoid filling the entire room with smoke, Li Xiuchang could only start the fire outside in the courtyard.
Li Xiuchang placed the Artifact Fire Furnace in the courtyard and infused it with his Charcoal Attribute Mana. Before long, flames and billowing smoke began pouring from the furnace...
He immediately controlled the Courtyard Protection Array, opening a hole in the top of the formation to ensure the thick smoke could drift out.
Li Xiuchang tried controlling the furnace to adjust the size and power of the flames. After practicing for a while, he was soon able to do it with ease.
This Artifact Fire Furnace would be useful later for Cultivation Techniques that required spirit fire, such as artifact refinement and alchemy. It was a very practical auxiliary tool.
Li Xiuchang set the pot on the furnace and poured in Spirit Spring Water containing a faint trace of Spiritual Energy. Ordinary water couldn't withstand spirit fire and would be completely evaporated in moments.
Since this was merely practice, he naturally had to use it sparingly. Li Xiuchang poured in only half a bowl of Spirit Spring Water, just enough to submerge the bottom of the pot, then added some ingredients and seasonings.
Only then did he pick up the kitchen knife and cut a small slice of Yellow Ox meat, thin as a cicada's wing, into the pot.
His knife skills were superb, comparable to the meat slicers who prepared Lanzhou beef noodles.
The kitchen knife was sharp as well. Though it was an unranked artifact, it had genuinely been forged from first-rank material, so cutting this beef was as easy as slicing tofu.
Thus, this large piece of Yellow Ox meat would be enough for Li Xiuchang to practice with for quite some time.
Before long, the water in the pot boiled. Li Xiuchang fished out the slice of beef, examined it for a moment, and shook his head.
Most of the little Spiritual Energy in the beef had been lost, and it had not served to sort out the Spiritual Energy at all. His first attempt at the "Blanching Method" had failed.
This was also within Li Xiuchang's expectations. How could anything good succeed on the first try?
This slice of beef, the Spirit Spring Water in the pot, and the many supplementary ingredients were all wasted along with this failure.
The loss wasn't great, but after years of practice, it would still amount to a considerable expense.
Every Cultivation Technique was like this. One needed to practice constantly, fail constantly, and accumulate experience before one could enter the field. That also meant investing some capital.
It could be said to be exchanging spirit stones for experience.
The Talisman Dao attracted so many practitioners precisely because its initial practice costs were low.
The key difference was that when other people failed once as badly as Li Xiuchang had, they gained nothing except the experience of failure. Li Xiuchang, on the other hand, could still accumulate length.
That was where his advantage lay.
Li Xiuchang glanced at his Length Value. The failed blanching just now had allowed him to summarize quite a bit of experience, and his Length Value had risen by 0.01.
He poured out the waste water in the pot and was just preparing to make a second attempt at blanching when he stared at the thick smoke continuously rising from the furnace and suddenly fell into thought.
Among the many methods of processing ingredients, there was a relatively advanced technique specifically used to process meat ingredients, called the "Smoking Method."
It was similar to the folk method of smoking cured meat.
However, it required certain specific spirit woods to be used as firewood before spirit meat could be smoked.
Those spirit woods were often extremely expensive, so the Smoking Method was usually only used to process precious demon beast meat. An apprentice Spirit Chef like Li Xiuchang could never use the Smoking Method for practice.
But as he gazed at the thick smoke produced by his Charcoal Attribute Mana, Li Xiuchang couldn't help entertaining an idea.
"Can the smoke produced by my Charcoal Attribute Mana be used to smoke spirit meat?"
The moment this thought arose, Li Xiuchang felt his heart race. He couldn't wait to give it a try.
If it worked, he could make a fortune in the future just by helping people smoke spirit meat!
Li Xiuchang immediately cut off a piece of Yellow Ox meat. This time, he was exceptionally generous: the meat he cut was a full twice as thick as a cicada's wing!
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