Culinary Craft

The sun sank in the west, and the dark clouds retreated east.

As night fell, Du En, who had bathed early, was busy in the small courtyard with his spirit-food venture.

The Strange Owl had been bled, plucked, and gutted, cleaned up spotless, and now lay on the chopping board.

Ning Caize stared at the board with a bitter expression.

It was his.

Meanwhile, after hearing Du En's instructions, Wei Ming brought over the coarse rice, smoked meat, dried fish, and other foods they had pooled their money to buy yesterday, arranging them by category to one side.

Then he chose to make a hasty retreat, not daring to linger.

Looking at the boiling water in the clay pots atop the row of little mud stoves, then at the deathly pale Strange Owl, unbearable memories rose to the surface. He even recalled the half of that sinister corpse he'd seen that morning... Urgh~

As he dwelled on it, Du En had yet to officially begin, but Wei Ming was already feeling nauseated.

He didn't feel like eating tonight. He had already eaten plenty of dates on the way here, anyway.

Seeing Du En's setup, the others silently bared their teeth as well, feeling their tooth roots ache.

But there was nothing they could do. Who told him to be the boss?

Just as everyone was thinking this helplessly, Du En began to get to work.

For each basic ingredient, he first took three portions, corresponding to the three medicinal ingredients.

He added them together in suitable amounts and began cooking.

Everything else was fine, but when the Strange Owl was chopped into pieces, each stroke of the knife seemed to land on their own bodies, making the onlookers squeeze their eyes shut again and again.

What could Boss Du possibly make out of this?

There might be something to the rice and meat, but this Strange Owl...

I doubt it!

Indeed, spirit food was not something one could learn just by picking it up. Du En was being overly ambitious this time.

I, I, I believe in Boss!

The five exchanged glances, communicating with their eyes while their minds buzzed with doubts.

Even Wei Ming, Du En's staunchest supporter, had no confidence at all now.

Du En himself paid no attention. He simply lowered the divided Strange Owl pieces into the boiling water.

A foul stench like rotting corpses immediately began to spread, once again filling the inside and outside of the small courtyard.

The relatively fresh air had lasted only a single day.

The others said they were all used to it.

But next, when Du En began adding the fresh medicinal ingredients right on schedule, even the gravediggers, who lived amid all kinds of stink, retreated in a frantic series of thuds!

It wasn't simply that the stench had become even stinkier. How should he put it?

Once that rotten reek was laced with three different notes—freshness, crispness, and sweetness—it became unbelievably discordant!

When boiling manure, no matter how many spices one added, it was still boiling manure. At most, it would inevitably make people think, just a little, that it actually smelled rather nice.

That was even worse than pure stench!

The others swallowed their saliva. The appetite stirred by the smell sent violent tremors and sheer horror through their minds. They rolled and crawled back into the house, turned around, and sealed the doors and windows shut.

You're all being way too dramatic.

Watching their reactions, Du En couldn't help shaking his head inwardly.

Then he stood guard before the stoves and clay pots, his face unchanged and his heart steady, observing the changes, smelling the aromas, and making judgments according to the principles of culinary craft. From time to time, he added more medicinal ingredients.

The Strange Owl's meat took the longest to cook. It also needed the most time for the medicinal properties and food essence to blend.

The smoked meat and dried fish cooked much faster.

Without even minding the heat, he began drinking the broth and eating the meat.

He shook his head inwardly.

No good.

In fact, the failure could already be judged from the panel, since no new entries had appeared.

Du En tasted them only to find the problem.

The main ingredients were no good.

Ordinary smoked meat and dried fish were simply too ordinary.

Next was the second-fastest dish to cook: coarse rice.

[Beginner's Practice 0/10]

That'll do!

Du En's eyes shifted, and he began eating.

The coarse rice carried a hint of sweetness and had a fresh, tender, smooth texture. Compared with its former roughness, like grains of sand, it was worlds apart. Clearly, this was caused by its having absorbed the juices and medicinal power of the fresh herbs.

However, that didn't mean the main ingredient was completely usable. It was merely that this particular strain of coarse rice could absorb the medicinal power, making it easier to digest.

There was no actual change, so it still wasn't very useful.

"If I'm just using it to rack up repetitions, it can barely work. But I've only got one stomach, and there's no way to preserve it. Once it's made, it can't sit for long, and I can't waste food or medicinal ingredients. Hmm, if I really make it again in the future, I'll combine the three with one ingredient and cook them together."

I'll call it Three Talents Rice, or Three Talents Porridge.

Du En silently circulated his cultivation method, speeding up his digestion.

He had eaten a little too much.

And so, half an hour passed.

Sensing a subtle change in the aroma at the tip of his nose, he opened his eyes and looked toward the three pots of Strange Owl.

The changes in smell varied in strength, but overall, they seemed elusive.

Du En tasted a mouthful from each.

Hmm, it was still as awful as ever!

However, compared with the coarse rice, which could only absorb the medicinal properties without mutually influencing them or giving rise to changes, this boiled Strange Owl showed hints of such a transformation.

Thus, he estimated the situation and added other medicinal ingredients to the three pots of Strange Owl.

He had originally intended to use it to rack up repetitions, but that didn't work.

One pot had been pushed too far and was ruined.

As for the other two pots, because this spirit-food dish had not taken shape and was incomplete, they couldn't count toward the repetitions either.

So Du En could only keep adding ingredients until all three types had been added, until only one pot remained.

This time, it had taken shape.

One pot of boiled Strange Owl and three pots of coarse rice made four repetitions.

When he lifted the lids again, a fresh, clean fragrance mingled with the Strange Owl meat's inherent odd smell. It no longer seemed foul, but it was still strange. After all, it had been bizarre to begin with.

Du En ate and silently assessed it.

"Hmm, Strange Owls eat carrion, so their meat is damp and yin. Combined with these three warm, yang-natured medicinal ingredients, they mutually enhance one another. Blended together, they nourish yin, strengthen yang, replenish the body, and bolster the vital energy. Most importantly, the flavor is two points better than the plain boiled version."

Du En was fairly satisfied.

He immediately gave it a name: Three Talents Stewed Owl.

By comparison, this dish could truly be considered spirit food. It had barely entered the ranks—a First-tier Low Grade dish.

After eating it, one could slowly replenish the body, promote the growth of physical strength, invigorate the spirit, aid cultivation, and shorten the time needed to circulate and practice one's cultivation method!

This meant that Du En could complete five cultivation sessions each night within the same amount of time, one more than before, increasing his speed by a quarter.

More importantly, this spirit food was free!

"It's just that those Strange Owls don't come knocking on their own every day."

Unless they were starving or especially bold, the ones that had learned their lesson would usually only surround the area without moving, spying on Du En and the others with covetous eyes.

Actually going out to catch them was quite troublesome too.

Even so, it was still necessary...

As Du En pondered this, he suddenly glanced toward the courtyard entrance.

A considerable commotion was stirring in the distance!

He immediately became thoughtful, finished eating and cleaning up, then went out with his stuffed belly to investigate and work off his meal.

It was only after roughly the time it took to burn two incense sticks that he returned.

The others had all gone to sleep, but Ning Caize was still waiting.

"What happened outside?"

"People from the Blood Eagle Gang are gathering. From what I heard, their target seems to be the Iron Hand Gang."

At this, Ning Caize's worry was immediately laid bare.

"Those two gangs look like they're going to have several clashes. Luo Heng's death was probably caused by this. I only hope the fire doesn't spread to us."

When fire burns at the city gate, the fish in the moat suffer!

Ning Caize was terrified of precisely that.

Du En, however, remained calm. "They actually know their limits. Besides, if things really get out of hand, the overseers and stewards above us aren't corpses. They'll definitely intervene."

In the end, within the Shack District, no matter what gang or association it was, they were fundamentally nothing more than lowly ants and cheap laborers under the rule of the immortal sects, outside the border city.

They had no real say in anything!

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