After school that afternoon, Su Yuan arrived at the cafeteria kitchen, clutching a delivery box and bringing Chen Nuoyi along with him, both of them brimming with excitement.
"The Dragon Scale Geese are in the yard behind the kitchen. Go take care of them yourselves."
Chef Li smiled as he handed each of them an apron.
After thanking him, Su Yuan and Chen Nuoyi headed to the backyard. There, in a square yard covering about three hundred square meters, they found all kinds of ingredients being raised.
There were Iron Mountain Pigs weighing two thousand pounds but no bigger than ordinary domestic pigs, their bodies astonishingly dense; chicken-alligators with sharp, vicious teeth and brightly colored feathers; and dry-scaled fish, able to survive on land, with rough, bumpy skin and bodies about the size of basketballs.
Without exception, all these ingredients were spirit beasts at the Qi Cultivation Stage.
Their flesh either aided students in their cultivation or strengthened their bodies. Dishes made from them were among the most expensive items in the school cafeteria.
And turning these spirit beasts into delicious dishes was a serious test for any chef.
One common difficulty was that a chef might not be able to beat their own ingredients.
Su Yuan looked toward a huge iron cage in the corner of the yard. Inside were four geese, each as tall as a person. Their feathers shimmered silver-gray in the sunlight, gleaming like tightly arranged dragon scales.
That was how the Dragon Scale Goose got its name.
The weakest of these geese gave off the aura of someone at Qi Cultivation Level 6. The largest and fiercest among them had even reached the late Qi Cultivation Stage.
Su Yuan estimated the difference in strength between himself and the geese, then arrived at a thoroughly fair conclusion.
He was weaker than a goose.
Luckily, he had seen this coming and brought in outside help.
"Class Monitor, you're up! Help me catch the fiercest goose in the cage! But remember, don't kill it outright. I want to handle it myself!"
Su Yuan spoke to the girl beside him, whose expression was tense.
"Okay."
Chen Nuoyi nodded solemnly. Her entire bearing changed, and she strode toward the iron cage like a tigress on the hunt.
Clack—
The cage opened. The four geese seemed to see freedom shining before them and stretched their necks in unison, eager to rush out.
But a slender figure blocked their only way through and reached for the strongest among them.
Seeing the delicate, jade-white hand reaching toward it, the goose's eyes flashed sharply. It opened its beak, baring shark-like teeth, and bit down hard on the hand.
The fair hand, seemingly so delicate it might break at a touch, neither flinched nor dodged. It let the goose bite and tear at it.
Yet no matter how desperately the goose gnawed, it couldn't leave even the faintest white mark on that hand.
"Gaa—"
Chen Nuoyi shot out her hand and seized the goose by the neck. It let out a choking cry, and under the horrified gazes of its three companions, she dragged it right out of the cage.
The other three geese immediately scrambled to huddle at the back, trembling like quails. Their earlier arrogance had vanished without a trace.
Chen Nuoyi dragged the goose, which was even bigger than she was, over to Su Yuan and asked softly:
"Coach, what should I do next?"
Su Yuan didn't answer. Instead, he carefully examined the goose before him, as if he were admiring a work of art.
After a long moment, he came back to himself with a smile and opened the delivery box in his arms. He pulled out several twenty-centimeter-long... nails, each giving off a faint chill.
Strangely, the nails looked somewhat like coffin nails.
The girl eyed them curiously, still completely unaware that hell awaited just ahead.
Then Su Yuan said in a low, distant voice:
"Class Monitor, please hold the goose's head down firmly. Next, I'll use my family's secret refining... roast goose technique to prepare the ingredients."
"Okay."
Chen Nuoyi obediently pressed the goose's head hard against the ground. No matter how much the Dragon Scale Goose at Qi Cultivation Level 7 thrashed, it couldn't move its head at all.
Su Yuan aimed a nail at the goose's crown, then drew a hammer from the delivery box. He sank his strength into his dantian. The power contained in every muscle and sinew in his body gathered into a single strand, flowing into his palm as he swung the hammer down!
BOOM—
With a muffled thud, the twenty-centimeter nail was driven into the goose's head in a single blow, vanishing beneath its feathers.
Yet, strangely, not a drop of blood came from the goose. Its struggling gradually stopped, but its eyes still glimmered with an eerie light, as though it weren't quite dead.
Of course. In the Cultivation World, death meant the soul leaving the body. Though the goose's head had been pierced, its soul hadn't left its body.
That nail Su Yuan had just driven in was a secret technique passed down through the Ancient Corpse Refining Method—the Soul Suppressing Nail!
By using the Soul Suppressing Nail, one could drive a nail into a target's body and directly strike at their soul, preventing it from leaving! This was the first step in corpse refinement!
That's right. This was how Su Yuan planned to guide Chen Nuoyi toward absolute depravity!
He would have her learn the Ancient Corpse Refining Method, the most sinister of sinister arts.
But here was the problem: how could he get Chen Nuoyi, the Righteous Path Saintess, to learn corpse refinement?
Su Yuan's inspiration had come from the roast-meat shop he'd seen the night before!
When he saw the roast geese, roast ducks, and suckling pigs, he realized that the methods used to make roast meat had a lot in common with the Ancient Corpse Refining Method!
Having completely mastered the Ancient Corpse Refining Method and become a master corpse refiner, he could easily pass himself off as a roast-meat master!
That was why he'd applied for a job in the school cafeteria. And once he got hired, he could teach the Righteous Path Saintess corpse refinement... Ahem, roast-meat preparation, quite naturally!
The Saintess learns corpse refinement
Roasts a goose fragrant ten miles around
Counts the cash until her hands go numb
Now that's depravity!
Not only would he teach the Saintess the demonic path's evil arts, he'd also turn her into a slave to money. No wonder Chen Nuoyi's fortune for today was [Eternal Fall into the Abyss]!
If that wasn't depravity, what was?
Su Yuan exhaled a breath of stale air and spoke slowly:
"Class Monitor, next comes draining the blood, plucking the feathers, and removing the organs. You're not squeamish about blood, are you?"
Chen Nuoyi shook her head slightly.
"I got a perfect score in a simulated killing exercise with a realism rating of 99%."
Su Yuan nodded in satisfaction.
"In that case, Class Monitor, you can take part in the entire ingredient-preparation process from here on."
"Okay!" Chen Nuoyi's pretty face lit up with a thirst for knowledge. "Coach, please give me your instructions. I'll watch and learn carefully, and do my best not to hold you back."
Su Yuan: "..."
She was asking to learn the Ancient Corpse Refining Method of her own accord? Class Monitor, you're amazing!
But that was exactly what he wanted.
Half an hour later, the Dragon Scale Goose had been completely plucked and its organs removed. It lay clean and white, looking as if it were sleeping peacefully.
The ingredients were ready. They could move on to the next step: formal corpse refinement... Ahem, roasting!
Before you continue