A Black Pot

Lying steadily on the wolf's back, Xue Xi rested her hands behind her head, crossing her legs as she gazed leisurely at the clear sky. Occasionally, a few mutated sparrows would fly past, only to be sent scattering in terror by the ferocious Little Wolf.

Pondering her future plans in her mind, she set a main quest for herself: run a restaurant and strive to have the ability to control the situation before the Golden Horned Beast disaster arrived, doing her best to avoid tragedy.

Currently, she only possessed the cultivation of a peak Apprentice-level Martial Artist and Psychic. It was fine for dealing with small Monsters, but if she were to face a High-Level War God who knew secret techniques and understood a bit about force amplification, her combat power wouldn't be much to show off.

However, Xue Xi didn't intend to spend her energy learning those things. As long as she did a good job spreading intangible cultural heritage cuisine and increased the restaurant's foot traffic, she could continuously raise her realm. Wouldn't it be great to just crush them with her realm when the time came?

She just needed to make good food, let go, and leave the rest to the Great Book of Records!

Mentioning the records, Xue Xi suddenly remembered that she still had five page-unlock rewards she hadn't claimed. Back when she first obtained the ability, she had been in such a rush to set off after being quarantined for a few days due to the RR Virus that she had forgotten all about it.

She diverted a portion of her psychic power into her mind, looking at the information sheet on the Great Book of Records' Gourmet Anchor:

Shopkeeper: Xue Xi (Virus absorbed, healthy)

Level: Apprentice Rank 9 Peak

Unlocked Dishes: [Cat Ear Noodles], [Crab Roe Soup Dumpling], [Zhu Ku La Coffee], [Lijiang Baba], [Xi'an Beef and Mutton Paomo], [Gaoqiao Scallion Pancake, Pan-Fried Bun, Five-Spice Beans, Pear Syrup Candy], [Tianfu Braised Pork Knuckle], [Highland Barley Wine].

Unlock Rewards: Myriad Manifestation Water (Desolate); Culinary Practice Virtual Space (Desolate); Culinary Spirit Fire (Desolate); Magic Seasoning Pouch (Desolate); Housekeeping Doll [Five unclaimed]

City-level spread: 0/10000. Page unlock progress: 1/31000.

Sure enough, there were five rewards left. Overjoyed, Xue Xi prepared to open the chests, but her eyes caught the page unlock progress column, and she stared at it again in disbelief: "1, 2, 3... how can there be three zeros?"

Could it be that every time she completed a stage goal, the difficulty of unlocking pages increased tenfold?

Xue Xi felt utterly depressed. She had planned to put together a full Manchu-Han Feast set once she had over a hundred dishes, but now, even if she completed the city-level goal, she would only have 21 dishes at most. At this rate, who knew when she would ever reach a hundred dishes.

By the time she opened a shop in the universe, others would have tens of thousands of dishes, while she would only have a sparse few dozen. Her appeal would drop by a whole grade instantly.

Forget it, forget it. She would win by quality. Let's just look at the rewards!

She cleared the red dots one by one, and a familiar vortex appeared before her. Five items emerged: a small metal sphere, a pot, a wooden blade, and two books.

The small metal sphere flew out and vanished on the spot. The next second, a new function was added to the Gourmet Anchor:

Cooking Time Regulator (Desolate): Within the coverage of the Gourmet Anchor, you can enable time acceleration for cooking delicacies and brewing fine wine. Currently, the maximum is 1 Earth day : 10 Earth years.

Xue Xi felt as if she had been handed a pillow just as she was getting sleepy. She had previously worried that the wine-aging time was too long and that customers would think she was falsely advertising. Now, it was perfect—one day equaled 10 years. Wouldn't aging fine wine be a piece of cake?

The first reward was already so perfect. Xue Xi looked at the remaining items. A red book and a blue book shot directly into her mind. The next second, countless insights regarding fire and water flooded her heart—a Fire Control Technique.

Xue Xi opened her eyes, and the Myriad Manifestation Water and Culinary Spirit Fire hidden between her brows manifested, forming a small, constantly rotating Water-Fire Taiji Diagram.

Water rises, fire ignites! she recited internally. Xue Xi felt the genetic energy in her body surge toward her two arms under the mobilization of her psychic power.

With a poof, she opened her right hand. Xue Xi felt a warmth in her palm as a wisp of golden flame appeared, causing the surrounding air to ripple continuously; clearly, the temperature was terrifying.

A small water droplet also condensed in her left hand, turning into gas one moment and an ice bead the next—it was incredibly magical.

After playing with them curiously for a while, Xue Xi felt her strength draining rapidly and quickly put them away. It seemed she couldn't use them for long-term attacks until she reached the Planetary Realm.

There were also the pot and the blade. Xue Xi simply extracted them all. A wooden blade appeared in her right hand. The blade was carved with a golden Coiled Dragon with bared fangs and brandished claws; the tip was the dragon's tail, and the hilt was the dragon's head. Holding it, she could feel a cold aura. Clearly, this wooden blade was extremely sharp, though she didn't know what kind of wood it was made from.

Xue Xi's psychic power seeped into the wooden blade, leaving her aura on the golden spherical core inside. A piece of information was fed back from within:

Coiled Dragon Wooden Blade (Desolate): Crafted using the main trunk of the Coiled Dragon Divine Wood as the primary material, with Coiled Dragon blood essence as secret patterns, and forged after being baptized by heavenly lightning. It has a suppressive effect on beasts with low bloodline levels.

Xue Xi held the Coiled Dragon Blade happily, flourishing it with a beautiful spin: "Perfect! From now on, I won't have to worry about my kitchen knife rolling its edge when processing high-level ingredients!"

She tied the hilt to Little Wolf's long fur and picked up the last reward to examine it.