Babata poked out of the smoke-belching screen, grinning sheepishly at the two dark-faced people. "Well, it's not a big problem. I just forcibly destroyed the spaceship's intelligent system. I can split off a sub-body to replace it, but..."
Luo Feng looked at the guilty Babata, speechless. "Xue Xi warned you, and you still rushed in recklessly. What do you mean, 'but'? Go on."
Babata flapped his demon wings and tapped his two index fingers together in front of his chest. "The repairs will just take a little longer. But don't worry. I, Babata the master repairman, will definitely have it fixed within a year!"
There was nothing else they could do at this point, so Luo Feng first put the Black Dragon Mountain X81 Spaceship into the World Ring. Once Hong and Thor's shipwrecks arrived, they could toss those in too and have Babata repair them.
Afterward, the two searched the fleet's mothership wreckage for salvage. They found several usable C-class laser cannons, three repair robots, and two Flowing Silver Guards. The rest was mostly things like the spaceships' energy cores, and they took it all.
Only when the red sun was half-sunk below the sea did Xue Xi and Luo Feng emerge from the water one after the other. Their telekinetic power kept them from touching the seawater at all, leaving them dry and neat.
"Xue Xi, this time we've made a huge haul. You got the spaceship you wanted, too. You've been running the restaurant for so long. How about taking a break for the next year and getting ready for our future travels through the universe?"
Xue Xi shook her head. "No need. As long as I completely master a dish, my Domain records it permanently. It's not that tiring, anyway. Besides, my Domain keeps growing with my cooking experience. It's almost at the ninth level now. How could I stop?"
At that, Luo Feng looked at Xue Xi with envy. "Your Domain is way too useful. I only just barely comprehended the Gold Domain from your teppanyaki. Even with a thousandfold acceleration, I'm only at the third or fourth level. Meanwhile, you're practically riding a rocket and about to reach the ninth!"
But Xue Xi didn't look happy. "Sigh, I've already explained the Laws to you in broad strokes. I may be advancing quickly, but I don't know where to go with the Laws later on. My Domain is made up of water and fire attributes, but those are only low-level Laws. I'm bound to hit a limit. I can only see..."
Thinking of the Gourmet Catalog in her mind, Xue Xi's eyes lit up. She wondered what rewards the Great Book would offer at the higher levels.
"Can only see what?" Luo Feng's curiosity was eating at him after she abruptly stopped.
Xue Xi came back to herself and teased him. "What else? I can only hope that our Luo... Chairman will be successful someday and give a humble girl like me plenty of business!"
Luo Feng knew everyone had their secrets, so he didn't press her. Instead, he played along. "Hey, Fourth Sister, you're calling me Chairman Luo now? We've grown distant. Our relationship has gone cold!"
The two chatted and laughed their way back to the restaurant, which had become the four of them's meeting place. Thor and Hong were already sitting beneath the moon, each with a jar of wine, drinking together. Xue Xi and Luo Feng took their seats too. With a wave of her hand, a jar of wine and a glass of iced cola floated over.
The four exchanged glances, then raised their wineglasses and drink glasses and clinked them together. "To the stars and the sea—cheers!"
The two curators who had protected humanity during the Great Nirvana Period and the two young people who would open the way to humanity's future among the stars raised their cups and drank together. It was as if they were remembering the past while watching over the future.
Xue Xi downed the Tianfu Cola in her glass. The sweet, spicy, fizzy drink burst across her throat. She set her glass down on the table with a smack and stood up. The other three leaned back in surprise. This girl had only been drinking cola—why did she look drunk?
Seeing their reactions, Xue Xi smiled. "Relax! Look at you. Keep drinking; I'll go whip up a few snacks to go with it."
Then she rolled up her sleeves. Since she was cooking for her own people today, she didn't need to make a lot. She would handle the cooking herself.
As she entered the kitchen, the motion-sensor lights came on automatically. Xue Xi pulled a slaughtered Fire-Scaled Three-Trident Pig out of the freezer. It had reached high Lord Rank, and Luo Feng had hunted it on the North American continent. Xue Xi decided to prepare a whole-pig feast!
As luck would have it, five of the ten recipes unlocked by the Stellar Rank target last time involved pork. Today, she would make five different dishes using the Fire-Scaled Three-Trident Pig.
She put the kitchen spirit flame into the SS-Rank Alloy Stove she'd had Xu Xin make to order. For the first dish, Xue Xi planned to make Braised Pig Trotter. Its modified effect granted the eater a shield that could withstand one attack, in any form, from an opponent five minor levels above them.
That was only the Hong Rank effect Xue Xi had managed to produce so far. At Cosmos Rank, the shield could withstand attacks from opponents seven minor levels above the eater. At Universe Rank, it could withstand attacks from a full major level above them.
The Coiled Dragon Blade came down mercilessly. With telekinetic power helping, she quickly cleaned the trotters, then cut them into neat chunks.
Next, she drew the stored water from the Universe Pot into the usual cooking area. She added a spoonful of cooking wine, put the trotters into cold water to blanch, and skimmed off the foam once the water boiled. After boiling them for 45 minutes, she scooped out the scalding ball of water and set the trotters aside.
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