"Deep Blue, add points for me!"
"Ahwoo..."
"Gulp..."
With the final mouthful, Jiang Xuan swallowed the Delicacy Grade food Nan Zhi had brought back—Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. At last, he had fulfilled all nine prerequisites for becoming a Gourmet.
The system prompt rang out accordingly.
[You have completed the nine requirements for becoming a Gourmet. Transfer professions immediately?]
"Yes!"
Boom—
The instant he confirmed, Jiang Xuan felt as though a bomb of flavor had exploded within his mind. Countless tastes surged through every one of his senses. The plain meals and humble tea he had eaten before, the mountain and sea delicacies, the myriad flavors of mortal life he had just sampled, strange fragrant ingredients, even the fine wines and jade brews he had once drunk—all memories and flavors related to "food" churned and boiled within his sea of consciousness.
At that moment, Jiang Xuan felt as though his soul had become a pot of supreme spiritual soup, simmered for ten thousand years and fused with every flavor in the world.
"I understand now..."
The smoke and fire of mortal life soothed ordinary hearts best, and also concealed the Great Dao most deeply. The endless cycle of a thousand flavors, the changing of sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy, gave him the illusion that he had seen through the origins of all things.
Of course, it was merely a false sensation brought about by the sudden surge in power. Yet Jiang Xuan's understanding of flavors, food, and even the mortal world of smoke and fire had truly undergone a rebirth-like transformation.
That transformation was clearly reflected on his attribute panel:
[You have successfully transferred from Kitchen Apprentice to Gourmet.] [Your physique has undergone a baptism of spiritual essence, receiving comprehensive enhancement. Trait unlocked: Feast-Eating Physique · Beginner.] [Your profession passives "Taste a Hundred Flavors" and "Smell a Thousand Fragrances" have completed their transformation, advancing into: Thousand-Drawing Tongue and Hundred-Spirit Breath.] [Your profession skill "Cooking · Beginner" has advanced into: Feast Ritual.]
With that, a radiant profession card appeared on Jiang Xuan's attribute interface.
[Gourmet] [Grade: Treasure Grade (Purple)] [Level: 1/7 (Experience to level up: 1/700)] [Attribute bonus: Slightly increases physique strength per level.] [Profession traits: Thousand-Drawing Tongue, Hundred-Spirit Breath, Feast-Eating Physique · Beginner] [Active skill: Feast Ritual]
Several minutes later, the aftereffects of his profession transfer finally subsided. Jiang Xuan opened his attribute panel, and when he clearly saw the profession rating, he froze for a moment.
"Shouldn't Gourmet be Blue Rare Grade?... Wait, did I awaken a hidden rare skill?"
He instantly recalled the underlying setting of Skybound Immortal Journey—its various professions, skills, and traits were not set in stone. Beyond the basic abilities unlocked by default, there was also a chance of triggering random mutations and awakening hidden skills.
Take the most basic Qi Refiner, for instance. Beyond the Dao Foundation Contract, there was also an extremely low chance of awakening rare passives such as [Consume Qi] and [Five Qi Returning to Origin · Beginner].
The grade of an awakened skill directly affected the rating of the profession itself. Clearly, Jiang Xuan had struck it rich this time, directly unlocking an exceedingly rare hidden ability.
Lowering his gaze, Jiang Xuan read through the descriptions of every trait and skill word by word. Before long, he found the key that had allowed Gourmet to leap into a Treasure Grade profession, as well as the greatest gain from this profession transfer—the Purple Precious Grade active skill: Feast Ritual!
[Food is the heaven of the people. Eating is also the most important and most sacred matter in the mortal world. As a Gourmet, you are especially devout toward eating, and have always upheld the original intent of wasting nothing and treating nothing lightly; You may conduct the Feast Ritual three times each day; After conducting the Feast Ritual, under the blessing of the ritual's spiritual essence, you may swallow food equal to your own 'mass' in a single breath and digest it perfectly; Special effect: If you sample a Delicacy Grade or higher delicacy, there is an extremely low chance that through eating it, you may obtain part of the ingredient's inherent source traits.]
"By eating, I can plunder the source traits of ingredients... Then if I swallowed the flesh of a true dragon, wouldn't I be able to awaken a Dragonkin Bloodline directly?"
Jiang Xuan's heart stirred. The more he thought about it, the more possible it seemed. Without such heaven-defying potential, Gourmet could never have leapt straight into a Purple Precious Grade profession.
However, the skill description had made it clear: only by sampling Delicacy Grade food or above could this effect possibly trigger, and the probability was extremely low. Delicacy Grade ingredients and dishes cost hundreds or thousands of Spirit Stones at the slightest mention—far beyond what Jiang Xuan could afford right now.
"...But it doesn't matter. Even if I don't touch this trait-plundering ability yet, just being able to perfectly digest food equal to my own body mass is already an enormous profit! With this Feast Ritual, my Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Art can finally operate at full power without restraint!"
The thought had barely fallen when he caught a crucial detail in the skill description. "No, it says equal to my own 'mass,' not 'body weight.' There's probably much more to this."
"I'll find a chance to test it later, and then I'll know."
Feast Ritual was already heaven-defying, while the Feast-Eating Physique, Thousand-Drawing Tongue, and Hundred-Spirit Breath unlocked alongside it each possessed their own wonders. Of them, Feast-Eating Physique could directly increase Jiang Xuan's practical strength.
[Feast-Eating Physique · Beginner: A Gourmet can always eat more food. Your appetite has grown, your body can store more energy, your constitution has received a slight enhancement, and you are now immune to ordinary poisons.] [Thousand-Drawing Tongue: Through your tongue, beyond tasting the five basic flavors of food and examining its freshness and ripeness, you may use your tongue as a guide to taste the 'cooking' process of the food, and even the production and growth conditions of its ingredients.] [Note: When used together with Feast Ritual, more source-tracing abilities may be unlocked.] [Hundred-Spirit Breath: The sensitivity and range of your sense of smell have greatly increased. Beyond accurately capturing the countless fragrances of the world, you can also smell the emotions and obsessions contained within scents.]
"Every one of them possesses extraordinary power. Especially this Thousand-Drawing Tongue—it vaguely carries the meaning of tracing things back to their roots and touching upon karma."
Considering that "eating" was the most fundamental need of humanity and even all things and living spirits, the foundation of the Great Dao that ran through the cycles of heaven and earth.
A profession condensed around "food" had at its endpoint the Lord of the Myriad Spirits, capable of devouring all things. It was only natural for it to possess such divine wonders.
"No matter what, with my successful profession transfer, I now have hope of passing Four Seasons Valley's assessment."
"No." Feeling the Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Art within his body no longer restrained but operating at rapid speed, a smile appeared at the corner of Jiang Xuan's lips. "This will be the beginning of my rise. Now that I possess Feast Ritual, I no longer need to worry about passing the second round of assessment. What I need to fight for now is first place!"
Changing his goal from barely passing to taking the top spot—such was the earth-shaking improvement a Purple Precious Grade profession brought Jiang Xuan.
"Whew..."
The sudden enormous gain of Gourmet changing from Blue Rare Grade to Purple Precious Grade left Jiang Xuan's emotions surging. It took him quite a while to suppress all that roiling excitement.
Then he stepped forward and headed without hesitation toward the entrance to Four Seasons Valley's assessment.
"Tsk, another one who refuses to give up."
A student nearby could not help muttering under his breath, "Brother, I advise you not to waste your effort. This Four Seasons Valley assessment simply isn't meant for people to pass!"
Jiang Xuan's movement made the remaining students who had yet to leave shake their heads one after another, their faces filled with disdain. Clearly, no one believed he could clear this nearly unsolvable assessment.
Ignoring them, Jiang Xuan walked straight to the entrance of Yellow Mud Village.
There were four tables arranged neatly at the village entrance. A Four Seasons Valley Cultivator stood behind each one, corresponding precisely to the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
The burly young man Wu Shan, who had previously stood behind Xia He, guarded the second, summer table. Its surface was piled with plump, juicy, and sweet summer fruits.
Senior Sister Meng Yingyue, with her gentle and graceful demeanor, sat behind the third, autumn table. Before her lay full grains and autumn fruits bending branches under their weight.
As for the icy young man whose entire body radiated chilling cold, he guarded the last, winter table. It held the fewest items: merely some cold-resistant moss, roots deeply embedded in frozen soil, and Winter cold leaves with thorny edges.
The first, spring table at the very front was not guarded by Xia He as Jiang Xuan had expected, but by a particularly lively and restless-looking young man. The food on his table was mainly fresh, tender, emerald spring vegetables, brimming with vigorous life.
Remembering that he could only conduct the Feast Ritual three times a day, Jiang Xuan cupped his hands toward the senior brothers and sisters behind the tables and asked, "May I gather the foods of all four seasons together and sample them at once?"
"Of course." The first to respond was Zhou Qing behind the spring table. Compared to the aloof, frosty Cultivators of Star Sword Peak, the people of Four Seasons Valley were clearly much kinder. He smiled and waved his hand. "Take whatever you want to eat."
Having received permission, Jiang Xuan no longer stood on ceremony. Unwilling to waste his only three Feast Ritual opportunities for the day, he asked another question as he selected food. "My appetite is rather large. May I take more?"
The moment those words came out, Zhou Qing was briefly at a loss for words. Wu Shan and Meng Yingyue, on the other hand, both laughed.
Wu Shan laughed heartily. "Eat as much as you want from my table. There's plenty."
Immediately afterward, Meng Yingyue smiled gently as well, her voice soft and unhurried. "Even if you want to eat until you're full here, that's fine."
With everyone's consent, Jiang Xuan fully let himself go. He took a heaping handful of the summer fruits from Wu Shan's table; he filled most of a container with the autumn grains and fresh fruits before Meng Yingyue; even the green vegetables from the spring table and the cold-resistant foods from the winter table, he took ample portions of each. In mere moments, the food before him had piled into a small mountain.
This sight instantly filled Xia He, who had already been holding back her anger, with fury. Even Wu Shan and Meng Yingyue, who had been smiling moments earlier, furrowed their brows slightly.
It was not that they begrudged him these ingredients. It was simply that Jiang Xuan looked slender, yet had taken so much food in one go. No matter how they looked at it, he did not seem to be here for the assessment or to comprehend Dao resonance—rather, he looked like he had come deliberately to cause trouble.
The students who had not left, still clinging to a thread of hope that Four Seasons Valley might fail to recruit enough people and make an exception to take them in, all had their eyes light up at the sight.
"If he ruins all the food, how are they supposed to recruit anyone? Why didn't I think of that?"
"Jiang Xuan! Well done!"
From the rising chorus of jeers, it was clear that these people had also completely taken Jiang Xuan for someone deliberately causing trouble.
And this made Xia He, already hot-tempered by nature, unable to suppress the anger on her face any longer.
Whoosh!
With a flicker of her body, she stepped forward, intending to drive the deliberately troublesome Jiang Xuan away at once.
But just as she took that step, the anger on Xia He's face abruptly froze, replaced by astonishment filling her eyes.
—Having gathered all the ingredients of the four seasons, Jiang Xuan first closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, an entirely different and peculiar aura suddenly spread from his body.
It was solemnity, dignity, and wholehearted devotion.
He pressed his palms together, first deeply bowing toward the ingredients before him. Then he took out a small portion of the food, offering it upward to the vast heavens and downward to the great earth.
After completing the entire ritual, he fetched clean water and purified his hands, body, and mouth. He performed every movement with meticulous care, yet with utmost familiarity.
Naturally, he was familiar with it—he had performed these rites of honoring heaven and earth and purifying himself no fewer than a hundred times when casting the Three Purification Incantations.
And this caused a thought to flash through Jiang Xuan's mind: Perhaps my awakening of Feast Ritual, this Treasure Grade skill, was not entirely due to luck. Perhaps the Three Purification Incantations had always shared a deep connection with these rites of food, invisibly lowering the threshold for awakening it?