pertwk Chapter 127 3rd Rank Spirit Chef, Spiritual Power Enters Subtle Stages
Chapter 127 3rd Rank Spirit Chef, Spiritual Power Enters Subtle Stages
Chapter 127 Third-Tier Spirit Chef, Spiritual Power Enters Subtle Stages
Although the Thunder Bull's essence blood was a mid-grade third-tier item, it was ultimately just essence blood and didn't possess much inherent lethality.
Chen Yi's case was relatively simple to handle.
He could even finish the task using his own culinary skills without the system's assistance.
The real problem is that phoenix egg.
The eggshell surface is covered with flowing red patterns, and inside it contains a trace of the true spirit of the phoenix, its spiritual power far exceeding that of ordinary third-tier materials.
After Chen Yi carefully examined the egg with his divine sense, he discovered that the spiritual fluctuations at the deepest part of the egg were not the middle grade of the third rank as initially estimated, but were close to the upper grade of the third rank!
Even with system assistance, the process is extremely slow, and the slightest carelessness could damage the precious spiritual essence of Nirvana within.
Fortunately, Chen Yi had the Ice Spirit Jade Pot, and with the help of the Wood Spirit Charcoal, he was able to barely balance the raging fire spirit power of the Fire Phoenix Egg.
He took a deep breath, and all the five-colored golden light in his body gathered in his right index finger, the fingertip gleaming with a metallic cold light.
The icy coldness of the Jade Pot and the blazing heat of the Wood Spirit Charcoal intertwined inside, creating a strange environment of contrasting ice and fire.
Chen Yi used his index finger as a guide, and the metal energy condensed into a needle, slowly probing into the pot and beginning to stir.
This single finger gesture condensed the energy of the Five Elements Golden Radiance, the Thunder Spirit Golden Radiance, and the energy of a third-tier golden crystal core.
Only with the precise control of third-order divine sense can one barely balance the thunderous power of the Thunder Ox's essence blood, the rebirth spirituality of the Fire Phoenix Egg, and the clash between the cold jade pot and the Yi wood charcoal fire.
The only price to pay was that the fingers were under tremendous pressure. The golden light was constantly being consumed by the repeated erosion of high temperature and cold air, and the fingertips even faintly felt burning and cracking pain.
In addition, stirring directly with your fingers is somewhat unrefined—but at this point, there is no better option.
Moreover, Chen Yi couldn't keep half of the ingredients for this dish, so he had to divide it into two portions after cooking.
Chen Yi kept one portion for himself and sent one portion to the other person, so Chen Yi ate the same thing as the other person.
Seven or eight hours passed, and Chen Yi, like an alchemist tending his furnace, focused intently on controlling the heat of the third-grade Yi Wood Spirit Carbon.
He would sometimes dip his index finger into the pot, golden light swirling at his fingertip, as he carefully sensed the spiritual changes within the food.
The thunderous power of the Thunder Ox's essence blood was slightly restless, and the rebirth spirituality of the Fire Phoenix egg liquid was slowly dissipating. The layers of the yolk, egg white, and thunder blood were still clearly distinguishable.
Gradually, Chen Yi frowned slightly.
Achieving a perfect balance of the spirituality of these three elements while completely eliminating any demonic energy is far more difficult than expected.
With his current culinary skills, he was finding it somewhat beyond his capabilities.
"It seems this is the only way."
With a thought, Chen Yi quietly activated the system, drawing a small portion of spiritual energy from the pot and using it to enhance his culinary skills.
In an instant, it was as if a sudden enlightenment had struck him!
The Five Elements Golden Radiance needs to be increased by one point in specific locations, the Thunder Spirit Blood should be extracted at the right time, and certain areas need to be activated with the Taiyi Longevity Magic Power to harmonize the raging fire spirit of the Fire Phoenix Egg Liquid.
A series of insights came one after another.
At this moment, Chen Yi seemed to have entered a state of enlightenment.
His understanding of culinary arts has broken through the constraints and leaped to a whole new level.
From simple food preparation to understanding the subtle changes in the five elements' energy within the ingredients;
From mastering a single ingredient to understanding the spiritual interplay and mutual restraint between different ingredients;
In particular, the demonic power, evil energy, and mixed spiritual power that had troubled him for many years became clearly discernible in his eyes at this moment.
Riding on this wave of enlightenment, Chen Yi was even able to spare a wisp of divine thought to re-examine his Taiyi Longevity True Talisman power, which was close to the Heavenly Foundation Establishment level.
This examination, however, gave him a jolt!
Those magical powers that were once thought to be perfectly pure actually contained hidden strands of discordant "impurities":
That was a small amount of Earth-grade magic power mixed in with the vast, ocean-like Heaven-grade Foundation Establishment magic power.
Ordinary cultivators would have no way of noticing it, and even Chen Yi yesterday could not tell the difference.
But at this moment, these "impurities" were as obvious as lice in his hair when scanned by his third-level divine sense.
In fact, those magical powers are not considered impurities at all for ordinary cultivators.
At best, this only applies to magic power where the vast majority of practitioners have reached the Heavenly Rank Foundation Establishment level.
It contains some earth-grade magical power.
An outsider would neither be able to notice nor distinguish it.
Before Chen Yi's cooking skills reached the true third level, he wouldn't have been able to distinguish between them.
But now, with his culinary skills advancing to the third level, his perception of energy has reached a level of subtlety.
The third-order divine sense swept through the meridians like a comb, able to pinpoint even the slightest discord:
Deep within the dantian, three strands of earth-grade magical power were hidden like swimming fish.
Within the key acupoints of the Ren meridian, the five strands of spiritual energy are like dust deposits;
Even in the most minute peripheral meridians, there are hidden specks of imperfections in spiritual energy.
Chen Yi remained calm and composed, using his third-order divine sense as a net to lock down every single "impurity".
The system then activated, precisely devouring and refining these earth-grade magical powers like a chick pecking at rice, returning them to their source as the purest spiritual energy.
The Taiyi Longevity True Talisman then began to operate, and the vitality of the green wood, carrying the new spiritual energy, circulated repeatedly in the eight extraordinary meridians.
With each major cycle, a portion of the spiritual energy transforms into true Heavenly-grade magical power; the portion that has not yet been transformed continues to be fed into the system's furnace.
This cycle continues until dawn.
As the last wisp of Earth-grade magic power was refined, a faint "click" sound suddenly came from Chen Yi's body—three hidden acupoints opened in response!
The Heavenly-grade magical power, which was originally like mist and dew, has now solidified like mercury, flowing endlessly through the newly opened meridians.
Previously, he estimated that it would take him more than a year to advance to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage.
It now seems that this may be achieved within a few months.
As long as there is sufficient replenishment of pure spiritual energy, and through repeated refinement using cultivation techniques,
Chen Yi's advancement to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage was a natural progression.
"Moreover, this is just magic power."
"It seems that the fusion of my body-refining energy—golden radiance, golden crystal, and golden crystal core—can continue to improve at the microscopic level."
With his culinary skills advancing to the third level, his perception and control of energy have reached a whole new level—
The flow trajectory of the five elements' spiritual power, the microscopic structure of metal-based energy, and the fundamental composition of demonic energy.
These subtle details, which were previously difficult to detect, are now clearly visible under the insight of his third-level divine sense.
Before us, this dish of Thunder Ox Essence Blood Stewed with Fire Phoenix Eggs is nearing completion.
Every step he took was almost at the level a third-tier spirit chef should be at.
Chen Yi did not hold back, after all, such ingredients containing true spiritual bloodline are extremely rare.
This cooking experience also significantly improved his own abilities:
The bottleneck in magical cultivation is loosened, the progress of the tempering of golden bones is advanced, and even the opportunity to open the fourth divine aperture is reached.
As agreed, he would keep half of the dish for himself after it was cooked.
This "wage" is far more beneficial to one's cultivation than ordinary pills.
"That's just letting that sharp-tongued, ugly woman get away with it."
However, Chen Yi remembered that the items were provided by the other party, and that the other party was doing it to stand up for Qin Chengcheng.
So I decided not to argue with them.
Only half of the spiritual food was cut off, leaving a small amount of impurities such as malevolent energy and demonic power.
The quality of the dishes was not excessively compromised, including the thunderous spirituality within the essence blood, the fiery spirituality of the core of the phoenix egg, and that faint hint of nirvana.
Chen Yi kept them all.
Of course, the half of the "wages" he received were naturally free of impurities and had a superior taste.
The following afternoon, two simply dressed middle-aged women once again entered Chen Yi's private kitchen.
The unattractive woman was somewhat surprised to see Chen Yi dressed as a chef greeting them.
"Not bad. You little cook didn't run away out of fear of punishment, which makes me think more highly of you."
"Did you fail to complete the project, or were you afraid of failure and didn't dare touch my Thunder Ox Essence Blood and Fire Phoenix Egg?"
Chen Yi remained calm, simply leading Qin Chengcheng to a private room and ignoring the ugly woman who had spoken rudely.
Feeling awkward, the ugly woman reluctantly followed him inside.
After the two were seated, Chen Yi said:
"Please wait a moment, the Thunder Ox Essence Blood Stewed Phoenix Eggs will be ready soon."
I'll go get it right now.
Chen Yi went out.
Seeing his calm demeanor, Qiu Li became somewhat unsure.
This kid, did he actually manage to make this dish?
She sent a telepathic message to Qin Chengcheng, expressing her doubts.
"Chengcheng, I remember you sent me a message a few years ago confirming that this kid is a second-tier spirit chef. He shouldn't suddenly advance to a third-tier spirit chef, right?"
Qin Chengcheng also looked puzzled: "I don't remember what happened before, but last time I brought the geniuses of Qi to eat here, the dishes he made were indeed no more than second-tier spiritual dishes."
Qiu Li breathed a long sigh of relief. "That's good. For any skill, the transition from second to third level is a hurdle, although not as easy as Foundation Establishment or Core Formation."
But it also involves a qualitative change in that skill, which cannot be achieved in just a few years.
This kid is definitely not going to amount to anything.
Before he finished speaking, Chen Yi had already slowly walked over, carrying the Ice Spirit Jade Pot.
But in the pot—
The surface is covered with a spiderweb-like purple lightning-patterned crystal shell, with fine electric arcs jumping and flowing on it.
The middle layer of amber-colored egg white spreads out like clouds, with dark purple blood-like gelatinous substance floating among it;
The lava-like yolk at the bottom slowly surged, while the phantom of a fire phoenix spread its wings and cried out at the core, and the Daoist rhyme of Nirvana rippled outwards in layers.
The three colors of spiritual light—violent purple lightning, scorching red fire, and chilling blue ice—intermingled and achieved a delicate balance within the cold jade pot.
The crimson glass cups, filled with ingredients, are made from eggshell powder and perfectly preserve the essence of the food.
The two women's pupils contracted slightly, and their breathing became a little more rapid involuntarily.
Spiritual food differs from spiritual pills. A single batch of pills can produce multiple pills, which can unleash extremely strong medicinal properties in a short period of time, providing cultivators with brief but powerful assistance.
Spiritual food, however, focuses more on healing injuries. Although it also possesses powerful medicinal properties, its effects are slow and long-lasting.
After consuming a spiritual food, it will take half a month or even a month to slowly digest the energy contained within it.
Especially at the third level, each dish has its own name.
Qin Chengcheng secretly glanced at him and, seeing Chen Yi's calm demeanor, was naturally happy for him.
"Chen Yi, when did your cooking skills reach level three?"
She couldn't help but secretly ask in her voice.
"Just last night, thanks to the spiritual food materials your friend sent, and her powerful aura, I, Chen, dared not fail to advance to the third rank."
Chen Yi replied telepathically.
Upon hearing this, Qin Chengcheng couldn't help but chuckle. If Sister Qiu Li knew that her coercion had led to Chen Yi's breakthrough in cooking skills, she wondered what kind of expression she would have.
Beside her, Qiu Li stared intently at the dish, observing it closely.
With her powerful spiritual sense, she naturally sensed the faint whispers between Chen Yi and Qin Chengcheng.
I didn't pay attention to those things for the time being, but instead carefully examined every detail of the dish.
A surge of emotion welled up within Qiu Li, but she outwardly maintained a nonchalant demeanor. She stared intently at the pot, her third-tier divine sense meticulously examining the spiritual dish.
The surface of the crystal shell has a uniform, net-like texture, and the purple electric arcs move regularly.
The middle layer of egg white is clear like amber, with dark purple, blood-red gelatinous substance floating among it;
The bottom layer of the egg yolk surged like lava, while at the core, the phantom of a phoenix flapped its wings and cried out, rippling out layers of rebirth.
The magnificent crimson glass cup is made from eggshell powder, perfectly locking in the essence of the phoenix's true fire, with not a single scorch mark on the cup's surface.
What's most amazing is that the purple lightning, crimson fire, and blue ice spiritual light intertwined in the cold jade pot—three attributes that should have been mutually antagonistic were now rotating together without disturbing each other, which was simply miraculous.
Each perfectly handled detail she discovered stirred a ripple in her mind.
Is this the ability of a third-tier artist?!
Although this dish was slightly immature in its control of the heat and was still some distance from being a top-tier third-level dish, it precisely met the threshold of the third level at every crucial step:
This is by no means a fluke, but a genuine achievement of a third-tier spiritual chef!
She came from Zhongzhou, and was one of the top geniuses there, so she had naturally seen a lot.
but,
Where is this?
This is a spiritual energy depression in the cultivation world, in the border state of Qi.
She knew the cook before her; he was just a rogue cultivator who had risen from the ranks of a mortal servant.
He possesses considerable talent for learning cooking and has made some progress through continuous self-study.
But how many years has it been? He's only been cultivating for 20 years, yet he's already reached the third level of his spiritual cooking skills?
For a time,
Qiu Li's pupils dilated in surprise, almost causing her to forget her disguise, and a stunningly beautiful look appeared deep in her eyes.
"Did you really do this? I underestimated this remote corner of Daqing."
Qiu Li glanced at Chen Yi indifferently.
The previous statement about using this to control Chen Yi, make things difficult for him, and force him to comply...
They swallowed it all back down.
This scene was one she had never envisioned unfolding.
She hasn't decided how to handle it yet.
Picking up the jade spoon, he calmly said:
"Little sister, don't just stand there, try it. This soup will greatly help your spiritual cultivation."
After eating, you need to properly absorb, understand, and digest it.
As she spoke, she scooped up a spoonful and tasted it herself.
At first, a tingling, numbing pain, like being struck by lightning, exploded from the tip of the tongue, with fine arcs of electricity dancing between the lips and teeth;
Three breaths later, the warm current of the fire spirit, like a spring breeze and rain, completely soothed the violent thunder.
Finally, the cool, sweet aftertaste of the Water Elemental Body reached the throat, and the three distinct spiritual energies formed a perfect cycle within the body.
An even more profound change occurred in the sea of consciousness:
The once peaceful world of the soul was now like a parched land receiving timely rain.
The spiritual rain, a mix of thunder and fire, fell softly, each drop causing the Tree of Divine Consciousness to stretch out new branches.
Qiu Li keenly sensed that his third-order divine sense, under the dual tempering of thunder and fire, was faintly giving birth to a trace of thunder spirit intent!
"Hmm"
A soft hum suddenly came from beside me.
Qin Chengcheng closed his eyes tightly, and his spiritual energy circulated freely throughout his body as he entered a deep meditation.
In Chen Yi's private kitchen, she dared to completely relax her mind and enter a deep state of secluded cultivation.
This soup was more important to her than to Qiu Li.
Qiu Li stared speechlessly at Qin Chengcheng, who had suddenly gone into deep seclusion, wanting to complain but unsure what to say.
Keep in mind, there were two other people watching nearby.
Aren't you afraid of being ambushed?
You trust this guy that much?
"Hmph~"
She gave a soft hum and ate two more mouthfuls of soup.
After carefully examining it for a while, I could barely find two minor flaws:
"The essence blood of the Thunder Ox contains a trace of demonic energy, which has not been completely removed."
The flames in the phoenix egg have decent spirituality, but the sense of nirvana is somewhat lacking.
Your skill in cooking is barely at the third tier.
There's nothing to be proud of.
There are at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, cooks like you in our Central Plains.
Qiu Li felt depressed, unable to unleash her planned outburst, so she resorted to picking at minor thorns.
Chen Yi sensed the effects of the soup on the two women and was in a very good mood.
Because the thunder and fire energy in this soup has a great effect on both his soul and body.
Moreover, Chen Yi had a hunch that perhaps he could use the power of this soup to try and open his fourth divine aperture.
If he succeeds, he is confident that he can directly break through to the third-tier divine soul!
Therefore, Chen Yi maintained his smile despite the ugly woman's nitpicking.
"The criticism from our distinguished guest is valid."
Chen was indeed not skilled enough; before the distinguished guests arrived, he had not even reached the threshold of the third level of culinary skills.
I also want to thank our distinguished guests for the premium ingredients and the Tier 3 kitchen utensils.
Including the powerful magic and divine inspiration the fairy displayed yesterday,
Chen was timid; under the fairy's tyranny, he worried about losing his job.
In a moment of desperation, he actually broke through to the third tier of Spirit Chef in one fell swoop.
It was a close call, but thankfully nothing serious happened.
Therefore, the fairy's criticism is true; Chen's skills are indeed lacking.
Please, fairy, bring more ingredients to offer your critique and guidance in the future.
"What? It was my pressure, the ingredients, and the cooking utensils that forced you to break through to the third-tier spiritual chef level?"
Upon hearing this, Qiu Li felt like vomiting blood.
(End of this chapter)