Chapter 122: Spirit Stones as a Cooking Ingredient

Deep within the snake nest, there stands a first-grade spirit wood, a great banyan tree.

It is several dozen zhang tall, standing like a giant umbrella; the shadow it casts shrouds all directions, and even more aerial roots hang down to the ground, piercing into corpses that are either fresh or decayed.

There are those of demon beasts, and those of humans.

Relying on identifying their outward appearances, one can judge that among the demon beast corpses here, there is no lack of second-grade demon beasts with large builds and significant lingering baleful aura.

There are also people dressed like fierce bandits or savages, clearly old patrol guards from the outpost camp; their cultivation is generally at the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, because if they hadn't reached this level, they wouldn't be classified as "old."

However, whether human or demon beast, whether fresh or decayed, they have all been drained of the spirit essence within their bodies, leaving only empty shells!

Looking around further, within a certain distance of the great banyan tree, no spirit objects exist, and even the spiritual Qi appears extremely thin, clearly having been swallowed and absorbed by it until exhausted.

It was precisely by following this abnormal flow of spiritual Qi that Du En found his way here.

Besides this, there is at least ten thousand jin of snake meat that can be used as food ingredients.

The so-called "if the quantity is insufficient, make up for it with quality."

Only after getting close can one see clearly that it is not actually the banyan tree blooming, but rather a few small, snake-like vines coiled and rooted into this spirit wood, absorbing its essential tree sap and then blooming with their own flowers.

Very quickly, he discovers that this great banyan tree is clearly strong on the outside but withered on the inside, likewise resembling an empty shell.

Arriving here and taking out a pot, Du En processes the snake meat while preheating it.

In any case, these spirit stones are of no use just sitting there, and every little bit saved helps, so Du En immediately begins to experiment.

The terrain here is high and relatively open, with no miasma or poison permeating it; the environment seems quite decent.

Using it at most ten times to maintain the quality of his spirit meals over these ten days can boost his number of cultivation sessions by three, reaching a total of thirty-three.

Of course, before finishing the harvesting and appraisal of them, there is one more important thing to do.

There is no need to keep any materials from those first-grade demon snakes, because first-grade magical artifacts are basically useless to him now; even if dozens of them were to self-detonate, they couldn't kill an unprepared early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Thinking to this point, Du En, who was just about to add the snake meat to start cooking, suddenly has a flash of inspiration.

Grind the count!

As for the craft of Spirit Seeking, on his end, as long as he can find a suitable place, he can quickly max out the current stage.

Harvesting and cooking one plant at a time is the way to go, as the deficit in his spirit meal cultivation is imminent.

Therefore, Du En decides to harvest them all.

【Hundred Arts: Spirit Seeking (Proficient 0/50)】

That's not quite right either; in short, using the pure spiritual Qi contained within spirit stones as a secondary auxiliary material to fill the gap allows for a reduction in the amount of primary auxiliary materials needed.

Everything falls into place; a breakthrough.

But exactly how long this period of time is, and whether the great banyan tree, already drained to the point of dropping in grade and becoming ruined, can continue to support its growth consumption—these are all hard to say.

"Spirit Seeking is easy to grind, but harvesting and appraisal are not."

"The logistics department doesn't have relatively affordable goods right now, and even if they did, going there too many times isn't really suitable; in the end, although I still have a little savings in spirit stones, I can't spend them..."

Moreover, after a brief analysis, he discovers that apart from one spot, it seems there are demon beasts entrenched and nesting in several other places?

Clearly, once Spirit Seeking reaches this stage, even the influence of demon beasts on the environment can be barely discerned; it is estimated that as soon as it is raised by another stage, he will be able to seek them out like living spirit objects.

Du En thinks this to himself after surveying the surroundings.

After processing the large pile of snake meat, he looks at the auxiliary materials; only a little of the original stock remains, along with three second-grade spirit herbs obtained from Huang Xiaosheng, and the four Snake Banyan Flowers harvested just today.

As corroboration, at this moment, his Spirit Seeking skill has already accumulated one more count; clearly, there is indeed a second-grade spirit object here.

"This tree is actually only first-grade? That shouldn't be right; with this level of absorption, even the relics and remains of these few people were sucked dry, and even things like magical artifacts turned into scrap iron—it should be at least second-grade middle-tier."

"Fortunately, after grinding Spirit Seeking to Proficient, seeking spirits here is no longer as difficult to find as before."

For the second-grade demon snake, he skinned it, kept the bones, and there are two fangs and a somewhat damaged poison sac; these can all be kept as materials for artifact refining.

And then, use them all up!

Looking around, Du En has already keenly detected traces of several other subtle clues; as long as he follows them, he will likely have a harvest.

Time to go back and cook.

Facts prove that using spirit stones for cooking is a task that tests a person.

Carrying the snake meat and spirit flowers, he flies back on his artifact and quickly arrives at a pre-selected spot on the periphery.

"Catching demon beasts for meat is still relatively simple; while Spirit Seeking, one can catch and kill them along the way, so there is often plenty of meat, but in terms of auxiliary spirit herbs, there is a shortage."

Once a harvest and appraisal is completed, the object harvested this time cannot be reused.

Finally, he takes flight on his artifact again, passes through the thick branches, reaches the top of the canopy, and finds a few small yellow flowers in the sun-drenched area that can evade divine sense.

Back and forth, repeating constantly; if someone were to see this, they would definitely find it quite bizarre and be unable to understand the reason for this person entering and exiting this place.

Just this one snake alone is enough for Du En to eat for ten to twenty days, and adding the other first-grade demon snakes, he can eat for at least a month and a half.

Once, twice... one hundred and ninety-six times.

Continue investigating.

However, that is a matter for the future; Du En does not think too much about it and concentrates on the present.

It is also because of this that the great banyan tree, which should have been a second-grade spirit wood, withered and regressed into a first-grade one, with only a bit of its foundation left on the outside; it is basically ruined, and even by desperately demanding and filling itself from the surroundings, it could not reverse its fate.

This is because, at the moment of harvesting, its various connections with the surrounding environment had already been severed.

If it were replanted in its original position and left for a period of time to reconnect, perhaps he could grind the count, but Du En currently has no spare capacity to spend on such matters.

However...

"In that case, let's call it Snake Banyan Flower; it has no irritation, is yellow in color, sweet in taste, warm in nature, contains plenty of spiritual Qi, and is second-grade middle-tier; if it grows for another period of time, it might be second-grade high-tier."

The accumulation of experience makes him gradually become more profound in this craft; at this moment, he is like a veteran who has spent seventy or eighty years making a living in various wild lands, able to accurately identify the traces of valuable spirit objects in primitive and complex environments with ease.

However, at this moment, his cooking skill proficiency is at the "Small Achievement" stage.

In other words, as long as he is given enough materials and the basic prerequisites are met, he can successfully cook even a third-grade spirit meal!

Now, facing mere low-grade spirit stones, after failing five times in a row, he still naturally overcomes this difficulty and makes a pot of suitable Banyan Flower Snake Soup.

(End of chapter)