Chapter 249: Special Spirits: The Master

After the small gathering ended, Yu Xiaogang returned to his residence alone.

His heart was currently very wounded, very aggrieved, and very angry.

Although Oscar had said a lot, the rest was unimportant; he could not mind it, he could ignore it, but the matter of Jerry dropping out of school had always been a thorn in his heart, stuck in his throat, difficult to swallow.

Every time he thought of the words he had said to Jerry back then, coupled with his own personal experience of breaking through, he felt his face flush.

He had originally thought no one knew about this matter, but now it had been spread until everyone in the world knew.

Yu Xiaogang knew Jerry's character; this matter should not have been spoken of by Jerry, so it could only have been that little girl who was by Jerry's side at the time.

Now, seeking out who had spread it had no meaning anymore; it had already spread.

Yu Xiaogang valued his reputation very much; this matter would become a stain on his life, a stain even more serious than the matter of his Innate Half-Level Spirit Power, and it would affect him for his entire life.

Even if he were to publicly announce his attainment of godhood in the future, it would be inevitable that others would discuss it, and some might even record it in history books to be passed down for ten thousand years, so he had been so angry at the time that he spat blood directly.

He had no way to explain the matter of Jerry; even if he wanted to smear him, it wouldn't work, as Jerry's reputation was too good, and the mud simply couldn't be splashed onto him.

This matter could only be silently endured in his heart; Yu Xiaogang felt that the reason Oscar had brought up this matter was rooted in the food that permanently increased attributes.

Could a food-type Spirit Master really make food that permanently increases attributes?

Why had he never heard of such a thing from ancient times to the present?

What kind of Spirit Ring must a food-type Spirit Master absorb to obtain a spirit skill that permanently increases attributes?

In the following days, Yu Xiaogang did not go to study the Teleportation Array, but instead went to the Wuhun City library to check various materials regarding food-type martial souls, wanting to see if he could find the answer within them.

The result was predetermined; a food-type Spirit Master's spirit skills could not permanently increase attributes, so these materials contained no records of this aspect at all.

The reason Wuhun City had food that permanently increased attributes was due to two reasons.

First, the chef's martial soul was a Recipe Spirit.

Second, there were some foods that were actually Medicinal Cuisine.

Regarding things like the Recipe Spirit, as well as some more alternative ones, Jerry categorized them all as Special Spirits.

Special Spirits might not be very powerful, but they all had their own unique uses.

A martial soul like a recipe looked like a Book-type Spirit, but its function was completely different from other Book-type Spirits, yet its effects were very powerful.

The only flaw was that every time a new recipe was unlocked, all the previously unlocked ones had to be made.

At the beginning, one hundred dishes unlocked one, then it was one thousand times, and after that, it wasn't a matter of quantity, but that many ingredients were not easy to gather.

Previously, there was a support in the the Spirit Hall Team whose martial soul was a Healing Book, which was also a book, but his martial soul was more like a tool-type martial soul and was helpful for combat.

Whereas a martial soul like a recipe had no help at all during combat; one couldn't very well ask everyone to pause during a fight so one could eat something to replenish one's state before fighting again.

The development path for this kind of martial soul should be a life profession, as its role in daily life was significantly greater than its role in combat.

There were many more martial souls with special functions like the recipe.

When Jerry was researching before, he also discovered a type of gourd martial soul.

This gourd martial soul was named by Jerry as the Brewing Gourd Spirit.

At the very beginning, many people regarded this gourd martial soul as a useless martial soul, because no matter what spirit ring was absorbed, no spirit skill could be activated.

Jerry researched for a long time, but he did not figure out the use of this martial soul.

In an accidental situation, he remembered that in the past, weren't gourds used to hold things?

After trying many times, he discovered that except for wine, nothing else could be put inside, and once the gourd was filled with wine, the spirit skill could be used.

The Spirit Master experimenting at the time had a first spirit ring of only 120 years; after filling a gourd with new wine, he felt that he could activate his spirit skill.

After activating the spirit skill, there was no reaction on the exterior, but after pouring the wine out, this new wine had directly turned into 120-year-old wine.

Jerry had his own hotel and brewed wine himself, so he could be considered quite knowledgeable about wine; now that he had discovered a gourd martial soul that could increase the age of wine, it left him stunned.

Wouldn't this mean he could mass-produce 120-year-old wine!

Many Spirit Masters liked to drink, and wine was a consumable, so it could bring Jerry a large sum of income every month.

Seeing this gourd martial soul, it was as if he saw piles and piles of money waving at him.

Afterward, this Spirit Master told Jerry that everyone in their village awakened this kind of gourd, which made Jerry incredibly happy; he went to the village in person and recruited everyone with this gourd martial soul.

Under Jerry's cultivation, these people all had great improvements.

With the accumulation of massive resources, someone finally broke through to level twenty.

This level-twenty Spirit Master absorbed a 280-year spirit ring for his first spirit ring, and a 660-year spirit ring for his second spirit ring.

He had thought there would be two spirit skills, but the result was not like that; there was still only one spirit skill, but the effect of the spirit skill was to turn the age of the wine into 940 years—this age was completely the result of adding the two spirit ring ages together—and after absorbing the second spirit ring, the capacity of the gourd to hold wine became larger.

The only drawback was that every time the spirit skill was activated, it would consume all of the Spirit Master's soul power; if it was exhausted, it would take several days to recover.

However, Jerry had Soul Power Pills and Restoration Pills; low-age Soul Power Pills could completely be used as recovery medicine, and coupled with the effect of the Restoration Pills, it would recover in less than an hour.

Only someone as wealthy and imposing as Jerry, who didn't take low-level Soul Power Pills and Restoration Pills seriously, would dare to use them this way.

Hundred-year-old wine was already considered good wine on the Douluo Continent.

Although the quantity was small, the price was high; once it hit the market in Wuhun City, it was very popular and in short supply.

However, the cultivation speed of this martial soul was truly slow; even in the cultivation room, the soul power they absorbed every day was limited.

No wonder many people in Gourd Village did not cultivate after awakening their martial souls, even if they had soul power; this kind of martial soul cultivated far too slowly.

For such an heaven-defying martial soul, having this flaw was to be expected.

If they cultivated the same as others, they would probably be able to make ten-thousand-year wine by the time they reached the Soul Saint realm through normal cultivation, and the value of that pot of wine would go without saying.

Even if they only cultivated to level ten, by casually absorbing a hundred-year spirit ring, they could become wealthy relying on hundred-year-old wine.

This was too unfair to others, so the slow cultivation should be the world's restriction on this kind of martial soul.

There were also some martial souls that Jerry classified as Special Spirits; these were relatively common, such as: sickles, hoes, shovels, iron pots, etc.

There were simply too many people who awakened these types of martial souls, and many did not have soul power, but there were still some who awakened soul power.

Some who awakened soul power would be treated as battle-type Spirit Masters and cultivated after being sent to an academy.

But Jerry did not think so; these types of martial souls were tools to begin with, and tools were meant to fulfill the purpose of tools, not to go into battle.

The Spirit Hall Academy has an Agriculture Academy; all Spirit Masters with Sickle Spirits, hoe spirits, or Shovel Spirits are sent there to farm, and their Spirit Rings are also chosen for their utility in farming.

The final Fruiting was just as Jerry had envisioned; they are developing very well along the path of agriculture.

For example, with a Sickle Spirit, one can harvest crops faster, and after cutting weeds, it can cause the weeds to grow back more slowly.

When using hoe or Shovel Spirits to till the land, they gather some of the soul power from heaven and earth, allowing the planted vegetation to absorb more soul power and grow better.

Things like iron pots are sent directly to the Chef Academy, and it turns out the food cooked is more delicious; furthermore, people who awaken these types of martial souls learn culinary arts faster than others.

As he researched more and more Special Spirits, Jerry discovered that many Special Spirits are not meant for combat professions; they are inherently better suited for life professions.

Jerry recorded this data under the life profession category, yet Yu Xiaogang was looking for data on food-type Spirit Masters.

Since the direction was wrong, even if he finished reading all the books and data in this category, he would not find any records regarding Special Spirits.

Therefore, for him to want to answer Oscar's questions without anyone pointing him in the right direction is completely impossible.

The Spirit Hall Outer City Library collects general books and data from the entire continent, along with some books made public by the Spirit Hall, totaling over 60 million volumes.

Just the category of food-type martial souls alone contains over 900,000 volumes; even if Yu Xiaogang were to read for a hundred years, he would not finish them.

Because of Oscar's words this time, Yu Xiaogang is holding his breath; even knowing the library has a vast collection, he is determined to bite the bullet and keep reading.

Yu Xiaogang is indeed a research-oriented talent; he is very focused and dedicated when reading, and he is completely undisturbed by other matters.

He soon immersed himself in the ocean of books, forgetting to eat and sleep every day.

Midway, Tang San went to look for Yu Xiaogang once.

He originally wanted to see how Yu Xiaogang's research on the Array was going and if there had been any progress.

But the reality left Tang San a bit disappointed; the data had been given to the Master, yet he was not researching it, but instead had gotten hung up on food-type martial souls.

Oscar's words really had a huge impact on the Master; until the Master finds the answer, he probably won't do anything else. It seems he still needs his help.

Afterward, Tang San returned to work at the Spirit Hall Academy and began reading data on food-type martial souls during his spare time.

It really is unexpected; Oscar's venting led both of them down a wrong path.

And our protagonist of the incident, Oscar, is currently eating and drinking heavily with Ma Hongjun.

A few days ago, they obtained a reserved spot that they could use today; this spot allowed them to bring others, but the two of them did not want to bring Tang San and the others.

Ma Hongjun, this little fatty, suffered for several years in the Extreme North and finally managed to slim down; now that he has arrived in Wuhun City, he has a tendency to rebound again.

Ma Hongjun's Evil Fire was originally very difficult to suppress, and without the Immortal Herb, he could only spend his nights in pleasure houses at the beginning.

Because of the things Jerry did in the lower realm, the God Realm had to make arrangements in advance; Ma Hongjun can be considered a lucky one, having been favored by the Fire God.

The rewards from the God Trial purged his Evil Fire, and he also began to practice Cultivation diligently.

With the accumulation of Evil Fire gone from his body, his figure slimmed down before long.

The slimmed-down Ma Hongjun is actually quite handsome, which boosted his self-confidence significantly.

However, during this period, he has been eating and drinking excessively with Oscar; Oscar is the type of constitution that doesn't gain weight no matter what he eats, but Ma Hongjun is not.

One can only blame the food for being too tempting; Ma Hongjun cannot resist.

In order to eat more delicious food, Oscar and Ma Hongjun initially went to the Gravity Field to exercise, but with no one to restrain them, once their enthusiasm faded, the two never came again.

On this day, after the two had eaten and drunk their fill, they began to chat.

"Wuhun City is great, it just lacks some entertainment options!"

After eating and being warm, one thinks of carnal desires; although Ma Hongjun's Evil Fire has been purged, a man who has tasted meat but hasn't had any for too long cannot resist.

"Alright, stop thinking about that; you don't even have Evil Fire anymore, why don't you just find a proper girlfriend?"

Oscar advised; he knows Ma Hongjun very well. In the past, it was because of the Evil Fire that his girlfriends couldn't handle it; after changing a few girlfriends, Ma Hongjun stopped looking.

But the situation is different now; without the Evil Fire, Ma Hongjun can perfectly well find a proper girlfriend.

"Forget it! Finding a girlfriend is too much trouble."

Ma Hongjun had actually thought about finding a girlfriend properly, but for some reason, every time he started with great enthusiasm, his enthusiasm would dissipate after a few days without results.

Someone accustomed to eating fast food needs a long time to adapt to sitting down and eating a quiet meal.

"By the way, Oscar, I don't think the Master did it on purpose; look, in order to give you an answer, he has been reading in the library these past few days."

They are renting a courtyard to live in; although they haven't spoken these past few days, one only needs to ask to know what everyone is doing.

Ma Hongjun has seen the Master go to the library every day, leaving early and returning late.

"Hongjun, what do you mean by 'give me an answer'? It should be said that Yu Xiaogang wants to give himself an answer!"

"During this time, the two of us have been together; Yu Xiaogang's affairs are no secret. He is a notorious figure in Wuhun City, and everyone knows it."

"His deeds when he was young, and his later deeds in the Spirit Hall, haven't we found them all out clearly?"

"His so-called knowledge and so-called theories from before were all compiled using this incomplete data from the Spirit Hall; they were never verified at all!"

"You say he uses these unverified theories to teach us; have we become his experimental subjects?"

"I get angry just thinking about him treating us as experimental subjects!"

"We have already found out that the Spirit Master who can create food that permanently increases attributes has a Recipe as their martial soul, which does not belong to the food-type martial souls. This is no secret in Wuhun City. I have a grudge against Yu Xiaogang, so I didn't tell him, and didn't you not tell him either?"

After Oscar finished speaking, he looked at Ma Hongjun with a playful expression.

As Oscar was talking, he suddenly shifted the topic to him; Ma Hongjun was also stunned for a moment, then spoke up:

"Isn't it because I saw you were full of resentment? As your good brother, since you hadn't spoken, how could I speak? Besides, Yu Xiaogang only taught me for a period of time; the one who mainly taught me was my master, Flender."

"Give me a break! Doesn't Flender listen to Yu Xiaogang? Do you dare to say that some of your Cultivation directions weren't decided by Flender consulting Yu Xiaogang?"

Oscar didn't wait for Ma Hongjun to continue and interrupted him directly.

"Fine! I admit it, I was just watching the show and forgot!"

"I knew it!"

"Hahahaha"

(End of chapter)