Chapter 405: Hua Gu Evaluates Wine

"Fake wine?" Hearing Hua Guzi's evaluation, Ning Zhuo raised his eyebrows, "Are you sure?"

Hua Guzi patted her chest hard, trembling as she guaranteed: "Young Master, I am a spirit chef. Although I am not good at making wine, spirit wine is in this category."

"The wine recipe is indeed contradictory, there will be no mistake."

After a pause, Hua Guzi continued: "I just tasted a sip and tasted two main ingredients in this wine. One is Yellow Springs Water, and the other is Night-Roaming Grass."

"Yellow Springs Water can solidify souls and fix spirits, often used in alchemy and talismans, but as a wine-making material, it is too cold and will directly damage the drinker's yang energy."

"Night-Roaming Grass grows in dark and damp places and can be used to enhance spirit and soul power, but its nature is gloomy. Therefore, it is not suitable for cultivators in the yang world; instead, it is suitable for ghost cultivators in the underworld. Therefore, it is often used as a resting place for the Night-Roaming God."

"Night-Roaming Grass and Yellow Springs Water are both gloomy and cold things. The power of the two is extremely similar and cannot produce a complementary effect; instead, it is easy to cause the wine's nature to be singular, bringing gloomy and cold diseases to cultivators."

After finishing the main ingredients, Hua Guzi talked about the auxiliary materials.

She tasted the Melancholy Nether Brew again and pinched her finger tactics repeatedly.

After a while, she looked at Ning Zhuo and asked: "Young Master Ning Zhuo, I think the auxiliary materials for this wine should be Moon Dew, Nether Jade, and Mermaid Tears, right?"

Ning Zhuo shook his head slightly, not hiding it at this time: "As far as I know, the first two are correct, but the latter is not Mermaid Tears, but Nine-Tailed Fox Tears."

Hua Guzi gave an 'um' and her expression was solemn: "Although Moon Dew has the effect of moisturizing the mind, its nature is cold and clear, often used to neutralize other hotter components in spirit food and pills. But in the Melancholy Nether Brew, it purely contributes to the cold nature; not only does it have no reconciling effect, but it intensifies the coldness of the overall wine body, making the wine's nature extreme."

"Nether Jade is a specialty of the underworld, often used in the manufacture of magic tools. Its attributes are steady and hold yin, good at protecting souls and fixing spirits. But as an auxiliary material, it is too heavy and stagnant, and the flow of spiritual energy in the wine body will be blocked, unable to maintain a light taste. Nether Jade's absorption capacity is extremely strong, easy to adsorb other spirituality in the wine, leading to a dull wine body, losing its proper activity and layering."

"The last item is Nine-Tailed Fox Tears. This kind of tear is relatively rare and precious, and has the effect of clearing away distracting thoughts and purifying souls, but it uses emotion as a guide, often with large fluctuations and difficult to control. Compared with the aforementioned gloomy and cold materials, although Nine-Tailed Fox Tears have a warm feeling, they cannot reconcile these overly cold main and auxiliary materials."

"Because the dosage is too small. I didn't taste it just now! In this case, the Nine-Tailed Fox Tears were excessively eroded by the coldness in the wine, making their own efficacy unable to be exerted and swallowed by the wine body."

Hua Guzi finished speaking and finally said: "So, to summarize, the main ingredients in this wine recipe are too close in nature, weakening the wine body's changes and depth, leading to the wine's nature becoming rigid."

"The Moon Dew and Nether Jade in the auxiliary materials not only did not reconcile the main ingredients but instead intensified the coldness and dullness of the wine body."

"The only hopeful Nine-Tailed Fox Tears have too small a dosage to reconcile the yin nature. And because of their emotional fluctuations and resonance, they are incompatible with the cold wine body, instead easily triggering huge emotional contrasts. If the drinker's state of mind is unstable, they may fall into soul vibration, indirectly leading to emotional changes becoming extreme, or even losing control."

Hua Guzi pondered: "If it were me, I would remove some main ingredients and auxiliary materials and use warm and yang materials to reconcile them."

"For example, Scorching Sun Fruit, Red Flame Lingzhi, Purple Yang Lotus Seeds, and even bolder, one could even choose Phoenix Gold Velvet."

Hua Guzi's attitude toward Ning Zhuo was different from ordinary people.

This explanation was completely heartfelt, without the slightest falsehood.

Ning Zhuo pondered for a moment and asked her: "Then can this wine make people's thoughts spread, reach the underworld, perceive the wisdom of predecessors, and get guidance from the dark?"

Hua Guzi's eyes widened and she smiled: "How is that possible? Young Master, were you deceived by someone?!"

Ning Zhuo fell into deep thought again.

He tasted the wine again, and the taste was no different from before.

Did Linghu Jiu deceive him?

According to his understanding of Linghu Jiu's temperament, this made no sense at all.

Did Linghu Jiu give fake wine? If he didn't want to give it, there was no need to share the last jar of wine, just say it was finished, wouldn't that be fine?

Why go to the trouble!

Seeing that Ning Zhuo hadn't finished speaking and was frowning in thought, Hua Guzi also wanted to share the burden for Ning Zhuo and took the initiative to suggest: "Young Master, if you want to communicate with the netherworld and get guidance from predecessors, there are actually many ways."

"The most orthodox and safest way is the grand ceremony of ancestor worship."

"Because of blood kinship, ghosts in the underworld will not easily attack us. They will benefit more from the grand ceremony, maintain rationality, and restore humanity."

"Actually... the separation between the yin and yang worlds is the pattern of heaven and earth, and it makes sense."

"The gloomy coldness of things in the underworld is deep, and can even distort temperament, filled with evil emotions such as hatred and resentment, to the point that they have jealousy, longing, and a destructive heart for things in the yang world and things of vitality that they cannot obtain."

"For cultivators like us in the yang world, we should not have too much contact."

"Otherwise, it is easy to lead to many sequelae."

Hua Guzi felt worried for Ning Zhuo and expressed genuine concern.

Ning Zhuo, however, did not listen carefully but was thinking about this matter.

With his investigation and Hua Guzi's evaluation of the Melancholy Nether Brew, the whole thing became even more complicated.

"What is the truth?"

"Where did I feel strange?"

"Is Hua Guzi really wrong? She and Linghu Jiu are completely opposite..."

"No, or are they both right?"

Ning Zhuo thought about these things, somewhat lost in thought.

Hua Guzi was watching Ning Zhuo's face carefully from the side, feeling secretly excited in her heart: "Sure enough! Young Master Ning Zhuo's appearance when frowning and thinking is so stylish!"

"I really want to hold his head in my arms and rub it well." This emotion of Hua Guzi was too intense, so much so that Ning Zhuo quickly noticed it through the Human Life Hanging Thread.

Ning Zhuo:...

He quickly asked Hua Guzi to leave.

"I was driven away, I was driven away by Young Master Ning Zhuo!" After Hua Guzi walked out of Ning Zhuo's cave dwelling, she was so angry that her eyes were blurred and her face was flushed.

Ning Zhuo returned to the cave dwelling but no longer pondered.

"The fog is heavy right now, it's better to wait for the results of further discussions with the Ancestor before making a judgment."

The spirit plant cabin in the Ten-Thousand-Mile Swimming Dragon was already empty.

The Spirit-Hidden Willow had already been taken away by Ning Jiufan.

This also made Ning Zhuo feel empty in his heart, quite uncomfortable.

Not long after, Ning Jiufan found him again and informed Ning Zhuo of the progress of further discussions.

The news was mixed.

The good news was that after Lin Bufan personally investigated, he had already taken the Spirit-Hidden Willow over and indicated that it could be healed properly, but it would take a lot of effort—

It would take a lot of time and many resources to heal slowly.

The resources here involved many Nascent Soul-level resources. So much so that Ning Jiufan used his Earth Fiend Fire as a deposit on the spot and paid it to Lin Bufan.

The bad news was that regarding the wine recipe for the Melancholy Nether Brew, Lin Bufan directly stated that this was a non-sale item that was out of the question and forbidden for external sale.

After Ning Jiufan communicated with Ning Zhuo and found that Ning Zhuo drinking the Melancholy Nether Brew had no effect, he advised: "The current negotiation situation is severe, it is better to put the Melancholy Nether Brew aside first and prioritize the Spirit-Hidden Willow."

"Sect Master Lin Bufan's meaning seems to be that he also wants to rub against the Spirit-Hidden Willow. He also wants to strive for a few usage quotas to give to the cultivation seeds in the sect. Of course, this is all based on the premise of healing the Spirit-Hidden Willow."

"I think this is perfectly fine! Of course, it depends on your meaning, after all, the Spirit-Hidden Willow was given to you by the Mount Wuyin Mountain God."

Ning Jiufan suggested this.

His meaning was very simple, mainly two points.

First, agreeing to such cooperation can reduce the great pressure on the Ning clan in terms of payment.

Second, giving a few usage quotas to the Myriad Medicine Sect can also continue and deepen the cooperation content between the two sides, making the relationship between the two sides more solid, resilient, and lasting.

Ning Zhuo nodded, expressed agreement with Ning Jiufan's opinion, and adopted it immediately.

At the same time, he also told Ning Jiufan about Hua Guzi's evaluation.

At this, Ning Jiufan also felt puzzled and strange.

After the Ning family grandfather and grandson speculated for a while, there was no progress.

"The Melancholy Nether Brew has become a minor detail, thinking too much is useless, it is better to grasp the key points. What do you think?" Ning Jiufan finally said.

Ning Zhuo sighed and nodded helplessly.

He pretended to agree, but in his heart, he couldn't get past it.

This strange feeling became more and more serious, and gradually an intuition became stronger—the Melancholy Nether Brew was a flaw that he had accidentally dug out. The truth buried inside was likely very shocking!

That night, Ning Zhuo tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

By the next morning, he solemnly instructed Sun Lingtong: "Boss, there is a very important letter that needs you to deliver it personally!"

He let Sun Lingtong quietly drive the Ten-Thousand-Mile Swimming Dragon to stay away from the Myriad Medicine Sect first, deliberately getting rid of the Myriad Medicine Sect's influence range, and then send this letter to the royal capital through the Nandou Kingdom's station.

That's right, this letter was still for Zhu Xuanji.

It is conceivable that Zhu Xuanji would be quite surprised to receive this letter. He didn't expect Ning Zhuo to send him a second letter so quickly.

But in fact, even Ning Zhuo himself had not thought about writing to Zhu Xuanji again so quickly.

After Sun Lingtong secretly drove the Ten-Thousand-Mile Swimming Dragon back, and Ning Zhuo confirmed it, he took the national cellar Lovesickness Wine and went to visit the Myriad Demon Cave again.

"Brother Linghu, I'm here again!" Ning Zhuo carried the wine jar, in high spirits.

Linghu Jiu also laughed: "Please, please."

"Good brother, what good wine did you bring this time?"

Linghu Jiu's nose twitched, but he couldn't smell the wine. It was because the jar of wine taken by Zhu Xuanji from the royal treasury was well-made, very rigorous and precise, and not a trace of wine smell leaked out, firmly locked in the wine jar.

Ning Zhuo didn't stand on ceremony. After entering the cave, he sat down directly and placed the wine jar on the stone table.

He patted the wine jar lightly: "Brother Linghu, let me sell a mystery. What kind of wine this is, won't we know after opening the jar later?"

"Where are the wine bowls?"