Chapter 65: Astonishing Medicinal Meals

In front of the City Lord’s Mansion, within the towering mechanical camp surrounded by watchtowers and artillery bunkers, amidst the bustling scene of cooking, wisps of enviable spiritual food aroma were condensing into misty vapors, drifting in all directions.

Nowadays, this has become quite a sight.

Everyone knows that the City Lord’s Mansion offers excellent benefits, especially for those exploration teams, for whom private chefs have even been hired specifically to prepare spiritual food and medicinal meals.

Every morning at departure time, the spiritual chefs of each camp begin preparing spiritual food supplies, attracting many idle mortals to come close and sniff the scents; similar scenes often appear outside large restaurants like the Garuda or the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.

The Ninth Exploration Team gathered in full at the camp’s long table.

With eyes full of anticipation, they looked inside the camp at the extremely luxurious and trendy setup, which resembled both a mechanical kitchen and a special alchemy room. Wisps of fragrance wrapped in rich medicinal Qi drifted out, causing the six members—Zhan Kui, Luo Sheng, and Mi Wuniang—to involuntarily salivate, their stomachs rumbling incessantly.

To them, private spiritual chefs were nothing rare; they could afford to dine on the fourth or even fifth floors of large restaurants.

But because Li Yu added medicinal meal properties, it was more special, and the six were even more expectant.

Although many spiritual foods have various medicinal effects, including "healing," they are far from comparable to tailor-made medicinal meals.

As for spiritual pills and elixirs?

They exist, but they are all of very low grade.

High-grade, effective spiritual pills are extremely rare and are usually consumed by the refiners themselves.

Giving them to others not only greatly diminishes the effect but also carries risks.

Especially the Heart-Compassion Pills and Skin-Peeling Weird Pills that Li Yu refines in private; if others were to eat them, they would mutate and die on the spot.

"It’s here!"

Following this shout, six items pierced through the fragrant mist and landed precisely in front of the six people.

Being tailor-made, they were naturally all different.

The six of them each took a glance and saw wine, a powdery substance, porridge, canned goods, sliced raw fish, and medicinal pills.

The captain, Zhan Kui, had the most impatient temperament and was also fond of drinking; while the other five were still observing, he had already grabbed a bottle of scarlet, blood-like liquid that emitted a strong alcoholic aroma and gulped it down.

Li Yu, who had just come out of the medicinal meal room, didn't even have time to introduce it.

However, it seemed he didn't need to; the next moment, the medicinal effect took hold on the spot.

One could see Zhan Kui’s body gradually turning bright red, the pores all over his body opening, and wisps of black-red foul air spilling out; clearly, the residual evil Qi in his body was being purged.

And even more astonishingly, the dense, crisscrossing scars on his face, which had existed for who knows how many years, actually began to show signs of healing.

But at this sight, the numbness and itching coming from his face made Zhan Kui seem as if he had encountered some disaster; his terrifying body trembled slightly, and he immediately stopped, spitting out all the wine he was about to swallow with a splutter.

Then he turned his head abruptly, his eyes bloodshot and filled with bloody tears, his face twisted, staring at Li Yu with a violent gaze that seemed to want to devour someone.

The terrifying pressure belonging to a Sequence 7—and specifically a Sequence 7 of the Blood God path, which was best at slaughter and combat—was like a storm about to drown him.

"What... did you do?"

"The scars on my face cannot disappear."

Even if he were slow, Li Yu would have guessed there was some secret here.

Without any hesitation, he said quickly: "The medicinal effect is temporary. One mouthful of wine maintains it for ten breaths; the evil Qi is permanently removed, but the old scars will return. This is also a side effect."

Hearing this, Zhan Kui finally calmed down.

He waited silently for ten breaths, and sure enough, the scars that were about to heal visibly reverted to their original state.

Of course, he had to endure the pain of the scars reopening.

Drink a mouthful and the scars heal... the effect ends and they reopen... does that mean healing and then tearing?

This side effect, it must be said, is very torturous.

If it were anyone else, even if Li Yu’s blood wine were fragrant and effective, they would still be disgusted and turn hostile.

But Zhan Kui!

Unexpectedly, after a moment of daze, he revealed an indescribably complex expression.

He looked with regret at the wasted blood wine on the ground, then began to slowly savor the remaining wine while asking:

"Brother Li, what is this wine called?"

"This wine is named [Blood Sea Original Mash]. It is brewed from various strong spirits, added with a large amount of flesh and blood essence, and then ripened using my medicinal meal technique."

"Consuming it can stimulate the boiling of Qi and blood in the body, accelerate the operation of all organs, purge evil Qi, exempt various negative effects, and also possess healing spiritual effects. Furthermore, one mouthful of wine is equivalent to a pound of grain; it combines hunger satisfaction, nourishment, and enhancement. It is a medicinal meal work I am extremely satisfied with, and it is extremely suitable for the captain’s physical condition."

"As for the side effects, I have already mentioned them."

"If the captain feels there is anything in this wine that needs adjustment, you can say so directly."

Hearing the last sentence, Zhan Kui touched his ugly face, which was once again tearing open and dripping with blood, his eyes still holding that complex look mixed with regret and violence.

Immediately, he sighed and said bluntly:

"I was once a Sequence 8 [Soldier] of the Red God Sect. In order to promote to Sequence 7 [Battle Soldier], I rashly led a dozen brothers of life and death into the battlefield, ultimately causing them all to die without a single survivor."

"I fell into the Blood God Sect because of this and perfectly promoted to a Sequence 7 Blood Knight. These scars on my face are a memento of that time and also my ritual anchor point."

"So, they cannot be restored. Your wine is very good. Every time I drink a mouthful, the healing and tearing of the scars remind me of the scene back then... I like it very much. Help me brew a hundred jars first; just report whatever you need."

Zhan Kui said it lightly.

But everyone, including Li Yu, heard the heart-wrenching and soul-tearing secrets hidden within.

From his simple description: it seemed as if Zhan Kui had deliberately caused his brothers to die so that he could promote to Sequence 7.

"Faction shift, direct fall, from a Sequence 7 of the Red God Sect to a seamless transition to a Blood God Sequence 7, and a perfect jump in sequence?"

"Good heavens!"

"Could the Red God and Blood God be two sides of the same coin?"

"This captain probably cannot let go of the incident back then, which is why he was so pleasantly surprised when he got my wine, wanting to feel the regret over and over again, tearing open the scars buried deep in his heart for many years."

"However, is torturing oneself like this helpful or counterproductive for promoting to Sequence 6?"

The former, Li Yu could guess.

=9+Shu_Ba

But for the last doubt, he could not think of an answer.

Although Zhan Kui seemed like a loyal captain with a tragic past.

But this is Wanfu City.

Psychopaths are everywhere, and things are both real and fake; unless Li Yu opens his bubbles, he cannot see through the human heart just by looking and listening.

However, Li Yu’s self-definition is very clear: he is just a cook.

Why think so much?

He turned his head and looked at the other five.

Perhaps because of the lesson from Zhan Kui, they did not act rashly but looked at Li Yu with anticipation, waiting for him to introduce them one by one.

"Brother Luo Sheng, the plate of medicinal powder in front of you is called [Cold Food Immortal-Ascension Powder]. The main formula is modified from that Immortal-Ascension Soup, and on the original basis, I have added many medicinal herbs beneficial to the heart and soul."

"After taking it, it can quickly replenish your depleted heart and soul power, and at the same time, it has a chance to let you enter an epiphany state as if ascending to immortality, gaining additional boosts."

"In addition, for this Immortal-Ascension Powder, you only need to take a small portion and mix it with water into a paste; it can be taken internally to satisfy hunger or applied externally to heal wounds."

"There are side effects, too. When the medicinal effect wears off, you will fall into a period of fanaticism, or some unseemly behavior may occur."

After Li Yu finished speaking, the two-headed old man named Luo Sheng immediately became interested.

He immediately dipped his finger in a little and put it into his mouth.

In an instant, his whole person seemed to have taken some immortal elixir, entering an extremely comfortable state.

Even the twisted and crowded features on that ugly head gradually relaxed a little.

Such vivid examples!

It was enough to prove the excellence of Li Yu, the spiritual medicinal chef, who had actually tailor-made special medicinal meals completely according to their unique conditions.

The remaining four were even more expectant.

Li Yu did not let them down either, speaking one after another:

"Fellow Daoist Sang Zhu, the medicinal meal in front of you is named [Spiritual Essence Weird Porridge]. It is boiled from organs and flesh rich in spiritual essence that I collected from various weird creatures, and the taste is extremely delicious."

"After consuming it, you can replenish spiritual essence and let your body be tainted with the Qi of other weird creatures, which can achieve a masking and invisibility effect in forbidden areas."

"Similarly, the hunger-satisfying effect is also strong; one bowl of porridge can keep you from hunger for a day."

"As for the side effects, there is a chance that some redundant organs will grow on your body, such as the tail of a Weird Flood Dragon or the hair of a Weird Mountain Demon, but these redundant organs will automatically degenerate and disappear after the medicinal effect wears off."

……

"Fellow Daoist Zhu, the medicinal meal for you is [Stinky Canned Food]. Inside, I have extracted the essence of various filthy things, fused them into my Nourishing and Life-Extending Soup, and then pressed them into an iron can."

"It’s not that I, Li Yu, am bragging, but its smell, even if it’s not the number one stink in Wanfu City, can at least make it into the top ten."

"Of course, for your convenience in consuming it in forbidden areas, you only need to open a small hole to suck the canned soup, and there will never be any smell leaking out; you alone will enjoy it."

"Stinky as it is, the effect of nourishing the nature and dispelling toxins is also extraordinary."

"As for side effects?"

"It is somewhat addictive. If you drink too much, I’m afraid you will miss it every few days."

……

(End of chapter)