Chapter 335: Heavenly Light Feast, Fresh Blood (Requesting Monthly Votes)

Colorful Mist Coast, Firefly Lake.

This is a lake located 833 kilometers in a straight line from the Spatial Node entrance.

Under the night sky.

Fluorescent ferns on both sides of the lake shore sway in the wind, scattering pale green light particles into the half-sky, weaving with fireflies dancing across the heavens into a flowing river of light.

A lone shadow sits quietly amidst the amber-colored fluorescent ferns, the hem of his cloak soaked in the lake water; at this moment, he holds a fishing rod in one hand, fishing.

The lake surface under the moonlight reflects the contours of his young face; his profile is thin, eyes lowered.

The water ripples slightly, and that face blurs for an instant.

"Too crazy."

Deep within Cheng Shan's pupils, a faint light floats.

The black eyes that originally reflected the lake light now mirror another scene: a semi-transparent Evolution Shop auction interface hovers in his vision, where four items froze at sky-high prices the moment the auction ended.

At these prices, ordinary players currently have no ability to save up enough.

Unless future players' combat power skyrockets and Shou Shou Jili production also explodes exponentially.

"So rich, feels like they aren't playing the same game," Cheng Shan thought with a sigh.

He had seen wealth analysis posts published by research-oriented players on the forum.

Regarding wealth rankings among player organizations, the one ranked first must be the Gold Coin Guild.

Earning price differences externally, earning middle fees internally, plus various service channels generating revenue; as its scale expands day by day, it is truly a money-printing machine.

Ranked second is the Divine Hall Guild, along with other top-tier combined battle groups.

Further down, it is likely Xiao Xiao Fa.

But some players replied in the post expressing disagreement, feeling that while the Gold Coin Guild has infinite future potential, at this stage Xiao Xiao Fa is the wealthiest player.

He controls a clan numbering in the millions.

He also led the Spirit Breath Clan to open up multiple resource production channels; the current scale of the Gold Coin Guild might not necessarily be Xiao Xiao Fa's match.

Secondly, although the daily revenue output of the Divine Hall Guild and other top guilds is high.

They generally convert it into strength on the same day, choosing not to hoard Shou Shou Jili, so their available Shou Shou Jili reserves are not large.

If truly comparing financial power, they are definitely no match for Xiao Xiao Fa.

Regarding judgments on player wealth, different players have their own Ji De Kan Fa.

Unable to ask other players for information via the guide, so the discussion on who is actually richer has never had a clear answer.

But what is certain is that these players on the wealth rankings all possess Shou Shou Jili reserves far exceeding those of ordinary players.

With this batch of players stepping in for the newly launched Evolution Shop, ordinary players have no chance.

They can only watch the spectacle.

Cheng Shan withdrew his gaze, and in an instant of thought, closed the official website page shrunk in the upper-left corner of his vision.

His gaze focused on the lake surface again.

The reason he traveled all this way to this lake to fish is that he found in the library while researching that this lake contains a rare spirit fish: the Moon-Hiding Silver Scale.

This area was also personally explored by him to dispel the map fog.

But he is not a fishing-oriented player; he is a professional Spirit Chef player.

This long journey was not accidental.

Three months ago, he decided to launch a challenge: to complete a top-tier spirit dish that no player has ever attempted.

For these past three-plus months, he has been rushing about for this purpose.

Three days ago, he found the record of the "Moon-Hiding Silver Scale" in the library book "Colorful Mist Coast - Rare Aquatic Ingredients Atlas."

To find this untouched lake, he spent a full two days exploring the unknown areas south of the Colorful Mist Coast.

Now, to complete the top-tier spirit dish "Heavenly Light Feast," only the final two ingredients remain.

The Moon-Hiding Silver Scale is precisely the core ingredient.

The flesh of this fish contains special spiritual essence; it is inherently a top-tier ingredient for crafting high-grade spirit meals and cannot be bought in the Trading Hall.

As a Spirit Chef player, traveling over mountains and rivers is already a routine for him.

Spirit Chef players sound like a very profitable profession.

Many players, hearing the words "Spirit Chef," think of earning a fortune daily, easily and happily gathering Shou Shou Jili.

They only see those sky-high priced dishes in the Trading Hall, unaware that behind every new spirit dish are countless days and nights of rushing about.

Their profession counts as research-oriented players specializing in one field.

They need to memorize the taste, effects, and dosage of every ingredient; all of this requires settling down and studying in the library.

To become a top-tier Spirit Chef, one must possess a vast knowledge reserve.

Ingredients in the Monster World are too abundant; they must study until they die, with a path of climbing that never ends in this lifetime.

As for making money, it is not easy either.

In the Spirit Chef profession, having ingredients does not guarantee a spirit dish can be made; failures occur during the crafting process.

After a spirit dish crafted with painstaking effort and care fails, all ingredients are scrapped.

The daily life of a true Spirit Chef player is just like this: time must be cut into three parts.

One-third of the time rushing outside to find ingredients, one-third of the time studying knowledge in the library, and the remaining time is for crafting spirit dishes.

Although ingredients can be purchased in the Trading Hall, many rare ingredients simply cannot be bought there.

This requires consulting the library, searching for information on nearby areas, and then setting out personally to find them.

Remember last month, to find "Frostfire Peppers," he was surrounded by magma lizards at a volcano crater; he died a full 18 times going back and forth before successfully obtaining the ingredients.

Half a month ago, he chased a group of invisible "Mist-Hiding Mushrooms" across half the rainforest in the Colorful Mist Coast region before killing them, crafting them into ingredients, and preserving them.

Sometimes, after finding top-tier ingredients through great hardship, the spiritual structure released by the entire pot of spirit meal might collapse during the crafting process, perhaps because the heat was slightly off, turning into an indescribable mess.

The Analysis sweep passes over, and the Guide thoughtfully offers handling advice:

【Suggestion: Sacrifice Beneath Di Zhao; 7% of material costs can be refunded.】

Those rare materials collected over days, even weeks, will, at the moment of failure, transform into a discount feedback from Beneath Di Zhao, as if it were hacking at his ankle.

This is the Spirit Chef faction player: glamorous on the surface, miserable behind the scenes.

Yet he happens to love this line of work.

Every time he lifts the pot lid and sees a pot of Spirit Food perfectly take shape, it fills him with immense pride and a sense of achievement.

He still clearly remembers the scene when he first successfully created "Clear-Stewed Moonlight Soup."

The soup in the pot was as clear as moonlight; silver-tailed fish slices hovered in and out of sight within the broth. The instant he drank it, every pore on his body seemed to breathe in the night wind.

During the process, Challenger prompts kept ringing in his mind, offering not just Body Tempering level-ups, but also permanent attribute boosts.

This success made him feel proud for several days.

It was precisely the success of this Spirit Food dish that led him to enter the Spirit Chef profession.

As he explored and learned, he found the Spirit Chef gameplay particularly interesting.

Surprising discoveries came from time to time.

For instance, stewing Thunder Fruit and Heart-Calming Lotus together could actually neutralize the violent nature of the Thunder attribute, transforming it into a gentle Body-Quenching medicinal diet.

Or, by chance, he discovered that after three distillations, Rotting Bone Grass could instead be refined into a special plant essence that combined with the spiritual energy in the air—a special processing method even extracting Painful Painful Minghun could not achieve.

These unexpected surprises hidden behind the ingredients were like puzzles waiting to be solved, captivating him.

Although he occasionally felt depressed, lost, or irritable... at the moment of success, all negative emotions would become a driving force for emotional sublimation.

As his thoughts churned, the float suddenly shook violently.

Realizing a fish had taken the bait, Cheng Shan flicked his wrist; the fishing rod bent into a perilous arc.

Then, blue light exploded across the lake surface. A small, completely transparent fish leaped out of the water, its scales swirling with a pale blue halo under the moonlight.

Cheng Shan flicked his wrist again, and a golden cleaver appeared in his hand, carving an arc of light under the moon.

The instant the blade touched the fish's body, time seemed to slow down.

As light swirled, the fish scales were completely removed.

The blade edge cut precisely along the gills, moving between the scales and the air and raising fine blue light particles.

The first diagonal cut separated the head from the body; the fish head still trembled slightly.

After the second horizontal slice and a flick, the semi-transparent fish bones were peeled off and flicked away completely, like a work of art.

The third light twist caused the fish meat to bloom in mid-air into thirty-six slices of sashimi as thin as cicada wings. Each slice maintained roughly the same thickness, revealing a texture like ice cracks under the moonlight.

As the dissected fish slices fell, Cheng Shan vibrated his wrist.

Instantly, all the fish slices landed neatly stacked on the surface of the blade.

From the fish leaving the water to being sliced into sashimi, the entire process took less than two seconds.

This was his signature skill.

Players of different systems each have their own dedicated investments.

The Monster Flow players invest Shou Shou Jili primarily in the growth of Painful Painful Minghun; the Hunting Faction players invest mainly in perfecting the Star Vein system... while the Spirit Chef faction players' largest expenditure is on the crafting and upgrading of Rune Resonance weapons.

The Monster World contains too many ingredients that are difficult to process; having a good cleaver is more important than Painful Painful Minghun growth.

With a broken weapon, it is hard even to break the defense of ingredients.

Next came the processing of the ingredients.

Cheng Shan rotated his wrist lightly, sliding the fish slices stacked on the blade onto an ice crystal cutting board taken from his Spatial Bag.

He then took three items from the Spatial Bag again: a small packet of sand salt, a bottle of Morning Dew Flower Condensate, and a few green scallion segments wrapped in oil paper.

The back of the blade struck the ice board, shaking up a puff of frost mist. The fish slices fluttered in the mist, precisely coating themselves with starry, sparkling ice fragments.

Setting down the fishing rod, his fingers picked up a Spirit Scallion and pressed it lightly onto the cutting board.

The cleaver rose and fell rapidly against his knuckles; in the blink of an eye, the scallion segments turned into fine threads, each uniformly maintaining the thickness of a hair.

The fish slices in the ice jade plate were already spread out like flower petals.

Cheng Shan dipped a bamboo skewer into the condensate and lightly dotted the center of each slice of sashimi, then sprinkled a little sand salt.

The instant the salt grains touched the fish meat, a faint "sizzle" sound emitted, radiating a pale blue light.

Finally, with a gentle rub between his index finger and thumb, he scattered the sliced scallion threads over the fish slices in an artful arrangement.

It was like draping a thin veil over this "Water Bream Sashimi."

The making of this Spirit Food dish required no technical skill; the main ingredients were also very ordinary, so there was no need for elaborate effort.

After finishing the preparation, Cheng Shan used Analysis to take a look:

【Water Bream Sashimi (For Sale)】:

Spirit Food Quality: Level 2 - 47 Quality.

Crafting Player: "Life Profession? Dogs wouldn't even play that."

After confirming the quality, Cheng Shan skillfully opened the Jiao Yi Xing Jie interface, entered the price, and clicked to list it.

A Challenger prompt rang out the next second, displaying that the item had already been purchased by a player.

To this, Cheng Shan was not surprised.

As the player base expanded, the number of Spirit Chef players gradually became unable to meet the players' demand for Spirit Food.

This caused Spirit Food prices to continue rising.

Secondly, in the Monster World, as long as your game ID builds a reputation, there will never be a lack of buyers.

Even for Spirit Food dishes of the same quality and price, players would prioritize choosing those famous Spirit Chef players.

For example, the acknowledged leader of their Spirit Chef faction, also the "Grand Chef" who unlocked the Spirit Chef gameplay, could sell his Spirit Food dishes at a premium.

Because the quality and taste of a Spirit Food Meal are only weakly related, a skilled Spirit Chef can bestow a more delicious experience upon it; this is the core reason players are willing to pay extra.

Delicious Spirit Food Meals have always been one of the best-selling categories in the Trading Hall.

As the faction grows, the Shou Shou Jili players invest in Spirit Food Meals also gradually increases.

This trade holds great promise for the future.

Putting away the trading interface, Cheng Shan turned his gaze back to the tranquil lake surface.

The night breeze brushed past, carrying the faint scent of glowing ferns; the fragmented moonlight on the lake was kneaded into countless silver scales, making him feel utterly at ease.

He gently flicked the rod, the hook tracing a graceful arc before landing on the lake surface.

The float swayed gently in the ripples, then quickly returned to stillness.

When the second fish took the hook, it was still an ordinary Spirit Fish; he processed it into a meal using the same method, listed it on the Trading Hall, and continued fishing.

The night grew deeper, and the thin mist over the lake thickened.

The third cast, the fourth cast... the catch remained those common Spirit Fish, or strange aquatic monsters.

Cheng Shan calmly organized the fishing line and continued his efforts.

On the eighth cast, the cry of a night bird echoed from the distance.

Swarms of glowworms circled above his head like floating lanterns.

This time, he reeled up a Water Skeleton Shrimp, transparent all over, with flowing blue blood lines visible inside its body.

After analyzing it, Cheng Shan discovered it was a new variety; he processed it into ingredients and stored it in his Spatial Satchel.

When dawn broke on the horizon, he still had not caught a Moon-Hiding Silver Scale.

He had not thought of jumping directly into the water to search.

But the Firefly Lake covers a vast area, and the Moon-Hiding Silver Scale is one of the rarest fish species within it; such an act would be akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

The most feasible method was to craft a bait favored by the Moon-Hiding Silver Scale, letting it bite the hook voluntarily.

Consulting relevant materials in the library, he used the aquatic plant "Moonflower," the Moon-Hiding Silver Scale's favorite, as the main ingredient to craft a bait, choosing to obtain the Moon-Hiding Silver Scale through fishing.

But it seemed to have failed.

The sky had already brightened, yet he still could not catch this key ingredient.

Putting away the fishing rod, he began to prepare breakfast for himself.

The Firefly Lake in the morning light possessed a unique scenery; the glowing ferns gradually dimmed, and morning dew condensed into beads on the grass blades.

Cheng Shan sat on the ground and took ingredients from his Spatial Satchel.

These were scraps left over from previously making Spirit Food Meals; adhering to the principle of not wasting, he would always use them for his own enjoyment.

Half a Crimson Cloud Mushroom, three de-seeded Mist Fruits, a small packet of Star-patterned Rice, and the last pinch of Golden Thorn Salt.

He lightly rubbed his fingertips, and the Crimson Cloud Mushroom crumbled into dark red powder.

The clay pot was set upon a stone; the Star-patterned Rice spread across the bottom, releasing a mellow aroma reminiscent of aged wine as soon as it was heated.

He smashed the Mist Fruit with the back of a knife; the flesh oozed milky white juice, shimmering with a pearl luster in the morning light.

While simmering over a low flame, Cheng Shan casually sprinkled the Crimson Cloud Mushroom powder into the pot.

The instant the powder touched the juice, a mist rose, carrying a scent similar to pine wood.

He then took a small slice of Ice Crystal Mint Leaf from his Spatial Satchel; a pinch with his fingertips turned it into fine emerald-green snowflakes, drifting onto the thickening porridge surface.

The Crimson Cloud Porridge displayed a strange gradient of colors in the morning light.

The bottom layer was the amber hue brewed from the Star-patterned Rice; the middle layer mixed with the milky white of the Mist Fruit juice; the top layer floated with the sunset red dyed by the Crimson Cloud Mushroom.

When the Golden Thorn Salt was sprinkled down, the entire bowl of porridge instantly filled with a rich fragrance.

Cheng Shan lifted the clay bowl, the steam blurring his features.

Although these scraps had the core ingredients removed, they were still very delicious.

Most importantly, it saved money.

Others had to spend money to buy Spirit Food to eat; he only needed to use leftover scraps to craft a delicious meal.

Lifting the scalding ceramic pot, Cheng Shan gently stirred it with a wooden spoon, then scooped up a spoonful.

The instant the porridge entered his mouth, the mellow richness of the Crimson Cloud Mushroom, the clear sweetness of the Mist Fruit, and the dense texture of the Star-patterned Rice bloomed in sequence in his mouth; finally, the coolness of the Ice Crystal Mint perfectly rounded off all the flavors.