Chapter 995: Alchemy’s Broken
“That’s…a secret,” Zhen Xun Tian replied while using a finger to push Nun Hua back into her seat.
“Oh come on, Xun Tian!,” Nun Hua complained while being pushed back into her seat. “If you managed to find this, there’s a chance that there could be even more lost recipes of the Omninari! We could figure out how to traverse the forbidden area of every continent and get all sorts of rare cultivation treasures.”
“That or end up finding nothing. I lucked out in finding this.”
Zhen Xun Tian might’ve been battle crazy, might’ve been a world class troublemaker and she may have had the habit of talking in a violent and exaggerated tone…but she knew when to keep a secret and from whom.
As much as she trusted Nun Hua with alchemy and some of the things in her life, she knew better than to blab about the fact that her great grandnephew was now the current Kaijin Lord and had access to the [Library of Nowhere], aka, the greatest repository for every single scrap of knowledge in the known world.
Hell, she hasn’t even told Nun Hua about the fact that she has [Chaos] powers too.
Regardless, Zhen Xun Tian knew that Nun Hua wasn’t actual going to give up on this until she found something else that was worth studying to death several times over.
Which was why she was going to send a different great grandnephew of hers up the river.
“Nun Hua, you said that the components necessary to make this elixir were stupid rare, right? How rare are we talking about here?”
“Ah, well…it’s not that they’re just rare, but the manner of preparing each ingredient for this elixir is tedious as all hell, regardless if I use [Fire Alchemy] or [Water Alchemy],” Nun Hua explained.
The reason why Nun Hua was able to make this statement actually had to do with her moniker, [Witch of Frostfire]. She was born with the rare dual equal affinity for both Ignatii and Aquarii aether, allowing her to cultivate a formula that was able to accommodate both a natural aether flame treasure and a natural aether ice treasure.
That stated, the fact that she of all people was complaining about the complexity of a recipe, was probably a bad sign.
“Take for example this ingredient,” Nun Hua said while pointing at the picture of what Zhen Xun Tian thought was a weird pumpkin.
“This right here is known as a [Mountain Cracking Pumpkin]. Like the name implies, damn things have shells hard enough to crack open mountains. Penetrating it’s fleshy exterior takes a week straight of exposing it to my hottest flames or coldest ice in order to bust through. Other than that, forget it.”
As Nun Hua explained this tidbit, Zhen Xun Tian focused a bit more on the picture itself.
From what she could see, the [Mountain Cracking Pumpkin] had to be hollowed out so that its core and seeds could be used for the elixir.
However, from what the picture showed, neither ice nor fire was used to crack it open.
Instead, a large ass hammer was shown.
“Hmmm…”
Zhen Xun Tian had a sneaking suspicion there was an easier way to prep these components…and now felt more justified in her earlier decision.
“Are you sure that the only way to prepare this pumpkin is with weeklong temperature exposure? Because the image seems to imply you just need to whack it.”
“I’m fairly certain that it’s just a visual metaphor,” Nun Hua replied in a semi-dismissive tone. “Why? Did you suddenly find a manual on how to become an expert alchemist?”
“Not exactly…are you familiar with [Cooking Alchemy]?”
…
“Why do I have this ominous feeling of dread in my stomach?”
“I think it’s because of the [Chilling Burdock Root] that is resting on the counter next to your belly.”
“Oh, whoops.”
In the kitchens of the Zhen Clan estate in Stone Claw City, one of its young masters and a servant of the Zhen Clan were preparing a special lunch.
“Corriandis, can you get me one of those bottles of [Star Peppers]?”
“Of course, chef.”
A little over a year ago, the Zhen Clan had the fortune of employing a butler/alchemist by the name of Corriandis after an…incident involving a certain creepy as fuck former duke.
With his knowledge, the injury and fatality rate of the Zhen Clan had dropped by a significant margin. As well, their profits and ability to penetrate into the medicinal market went up by an equally large margin, that had actually gotten larger after two particular moments in Zhen Clan history.
First, the formal engagement between Zhen Hai and Gianna Corrada. This little moment cemented the alliance and business interests of the two factions, especially after a member of the former saved the life of the latter’s leader.
With the Corrada’s expertise in all things poison, the alchemical and medical products of both factions had developed a sharp increase in quality.
As for the second event that suddenly changed the Zhen Clan’s fortunes in regards to alchemy, that involves the sudden blossoming of the talents of the Sixth Young Master, Zhen Feng.
“Alright, I just need to season the wok with cold-pressed oil from an [Eclipse Flower] and this should be finished by lunch! Excellent.”
After the scions of the Zhen Clan were formally “introduced” to the [Library of Nowhere], the Zhen Clan scions had all returned with all manner of strange and wondorous tomes of knowledge.
Amongst these books were manuals on the rare art of cooking alchemy or [Gourmand Alchemy], if we’re being formal about the whole thing.
The thing about [Gourmand Alchemy] is that while it has one of the easiest points of entry, namely learning how to cook, and has the added bonus of all the dishes being beneficial regardless of cultivation status, it is also one of the most difficult to master due to needing an innate understanding how every single ingredient needs to be prepared in a mechanical sense, or at the very least, being able to memorize every single component.
Which was a massive pain in the ass for most people.
In comparison, [Fire Alchemy] and [Water Alchemy] simply requires a would-be alchemist to be able to use their aether to purify the energetic components of alchemical ingredients into a malleable state, discarding the unnecessary bits in the process.
The difference between the former and the latter two can best be described using the analogy of preparing a cow’s carcass.
[Gourmand Alchemy] requires someone to use everything from the bones to the meat to the organs, while [Fire Alchemy] and [Ice Alchemy] only cares about the horns or the core.
With all that said, it’s still believed that the absolute pinnacle of alchemy requires one to be able to perform all the schools of alchemy, simultaneously.
Which is why Corriandis and Zhen Feng were working together in a kitchen, exchanging knowledge and skill while preparing a special lunch.
“And…done! The [Icy Wind Kinpira] is complete…damn, it’s actually causing the air around it to mist. That’s cool as hell,” Zhen Feng said with pride.
“Indeed…,” Corriandis agreed while looking over the dish with an alchemist’s eyes.
By his estimation, this dish was the equivalent of a 3rd tier aether pill, which was surprising as hell due to the ingredients being used to make it were only 1st tier aether plants!
Any alchemist worth their salt know that such a feat was usually only possible by top tier alchemists, i.e., those with an aether cultivation rank equivalent to Aether Lords and above.
The fact that this young man was able to do such a thing, with just the simple act of cooking, made Corriandis realize two things.
One, that he was one of the luckiest people in the world to work for a clan that was increasingly becoming a talented group of cultivation monsters that could rock the very foundation of this world and then some.
Two, that if he could master [Gourmand Alchemy] on top of [Fire Alchemy], that he could reach a mastery of alchemy that he once dreamed of as a child, but gave up on due to his old age and feeble combat abilities.
As this thought danced in Corriandis’s head though, another one of the scions of the Zhen Clan entered.
“Heyo. Something smells good in here.”
“Zhen Xing! Just in time. I just finished preparing your meal. It should help to resolve your fire issue.”
“Sweet!”
For reasons that the Zhen Clan had yet to figure out, but Zhen Xing’s ability to use aether fire had been on the fritz as of late, causing his cultivation to act sporadic as well.
Normally, treating such an affliction required the usage of an elixir rich in ice aether that could help to calm his flames. The problem was that the ingredients to acquire such a thing were incredibly costly.
However, Zhen Feng had managed to find some recipes in his cookbooks that could help with this issue. This plate of kinpira, would be the last dish needed to resolve Zhen Xing’s issue.
“Thank you very-”
<
“Huh?”*3
