Chapter 180 Crystal Pork Shoulder (e)

Translated by Gumihou

Edited by Gumihou

 

Since [1] she has two more days to kill before they have to leave Dawn City, Shiyu found herself with a sudden surplus of free time. Remembering the cauldron she borrowed from Elder Feng back at Feng City, Shiyu decided to borrow it from Elder Feng again to try and cook the Spiritual Rabbit with it.

Surely the man-height, three-legged cauldron is strong enough to withstand the Spiritual fluctuations of her cooking and not blow up? She has used it to make fish soup last time, but there was no reason why she couldn’t use it to make Cold Serve Rabbit.

As mentioned, since she has a 3rd Rank, Rabbit-type Beast with its Beast Core intact, she wanted to try cooking with it.

Once she has all the ingredients and equipment ready, she set up shop at [3] Xiao Shu’s front yard.

Elder Feng and Elder Gu had gone off to do whatever it was that important elders like them do, therefore, it was just Xiao Shu, San Pang and the Panda Gang at the courtyard.

All [4] five melon seed eaters were seated in a row as Shiyu busied herself. However, they could not see inside the man-height cauldron and had to settle on watching Shiyu work instead. [4] After throwing the oil and a portion of chopped Spiritual Rabbit meat into the cauldron, Shiyu stayed outside the cauldron and used her Spiritual powers to perceive what was happening inside. Instead of using a regular fire, she used her Spiritual Fire to heat the pot, making sure that everything inside is being cooked evenly.

Soon enough the three Pandas suddenly jumped up and cried, “It’s fragrant! It’s fragrant! I can smell the fragrance!”

[5] Shiyu had been cooking Cold Serve Rabbit nearly every day and the Panda brothers had learnt that the fragrant smell of spices meant the dish was nearly ready to be served. However, things were not so simple this time. The meat she used were Beast meat and [4] the spices were either medicinal herbs or plants that had grown within her space. Moreover, she could tell that the spices haven’t been properly incorporated into the oil yet.

Though she had made quite a few pots of Cold Serve Rabbit already, this was the first time she tried making it with Beast meat.

As she continued frying the Beast meat and [4] Medicinal Herbs together, the longer she cooked, the more intense the fragrance. Just as she was about to reach the end of the cooking process, a sudden strong medicinal smell permeated the air.

[4] Startled, Shiyu blinked at the vision that had suddenly formed before her eyes.

Her hand jerked and she lost control of her Spiritual Fire. It flared up and scorched everything within the pot…

“What a pity, ah. I nearly succeeded too,” Shiyu was quite annoyed. [4] Her precious Beast meat and medicinal herbs, ah!

This was the second time already!

Everyone else also stared at the pot with sad eyes, what a pity! What happened to Shiyu just now?

[6] After scraping the pot clean and turning the precious ingredients into fertilizer. Shiyu restarted the whole process again.

[6] However, due to the lack of energy and Spiritual power, the second batch failed as well. The result was not burnt, but the flavour was not right. Xiao Shu couldn’t even bear to look at it but tried a piece out of politeness. Thankfully, the Pandas and Radish ate it heartily enough.

[6] Shiyu decided to take a bath and let her Spiritual powers recover before making the third attempt. She learnt from her mistakes and understood that as the cooking near its end, it would demand a lot of Spiritual and mental powers. Therefore, it was better for her to be well-rested.

[6] Attempt number three.

[6] This time, armed with a full tank of Spiritual and mental powers, Shiyu began to make the Cold Serve Spiritual Rabbit again. Eventually, she reached the point where her first attempt peaked and the incredibly powerful fragrance emerged. This time, Shiyu was ready. She focussed her mental powers on her fire and made sure to evenly cook everything within the cauldron. The scent began to spread across the courtyard, dispersing through the Shi Estate and beyond.

As the fragrance steadily grew, Shiyu became even surer of her movements. She got the powdered Beast Core ready, she must sprinkle it over the food the moment she extinguishes the fire. [6] With her mental powers, she could see the blue flames surrounding the [7] brilliant red Spiritual rabbit meat fried in spices. [8] Once the Cold Serve Rabbit reached its peak, [8] Shiyu tossed a portion of the powdered Beast Core over the rabbit, making sure to use her Spiritual powers to toss the food around to ensure even coating.

[8] Now that the active cooking was done, [6] Shiyu made to turn off her mental powers when she just happened to glance at the mouth of the cauldron.

[6] Shiyu blinked.

[6] She was not sure whether it was the aftermath from watching the brilliant fire, the jewel red tones of the food or [8] the colourful Beast Core powder, but, there was something that looked like a glowing halo at the mouth of the cauldron.

Excited, Shiyu yanked Fat Cat out of the Saint’s dwelling and pointed at the top of the cauldron.

“There! Is that the vision thing?! Is it?” she was shaking with excitement. After so much hard work and sacrifices, her effort had finally paid off!

Fat Cat narrowed its marble-like eyes at the light with some surprise. “I supposed it should be,” he said at last. “You’ll know when you taste your food.”

[8] Shiyu quickly tipped the cauldron sideways and began ladling out the [7] brilliant red dish over a large tray. All the better to cool it. [9] The Spiritual rabbit was large enough that she could fry bite-size pieces of meat like fried chicken bites. The end result of the dish was a Cold Serve Rabbit that was crispy and spicy on the outside and juicy on the inside! [9] Normal Cold Serve Rabbit might be delicious, but juicy is not really a term one could use on it since even the bones of a regular Cold Serve Rabbit is fried to the point where it’s brittle enough to be chewed and eaten.

[9] This one was actually juicy! After being fried in rapeseed oil, the rabbit meat was plump and crisp. [4] After the spices and medicinal herbs were incorporated, it was even more delicious.

[9] Shiyu eagerly chewed the fragrant and [4] spicy Cold Serve Spiritual Rabbit before swallowing her mouthful with a sigh. Once the food hit her stomach, she could feel Spiritual powers radiating from her belly to all four limbs. How efficient, ah! A completely different result from her previous experience with Spiritual Beast Meat!

Although it did not significantly improve her Cultivation, Shiyu felt more energetic than before.

“I managed to retain a lot more Spiritual power within the Beast meat this time,” said Shiyu after studying the effects of the food inside her Dantian. She opened her eyes to see the drooling faces of her friends. Laughing, she said, “Come over and have a taste.”

As soon as she said this, a bolt of white lightning rushed over and jumped into the air, clearly aiming to land into a tray of Cold Serve Rabbit.

In a flash, Shiyu pinched the Radish out of the air and shook it viciously, “You try this again I’ll slice you for radish soup.”

San Pang cried, “I’m just too excited, ah!”

Shiyu set San Pang down next to the tray of Cold Serve Rabbit. She had made enough to fill one large tray.

Everyone soon had their chopsticks ready and placed a piece of the rabbit meat into their mouths. They were all surprised to find the little mouthful turn into a fairly significant amount of Spiritual energy once it entered their belly. Moreover, the energy could be directly absorbed, how convenient, ah!

Each person’s reaction to their mouthful was different.

San Pang was fairly calm, he had already eaten all kinds of reject items from Shiyu. [10] Although the Spiritual energy in those rejected items contained little Spiritual power, it could still be absorbed. The Panda Gang were a little surprised, but since they were not native, they treated it as another delicious thing from the Ninth Realm. On the other hand, Xiao Shu, who was still in the Condensation Stage received the most benefit from this Spiritual food.

“This meat…” she said with a trembling voice, “i- it felt like my Cultivation has increased by a lot… I- is this real?”

“It’s real, ah. Everyone’s experiencing the same thing.” Shiyu explained, “That’s because the Spiritual Beast meat is cooked with its own Beast Core.” The monster meat itself was already very nutritious, but its effect on Cultivation was made more obvious after adding the Beast Core back into the meat.

Xiao Shu was even more surprised to hear this. “You used Beast Core in cooking?”

Considering the price of a single Beast Core, it was mostly refined to make Magic Pills. [11] The higher the monster rank, the more expensive the Beast Core. It was generally not recommended to ingest a Beast Core directly as it could result in all kinds of side effects. Moreover, even if one was able to overcome these side effects, the resulting increase in Cultivation was so minimal that it was just not worth it.

Shiyu’s action basically subverted her understanding of how Beast Core should be treated.

“Oh, by the way, the Beast Core used belongs to this beast. Which means a higher compatibility rate,” Shiyu added. She had no idea what would happen if she were to cook with meat and Beast Cores from different monsters. She’ll have to try that next.

“Oh, that’s right,” Shiyu turned to Fat Cat. “Would my Cultivation increase at the same rate if I cook other Beast meat the same way?”

“Don’t know,” was Fat Cat’s swift reply.

“… …” looks like she’ll have to find out for herself.

While she was pondering over this issue, the rest of her friends were rapidly moving their chopsticks. As she absently reached for another piece of Cold Serve Rabbit, her chopsticks struck the empty tray.

“… …”

San Pang held up his small personal plate, “May I have some more?”

“… …” Shiyu’s non-existent balls hurt. Why was this family pet so good at eating? Should I just slice him up?

 

The [1] two days passed very quickly.

Soon, it was time for Shiyu to leave the City of Dawn, leaving with her was Xiao Shu, Elder Feng and Elder Gu. The group was sent off with great fanfare by Madam Shi, City Lord Ding and Elder Ding.

This momentous little scene dispelled whatever lingering thoughts among the hidden forces within Dawn City to make trouble for the Shi Clan.

 

[Gumihou: Re Note 7, Gumihou has the strangest suspicion that Shiyu has mistaken Cold Serve Rabbit with Kentucky Fried Rabbit partway through the arc. No mention of spices anywhere through the cooking process.

… the only time when spices were mentioned was when they approached the Qing Xiang Place and breathed in the scent of spices. So it was NOT Kentucky Fried Rabbit. The heck is it??!!]

 

Gumihou is keeping track so that you don’t have to ~

 

凝氣	Condensation Stage	Stage 1
化丹	Core Transformation	Stage 2
凝丹(46)	Core Condensation	Stage 3
化神(52)	Divine Transformation	Stage 4
成嬰	Nascent Formation	Stage 5
合體	Unification	Stage 6
返墟	Revert Decay	Stage 7
歸真	Original Purity	Stage 8
成仙	Become Immortal	Stage 9

 

[1] Wrong info, Adjusted – Original text: ‘Since there were still three more days before they have to leave Feng City’

Ah, didn’t you decide to leave 2 days later just a chapter ago? Also, you’re in Dawn City…

Patched.

[2] A cauldron borrowed from Elder Feng was used to make fish soup back in Chapter 100

[3] Adjusted Detail for Logistic Reason: It was originally ‘backyard’, but who knows what kind of ‘backyard’ the author meant. Since Xiao Shu’s personal courtyard is also technically in the ‘backyard’ or ‘inner court’ let’s go with ‘the convenient empty space in front of Xiao Shu’s house’.

[4] Creative Liberties Taken for Logistic and Dramatic Purpose: Right, Gumihou is going to flex her creative writing skills here to describe the cooking with the man-height cauldron throughout the chapter. Also, the vision thingy, because it was not very well presented and Gumihou only vaguely understood it upon the third reading.

Also, there’s the issue of what kind of scent they were picking up. Frying meat? Spices? Since the scent is supposed to important for the ‘vision’ it’s important to know which is which. Also, Shiyu kept describing her Cold Serve Rabbit as brown. Are you making Teriyaki Rabbit or Kentucky Fried Rabbit instead of Cold Serve Rabbit?!!?

Haaaaaahhh……

Fixed the recipe and included ‘Medicinal Herbs’ since she has loads of them anyway.

[5] Faulty Logic – author-san: Original Text “In the past, as soon as something smelled fragrant, it would soon be ready for the table. However, Shiyu was not using ordinary rabbit, but Spiritual Rabbit… Beast meat is different from regular meat…”

Although technically everything here may be attributed to author-san, but since this issue is general rather than specific, author-san is named.

Statement 1: Implies that these Pandas never had Beast meat before, or at least was never around when it’s being cooked

Statement 2: ‘as soon as something smelled fragrant’ implied they have been around when cooking is happening.

Statement 1 and Statement 2 irreconcilable, therefore, one or the other is untrue

…

Replace Second Statement with: ‘as soon as the pot of Cold Serve Rabbit Shiyu’s been cooking smelled fragrant’

[6] Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Original Text “No one else smelled the fragrance that just came out” nice, very good. You know this how?

Just deleted the above information since no one asked, therefore, no one tells.

[7] Even now, Shiyu is still insisting that her Cold Serve Rabbit is brown. “the light brown rabbit meat was sizzling inside the cauldron’ Are you making Kentucky Fried Rabbit?

[8] Added Detail for Logistic Purpose: “After seeing the light, yanking the cat out, Shiyu was… waiting for the Rabbit meat to cool and put a piece into her mouth?”

Skipped turning off the fire and sprinkling the Beast Core.

Sigh.

Switched previous details to include the above to prevent time skip.

Also, set food out on trays to cool because logistics. In the original text ‘After Shiyu patiently waited for the pot to cool, she picked up a piece of rabbit and put it into her mouth’.

Gumihou raises her hand: Excuse me, how long are your chopsticks? Were you standing at the mouth of the cauldron? Did you jump inside? Was the cauldron full to the brim and you’re standing on a tall stool or ladder? Do you have extendable arms? Did you float the food up? Please don’t forget this is a ‘man-height cauldron from Chapter 100’

[9] Added Details for Realistic Food Evaluation: Real Cold Serve Rabbit vs Beast Meat Cold Serve Rabbit (assumes rabbit is a large monster with plenty of meat)

[10] Expanded Details: In addition to reaction, give the reason for the reaction. Especially for the Panda Gang because ‘they were surprised, but not too surprise because they were not humans’

What.

What does not being human has to do with anything??!!!

Also, what’s that lazy-ass description!!!??

[11] Beast Core information – Rearrange, because it was all over the place.

 

If you love my translations, do consider dropping a comment at novelupdates!

Gumihou loves reading your comments, so gimme, gimme ~

( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

Or Supporting me via Patreon or Ko-fi ~

໒( ́ ۝ ́ )७