Chapter 2: Recovery Pills and New Family

The next day, Wu Kong woke up and prepared to open his shop again.

He started to reheat the broth from yesterday and began cleaning the kitchen space. Once he was done preparing, he went to the kitchen counter and started to wait for customers to come in. Due to his shop's popularity, his shop is busiest in the mornings for breakfast where they can get dumplings and sandwiches as well as dinner where friends or couples come in to dine. Many people suggested increasing the number of seats in his restaurant to cater to more people but the whole aspect of his restaurant's design was to bring people closer together while they eat their food side by side, so he just stuck with the usual design.

Just as he started to prepare the breakfast menu for this morning, a blue haired youth started to peep in. Noticing that Wu Kong was in the kitchen, he immediately dashed in and claimed the middle seat along the row of seats.

"Good morning Boss Wu, how's it going today!" exclaimed the youth as already had chopsticks at the ready in his hands, waiting for it to lead the heavenly food to his mouth.

"Haha, good morning to you too Xiao Piao, do you want the usual?" Wu Kong chuckled and asked the youth who just nodded and he went to prepare the "usual", which were in fact the dumplings he was working on earlier.

The youth, who was in fact Lu Piao from the future Nie Lie squad, waited for his food while chatting with Wu Kong. In fact, compared to all his customers, Wu Kong liked to see Lu Piao's reaction to his food the most as he was the most expressive and wasn't afraid to speak his mind when something wasn't to his liking. Because of his honesty, Wu Kong treated him like a little brother so he usually gave him a bit more in his meals even if he didn't ask for it.

He reminded him of a certain blond fox kid from his previous world.

Besides the point, Wu Kong prepared the dumplings for the blue haired kid and started to have some small talk with Lu Piao while he waited for more customers to arrive.

"So Xiao Piao, anything new happening today?" he asked while cutting vegetables, dicing them into perfection.

Lu Piao, with his mouth stuffed with dumplings, replied muffedly. "Nothing much, the Academy is starting today and I have my first class today. Which reminds me….Shit! I'm running late! See you later Boss Wu, keep the change!" Lu Piao, glancing at the rune clock yelled as he threw a pouch of coins at him while he rushed out of the shop, not forgetting to bring the plate of dumplings with him.

Wu Kong chuckled at his antics as he caught the pouch of coins which revealed 1000 demon spirit coins. He just shook his head at the money sense his little brother had and just stored the coins in his storage ring. Though he didn't need the money and was only cooking as a hobby for himself, he didn't mind the extra income.

But when he heard that he was going to start the academy today. His eyes narrowed and gave an unnoticeable pressure but quickly retracted it and began working in the kitchen again, and since there were no customers at the moment, he decided to work on a little project of his while thinking of something that could practically change fate itself depending on the result.

'So, today's the day when the novel officially starts huh. Now I can finally know if I was reincarnated in the original timeline with Nie Lie being an idiot or the alternate one where he reincarnated as well, we'll just have to see this evening when school lets out." thought Wu Kong as he brought out the materials for his project he had been working on for a couple weeks now.

One day, he thought while cooking how alchemy is literally just cooking but infusing soul power into your concoctions. He had this thought when one of his customers was gossiping about the Alchemy Association and how it's starting to decline with it not releasing new recipes or pills as of late. So, who better to try out alchemy than him who has Saiba Joichiro's talent and recipes in cooking. He could be like the next Nie Lie who discovered the sixty something uses of the purple haze grass or something.

Besides the point, he decided to try and make a recovery pill like the ones you find in most wuxia novels where they instantly heal you from an injury and recover soul force or something like that. There are pills like that on the market but the price to effect ratio isn't worth it at all. The price is mainly due to the spiritual herbs it takes to make the pill as an inherent healing effect which alchemists then amplify it with auxiliary herbs to produce a low to mid grade healing pill. What he was trying to do was to combine cooking and alchemy together to use the body's inherent healing factor and amplify that using cheaper herbs and resources, something like Tsunade's hundred healing jutsu.

The problem in Naruto was that Tsunade's jutsu relied heavily on the body where she didn't inherit her grandfather's healing factor which made her lose strength as well as age really fast, keeping her appearance through a transformation jutsu. Here in the world of TDG, soul force can be used to nourish the body and make up for the healing factor used when used in large amounts. So, he used common herbs such as Blackpool grass and Zoysia grass as well as a little bit of Purple Haze grass due to its versatility and probable catalytic nature.

He proceeded to cook like normal with the normal subsidiary ingredients but when he moved on to the main ingredients, he started to really focus and started to inject his soul power while he was boiling the blend of grasses. Slowly, but surely a different reaction happened then his previous attempts where the mixture would not mix properly or the vessel would explode, making more mess for him to clean up. The reaction started to shimmer with a faint golden luster and once the shimmer started to become its brightest, he started to use his soul power to condense the liquid into a pill-like shape . At first, the mixture wouldn't budge, but when he continued to temper the liquid with his soul power as if tempering metal with a hammer, the pill started to slowly form into a spherical shape. Once the pill was created, it emitted a faint aroma and shined a faint gold, as if it was something blessed by the heavens. Wu Kong carefully took it in his hands and examined it, making sure there aren't any peculiarities though he isn't a full blown alchemist.

"This seems to be the completed form! Thank goodness it worked this time or else I gotta search for a private blacksmith and order all my tools from there. Now the question is how effective it is." muttered Wu Kong as he examined the pill.

Just as he mitered it, the next customer came in and it was an elderly pair that frequented his shop during breakfast. They were a nice pair and though they were commoners, they seemed more noble than any of the nobles around here.

"Hey Grandpa Xin and Grandma Zhu, how are you doing on this fine morning?" asked Wu Kong with a smile as he addressed the elderly pair,

They just smiled at my greeting and responded,

"Oh we are doing fine Little Kong, how's business? Oh also the usual please." responded Grandpa Xin as he and his wife sat down at the counter.

"Business is doing well as always, just wait a couple minutes and I'll get another batch of dumplings ready." replied Wu Kong as he started to put away the pill and made the dumplings for the couple.

After a few minutes of small talk, Wu Kong asked them a question which they raised an eyebrow at.

"Hey seniors, would you like to test out a new pill I made? It's an original recipe and it should help you with the internal injuries you suffered when you were younger. How about it?"

The seniors just looked at each other but then sighed as the cook they knew also happened to be a respectable alchemist.

The truth was, Grandpa Xin used to be a silver ranked guard for the Snow Wind Family but was sadly badly injured by a demon beast which lost him both his feeling to the right hand as well nearly crippling his cultivation. From there, he decided to retire to a house that the City Lord gave them as compensation and sold vegetables with his wife. Although his life was now peaceful, there are times where he misses the glory days of his youth.

"Ok little Kong, let me try the pill. Even if it doesn't work I only have a few years left in my life anyway." replied the grandpa sadly as he took the pill out of Wu Kong's hand when presented it.

"Grandpa, even if it doesn't work I'll still find a way to let you live longer." replied Wu Kong as he was sad that both his friend and customer was going to die in a few years due the previous injury.

The couple smiled at this and soon after, the Grandpa swallowed the pill.

The senior suddenly felt a rush of heat in his body and he started to kneel on the ground sweating profusely. His wrinkled skin started to smoothen out while the right arm that was pale and thin due to not being used for a long time started to rush with color and bulk up a little bit as the bones in his body started to become stronger. This process went on for a full 10 mins before the healing ended which left a very sweaty grandpa….or more like a middle aged man.

The grandpa looked 10 years younger than he was before and one could feel the soul force within him reaching Silver Rank 2 star.

Apparently the pill not only repaired his body, but also increased his star level by one. If this thing got out to the market, it would cause chaos within Glory city.

'I knew this world was literally created to hide some treasures but what the hell kind of logic is this!?' he inwardly muttered as he examined the elder with his black gold peak soul force to find any irregularities.

The couple was shocked at the changes and then the Grandpa, seeing his new physique and cultivation restored, suddenly made up his mind and faced Wu Kong with both admiration and reverence and started to kneel in the shop.

"Master Wu Kong, this cultivator, Xin Sikong, swears his loyalty to you for restoring his cultivation." Xin Sikong declared that even Wu Kong could feel the loyalty radiating from his body.

Seeing her husband make the decision, The grandma, Zhu Lie, also kneeled in the shop in front of the young man, her new master.

Wu Kong was flabbergasted at the sequence of events that happened within his shop. He just wanted to make a Recovery pill and tried to help the kind old man but what did that lead to? The kind old man who became a Silver 2 Star cultivator became immediately respectful and swore loyalty to him.

'Even if I have been in this world for 5 years, the customs and practices still astound me. Well, should I accept his loyalty or not? It's not like I need to establish a force within Glory City when I'm already this powerful. But I guess on the other hand, I don't have to do everything myself and just leave it to my subordinates.' thought Wu Kong as he looked at the old man.

[Wu Kong POV]

"Ok Xin Sikong, from now on, you and your wife are a part of my Titan Great Ape family. Here is a cultivation manual of my family and don't make it public you've gained your cultivation back and continue your day to day life. Also you have to sell the vegetables to my shop at a discount. Is that clear?" I said in my most domineering voice, leaking a bit of my Black Gold aura in the process.

Xin Sikong shivered in excitement and said in a solemn voice.

"I swear my life that I will not release any of the family secrets, Master."

"Good, now would you like your dumplings to stay or to go?" I asked with a smile as I wanted our relationship to still be as friends even though we were officially master and subordinate.

Xin Sikong, catching my drift, just smiled and said he wanted it to go. I wrapped up the dumplings in paper covering and handed the package to the couple. They bowed at me before they left and I was left alone again in this shop where I recollected my thoughts.

The technique I gave them wasn't the Titan Great Ape Celestial Revolutions that I was practicing, but a modified technique. In the past, due to the difficulty and pain cultivating the art, I tried modifying it to be easier on the body while it still gave me the benefits. Well, I guess it's true you can't get good things without experiencing a little loss as the modified technique I managed to make after many trials and errors made the technique less painful on the body, but the limit one can go with the art is at most Heavenly Axis Realm where they then have to change to a new cultivation art. I just left the art in my storage ring for it to rot but didn't expect that I would have to use it here. I guess this can be the family's main cultivation art then.

Also I had to modify the Recovery Pill slightly so that it gives more recovery power than soul power for the public to use. I don't need more attention than I already have so doing this is for the best.

Like that the morning became afternoon and the afternoon finally became evening. Customers came in and left still complimenting my food and eating it with delight which I still enjoyed seeing as this wasn't a reality in my old world. Just before I began closing the shop, I heard a dominant, yet feminine voice call out to me.

"Wait, Is this shop still open?"

I looked behind me and was shocked at the person I saw approaching my shop.