Chapter 30

After leaving Wanmin Restaurant, Xia Zhi took a solitary walk on the street.

Someone was selling snacks by the roadside: "Central Plains Offal, delicious and affordable!"

This was a type of meatball made from animal offal, fish meat, and starch, carefully seasoned and roasted until there was no fishy smell at all.

Xia Zhi sniffed the rich meaty aroma wafting from the stall, couldn't help but stop, and bought a portion.

Only 10 Mora—truly affordable.

Perhaps because the main ingredient was animal offal, according to the owner Su Erniang, many travelers from other regions couldn't accept it, though some people fell in love with it after trying it once.

Xia Zhi smiled; he didn't mind animal offal—there were many such dishes in his original world. As long as it was clean and tasty, it was fine.

After eating a skewer of Central Plains Offal, he stood beside a local teahouse, listening to Tian Tiezui tell a story about Rex Lapis, before heading back toward his shop.

Crossing the wooden bridge spanning the rock crevasse between Chihu Rock and Feiyun Slope, Xia Zhi used his detection ability to look at Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.

Just as Yanfei had said, at night, there would be a ferryman standing at the entrance of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.

Two white lanterns hung under the eaves, their gentle flames shining through the lantern walls, struggling to illuminate the darkness before Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's entrance.

Candles and oil lamps—these were Liyue's common means of nighttime illumination. It was said that Fontaine already had new lighting technology similar to electricity, but it seemed it wasn't mature enough yet, so it hadn't spread to other nations.

Xia Zhi withdrew his detection, not daring to peek too much at Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's situation.

After all, a deity lived inside, and it wouldn't be good to accidentally offend Them.

Xia Zhi returned to his shop; with his detection ability, he didn't need to light any lamps when alone.

In the kitchen, the water in the urns had cooled down properly, and he set the water according to the system's recommended plan.

Xia Zhi took out [Rainbow Fruit Concentrate] from his inventory, and a small glass bottle appeared in his hand.

Opening the bottle, he dripped the small drop of rainbow-colored liquid into the first water urn.

Drip...

The water surface rippled in circles.

Moments later, the water in the entire urn changed color as if dyed with paint, becoming rainbow-colored while emitting a rich fragrance.

Xia Zhi carefully sniffed and surprisingly distinguished hundreds of different fruit flavors from this aroma.

Truly amazing, worthy of being a gold-grade quality dream fruit, and it even had the [Concentrate] property.

Xia Zhi took a small drop from the first urn and dripped it into the second urn.

The water in the second urn also turned rainbow-colored, though the fragrance it emitted was somewhat fainter.

Xia Zhi took a small drop from the second urn and dripped it into the third urn.

The water in the third urn still turned rainbow-colored, but the fragrance it emitted was even fainter.

Xia Zhi sniffed, and with his Spice Master ability, felt that the Rainbow Fruit Concentrate had now become about right to use as a base concentrate.

Taking another cup of clear water, he added a drop of liquid from the third urn, and a cup of rainbow fruit juice was complete.

Xia Zhi took a small sip, experiencing his mouth being bombarded by countless fruit flavors all at once.

Apple, banana, lemon, Sunset Fruit, raspberry, Sunsettia...

As time passed, these flavors mixed together and gradually produced seven dreamlike changes, giving an indescribably wonderful experience.

Xia Zhi's expression slowly cleared from his intoxication, and looking at the rainbow juice in his hand, he felt his shop's business was secure.

Perhaps in the future, this shop would become one of Liyue's landmarks, one of those must-visit spots...

Xia Zhi smiled at the thought, stored the three urns in his inventory, and carried the juice cup upstairs to his bedroom.

Now, it was time to test the true worth of being a Spice Master.

Xia Zhi took out various spices and dried flower petals he'd bought and arranged them by category on the table.

The room was immediately filled with complex fragrances.

Xia Zhi waved his hand again, taking out the long-idle incense burner from his inventory.

[Blazing Incense Burner]

Quality: Gold

Type: Alchemy Tool

Property: Fusion

Effect: Combines ingredients into incense, can calm people's hearts, can communicate with spirits

Hidden Effect: Increases incense success rate by 50%, perfect incense success rate by 20%

This incense burner was something Xia Zhi had obtained from Little Crane Mother, and was currently the second most valuable item he owned.

Xia Zhi touched the cool burner body, reminiscing for a moment about his time traveling with Little Crane Mother, then removed the burner lid, selected several spices from the table, and placed them into the burner according to special proportions.

Replacing the lid, he gently twisted it to align the special patterns on top.

The originally cool burner suddenly became blazing hot.

Xia Zhi watched it, waiting quietly.

A few minutes later, a faint fragrance wafted from the burner.

The incense was ready.

Xia Zhi lifted the lid and carefully poured out a small pile of powder, touched some with his finger, and brought it to his nose to smell carefully.

The quality was good.

Taking a red paper, he placed a bamboo stick vertically in the middle, folded the red paper into a thin strip, poured the powder into it, removed the bamboo stick, then folded and sealed the paper, carefully kneading it firm, and glued the bottom and top.

Thus, a handmade incense stick was complete. Though it looked quite crude, it was actually better than the most expensive incense sold at Yiyan Temple.

Xia Zhi lit it and stuck it on the table. Strands of pleasant fragrance swirled around the room with the burning smoke.

But the scent still had a slight acrid note.

This was because the red paper used to wrap the incense was of poor quality, producing a subtle burnt smell when burning.

Ordinary people might not care about such details, but it wouldn't do if encountered by someone who knew better.

He needed to find a way to eliminate this flaw from the red paper.

Xia Zhi took a sip of rainbow fruit juice, thought for a while, and suddenly remembered he still had some Slime Condensate in his inventory. He took some out and tested it with his finger.

Colorless, odorless, with just the right viscosity.

It should work as an incense-binding material.

For the first attempt, he put the Slime Condensate together with other spices into the [Blazing Incense Burner], finally obtaining some amber-like crystals that could burn with a long-lasting fragrance.

For the second attempt, he mixed the Slime Condensate with the incense powder, formed it into strips, let it solidify, and finally got some thin incense sticks, solving the original crude incense's flaw.

Both attempts' results satisfied Xia Zhi, and out of interest, he used the spices on the table to make many different types of incense, with several attempts triggering the [Blazing Incense Burner]'s hidden effect, achieving perfect incense.

Compared to normal incense, the perfect incense crystals looked more beautiful and emitted more harmonious fragrances when burning.

After experimenting enough with common materials and gaining experience in incense making, Xia Zhi finally took out a small bottle from his inventory.

[Calming Pills].

This was the first item Xia Zhi had purchased from the [Shop].

Quality: Silver

Effect: Calms the mind and steadies the spirit.

Though this pill's effect description seemed very simple, it was actually extremely powerful. Back then, Xia Zhi had only eaten one pill to pull his nearly collapsed sanity back to normal.

It was indeed worthy of being high-grade merchandise worth 50 points.

The bottle contained five Calming Pills, with four remaining now.

Xia Zhi took out one pill, cut off a small piece, and put it together with other calming spices and Slime Condensate into the [Blazing Incense Burner].

A few minutes later, Xia Zhi obtained a beautiful crystal.

Just looking at its appearance, it wasn't obviously different from the previous incense, but when Xia Zhi lit it, it emitted an ethereal fragrance with the power to calm one's spirit.

Moreover, even Xia Zhi's sense of smell couldn't distinguish the specific components of this fragrance. Even though he knew which spices were used, he couldn't find traces of their original scents in the fragrance.

Because of the addition of [Calming Pills], this incense seemed to have become some kind of supernatural item.

Xia Zhi pondered for a moment, then directly stored this incense in his inventory.

Sure enough, an item description appeared on the system panel.

[Calming Incense]

Quality: Iron

Type: Consumable

Property: None

Effect: Special incense made with partial Calming Pills using the Blazing Incense Burner, can calm people's hearts and please spirits

Hidden Effect: None

Recyclable: 1 point

Xia Zhi looked at the recycling price at the bottom of the panel, his expression showing slight delight.

Self-made items could be recycled too?

Though it seemed items needed to reach supernatural quality for this to work.

But this was still a new way to earn points.

Otherwise, only relying on recycling treasure chests for points was too inefficient.

Xia Zhi took the incense out from his inventory again; it was still burning quietly.

The future looked promising, which was good.

Xia Zhi smiled slightly, cleaned up the scattered items on the table, went downstairs to wash up, then went to bed.

Making incense today had been too tiring; he'd write his book tomorrow.

The night grew deeper, with only the incense on the table burning quietly, filling the room with a comforting fragrance.

At some point, a slender white ghostly shadow suddenly phased through the wall from next door.

She merely glanced at Xia Zhi on the bed, then was attracted by the incense's scent. As if lured, she unconsciously floated toward the table.

Finally, she lay on the table, bringing her head close to the incense, greedily inhaling it.

"So... fragrant... so... delicious..."