Spiritual Chef (1)

Long Yuan did his responsibility to clean the kitchenware and utensil he used before returning them to the Xiyang Pavilion's warehouse. Taking this opportunity, he scanned what the restaurant had in their store.

Although this wasn't his first time being inside a restaurant's storehouse, it was his first after coming to this Shiyuan Realm.

While the similarity of the tools could hardly surprise him, these kitchenwares' sheer size and build quality did. Some of the equipment was utterly foreign to him, making him barely guess what it was used for.

"What's wrong? Did something here interest you?" a familiar voice came from Long Yuan's back. It was not surprising for someone to start a conversation with him, but the surprising part was he's acquainted with the owner of this voice!

"Mister." Long Yuan cupped his hand together after turning around. He finds it not that surprising to see this middle-aged man here for an unknown reason.

"It was quite a good result for someone who opened his stall on the first day." Xiyang Xiao said. He's still seen with the same suave appearance and a smile on his face.

"I'm just lucky. Should I be addressing mister as Senior Xiyang next time?" Long Yuan replied with a smile on his face.

"Just call me the way you like. From when did you notice that I'm the owner of this Xiyang Pavilion?" Xiyang Xiao chuckled. He thought his identity would remain hidden to this brat before him. But Long Yuan's sharpness surprised him.

"My answer might sound ridiculous, but I noticed it right away after meeting senior's son, Xiyang Yuwen. Although it's faint, he has the same disposition as you do, senior." Long Yuan answered.

His reply sounded no different from a boot-licking attempt, but there's nothing wrong if this attempt works. It was pleasant for the receiver to hear it, and it could get the speaker to be seen in a favorable spot.

"This youngster... Even two of my Wen-Er would be lacking compared to you." Xiyang Xiao chuckled again. His awkward smile surprises everyone else, as he was known to be a just and emotionless owner of this Xiyang Pavilion.

It was said that there's hardly anything that could make this business owner smile. But right now, they caught him doing something unimaginable.

Twice.

"Senior's words were wasted on this junior. There are more for this junior to learn before I came up to your expectation," said Long Yuan. At the same time, it made Long Yuan notice that his personality had somewhat changed after coming to this world.

The person he was before was no different from Xiyang Xiao.

In the eyes of his fellow colleagues, Long Yuan was seen as a stubborn chef that was unwilling to communicate and converse with others. His insistence on sticking to the tradition also separates him from the others due to the differences in mentality.

But in reality, Long Yuan was a friendly person willing to teach, share, and cooperate without asking for anything in return. The others failed to see the truth behind a false impression on him.

"Enough of these nice to hear words. Follow me." Xiyang Xiao simply waved his hand to sweep all the flowery words aside. Turning around and facing the staircase nearby, he asked Long Yuan to come along.

"Yes, senior." Long Yuan placed the kitchenware back on where it should and followed the pavilion's owner closely. As it would be seen as disrespect and show-off if he followed Xiyang Xiao too closely, Long Yuan kept a modest four to five steps distance from him.

"I remembered you mentioned to me while we're at the wheat field. Did you say that you made the flour on your own?" asked Xiyang Xiao.

"Yes, senior. This junior can only make my own flour since that's the only thing I knew." Long Yuan replied.

"That was an excellent flour you make there. Keep it up. So... That lass, Yuan Ling, was your sister?" Xiyang Xiao continued as the two walked up the stairs past the first and second floors.

"Yes. That naughty lass is this junior's only younger sibling." Long Yuan responded. By the time he replied to Xiyang Xiao's question, they had already arrived at the third floor, the highest floor of this pavilion.

It was said that not everyone was qualified to come up to this floor.

From what he was told, the four levels of Xiyang Pavilion are strictly catered to a particular type of people. The ground floor was opened to the public, where they were generously greeted with forty kinds of delicious choices.

Next comes the first floor, where only young masters and ladies from a proper household could dine in. Over here, there are thirty options available to choose from. Each dish was guaranteed to be made from excellent ingredients.

Only those with the head and vice head of a household or business owners were qualified to dine here on the second floor. It was said that even the village chief was only eligible to eat on this floor. Similarly, there are only twenty options to choose from on this floor.

But the twenty dishes here were guaranteed to be comparable to treasured pills sold by the best pill pavilion available in this Sprouting Village.

"Did anyone tell you about how the Xiyang Pavilion works?" Xiyang Xiao asked as he pushed the door open to his personal office. It was a simply decorated room with a wine shelf on the right side of the wall and a bookshelf on both sides beside the opened window.

There's a studying table two meters away from the window and the bookshelves, along with a tea table three meters away. On the walls of the left was a door leading to somewhere else.

"All this junior know was what others told. I heard that only a few are qualified to dine on the third floor. Is that true?" Long Yuan responded to the question.

"It is. So far, only three people are qualified to dine on the third floor. The headmaster of the village's academy, the Pill Refining Pavilion's master, and Blacksmith Ou from the village's only smithery." Xiyang Xiao replied.

"Do you know why I brought you here?" Xiyang Xiao continued.

"Please enlighten this junior." Long Yuan cupped his hands together and humbly asked for the answer.

"Do you know that although culinary was considered as a respectable profession in this Shiyuan Continent, the chances for one to succeed in this was barely 1%?" Xiyang Xiao asked.

"It was said that without sufficient willpower, experience, and creativity, one would find it difficult to succeed in the path of culinary cultivation," he added.

"Are you interested to cultivates and trying to become a Spiritual Chef?" the question that came after Xiyang Xiao finished with the introduction surprised Long Yuan. The question itself made Long Yuan speechless as his brain tried to process everything he was told.

"Spiritual Chef?" Xiyang Xiao's offer was indeed attractive, but at the same time, Long Yuan knew that this decision was not something to be made at a whim. As he was told by Xiyang Xiao, the chances to succeed in this profession are barely 1%.

But again, this was an attractive offer. And to Long Yuan, who worked as a chef since he knew how to hold a knife until now, this profession was something made just for him. The only problem he had was his confidence.

After all, it's not even a week since the first day he arrived in this world.

His indecisiveness made Xiyang Xiao worried that he placed too much pressure on this youngster. Apparently, he had something else in mind for suggesting Long Yuan pursue this profession.

"Yuan Long, correct?" Xiyang Xiao called his name for the first time.

"Yes, senior." Long Yuan nodded and stared at Xiyang Xiao with a pair of questioning eyes.

"What if... You considered this senior's proposal? I'll let you randomly choose one of the Spiritual Chef's cultivation techniques back to study. You'll have to work in my kitchen ten times in exchange." Xiyang Xiao suggested.

"Ten... Times?" Xiyang Xiao's suggestion was puzzling to Long Yuan, who barely knew anything. The blank expression on his face immediately caught Xiyang Xiao's attention as he knew he had to explain more in detail.

"I guess I have to explain about this in detail." he chuckled again.

"For a profession like ours, it was based on turns. A blacksmith's quota is the equipment, and a hunter is on how many beasts he captured. A pill refiner completes his quota by the number of pills made."

"Since I'm suggesting you try this profession, it was only fair that I treated you like one of the Spiritual Chef in training. The number of times in your employment equals how many days you'll be handling the kitchen preparation or service."

"What do you think about my proposal after listening to what I had to say?" Xiyang Xiao asked.

"Junior Yuan Long can only agree to senior's suggestion, since rejecting senior's choice would be disrespectful. I'll do my best to come up to senior's expectation." Long Yuan said.

"Hahaha, very good! Looks like my eyes weren't muddled yet." Xiyang Xiao laughed after he heard Yuan Long's response to his suggestion. Following the answer, Xiyang Xiao took a piece of jade out from his inner chest pocket.

A hint of Spiritual Essence unique to Xiyang Xiao was gradually imbued on the piece of milky-green jade.

Soon, four books appeared out of nowhere. Each of the books had a sign that was used all over the cover. And to Long Yuan's surprise, the quality of the material used to create this book can't be taken lightly either.

"Senior, this is?" Long Yuan asked.

"The book of four basics that a Spiritual Chef has to master. As I told you earlier, you'll be choosing one of them randomly and trying to cultivate it. In return, you'll have to work in my restaurant for ten times." Xiyang Xiao replied.