Chapter 135

The afternoon business hours ended on time.

"Yaoyao, do you want to stay for dinner?"

"I can't... Yaoyao has to go back..."

The little girl's expression was complex, clearly wanting to stay for dinner.

"This morning Zhu Zi bought some yams, I'm planning to make candied yams. Doesn't Yaoyao want to try?"

"Uu... Yaoyao can go back a little later..."

Xia Zhi nodded with a smile and walked into the kitchen.

In his original world, candied yams were considered a famous dish. The "Brief Account of Vegetarian Food" recorded the method: "Peel, cut into angled pieces, fry in oil, add prepared ice sugar water when taking off the heat, and it will have long threads. But if fried with sugar alone, there will be no threads."

Soon, Zhu Zi brought out an appetizing plate of candied yams from the kitchen.

"Be careful, it's hot! Boss says to dip it in cool water before eating!"

"So sweet~"

"Crispy outside, tender inside~"

"Big Brother, I want to take some back for Master!"

"That's fine, but this dish is best eaten hot. If it cools, the sugar coating will solidify and won't be able to form threads, and it won't taste as good."

"Why don't you take some red bean ice dessert back instead, Yaoyao? As for the candied yams, I'll make them again when Granny Ping comes next time."

"Okay, thank you Big Brother!"

"No need for thanks. Shenhe, when you take Yaoyao back later, please also bring a box of red bean ice dessert for Miss Ganyu."

"Mm."

After finishing the candied yams, Shenhe took Yaoyao out.

Zhu Zi wiped the tables while savoring the delicious taste and started anticipating: "Boss, what dessert are we making tomorrow?"

"Let me think, we still have some beans left from last time, let's use them up tomorrow."

"Are we making tofu pudding again? And that... especially delicious mapo tofu!"

"Mm, we'll make some tofu pudding. If you want salty tofu pudding that's fine too. We won't make magical mapo tofu this time. Tomorrow morning, go buy a fresh fish, and we'll stew it with tofu for lunch."

"Okay!"

After dinner, they went for a walk outside. While the two girls were buying things, Xia Zhi took the opportunity to pick up some stones from the roadside and put them in his inventory.

After bathing and returning to his room, Xia Zhi took out a stone from his inventory and placed it on the table with a piece of white paper underneath.

With his rock identification expertise, he could tell this was just an ordinary stone with many impurities, commonly found by the roadside. Its best use would probably be as a weight for pickling jars.

Xia Zhi placed his hand on the stone and used [Midas Touch] on it.

Moments later, a heavy piece of pure gold appeared on the table.

Xia Zhi checked his mana change and found that converting such a large piece of gold consumed even less than casting a [Heal] spell.

Why be a priest anymore!

Time to change class to Wealthy Tycoon!

Xia Zhi took out other stones and turned them into gold too, then checked his mana change again. This time the consumption was finally more than [Heal].

Looking at the pile of gold on the table, Xia Zhi felt he wouldn't lack for Mora to spend in the future.

However, his current lifestyle wasn't extravagant, and the shop's income could fully support it.

He also didn't want to have things like a gold toilet at home, so this skill had no major use for now.

Xia Zhi put away the gold, took out the [Spirit Bamboo Brush], and began his daily creation of adeptal talismans and spell scrolls.

--

At Dunyu Ruins, near the teleport waypoint, in an enormous crater.

Yelan stood alone at the bottom of the giant crater, holding a disk-like mechanical device that constantly flickered with light, seemingly detecting something.

"Electro element fluctuations..."

"Pyro element fluctuations..."

"And Hydro element fluctuations..."

"Hm? Why are there Anemo element fluctuations too?"

"No, this is Cryo element fluctuations..."

...

Looking at the detection information from the device, Yelan's expression became increasingly incredulous.

"Here... could there have been some kind of chaotic battle?"

--

The next morning, Zhu Zi and Shenhe returned from buying groceries and started helping grind beans.

It was [Great Tuna Belly Soybeans] that had been soaked overnight.

After grinding, they filtered it through gauze. Part of the soy milk was boiled to go with breakfast scallion pancakes, and the rest was made into tofu pudding and frost-fall tofu.

During the morning business hours, Hu Tao came to the shop and ordered two glasses of juice.

"Director Hu hasn't come to support our shop's business in a long time."

"I wanted to come, but I've been busy. Isn't Zhongli coming every day?"

"The boss just made some tofu pudding, would Director Hu like a bowl?"

"Does it cost money?"

"No."

"Then bring two bowls!"

"Ai..."

Zhu Zi still brought out two beautiful bowls of sweet tofu pudding from the kitchen.

Hu Tao tasted it and her eyes lit up: "Such a refreshing aftertaste of soy fragrance!"

"Delicious, right? The boss's culinary skills are excellent."

"Mm mm... can I have another bowl?"

"Drinking too much at once isn't good for your health..."

Zhu Zi said seriously, then turned to busy herself.

The boss didn't make much tofu pudding, and some needs to be saved for Yaoyao in the afternoon.

Hu Tao was a bit disappointed, but getting two free bowls of tofu pudding was already a good deal. Mr. Xia's culinary skills were indeed excellent. The mooncakes last time were delicious too, and that mushroom vegetarian noodle she saw that night, the aroma was irresistible. She wondered what kind of mushroom it was made from, and if there was some secret seasoning...

Hu Tao glanced at Xia Zhi at the counter.

He was busy now, so it wasn't a good time to go over and discuss culinary skills with him.

Hu Tao withdrew her gaze and focused on eating the tofu pudding and drinking juice.

When leaving, she also cleared Zhongli's tab.

But it didn't matter much.

Because at 4 PM, Zhongli came to the shop again right on time.

Xia Zhi prepared the juice, then silently selected him.

"Use [Skill Steal] on target?"

"Yes."

"[Skill Steal] successful, learned skill [War God] from target."

"[Skill Steal] has entered cooldown, usable again in 24 hours."

"[War God]: Automatically master all weapon proficiencies, +50% damage to all polearm weapons, become All-Weapon Master and Polearm Grandmaster."

Xia Zhi felt his mind suddenly fill with various weapon techniques - one-handed swords, two-handed greatswords, bows, whips... with polearm techniques being the most numerous.

After digesting the knowledge for a while, Xia Zhi gently gripped his hand.

These beautiful hands seemed unchanged, but compared to before when massaging and carving, they had become infinitely more dangerous. Even holding a wooden stick, they could easily take many lives.

Polearm Grandmaster...

This was his third grandmaster-level skill.

If he could get a light magic staff in the future, that should count as a polearm, right? And polearm techniques should count as two-handed skills, right?

[War God]'s +50% damage to all polearms, plus [Shadow Hands]' +100% effect on two-handed skills, the stacked damage increase seemed a bit terrifying.

Looking at it this way, it seemed he could now take the path of a battle mage...

----

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