Chapter 111: Chapter 106 Cooking Mutated Nine-section Heart Meat_1
The market price for the Mutated Heart Meat hovers around 10,000 silvers.
However, this is the market price, but the supply of Mutated Heart Meat falls short of the demand. It’s often unavailable even if one is willing to pay, and if it does appear, the price is often higher than 10,000 silvers, fluctuating between 13,000 to 15,000 silvers.
Alongside other auxiliary materials such as Nine-section Ginseng, the costs amount to roughly around 5,000 silvers.
Adding a cooking fee of 15,000 silvers, the total cost approaches 35,000 silvers, and the seller always marks up the price a bit.
Hence, the price of a properly cooked Mutated Nine-section Heart Meat tends to be around 40,000 silvers.
It came as no surprise to Lu Wenxuan that as soon as Lu Yan heard about the opportunity to cook Mutated Nine-section Heart Meat, he readily agreed.
The Mutated Heart Meat is rare, hence opportunities to cook Mutated Nine-section Heart Meat are also few and far between.
It is worth mentioning that preparing such superior Martial Food significantly boosts one’s own martial chef skills.
This is evident from Shen Yinuo’s intention to find Mutated Heart Meat to hone her culinary skills.
Meanwhile, given that the Tuoba Clan had access to Mutated Heart Meat, they would naturally turn to their own Martial Chef Grandmaster. Opportunities for Lu Wenxuan to prepare the Mutated Nine-section Heart Meat were relatively scarce.
Lu Yan certainly didn’t want to miss out on this rare opportunity.
"However, I must inform you that given my culinary skills, the success rate of cooking Mutated Nine-section Heart Meat is only 80%, so there is a possibility of a failure and you should be prepared for it,"
Lu Wenxuan said.
"I understand." Lu Yan nodded.
"Alright, cook three portions of Mutated Nine-section Heart Meat, it will take almost ten days. You can come to collect after ten days."
Lu Wenxuan stated.
Lu Yan left the Mutated Heart Meat and all the auxiliary materials behind and bid his farewell.
He rented a small courtyard near the Martial Food Building to stay.
After cooking the Mutated Nine-section Heart Meat, one still needs to prepare the Beast King Bone-Protecting Soup. He had heard that the preparation of Beast King Bone-Protecting Soup is even more time-consuming. Given his daily martial arts practice, staying at an inn was not convenient.
After Lu Yan left, Lu Wenxuan called his senior disciple to assist him.
The senior disciple was thrilled to hear that he would be preparing Mutated Nine-section Heart Meat.
Ten days passed by in a flash.
After ten days, Lu Yan entered the Martial Food Building again, and three portions of tantalizingly aromatic Mutated Nine-section Heart Meat were ready.
Lu Wenxuan filled them in three porcelain jars, put them into three exquisite food boxes, and handed them to Lu Yan.
"I have outdone myself this time and successfully prepared all three portions."
Lu Wenxuan stroked his beard, his face beaming with pride.
"Your cooking skills are truly godlike, sir. You’re indeed on the path to becoming a Martial Chef Grandmaster,"
Lu Yan complimented.
He was genuinely appreciative.
With the success of all three portions, he saved a significant amount of cost.
"I am flattered, I am flattered."
Despite his modest words, the smile on Lu Wenxuan’s face remained as radiant as ever.
Then, Lu Yan took out a stack of gold and silver tickets, totaling to 45,000 silvers, and handed them to Lu Wenxuan. He couldn’t help but wince at the cost.
After Shen Yinuo left, the Martial Food he prepared himself was not enough for his cultivation. Hence, he needed to purchase some Dried Martial Food to supplement his practice.
Over the course of the year, he spent nearly 50,000 silvers on purchasing Martial Food.
Although he earned about 30,000 silvers from the martial arts school, the school also required investment, as did the training of intelligence agents.
These expenses totaled almost 10,000 silvers.
Lately, he earned 42,000 silvers from selling shells, and 5,000 from the Zheng Family. This meant that he had a total of 123,000 silvers.
Spending 45,000 silvers all at once left him with only 78,000 silvers.
And there were more expenses to come.
But all of this was worth it to break through to the Martial Marquis level.
Without giving, there is no gaining.
Lu Yan packed the three meal boxes and said, "Sir, I have another type of Martial Food that I would like you to prepare."
"What else? What kind of Martial Food?"
Lu Wenxuan asked casually, lacking enthusiasm.
Having produced the Mutated Heart Meat, Lu Yan was unlikely to bring out something surpassing the Mutated Nine-section Heart Meat; most likely, it was just a common second-tier Martial Food.
Second-tier Martial Food which he has cooked plenty in the past barely contributes to refining his martial chef skills.
"Beast King Bone-Protecting Soup."
Lu Yan finally revealed.
What?
Lu Wenxuan suddenly stood up from his chair, staring at Lu Yan. After a while, he showed a smile and said, "Sir, you really do have some tricks."
The incident in NanYi City had already spread, and he had heard about it.
The Li family was currently pursuing the perpetrator everywhere.
Clearly, the main culprit was right in front of him.
Lu Yan stared fixedly at Lu Wenxuan without blinking.
"Good, but cooking Beast King Bone-Protecting Soup takes more time and costs twenty thousand taels."
Lu Wenxuan said.
The Beast King Bone-Protecting Soup was even more rare, coupled with the fact that the Tuoba clan and the Gao family were sworn enemies, he had almost no opportunity to come in contact with it, so naturally, he wouldn’t miss the opportunity.
"Deal."
Lu Yan nodded and asked, "Senior, what is the success rate of the Beast King Bone-Protecting Soup?"
"Ninety percent."
Lu Wenxuan replied.
Lu Yan was delighted and asked, "Is the success rate of Beast King Bone-Protecting Soup higher than that of the Mutated Nine-section Heart Meat?"
"Of course, the Beast King Bone-Protecting Soup is formulated from the marrow within the bones and the Jade Bone Tiger contains less blood poison in its bones, making it easier to purify. However, boiling the marrow from its bones takes more time, about half a month in total."
With the continuous cooking of high-level martial food, Lu Wenxuan was obviously in a good mood and explained in detail.
So that’s the case. I’ve learned something new today.
The way of the martial chef is indeed profound. Even though he had elevated the ’Yinuo Lizard Meat’ to ’Man and Food Integration’ - the highest level, through the Dao book, his knowledge of other aspects was still limited; he needed time to accumulate that knowledge.
"Senior, I kindly ask you to keep the matter of Beast King Bone-Protecting Soup a secret."
Lu Yan pleaded.
Lu Wenxuan stroked his beard, nodded and said, "Rest assured, there are professional ethics in this line. Whoever comes to ask me to cook martial food, as long as I accept the job, I will abide by the rules and will never disclose the customer’s information. Otherwise, my Martial Food Building wouldn’t be able to stay in business."
"Thank you, senior. I’ll come to pick it up in half a month."
Lu Yan excused himself and left after bowing politely.
Lu Wenxuan continued to call for his oldest disciple to help him.
The senior disciple was also surprised to hear that he had to cook Beast King Bone-Protecting Soup.
"Remember, you must not leak a single thing about the Beast King Bone-Protecting Soup. If you damage my reputation, I will cripple you."
Lu Wenxuan warned, with a stern expression and cold eyes.
"Disciple understands, I will not reveal any information, if I leak anything, I am willing to give up my cultivation level."
His senior disciple bowed repeatedly and swore to the heavens.
Only then did Lu Wenxuan nodded in satisfaction and said, "In this line of work, reputation is very important. If there is no reputation, no customers will come, if no customers come, there is no money to be made. Since we don’t have any feudal lords supporting us, if we don’t earn money, how can we continue practicing our martial chef skills?"
"Thank you for your teaching, master."
The senior disciple bowed.
"Alright, get ready. Let’s get started."
Lu Wenxuan ordered.
...
Days passed by.
Every day, Lu Yan practiced martial arts and honed his Qi-blood, and the time flew by quickly.
In the blink of an eye, twelve days passed.
With a creak, the door to Martial Chef Kitchen opened and Lu Wenxuan walked out, stretching his back.
After continuous days of cooking, even he, a Martial Marquis, showed a hint of fatigue.
Fortunately, all the major steps had been completed. Only the final step remained - to simmer the soup to condense it into an essence. This stage needed three days and was the simplest. It was almost impossible to fail. He could just let his senior disciple watch over it.
He needed to relax now.
So he headed to his favorite concubine’s room.
"My lord, you haven’t visited me in so many days. I thought you didn’t like me anymore."
The beautiful and voluptuous concubine saw Lu Wenxuan and immediately clung to him, her cheeks rosy.
Lu Wenxuan had been holding back for more than twenty days, and was already about to burst. He couldn’t stand her teasing and immediately took her to bed, saying, "Don’t think too much, I missed you too."
Creak! Creak! Creak!...
Under the force of their movements, the wooden bed started to dance rhythmically.
