Chapter 443: New Training Plan
It wasn't until Ru Yi, standing nearby, called out to him twice in concern that a glimmer of awareness finally returned to Qi Han's eyes as he stood quietly in the system space.
Everything within the Food Realm had only been a memory illusion, yet it was far too real. So real, in fact, that even with Qi Han's current Spirit King–level Spiritual Power, he found it difficult to pull himself free from it quickly.
At that moment, he finally understood why Ru Yi had repeatedly emphasized that only those at the Spirit King realm could unlock 4 Star recipes.
The threshold of cultivation wasn't directly related to the difficulty of the cooking itself. Rather, the Food Realm was akin to reliving the entire life of the recipe's creator. For the one experiencing it, it was practically a full reincarnation. If one's spiritual realm was too weak, entering it carried a very real risk of becoming completely lost—of being unable to distinguish oneself from the memories within.
Only Spiritual Power strong enough to withstand the soul-shaking impact of a ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring could ensure clarity of consciousness within the Food Realm.
That said, this journey into the Food Realm had brought Qi Han tremendous gains.
Once he came back to himself, he wasted no time and stepped straight into the already-unlocked Peony Fish Fillet training space.
Within the Peony Fish Fillet training space, there were no phantom projections, no lingering soul remnants.
In truth, none were needed.
Qi Han rolled up his sleeves and got straight to work.
Within the Food Realm, while inhabiting Qin Shi's body, he had made Peony Fish Fillet countless times.
He felt that he could surely recreate Peony Fish Fillet in a single attempt!
Reality, however, proved this to be nothing more than Qi Han's illusion.
After a long while, Qi Han stared at the Peony Fish Fillet in front of him—something that looked like a peony flower, but whose flavor was completely off—and fell into deep thought.
Ah… this…
That shouldn't be the case, right?
"Ru Yi, I clearly made it successfully so many times in the Food Realm. Why is there such a huge gap now?" Qi Han asked.
"What was made in the Food Realm wasn't you—it was Qin Shi," Ru Yi replied, unable to resist rolling her eyes. "If possessing someone once meant you could immediately master everything, then what would be the point of training? The Food Realm merely lets you experience the origins of the dish and the process of its development and cooking more vividly through possession. It's equivalent to pointing out a broad, straight road for you—just follow it."
"But the practice you need to do still has to be done. Don't even think about slacking off."
"Alright." Qi Han scratched his head. "By the way, I experienced such a long span of time in the Food Realm—how much time passed outside?"
"That sense of length was only your perception. In reality, only an instant passed outside. It's like the difference between time in a dream and time in the real world."
So that's how it was?
Qi Han immediately felt relieved. He'd been worried that spending too long in the Food Realm might delay business afterward. From the sound of it, the outside world should still be at the dinner service of the fifth day of his leave.
He had already grown used to a schedule that included late-night service. Being off so early actually made it hard for him to sleep.
Business would resume tomorrow. Naturally, there would be no late-night service tonight.
Then…
Taking advantage of having just finished the Food Realm—while his insights were still at their clearest—he should hurry up and practice Peony Fish Fillet.
With that thought, Qi Han buried himself in intense training.
Wait…
Did he forget something?
Hmm… probably not.
…
"Teacher…"
Ye Lingqing stood hesitantly in front of Qi Han's bedroom door, lifting his hand as if to knock, only to lower it again after a long moment of indecision.
The teacher had been out for so long, and the moment he came back he shut himself into his room. He must be dealing with something important—it would be better not to disturb him.
But…
Thinking of the words Qi Han had casually tossed out before going upstairs, Ye Lingqing couldn't help feeling confused.
The breakfast service will be handed over to you from now on?
After five days of operating things on his own, Ye Lingqing was confident that if he had to keep things going for a while longer, it wouldn't be a big problem.
But…
The way his teacher had phrased it didn't sound like it was just "for a while."
Why did it feel like… the teacher was trying to slack off?
No, no, definitely not.
Ye Lingqing shook his head hard, forcing that strange thought out of his mind, then returned to his own room.
Better to rest early.
Judging by the situation, tomorrow's breakfast service would still be up to him to handle.
…
Ye Lingqing's guess was correct.
The next morning, Qi Han got up early and woke Ye Lingqing, but during breakfast service he only made a brief appearance—chatting for a bit with the regular customers he hadn't seen in a few days—before leisurely returning to his room, leaving the poor Ye Lingqing behind to continue running the breakfast service on his own.
At this point, Qi Han had only one task left unfinished: Main Quest 8.
Because he had taken five days off, all of his previously accumulated operating days had been wiped clean. He would have to start over and run the business for a full one hundred days again.
After completing Side Quest 9, all Side Quests associated with the Main Quest 8 stage were completely finished. Only by completing Main Quest 8 and advancing to Main Quest 9 would new Side Quests be unlocked.
As for Time-Limited Quests, triggering those was purely a matter of luck.
This also meant that, for quite some time, it would be difficult for him to obtain any new recipes.
All of the 3 Star recipes he had previously acquired were already fully mastered. At present, the only recipes Qi Han had yet to truly master were the two 4 Star recipes: Peony Fish Fillet and Zilong Sheds His Armor—and neither of them was something that could be completed in a short period of time.
So after a long stretch of living in abundance, where he had more new recipes than he could finish learning, Qi Han now found himself abruptly back at square one.
Even so, Qi Han felt no anxiety over it.
On the one hand, he still had four 3 Star recipes that he planned to introduce today. Together with the large batch of dishes he had rolled out earlier, even if he didn't introduce a single new dish over the next one hundred days, the diners likely wouldn't have much to complain about.
On the other hand, he still possessed the 1 Star recipe purchasing privilege, meaning he could occasionally introduce a few 1 Star dishes as well.
Although 1 Star dishes were mostly various vegetable dishes, Han Shi had been serving a lot of meat lately, so adding some lighter vegetable dishes wasn't a bad idea either.
With Ye Lingqing officially taking over the breakfast service, Qi Han's training plan also underwent new changes.
The morning training time was freed up once again, and combined with the afternoon training sessions, Qi Han's total training time returned to roughly the same level as it had been in the early days.
After advancing to an intermediate chef, Qi Han now had access to two training spaces. However, that didn't mean he needed to use both at the same time—after all, he couldn't split himself in two to study simultaneously.
The real purpose of having two training spaces was to give him flexibility: when studying an especially difficult recipe, he could still open another space to work on different recipes, preventing one long-term dish from occupying the slot and delaying the mastery of others.
Therefore, with only two 4 Star recipes remaining, Qi Han didn't recklessly start training Zilong Sheds His Armor. Instead, he decided to devote himself wholeheartedly to Peony Fish Fillet for the foreseeable future.
As for Zilong Sheds His Armor…
That could wait until after Peony Fish Fillet was mastered.
Practicing Peony Fish Fillet alone for the next hundred days might be a little monotonous.
But that wasn't a problem for Qi Han.
Before heading to Star Luo City, he had once spent an entire month honing his carving skills, raising them to the proficient level. However, after that, due to being constantly busy, he'd never had the chance to continue practicing carving. As a result, the age of his second Spirit Ring had remained stuck at the threshold of the thousand-year mark.
Now, this was a perfect opportunity.
He could practice carving while also working on a 4 Star recipe—switching between the two whenever one grew tiring. It was a good way to change pace and refresh his mind.
Stepping into the carving training space he hadn't visited in a long time, Qi Han picked up a block of sandalwood and began carving casually.
He couldn't help but wonder—
With a hundred days, would it be possible to push his carving skills all the way to the mastery level?
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Note:
Qi Han Second Spirit Skill: Blade ShadowsThis Spirit skill is bound to the host's carving level. Carving levels are divided into five tiers: Beginner, Proficient, Mastery, Perfection, and Divine, corresponding to ten-year Spirit rings, hundred-year Spirit rings, thousand-year Spirit rings, ten-thousand-year Spirit rings, and hundred-thousand-year Spirit rings, respectively.
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