Chapter: Healing Medicine
Cheng Yu sold barbecue at the labyrinth entrance every day to earn money and positive emotions from adventurers.
After a few days, all the nearby adventurers knew Cheng Yu's barbecue was delicious. They lined up early in the morning.
In the morning, there was a long queue in front of Cheng Yu's barbecue stall, but only a few people at the labyrinth entrance.
"The most anticipated thing every day is eating Cheng Yu's barbecue."
"This barbecue tastes really amazing—crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and the heat is just right."
"Exploring for ten minutes, grilling for two hours. I may be a fake adventurer."
Addicted to barbecue. Unable to extricate myself.
Some people would rather queue for two hours to buy barbecue than spend time exploring and searching for treasures in the labyrinth.
An adventurer in armor came up. "Brother, I'm from the Fast family of Black Stone City. Can you sell us a few more skewers? I can pay more."
Fifty skewers of barbecue for one person—Cheng Yu could only get one person's positive emotion value.
If fifty skewers were given to ten people, Cheng Yu could get positive emotion value from ten people.
So Cheng Yu stipulated each person was limited to buying five skewers.
Cheng Yu hesitated. "How much more?"
The armored youth opened the five fingers of his right hand. "You sell twenty copper coins a skewer. I'll increase it to fifty copper coins a skewer. What do you think?"
"No. I'm a principled person. I limit purchases when I say so."
Cheng Yu directly rejected the armored youth.
Fifty copper coins is too little. It would be worth considering if increased to one gold coin a skewer.
The young man of the Fast family was disappointed. He said to his companions behind him, "This barbecue is too fragrant. Five skewers aren't enough—not enough at all."
The man behind suggested, "Master Charlie, let's go hunting nearby later. Do it yourself—plenty of food and clothing."
"Good idea."
The two bought five skewers of barbecue each and went hunting nearby.
At that moment, a middle-aged man carrying a pale man came to Cheng Yu's barbecue stall.
The middle-aged man put the pale man on the ground. "Boss, my friend was injured by a monster in the labyrinth and is about to die. His biggest wish before dying is to eat your barbecue. Can he cut in line?"
"Let me eat one more skewer of barbecue, and I'll die without regrets."
The pale man was weak and pale, with a fist-sized penetrating wound on his chest wrapped in white cloth—the white cloth stained red with blood.
If he weren't a second-tier warrior, he'd have died with such a serious penetrating wound.
The pale man conveyed his last words to his friend.
"Enoch, I'm dying. What I'm most worried about is my wife, Pearly."
"I'll take good care of your wife. Don't worry."
"I feel relieved with you here."
The pale man vomited blood—about to die.
The adventurers in the queue felt pity seeing he was dying.
"Let him cut in line and fulfill his last wish."
"I agree to let him cut in line too."
"Boss Cheng Yu, I'm not in a hurry. Grill for him first."
Cheng Yu took out a pottery jar from the system warehouse and asked the two people nearby, "Do you want to try my healing medicine? The healing effect is very strong."
"It's useless. The injury is too serious—unless there's a priest with a professional level of tier two or above."
The middle-aged man named Enoch said.
Priests were clergy of the Holy See of Light. There were few of them. Among the thousands of adventurers here, there were only a few priests, and their professional level was only tier one.
Tier-one priests could only treat simple skin injuries.
"Your friend is dying. Just try it."
Cheng Yu wanted to use this seriously injured person to promote the dark cuisine: pickled earthworms. He'd let everyone see the effect and see if he could sell some.
After all, this thing was too smelly. If sold directly, it definitely wouldn't sell.
"Okay."
Enoch agreed with Cheng Yu's suggestion.
Cheng Yu held the pottery jar and reminded everyone, "Everyone, cover your mouth and nose. I'm about to show off."
Ivennie and Mina knew what was in the pottery jar. They quickly covered their mouths and noses and hid far away.
???
Others were full of questions, not understanding why Cheng Yu asked them to cover their mouths and noses.
Cheng Yu opened the seal of the pottery jar. A strong smell of rot and fishiness spread—more foul than rotten duck eggs, dead fish, and rotten shrimp. Comparable to biological weapons.
Ugh~
This smell was like a powerful demon punching everyone in the abdomen. Some people vomited on the spot.
"Oh my God~ What is this? It's too smelly!"
"I promise this is the stinkiest thing I've ever smelled in my life."
"Ten times stinkier than my wife's feet!"
Those adventurers queuing to buy barbecue quickly covered their mouths and noses.
"Dark cuisine—pickled earthworms! Healing magic medicine! Come have a bite!"
Cheng Yu showed a devilish smile, scooped up a spoonful of sticky black paste with a spoon, and handed it to the pale man.
Smelling it up close, the pale man frowned. Though he didn't want to eat it, he was dying—had to try it.
He resisted the nausea and ate a spoonful of pickled earthworms.
"After tasting this thing, I suddenly find death isn't so scary."
The pale man commented on the pickled earthworms.
The pickled earthworms had an immediate effect. The pale man felt a warm current rising from his abdomen, flowing to his whole body. His body was warm.
Fresh granulation tissue grew from the penetrating wound on his chest. His face began having color.
He was recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"This... this is amazing!" the pale man said in amazement.
Not only did the wounds on his body heal quickly, but he was also full of energy—as if he had endless power.
He tore off the blood-stained white cloth on his chest. The fist-sized penetrating wound had mostly healed—still a little left unhealed. His life was saved.
Cheng Yu grinned. "You're not fully healed yet. Do you want another bite?"
"No. Thank you for your miraculous medicine."
Though the pale man praised the pickled earthworms as miraculous medicine, his eyes showed slight disgust. He didn't want to experience the taste of this thing again after experiencing it once.
"Boss Cheng Yu, thank you for saving my friend," Enoch thanked Cheng Yu.
However, Cheng Yu felt there was a little unnoticeable resentment in Enoch's eyes when he looked at him.
The two went to the back to line up.
When the adventurers saw the miraculous effect of pickled earthworms, they were all surprised. The effect of this thing was equivalent to a priest above tier two.
"Boss Cheng Yu, do you sell this thing?" someone asked.
"Yes. One gold coin per spoonful."
Cheng Yu had used pickled earthworms to treat the man just now for sales.
"I want a spoonful!"
"I want a spoonful too!"
"Give me a spoonful!"
Finally, Cheng Yu sold seven spoonfuls of pickled earthworms and earned seven gold coins.
Though they'd seen the miraculous effects of pickled earthworms, the adventurers weren't very willing to buy them.
First, the stuff was too smelly and gave a bad impression. Second, one gold coin per spoonful was too expensive. If not used, one gold coin would be wasted.
Cheng Yu looked at the pickled earthworms in the jar. There was still a small half jar left. I'll prepare some more next time.
He sealed the pottery jar and continued selling barbecue.
After a few days of accumulation, the system task was almost completed.
[System Task Progress: 9,886/10,000]
[System Task Progress: 9,891/10,000]
[System Task Progress: 9,900/10,000]
[System Task Progress: 10,001/10,000]
[Congratulations to the host for completing the system task. Reward special recipe: Braised Pork with Wood Roots]
[Braised Pork with Wood Roots: Slightly bitter, accompanied by a strong smell of heather. Has a significant aphrodisiac effect. Ingredients: dragon meat, wood dragon root, angelica, licorice, fennel, bay leaves, cinnamon, nutmeg...]
Cheng Yu was ecstatic. The dish Braised Pork with Wood Roots can actually aphrodisiac! I have to make some.