Chapter 581: Sky Stones

Shen Xu lowered his eyes when he heard the question.

His spiritual chef inheritance was from the space, his father, and loot.

However, Shen Xu didn’t want to reveal that he didn’t have a master because that would attract the Food Association’s greed.

"My master is a reclusive expert and he doesn’t allow me to reveal his identity." He said and the three judges exchanged a glance.

Based on the soup, they guessed that Shen Xu had a good inheritance and asking about his master was a way of testing his background.

Unfortunately, they didn’t learn much from the person’s answer.

’There will be time in the future.’ The old man thought and sealed the big bowl of qi replenishing soup.

"Take the soup to the fifth hall." He said and Shen Xu nodded before taking the bowl and his jade square.

The fifth hall was one hundred metres away.

After arriving, a female cultivator led Shen Xu into the hall and the double gasped in surprise.

At a glance, the hall was about one thousand square metres.

Looking around, Shen Xu saw more than one thousand platforms; two-thirds of which were already covered with a thin transparent film.

Through each film, Shen Xu saw a bowl of soup and immediately understood the situation.

"Place your bowl on an empty stand, and then leave a soul mark on the isolation film." The female cultivator said and the double did as asked.

"Remember to come back back one month from now." She continued.

"I know." Shen Xu said and left the hall.

"Done?" Zhen Yuan asked and the double nodded.

"Ayuan, do you want to return to the courtyard or ...?" He asked.

"I will listen to you." Zhen Yuan said.

[I don’t feel like going back to the space. Let’s go to another city to play.] Shen Xu suggested and Zhen Yuan immediately agreed.

"Which city?" He asked.

"Tianchang city." The double said.

Like Hefei city, Tianchang was also a tier two city.

Most importantly, it wasn’t too far from Hefei city so the teleportation cost wouldn’t be much.

[One of us can hide in the space.] Shen Xu suggested and Zhen Yuan nodded.

With that, the two returned to their courtyard and Shen Xu took the chance to enter the space.

Soon after, Zhen Yuan left the courtyard and went to the teleportation area.

After paying one hundred thousand immortal stones, he and several others teleported to Tianchang city.

Tianchang city was less prosperous than Hefei city.

However, the city was a well-known tourist destination because of its beautiful landscapes and sky stones.

Sky stones were large multicoloured crystal outcrops that could be seen all over Tianchang city.

However, the stones had no practical value and were only considered as beautiful scenery.

Knowing this, Zhen Yuan had no expectations of Tianchang city and only wanted to relax with Shen Xu.

However, as soon as he saw a sky stone, his mind buzzed and his soul became a little restless.

’The sky stones are actually related to the soul?’ Zhen Yuan thought and couldn’t help but be excited.

However, he didn’t immediately investigate his speculation and instead went to an inn to book a room.

Soon after, he entered the space and reunited with Shen Xu.

"Are we already in Tianchang city?" The double asked and Zhen Yuan nodded before speaking.

"Xiaoxu, I have discovered something good." He excitedly said and Shen Xu raised an eyebrow.

"A treasure?" He asked.

"It’s definitely a treasure but I don’t know what it is." Zhen Yuan said and began explaining.

"It’s those sky stones. I originally thought they were just beautiful scenery but I have discovered that they aren’t." He said.

"What do you mean?" Shen Xu asked.

"I just looked at a sky stone while walking down the street and my soul became a little agitated." Zhen Yuan explained and the double lowered his eyes with a thoughtful expression.

"Ayuan, your soul became restless when you saw the sky stone but wouldn’t people have noticed if the stones could affect the soul?" He asked and Zhen Yuan smiled before speaking.

"I have thought of it and I think it’s because of the soul nourishing fruits." He said and Shen Xu raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"We previously refined some soul nourishing fruits and could sense that our souls were about to evolve. Unfortunately, we haven’t had time to retreat so the evolution is stuck at the tipping point."

"I think that my soul reacted to the sky stones because it’s in a semi-evolved state." Zhen Yuan concluded and Shen xu nodded in understanding.

"It’s possible." He said and also became excited.

"There are countless sky stones in and around Tianchang city. We have hit the jackpot." He said and Zhen Yuan nodded.

"Let’s collect as many as we can." He said and quickly continued.

"There will come a day when we will know how to use them."

Soon after, the two left the inn and walked towards the city gate.

An incense stick later, they exited the city and flew to the nearby hills and valleys.

"They are everywhere." Shen Xu exclaimed and flew to a large sky stone.

At a glance, the stone was three metres long, one metre wide, and had one to five metres tall spikes all over its surface.

Additionally, the crystals exuded pink and purple light depending on the movement of sun rays.

"Beautiful." Shen Xu muttered and Zhen Yuan had to agree.

"How do you feel? Has your soul reacted?" He asked and the double nodded.

"It’s restless and seems to be yearning for this sky stone." Shen Xu answered.

"Let’s collect it first. We can research later." Zhen Yuan said and took out some puppets from the space.

Mining the sky stones was unexpectedly difficult

First, the stones had deep and wide veins so the puppets had to work hard to excavate the treasure from the ground.

However, neither Shen Xu nor Zhen Yuan were impatient.

After all, it was rare to encounter a soul treasures and the two didn’t want to damage it.

"How are its laws?" Shen Xu asked.

"Dense soul laws but I don’t understand most." Zhen Yuan said.

Twenty five days passed in the blink of an eye.

During that time, Shen Xu and Zhen Yuan led hundreds of puppets to excavate the sky stones.

However, they only managed to mine eighteen sky stones in the twenty five days.

Thankfully, no one bothered them about mining the stones.

After all, sky stones were ’useless’ and everyone thought that they were mining the stones to use them as decorations.

On this day, the two re-entered the city and went to the inn.

"I need to refine some mining puppets." Shen Xu suddenly said and Zhen Yuan agreed.

"Our puppets are good but they aren’t suitable for mining." He said.

"We have time." Shen Xu said.

After all, they would be living in Hefei city for the next ten or so years.

During those years, they would not only compete in the food competition and travel around to buy ingredients, but they would also return to Tianchang city to mine sky stones.

After resting for two real days, Zhen Yuan left Tianchang city and returned to Hefei city.

Compared to before, the atmosphere in Hefei city was livelier and everyone seemed to be waiting for something.

"It’s been one month since the results of the preliminary test were released but no one knows who Shen Xu is." Someone said.

"Twenty nine points is not a joke. The second person is almost ten points behind."

"I heard that Shen Xu cooked a level twelve soup and didn’t lose points for taste and effectiveness."

"Is it really possible for a bowl of soup to completely replenish the qi of a peak-stage heaven immortal realm cultivator?"

"Most cultivators prefer pills because spiritual foods aren’t very effective. However, I have heard that the spiritual foods prepared by some genius masters can perfectly replace pills."

"We haven’t seen Shen Xu but he will definitely appear when the soups are tested for the second time."

"He performed well in the first test but he may not do so well in the next test." Someone said and several others turned to look at the speaker.

"What do you mean?"

"Some people are speculating that Shen Xu focused so much on immediate taste and effectiveness that he didn’t care about preservation. They are saying that the food will have lost its taste and effectiveness after the thirty days."

"It’s possible." Someone agreed.

"We will know in a few days."

"What about the second qualification round? Does anyone know the test question?"

"We won’t know until the first round is over."

"I don’t quite remember the details, but I recall that the test question in the previous competition was using some kind of flower to prepare a medicinal snack."

"I remember that too..., was it the golden osmanthus flower or the summer plum blossoms?"