[Snake Spirit Yara’s Little Cooking Class]

First, prepare two Spirit Plant cabbages. After washing them clean, use an Exorcism Rune to cut them down the middle. This kills the Spirit Plant and purges its residual Spiritual Energy.

Remove the stems, mince them, and soak them in water. They can be set aside and later mixed with onion and black pepper to make black pepper sauce.

After removing the stems, peel off the cabbage leaves and tear them by hand into uniformly sized pieces. A Spirit Plant is actually edible at this stage, but further processing is required to mellow the Spiritual Qi within. This allows ordinary people to consume it and have their bodies unknowingly strengthened.

Soak the leaves in blessed Holy Salt Water. Use a phone’s recording function to play a repeating chant (the phone must be placed inside a Gathering Spirit Array to induce a Spiritual Qi resonance). This prevents the raw Spiritual Qi of the Spirit Plant from dissipating and gradually mellows it. The process takes about an hour, but a Cultivator can use their own Spiritual Qi to speed it up.

Once the process is complete, take out the leaves and drain them.

Prepare your aromatics, such as sliced garlic, green Sichuan peppercorns, and Thai chilies. Heat oil in a wok, add the aromatics, and stir-fry until fragrant. Then, add the drained cabbage leaves and begin to cook.

Throughout the stir-frying process, you must continuously infuse the dish with Spiritual Power. The purpose of this step is to use the high-temperature, Spiritual-Power-infused oil to refine the Wood Qi within the Spirit Plant, converting it into pure Life Force.

Once all the Wood Qi is converted, a delicious plate of Hand-Torn Cabbage (made from Spirit Plant Cabbage) is ready to be served. (280 kcal + 63 units of Life Force nourishment. For reference, an average adult has a Life Force of 100.)

As the dish was plated, one could see it faintly emitting a bit of Spiritual Light—a glowing phenomenon caused by the dissipation of the Spirit Plant’s residual, unusable Spiritual Qi.

"Hmm, it’s less potent than a whole Spirit Plant or a High-grade Pill, but the advantage is that ordinary people can safely consume it without needing to refine its medicinal energy afterward."

Su Zhou picked up a piece of the cabbage with his chopsticks and took a bite. The texture was crisp and delicious. He nodded in satisfaction. "These Spirit Plants don’t have much effect on me anymore, but they’re more than enough to keep my family and friends healthy and safe from illness."

"If you had specialized Spiritual Artifact cookware and used a variety of complex ingredients to create a true spiritual delicacy, not only would it be delectable, but its effects would be no weaker than an ordinary pill. And of course, it could still be eaten by ordinary people."

Yara advised from the side, "The path of Spiritual Food has its own logic, and it is vast and profound. If nothing else, should you master this path, the dishes you create might even glow forever!"

"Is the glowing really the most important part?"

After muttering his retort and confirming his handiwork and its effects, Su Zhou used a simple Orbit to seal the Spiritual Qi within the food, preserving its freshness.

「Time passed, and evening arrived.」

8:47 PM, December 10, 2014.

For a rare change, Su Zhou’s family of three was all gathered for dinner.

On the table was an exceptionally lavish spread of eight dishes and a soup, all specially prepared by Su Zhou.

No one spoke at the dinner table; everyone was silently helping themselves to the food.

Outside, swirling snow beat against the glass, forming Ice Crystals. The winter chill seeped in, making the windowpanes creak and groan.

The city, in the era of the Spiritual Energy Revival, was quiet amidst the heavy snow.

"Our son’s cooking is really getting better and better."

Ning Shiyu took another bite. She had been feeling utterly drained after days of analyzing and dissecting Extraordinary Creatures late into the night, but now she shook her head in surprise. Her dizziness was fading. A gentle stream of Life Force was seeping into her, subtly strengthening her very essence.

She remarked with a sigh, "Seriously, I don’t think even the food at a fancy restaurant is this good. It’s so delicious my headache has disappeared."

’Of course it’s good,’ Su Zhou thought, silently helping himself to a piece of braised pork. ’Can a fancy restaurant cook with Spirit Plants? All the Spirit Plants are for Mom and Dad. I’ll just eat the meat for now.’ 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Good, good! That’s our son, all right!" Su Beiluo, for his part, was too busy enjoying the meal to get sentimental—in truth, neither he nor his wife could cook, so Su Zhou’s culinary skills had nothing to do with them. He was currently ladling a bowl of lotus root soup—made, of course, from a Spirit Plant.

"Here, honey, you have some more." After filling the bowl, Su Beiluo surprisingly didn’t take it for himself, but handed it to Ning Shiyu. In return, Su’s Mother smiled and placed a choice piece of vegetables into Father Su’s bowl.

Their eyes met, and everything was understood without a word.

’Tsk, what’s with this feeling of being a third wheel?’ Watching his parents dote on each other, what could Su Zhou do? He could only tut to himself, get up, and go fill his fifth bowl of rice.

Just then, Su Beiluo glanced at Su Zhou out of the corner of his eye, a flicker of doubt in his mind.

’—There’s nothing obviously strange about the kid, and it’s normal for his cooking to improve, but I can’t shake the feeling that something’s off.’

’His hair is growing a little too fast. A growth spurt? Or is it an anomaly caused by the Spiritual Energy Revival? After all, his Talent is so high, could it be causing some strange physical changes?’

’His whole demeanor has changed, too. He used to be rather flighty, but today he seems so much more composed...’

Su Beiluo and Ning Shiyu exchanged a look. Clearly, they were both thinking the same thing. One was a Patrol officer, the other a doctor; if they were paying attention, how could they not notice that something was amiss? But to ask about it would seem far too serious. He was their son, not a criminal, and it felt a little unnecessary.

Returning with his rice, Su Zhou noticed the strange atmosphere. He had a good guess what it was about but didn’t pay it any mind. After sitting down, he casually changed the subject. "By the way, Mom, Dad, have you heard? There’s some new information about those three official Cultivation Academies that were just established."