Chapter 217: Food Fairy · Heavenly Gourmet Spirit
Chapter 217: Food Fairy · Heavenly Gourmet Spirit
Chen Xiyi got on the bus, and the previously lively scene immediately turned quiet. Every passenger looked at him with eyes full of resentment.
He casually threw two coins into the fare box, then found an empty seat in the back and sat down.
Sitting beside him was a young man. At first glance, he seemed normal, but on the second look, he turned into a filthy thing with only half a head, covered in bloodstains.
At that moment, the bus slowly started moving forward.
The lights inside the bus flickered on and off. Every time they went out, all the passengers inside would reveal their true forms.
Oh, that included Chen Xiyi.
Even the filthy things on the bus were confused. What kind of creature had boarded?
One after another, shadowy figures squirmed continuously inside the bus. A large number of limbs spread out. This was much more terrifying than the group of filthy things on the bus.
After all, these things all had health bars. As long as they had health bars, it wasn’t a big problem.
The bus gradually picked up speed, and as it moved, the body of the bus became very old and broken.
A cold, biting wind blew in through the shattered windows. If an ordinary person were there, they would have frozen stiff on the spot. But given Chen Xiyi’s physique, he was not at all afraid of this wind.
He even found it a bit refreshing. If it were a little stronger, that would be even better.
As time passed and the cold wind blew, the originally somewhat empty bus became crowded with many shadowy figures. Each passenger was covered, more or less, with various limbs and organs.
These were not their own. Chen Xiyi had given them these to prevent them from running away.
Earlier, he had sensed that these filthy things were getting restless and seemed to want to escape. How could he let them run away? He had finally encountered such a full busload. If they really escaped, where would he find another?
So, he used just a tiny little trick.
But it had to be said, the quality of this bus was really good. Even though he had restrained the driver, the bus could still drive on its own.
He just didn’t know where the final stop was. Could it be the underworld, the Netherworld, or some similar place?
But he thought that this world probably didn’t have such things.
At least, he hadn’t detected any.
Whoosh~
The bus crashed through the guardrail, flew into the air over the hillside, and then started rolling over and over when it landed.
It seemed to be recreating the process of how everyone on the bus had died.
Chen Xiyi quite appreciated this action. The only awkward thing was that because the bus was now packed full of shadowy figures, limbs, and organs, the scene of passengers crashing into each other during the rollover did not happen. They didn’t even move.
Bang!!!
The bus exploded instantly. Dark phosphorescent flames burst out. Chen Xiyi casually patted off the phosphorescent flames that landed on him. The entire bus had turned into a charred skeleton.
It had even been deformed from the explosion’s shockwave and the tightly packed shadowy figures.
“Whoa, that was a tight squeeze. We must be at the final stop,” Chen Xiyi said as he climbed out of the bus, unable to resist complaining.
One after another, the shadowy figures also emerged, each holding a filthy thing in their hands.
He had to admit, these filthy things were quite unique. Each one was more bizarre than the last.
Some had half their heads missing, others had upper and lower bodies doing their own thing, and there were even some that were just skeletons. He had no idea how that happened.
These filthy things struggled continuously in the hands of the shadowy figures, as if muttering something, but Chen Xiyi didn’t understand.
However, he could see the direction of their struggle: they wanted to return to the bus.
The originally stretched and distorted bus was slowly recovering, as if preparing to get back on the road.
“These seem different from the charred corpse and the drowned corpse. This group of filthy things aren’t corpse types; they’re soul types, similar to earthbound spirits. They constantly repeat how they died and even abduct passengers waiting at bus stops.”
Chen Xiyi noticed that filthy things also had differences. At least the charred corpse and the drowned corpse had some freedom, but this group of ghosts had completely merged with the bus. They could only endlessly repeat the process of death.
This raised a question: Chen Xiyi was a Corpse Collector. He needed corpses, not ghosts.
Apart from the bus that had turned into a skeleton, which was a real physical entity, all the other filthy things were non-physical ghosts.
“A violent death definitely counts as a violent death, but if I collect this bus, would it count as part of the ritual?”
Chen Xiyi pondered this.
The bodies of these earthbound spirits who died in the accident had long been taken away by the authorities. The bus wreckage was left here because the location was too remote for heavy machinery to handle.
This led to the birth of the earthbound spirits.
Even though Qian Country was a feudal society ruled by Noble Families, they still had to put on a show in this regard. After all, they needed people to exploit. They couldn’t just leave things completely unattended; they had to take some action.
Moreover, with the rise of the internet, public opinion had become more influential. So even the Noble Families had to be cautious.
“I’ll take it back and study it for a while first.”
He planned to capture them and research what these ghost-type filthy things were and whether there was a connection between them and corpse-type filthy things.
For example, the body becomes a corpse-type filthy thing, while the soul becomes a ghost-type filthy thing.
The existence of souls had been confirmed earlier when Ximen Yue’s son experienced soul separation and feigned death. Chen Xiyi guessed that filthy things might have the ability to separate souls.
After collecting the bus along with a large number of ghosts, Chen Xiyi began using the System to search for news online.
He focused on searching for missing persons, especially those who disappeared at bus stops.
“It’s been over a year since this bus accident. During this time, there haven’t been any missing persons reports from bus stops, but there have been many cases of people dying suddenly from acute illnesses.”
Unfortunately, these news articles didn’t have accurate names or images. They were just reports with some unrelated pictures.
Still, it wasn’t impossible to find. Through Funeral Parlors, crematoriums, and such, he managed to find images of some people who matched those on the bus.
Clearly, the bus only took souls.
“The numbers don’t match up. So, did they lie about the death toll?”
Chen Xiyi compared the number of filthy things on the bus and noticed a discrepancy.
After dealing with the filthy things on the bus, Chen Xiyi directly used the Home Protector’s teleportation function to return to the Shelter. He stuffed the bus into a Prison.
Then, he grabbed one of the filthy things for experimentation. He also extracted the soul of a member of the War Tiger Squad to compare the differences between the two.
He needed a control group. Otherwise, how would he know the difference between a ghost and a soul?
After all, ghosts belong to the dead, while souls belong to the living.
[Xia Ke returned from his journey through history and is resting at the Homestead. He brought you many local specialties.]
[You obtained the following items:]
[Item with Historical Connotation: Myriad Spirits Garden]
[Recipes × 21]
[Spiritual Item: Comet Fragment × 12]
[Spiritual Item: Flowing Sap × 5]
[Spiritual Item: Egg Dough × 18]
[Spiritual Item: Raw Iron Fruit × 1]
[Some Cooking Insights]
“Xia Ke is back? This time he brought so many things.”
Not only was there an item with Historical Connotation, but also recipes, a large number of Spiritual Items, and some Cooking Insights.
The recipes and Cooking Insights could only be given to the Hellish Demon Chef. As for the Spiritual Items, to be honest, Chen Xiyi wasn’t sure whether to give them to the Blacksmith or the Hellish Demon Chef.
After thinking it over, he decided to put them in the storage box. Whoever wanted them could take them later.
Then, he began the work of Enlightenment and Spirit Communication.
[You used the skill Enlightenment and Spirit Communication on the Myriad Spirits Garden.]
[The Myriad Spirits Garden’s Spirituality is awakening 1%…]
[You obtained the Food Fairy: Heavenly Gourmet Spirit.]
[Food Fairy: Heavenly Gourmet Spirit]
[Satiety Level: 100/100]
[Ability 1: Ingredient Expertise]
[Ability 2: Soul Holy Light]
[Ability 3: Universal Tool]
[You are blessed by the Food Fairy: Heavenly Gourmet Spirit, and gained the status: Earthly Aura]
[The Bonds of All Things list has been updated.]
[Heaven and Hell: Heaven (Food Fairy: Heavenly Gourmet Spirit), Hell (Cooking Fairy: Hellish Demon Chef)]
[You activated the bond: Heaven and Hell, and obtained the ability: Light and Dark]
[Light and Dark: When you receive a negative status, you simultaneously receive a positive status.]
Looking at the holy light with wings in front of him, Chen Xiyi thought that perhaps the previous supreme treasure of the light chef world wasn’t damaged but lost.
“Ahem, first, I’ll make a Miniature Garden and food for you.”
Somehow, the Hellish Demon Chef and the Heavenly Gourmet Spirit were a pair, possibly because they belonged to the light and dark chef worlds’ supreme treasures, and their effects complemented each other.
Ingredient Expertise allowed the Heavenly Gourmet Spirit to engage in planting, breeding, processing, and other tasks related to ingredients. This meant Chen Xiyi could hand over his Ranch and Farm to the Heavenly Gourmet Spirit. It would help Chen Xiyi manage them, and the yield would certainly be better than if he did it himself.
It could even open up a fishery, involving aquaculture that Chen Xiyi had never dealt with before.
But this was limited to ingredients, because its expertise was ingredients, not breeding or planting.
Soul Holy Light, like the Hellish Demon Chef’s Soul Demon Flame, could add extra effects to ingredients.
If the Hellish Demon Chef used Spiritual-level ingredients that the Food Fairy had enhanced with many extra effects, it could cook dishes that permanently added statuses.
That is, the Supernatural Chefs’ Supernatural Ability User retainers.
But this would probably take quite some time. First, Spiritual-level ingredients weren’t easy to cultivate. Second, the Hellish Demon Chef and the Heavenly Gourmet Spirit also needed to grow.
As for the Universal Tool, it naturally corresponded to the Hellish Demon Chef’s Universal Cookware. After all, when Fairies worked, they couldn’t just rely on progress bars like Chen Xiyi; they had to actually do the work.
With the Heavenly Gourmet Spirit, Chen Xiyi’s daily workload immediately dropped to a minimum. Moreover, it meant there was now another channel for producing Spiritual Items.
In terms of breeding and planting, the output of Spiritual Items would probably be a bit more than herding water veins and earth veins through Jianghu and Shanyue.
After all, the cycles were different.
After finishing the Miniature Garden and food for the Heavenly Gourmet Spirit, he saw the Adventurer climbing out of his own Miniature Garden with a large backpack, then greeting Chen Xiyi.
[The Adventurer said he was happy to see you, but he had finished resting and was preparing to set off on a new adventure. He would bring you some treasure when he returned.]
A Game Log message flashed by. The Adventurer then jumped down from the Miniature Garden and disappeared from the Homestead.
[The Adventurer put on his backpack, took plenty of food, and went out on an adventure. Return Time: 139 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes.]
This time it was 140 days. It seemed that whether traveling or adventuring, the time varied.
But at least there was a countdown, so Chen Xiyi knew when he would return.
“The Itinerant Merchant should be back soon too. I wonder how he’s doing.” He wasn’t worried that the Itinerant Merchant would run into danger; he was mainly concerned about whether he might get cheated. After all, this was business. It couldn’t be all profit; there had to be losses too.