「The next day.」

Early in the morning, before he was even fully awake, Fang Shijie, the Head of the Fang Family, received a notice from the Wang Family annulling the marriage.

He was instantly dumbfounded.

’How could they annul the marriage of a woman who had already completed the wedding ceremony?’

In his eyes, the fact that his daughter would now be unable to marry again and that the Fang Family’s reputation would become a laughingstock were all minor issues.

He had seen a path leading to the heavens, and now it had inexplicably crumbled. How could he possibly accept that?

Enraged, Fang Shijie immediately planned to go to the Divine Mansion Sect to forcefully return Fang Ya to the Wang Family.

What enraged him even more was that Fang Ya directly disowned the Fang Family.

Fang Ya was now an Outer Disciple of the Divine Mansion Sect. Although Fang Shijie was her father, he didn’t dare to be too outrageous. In the end, he could only grit his teeth and curse loudly until noon before finally leaving.

His actions drew stares from many disciples on Wan Jun Peak.

It was rare to see someone fall out with their own family so badly that they became like enemies.

Fang Ya locked herself in her room. Her already cold heart was now completely sealed shut.

’This family... it’s better to be without it.’

...

「The small courtyard on the mountainside.」

Bai Yuan stared excitedly at the Stabilizing Spirit Pearl before him.

This was a top-tier material for spirit extraction.

Within the Stabilizing Spirit Pearl, a small blue snake could be seen swimming about. An ordinary person wouldn’t be able to perceive it; only a Spirit Cooker could.

That was the spirit.

To be precise, it was a Water Spirit.

In this world, the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—were the foundation of all creation. Everything in existence fell under the purview of these five elements.

The spirits contained within all things were also divided into five categories according to the five elements.

And what this Stabilizing Spirit Pearl contained was precisely a Water Spirit, and an extremely pure one at that.

The purer the spirit, the easier it was to extract. If it was too impure, not only would the process take more time, but the quality of the spirit would also be low. Only a master of spirit extraction could draw it out.

With Bai Yuan’s current skill in spirit extraction, he could only handle treasures like the Stabilizing Spirit Pearl.

CRACK!

With a crisp sound, the priceless Stabilizing Spirit Pearl was crushed in Bai Yuan’s hand.

If anyone else had seen this, they would have surely cursed him for his outrageous wastefulness.

Bai Yuan carefully collected the fragments of the Stabilizing Spirit Pearl into a mortar. He then used an iron pestle to grind them carefully. Once they were a fine powder, he added a prepared medicinal solution and let it soak for three days.

The entire process was just like a scientific experiment from his past life, only without precise instruments—he had to rely purely on the naked eye.

A powerful Spirit Cooker wouldn’t need to go through all this trouble; they could just hold it to their nose and inhale to extract the spirit. Bai Yuan wasn’t capable of that yet.

「Three days later.」

The originally light-green medicinal solution had turned a deep, azure blue, looking exceptionally bewitching.

Bai Yuan cupped his hands around the mortar and channeled the Inner Strength in his body.

That’s right. Only those who had comprehended Inner Strength could possibly become Spirit Cookers, which was why there were so few of them in the world.

After all, once someone became a Junior Grandmaster, who would be willing to waste their time on such menial work?

Because of his Tiger-Crane Form, Bai Yuan had managed to grasp a sliver of Inner Strength even before officially reaching that stage.

The azure solution in the mortar began to boil.

Wisps of blue smoke rose as the liquid’s level dropped at a visible rate, eventually evaporating completely.

All that remained in the mortar were a few small, blue particles, as clear and brilliant as crystals. This was the Water Spirit extracted from the Stabilizing Spirit Pearl.

Xiaoqing, who had been sleeping soundly, suddenly stirred and wriggled out of Bai Yuan’s sleeve.

A demon’s perception of spirits was far superior to that of a human, so it could clearly sense the increased concentration of the Water Spirit in the air.

It stared curiously at the blue crystals in the mortar, a look of human-like confusion on its face.

It had never felt such a dense aquatic aura, not even by the riverbank.

Bai Yuan carefully placed the Water Spirit in his palm and looked at his status panel.

[Name: Bai Yuan]

[Class: Demon Hunter, Swordsman, Boxer, Spirit Cooker]

[Skills: Cooking (Legendary), Spirit Extraction (Beginner), Spirit Cooking (Beginner), Demon Tracking (Proficient), Demon Taming (Proficient), Tiger-Crane Form (Master), Blood Tiger Saber (Master)...]

[Reinforcement Points: 0]

He had completed a few more tasks in the past few days.

He had unlocked the Spirit Cooking skill and even raised it to the beginner level.

Now that he had the Water Spirit, it was the perfect time to test the effects of Spirit Cooking.

The so-called "Spirit Cooking" was, in essence, the process of using other ingredients to neutralize the tyrannical aura of a spirit, preventing the consumer from dying by having their body explode from the overwhelming potency.

Bai Yuan took a trip to Huanglong Prefecture and bought some quality goods, including both medicinal herbs and food ingredients.

Food and medicine were never truly separate, and this was even more true for a Spirit Cooker.

To make Spirit Cooking more convenient, Bai Yuan built a stove in his courtyard.

After bringing the water to a boil, he added the herbs and ingredients he’d bought to stew. He held the handle of the iron pot, shaking it constantly so the flames would heat it as evenly as possible, releasing the excess spiritual energy from the ingredients to neutralize the Water Spirit.

Half an hour later, Bai Yuan finally sprinkled the Water Spirit into the soup.

He simmered it for another full day and night, until the broth had thickened again and again.

The Water Spirit Soup was finally ready.

The entire room was filled with an exquisite aroma that made one’s mouth water.

Bai Yuan estimated that this one bowl of Water Spirit Soup was at least as potent as ten Blood Refining Pills. Moreover, compared to medicinal pills, this food-based therapy had virtually no side effects.

Of course, food-based remedies took longer to prepare than pills and were much slower to take effect, but their strength lay in providing steady, long-term benefits.

The value of a Blood Refining Pill was beyond question. Two of them were enough to match the value of the Stabilizing Spirit Pearl.

After being refined using Spirit Cooking, its value had increased fivefold.

Factoring in the five Blood Refining Pills he had previously promised to Li Da, Bai Yuan had made a net profit of five Blood Refining Pills this time.

One had to understand that even a powerful expert like Li Da only possessed five Blood Refining Pills, which showed just how precious they were.

Bai Yuan poured half of the Water Spirit Soup into a glass container, then drank a small portion of the rest.

A clear sweetness bloomed in his mouth, flowing down his throat and into his stomach.

An unprecedented feeling of refreshment left Bai Yuan feeling somewhat intoxicated.

’This small bowl of soup was worth two years of my arduous training.’

’This venture was a massive profit.’

Advancing one’s realm required not only a Cultivation Technique but also arduous training.

While a Cultivation Technique could increase the body’s strength, it still required the slow, grinding effort of arduous training to continue tempering it.

Otherwise, when the Divine Mansion Sect selected its disciples, they could just look at comprehension ability and not bother with innate talent at all.

And this bowl of soup had greatly accelerated his progress in strengthening his body.

Bai Yuan poured the rest of the Water Spirit Soup into another glass bottle, sealed it with a wooden cork, and tucked it into his robes.

One should not be greedy in any matter; this applied to eating and drinking as well.

The Water Spirit Soup was good, but drinking too much of it would turn it into poison.

An overdose of a potent tonic could be a hundred times more powerful than any poison. The dosage had to be handled with extreme care.

As someone with a Legendary-level Cooking skill, Bai Yuan naturally understood this principle.

"You want some too?"

Xiaoqing was looking at Bai Yuan with a gluttonous expression.

Bai Yuan thought for a moment.

Although he was a Demon Hunter, he knew that no one had ever tried feeding a Spirit Liquid to a demon before.

After all, both Demon Hunters and Spirit Cookers were incredibly rare, so the probability of the two paths crossing was even smaller.