The delicacies of the heavens begin with obtaining gem meat.

Chapter 97 Giant Frog, Fifth Floor of the Maze, Tree Spirit

With the help of water-walking magic, Jiang Yan's speed increased dramatically, allowing him to capture more monsters and further fueling his interest in learning magic.

When he felt hungry, Jiang Yan found a building that was above the water and prepared to make lunch.

However, as soon as Jiang Yan entered the building, he discovered a downward passage filled with countless tentacle monsters.

This piqued Jiang Yan's interest somewhat.

After all, the ivy tentacle monster we harvested before tasted pretty good.

So Jiang Yan released the circle to investigate.

However, to Jiang Yan's surprise, although he did not find the ivy tentacle monster, he did find a giant frog.

Giant frogs are also a great ingredient, so there's no reason not to take advantage of them.

Although the giant frog discovered him, it did not attack him. In addition, the giant frog was among the tentacle monsters, so it was not easy to catch it.

After considering the giant frog's habits for a moment, Jiang Yan suddenly had an idea.

Jiang Yan drew his longsword, swung it a few times at the tentacle monster that had grown out, and then raised it.

The next moment, the giant frog's tongue shot out and wrapped around the longsword in his hand, then tried to pull the longsword away from him.

But the giant frog was clearly overthinking things; it couldn't budge the longsword in Jiang Yan's hand at all.

Instead, with Jiang Yan exerting force suddenly, the giant frog was pulled over directly.

He swiftly and decisively pierced the giant frog's head with his longsword.

Jiang Yan became interested as he looked at the deep passage. Since there was a giant frog here, there must be more inside.

However, the passageway is overrun with tentacle monsters, making it no easy task to capture other giant frogs.

After a moment of contemplation, Jiang Yan's gaze fell on the giant frog he had just hunted.

After a slight hesitation, Jiang Yan made his decision. Compared to catching ingredients, other things were somewhat tolerable.

First, peel off the giant frog's skin completely, then carefully scrape off the frog meat, wash it clean, and spread it out to dry.

With.

Jiang Yan then began processing the giant frog meat.

The snow-white giant frog meat is so appetizing that it makes your mouth water just by looking at it.

Jiang Yan chopped the giant frog meat into evenly sized pieces, sprinkled it with pepper, and drizzled it with ginger juice to marinate.

While the mandrakes were marinating, Jiang Yan peeled and chopped them, blanched them in boiling water, and then removed them for later use.

Heat oil in a wok, add the marinated giant frog meat and stir-fry quickly until the meat is cooked through and the surface is slightly browned.

Leave some oil in the pan, add scallions, ginger, and garlic and sauté until fragrant. Then add salt, sugar, fermented bean paste, and dried chili peppers and stir-fry until the oil turns red, releasing an instant aroma.

Then, return the frog meat to the pan and stir-fry briefly, add the blanched mandrake, and continue stir-frying.

Before serving, sprinkle with chopped green onions, drizzle with sesame oil, stir-fry briefly, and a pot of dry-pot giant frog is ready.

Pick up a piece of giant frog meat and put it in your mouth. The salty, spicy and savory flavor explodes on your tongue. The frog meat is tender and chewy, and the delicious taste lingers in your mouth. The aftertaste is also slightly sweet with mandrake.

After the giant frog in the dry pot was completely devoured, the frog skin on the side was almost dried.

Take the ashes from the wood burned while cooking, and rub them repeatedly inside the frog skin until they are evenly mixed. After cleaning it slightly, carefully sew up the cuts, and a giant frog costume is complete.

Although it wasn't handled very well, it's still fine for temporary use.

After putting on the giant frog suit, Jiang Yan tried touching the tentacle monster and was indeed not attacked by its poisonous spikes.

With the giant frog suit, Jiang Yan could move freely through the passage, encountering a second giant frog, a third giant frog, and so on along the way.

Jiang Yan naturally took all of these giant frogs into his possession.

After passing through the passage filled with tentacle monsters, the view suddenly opened up before us.

A wide street came into view, but the buildings in the distance were barely visible due to the dim light.

A guess formed in Jiang Yan's mind.

He then gathered the "spirit" within his body at his feet, exerted a sudden burst of strength, and leaped upwards, his body instantly soaring into the air, reaching a height of over twenty meters.

Looking around, a huge town suddenly came into view.

After landing, Jiang Yan couldn't help but mutter to himself.

"I've stumbled upon the fifth level of the underground labyrinth by accident."

According to the map he had previously purchased, there was still a long way to go to reach the passage to the fifth level of the underground labyrinth.

Unexpectedly, a shortcut was taken.

Although Jiang Yan hadn't originally planned to enter the fifth level of the underground maze so early, now that he had arrived, he wasn't going to go back to the fourth level.

After taking off the giant frog suit, Jiang Yan began to explore his surroundings.

The fifth level of the underground labyrinth is the town area where the Golden Castle is located.

The remaining architectural layout and exquisite carvings clearly show how prosperous and bustling this town was before it sank into the labyrinth, but now it is just a desolate wasteland, which is truly lamentable.

In addition, Jiang Yan discovered many other discordant aspects.

Streets distorted by forced extension, houses haphazardly pieced together, crooked and twisted —

It's not hard to see that the mad mage who sank the town into a labyrinth had no real talent in architecture.

Although the town was deserted at this time, it was also very lively.

Jiang Yan could always catch glimpses of blurry figures out of the corner of his eye, and he often heard faint whispers in his ear.

This is not an illusion, but a fact.

After the mad sorcerer sank the Golden Castle and the entire town into an underground labyrinth, he cast a spell to imprison the souls of the town's inhabitants, leaving them forever trapped within the labyrinth, unable to find peace.

Over the long years, some souls went mad, transforming into wandering ghosts that attack adventurers who enter the labyrinth.

The other group, however, retains their rationality and continues to linger in the town. Although they are also ghosts, they do not actively harm people and may even lend a helping hand to adventurers.

However, help from ghosts often terrifies adventurers.

After walking along the street for a while, Jiang Yan came to what seemed to be a former park, and a rich, exotic fragrance suddenly wafted into his nostrils.

Following the scent, Jiang Yan was slightly taken aback by the scene before him.

Two pretty young girls were embracing each other, behaving intimately and inappropriately.

The commotion caused by Jiang Yan's arrival startled the two girls, who immediately turned to look at him with fierce expressions, and then charged straight at him.

As the two girls moved, a slender vine could be seen connecting each of them to its head.

Jiang Yan had already recognized the two girls as the tree spirits.

The tree spirit on the fifth floor of the underground labyrinth is completely different from the tree demon he encountered on the third floor, which can move freely. The tree spirit itself cannot move, but it can give birth to flowers that can actively attack, which is quite peculiar.

Faced with the two flowers rushing towards him, Jiang Yan reacted extremely quickly. In a flash, his long sword flashed with two cold lights, severing the vines on the flower demon's head.

Having lost the vines' connection, the two flower fairies instantly lost their strength and collapsed to the ground. However, at the moment they fell, a large amount of pale yellow pollen suddenly exploded.

Seeing this, Jiang Yan quickly moved away, since inhaling these pollen grains could cause severe hay fever.

He didn't want to have snot running down his face.

Only after all the pollen had fallen did Jiang Yan slowly walk forward.

Without the protection of the flowers, the tree spirit has completely lost its ability to fight back.

After observing for a while, Jiang Yan first picked the fruit that the tree spirit had grown.

The tree spirit's fruit resembles a pumpkin, but its surface is covered with human faces of various shapes, which looks somewhat eerie, yet it is a very good ingredient.

Jiang Yan then picked all the unopened flower buds from the branches, as these buds were also good ingredients for cooking.

After collecting the fruits and buds, Jiang Yan was about to leave when a thought suddenly struck him. He turned back to the two flowers and carefully collected the remaining pollen from their bodies, putting it into a glass bottle.

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