A Bite of Douluo Continent

In fact, the water-milling process was completed faster than he had expected.

Just after the business hours ended at noon the next day, Qi Han received a reminder from Ruyi in his mind.

Side quest eight is complete.

Overjoyed, Qi Han calmly saw off the employees before returning to the third floor to check his tasks.

As for Ye Lingqing, since he had already been told to balance work and rest yesterday, Qi Han did not ask him to continue training. This kid has been training day and night for the past few days and also has to help teach him how to make fried rice with eggs. It is indeed quite hard work.

Let him have a good rest this afternoon.

Side Quest 8: The Steps of Conquest Part 1 (Completed)

Mission Rewards: Soul Power Level +2 (claimable), 3-star selectable recipe x1 (claimable).

Here it comes! The mission reward is here!

Qi Han took a deep breath, stretched out a hand, and chose the Soul Power Level reward without hesitation.

As his soul power flowed through his limbs and bones, and grew stronger through his meridians, the primordial energy of heaven and earth was continuously absorbed into his body. As a result, Qi Han's cultivation level broke through again, and his soul power level jumped from level 46, which he had just reached not long ago, to level 48.

Qi Han came to this world from Earth. It seems like a long time has passed, but in reality, only about half a year has passed.

In just six months, he went from having no soul power to having soul power that was close to the level of a Soul King.

Clearly, completing tasks to improve one's cultivation level is the right path.

Cultivation? Who among decent people cultivates?

His soul power level has now reached level 48, which is not far from the Soul King level. After reaching the Soul King level, he will not only be able to obtain his fifth soul ring, but also officially begin learning four-star recipes.

The four-star recipe in the recipe section that can't be learned: Peony Fish Slices. It's been three months since I got it, and every time I see it, I feel a nagging feeling in my heart.

It's like... when you're playing a game and you see a small red dot on the game screen, but you can't get rid of it no matter what you do.

Ugh, it's so uncomfortable...

Fortunately, once I complete one more task and reach the Soul King level, I can begin learning.

Qi Han comforted himself, then temporarily set aside the three-star random recipe reward from side quest eight, and swiped to open the next page of the quest page.

Perhaps because the main quest eight took a particularly long time to complete, there were quite a few side quests to match it. After the completion of side quest eight, a new side quest nine also appeared.

Side Quest Nine: Graduation - Standing Alone

Please complete the instruction of your disciple Ye Lingqing so that he can independently maintain the Cold Food Breakfast business.

Task Description: Please don't be too grateful for such a thoughtful gift.

Quest Reward: Soul Power Level +2.

Ok?

Looking at the side quest nine that popped up in front of him, Qi Han's face gradually darkened. "Ruyi, this quest of yours..."

"How about that? Isn't it thoughtful?" Ruyi's smug voice appeared in Qi Han's mind.

"No, what I meant was..." Qi Han paused, "...wasn't the mission reward a bit too small?"

Just one Soul Power reward?

Although this is indeed the reward Qi Han wants most, couldn't you at least give him some recipes or something?

"What do you mean?" In the system space, Ruyi couldn't help but roll her eyes. "This was originally your plan. I just went along with it and gave you the mission reward, so of course the reward won't be too much. Be content!"

Fine.

Qi Han touched his nose, flipped back to the page of the side quest he had already completed, claimed the three-star random recipe he hadn't yet claimed, and then entered the system space to start the lottery.

Under the expectant gaze of one person, the results of the purple roulette wheel were revealed.

Samsung's recipe: A pearl cast before swine.

ha?

Qi Han's expression immediately turned strange. "Ruyi, why is this dish here?"

"A pearl cast before swine" is not a traditional Chinese dish. It actually comes from the book "Food Supplier," written by Cai Mao based on the famous Huaiyang cuisine dish, Eight Treasure Gourd Duck.

Similar dishes include Wuxiang from "The Little Chef of the Northern Song Dynasty" and Eggplant Casserole from "Dream of the Red Chamber".

These dishes have not been officially recognized by authoritative organizations such as chef associations. Although there are successful cases of replicating them online, they will not be included in Ruyi's system recipes in theory, and naturally, they will not be drawn by Qi Han.

But now I've actually won it...

"Ah... this?" Ruyi's expression was a little strange. "Speaking of which, this is somewhat related to the previous system upgrade."

"Is it because the system has been upgraded that these fictional dishes can now be included?" Qi Han asked thoughtfully.

"That's not it."

"That is?"

"As you know, before learning the three-star dishes, the remnant souls will always exist. When these remnant souls have nothing to do, they will think about improving the dishes themselves. It was fine before, but now that the life crystal has upgraded the system, these remnant souls have also been improved and filled to a certain extent, so they are more difficult to serve."

Ruyi coughed lightly.

"Well, this dish... it was originally Eight Treasure Gourd Duck, but later, the old man Liu who created Eight Treasure Gourd Duck had nothing better to do and insisted that I find him some stories related to food to read, so I found him a book called 'The Food Supplier'... and then..."

He happily turned the Eight Treasure Gourd Duck into a case of casting pearls before swine...

Qi Han: "???"

Chapter 426 What happened to the promised balance between work and rest?

Upon hearing the origin of the dish "casting pearls before swine," Qi Han was utterly disgusted.

This Mr. Liu, whom we haven't met yet but will meet when we start making the recipes... isn't he a bit too up-to-date?

Is it really that fashionable? It's even…

With a sigh, Qi Han watched as Side Quest Nine appeared before him, replacing Side Quest Eight, which had disappeared after all its rewards had been claimed. He fell into deep thought.

"Ruyi, what are the specific requirements for independently maintaining a breakfast business, which is mentioned in side quest nine?"

"Of course, it's about having a grasp of all the dishes served during breakfast hours."

"I see." Qi Han nodded.

Ye Lingqing has now mastered two dishes: xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) and yangrou paomo (mutton stew with bread), and she is almost ready to master the third dish as well.

There are twelve dishes available during breakfast hours, and Qi Han doesn't plan to add any more until side quest nine is completed.

Of these twelve dishes, apart from the steamed dragon dumplings, the other eleven are all one-star dishes, and the difficulty of learning them is about the same. Although the steamed dragon dumplings are a two-star dish, their high quality is entirely due to the quality of the ingredients. The original cooking difficulty score was zero, so Ye Lingqing did not have much difficulty mastering them.

Based on this calculation, the remaining nine dishes may take two or three months to prepare.

No, that's too long.

Qi Han shook his head.

At this moment, he couldn't wait to complete side quest nine, reach level fifty in soul power, absorb the fifth soul ring to advance to Soul King, and finally unlock the four-star recipe he had been longing for. Two or three months seemed like a long time to him.

It seems I'll have to urge Ye Lingqing to study harder in the coming days.

Just yesterday, Qi had told his disciples to balance work and rest, but now he had already forgotten what he said.

What is work-life balance?

Study until you drop dead!

"Ah!"

Ye Lingqing, who was downstairs browsing through a food encyclopedia to relax, suddenly sneezed.

Do you have a cold?

He scratched his head in confusion.

It seems the teacher was right; I really do need to balance work and rest.

I was so busy that I didn't even realize I'd caught a cold.

...

Although he told his disciple to study as hard as he could, Qi Han resisted the urge to immediately go downstairs and let Ye Lingqing continue practicing.

Teachers shouldn't be too docile.

So let him relax for this last afternoon before starting the grueling training.

Hmm... I really am a good teacher who loves my students.

Feeling quite pleased with himself, Qi Han activated the training space for Yangzhou fried rice and entered it.

Because teaching how to make fried rice publicly took up the time that should have been spent practicing cooking in the training space each afternoon, Qi Han hadn't entered the training space for five days.

However, in the ten days before teaching fried rice, he had already successfully completed the training for pheasant soup. Because he was going to teach fried rice next, he did not open up the training space for the next three-star dish until now.

The batch of recipes that had been stockpiled earlier were released all at once after completing side quest seven, so Qi Han doesn't have many recipes left on hand.

Besides the pheasant soup that I've already learned but haven't released yet, there are only three three-star recipes left: Yangzhou fried rice, Lantern-Shaped Beef, and the newly acquired Pearl Cast in the Dark. In addition, there is one four-star recipe that I cannot unlock.

After slacking off for five days, I'll need to put more effort into practicing my cooking from now on.

Yangzhou fried rice was originally just ordinary egg fried rice.

During the reign of Emperor Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty, Yi Bingshou, the prefect of Yangzhou, added shrimp, diced lean meat, ham and other ingredients to ordinary egg fried rice, gradually transforming it into a variety of mixed egg fried rice. This is how Yangzhou fried rice became different from ordinary egg fried rice and has gradually developed to this day.

To put it simply, it's a high-end version of fried rice.

This high-spec version has become even more high-spec after system optimization.

Besides the rice, which is the main ingredient, it's made from hybrid rice irrigated with ordinary spiritual spring water…

Well, this is anything but ordinary.

In addition to the rice being transformed from paddy rice into a rare and precious ingredient: golden thread cloud patterned rice, this fried rice also incorporates a full nine kinds of three-star grade side dishes, cooked together to create Yangzhou fried rice. The nine side dishes have different colors and flavors that blend together and are incorporated into the rice, without overpowering the main dish, while filling the rice with the flavors of various side dishes.

In his previous life, he had eaten Yangzhou fried rice many times, but he had to admit that there were very few chefs who could make it well. As a result, he always felt that Yangzhou fried rice was too oily and the ingredients overshadowed the rice, making it a mere side dish.

However, the perfect Yangzhou fried rice made by Yin Bingshou has none of these problems.

So after Yin Bingshou's remnant soul appeared and personally cooked a Yangzhou fried rice for Qi Han, Qi Han developed an extremely strong interest in learning how to make this delicious fried rice.