Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"Okay, you go." Lu Huaiyang patted his shoulder and said, "Leave it to me."

Hearing this, Shangluo turned around and left.

"Damn it! Damn it!" Otohime, who was sitting on the stool, was already full of dragon energy. Her hair was gradually turning white and moving without wind. She was about to break free from the chair.

"Want to run?!" Lu Huaiyang smiled contemptuously, "Look what this is?"

He showed the magic weapon that had been hidden behind him:

"Dragon Whip!!! And... Dragon Binding Rope! And Coiled Dragon Staff! And Dragon Subduing Mace! What are you going to do?"

"These are all given by the previous king, specifically to punish disobedient dragons like you. Since you know your own stuff, don't cause us any trouble. The Imperial Prison won't let you starve - there will be no food, but there will be plenty of fasting pills. Just stay in the Imperial Prison obediently. When your Dragon King explains things clearly, you can leave through this door again."

After saying that, Lu Huaiyang walked out and slammed the heavy iron door shut, leaving Yi Ji in cell No. 9526 of the imperial prison.

A long dragon roared out from the cell, full of anger, unwillingness and despair, and the sound echoed in the 9th underground floor of the imperial prison. But Shangluo, who had already boarded the elevator, could no longer hear it.

Chapter 1039 Cooking

"Really? You're back so soon? I thought you were going to use this excuse to stay busy until the evening."

"I thought I would be busy until the evening, but I didn't expect that Miss Long would send herself to the Imperial Prison in less than an hour - wow! What is that? It smells so bad!"

As Shangluo entered the room, he saw a large basin on the table. The basin was full of red liquid and the whole house was filled with the smell of blood.

"Wait a moment, it will be ready when it's poured in." Phaethon got a sausage stuffing machine from somewhere and was pouring the meat stuffing in from the top. It was called meat stuffing, but it was actually bright red, with some fat and lean meat mixed in with pig blood, and it seemed like there were also internal organs, as if a whole pig was smashed in the basin.

"This is?"

"The black blood soup you want to eat."

"It's not me who wants to eat it, it's you who wants to eat it"

"Oh, I know. I want to eat it. This is the taste of my hometown. I was also raised by a Spartan nanny when I was a child. But considering your appetite, I didn't make the real Spartan black soup directly."

"Then what is this?"

"This is called black blood sausage. As the name suggests, it is a sausage stuffed with a recipe similar to that of black soup. Black soup is basically performance art, but black blood sausage is edible. I also added onions and other spices to it to remove the fishy smell."

"Where did such a big machine come from?"

"I moved here." Victoria was lying on the sofa eating potato chips, feeling comfortable as if she were at home. There was also the sound of chopping meat from the kitchen. It was Agatha preparing the ingredients.

[Wow, if you really bring Otohime back, it might be exciting. But this is the first time that there are so many people in your house.]

"It feels like someone is having a party next door." He walked to the bowl of stuffing and tiptoed to take a look. Phaethon was still grabbing the stuffing with his hands, his hands were covered in blood.

"Oh my god. If this is the black soup you mentioned before, I can't even think about it."

"Why, that's what the old Romans love to eat. I haven't made the pig's intestines yet."

"What's that?"

"Pig intestines are wrapped around pig intestines, and then pig intestines are wrapped around pig stomachs. Onions, pepper and salt are added for seasoning, and then smoked and preserved or stewed or fried."

"Isn't this much more delicious than this pig blood sausage?"

"Oh, the flavors are different. That one has a grainy texture, while this blood sausage has a fine and soft texture. It tastes like meat and organs."

"It's not that I can't. I don't mind eating offal and pig blood. It's okay to mix them together. That's it."

"Ok?"

Shangluo thought for a moment before saying, "That Yiji from the Dragon Palace is quite pitiful. Should we pity her and give her some food?"

"Okay." Phaethon looked up and said, "I want everyone to have a taste of the old Roman taste. Why don't I make a little more and you can give some to the Jinyiwei in the prison! Let everyone have a taste."

[The Romans showed their unique confidence in food. This even extended to their confidence in their own cooking skills.]

"That's not impossible." Shangluo touched his head, "It shouldn't be unpalatable if these things are mixed together."

Pig blood is still commonly found here. It is mainly sold as a stewed dish together with roast duck and other dishes. Sometimes the same stewing broth is used as roast duck. When eaten, it is also cooked into blood stew like duck blood.

As for why it is pig blood, it is mainly because the number of pigs slaughtered is relatively large, and the leftover pig blood cannot be wasted, so it is made into blood soup and eaten.

Countries with a long history know how to cherish food. Just like here, the Romans would not waste any edible part of livestock.

[No, no, no, your expectation of the Romans' frugal habits is correct. Although the Romans seem to be extravagant, they are indeed very frugal with ingredients. But you should never trust a Roman's cooking skills, because the Romans never cook for themselves! Our Miss Phaethon, she has eaten pork, but she has never seen a pig run. ]

"What are you talking about?" Phaethon put down what he was doing. "When I go hunting, I make the black soup myself."

[If you think that making black soup by just stewing everything in one pot can be considered cooking, then you are a master chef! ]

"Has she only made black soup?" Shangluo asked.

"Grilling." Phaethon said without waiting for Apollonia to answer, "I grill myself."

"Hmm," Shangluo thought for a moment, "How about we do it together?"

"No, I'll do it. This is Rome's national dish, and I want to make it myself."

"Then after you're done, let me be the first to taste it?"

"Sure, sure." Hearing that Shangluo wanted to eat first, Phaethon stirred the food even harder. She wanted Shangluo to be the first to eat the fresh, hot, Roman blood sausage.

After taking a look at the blood-red unknown substance in the basin, Shangluo walked aside and went to the kitchen first.

Sure enough, Ms. Agatha was chopping something inside. She was holding two bone-chopping knives and was chopping the lean meat on the chopping board. It was more like smashing. Every inch of meat tendon was smashed, leaving only soft meat fillings like meat patties.

"Ah, Mr. Shangluo, you're back. I'd like to borrow your kitchen. I'll put it back to its original state in a while."

"It's okay, it's okay, just continue using it. What are you doing?"

"It's meat stuffing for spaghetti. That's how Her Majesty Victoria eats her meat sauce."

"Oh, you've been working hard."

Lady Agatha glanced back at him and said, "Compared to you, I don't have a hard time at all. After all, the Dragon Palace is very tricky."

"Dragon Palace? How did you know?"

"I saw a ship performing a sympathetic jump in the sky. There were no Roman ships nearby at the time, and Roman ships cannot fly into the sky. In this case, it must be from the Dragon Palace."

"Do you know the Dragon Palace too?"

"I don't know him." Ms. Agatha replied, "But we have dealt with the Dragon Palace 'indirectly'."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Ms. Agatha did not answer directly, but asked Shangluo: "Mr. Shangluo, what do you think of those phlogiston submarines in Rome? Including the one that is being repaired and is going to stop at your house to serve as a guard for you. What do you think of these vehicles?"

"It always feels unreliable? Because it seems to be completely uncontrollable. The navigation it uses seems to be based on an unknown signal source? I heard from Victoria that it is the Atlantis Central Fortress in the Atlantic Ocean? But she has no idea about the news from Atlantis. It's like an information black hole."

Chapter 1040: Dragon Palace Food

"Do you know why we didn't include Atlantis when we counted the six Romes? Because Atlantis does not belong to Rome. The 'mystery of Atlantis' is to us what the 'mystery of the Dragon Palace' is to you, a super double."

[Wait, she is speaking academic Aurora, which is a little hard to understand because it emphasizes instrumentality. I will translate it for you in spoken language - you don't quite understand what the Dragon Palace is doing, right? Not only does Rome not understand what Atlantis is doing, it doesn't even know what Atlantis is. ]

"???"

"Lady Apollonia's explanation is correct." Agatha nodded helplessly, "Until Rome was about to fall, we didn't know where Atlantis was, or what they did."

"So how do you cooperate with each other?"

"We will select people to enter the Atlantis Fortress, but that means they will be permanently cut off from the shore. We believe that Atlantis is made up of batches of 'dead drowned'. They performed a death ritual when they left the shore, symbolizing that they severed all ties with the world and plunged into Atlantis. Although there will be no communication, Atlantis has been cooperating with us tacitly."

"Now that you mention it, I don't know where the Dragon Palace City is either."

"But," Agatha emphasized, "Dragon Palace has a regular connection with Atlantis."

"???"

"Yes. Unlike us, Atlantis did not keep the Dragon Palace secret. They established normal diplomatic relations with each other as 'undersea countries'. As far as I know, many devices in the Dragon Palace come from Atlantis technology, and vice versa."

"So they know each other! So, how much do you know about their relationship?"

Agatha shook her head slightly: "We know nothing."

"Then you don't plan to figure it out? I want to call and ask what the Dragon King is doing now."

"We have no motive to do so. Because according to our Greek worldview, this world is ruled by Zeus in the sky, Poseidon in the sea, and Hades in the underworld. The three realms are independent of each other. Even Zeus must follow the rules of the underworld, and the sea also has its own sovereignty. They are the unshakable laws of nature, and not even Olympus can shake the will of the sea. But in general, the sea and the land both respect the common Mount Olympus. But similarly, Poseidon, who rules the sea, does not always go to Mount Olympus for meetings."

"Come to think of it, we seem to be somewhat similar?"

"So, Mr. Shangluo, have you ever considered digging deeper into the Dragon Palace?"

"If it's related to the mission, I will. It just so happens that our current actions have a common purpose with the Dragon Palace, and we will know then. After all, the Dragon Palace is not Atlantis. The Dragon Palace is clearly the emperor's minister. The minister is not a courtier, but the minister still serves the emperor."

[The deep sea is really hard to fathom.] Apollonia sighed, [I can see that in your place, humans have already reached the vast deep space, but still know very little about the ocean beneath our feet. Exploring the deep sea is no easier than exploring deep space. From this perspective, there is no difference between underwater people and aliens. Even if they live on the same earth, there probably won't be much overlap between land and the seabed.]

"But the Dragon King seems very different now?"

[Well, that's true. Isn't this Dragon King too 'lively' now? Not only did he start a company, he also interacted with you and even put his own daughter in prison. It really is like he is actively trying to reveal his own mystery.]

"But the matter of the [Longyin Case] ​​is still unclear."

[You are planning to send food to Miss Otohime just for this, to learn more about the Ryugu Palace, right? ]

"Not really. The main reason is that I can't stand seeing others starving. Eating the fasting pills in there is a bit too much torture, so I'd better send her some prison food from time to time. I don't have time to send it every day, but I can give her some every now and then."

【By the way, can you tell me the situation? 】

"Why do you always help me make up for it?"

Doesn't this make you seem even more kindhearted, influencing even a petty-minded Greek god like me to become more tolerant and generous?

"Tsk, do you have any objection?"

[No, no. It's just that I really want to see you as a dragon rider.]

"How is it? Is it delicious?" After a while, the sausages were fried, and as said before, Shangluo was the first to eat it.

The pig blood sausage was still bloody even after it was fried. It was just bright red before, but now it was purple-black.

Through the casing, you can see that the purple-black blood sausage has pig blood that has been fried into flocs, as well as finely chopped fat and lean meat, and offal such as pig stomach that were mixed in before, as well as onions and other spices used to remove the fishy smell.

When it was served to Shangluo, the blood sausage had already been cut.

The cut surface is smooth, and the casing is filled with pig blood. There are white, marble-like lines on the cut surface, which are the fat that was previously filled in.

After cutting it open, the meat and internal organs are not so obvious except for the fat.

"Do you need any dip?"

“No dipping sauce is usually needed because it will be roasted together with the apples. When the roasting is complete and the dish is served, you can eat it with the apples.”

"Then I'll try the dry food." Shangluo picked up a chopstick -

"Hmm" He chewed while looking up at the ceiling to think of words.

"How is it? Is it delicious?"

"The texture was different from what I expected. The sausages I eat are usually chewy. But this one broke apart as soon as I bit into it, which surprised me. But the taste was still good. The flavor of the meat and the spices were mixed very well, and they spread in my mouth after one bite. The delicate texture was also easy to chew, and the whole mouth could taste the flavor of the gravy, which was very satisfying. Moreover, it seemed to be easy to digest."

[Wow, you really gave her face. I thought you were just going to say whether it tasted good or not, but I didn't expect you to be able to explain it in such a clear and logical way.]

"Since you want me to 'taste' it, I will speak according to the standard of 'tasting'."

"Shangluo, do you think this can be given to everyone to eat?" The excited Phaethon was eager to present the treasure.

"You know what, this flavor, I think it can be sold here too - we also have blood sausage here."

"What about Miss Otohime?"

"Then she might like it more. She might even want to eat it raw, to retain more of the original taste of blood. Because I heard that the sacrifice to the Dragon Palace requires blood food - but this is not necessary, just let her eat the same as everyone else. I wonder if Miss Otohime can be moved, and it would be best if she could burst into tears and spit out all the news like spitting out sand."

Chapter 1041: Roman Classics

Before going out to deliver the meal, Shangluo also let Ms. Agatha taste the "classic Roman blood sausage" made by Phaethon.

"Well, very good, very classic. I didn't expect Miss Phaethon to be able to make such a classic dish. This dish reminds me of the original Romans: frugal, simple, tenacious, challenging the limits of themselves and the world with supreme courage, and even daring to swing a knife at the gods. It's a pity that those degenerate modern people have no idea how great their ancestors were. They only know how to lie there in togas, eat and vomit, vomit and eat, which is no different from scallops."

After that, she closed the lunch box and said, "Take it. This is the most representative dish of Rome."

"Is this the dish that represents Rome?" Fu Yuanshan opened the lunch box and took a look.

After hearing that Shangluo had sent the princess of the Dragon Palace to the Imperial Prison in just one hour, he also came to the Imperial Prison to visit the "Yi Ji" and happened to run into Shangluo who was delivering food. He got a free meal.