Free Web NovelChapter 144: Chapter 144: Spiritual Plants
Edward, who was just mentioned by Wofu, was currently busy talking to his younger brothers in the resonance space.
Just now, right after he entered the space, a rather loud tearing sound suddenly echoed in the air, and the ground also rumbled and shook, as if it could collapse at any moment. Fortunately, this bad phenomenon only lasted for a moment, and then everything returned to normal.
Edward quickly slithered away to look for Ryder and his younger brothers, continuously worrying about the safety of the three of them in his heart.
"Brother Edward!"
The little mouse was also looking for Edward. Seeing the silhouette of a white light snake from afar, he hurriedly ran over. Edward caught the mouse cub and anxiously peppered him with questions:
"There was a strange phenomenon in the space just now, are you okay?"
"I’m fine!" Ryder shook his head: "Lord Chief wanted to enter, but his mental energy is too strong, he almost tore the space apart. Luckily, the space’s self-protection mechanism activated in time and kicked him out."
*Daddy?*
Edward’s body stiffened, and he asked in confusion: "Why did my Daddy enter here? Could it be, he knows everything?"
Ryder nodded guiltily: "Yes. I’m sorry, Brother Edward, because I couldn’t remember everything, I accidentally let it slip. But Oliver and Finnick have already explained it to them."
At this moment, Oliver and Finnick also arrived and said: "We almost got thrown out just now. Daddy’s mental energy is truly terrifying!"
Saying that, the two boys immediately told their older brother about what happened today.
"It’s impossible to stop our fathers from going to the Northern Continent, but at least before the Spring Festival, they won’t do anything reckless."
Edward helplessly rubbed the mouse cub’s head, also unable to bring himself to scold the boy. After all, it was all because Ryder’s mental energy was too weak that his memories were fragmented. Edward didn’t hide it from his two younger brothers either. He opened his mouth and bit off a large cluster of light from his own body, rolled it into a large ball, and handed it to Ryder. Ryder took the ball; although in his heart he was so happy he wanted to fly up to the sky, he still timidly glanced at Oliver and Finnick. If the younger brothers didn’t let him eat, then he wouldn’t eat openly anymore; he would hide it and wait until they weren’t around to eat it later.
Finnick and Oliver looked at each other. After a while, Finnick said: "Although he transformed early, his mental energy is still stable, so let’s just let him eat it. Who knows, he might be able to clearly remember everything that happens here. That way, it will be more convenient for you to communicate with our fathers."
Oliver also nodded: "That works too. But..." He reached out and pinched off half of the ball: "He can only eat this much every day, no more than that."
Edward had no choice but to take back half of the mental energy from his youngest brother’s hand. Although Ryder was a little disappointed that his food was cut in half, he was already very happy that he no longer had to eat in secret.
Ryder slowly savored the delicacy in his mouth, his short tail behind his butt wagging non-stop.
The three brothers watched Ryder eat deliciously and suddenly felt a little hungry. Edward suddenly remembered something and hurriedly said:
"Wait for me for a moment!" Then his silhouette suddenly disappeared from the space.
Edward woke up, wore the concealment array on his body, and sneakily crawled to where he stored his personal belongings. Inside was the animal skin pouch containing the grass with green light spots and a pale purple light stone that he and Wofu had picked up previously.
On the day he broke out of his shell, this animal skin pouch had coincidentally fallen into a rock crevice, luckily escaping that terrifying lightning storm. When they were caught and brought back by the Temple Lord, the Temple Lord had picked up these two items to examine for a moment before stuffing them back into the pouch. Perhaps he disdained these things, or maybe he didn’t discover their anomalies.
Edward sneakily took these two items out, then brought them with him and slithered back to bed. He closed his eyes and carefully extracted the energy inside. Based on his experience of feeding his mental body to Ryder multiple times, Edward knew that as long as he extracted the energy inside the items, he could bring that energy source into the space.
Ryder, Oliver, and Finnick waited until they were about to grow mushrooms. Finally, a spiritual energy fluctuation appeared in the space, followed by the sight of Edward holding a blade of green grass in his mouth and using his tail to wrap a purple stone, hurriedly slithering over.
He dropped the two items in front of his younger brothers and said: "Here, try and see if you can eat them."
Finnick curiously poked his claws at the blade of grass, then brought his nose close to sniff. A refreshing, cool fragrance instantly wafted into his nose. His eyes lit up; he opened his mouth, grabbed the blade of grass in his mouth, and swallowed it with a *gulp*.
Almost immediately, Finnick’s body underwent a transformation. His mental body’s color deepened, turning into a dark green that was almost black, and the size of his mental body also rapidly increased. If initially his mental body was only the size of a two-month-old kitten, after Finnick ate the blade of grass, his mental body instantly grew to the size of a three-and-a-half-month-old large cat. Furthermore, his form became much more realistic.
Oliver witnessed the change in his second brother and also hurriedly picked up the purple stone, swallowing it straight into his stomach. He felt a cool stream as the stone slid from his esophagus down to his stomach, then spread out to every corner of his body. Oliver’s mental body didn’t grow larger, but it became brighter. His purple hair also grew longer, and two small lumps appeared on his head.
Finnick and Oliver closed their eyes to feel the changes in their bodies, then opened their eyes simultaneously, crowding around Edward:
"Eldest brother, what is this thing? The spiritual energy is so dense!"
Edward stuck out his tongue: "Uncle Wofu and I picked them up in a forest quite close to the lava chasm, but we only picked up these two things."
Finnick quickly said: "There is also a spiritual plant in the tribe brought back by Uncle Asher, but its spiritual energy is only a fraction of this, not even equal to a magic core. Papa gifted it back to the Wood-attribute warrior who discovered it."
Oliver added: "At that time, I even heard Papa tell Daddy that it was a low-grade spiritual herb. Papa has already kept its seeds. If this spiritual herb works for Finnick, then we have to tell Papa to plant it!"
Finnick scratched his head: "But, how are we supposed to tell Papa?"
The three brothers looked over at Ryder. The foolish mouse was stared at until he felt embarrassed and mumbled: "Don’t look at me, it’s not certain that I can remember."
The three brothers immediately slumped, sighing heavily.
The next morning, Sane and Kaelen tried to press for some information from the two children, but aside from reporting their eldest brother’s safety, the little ones couldn’t say anything else.
Although a bit disappointed, the two didn’t blame their children. After all, the two were still infants. Compared to newborn brats who could only eat and cry, this was already ten thousand times better.
After the whole family finished breakfast, Sane strapped Oliver and Finnick to his chest, placed Ryder on his shoulder, and said to Kaelen:
"I will take the children straight to the military camp to train the expeditionary force, you take care of preparing the supplies."
Kaelen nodded. After seeing the four fathers and sons off, he tidied up the house a bit, and carried the various design blueprints to the production area. Before that, he swung by the glass production site, instructed the glass factory to bring a batch of scrap glass to the handicraft group, and then went to the kitchen area.
He had said he would teach the kitchen how to make chicken bouillon this morning.
Chicken bouillon wasn’t difficult to make; it just had a bit many steps that required physical effort.
The ingredients used to make chicken bouillon included: chicken breast, dried shiitake mushrooms, scallions, garlic, lemongrass, and refined rock salt.
First, boil the chicken breast with a few crushed scallions, garlic, and lemongrass so the meat absorbs the aroma. After the chicken breast is cooked, take it out to let it cool, and shred the meat into very fine, fluffy strands (like meat floss).
Put the shredded meat into a clay or iron pan, and stir evenly over a low heat (a very small fire). This process required patience to let the water in the meat evaporate completely. When the meat turned a golden yellow, became crispy dry, and could be crumbled by hand, it met the standard.
Toss the dried mushrooms into the pan to stir briefly to release their aroma. Next, put the dried chicken meat, dried shiitake mushrooms, and rock salt one by one into a stone mortar at the ratio of: 500 grams of chicken meat (dried) + 300 grams of rock salt + 200 grams of dried shiitake mushrooms for 1kg of chicken bouillon powder.
Pound continuously with a pestle; the harder and longer you pound, the more the mixture will be crushed into a fine powder. After the mixture is finely pounded, pour all the newly pounded bouillon powder into the pan, and roast it one last time over an extremely low heat for about 10 minutes. This step helped remove 100% of the moisture left over from the pounding process, helping the ingredients’ flavors meld tightly together and extending the shelf life to years.
"After the bouillon completely cools down, everyone can scoop it into ceramic jars and cover it with a lid. To be more careful, apply a layer of moist clay around the contact area between the jar and the lid, to prevent air from getting in and making the bouillon melt."
Kaelen planned to make twenty kilograms of bouillon, of which ten kilograms would be brought along for trading on the journey, and the remaining ten kilograms would be brought to the Spring Festival.
After finishing work in the kitchen, Kaelen had lunch first, then went to the handicraft group. He planned to teach everyone how to make hairpins, hair ties, and crystal jewelry.
These tasks required meticulousness, so by the time Kaelen finished teaching the handicraft group, it was already quite late. He had to postpone making some jewelry with defensive attributes to the next day.
Upon returning home, Sane and the three little ones hadn’t returned yet. Kaelen planned to cook himself, conveniently testing out the chicken bouillon as well.
Today’s meal was sorghum rice, stir-fried smoked pork belly with shrimp, fried eggs, climbing perch soup cooked with vegetables, and pickled mustard greens. The meal for the two little ones was peeled shrimp millet porridge with vegetables.
After deciding on the menu, Kaelen immediately started preparing. In just a moment, the fragrant aroma of the food wafted everywhere. By the time Sane and the three little ones returned, the food was completely cooked. He immediately washed his and the children’s hands, and they sat down to eat together.
Sane spoke while eating: "Why do I feel like today’s food smells more fragrant than usual?"
Kaelen smiled: "I added the chicken bouillon I just made today, does it feel distinctly sweeter?"
Ryder opened his mouth to eat the spoonful of rice Kaelen fed him, nodding profusely: "Very sweet, and fragrant too. I want to bring some for Brother Edward to eat!"
Sane’s eyebrows twitched, feeling helpless: "He is five years younger than you, what are you calling him brother for? You call Edward brother, then you call Kaelen and me brother again, what kind of chaotic addressing is this?"
Finnick and Oliver giggled, and Kaelen also felt speechless. Ryder felt flustered, poked his two fingers together, and said in a low voice:
"But I’m used to calling it that way... or how about I call you two uncle from now on?"
Hearing this, Kaelen burst into loud laughter. Sane helplessly rubbed his forehead:
"Why change how you address us to uncle instead of changing how you call Edward to younger brother?"
Ryder was stunned, scratching his head. The boy didn’t understand either, only vaguely feeling that if he changed to calling Edward younger brother, that snake wouldn’t pay any attention to him at all.
After laughing, Kaelen rubbed Ryder’s head and said affectionately:
"Alright, uncle it is, it’s just a way of addressing anyway. Speaking of which, it seems Ryder can remember more things today, right?"
Ryder scratched his cheek and said embarrassedly: "Yes, brother... I mean, Uncle Kaelen, I do remember a bit. While practicing with the younger brothers this afternoon, I suddenly felt a few more memories added to my mind."
Sane nodded happily: "Then that’s good, who knows, you might be able to remember everything later. Tomorrow continue going to the military camp to practice with Oliver and Finnick."
"Yes, Uncle Sane."
