Douluo Continent: What should I do if I don't have a cheat system?

Chapter 259 Food Appreciation Tang San Refines Pills and Searches for Treasure Land

Tang San persisted for a while, but still failed to become a Soul Master, which was a huge blow to him.

However, Tang San quickly came to terms with it, realizing that he might not actually have the talent to become a Soul Master, so he began to research the second thing that interested him.

Tang San was also very interested in alchemists, but his interest was far less than that in weapon crafting.

After studying alchemists' materials for a few days, and drawing on Tang San's previous life experience, he felt that the profession of alchemist was very simple.

A rather special plant, a single plant can be used to make elixirs.

Some elixirs that require special medicinal effects need to be combined with several plants, a combination that is the opposite of that of poisons.

Many combinations of poisons have conflicting properties, but in alchemy, the properties of the ingredients must not conflict.

Tang San quickly mastered the few publicly available pill formulas.

However, alchemy requires an alchemy furnace, and medicinal herbs are not cheap. In the end, Tang San found Oscar and Ma Hongjun.

Compared to the others, these two are not doing their jobs properly.

But sometimes that's how it is; the two people who don't do their jobs end up doing the best.

Oscar and Ma Hongjun ate and drank all day long, rarely eating expensive food, but mostly eating economical and cheap food.

With the group established, they found an opportunity to make money.

The group was called "Fun, Food, and Restaurant Exploration Group." As more and more people joined, Oscar and Ma Hongjun's fame grew.

Moreover, they are very particular about their food when they go to a restaurant. They try all the dishes and write reviews for each dish afterward, then share these reviews in the group chat.

After reading the reviews, the foodies in the group know which dishes are good at which restaurants, and then when they go to eat there, they just order the dishes that have been rated as good.

If there are over a thousand people in the group, and each person brings four or five friends along when they go out to eat, then the restaurant's business will definitely be booming.

Because Oscar and Ma Hongjun weren't very wealthy at the beginning, the places they went to eat weren't very upscale; most of them were food streets or street stalls.

Gradually, the flow of people in these places increased, and the business of some shops that Oscar and Ma Hongjun had not eaten at slowly declined.

The two adjacent shops were quite different; one was packed with customers and there was even a queue outside, while the other was rather deserted.

This happened so many times that businesses that weren't doing well started making inquiries.

After much searching and making numerous inquiries, I finally found out the reason.

So someone approached Oscar and Ma Hongjun, paying them to come to the store for a tasting.

Given their personalities, Oscar and Ma Hongjun naturally accepted the offer of free samples and a cash prize.

Many shops invited the two of them to try the food, and Oscar and Ma Hongjun knew their purpose: to help them write better reviews of the dishes.

The two of them aren't stupid. The reason they gained the approval of the group members is because their reviews of the dishes were very genuine, and the actual food matched the reviews perfectly. They weren't just writing things to fool people.

Therefore, some shop owners spend a lot of money to get Oscar and Ma Hongjun to write a good review and give their dishes a high score.

The two of them never really cared about making money; they just enjoyed eating, drinking, and having fun. Now that so many people are asking them to try their food for free, money is no longer an issue for them.

Because they are free from desires, their reviews of the dishes are honest and truthful, without any pretense, and they are very careful in giving scores.

Regarding the issue of scoring the dishes, Oscar and Ma Hongjun specifically studied culinary techniques, and then began to evaluate and score them from eight aspects: color, aroma, taste, shape, presentation, name, meaning, and interest.

Oscar possesses a food-type martial soul, while Ma Hongjun has a fire-type martial soul. After being introduced to the profession of chef, the two discovered that they had an exceptional talent for cooking.

Especially when the two work together, Oscar's culinary skills combined with Ma Hongjun's Phoenix Flame will make the food taste even better.

Not long after, the two of them obtained their master chef certificates from the culinary association.

The reviews that followed were even more professional, with two master chefs personally tasting, evaluating, and scoring the food, which was already quite sensational.

Later, the two recruited other top chefs from the culinary association to join the tasting team.

There are countless delicacies in the world, but one person may never have the chance to taste them all.

With the aim of developing culinary arts and learning from each other, many chefs have been attracted to join the team.

With more talented people joining, Oscar directly established a food appreciation association.

As prices rise, it's not so easy for restaurants to invite them to try the food themselves anymore.

The association has nine levels of connoisseurs.

Upon receiving an invitation from a restaurant, we will send someone to sample the food.

The two of them made a fortune from this.

As the reputation of the Food Insights Association grew, Oscar and Ma Hongjun became known to many people.

Of course, their information was also placed on Jerry's desk.

Jerry was also a little surprised when he saw it.

Oscar and Ma Hongjun disappeared for several years, and when they reappeared, they had become the presidents of the Wuhun City Food Appreciation Association.

I have to say, that's really impressive!

They have never violated the regulations of Wuhun City; all their operations have been legal.

Moreover, neither of them were wanted by the Spirit Hall.

Jerry knew the two men's personalities well; Oscar wasn't a bad person at heart, but Ma Hongjun was a bit of a problem.

Judging from their behavior after arriving in Wuhun City, Ma Hongjun's evil fire should be gone.

Is it okay if I don't have the magic herb?

It seems they all have the protagonist's halo; even though they intercepted the immortal herb, they still have other ways to deal with the evil fire.

After that, I ignored them. As long as they weren't violating the rules of Wuhun City and were operating legally, I let them be.

Neither of them were important figures, and Jerry never considered them, so he stopped paying attention to them. Besides, what they did was beneficial to the development of the Wuhun City business district.

The Spirit Hall ignored them, and the two developed very well, gradually gaining status and reputation in Spirit City.

Tang San envied the two of them for developing their relationship openly and honestly, but he was helpless because everyone is different.

Tang San approached them this time to borrow money, since they were the two richest people at the moment.

The two of them didn't say anything, but they lent Tang San a large sum of money.

After purchasing the alchemy furnace and medicinal herbs, Tang San began to try his hand at alchemy.

Tang San successfully refined three publicly available pills—the Injury Recovery Pill, the Recovery Pill, and the Detoxification Pill—within just a few days.

These three types of pills are used extensively, and there are many prescriptions for them.

There are over a hundred different formulas for the Healing Pill alone. Although each one has slightly different effects, they are all for healing injuries, so they are all categorized under the Healing Pill.

Use whatever medicinal materials are available to prepare the pills.

Tang San learned alchemy so easily, which boosted his confidence.

Sure enough, the reason he couldn't learn the Soul Master skill was because he lacked talent, but he had the talent of an alchemist, so he learned it very easily.

For a period of time afterward, Tang San worked during the day and refined pills at night.

Tang San refined all three publicly available elixir recipes, using the herbs he could gather.

At first, Tang San thought these were life-saving medicines and was reluctant to sell them. However, as he accumulated more and more pills, he was running into a deficit. He was too embarrassed to borrow from Oscar and Ma Hongjun again, so he had no choice but to sell some.

Tang San then found a solution: using elixir to nourish elixir.

Use the money from selling pills to learn more about alchemy and refine even more powerful pills.

Many alchemists eventually end up on this path.

However, what gave Tang San a bit of a headache was the lack of medicinal herbs.

Even in Wuhun City, high-quality medicinal herbs are rare.

Moreover, the oldest medicinal herbs sold on the market are only nine years old.

Tang San knew that after ten years, medicinal herbs would develop spirit rings and become spirit beasts, which would prevent them from being used for alchemy.

However, Tang San's memories from his previous life told him that there were even older medicinal herbs.

The longer the medicinal materials are aged, the better their medicinal effects.

Tang San could understand that the Spirit Hall didn't have medicinal herbs older than ten years.

However, Tang San thought of three treasure locations.

He had seen Sunset Forest once before; it was Dugu Bo's herb garden, where the Spirit Hall later cultivated medicinal herbs.

Having heard about the situation inside from Dugu Yan, Tang San felt that it was a treasure land, somewhat like the Yin-Yang Well of Ice and Fire. However, he needed to verify it himself to confirm whether that was true.

If so, then herbs that have been cultivated there for more than ten years can definitely be grown there.

Why doesn't the Spirit Hall sell medicinal herbs that are more than ten years old?

Even if you sell medicinal herbs that are over ten years old, it doesn't seem to have much of an impact!

Is it because the Spirit Hall doesn't sell them because they only discovered that one place could accelerate plant growth, but didn't wait for the herbs to grow for more than ten years before collecting them?

Tang San felt a bit puzzled, but apart from this reason, he really couldn't figure it out.

Or perhaps the Spirit Hall never tried to grow plants to ten years old. In their view, plants would transform into spirit beasts after ten years, so they never discovered the value of this treasure land.

Thinking of this, Tang San couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.

If you use herbs that are even older, like ten-year-old, hundred-year-old, or thousand-year-old herbs, wouldn't the medicinal effects be even more potent?

The more he thought about Tang San, the more excited he became.

That day, Tang San took a day off.

First, take the teleportation array to reach Tiandou City.

Heaven Dou City has been completely transformed, but many parts of it have been developed in the style of Spirit City, which shows that the Heaven Dou Empire and Spirit Hall have a deep connection.

Although Tang San knew that Empress Xue Ke was Chrysanthemum Douluo's disciple, he didn't feel that Chrysanthemum Douluo had much power in Wuhun City; he was just an academy teacher.

Moreover, Jerry was often not in Wuhun City. Tang San had seen Xiao Wu, Ye Lingling, Zhu Zhuqing, Xue Ke, and Ning Rongrong gather together many times, but Jerry never participated.

It seems Jerry's relationship with them isn't that great; they're just using the name of having the same mentor.

After arriving in Heaven Dou City, I realized I was wrong. Based on what I saw, Spirit City had absolutely no reason to help Heaven Dou City develop.

There must be a secret here, you just don't know it.

Although Tang San has always regarded Jerry as his rival, he has hardly seen Jerry since arriving in Wuhun City. Moreover, he has heard that the Pope has emerged from seclusion, so all the affairs of the Wuhun Hall should be unrelated to Jerry.

In Tang San's eyes, Jerry was just like Yu Xiaogang, a researcher. As for power, he had it, but not much.

If Jerry knew that Tang San was evaluating him like this, he'd probably laugh himself to death.

After arriving in Heaven Dou City and resting briefly, Tang San went to Sunset Forest.

Following the location I remembered, I arrived at Chrysanthemum Douluo's herb garden.

What came into Tang San's view was a forest; the herb garden was long gone.

Haha, the Spirit Hall really doesn't know what's good for them.

Seeing that Chrysanthemum Douluo's herb garden had many medicinal herbs, I occupied the place. After the herbs matured and were harvested, I abandoned the place.

After all, this place is in the Heaven Dou Empire, which is a bit far from Wuhun City. It would be more convenient to grow crops in Wuhun City.

No wonder there were no high-grade medicinal herbs; it turns out the Spirit Hall hadn't discovered the secret of this treasure land either.

Wouldn't that be a bargain for me?

Tang San then began searching around the area, trying to find the place Dugu Yan had described, but after searching for a long time, he couldn't find a single place that matched.

This is it, that's right. I saw the herb garden here with my own eyes when I left back then.

Moreover, Tang San found the stone with the words "Spirit Hall" engraved on it, buried it deep in the soil, with only half of it showing.

Seeing this situation, could it be because of something that happened a few years ago, when the world underwent tremendous changes and the territory expanded?

Is this why the precious place is no longer here?

In the following days, Tang San would come over whenever he had free time, searching the entire forest, but he still couldn't find the location of the treasure.

They did find many huge meteorites.

Could it be that the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Eye was hit by a meteorite falling from the sky at that time?

Tang San couldn't think of any other explanation besides this one.

Only this explanation makes sense.

Tang San organized his thoughts.

Back then, the Spirit Hall captured Poison Douluo and occupied his herb garden. After the herbs matured, they were harvested and the group left. The place remained uninhabited for a long time and was covered by greenery. Then, the world underwent a dramatic change, and the precious land was struck by a meteorite and disappeared.

Holy crap, this is just too unlucky!

Tang San couldn't help but complain.

After working so hard for so long, I haven't found anything.

However, the Spirit Hall didn't get it either, and thinking about this made Tang San feel much better.

Oh right, I suddenly remembered that when I posted a task to buy medicinal herbs before, I saw someone post a task to buy meteorites.

Consider these meteorites as compensation for my hard work over this period of time. Overall, it's not a loss; in fact, I might even make a profit.

Thinking this way, Tang San felt much better instantly.

However, Tang San still harbored a bit of wishful thinking about this treasure land.

Treasure lands are all formed naturally; even if they are destroyed by nature, they may be reborn in the future.

It seems I need to inquire more about special places in the future; maybe I can find a treasure trove.

In this way, I will have an endless supply of medicinal herbs.

The Spirit Hall, due to the limited availability of medicinal herbs, has restricted the development of alchemists, so it has not taken alchemists seriously and has made almost all its information public.

During this period of time, he also inquired and found that those who have become alchemists nowadays are all refining these kinds of pills.

Therefore, Tang San was certain that the Spirit Hall did not value the profession of alchemist.

Once I find a treasure trove and refine even more powerful pills, then we'll see if Jerry can still hold onto his position as the God of Medicine, hahaha.

Thinking about all this, Tang San was extremely happy.

……

(End of this chapter)