From a country cook to a master chef

Mutant monster?

Shaking his head, which was feeling dizzy from exhaustion.

Lin Jue leaned against the cold underground rock, a hint of confusion in his eyes.

Unexpectedly, a strangely shaped black snake was coiled inside this eerie corpse.

Because the black snake had never been exposed to water, it was not under Lin Jue's control.

With two horns on its head, the black snake coiled up and stared at the intruders who had entered its territory, hissing warnings.

"Congratulations, Brother Lin. Such mutated monsters are extremely rare. I once heard my master, Venerable Jin Guang, say that all mutated monsters in the world, if they can grow to a certain level, can awaken their innate supernatural powers. They are the perfect spiritual pets that countless cultivators dream of."

Wu Yanzi looked on with envy. If he weren't currently under someone else's control, he would have definitely subdued the mutated black snake in front of him.

Now that his lifeblood is under Lin Jue's control, his life or death is in Lin Jue's hands.

The Spirit-Controlling Gourd Seal is Lin Jue's greatest secret. At this moment, a cultivator is standing beside him, and for a moment, he is also unsure how to subdue the mutated black snake in front of him.

The two men and the snake stood facing each other for a long time before Wu Yanzi, sensing something amiss, finally spoke:

"If Brother Lin doesn't mind, I'll give you my spirit beast pouch as a gift. You can accept this black snake for now; it's not a particularly valuable item anyway."

Upon seeing Lin Jue nod, Ma Huayuan immediately took action. With a light tap of his sword finger, several strands of azure-silver spiritual energy transformed into chains, glowing faintly, instantly subduing the coiled black snake on the corpse's chest.

The chains of spiritual energy transformed into halos of light that enveloped the black snake, and with a flick of the sword finger, they vanished into the spirit beast pouch in the blink of an eye.

It really is a great product!

Lin Jue's eyes lit up with joy.

This bag can only hold one type of spirit beast. It's a pity that he only has one spirit beast bag right now. Otherwise, these treasures would be a great help to him.

"Since Brother Lin is not a cultivator, I have placed a talisman on the bag. If Brother Lin wants to open this spirit beast bag, he only needs to silently recite the incantation."

After speaking, Ma Huayuan handed the spirit beast bag and a talisman with a spell written on it to Lin Jue.

Having captured the mutated monster, Lin Jue turned his gaze back to the corpse on the ground.

Zhu Xinghe was able to find a medicinal diet recipe on him, so this person must have been a cultivator in his lifetime.

We might even find some valuables on him.

After squatting down and carefully examining the contents, Lin Jue frowned.

Clean!

This is so clean!

He stared in disbelief at the corpse before him, never expecting that the body of the immortal he had longed for had been searched so thoroughly.

With a sigh, Lin Jue returned to the cave.

He couldn't find anything of value on the immortal's corpse, but he couldn't possibly miss out on the various gold, silver, jewels, and silks that the bandits had looted.

After a thorough sweep, Lin Jue fell silent once again.

There's no other reason than that there's simply too little stuff.

This was completely different from the image he had of a wealthy and powerful bandit's den, where people drank wine from large bowls, ate meat in large chunks, and lived a life of luxury.

After searching Zhu Xinghe's old lair, Lin Jue only found fifteen taels of gold and nearly a hundred taels of silver in scattered pieces. Even with other jewelry, silks, and other valuables, Lin Jue estimated that the total harvest was less than three hundred taels of silver.

After packing up the gold and silver jewelry, Lin Jue looked at the pile of silk, cotton and leather materials in front of him and couldn't help but feel troubled.

With the weather freezing cold and the snow showing no signs of melting, these items are practically priceless.

With so many items, the question of how to take them away has become a problem.

After thinking it over, Lin Jue could only look at Wu Yanzi beside him.

Seeing this, Wu Yanzi, who was "living under someone else's roof," could only helplessly take out the storage bag from his waist and said with a wronged expression, "There are some of my personal belongings in this storage bag, so I can only lend it to Brother Lin for now. Brother Lin, please be sure to return it to me after you have used it."

Hmm!

Lin Jue was overjoyed as everything was packed into storage bags. He had come to the mountains with a lot of goodies.

The three of them emerged from the cave. Although it was nearly evening, the area was covered in ice and snow, and the ground was brightly lit.

Snowflakes fell heavily from the sky, and the cold wind howled, making the two people, except for Wu Yanzi, shiver.

"You cultivators are the best; you can face wind and snow without fear."

As Lin Jue untied the skinny horse from the bandits' stable, he asked with envy, "What kind of person can become a Qi Refiner? Does one have to possess spiritual roots?"

Wu Yanzi nodded in agreement, but soon he slowly shook his head and said, "My master once said that all paths lead to the same destination. When a Qi cultivator reaches the pinnacle of cultivation, they can fly through the sky and escape into the earth, summon wind and rain, and become a celestial being."

"But the path to becoming an immortal or a god is not through the cultivation of qi. Ordinary people can also use martial arts to communicate with the gods and contend with qi cultivators and practitioners."

Lin Jue secretly kept Wu Yanzi's words in mind. Not long ago, at the Zhao family's banquet, he was found to have no spiritual root.

Since he couldn't cultivate immortality, he was left with only one path to choose: becoming a martial artist.

Now that he has come to this dog-eat-dog world and obtained a treasure like the Spirit-Serving Gourd Seal, Lin Jue believes he is not just a cook.

The three rode their horses across two mountain passes in the heavy snow. In the snowy night, the town of Yulin was sparsely lit.

The town is located within the territory of the Great Wu Kingdom and Xiaoyao Prefecture. It originally had a population of about three hundred households, making it a large town in the vicinity.

A heavy snowfall killed or killed many people in the town, and most of the townspeople went to Yucheng to make a living in order to survive.

The Zhao family is wealthy and powerful in Yulin Town, and their roots are deep. Master Zhao is unwilling to give up his ancestral property and defend Yulin Town. He spares no expense to ask alchemists to inscribe formations around the Zhao mansion to defend against mountain bandits and refugees, while also reducing the damage caused by wind and snow.

Although Lin Jue was a cook in the Zhao family, he was highly valued by his master, Master Zhao, because of his good performance and was rewarded with a tiled house next to the Zhao family mansion.

Zhu Xinghe and his gang of bandits were wiped out, and Wu Yanzi, who had originally colluded with Zhao Kun, is now under Lin Jue's control.

Fearing that they might alert the enemy, Lin Jue quietly led the two back to the tile-roofed house.

After entering the house, Lin Jue skillfully moved the eight-immortal table in the middle of the room, lifted the floorboards, and revealed a tunnel underneath.

The three of them crawled into the tunnel and walked several dozen steps before the tunnel suddenly opened up.

There was a hidden world beneath the ground, as spacious as the two tiled houses above.

"This place was originally the Zhao family's granary a long time ago. It was later abandoned and not used. Now, the only people in the Zhao family who know about this place are probably the steward and Master Zhao."

Lin Jue lit the candles and, while explaining, gestured for Zhao Xiaoyao and Wu Yanzi to sit down.

"Second Miss, Zhao Kun is your third brother. He dared to collude with Zhu Xinghe to harm you, so he must have many confidants in the Zhao family. Although Zhu Xinghe is dead, the current situation in the Zhao family is still unknown. What do you plan to do next?"

Zhao Xiaoyao, a frail woman, was now weeping with tears streaming down her face. She stammered, "Brother Lin, you must help me." With that, she knelt down on the ground with a thud. "Brother Lin, Xiaoyao knows you can deal with Zhao Kun. As long as you help me, I will agree to any conditions."

"Second Miss, why are you doing this? You overestimate Lin Jue!"

Lin Jue hurriedly helped Miss Zhao up, and said helplessly, "Besides the poisoning factor, the most important reason why I was able to defeat Zhu Xinghe this time was that I secretly learned a martial arts technique from Master Xu."

Lin Jue's powerful counterattack against the four bandits in the cave was not only due to the energy derived from the Spirit Gourd Water, but also because he subconsciously used a sword technique practiced by Master Xu.

That sword technique is said to have been left behind by a martial arts master from the Zhao family's ancestors.

By this generation, the Zhao family members had become extravagant, and few were willing to diligently practice martial arts. Even those who were willing mostly possessed only rudimentary skills, resulting in very few people mastering that supreme sword technique.

Although Master Xu was not a member of the Zhao family, he married into the Zhao family, which allowed him to cultivate this sword technique and become a Transformation Realm Martial Master. He was one of the few Martial Master level experts within a hundred miles of Fish Scale Town.

For this reason, although Lin Jue was favored by Xu Zhi, he never received any martial arts instruction from him, but only learned some martial arts principles from Master Xu.

Zhao Xiaoyao was intelligent and shrewd; how could she not understand what Lin Jue was thinking? Considering the current crisis of her family, she gritted her teeth and said solemnly:

"Alright, as long as Brother Lin agrees to save my Zhao family, I, Xiao Yao, will offer you the cultivation method of our family's martial art, 'Zhao Family Blood Blade'!"

The next morning, Lin Jue sent Wu Yanzi out to scout the situation, while he hid in his room, intending to subdue the mutated black snake in the spirit beast bag first.