Long Jun believed that in the short term, the Rat Demon in his home could serve as a fixed source for his daily like collection.
But this could only be considered a baseline; he still needed to quickly open new pathways.
Just then, as the aroma of meat porridge wafted from the pot, the child next door began to clamor again.
"Grandma, meat—meat smell! It's meat, the scholar's house is eating meat, it smells so good, Shitou wants to eat!"
The next moment, Granny Lai peered over the wall, and her familiar voice followed.
"Scholar, Scholar Long, are you eating meat? Oh my, actually eating meat, Scholar Long, have you struck it rich?"
Long Jun sat by the stove without going out, only raising his voice to reply languidly: "Let Granny Lai know, the way of the gentleman is to guard against greed and anger. Please don't speak nonsense, Granny Lai.
Otherwise, I'll have to ask your son Lai Er if a potter's family can speak so rashly?"
Lai Er was the old woman's only surviving son. As soon as Long Jun mentioned him, Granny Lai didn't dare to make trouble anymore.
She withdrew her head and no longer tried to beg for porridge.
Little Shitou was still crying on the other side of the wall, constantly talking about the meat smell and wanting to eat.
Long Jun sat in the kitchen, silently shaking his head. Unfortunately, ordinary mortals had a daily like limit of only 5 points. No matter how much little Shitou cried out, he couldn't give him another like.
However, while little Shitou couldn't add more likes, he might still have other uses.
Long Jun changed his thinking. After the crying from beyond the wall subsided, he walked out of the kitchen with his crutch.
He called out: "Granny Lai, I have a business proposition for you, would you like to hear it?"
"What?" Granny Lai immediately jumped onto the wall again, poking out her head and asking curiously, "The scholar wants to do business with this old woman? What business? Will it make money?"
Long Jun walked to the wall and asked Granny Lai to bring her head closer. He said softly: "Sell this meat and vegetable porridge for me, one copper coin per bowl..."
Before he finished, Granny Lai shrieked in surprise: "So cheap? Even plain porridge costs one copper per bowl!"
Long Jun simply said: "One copper per bowl, can you sell it or not?"
"Of course I can sell it, one copper per bowl, only a fool wouldn't buy! This old woman wants to buy it too."
"In that case, I've calculated that my pot can fill about thirty-five bowls of porridge. Granny Lai, if you help me sell them all honestly, just give me twenty-five copper coins afterward, and the rest will be your wages, how about that?"
"How about that? That's wonderful!" Granny Lai immediately bounced up, so excited that she was about to climb directly over the wall into Long Jun's courtyard.
Long Jun quickly stopped her and added instructions: "When selling the porridge, ask the customers if the porridge smells good. Only sell to those who say it does, don't sell to those who don't."
Long Jun made this request, of course, to test whether if he wasn't present and customers praised the porridge's aroma in places he couldn't see, would the Food Cauldron Scripture respond?
If it could, then his operational scope would be greatly expanded.
Regarding Long Jun's additional requirement, Granny Lai remarked: "Ha, scholars really have temperament!"
Afterward, Granny Lai brought a large wooden barrel from her home to take away the pot of porridge, pushed a wheelbarrow, took the porridge barrel and several coarse porcelain bowls, brought little Shitou along, and left in a flurry.
During this time, Long Jun didn't forget to leave a bowl of meat porridge for the Rat Demon, keep a bowl for himself, and also give a bowl to little Shitou.
Next was waiting for feedback from Granny Lai.
Of course, Long Jun wasn't idle. He made another trip to South Market Street, this time with a planned expenditure of eight hundred coppers to purchase a batch of fresh ingredients to bring back.
Meeting familiar vendors on the street, he chatted a bit, and they said: "Master Long, that pancake you made this morning was really good. I still think it's delicious when I remember it now. Will there be more tomorrow?"
[Like +1]
Bit by bit, he gained seven or eight more likes.
[Free Attribute Points: 4]
[Accumulated Likes: 200]
[Cooking Value: 20]
Long Jun felt he had discovered a new track. It turned out that when diners mentioned in casual conversation that his food was delicious, he could also gain likes.
And that wasn't all. When Long Jun was buying grains at a grain shop, suddenly a large number of like notifications popped up from the Food Cauldron Scripture.
[Like +1]
+1+1+1...
Checking the scripture's records, it was clear that this batch of likes came from Granny Lai's side.
As Long Jun had correctly probed, as long as the food he made was praised, the Food Cauldron Scripture would respond, even if not face-to-face!
Long Jun returned fully loaded once more.
By mid-afternoon, Granny Lai had not yet returned, but the accumulated likes on Long Jun's scripture panel had already reached [312].
Until evening, Granny Lai pushed her wheelbarrow back, bringing little Shitou home happily.
She delivered twenty-five copper coins to Long Jun. As for her own wages, she had already deducted them herself.
This old woman, though stingy and fond of taking small advantages, did truly abide by the agreed-upon rules.
Then she smiled with her gap-toothed grin and happily asked Long Jun: "Master Long, will you sell porridge again tomorrow?"
Long Jun replied: "Not necessarily porridge, but if I have something to sell, I will certainly ask for Granny Lai's help."
Granny Lai went back satisfied.
Long Jun was also satisfied.
At this moment, the data on the Food Cauldron Scripture once again reached a new high.
[Accumulated Likes: 379]
[Free Attribute Points: 21]
[Cooking Value: 132]
After accumulating some more Cooking Value, Long Jun would be able to purchase the Fire Control skill!
Of course, he could also choose to spend one hundred Cooking Value now to enter the Cooking Kitchen again, to practice the wood chopping technique.
At the same time, he could also take advantage of the convenience of the Cooking Kitchen to digest the newly acquired free attribute points.
After all, one quarter-hour in reality meant twelve hours in the Cooking Kitchen.
In the Cooking Kitchen, though one would get tired, injured, and feel pain, one would not get hungry.
In this void world, he didn't have to worry about the rapid increase in attributes causing various inconveniences.
Long Jun pondered only briefly before immediately deciding to enter the Cooking Kitchen again.
A bird in hand is worth ten in the bush—he couldn't wait for the Fire Control skill and wanted to use all available resources now, relentlessly enhancing himself quickly!
As night fell, the spring rain began to drizzle again.
The hustle and bustle of South Market Street had long since sunk into the night with this fine rain. In Peace Alley, the lights were dim.
Occasionally, snoring and teeth-grinding sounds created ripples in the night rain.
In a corner of the rainy alley, at some point, a shadow like a worm slithered across the muddy alleyway.
In the small house, Long Jun lay in bed pretending to sleep.
He had once again practiced with the hatchet for twelve hours in the Cooking Kitchen, and whenever he felt fatigue, he would increase his attribute points.
Currently, his three elemental attributes were as follows:
[Essence: 21+]
[Blood Qi: 21+]
[Spirit: 21+]
[Free Attribute Points: 4]
[Wood Chopping Level 1 (79/100)]
When everything ended and he returned to reality, Long Jun spent quite some time adapting to his body's changes.
Night had deepened, and the whole world seemed to be falling asleep. Yet he lay in bed listening to the rain, with countless thoughts racing through his mind like flowing light.
There were too many questions worth pondering.
For instance, since there were demons and evil in this world, were there also gods and immortals?
If there were gods and immortals, at what height were they?
It is said that minor recluses hide in the market while great recluses hide in the court. If he wanted to use an official position as cover to walk the path of cultivation, how should he proceed?
He had heard before that in the Jade Capital, scholars of the previous dynasty could subdue dragons with one hand, which he had thought was just an exaggerated legend.
But thinking about it now, it was clearly because his experience was too limited, never having seen the true vastness of the world.
The world... just how vast was it?
Long Jun's thoughts flew wildly. Thinking too much made his mind somewhat dazed, and he began to feel drowsy, seemingly about to fall asleep.
Suddenly, he felt something was wrong.
It was—it was the sound of rain!
The pitter-patter of rain had somehow disappeared.
Between heaven and earth, all was silent.
For a moment, Long Jun even felt as if he had entered a vacuum world.
In the thick, inky darkness, a pale blade of light suddenly appeared, slashing toward Long Jun's head!