“shck”

A light thud sound could be heard as the last piece of a carrot fell on its side onto the cutting board. 

“clap, clap, clap”

Fu Lian turned around and saw Fu Chen giving her some applause. 

“Good, you’ve improved your basic knife skills a bit. The pieces are more evenly sized.”

He walked towards her and pet her head, “That’s enough practice for today, go and get some rest after you wash up.”

Her tail wagged and she almost skipped out of the kitchen. Fu Chen managed to make an acceptable smile as he saw how happy Fu Lian was, but then he became slightly worried. ‘The sooner she masters the basics, the sooner I’ll have to send her on a trip.’

He sighed, ‘The next set of training is for her own good and will let her grow as a person. I shouldn’t always watch over her.’

Fu Chen made another sigh and continued his prep work.

-------------

“yawn” 

Gao Wu covered his mouth as he made a loud yawn. He turned around and faced Gao Long, Sun Ning, and Wan Xinyue, “The training is so tiring.”

The others nodded and Sun Ning replied, “Do you think Master Du increased the intensity after he saw what the owner of the restaurant did to those clan members?”

Wan Xinyue chimed in, “Maybe it was because Owner Fu mentioned the multiple realms.”

Xinyue’s response made everyone think deeply about the higher realms and ascension. 

As they walked to their rooms, the group saw Peng Hua, Peng Huang, Liao Xue, and Liao Xuang. They offered some short greetings and were about to open the doors to their respective rooms until Wan Xinyue spoke again.

“What do you know about ascension and the higher realms?”

Peng Hua responded, “We only know that you need to fully strengthen your spirit veins another time once you reach level 100. After you fully strengthen them once more, a spatial tear will start forming that only the ascender can enter.”

Seeing the expressions that Xinyue, Sun Ning, Gao Wu, and Gao Long were making, Peng Huang laughed.

“Don’t think that ascending is easy, even Master Du has been stuck at the peak of stage 10.”

His remark instantly snapped them out of their daydreams and they decided to say some parting words.

“click, click, click, click”

As the doors closed, sad expressions could be seen on Master Du’s older disciples. They sighed and entered their rooms too. 

--------

“clunk”

A large metal pot of steaming curry was placed down onto a table. Fu Chen wiped away the imaginary sweat on his forehead and hummed a happy tune. Suddenly, Fu Chen looked at the elevator that led to the alcohol distillery.

‘I haven’t included a vegetable dish on the menu yet. Hm, let’s make some spicy fermented cabbage.’ 

Fu Chen washed his hands and walked towards a fridge. He opened it to reveal cabbage filling all of the fridge shelves. The cabbages were all oblong shaped with white stalks and crinkly, pale green leaves. Fu Chen waved his hand which made all of the cabbages float into several large metal bowls. The metal pots were located on a kitchen counter that had a large cutting board. He held a kitchen knife and started to cut each cabbage into 2 inch pieces that were each 2 millimeters thick. Fu Chen placed the pieces of cabbage back into the large metal bowls. He opened a cabinet that contained a large box of sea salt. The sea salt was sprinkled onto the cabbages. After sprinkling enough sea salt, Fu Chen started to gently massage the sea salt into the cabbage pieces. As he massaged the sea salt into the cabbage pieces, the vegetables started to soften. Once he finished the process, Fu Chen poured in enough water to cover the vegetables in each metal bowl. Lids were placed onto each bowl to keep the cabbages submerged. 

The bowls of cabbage were set to the side and Fu Chen began to make a spice paste. Large containers of ginger, garlic, sugar, red miso paste, and dark red chili flakes were placed onto the counter. Fu Chen peeled all of the garlic and sliced the ginger into small chunks. After he finished the time-consuming process, Fu Chen washed his hands and touched the kitchen counter.

“tap”

A large machine appeared within the kitchen. He opened the lid to reveal four curved blades that were located at the bottom of the metal container. Fu Chen poured the ingredients into the machine and covered it with the lid.

“zzzzzzzzhhhhhhhhhh”

The blades started spinning in a circular motion which created a vortex that moved the ingredients around within the blender. Water was added in from time to time to create a paste. 

“zzzhhh”

“fwoosh” 

Fu Chen removed the lid to reveal a red paste that gave off a slightly pungent garlic and peppery sharp ginger aroma. He took the metal container off of the base of the machine that housed the motor. 

“thunk”

The metal container was placed next to the bowls of cabbage. Fu Chen removed the lids of the bowls and began rinsing the pieces of cabbage. The brine (high-concentration solution of salt in water) was saved for later. He placed the rinsed cabbage pieces into metal colanders to let them drain for around 30 minutes. After the cabbages were done draining, Fu Chen placed them into clean bowls. The red spice paste was added into each bowl of cabbage. He washed his hands thoroughly and put on food safe gloves. 

“squelch” 

Fu Chen gently worked the paste into the pieces of brined cabbage. After he thoroughly coated each piece of cabbage with the red paste, Fu Chen took off his gloves, and washed his hands. Large mason jars that had fermentation lids were placed onto the kitchen counter. He unscrewed the lids and began packing the brined vegetables coated in a red spice paste into the jars. After Fu Chen finished evenly distributing the vegetables, he pressed the cabbage pieces down and poured the brine from earlier into each jar. Fu Chen left around an inch of space at the top of each mason jar. The lids were screwed back onto the mason jars that now held spicy brined cabbages. 

“ding”

Fu Chen stepped into the elevator car with large mason jars floating behind him. The elevator reached the bottom level after 10 seconds and revealed the alcohol distillery. However, there was now another door that led to a fermentation room. He opened the metal door and began placing the jars of fermented vegetables into the cool and dark room. 

“ding” 

Fu Chen exited the elevator and entered the pristine kitchen. He looked back at the elevator and thought, ‘perhaps I should make a training room for Lian’er.’