The morning sun was just beginning to rise, it’s light cascading through the gaps between straw huts. Dew still wet on the grass and flowers the scene was quite beautiful, just the kind of thing I wanted to wake up to. Last night I had successfully advanced to qi refining stage seven, entering the realm of late qi refining and just under nine months had passed since I joined the sect. Compared to the month it took to advance previously it now took a month and a half. I wasn’t pleased with my decreased cultivation speed but I knew I was still plenty faster than others.

“Morning Alexis”, I waved to a girl as I walked past her hut. She was from the same batch as me and was the second fastest cultivator, reaching stage six a week ago. Make no mistake this was still considered fast, I was that much of a monster with my high heaven root and extraordinary meridians. I always made sure to be extra nice to her as her older brother was my boss. That’s right I finally managed to land a job, after scouring the inner sect for restaurants and bars looking for chefs and coming up empty it was Alexis who recommended me to her families hotel after eating some of my freshly cooked French fries I made as gifts for my new neighbours. You see I had unintentionally gained a reputation as a loner solely focussed on cultivating and nothing else thanks to me locking myself in my room constantly. This was my attempt to fix it the rumour mill by interacting more with fellow sect members, sadly now there was now a whole new rumour that I had taken a fancy to Alexis, what a nightmare.

“Good morning boss, I’ll get the ovens started.” I walked through the back door of the hotel carrying an armful of logs. We were a hotel and bar catering towards rich merchant folk that often came to the sect looking to sell their goods and whilst many of the customers actually had quite low cultivations at only foundation building, they were all rich and eager to spend it on good food.

This morning it was time to begin preparing some fresh pasta. Good quality food comes from good quality ingredients and luckily the concept of mass pesticides and herbicides didn’t exist so everything that was bought was fresh, organic and local. The kind of ingredients that would cost a fortune at a farmers market were readily available here and as cultivators we could easily afford to buy mortal ingredients. The flour was white as snow and I piled it into a heap on the wooden countertop. Next I separated the yolks from the whites of a dozen eggs and placed them in a mixture of two thirds yolks to a third whites. This would create a rich tasteful pasta but keep some tenderness instead of becoming too firm. Scooping out a divot in the centre of the flour I poured in the eggs and began stirring with a fork, collecting more and more flour until it came together in a shaggy ball. Next came the kneading, what would have been hard work passed quite quickly due to my new found strength and when it got to the right consistency I left it to rest under a towel.

Soon guests started coming down and for those interested I began making breakfast. My latest reinvention of the BLT was a hit. Indeed I was in charge of all the strange new meals added to the menu whilst the other regular cooks took charge of the traditional meals like steamed buns and noodles. Convincing people to try cured pork belly slices wasn’t hard and bacon became a staple of the restaurant, it was just cured using salt, sugar and spices instead of soy sauce like they were used to. I cut off thin rashers and placed them on a hot frying pan whilst toasting the buns in a warm oven.

Only a couple minutes later alongside some freshly sliced tomato and a leaf of lettuce I assembled the bap and passed it to a waiter to be served. The special thing about the meal was that the bacon was actually made from a low ranked demon boar, this bonus was where I made my money. My hand signs locked the qi and blood essence into the meat so that barely any was lost over the curing and cooking process. This resulted in good food that increased your qi and was great for your physique, the essence from demonic beasts being good for increasing strength.

Those who indulged on demon meet for cultivation purposes would usually have to bear with the wild gamey taste and tough chewy texture, my cooking skilfully fixed these points and resulted in a breakfast many happily pain for in gold coins.

Altogether I made about twenty gold a day for my work at the hotel, no wonder my cultivation speed maintained so fast when I could afford to take an extra qi nourishing pill every day and still have some change left over. Saving up those five extra gold each day the past months meant I now had a little over a thousand gold, converted to contribution points altogether I had sixty eight, just a little shy of the needed seventy five to re-enter the second layer of the alchemical book pavilion. But in my hands I had the recipe to make up the difference or more specifically the recipe to a bunch of meals. My big plan was to sell my recipes for some extra gold.

Yesterday a big merchant had eaten with us and asked the owner if she could buy the recipes so I planned on meeting her over lunch to discuss a deal we could come to. First impressions mean a big deal so I made sure my disciple uniform was fresh and clean and my hair was looking lovely. My skin had no need for a moisturiser or anything, thanks to my cultivation it was looking spotless and clear without any blemishes. Finally I wore a nice perfume I bought for a couple silver, smelling of fruits and flowers. It was my suggestion that we meet over lunch so I had the opportunity to cook for her once more and show off my skills.

Today I was making a simple spaghetti carbonara, using the demonic beast bacon, fresh cream and wild mushrooms and a hard cheese that was as close of an approximation to parmesan as I could find. Finishing the dish by combining the sauce, some pasta water and a glob of butter, I emulsified the mixture and carried the two servings towards a private booth.

Inside was a tall middle aged woman, ever so slight creases filling the corner of her eyes but she held a sharp glint when she inspected both me and the meal.

“Hello young man, come, come, sit. What have you got for me today?”

“Good afternoon Madam Partridge, this is a dish called spaghetti carbonara, please enjoy.”

We both sat in comfortable silence enjoying the meal, her especially, unused to the novel new flavours.

“And you are okay selling this recipe to me then?”

“This and more, I’m looking to gather enough contribution points to enter the pavilion again.”

“You sure are eager, I’m glad. I’ve gotten too used to talking circles around the point with a bunch of old geezers.” I smiled wryly at that.

“I’ll tell you what, for every recipe like this, I’ll give you two hundred and fifty gold.”

I was shocked at such a large number and inhaled sharply. I had written up ten recipes last night, if I could truly sell them all I would more than triple my money by the end of the day.

“Ha ha, there’s no need to be so surprised. You may not know, but I run a chain of high end restaurants so I don’t mind paying handsomely. So how many recipes do you have?”  Her laugh was genuine and cheery, I really didn’t mind doing business with someone who seemed so upfront and forward, far better than the rumours of unscrupulous merchants I had heard of.

“Last night I wrote up a total of ten.”

“Good good, and they’re all of the same quality as this dish?”

“Indeed.”

“Excellent, I’ll give that to you as two low quality spirit stones and five hundred gold in coins.” Spirit stones were the next level of currency from gold and was useful for trading with cultivators as they could use them to draw large amounts of qi stored inside for use in cultivating.

“Pleasure doing business with you.”

I went home heart lighter and pocket significantly heavier, enough to afford three more manuals.