Chapter 169: Chapter 31: The Commonalities Between Cooking and Doing Problems
 

A month later.

In his residence, Luo Yan was burying his head in his desk, writing feverishly.

By his side, half of the room was piled with test data from that period, along with more possible guesses and verification plans.

The more he wrote, the more pained his expression became, until his eyes were red with urgency, like a contractor who’d revised their plan hundreds of times without approval, almost wishing to flip the entire table over in frustration.

Why were these formation formulas wrong no matter how he modified them? Luo Yan was so vexed that he almost wanted to rip his scalp off.

“I told you earlier, that step before shouldn’t be calculated like that,” the Kunlun Mirror droned beside him.

“Ah Jing, it’s useless. Even with another formula it’s still wrong, the initial assumption is incorrect,” the Green Duckweed Sword began to argue with the Kunlun Mirror.

At first, Luo Yan still had the patience to tell the two voices in his mind to shut up, but now he was left with only indifference and disregard.

In another part of the room, near the door, Shi Liuli had turned the space into a kitchen.

As Luo Yan became increasingly engrossed in solving problems, Miss Shi, who loved fine food, had no choice but to become self-reliant, and started to learn cooking seriously.

Although previously she wouldn’t dip her fingers in spring water, after cooking for a while, the dishes she made became edible at least.

Seeing Luo Yan’s complexion getting visibly worse day by day, Miss Shi, worried, decided to make some delicious food to take care of him—of course, satisfying her own culinary desires was secondary; the main reason was to reward her hardworking junior brother.

She chopped ginseng and Solomon’s seal into chunks, diced the Hundred-Knot Grass, and, after blanching the beef chunks, put them all in the pot, adding bay leaves and Sichuan pepper… Shi Liuli covered the pot, admiring her work and clapped her hands in satisfaction.

In the side hall of the Gui Xu Palace, aside from a large number of books related to formations, there were also many other miscellaneous books. For example, this miraculous cookbook that used various Spirit Grasses from the Immortal Sects to cook was like a treasure trove for Shi Liuli.

Turning the ginseng and Solomon’s seal into soup and stewing the beef until tender would take at least an hour and a half, so Shi Liuli carefully adjusted the Fire Control Magical Treasure before turning to find Luo Yan to play with.

“Junior brother!” She sat down next to Luo Yan, grabbed his arm, and asked, “Guess what I made today?”

“Food,” Luo Yan replied without even lifting his head.

“What kind of dish?” Shi Liuli teased playfully.

Luo Yan ignored her and resumed writing quickly after a brief pause of his pen tip.

He suddenly had a brilliant idea about the Gui Xu Grand Formation model that needed immediate verification.

Seeing her junior brother ignoring her again, Shi Liuli was somewhat annoyed but still barely managed to hold back.

Fine, he’s now focused on studying the Gui Xu Grand Formation, I won’t hold it against him.

You won’t get a single bite of the stewed beef later!

Shi Liuli returned to the kitchen and continued fiddling with her new dish.

She added vegetable oil and butter to the pot; melting them together, she poured in flour to mix well, increasing viscosity.

Then, she added the soul of this dish—the sauce made from hundred-year-old vermillion fruit, which had to be at least a century old; otherwise, the taste would be too sour.

Next, she stirred continuously with a spoon over low heat until all the water in the pot dried up, then added water in batches and kept stirring, letting it slowly melt and turn into a pot of fragrant, spirit-energized nourishing sauce.

Shi Liuli rolled up her sleeves, and after stirring vigorously with a ladle until her arm felt sore, she abandoned the ladle altogether, cleaned her Flying Sword, then with her left hand forming a Sword technique, made the Flying Sword stir in the pot by itself.

The sauce finally turned a bright orange hue, and Shi Liuli stood her sword upright, summoned the battered Flying Sword with a gesture, making it fly out of the pot to shake off the sauce, and then land in a tub of water beside her.

“Add salt to the sauce,” she followed the recipe, continuing her work, “add wine, then add scallop powder for flavor. Mmm, a small amount of maltose.”

“Next, scoop out the previously stewed beef, Solomon’s seal, and ginseng; pour them into a pot.”

“Mix in mushrooms, pitless dates to mix well, then pour in the sauce.”

“Continue slow stewing.”

This time Shi Liuli decided not to cover the pot, wanting the aroma of the stewed beef to fill the entire room, waiting for her salivating junior brother to come and beg for food.

The rich aroma of the beef and the unique fragrance of the various Spiritual Medicines started to waft out of the pot.

She cooked the cleaned rice, then, with a triumphant look, she folded her arms and waited for Luo Yan for a long time, but he didn’t even lift his head, still there working on his formulas.

The formation formulas were still incorrect, the so-called brilliant inspiration from earlier had now been proven to be an illusion… Frustration had Luo Yan feeling like he wanted to lash out indiscriminately.

No matter what, a random act of violence would settle it.

Shi Liuli watched his silhouette, her expression shifting from triumphant to hesitant, then to confused, and finally to that of utter frustration.

Could it be, he wouldn’t even glance up once?

Could it be that my stewed beef isn’t fragrant? I think it smells quite nice though…

Hisss!

Swallowing a large gulp of saliva, Miss Shi decided to confirm if there was a problem with her food.

She first sipped a little of the broth; mmm, deliciously savory and replenishing with spiritual energy, definitely a dish worth trying for those in the midst of cultivating immortality.

Then she took a piece of the stewed beef; mmm, tender and flaky, soaked with broth, combining both the essence of meat and spiritual medicine, creating a clearly distinguished layer of flavors.

So why isn’t the junior brother interested at all?

Shi Liuli pondered as she tasted, and unwittingly ate most of the pot of stewed beef.

By the time she came back to her senses, only a shallow layer of broth and three or four pieces of beef remained.

She jolted, instinctively glancing at Luo Yan with a sense of guilt.

Confirming that the junior brother was still immersed in his problem-solving and hadn’t noticed anything here, Miss Shi quickly scooped up the remaining broth and beef into a small bowl, then hurried to clean the large pot to destroy the evidence.

Just as she finished cleaning, she heard Luo Yan suddenly slam down his pen.

Damn it, I just can’t solve it, I’m done with it!

Having barely suppressed his sense of defeat, Luo Yan slowly came back to his senses.

This problem must be unsolvable.

My “Eureka” trait should theoretically grant me the best comprehension in the world.

If even I can’t solve this problem, it definitely must be unsolvable—that’s the only way to explain it.

I should eat something instead. Sigh, such a waste of time…

Luo Yan stood up to get some rice, tried the soup and beef left by Miss Shi, and immediately started singing praises:

“Sister, this beef is simply divine! The broth paired with rice is also amazing, the overall assessment is like refining spiritual medicine into a spirit pill, nearly a qualitative leap…”

“I’m glad you like it,” Shi Liuli said with a guilty conscience.

Luo Yan, unaware of her thoughts—or perhaps he had guessed but pretended not to—continued to boost the Synchronization Value, smiling as he said:

“I see, so you cooked the beef with spirit grass, right? Ordinary ingredients, after being infused with the medicinal juice, have turned into such a delicacy…”

As he spoke, his expression suddenly turned grave.

Wait, boiling spiritual medicine into a juice, then infusing the beef with it?

The so-called Gui Xu Grand Formation, could it also be… a kind of “juice”?

Seeing his expression darken abruptly, Shi Liuli hurriedly tried to explain:

“The reason there’s only a little bit left is because I was so hungry just now, and you didn’t seem like you were going to come to eat for a while…”

Luo Yan suddenly stood up, held Shi Liuli tightly in his arms, kissed her on the cheek, and then rushed out of the room.

Shi Liuli stood in a daze for a moment, then covered her cheek tightly with her hands.

Her body was heating up.