Refining the Heavens 5 (炼天五)

Chapter 9: Another Traveler

In the next few days, two carriages travelled together northwestwardly towards the Dwarven Kingdoms.

Kairos had long heard of their mighty forges and as a blacksmith he is very much interested in their techniques. Despite there are no dwarves in Gaia, the tales of these sturdy and short people are famous, passed down as fairy tales.

Throughout this time, Relestia did not remove the scarf covering her nose and lips, but Leo and Linda could still tell that she is a beautiful young lady. Of course, as new companions, Leo did not ask about it and he told Linda to do the same. The little girl, having suffered what most children her age would not go through, had much stronger willpower and more matured than her age suggests.

Instead, the father and daughter duo have other things to focus about because along the way, Kairos started teaching Leo cooking techniques.

.....

Back on Gaia, after Kairos had been kidnapped, things had been busy as well.

In the days after conquering the Ku Kang Plateau, bad news started piling up. Calculus Devilheart had made his way over to take command of the once-undefeated stronghold and he threatened to declare the Snowdrifts a renegade organization if they refused. The Frosthral clans had gathered by the Great Khan's command to retake the plateau and once he fully absorbed the fifteen Paramount Unit clone he will be unstoppable.

Because of these, the Snowdrifts army led by his four brothers started heading deeper north towards Tommy's birthplace, Avalon.

.....

They travelled a week on the road without meeting any dangers. Along the way, Leo followed Kairos to hunt for wild game and search for the different ingredients in the forest. As a Class 5 Aura Knight, hunting is still within Leo's means. Kairos privately applauded the man willpower. As a person with enough mental fortitude to bear starving for his daughter's sake, how can his Aura be weak?

As Kairos taught, Leo show was more than willing to put in every ounce of effort to learn how to cook for his daughter and his spirit was infectious to Kairos.

In the forest Kairos taught him the art of procuring ingredients. There are various aspects that need to be met to be able to harvest them at their finest grade.

First and foremost is the freshness. When acquiring an ingredient, how to keep it fresh is the priority.

To do so there are so many options that Leo Stout felt that he is back at the Knight School.

The main objective is to keep the ingredient in the same condition that it is found. Often this means to bring back live game and special containers need to be made for that. For plant ingredients, they have to carefully remove it from the soil without harming the roots. The fungus types are the hardest, considering that those plants often grow on bark.

If keeping the ingredient whole is impossible, for example when there are no suitable containers around, then they must use another method to keep it fresh.

Cured, dried, salted, pickled, frozen, vacuum sealed, and fermented. Of course, if Kairos can use runes, he can also use anti-entropy, sl0w-time, stop-time, and spirit gathering stratagems that can prevent even expensive ingredients from deteriorating and losing their Heavenly Energies.

After freshness, the method of harvest is of the second most import.

The condition of meat varies by many factors of the animal, but there are three main ones: age, health, and mental condition.

The age and health of an animal effecting the meat is easily understood, like veal and beef taste different, and if the animal is sick it will also greatly depreciate the tenderness. Maintaining the best mental condition is trickier. To acquire meat without hurting the animal is a primary requirement as a creature in distress will cause its meat to taste acidic and its muscles will tense.