Master of Kaidan
Chapter 51 Salt is very important!

Chapter 51: Chapter 51 Salt is very important!

Nightfall descended once again, and Feng Xue slowly cooked the slices of meat with her inner strength, which thankfully was of the Mixed Elements Attribute. If it had been of the Profound Yin Attribute instead, Chen Xiyao would have had to eat fresh-frozen meat at every meal.

"Have you remembered everything I tasked you with?" Suddenly, Feng Xue spoke out of the blue, which made the already rather silent Chen Xiyao even more somber.

Even though she now possessed inner strength and had that cardboard box that could hide her presence, at this moment, she couldn’t help but betray a hint of fear.

"Don’t be nervous, eat something first, we don’t know when it’ll all start." Seeing Chen Xiyao’s condition, Feng Xue could understand her, but the longer time dragged on, the more likely Chen Xiyao’s exposure would become. The Cross Sword Union had already dispatched precious Appraisers, and no one knew when Chen Xiyao might encounter one.

Moreover, since Chen Xiyao had not been exposed over such a long time, even if the members of the Cross Sword Union were foolish, they must realize by now that she left the city every day. Although the Cross Sword Union members were not enough to cover the entire city walls in their patrol, Feng Xue believed that it wouldn’t take much longer before the local managers would simply start mobilizing the ordinary "Infinite" to monitor each other.

For those living with the daily fear of disappearance, a few bricks would be enough to buy their utmost effort. Compared to the fear of vanishing, betraying one or two unfamiliar people was hardly anything.

Chen Xiyao didn’t know what Feng Xue was thinking, but she could feel Feng Xue’s restlessness and the growing scent of blood on her each day, which made Chen Xiyao unconsciously link them together.

Silently, Chen Xiyao picked up the plate, shoveling the meat slices into her mouth, and in that instant, her eyes lit up.

"Delicious!" It was no longer the illusion of taste from hunger but the genuinely delightful taste because Chen Xiyao, after a long while, had tasted salt again. Even just ordinary salted roast meat, but for Chen Xiyao, who had been eating raw or barely cooked meat without any seasoning for days, this was an ultimate delight.

As Chen Xiyao sincerely praised the food, a surge of emotion welled up inside her, Feng Xue suddenly felt the "Identity" within her start to move uncontrollably.

What confused him, however, was that unlike the previous tags given by Infinite City such as "Corpse Collector," "Gatekeeper," or even the "Assassin" tag gained from donning the Assassin’s suit, this time it didn’t coalesce into a complete tag.

He could clearly feel that the "Identity" within him gathered into elements like "Seasoning," "Cooking," "Manufacturing," and these elements, as if already mastered by him, directly provided corresponding enhancements.

The elements increased slowly, then condensed quietly, and finally formed a tag with a potent presence—

"Chef."

"Goodness, if I had known, I would’ve shown off more combat-oriented abilities in front of you..." Feng Xue tasted the enhancement brought by the Chef tag with a slight sense of regret. Although each element was unlocked directly, the enhancement was pitifully weak, and even together, they were not as strong as a single "Transport."

"Is this the difference between the cognitions of people from reality and Infinite City?" Feng Xue immediately formulated this thought in her mind. The tags from Infinite City were just annotations, requiring a slow learning process for unlocking, whereas real-world people had direct cognition, but an individual’s cognition strength clearly couldn’t compare to that of Infinite City.

Feng Xue could not be certain her guess was correct, but at least according to the current known situation, it seemed to be right.

"By the way, where did you get the salt?" Seeing Feng Xue fall silent, Chen Xiyao panicked slightly, scrambling to find a new topic. Feng Xue raised an eyebrow and sighed helplessly, and a bag of "salt" appeared in her hand—

"Here, this thing, the weird stuff I made before."

Name: Phantom Object·A Bag of Salt

Elements: [Sarcasm], [Item], [Tool], [Food], [Infinite]

Introduction: Whenever you feel like dishing out sarcasm, a bag of salt will automatically appear in your hand. Slam it to the ground to enhance the intensity of your sarcasm.

Notes: I feed myself bags of salt.

...

Feng Xue had no words for this bag of salt, because it had duped him out of a [Perpetual Motion Machine] element. He was initially excited when he saw the element change into an [Infinite] element, but when he added the tool element, it mysteriously gained additional elements of [Sarcasm] and [Food], turning it into something so absurd that he didn’t know how to begin criticizing it.

Apart from instantly teleporting into his hand and always being restored to its full state after each appearance, there were no remarkable features to speak of. And even if Feng Xue burned both the salt bag and its contents, as soon as he felt like making a sarcastic remark, it would reappear in his hand. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was [Indestructible], one could offset it with elements like [All Things Decomposition], but this thing was truly imperishable with its [Infinite Regeneration]. No matter how you destroyed it, it maintained its phantom state, leaving Feng Xue no way to smash it and melt it down.

However, considering that this thing had given him a legitimate tag, Feng Xue decided to keep his cool about it.

Well, as a chef, carrying around an endless supply of salt is quite sensible, right?

Maybe if he ever draws a sarcasm energy collector, it might come in handy?

Seeing the complex expression on Feng Xue’s face, Chen Xiyao’s lips curled up slightly. She was getting used to this man creating various bizarre items. After all, a bag of salt was surely better than that weird stuff, right?

Thinking of the "Fujitsue’s fake artifact" that Feng Xue had destroyed, Chen Xiyao felt her cheeks growing hot.

However, at that moment, the work card in Feng Xue’s pocket began to vibrate violently.

"A corpse has appeared at the City West resource distribution site, please proceed there immediately."

"Got it!" Seeing the prompt on his work card, Feng Xue’s face revealed a sense of relief, as if "the other shoe had finally dropped" (Note 1).

Hearing his words, Chen Xiyao’s previously relaxed mood, due to the food, tightened again. She hesitated, wanting to say something but felt that anything she said now might jinx it.

"Alright, is everything I mentioned before ready? Don’t tell me you don’t have it now!"

Hearing Feng Xue’s words, the girl’s delicate emotions were immediately replaced by embarrassment. However, after a brief hesitation, she somewhat reluctantly pulled out a pale yellow liquid with some bubbles floating in it from under her skirt.

Without concern for the girl’s nearly tomato-red cheeks, Feng Xue expressionlessly took the bottle, looking at the refined water kettle. He thought for a moment and said,

"I might not have a chance to return it to you..."

"It can’t be used again once it’s filled with that stuff anyway!" Chen Xiyao stomped her foot forcefully, wearing a look of dissatisfaction. Seeing that she was no longer tense, Feng Xue also breathed a sigh of relief. He forcefully stuffed the fist-thick water kettle into his storage bag and turned to Chen Xiyao, saying,

"You’d better warm up first; I’ll be back in half an hour, and then there won’t be time to get you ready."