Chapter: New Venture
In the morning, the cavalrymen from the Northern Fortress came to buy buns as usual.
"Boss Cheng Yu, are the buns for today ready?"
The cavalryman with a white bandage wrapped around his head asked Cheng Yu in the courtyard.
Though many people had been injured in yesterday's demon invasion, it still couldn't stop their enthusiasm for buns.
"Yesterday, the demons came to me to donate their heads, so I didn't have time to prepare buns for you," Cheng Yu said.
"That's a shame."
The wounded cavalrymen looked disappointed. They'd been looking forward to eating Cheng Yu's buns after the hard battle, but since he hadn't made any, they wouldn't get to enjoy them today.
"However, there are some demon corpses over there."
Cheng Yu pointed toward the farmland.
At the edge of the farmland, the land was a mess. The bodies of demon soldiers lay on the ground one after another—all headless. Over a hundred corpses total.
"This... so many demon corpses?"
"Boss Cheng Yu, did you kill them all?"
"Why are they all headless?"
The cavalrymen were shocked when they saw the demon corpses in the farmland.
"No, the three of us killed them."
Cheng Yu calmly drank tea and pointed at Mina and Ivennie beside him.
He didn't want to be too ostentatious about his powerful strength. Better to stay low-key.
The cavalrymen looked at Mina and Ivennie and were instantly reassured. Elves had higher magic talent than humans, and beastfolk had strong bodies.
If both of their professional levels were above second-tier, they could cooperate well and kill this many demon soldiers.
"Those demon soldiers' corpses are useless to me. You can take them back to claim credit."
The demon soldiers' corpses could be exchanged for military merit rewards, but only for soldiers at the Northern Fortress.
Cheng Yu wasn't a soldier, so he couldn't exchange them for rewards. Better to do a favor and give them to these cavalrymen.
Over a dozen cavalrymen jumped up and down excitedly. Some did backflips on the spot, some sang songs, and some even hugged their warhorses and kissed them...
"Boss Cheng Yu not only makes delicious buns but is also generous!"
"I love Boss Cheng Yu! I'd like to call Boss Cheng Yu the God of Food!"
"I don't believe in the Goddess of Light anymore. I want to believe in the God of Food!"
"I want to believe in the God of Food too!"
There used to be more than one god on the Celsis Continent. Each god had their believers and sects.
The Black Sun Empire believed in the Goddess of Light and worshipped light. All major cities had branches of the Church of Light that believed in the Goddess of Light.
Hearing those soldiers shouting about believing in the God of Food, Cheng Yu broke out in a cold sweat. He wondered if the Goddess of Light would beat him to death if she noticed someone trying to steal her believers.
However, in this godless era, no one knew whether the Goddess of Light was dead or alive. No one had ever seen the Goddess of Light, so she probably wouldn't beat him to death.
The cavalry went to Bailu Town to find a carriage and dragged the demon soldiers' bodies back to the Northern Fortress to claim credit.
Mina stood by the cellar, looking at the massive Black Shadow Crow bodies in front of her. "Cheng Yu, how can we eat so many big birds?"
There were over twenty Black Shadow Crows—each nearly ten meters long with a wingspan of over twenty meters. The ice cellar was completely full, and there were still several outside.
It would take the three of them several months to eat them all.
Hearing what Mina said, Cheng Yu also felt some should be consumed. The ice cellar was filled with Black Shadow Crow bodies—there was no room to store other ingredients.
But how could these Black Shadow Crows be consumed quickly?
People in the Black Sun Empire didn't have the habit of eating bird meat. If he took it to the market to sell, no one would buy it.
Such delicious ingredients couldn't just be used to feed dogs, right?
"Mina, let's go to the Northern Fortress to sell barbecue?"
He'd cut off the Black Shadow Crow meat, make it into skewers, then take barbecue to the Northern Fortress.
It could not only make money but also quickly earn positive emotions and consume excess bird meat.
"You're the master. You can do whatever you say."
"Everything is up to Master Cheng Yu."
Mina and Ivennie were already Cheng Yu's people. They both listened to him.
"It's settled. We'll go to the Northern Fortress to sell barbecue in a few days."
Before, the Northern Fortress cavalry had come to him to buy buns. This time he'd take the initiative.
"Help me dig some black earthworms in the farmland—the more the better."
"What do you need black earthworms for?" Mina wondered.
"Make something to eat."
Cheng Yu was going to make a dark dish—pickled earthworms—to see if this thing was as magical as described in the recipe.
The first step was to salt and ferment raw black earthworms for half a month.
"Ivennie, let's go to the field to dig earthworms."
"Okay, Sister Mina."
The two returned to the house.
After a while, Mina came out carrying a hoe, and Ivennie followed behind her holding a pottery pot. They went to the field to dig earthworms.
To sell barbecue, he first needed a barbecue grill.
In the afternoon, Cheng Yu went to the blacksmith shop in Bailu Town.
Clang~ Clang~ Clang~
The sound of heavy hammering rang out. A burly middle-aged man was bare-chested, swinging a hammer in front of the furnace, drenched in sweat.
Cheng Yu called out to the blacksmith. "Boss, I'd like to order a piece of ironwork."
He stopped, wiped the sweat from his face, and set down the hammer. "Huh? Isn't this Boss Cheng Yu? How come you have time to patronize my shop?"
Cheng Yu had run an egg fried rice restaurant in Bailu Town for half a year before. The blacksmith shop owner had eaten fried rice at Cheng Yu's restaurant several times, so he knew him.
"I want you to help me make an iron rack."
"Alright. What kind of iron rack?"
"Do you have paper and pen? I'll draw a sketch for you."
The blacksmith found paper and pen.
Cheng Yu drew a simple sketch of a barbecue grill on paper—a rectangular iron trough over a meter long, a row of iron grates on the trough, and four brackets welded to the four corners.
"This thing isn't difficult to make, but since it's never been made before, the price might be more expensive."
Customizing a barbecue grill was like processing mechanical parts. Non-standard parts were often much more expensive than standard parts.
"How much? Just name your price."
Cheng Yu now had money. Like a nouveau riche, he spoke more confidently than before.
"We're all acquaintances. Fifty silver coins."
"I'll give you eighty silver coins. Make it better and faster."
Cheng Yu didn't care about the money. He just wanted the blacksmith to make the barbecue grill well for him.
The first time encountering a customer who bargained up, the blacksmith was overjoyed. "No problem! Absolutely no problem! I'll make it for you within three days!"
Cheng Yu pulled out forty silver coins and gave them to the blacksmith as a deposit. After the barbecue grill was made, he'd pay the remaining forty silver coins.
After leaving the blacksmith shop, Cheng Yu went to the grocery wholesaler to buy lots of bamboo skewers for barbecue.
The Celsis Continent also had the custom of using bamboo skewers for barbecue, but the barbecue on the Celsis Continent generally wasn't very tasty.
Back at the manor, Mina and Ivennie were still digging black earthworms in the farmland.
Mina was powerful and wielded the hoe to dig up soil layers, while Ivennie held a small shovel to search for earthworms in the dug soil. The two cooperated well.
A 10m×10m plastic sheet was spread on the ground.
Cheng Yu pulled out the Dragon-Pattern Golden Knife.
Max-level cooking skills didn't just give Cheng Yu perfect cooking ability, perfect sense of smell, perfect taste, perfect heat control... but also top-tier knife skills that could cut tofu into hair-thin strands.
The kitchen knife moved as flexibly as a swimming fish, gliding between the Black Shadow Crow's skin and flesh, separating the skin from the meat beneath.
Afterward, he removed the Black Shadow Crow's flesh from the skeleton and placed it on the plastic sheet nearby.
In less than half an hour, Cheng Yu had reduced a ten-meter-long Black Shadow Crow to a skeleton.
He also removed the meat from nine more Black Shadow Crows.
A small mountain of meat five or six meters high was piled on the 10m×10m plastic sheet.
These birds looked quite large, but there wasn't much meat once you removed the internal organs, skin, feathers, and skeleton.
In addition to getting lots of bird meat, Cheng Yu also obtained three magic crystals from the nine Black Shadow Crows.
Black Shadow Crows were low-level monsters. Not every Black Shadow Crow had a magic crystal in its body.
Including the one he'd gotten before, Cheng Yu now had four Black Shadow Crow magic crystals.
He pulled out the bamboo skewers he'd bought in town and began threading the bird meat onto them.
It was very troublesome to skewer so much bird meat with just Cheng Yu, Mina, and Ivennie.
At times like this, money was useful.
Cheng Yu went to Bailu Town and hired dozens of residents to help him skewer the barbecue.