Chapter 5: The Golden Sword and the Silver Fork, the Altar of the God of Food
In my 16 years of living, I’ve never heard of anyone with such a singular ability, one more powerful than the legendary Great Appraisal Technique…
Before entering the cave, Bai Wushang had tested it several times quietly. As long as his gaze was directed at any zombie within the range of 10 meters, a detailed attribute panel would be reflected in his pupils.
What was even more bizarre was that a mysterious pattern of a golden sword and silver fork appeared out of nowhere on the back of his right hand.
Bai Wushang had tested it with Mu Xiaoxiao, and found that she couldn’t see the pattern at all. It seemed that only he could see it.
What exactly is this?
Bai Wushang gazed at the golden sword and silver fork on the back of his hand, a pondering look in his eyes.
Looking on, he suddenly heard an illusory voice in his ears…
“Would you like to open the altar of the Gourmand?”
Bai Wushang was startled and looked around. Everything was normal, and nothing was out of place.
“Would you like to open the altar of the Gourmand?”
The voice resounded again, and Bai Wushang carefully identified the source, finding that it seemed to be a sound transmitted from the golden sword and silver fork.
“Altar of the Gourmand… Gourmand…” Bai Wushang murmured the inexplicably familiar words twice, and came to a sudden realization. It seems that Qin Long was fixing an exploit in a game called Gourmand right before he died…
It can’t be… Could it be just like Qin Long’s memory, every Blue Star transmigrator has their own cheat, but it originally belonged to Qin Long, and now I’ve intercepted it?
Bai Wushang’s heart thumped with joy and surprise.
Trying to take two deep breaths to calm down, Bai Wushang kept telling himself to be calm and collected when things went wrong, and never act blindly.
He raised his head and observed, confirming that Mu Xiaoxiao had fallen into a deep sleep, and would not wake up anytime soon.
Afterward, Bai Wushang crept to the cave entrance, and glanced at the outside world for a while. A few hungry zombies would occasionally pass by, but none of them noticed the small hidden cave.
After confirming that it was safe, Bai Wushang’s gaze refocused on the golden sword and silver fork pattern.
“Would you like to open the altar of the Gourmand?”
“Yes…” Bai Wushang murmured in his mind.
Endless darkness wrapped itself around him like a tidal wave, and suddenly he could see nothing.
A bright light came before his eyes in the next second, and Bai Wushang found himself in an abandoned palace. The ground was messy, with broken stone pillars all over the place, and the walls around him were full of cracks, an ancient and unknown past they had.
This abandoned palace covered an area of about 300 square meters, appearing like a circle. The outermost ring surrounded 13 pure black statues, some humanoid, some full of limbs like insects, and some even shaped like gigantic dragons. In short, all in strange forms.
After scanning around, Bai Wushang looked towards the very center of the palace.
There stood a large bronze square cauldron, rusty and full of the patina of age.
Just as Bai Wushang was about to get closer to the bronze square cauldron for a closer look, he suddenly noticed something different about himself.
Why is my body so light…
Looking down, he saw that his own body was translucent.
Kneading his arms and thighs still possessed a substantial touch, but he lost the sense of pain.
It’s most likely not my true body, but my consciousness or a spiritual body of sorts that has entered this space. How do I get out?
Just as such a thought popped up in his mind, Bai Wushang opened his eyes in the real world as blackness and brightness appeared before his eyes.
Looking at the surroundings, he saw no change around him, indicating that the flow of time was about the same as outside.
Confirming this, he entered the Gourmand’s altar once more, and arrived at the very center of the abandoned palace.
Taking a closer look at the bronze square cauldron, Bai Wushang found that the height of the cauldron was equal to his height. It had two ears, four feet, and a rustic and solemn form.
On the outside of that greenish-gray cauldron, small engravings of a colossal three-legged golden crow that covered the sky, an earthly python that coiled itself around an entire divine mountain, and an ancient giant with 50 heads and 100 arms could be seen. There were thousands of engravings, all of which depicted, without exception, creatures from myth and legend.
What kind of cauldron is this? It looks so old and mysterious…
After circling and finding nothing more, Bai Wushang tried to stand on tiptoe and look inside the cauldron.
The inside of the pot was pitch-black, distorting all the light, and Bai Wuyou looked left and right, but couldn’t see anything.
After staring for a long time, a palpitating sensation even appeared, as if the dark and deep cauldron had a bottomless abyss inside, and a bloody mouth would appear in the next second to devour him, scaring Bai Wuyou into hastily withdrawing his gaze.
Obviously, this bronze square cauldron placed in the very center of the Gourmand’s altar must be the most important item. What is its use, and how do I activate it? Or how do I use it?
After hesitating for a while and unable to find a train of thought, Bai Wushang tried to touch the body of the cauldron with his finger.
Completely different from the cold metallic texture that one would expect, the cauldron’s body was scorching and scalding as if flames had just scorched it.
Seemingly some change was triggered as the bronze square cauldron began to rumble and trembled, the movement growing louder and louder as the entire palace began to shake.
Shocked, Bai Wushang tried to loosen his fingers.
Surprisingly, a tremendous suction force came from the body of the cauldron. Even Bai Wushang’s entire right palm was firmly attached to the bronze square cauldron, and no matter how much he struggled, he could not break away.
[Troubleshooting… Original holder Qin Long died… trigger rebind…]
[Target certification… Bai Wushang… Judgment result… the only host of this altar…]
[The altar of the Gourmand is activating… 30%… 60%… 100%… Activation complete!]
Line after line of small print drifted across the bottom of his eyes, and Bai Wushang froze, his brain lagging a little.
Is this a… system? Or something else?
Bai Wushang, who had had the experience of Qin Long’s life, quickly snapped out of his surprise.
The suction under his palm had disappeared, and as Bai Wushang drew back his right hand, he saw a rainbow-colored flame that sprang out from the depths of the black square cauldron, lighting up the entire abandoned palace with a dream-like splendor as the streams of light shot out.
[Determined that the current host is activating the altar for the first time, trigger additional reward: “Gift of the Gourmand,” and receive a First Tier Gourmand Treasure Chest x1]
A treasure chest the size of a book bag, shining with a clean white porcelain luster, materialized out of thin air from the rainbow-colored flames, and hovered in the air.
Gourmand’s Treasure Chest? Is this meant to be a raffle?
Doubt had just bubbled up when the small print in Bai Wushang’s eyes immediately shifted.
[Hint: Gourmand’s Treasure Chest, with Gourmand’s special item inside, can assist the host’s growth.]
[The Gourmand’s Treasure Chest is divided into 10 levels, starting from one and ending with 10. The higher the level, the rarer the goods.]
[First Tier Gourmand’s Treasure Chest’s item odds—98.9% for transcendent recipes, 1% for Gourmand props, 0.1% for Gourmand Secret Techniques.]
Amazing. This thing seems to have insight into my thoughts and answer my questions directly…
Thinking of this, Bai Wushang tried to call out in his mind.
“Hello, what should I call you? System? Gourmand? Or what?”