Clear Soup, Vegetarian Soup, Medicinal Soup,
Vegetarian Soup
Vegetarian soup is made entirely from plant-based ingredients, with flavor enhanced by soy oil, sesame oil, peanut oil, olive oil, and others. Big Wind Novels
Ingredients are selected from bean sprouts, green asparagus, bamboo rice, shiitake mushrooms, fresh mushrooms, hazel mushrooms, corn kernels, tomatoes, tender scallions… and are blended according to strict proportions and sequence.
It focuses on replenishing trace elements, minerals, and fiber, regulating the body and mind, and balancing the diet.
Though its taste is light, its fragrance is lingering!
It purifies the turbid!
Medicinal Soup has no primary component.
Utmost caution is advised with gold, iron, silver, and aluminum!
It is brewed with water, extracting rare essences from ingredients and medicinal herbs to nourish the body.
Commonly uses ginseng, grains, winter buds, lotus seeds, dendrobium, and licorice as ingredients, all of which must be strictly selected.
It embodies the essence of clarity within impurity!
Clear Soup is the pinnacle of high stock! The most difficult to achieve!
It requires flavor while being completely free of any greasy or meaty residue. The meat ingredients must be from aged hens and prime cuts of pork. Each batch requires layered filtering.
It is the essence of state banquets!
The apex of Chinese cuisine!
It represents purity within purity!
These are the Three Purities!
By harmonizing these three soups, one achieves the ultimate purity!
Though bland, it is immensely beneficial for the body! Regular consumption prolongs life!
…………………………
…………
In the Treasure Hall, Zhang Wei continuously adjusted and finally merged the nine soup varieties into three!
Turbidity upon turbidity!
Impurity upon impurity!
Purity upon purity! Each with its own distinct character!
However, these three soups are merely transitional; they still lack in flavor and artistic conception.
The three turbid soups are too intense and entirely unsuitable for banquet cuisine, unable to serve as a bridge. The three impure soups are optimal, the most fitting, and Zhang Wei's most satisfactory transitional products.
As for the three pure soups…
They are too pure.
They verge on transcending the very concept of deliciousness. The flavor of medicinal soup is too unique and exceptionally difficult to control.
Zhang Wei took a deep breath: "Although the transitional soups have minor flaws, according to my calculations, the current flavors are the easiest to combine!"
"Before further dividing into turbid, impure, and pure, the nine soups have undergone processing by the Refined Food Technique, significantly increasing their nutritional density. Although the ingredient levels are between 15 and 30, their energy levels already reach that of level 36 and above."
The higher the level of ingredients, the more unique their taste. For a culinary creation that brings together tens of thousands of rare treasures, even Zhang Wei wouldn't claim to have mastered it.
The current ingredient levels are the result of Zhang Wei's four months of meticulous calculation!
Converting the accelerated time of two realms and Zhang Wei's actual working hours…
For this Formless dish, Zhang Wei has spent at least three years!
If the ingredient levels were to be further elevated, even thirty years might not yield results, making it a less than worthwhile endeavor.
And these three soups—turbid, impure, and pure—still need to undergo a second application of the Refined Food Technique!
The preparation difficulty increases, as does the nutritional level!
…………
In the Treasure Hall.
Bowl after bowl of soup was placed in the right side hall for preservation.
These soups were the byproducts of failed attempts at the Refined Food Technique. While they didn't meet Zhang Wei's standards, they were still rare masterpieces. To discard them felt wasteful, and they could serve as valuable gifts later.
He glanced at the bronze cauldron: "Less than thirty percent of the soup remains… If even the Refined Food Technique cannot pass this hurdle, how can Formless be perfected."
According to Zhang Wei's vision.
Formless requires at least three applications of the Refined Food Technique, condensing hundreds of ingredients brewed into soup into a single bowl.
This concept is so demanding it's almost perverse, requiring an astronomical amount of raw materials. Without the supply from the Treasure Hall, Zhang Wei would never be able to gather enough materials for his practice.
"It will still take some time…"
"I wonder what the situation is like outside."
"There is a tenfold time acceleration within the Treasure Hall… but how long have I been trapped here?"
Zhang Wei took a deep breath, calming his emotions: "At times like these, one must not rush."
Sinking water moisturizes the heart.
He tried to let go of everything, focusing all his attention on refining the three soups.
Refined food…
Taste transformation…
Meat flavor alteration…
Vegetable flavor alteration…
Key elements to preserve…
Sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty, fragrant, savory, numbing…
Combinations…
A spark of light erupted in Zhang Wei's mind!
The light of thought!
"Found it!"
"The correct formula!"
Guided by his intuition, his hands moved with increasing speed!
The volume of these soups rapidly decreased, eventually becoming only one-tenth of their original size.
"It's done!"
Zhang Wei picked up a spoon: "So heavy!"
"Just a spoonful of this soup weighs as much as two bowls of rice. This density can't be called a ladle; it surpasses even gold, doesn't it?"
The three turbid soups were thick and fragrant, with a murky yellow hue.
The three impure soups were white as milk, with a lingering aroma.
The three pure soups…
They were truly bland as water, with a faint hint of medicinal taste.
Zhang Wei dared not delay.
The dish must be completed while it was still warm!
Next was the third refinement, and the last!
To merge the three pots of soup into one, simmering and accelerating with the Refined Food Technique. All colors and impurities in the soup would be removed by the Refined Food Technique, leaving behind a colorless, water-like soup – Formless!
Zhang Wei was slightly excited!
Nine soups were brewed in a thousand-liter cauldron, three soups in a hundred-liter pot, and after the second application of the Refined Food Technique, the soup could only be contained in a ten-liter ceramic jar.
To merge nine cauldrons into one!
How magnificent!
Zhang Wei placed his hand on the furnace wall, while his other hand continuously stirred with a soup spoon.
Intent manifested!
The core of the Refined Food Technique is a variation of intent manifestation.
And Zhang Wei's intent manifestation, after the incident with the potato peeler, had significantly improved in precision and control. Now, applying the Refined Food Technique was even more effortless.
"Remove…"
"Remove…"
"Remove…"
"Something is not right!"
The volume of soup in the ceramic jar was indeed decreasing.
But logically, the color should have become more transparent, shouldn't it? Why was there no change?
It wasn't that there was no change at all, but the effect was far too little!
As the soup's volume continued to shrink, nearing the limit of three liters!
"Did it fail…"
"No, the result is not yet final."
"It's just that the simmering trajectory of Formless has exceeded my expectations."
Cautiously, he lowered the furnace fire.
Allowing the temperature to rise more slowly.
Zhang Wei continuously guided the Refined Food Technique to extract impurities, and the soup became increasingly clear…
3 liters…
2 liters…
1 liter…
Half a bowl…
Under Zhang Wei's gaze, the soup became less and less, its color growing fainter.
The quantity also dwindled…
Finally, as the soup reached its very last drop, the last pigment vanished without a trace! A wondrous fragrance erupted!
This fragrance was indescribable!
It was rich yet evoked a sense of profound tranquility and distance!
It possessed the richness of meat dishes and the sweetness of vegetable dishes…
This dreamlike and peculiar fragrance was something Zhang Wei had only experienced with Rainbow Fruit.
If Rainbow Fruit could be called a treasure of fruits,
Then Formless could be considered a treasure of soups!
He lifted the ceramic pot, and Formless was poured onto a spoon.
"This is Formless, the soup of nine cauldrons merged into a single spoonful…"