Chen Chuan looked at the provisions before him and asked, "How long can these ingredients keep at most?"
Gao Yanjun replied, "With special containers and proper storage, their vitality can be maintained for roughly one to two years, though the nutritional value contained within will gradually fade. But this is inevitable. Unless one obtains provisions directly from the Confluence, it is generally very difficult to ensure the supply remains timely and fresh."
"Difficult?" Chen Chuan nodded. "Which means it can be done?"
"Yes, Supervisor," Gao Yanjun said. "It simply comes down to how much is invested. As long as enough resources are poured into it, anything is possible."
Chen Chuan nodded and asked again, "Are people who possess the ability to distinguish such ingredients common?"
Gao Yanjun answered honestly, "Testing skills and methods require prolonged practical experience. It demands spending time alongside a martial artist, as well as a certain natural talent. Ordinary people find it difficult to make an accurate assessment, though nowadays there is equipment to assist in testing. By standard benchmarks, every portion of these provisions meets the minimum passing line; it is only in the overall nutritional assessment that they fall short. Without sufficient prior experience, it is quite easy to make an oversight like this."
Chen Chuan gave a hum of acknowledgment and glanced at Rui Shenggu. The latter immediately grasped his meaning and said, "Once Supervisor Chen entered, the field was shielded, and external field signals can hardly penetrate here. If Supervisor Chen agrees, we can lift the shielding outside and restore communication."
Chen Chuan said, "Alright, I'll trouble you then. I need to make a call right away."
Rui Shenggu said, "Then please step this way, Supervisor Chen."
The three walked out together. Once outside, Rui Shenggu instructed the staff waiting there, and within a minute, the communication field was restored.
Seeing that outside calls were possible, Chen Chuan contacted Gao Ming immediately. He explained the situation briefly and instructed, "Inform the Municipal Council that I am unsatisfied with their previous delivery. Tell them to send another batch and guarantee the quality of the ingredients. I will let it slide this time, but I don't want any further problems in the future."
Gao Ming said, "Got it, Cousin. I'll contact them about this."
After giving his instructions, Chen Chuan did not take the ingredients. He thanked Rui Shenggu, took his leave, and departed directly with Gao Yanjun.
It did not take long for word to reach the Municipal Council. Chen Chuan's stance threw the entire council into an immediate panic. Speaker Quan personally contacted him via screen to apologize, guaranteeing that such a thing would never happen again and promising that the next batch of qualified provisions would be delivered as soon as possible.
The Council had gone to great lengths to secure this chance at reconciliation with Chen Chuan. During this period at least, they could not afford any mishaps. If an issue with food supplies caused relations to backslide, all their earlier efforts would go to waste.
And this time, it truly had not been an intentional slight on the Council's part. Because they had never needed to support a martial artist before, they had entrusted the matter to professional contractors.
Provisions for martial artists were peculiar; most had to be acquired from the Confluence. Although the Jibei Dao Confluence had previously been locked in a state of war, the Council possessed underground trade channels with the former imperial house, so procuring such goods had not actually been difficult.
Now, however, the former imperial army in the Jibei Dao Confluence had suffered a total collapse and their forces had withdrawn completely, which meant this trade channel had naturally ceased to exist. Obtaining fresh ingredients from that area had become next to impossible. All the contractors could do was buy from the various corporate branch offices located in the Confluence, where internal testing had confirmed that the quality met acceptable parameters.
Unexpectedly, an issue had arisen anyway. When Gao Yanjun's evaluation report reached the Council, an examination confirmed that the total nutritional value truly fell below normal standards. In the final analysis, it came down to careless handling on their part.
As a result, they had no choice but to pay exorbitant prices to urgently purchase a batch from other sources, including corporate branches and other Center Cities.
In the midst of this, it turned out that certain council members had long been secretly hoarding high-grade Confluence ingredients and high-energy nutrients, which they sold to the person in charge at exorbitant prices.
Thus, in a mere two days, the Council managed to scrape together a full batch. Terrified of further mishaps, they doubled the total quantity provided this time, and the council member responsible delivered it to Chen Chuan's door in person.
Gao Yanjun conducted an inspection and verified that all the provisions were less than a month old. For ingredients outside the Confluence, this certainly qualified as "fresh," and most of their nutritional value remained intact.
Seeing that they had passed muster, the council member finally breathed a sigh of relief. As he walked out after bidding farewell, he found his back drenched in sweat and his hands trembling.
He had good reason to be terrified. The two council members who had directly ordered the attack on Chen Chuan served as a stark cautionary tale. Both had already been purged from the Council; they were nowhere to be found, never mentioned by anyone, as if they had never existed at all. Moreover, their relatives in Center City had vanished overnight as well.
He had been on tenterhooks from the moment he was assigned this duty. When the initial snag occurred, he had nearly considered fleeing for his life. Now, he had finally cleared the hurdle.
Yet the thought that this situation might continue for years made breathing difficult. Hurriedly swallowing some medicine he carried on him, he resolved to have a newer model of implanted heart and lungs installed once he got back.
Back in the residence, because the ingredients were ill-suited for long-term storage, Gao Yanjun immediately set to work preparing them. Requesting a private room, she emerged half an hour later carrying a platter of food. The portion appeared quite small, amounting to roughly a dozen mouthfuls.
This was because the provisions required careful preparation and processing to eliminate the vast majority of superfluous bulk, concentrating and preserving high-density nutrients within this small portion for more efficient absorption.
Once prepared, the nutritional potency would last only several to a dozen-odd minutes, meaning it had to be consumed immediately upon serving.
Chen Chuan picked up his chopsticks, took a slice of meat, and brought it to his mouth. Across his body, his mutated tissues ravenously absorbed the heat radiating from within it.
He could not help but nod. Nutritional value aside, the flavor alone was exceptional.
He had heard Gao Yanjun explain earlier that no seasonings were added; the taste resulted entirely from the proper pairing of the ingredients themselves. Nor was this done solely for flavor—its primary purpose was to ensure the ingredients blended harmoniously to facilitate nutrient absorption.
Gao Yanjun said, "Under standard guidelines, this batch of provisions and high-energy nutrients should meet a martial artist's needs for one to two months."
Chen Chuan nodded slightly. Going by standard measurements, this amount might suffice for an ordinary martial artist, but for him it was far from enough.
He would ask the Municipal Council to raise the quota later, but he would not demand an unattainable amount. That might make the other side suspect intentional provocation and escalate tensions. Both parties were currently gathering strength and making preparations; the time for a final offensive had not yet come, so there was no need to push matters just yet.
Furthermore, his primary source of energy at present came through his spirit, drawing and channeling energy from the world across the fissure to replenish his deficits. Relying solely on these provisions would amount to little more than having snacks.
To obtain items truly beneficial to his cultivation, he would likely need to venture into the depths of the Confluence or near the Ring of the World.
When he finished eating, Gao Yanjun asked how to handle the initial batch of ingredients.
Although the Council had prepared a replacement batch, they had not withheld the earlier one, and the official in charge had delivered both together this time.
Chen Chuan considered the matter. The nutritional value of that batch was even lower than what he had just eaten, making it dispensable to him. Having Gao Yanjun process it would only waste her time and energy. He asked whether mutated creatures could consume it and was told there was no issue—in fact, it offered many benefits, so long as the portions were kept under control.
He nodded. In that case, he planned to feed them to Chaoming later as extra rations.
After the meal concluded, Gao Yanjun took her leave. In the days to follow, she would come here daily to prepare the corresponding provisions.
Having eaten, Chen Chuan tried to estimate his reserves. The energy accumulated from this meal would roughly suffice for a single bout against someone like Wei Guochan or Long Xiang. If the fight turned more intense, he would need more. Still, for other martial artists, their expenditure would be just as substantial, as their clashes tended to last longer.
And this did not even account for consumption during cultivation. Little wonder that martial artists avoided clashes where possible, refraining from fighting unless absolutely necessary.
Setting his thoughts aside, he went upstairs to the training room. Chaoming was resting there and let out a chirp upon seeing him enter. Since returning from the Confluence, it seemed to have undergone a metamorphosis; its mutated tissues had continued to grow, and it had attained a massive size. Standing upright, its head now reached his shoulders.
Walking to one side, Chen Chuan drew the Xuejun Saber from its sheath. First releasing his external field, he slashed open a minuscule fissure, then produced the shell-shaped relic and set it before the crack. Wisps of vapor immediately began to rise from it.
Chaoming chirped and stepped forward to inhale the vapors. At the same time, with a faint meow, a transparent pocket-sized civet darted from his pocket, rushing up to the vapors. It thrust its head forward to snap up a mouthful of mist, swallowed quickly, and then hooked another wisp with its paw in lightning-fast motions.
Chen Chuan watched them feed. This shell relic also served to replenish expended energy. However, it was merely a fifth-class relic; while it still had some effect on him now, the benefit was minimal. The recovery it provided had a ceiling, beyond which absorbing more was useless.
In reality, it was because his own level had already surpassed this object. Even so, it was still useful for Chaoming and the civet stone plaque—especially for the latter, as it meant he no longer needed to find people to feed it.
In truth, the civet stone plaque was of little use to him in combat now. But having kept it this long, and with no need to seek out separate sustenance for it, he simply chose to keep it as a pet.
……
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Chapter 793