Chapter 73 - 31: Purple Treasures, Feast Ceremony

Chapter 73: Chapter 31: Purple Treasures, Feast Ceremony

GULP...

As he swallowed the last mouthful of the Gourmet Level delicacy Nan Zhi had brought back—Buddha Jumps Over the Wall—Jiang Xuan finally fulfilled all nine prerequisites to become a Gourmet.

A system notification chimed in right on cue.

[You have completed the nine job requirements for Gourmet. Do you wish to change your profession now?]

"Yes!"

BOOM—

The moment he confirmed, a flavor bomb detonated in Jiang Xuan’s mind. A thousand tastes instantly overwhelmed his senses. Memories and flavors of everything related to "food"—from the simple fare and exotic delicacies of his past, to the worldly flavors and strange spices he had just savored, and even the fine nectars he had once drunk—all churned and boiled within his sea of consciousness.

At that moment, Jiang Xuan felt as if his Divine Soul had transformed into a supreme Spirit Soup, one that had simmered for ten thousand years and assimilated every flavor in the world.

"I understand..."

The simple, worldly pleasures are what best soothe the mortal heart, and also where the Great Dao lies hidden. The rotation of a thousand flavors, the changing succession of sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy, gave him the illusion that he had seen through to the origin of all things.

Of course, this was just a fleeting sensation brought on by the sudden surge of power. However, Jiang Xuan’s understanding of flavor, of fine food, and even of the mortal world itself had truly undergone a fundamental transformation.

This transformation was clearly reflected on his attribute panel:

[You have successfully changed your profession from Kitchen Apprentice to Gourmet.]

[Your Physique has been baptized by Spirit Charm, comprehensively strengthening it and unlocking the Trait: Feasting Body・Introduction.]

[Your Professional Passives "Taste Hundred Flavors" and "Smell Thousand Scents" have evolved, advancing to: Thousand-Attracting Tongue, Bai Ling’s Breath.]

[Your Professional Skill "Cooking Skill・Introduction" has advanced, becoming: Feast Ceremony.]

With that, a brilliantly shining Professional Card appeared in Jiang Xuan’s Attribute Interface.

[Gourmet]

[Grade: Treasure (Purple)]

[Level: 1/7 (Upgrade EXP: 1/700)]

[Attribute Bonus: Each level provides a small increase to Physique strength.]

[Professional Traits: Thousand-Attracting Tongue, Bai Ling’s Breath, Feasting Body・Introduction]

[Active Skill: Feast Ceremony]

A few minutes later, the aftershocks of the profession change completely subsided. When Jiang Xuan opened his attribute panel and saw the profession’s grade, he froze for a moment.

’Shouldn’t the Gourmet profession be Blue Grade? ...Wait, did I awaken a hidden Rare Skill?’

He was instantly reminded of a core mechanic in *Celestial Vault Immortal Travel*—the professions, skills, and traits in the game weren’t set in stone. Besides the standard abilities that were unlocked, there was a chance to trigger random mutations and awaken hidden skills.

For example, besides the Dao Foundation Contract, even the most basic Qi Cultivators had an extremely low chance of awakening Rare passives like [Qi Eating] or [Five Qi Chaoyuan・Basic].

The grade of the awakened skill directly affected the profession’s own grade. Clearly, Jiang Xuan had struck gold this time, unlocking an exceptionally rare hidden ability.

His gaze shifted downward. Jiang Xuan read through the descriptions for each trait and skill, word by word, and soon found the core reason why Gourmet had leaped to a Treasure Level profession. It was also his biggest gain from this profession change—the Purple Treasure Level Active Skill: Feast Ceremony!

[To the people, food is Heaven. Eating is the most important, and also the most sacred, of worldly matters. As a Gourmet, you are exceptionally pious about eating, and have always adhered to the principles of wasting nothing and neglecting nothing;

You may perform the Feast Ceremony three times per day;

After performing a Feast Ceremony, under the blessing of the ceremony’s Spirit Charm, you can swallow food equal to your own ’mass’ in one go and digest it perfectly;

Special Effect: If you savor a delicacy of Gourmet Level or higher, there is an extremely low chance that through consumption, you may obtain some of the original traits inherent to the ingredients.]

’I can plunder the original traits of ingredients just by eating them... If I ate the flesh of a True Dragon, couldn’t I directly awaken a Dragon Descendant bloodline?’

Jiang Xuan’s heart stirred. The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. If not for such heaven-defying potential, there was no way the Gourmet profession could have leaped to become a Purple Treasure Level profession.

However, the skill description also made it clear: only by savoring delicacies of Gourmet Level or higher was there a chance to trigger this effect, and the probability was extremely low. And Gourmet Level ingredients and dishes often cost hundreds or thousands of Spirit Stones, something the current Jiang Xuan could not afford at all.

’...But that’s okay. Even without touching this trait-plundering for now, just being able to perfectly digest food equal to my own body weight is a huge win! With this Feast Ceremony, my Nine Breath Qi Ingestion Technique can finally run at full power without any restrictions!’

The thought had barely formed when he suddenly caught a key detail in the skill’s description. ’No, it says equal to my ’mass,’ not ’body weight.’ There’s probably more to that than meets the eye.’

’I’ll find a chance to test it out later and see for myself.’

The Feast Ceremony was already heaven-defying, but the Feasting Body, Thousand-Attracting Tongue, and Bai Ling’s Breath unlocked alongside it were each marvelous in their own right. Among them, Feasting Body could directly increase Jiang Xuan’s hard power.

[Feasting Body・Introduction: A Gourmet can always eat more food. Your appetite has increased, your body can store more Energy, your constitution has been slightly enhanced, and you are now immune to common toxins.]

[Thousand-Attracting Tongue: With your tongue, in addition to tasting the five basic flavors of food and discerning its freshness and ripeness, you can also use your tongue as a guide to taste the ’cooking’ process of the food, and even the ingredient’s origin and growth conditions.]