funbook-pk Chapter 55 Using Year-Old Blood Ginseng to Cook Millet Porridge
Chapter 55 Using Year-Old Blood Ginseng to Cook Millet Porridge
At 7:30 in the morning, just as the rising sun shone over the carved walls of Cloud Peak Villa, Lu Qingxue suddenly opened her eyes in her second-floor bedroom, her chest heaving violently, her silk pajamas soaked with cold sweat.
Last night's terrifying scene was no nightmare—the bloody stench of the red-robed monster smashing the window, the sharp sound of a blade cutting through the air, and the chilling aura of her brother Lu Yuan descending from the sky—all were vividly etched in her mind. Only when she was enveloped in her brother's warm embrace did her extremely tense nerves finally relax, and she drifted off to sleep.
"Gurgle—" The loud rumbling in her stomach instantly pulled her back to reality. Lu Qingxue rubbed her sore eyes, threw back the covers, slipped on her pink bunny slippers, and hurried out of the room on the soft carpet. She was so hungry, and so eager to see the brother who had protected her last night.
Warm light streamed through the glass windows of the first-floor restaurant, and a strange, refreshing fragrance wafted through the air, filling the nostrils. It wasn't the aroma of ordinary food; it was crisp yet warm. Taking a breath, the lingering drowsiness and fear from the previous night instantly vanished, leaving one feeling comfortable throughout the body.
Lu Qingxue looked up and her heart skipped a beat—her brother, who was usually aloof and distant, too lazy even to open a mineral water bottle, was now wearing a beige apron, his slender fingers holding a spoon, slowly ladling porridge from the clay pot into a blue-and-white porcelain bowl. Sunlight fell on his sharply defined profile, making him seem less aloof and more down-to-earth, yet also carrying an indescribable sense of pressure.
"Brother! What did you cook? It smells so good!" She leaned on the stair railing, her Adam's apple bobbing, drool almost dripping from her mouth, her voice full of excitement and dependence.
Lu Yuan raised his eyes, a fleeting, almost imperceptible, light flashing across them. He untied his apron, casually draping it over the back of his chair, and pushed a plate of steaming, juicy xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) to the center of the table. His voice was deep and gentle, yet carried an undeniable authority: "Millet porridge, with some nourishing ingredients. Go wash up, and after you eat, I'll perform a magic trick for you, so you'll never have to be afraid of anyone again."
"Really?!" Lu Qingxue's eyes lit up instantly. She cheered and turned to rush into the bathroom. She brushed her teeth and washed her face hastily, without even wringing out the towel, before skipping and jumping to the dining table and sitting down impatiently.
The millet porridge in the bowl shimmered with a faint golden light, its aroma intensifying as steam rose. Ignoring the heat, Lu Qingxue picked up the bowl and took a large gulp—the warm porridge slid down her throat, instantly transforming into a warm current, like a gentle yet powerful flame, spreading along her esophagus to every limb and bone, soothing every meridian with unparalleled comfort, even the weariness deep within her bones quickly dissipating.
"Delicious! So delicious!" she mumbled, her eyes shining brightly. She finished the bowl of porridge in a few gulps, then grabbed two small steamed buns and stuffed them into her mouth. Her cheeks bulged out like a little hamster as she wolfed them down, which made Lu Yuan's eyes soften even more.
No one knew what extraordinary treasures were hidden in this seemingly ordinary millet porridge—half a thousand-year-old seven-leaf blood ginseng and two marrow-cleansing fruits capable of cleansing the marrow and rejuvenating the meridians. Such rare and precious herbs, if a Qi Refining stage cultivator in the immortal realm dared to consume them raw, would instantly be overwhelmed by their violent medicinal power and die. But Lu Yuan, using only the alchemical fire of the Mahayana stage, completely refined the medicinal power, transforming it into the gentlest primordial spiritual energy, just enough to help his sister cleanse her marrow and rejuvenate her meridians, clearing away years of impurities and ensuring her lifelong peace.
Just as Lu Qingxue grabbed the third steamed bun, she suddenly froze, her brows furrowing tightly, her voice tinged with panic: "Brother... I... I'm so itchy..."
As soon as she finished speaking, a thin layer of grayish mucus suddenly seeped from her fair skin, sticky and emitting a faint sour smell. Her stomach churned violently, as if countless ants were crawling inside, or as if boiling water was bubbling. The pain made her face turn pale, and she dropped the steamed buns she was holding onto the table.
Lu Qingxue's eyes reddened with fright, and she instinctively tried to scratch, but Lu Yuan grabbed her hand. He handed her a warm tissue, his tone still calm, yet instantly reassuring: "Don't panic, it's a normal reaction. Go to the bathroom on the left side of the second floor. I've already filled it with water. Soak for half an hour. No matter what you see or feel, don't come out. You'll know the benefits after you're done."
Lu Qingxue bit her lip, clutched her stomach, her face flushed red, and couldn't even speak. Like a frightened but incredibly trusting little rabbit, she stumbled and rushed upstairs to the second floor.
The sound of rushing water came from the bathroom. The gentleness on Lu Yuan's face vanished instantly, and his aura suddenly turned cold, even causing the temperature in the restaurant to drop several degrees. He stood up and walked step by step to the floor-to-ceiling window. His gaze pierced through the glass, through the trees of the villa, and looked straight down at the bustling CBD buildings of Jiangnan City. His eyes were filled with icy coldness.
Just now, when his younger sister consumed the Marrow Cleansing Porridge, a trace of extremely weak spiritual energy fluctuation was leaked out as impurities were forcibly expelled from her body. Even though he immediately used an array to lock down the fluctuation, on this Earth where spiritual energy is depleted and even extraordinary beings are rare, that trace of fluctuation was like a shooting star in the night, or a flare in a dark room—too conspicuous and bound to attract covetousness.
Lu Yuan's fingers tapped lightly on the glass, and a fine layer of white frost instantly condensed on the surface where his fingertips passed. His voice was deep and cold, carrying a world-destroying pressure, as if warning or declaring: "I just wiped out the remnants of Kunlun, and someone dares to plot against me... You'd better not mess with me, otherwise, I don't mind wiping you and your conglomerates off this planet."
At the same time, in the center of Jiangnan City, on the top floor of the Huanyu Building—in a completely enclosed conference room without any windows or ventilation, the atmosphere was so oppressive that it was suffocating.
Three men in custom-tailored suits sat around a round table, their expressions varied, but their eyes were all fixed on a black instrument in the center of the table. The instrument had a futuristic design, and on its screen, a red wavy line remained stuck at its peak, while a piercing beeping sound continued, as if announcing the arrival of some kind of anomaly.
"Energy peak surpasses S-rank!" The white man on the left pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, his eerie dark blue pupils filled with shock and greed. "This is the first time in six months that such high-purity energy fluctuations have been detected. It's definitely the aura of a rare treasure or an ancient array!"
"Location locked: Cloud Peak Manor in the western suburbs." At the head of the table, the scarred man toyed with a pure silver letter opener, its blade gleaming coldly under the light. He was the Asia-Pacific executive officer of the overseas "Shield" conglomerate, and also an A-level superhuman who had awakened the ability to control gravity, radiating a violent aura. "That place originally belonged to a bankrupt businessman. Three days ago, it was bought by a local high school student from Jiangnan named Lu Yuan."
"A high school student?" Scarface sneered, his fingers tightening, and the sterling silver letter opener slammed into the solid wood tabletop with a "thud," sinking three inches deep. "You think an ordinary high school student can generate S-level energy fluctuations? Idiot!"
He paused, his eyes growing increasingly greedy: "Last night, news came from the monitoring station on the northwest border of China that a strange tectonic movement occurred in the Kunlun Mountains. Dozens of snow-capped peaks were leveled, and the entire Kunlun lineage was wiped out, not a single hair remaining. Do you think this S-level energy fluctuation is unrelated to the Kunlun incident?"