The Speedrun Begins with Choosing Hunter

"I have received the items you sent. All is well, so do not worry. Signed, Qiaoniang."

Bai Yuan unfolded the letter and smiled fondly.

It was a letter from Sister Qiao, sent from Qinghe.

The Li Family’s caravan traveled between Qinghe and Huanglong Prefecture every month, so he had entrusted the old butler with sending medicine and letters to Xiao Qiaoniang.

The medicines were, in fact, formulas for a medicinal diet.

Under the care of his Demon Taming skill, Xiaoqing’s strength had soared. If Sister Qiao relied solely on the feedback from Xiaoqing, it would inevitably lead to future complications. Bai Yuan was using the medicinal diet to mitigate this.

At her current pace, Sister Qiao might just break through the Yijin Pass within a year. Such speed was on par with Bai Yuan’s own cheat-like progress.

He carefully folded the letter and placed it in a wooden box.

In what felt like the blink of an eye, half a year had passed since he arrived at the Divine Mansion Sect.

Old Dong still showed no signs of returning to the mountain.

The Soul-Chasing Tower seemed to be making a comeback. Across Huanglong Prefecture, many experts from forces affiliated with the Divine Mansion Sect had been assassinated.

Old Dong wasn’t one to indulge them. He relentlessly pursued the Soul Chasing Tower Lord for a thousand li, and rumor had it the chase had already led them into an Outer State.

He was having so much fun hacking away that he’d forgotten all about returning.

During that time, You Shengnan and Xiongshan had each returned once.

But their visits were always rushed. They only stayed for two days before heading down the mountain again.

Word was they had gone to find Old Dong. There was more merit to be earned there; the rewards from a single battle were substantial.

However, those were all bounty missions from the second floor of the Merit Hall, which Bai Yuan couldn’t accept yet.

Fortunately, the demon-slaying missions were enough to keep him busy.

He spent less time on Wan Jun Peak than he did with the Demon Slayer Guard. A farmer toils for his food, and a Martial Artist’s life is even more hectic. All Martial Artists in the world were fighting against fate itself; once past a certain age, advancing even a single step further becomes impossible.

Take Old Xue, for instance. His power had regressed all the way back to the Yijin Pass, leaving his strength a pale shadow of what it once was.

This was the very principle behind the saying, "The fist fears the young and strong."

Bai Yuan closed the cabinet door and looked at his panel.

He had spent the better part of a year finally raising both Cooking and Fiery Oil to the Master level.

Just one last step remained...

[Name: Bai Yuan]

[Class: Demon Hunter, Swordsman, Boxer, Cook] 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

[Skills: Cooking (Master), Fiery Oil (Master), Demon-Seeking (Expert), Demon Taming (Expert), Tiger-Crane Form (Master), Blood Tiger Saber (Master), Soul-Hooking Step (Adept)...]

[Reinforcement Points: 434]

These reinforcement points were all from a C-rank, low-grade mission he had accepted yesterday.

Coincidentally, Li Kang had also been in charge of this matter.

A Snake Demon of considerable strength had taken up residence in the City God Temple outside the city, an affront to the Court’s authority.

The City God Temples across Xuan Yang were all personally sanctioned by the Court. For one to be occupied by a demon was a grave insult to the Court’s authority.

But by the time Li Kang arrived with his men and Bai Yuan,

they stumbled upon the Snake Demon engaged in carnal pleasures with his harem.

’What an outrageous spectacle!’

’Did they take the Land God for a common pimp?’

Bai Yuan was overjoyed, Li Kang was aghast, and Feng Ping’s trouser leg grew damp.

Among the eight large snakes, at least four had gained sentience. This was no C-rank, low-grade mission—it was clearly C-rank, highest-grade! With only two of them at the Yijin Pass, how could they possibly be a match for this nest of Snake Demons?

Just as Li Kang and his men were preparing to bolt while the Snake Man was crying out in the throes of passion,

Bai Yuan decisively threw himself into the heated fray.

The outcome was obvious: the Snake Man and his entire harem were sent to cross the Naihe Bridge and drink Meng Po’s soup.

Otherwise, Bai Yuan would not have been able to return to Wan Jun Peak alive.

After six months of accumulation, he was finally about to obtain a legendary-level skill.

’Allocate points!’

[In your 100th year of practicing Cooking, your technique has become sublime.]

...

[In your 120th year of practicing Cooking, you have fully mastered Fiery Oil. Your culinary arts have reached their zenith.]

...

[In your 150th year of practicing Cooking, you... have become a Legend!]

[Name: Bai Yuan]

[Class: Demon Hunter, Swordsman, Boxer, Cook]

[Skills: Cooking (Legendary), Demon-Seeking (Expert), Demon Taming (Expert), Tiger-Crane Form (Master), Blood Tiger Saber (Master)...]

[Reinforcement Points: 103]

Two large, golden words appeared on the panel.

It reeked of pay-to-win.

In fact, in the games from his past life, the only ones with legendary skills were the pay-to-win whales. Of course, the only things that could defeat a whale were the server crashing... and the hardcore grinders.

At the same time the golden words appeared, a line of small text materialized before his eyes.

[New Class Unlocked: Spirit Cooker!]

[Name: Bai Yuan]

[Class: Demon Hunter, Swordsman, Boxer, Spirit Cooker]

[Skills: Cooking (Legendary), Demon-Seeking (Expert), Demon Taming (Expert), Tiger-Crane Form (Master), Blood Tiger Saber (Master)...]

[Reinforcement Points: 103]

On the panel, the Cook class had been replaced by the new Spirit Cooker class, and the Fiery Oil skill had merged with Cooking.

Like Demon Hunter, Spirit Cooker was a more advanced class.

[Spirit Cooker: One who takes the spirits of all creation as ingredients and cooks them according to the great laws of heaven and earth.]

As someone who had been a science student in his past life, Bai Yuan quickly grasped the concept of spirit cooking.

In his past life, all things were made of elements. Food was good for the body because it contained beneficial elements. And just as there were beneficial elements, there were also harmful ones.

In this world, those elements were called "spirit."

Ordinary cooks didn’t understand this principle, so they could only cook with ingredients in their natural state.

A Spirit Cooker, however, could touch upon the very essence of things—using spirit itself as the ingredient to be cooked.

The moment Bai Yuan became a Spirit Cooker, a new line of text appeared before his eyes.

[New Skills Acquired!]

[Cook Spirit] [Extract Spirit] [Refine Spirit]

Bai Yuan chose Extract Spirit without hesitation.

Extract Spirit was the foundation for a Spirit Cooker, just as a chef must first learn to prep ingredients before they can cook.

The first step to becoming a Spirit Cooker was Extract Spirit. If one couldn’t even extract the spirit hidden within all things, there was no point in even thinking about cooking it.

All things possessed spirit, not just vegetables and meat.

A Spirit Cooker who reached a high enough level could even directly extract the spirit from a living Martial Artist—a power nearly equivalent to the legendary Absorption Technique.

Of course, reaching that kind of proficiency would require the skill to be at Master level, at least.

Extracting spirit from a living being was exponentially more difficult than from an inanimate object.

But as Old Dong always said, any skill, when mastered, becomes a killing technique.

Bai Yuan still had over a hundred reinforcement points left, and he had no intention of wasting them.

[In your first year of practicing Extract Spirit, you gained nothing.]

...

[In your third year of practicing Extract Spirit, you saw the ley lines of spirit.]

...

[In your eighth year of practicing Extract Spirit, you finally extracted a sliver of spirit.]

[Name: Bai Yuan]

[Class: Demon Hunter, Swordsman, Boxer, Spirit Cooker]

[Skills: Cooking (Legendary), Extract Spirit (Novice), Demon-Seeking (Expert), Demon Taming (Expert), Tiger-Crane Form (Master), Blood Tiger Saber (Master)...]

[Reinforcement Points: 0]

His reinforcement points were completely depleted.

The Extract Spirit skill had been raised to the Novice level.

Information about Extract Spirit flooded Bai Yuan’s mind.

At the Novice level, Extract Spirit was still too weak; he would need to upgrade it further before it could be of any real use.

His Cooking skill, however, was now genuinely at the Legendary level.

His mind was flooded with countless recipes from all over the world.

Among them was a dish that was perfect for his current needs. There was just one problem: the main ingredient was going to be a real pain to get...