Inside Filly's restaurant, in the kitchen, two women and one man glanced at the almost transparent liquid in the glass jar. There were at least five coconuts on the side, severed in half with their contents gone.
"Did we succeed?" Gail asked.
Temor glanced at their boss, Filly, who now had the journal in her hand and kept glancing back and forth from it to the glass jar.
"Miss Filly, did we succeed?" Temor asked, sweat dripping down his forehead. They had been cooking these coconuts for a few hours now and had started from scratch a few times until they managed to make the whitish transparent liquid inside the glass jar.
"I think so," Filly answered, hesitation in her voice.
"You think so?" Hearing the answer caused Temor to sigh.
"The journal said that there are two types of oil that can be used from coconuts: unrefined and refined. It is recommended that we go for refined coconut oil as it's better for high-temperature cooking, and that's what we did," Filly explained. "It's just that, how are we going to use it for cooking? The journal didn't say anything."
Gail and Temor couldn't help but be speechless. We have been cooking this thing without knowing its use? And there's a lot of process involved! They had to filter and heat, then do it again and again. Temor's Qi was on the verge of depletion; if they repeated the process one more time, he would definitely pass out!
"Can I take a look at that?" Temor asked for the journal.
"N—" Filly was about to decline, but looking at the current situation, she had to trust in the journal and her chef. "Okay."
She handed the notebook to Temor, and he started reading it right away. "Thank you, Miss!"
Temor was also curious about the contents inside the journal, as his boss was overprotective of it. What is the content that makes Miss Filly ? With this in mind, he started reading and soon his eyes widened, just like Filly's when she first read it. He couldn't believe that something existed!
Whoever wrote this… although Temor is not sure if everything is true, just reading it is enough to make him believe everything!
"So, did you find how to use it?" Filly asked, worry evident in her eyes.
The question woke Temor. He looked up and shook his head before he went back to reading again. "Not yet."
"O-okay," Filly said and waited.
After a while, Temor sighed, amazement in his voice. "Whoever wrote this is a genius or a fool. However, I did find the use of this so-called oil."
Hearing this, Filly's eyes lit up. "What is it?"
"Although I'm not sure how it is going to enhance our food, this oil has to be used before we put the meat in a pan or a bowl," Temor explained.
"Is that so? Where did you find it?" Filly asked, confused. She didn't recall anything about it in the journal.
Temor opened the journal and went to the page with the methods and ingredients for Fried Chicken. He pointed at the method section and said, "Here, it says to put the oil first before putting the marinated chicken."
Filly went closer and sure enough, there was the method. So based on that, they can use this oil before the other ingredients. "Should we try it?"
"Sure," Temor nodded. "Let me just get the Scavenger."
"Wait! Don't use that!" Filly said. "Why don't we use a normal chicken? We are just going to waste that Scavenger if this oil can't enhance our dish."
"It makes sense, Miss. Let's do that," Temor nodded.
"Gail, find us some chicken, the more the merrier," Filly ordered the spectacled woman, and Gail nodded her head before she went out.
"Can you tell me who wrote that journal?" Temor asked, unable to hold back his curiosity any longer.
"Well," Filly hesitated. She couldn't just admit that the journal had been written by a 'beggar,' right? "Let's just say that if he is lying, I will kill him."
"If he is not?" Temor glanced at the journal, then at the glass jar filled with the refined coconut oil.
"I will bow my head to him and treat him as the guest of honor of Kleinford," Filly said, her eyes filled with determination.
Temor couldn't believe his ears. That's the highest honor a member from a respectable family can offer to someone outside their family! But if everything in the journal is true, then it makes sense that Filly would do this. She loves business more than anyone in Kleinford, and this journal has the potential to help them compete against giant restaurants like Skyline Savory.
Soon, Gail came back with 9 to 10 chickens in her hands. She put them on the table and stepped back to watch everything.
"Temor," Filly said, and the chef nodded, understanding what she meant.
Temor went to the table and started killing the chickens. Their cries echoed, but in no time, they were lifeless on the table. They were going to use one chicken first to see the effects of the oil. Temor held the chicken in one hand, then used his Qi to create a fire out of thin air, burning the feathers into ashes until the chicken's skin was exposed.
He is a 2nd Step Foundation Building Cultivator with a specialized Ignition Technique for cooking that was provided by Filly's family, the Kleinford. This allows him to store Qi and mobilize the Qi around him to create a fire. However, he can only use this for cooking as it doesn't have enough firepower for fighting.
After this step, he started cleaning the chicken, especially the organs inside its body. Two to three minutes later, a freshly cleaned and cut chicken was laid on the table.
"What part do you want to use?" Temor asked his boss.
"Use the leg," Filly said, "because I like that part."
"Okay," Temor nodded and took the leg of the chicken, putting it aside. Then he took out a flat pan and put it on top of the grill grate where there were already coals and wood underneath. "I'm just going to copy what I understood from the journal. It said we need to heat the pan first before adding the oil."
Filly nodded, recalling this part in cooking fried chicken. Though they were only testing out the effects of the oil, so they would only cook the chicken leg without doing anything else.
Raising his hand, Temor ignited the coals and wood under the grill grate. He waited for about 30 to 40 seconds before taking the jar and pouring the oil into the pan. Because they only had this amount of oil, he didn't use all of it, just about a fourth.
Filly waited with bated breath while Gail watched with curiosity in her eyes.
Soon, they heard the sizzling sound of oil. Hearing this, Temor picked up the chicken leg and placed it in the oil. The sound of sizzling grew louder, causing Filly to become uneasy.
"Now we wait," Temor said, feeling the same nervousness.