Chapter 57: The Side Effects of Pepper

The three qi pellets sprouts were growing at a visible rate. The planted pepper seeds were starting to move as well, sprouting out of the soil in no time at all and growing two green leaves.

Now that the farm was at level 3, the crops were certainly growing much quicker. Jiang He estimated that the qi pellets could be harvested in an hour, whereas the pepper would be ready even earlier.

After a few more looks, Jiang He finally left the yard. It was already one in the afternoon, but he had not eaten anything yet.

“If I remember correctly, there should be a small grill rack in the house…”

Everything from inside his house had been moved out before the construction work began, and was now piled together in a heap. It took some digging around before Jiang He found the grill rack in the pile, along with several grill skewers and a few packets of condiments.

“I still need some sesame oil and pepper powder… There’s no charcoal either, and I’ll also need a small brush to oil my food.”

He took another trip to the village mall, where he managed to get everything except the coal.

“No coal. What should I do?”

Jiang He stood at the village entrance with his bag of items. After toying with the idea of taking a trip to the city to get some coal, he eventually decided against it and jogged home.

There, he took out the snake tail. Cutting a large chunk of it, he washed it with clean water before cutting it into tiny pieces, and then did the same with a piece of wolf meat. After skewering them, he picked up the green bottle gourd that he had left under the sun.

[Fourth Brother]

[Breathes and absorbs fire.]

[Usage: Blow to use.]

[Gentle reminder: Remember to charge before use. Put it under the sun to charge.]

He blew a breath on the bottle gourd, and a green puff of smoke immediately landed on the ground and turned into a seven-year old boy. He was identical to the other boy, the only difference between them being that this boy’s dudou was green, and the bottle gourd decoration on his hair knot was green too.

Once the Fourth Brother appeared, he dashed towards Jiang He, sucking on his thumb while acting cute. “Gramps! Gramps!”

“Such a cute little kid, but it somehow feels like there’s no intelligence there… Alright, now help me grill this meat… Oh, and do remember to control the fire intensity… What the heck!!!”

Before Jiang He finished speaking, the Fourth Brother had already released a breath of flames.

Whoosh!

It was like magic.

A great fireball blasted away.

The scorching heat caused the air around it to crackle. Jiang He was so close that he had to use Indestructible Diamond to withstand it.

When the fire faded…

Grilled meat?

There was none.

Because even the skewers had melted.

“You brat!”

Jiang He caught the Fourth Brother and gave him a resounding spanking on the butt until the boy wailed, and only then did he stuff the Fourth Brother back into his bottle gourd in relief.

“The fire the Fourth Brother breathes is too hot. Perhaps not even rank-seven Ferals could withstand it… It definitely is no good for grilling.”

Jiang He then turned towards Dumbo. The dog was whimpering and shuddering in a corner of the yard, and had dug itself a hole to hide in.

“That silly thing,” said an amused Jiang He.

Skewering another dozen chunk of meat, he called out to his pets. Both Dumbo and Trumbo ran up to him. They had long since caught the scent of the meat, and were salivating while staring at the meat skewers.

“Fire,” instructed Jiang He, pointing at the meat skewer.

Quickly understanding his master’s order, Dumbo opened its jaws, releasing a gentle wave of flames. After grilling the meat for several minutes, Jiang He brushed oil on it. Then, he sprinkled on some cumin and pepper power before getting Dumbo to grill the meat again.

In ten or so minutes, the meat was ready.

“Good job, well done!” exclaimed Jiang He.

Chopping off another few catties of raw wolf meat, he threw it to Dumbo as a reward. After having a few mouthfuls of the skewers, Jiang He nodded in satisfaction.

“Not bad, not bad. The snake is really tasty. Putting aside the freshness, there is still substantial blood and qi in it. Average humans would just have to eat a few hundred grams per day to improve their bodies, and it might even be possible for them to become martial artists. On the other hand, the wolf meat is a little lacking. It is chewy, but the meat is too old and doesn’t taste all that nice.”

Jiang He threw the dozen wolf meat skewers to Dumbo. “I’ll feed the dog with the remaining wolf meat then…” he said quietly.

It was fortunate that no one else heard him, or they would have died of jealousy. After all, was there anything more extravagant than feeding one’s dog with rank-six Feral meat?

The complete corpse of one rank-six Feral was worth over a million dollars, and even burnt corpses were worth tens of thousands. With that in mind, what sort of family could afford to feed their dog with stuff worth millions?

Nonetheless, Jiang He himself was barely full even after feasting on five catties of snake meat. After becoming a martial artist and improving physically by leaps and bounds, his needs had certainly increased considerably as well.

“If grilled snake is that good, snake soup would be even more nourishing!”

After washing up the grill rack and putting away the condiments, Jiang He went to his yard and began leisurely harvesting qi pellets. The three qi pellet trees had borne a total of nine hundred qi pellets.

[Ding!]

[+3 Farm Points.]

Jiang couldn’t help being left stunned by the System Notification after plucking one qi pellet.

What was going on?

When the farm was at level 2, one qi pellet earned him 10 farm points. Why was it reduced to 3 points in the blink of an eye?

“This damn System! Could it work like a game, where the EXP gained from killing low level monsters decreases when the player’s level increases?”

Jiang He understood that principle well, but he was still upset. He cursed at the System even as he plucked the qi pellets, and it took him over twenty minutes to empty all the trees.

Boom!

All three qi pellet trees crumbled into ashes.

Jiang He then turned towards the peppers in another corner of his farm. The pack of pepper seeds he’d bought earlier contained 200 seeds.

One should mention here that when growing peppers, tomatoes, or eggplants, normal farmers would plant sprouts instead of seeds. After all, seeds only had a small chance of growing, whereas sprouts could be nurtured and sold in greenhouses.

However, Jiang He’s farm had no concept of chance. What do you mean by chance, when you could actually get a sprout from planting a cleaver?

Either way, his 200 pepper seeds bore 200 green bell pepper stalks, also known as ‘Cow Heart Peppers’ here at farms in the northwest. Each pepper stalk stood a meter tall, and their leaves were a lush green. The field of stalks looked green and oily, because they grew closely next to each other, and each stalk had three to five peppers on it.

Each bell pepper was the size of a fist, round and glistening, even appearing attractive with a faint hint of redness in its green.

Jiang He plucked one and held it in front of his eyes, carefully studying the row of data that popped up.

[Pepper]

[Attribute: Hot.]

The introduction was so short there may as well have been none. But given his corn’s attributes, Jiang He felt he should test the pepper to ensure what effect the crop held. He took a bite. It was indeed hot, but delightfully so.

“It’s crispy, and its skin is thick. Moreover, it has no seeds, and it feels like roasted leek to the bite…”

Jiang He was amused to get the taste of roast leek from a pepper.

Crunch, crunch.

He finished the entire bell pepper.

Then, he promptly felt a burning sensation rising from his belly’s cinnabar fields that extended instantly all over his body. His face turned red from the neck-up too. The redness rapidly rose until white smoke puffed out of the back of his head.

Jiang He clenched his fists, causing the air to crackle. He felt a vigor all over his body that he could never use up, and extreme rage, promptly coming to a realization after feeling it…

“Pepper has the same effect as rampage potions—increasing one’s power by half and sparking an impulse for destruction, plus fifty points of rage…”

The vigor only faded after ten minutes. Jiang He shook his head to dispel that uncontrollable urge.

Uh-huh.

There were side effects…

But that was not a serious problem.

***

Meanwhile, in one of the dilapidated buildings at the Ningdong Mines.

Blargh.

The Tranquil Heavenly General vomited a mouthful of blood when he opened his eyes. A wave of hatred surged out of his eyes. He then whipped out a satellite phone and made a call.

“Mission failed, Elder. Duan Tianhe is now a grandmaster, and he has rooted out one of our agents. However, the key reason for our failure is not Duan Tianhe… I have already notified our other agents to find out about that person as soon as possible.”

After the call was finished, the frosty air around Tranquil Heavenly General burst out as he bellowed like a Feral, “Who are you? I, the Tranquil Heavenly General, shall cut you into a million pieces!”

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