Chapter 175 Casefile 5: Nether Festival (4)

As a result, Andre did not return until the next morning when Jiangyou opened the store for business.

Jiang You was a little worried, so he asked Jericho to deliver breakfast to the people and to find out some news at the same time.

Jericho returned shortly after his absence. "Master is fine. They found many clues about the Ghost-Faced Man and the Evil-Eyed Moon in the mansion, so they'll probably be busy for a while. All the traps were successfully dismantled, and no one was injured."

Jiang You finally breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good."

She rubbed her neck with lingering fear. Honestly, she was still a little scared of that trap last night. Of course, as an undead lich who frequently dismantled himself for cleaning, used his head as a wallet, and his arms as extensions, Jiangyou wasn't worried about his own skeleton, but rather about the mortals like Aunt Wolf and Andre getting hurt.

If it wasn't her who triggered the trap yesterday, but some other ordinary person who accidentally entered the house, someone would probably be seriously injured or lose their life.

"How despicable and terrifying is Evil Eye Moon! These villains are so unscrupulous. Don't they care at all about hurting innocent people?" Jiang You felt his fists harden. "I hope Andre can catch those guys soon."

However, there wasn't much Jiangyou could do. She cleaned the shop, stocked the shelves with sauces for sale, interviewed veterans and their families, and selected a bartender, a cashier, two store clerks, and two cooks for the brewery.

——As Jiangyou's business grew bigger, she needed more and more employees. Fortunately, Andre had brought back enough veterans and their families before, and many of them were receiving treatment and training, so she could always pick out suitable people from them.

At ten o'clock in the morning, Aunt Wolf arrived with the ingredients for the sacrificial cake. The cake they were making was called "Phantom Berry Cake," a cranberry scone-like pastry baked with a special red berry. The only difference was that the ingredients used in this cake, from the red berries to the powder, were all magical plants. The finished product was inedible to living people, but it had a great appeal to undead creatures.

"Why can't living people eat it? Is it poisonous?" Jiang You asked, while secretly wondering where she would go to make such pastries if it was poisonous. After all, she was in the catering business and couldn't take the risk of bringing poisonous ingredients into the kitchen.

"It's not poisonous." Aunt Wolf shook her head. "It's just very unpalatable to living people. It's numb and astringent. When I was a kid, I was curious and secretly took a bite. As a result, my tongue was numb and astringent. I felt uncomfortable for three days, and nothing tasted good! However, it is actually a legitimate potion formula. It can replenish soul power and repair damaged souls. To be honest, it has certain benefits for both the living and the dead.

"It's just that it's easier for living people to see the dead after eating... If you're worried, just come to my house and cook. I don't use the kitchen often anyway."

So the two of them took the materials back to Aunt Wolf's house.

This kind of pastry is not difficult to make at all. After all, it is a traditional pastry offered to the dead in the Principality of Huntington. It does not require any culinary skills and is more like rolling a magic pill.

All you need to do is mash the red berries [Phantom Berry] into a paste, mix it with the powder made from the fruit of the magic plant [Soul Grass], add a small amount of clean water, roll it into a round scone-shaped dough, and then bake it in the oven at 160 degrees for half an hour. You will get a plate of purple-black pastries with red berry spots. It looks terrible and will make you lose your appetite.

…Even if Jiangyou’s cooking skills were great, he couldn’t save it.

But the amazing thing was that even this pastry, whose preparation and appearance were difficult to describe, released a very tempting aroma after it was successfully baked. Even without the spiritual wood, Jiang You could smell the sweet, slightly burning aroma, and she felt like her non-existent saliva was about to be secreted crazily from her long-defunct salivary glands.

Of course, this tempting effect was obviously only effective for Jiang You. Aunt Wolf seemed to have no desire to eat those strangely colored 'scones'.

"This cake smells delicious..." Jiang You couldn't help but pick up one, "Can I have it?"

"Xiaoyou, you are considered an undead creature, so you should be edible." Aunt Wolf thought for a moment, "Why don't you give it a try? It won't harm your body anyway, and it can even strengthen your soul!"

So Jiangyou picked up a piece of cake and took a small bite. Miraculously, the cake transformed into a pure soul force as soon as it entered her mouth, merging into her skeleton. There was no tragic scene of cake crumbs passing through the skeleton and falling to the ground.

She could clearly feel her soul filling up, her bones warming comfortably as if basking in the sun. Her magic power was also rapidly increasing. If this were a game, she would definitely see the mana bar rapidly replenishing.

"Amazing!" Jiang You muttered as he looked at the berry pancake in his hand. "It's worthy of being a cake specially used for sacrifices. This pancake is at least equivalent to three balls of soul fire!"

"Not bad, isn't it~" Aunt Wolf said happily, "This is also an old recipe passed down from my ancestors! The ingredients are pure, and it is much more useful than those on the market that use flour to make up the numbers! Phantom berries are easy to grow, but soul grass is really hard to grow. I also got the raw materials from Holly.

"Many people, for convenience, use ordinary flour mixed with a few phantom berries to make scones, which are barely edible to both the undead and humans. If you ask me, it's probably because most of the undead are in a daze and have forgotten how to speak, otherwise they would definitely complain bitterly about these shoddy offerings."

She glanced at Jiangyou and said, "Xiaoyou, if you like to eat this, I'll have Holly plant more phantom berries and soul grass... Hey, can the cicadas eat this?"

Jiang You didn't know this either, but they baked two large pots of cakes, and they wouldn't need so much to worship Mi You. Jiang You wrapped a dozen pieces in oil paper and planned to give them to Alexi and the others to try later.

Her hands were packing the pastries skillfully, and her mouth was not idle either. She confirmed the customs and procedures of the Ghost Festival with Aunt Wolf.

It's simple. According to Huntington custom, Ghost Festival begins at 3 p.m., the legendary "demon hour." Before 3 p.m., people dress in festive attire, dressing as ghosts or monsters, donning silver masks to conceal their faces and sachets of incense to mask any trace of the living.

Then they will place offering candles and the deceased's relics at the worship site before 5 pm to establish a connection of offerings, and when night falls, they will place the offerings and formally light the candles to invite the deceased's souls from the underworld to enjoy the offerings to their heart's content.

——Of course, whether this invitation will be accepted by the dead and whether anyone can be invited actually depends on luck.