Chapter 14: The (Abuse) of the Crucible of Time
The crystal clear glutinous rice that has absorbed enough water becomes soft and sticky after being steamed. It is sticky yet a little chewy and tastes great.
The sweet syrup overflowing from the candied fruit and the particularly rich rose aroma have thoroughly permeated every grain of glutinous rice. As you chew, the sweet rice fragrance and the aroma of nectar gradually bloom in your mouth...
One is sweet, the other fragrant, blending into a mutually fulfilling and integrated beauty. It is simply a fierce and blissful attack on both the senses of smell and taste.
After taking a bite, the delicious rice ball instantly injected sufficient energy into his hungry body and tired soul - it was just like the first time he learned how to fight, his whole body was filled with abundant energy and he wanted to go out and run ten laps in a row.
Glutinous rice is a very filling food. The first bite is extremely delicious, but the second bite will often make you feel bored and tired.
But he took another bite, and tasted the rose and plum preserves. The tart, sweet, slightly pungent, and overflowing with floral and fruity aromas burst in his mouth, instantly dispelling any cloying taste. The saltiness of the sprinkled salt, far from disrupting the harmony of sweetness and fragrance, blended seamlessly into the mix, like the twinkling stars in the night sky, the cinnamon on an apple tart, the black pepper on a steak...
"The finishing touch." He murmured.
This seemingly ordinary rice ball was so delicious that before he realized what had happened, one of the rice balls had disappeared inexplicably in his hand.
He simply couldn't stop, one mouthful after another, one after another... When he came to his senses, the three rice balls had already slid smoothly down his throat without him noticing, and were all swallowed, without even a grain of rice left.
Andre: "..." Wait, what just happened? Why is he eating at the suspect's house and eating so happily?!
The dark-haired Knight of the Kingdom licked his sweet lips with relish, a rare flicker of confusion and hesitation in his emerald eyes. He silently condemned his own weakness and cast several detection spells on himself: detecting curses, detecting poison, preventing and removing enchantment and mental confusion...
After a series of operations, he finally concluded: everything was normal. The lich had simply given him a few incredibly delicious rice balls that hadn't been tampered with in any way...
He turned to look at the skeleton, only to find that she had somehow crouched before a huge cauldron, filling it with layers of glutinous rice and rose petals. For some reason, a cylindrical hole had been left in the middle of the pot of rice...
"When making fermented rice wine, you have to keep the container and tools completely clean, free of oil and water..." While the lich was operating, he was also trying to teach his useless follower Jericho - this kid had obviously been bribed by those rice balls and had been bewitched and entered a state of 'whatever you say is right'.
——It’s really useless!
Andre thought angrily, then he couldn't help licking the corner of his mouth, and couldn't help savoring the sweet taste of roses.
...Well, he himself is a piece of shit with zero self-control.
He stood up and walked over to the two of them. He glanced at the magic crucible and his pupils suddenly trembled: "This, this is... the Crucible of Time?!"
This precious time artifact, capable of controlling the passage of time within the pot, is one of only three in the world! It's said that one belongs to the elusive Medicine Saint Serfu Les of a neighboring nation; another belongs to the Moon Worship Cult, a creature whose presence has eluded even his mother; and the third is lost in the world, its whereabouts unknown...
It actually fell into the hands of this lich! And he even used it to make sticky rice soup!
"Wait!" He couldn't help but shout, "Do you know what you're doing? This is the Crucible of Time!"
"I know~" Jiang You nodded, still looking cheerful. "I'm making rose wine~ This pot is so useful! It's supposed to ferment for a long time!"
She closed the lid and injected magical energy into the pot to activate the inscribed magic circle. "Now, just do this. Turn it to the lowest power and count 1, 2, 3..."
The pot made a dinging sound, and Jiangyou confidently lifted the lid. Immediately, the aroma of sweet wine and flowers wafted out of the pot.
The cylindrical hole that had just been left was now filled with pink-purple wine. The smell was extremely tempting. The alcohol content did not smell very high, and there was a rich sweetness.
Sugar and wine were considered luxuries for the nobility in this era. Even someone like Andrei, a member of the royal family, could not enjoy them anytime and anywhere. Seeing this lich simply "making" wine with glutinous rice, roses and a crucible that could be called a magical potion treasure was simply... a miracle!
Andre Lu Huntington, a genius who once resounded throughout the capital, graduated from the kingdom's first knight academy with a degree in both physical skills and magic, and was the most down-to-earth, hardworking, and knowledgeable knight in the kingdom, now felt that he could no longer understand this world.
"It's not just glutinous rice and roses," the lich kindly corrected him. "I also added homemade yeast... Oh, and the yeast is also fermented in this pot to speed up the fermentation. Otherwise, it would take a month or two. Also, wine is brewed, not made."
Andrei felt dizzy. "No...is that the point? The point is how this pot can be used to make wine, that...wine, koji?"
"Yeast is also made from fermentation." Jiang You pulled out a few large glass bottles from under the table. "Not only have I used this pot to make rose wine these days, I've also made preserved rose and sour plums... Oh, the one you just had...
"I also brew green plum wine and green plum vinegar. The green plums are picked from the trees in the backyard, which are also the raw materials for candied fruit."
Andrei fell completely silent. He wanted to say, "What a waste!", but the tangy aroma of wine made him swallow the words back... He himself preferred sugar and alcohol to those potions with all sorts of strange and confusing effects that always caused trouble and agitation...
So, after going around in circles, the words that finally came out of my mouth became: "Can I have a taste?"
As soon as he said this, even he himself was slightly surprised, and he couldn't help but want to cast a dozen detection spells on himself to find out what kind of poison... or spell he was infected with today.
The lich was delighted, his entire skeleton glowing with pink joy. "Of course! Mr. Knight is still on duty, right? Then I recommend trying this rose wine!"
"Don't worry, the alcohol content of freshly brewed rose wine is very low. It tastes like a sweet soup with a light alcoholic flavor. It will take a while for it to gradually become richer... Then you can filter it out and it will be real rice wine~"
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