Three hundred and fifty gold coins is no small sum. There are four types of currency across the entire continent: copper coins, silver coins, gold coins, and purple gold coins. The exchange rate between copper and silver coins is decimal-based, while silver, gold, and purple gold coins use a centesimal system. Three hundred and fifty gold coins would be enough for an average family of four to live on for quite a long time.

Brian Carter bought enough medicinal cuisine ingredients to make multiple servings of Black Jade Eight Delicacies. Brian Carter planned to prepare some Black Jade Eight Delicacies for sale—this is a truly valuable item and is sure to fetch a good price.

Even the sales channel, Brian Carter had already figured out.

The Yun family of Zilan City.

The Yun family owns the largest auction house in Zilan City, which auctions all kinds of valuable goods. Generally, only items valued at over one thousand gold coins are likely to appear on the auction tables.

However, Brian Carter did not intend to use his connection with Yun Shuiyan. He planned to contact the Yun family auction house directly. Of course, his identity would need to be kept secret; otherwise, it could easily attract trouble.

Carrying all the packed medicinal cuisine ingredients, Brian Carter found a restaurant and rented its kitchen.

Preparing medicinal cuisine is not like being an apothecary, which requires a highly specialized place and a lot of professional equipment. It depends more on the operator—the medicinal cuisine chef.

Chapter 10: The Yun Family Auction

A deep familiarity with the effects of each medicinal cuisine ingredient, mastery of the outcomes of any combination of ingredients, and a keen awareness of the rhythm, timing, and potential issues during the preparation process—all of these place extremely high demands on a medicinal cuisine chef.

Even if you know the recipe, if you don’t understand the key points or lack the necessary skills, you still won’t be able to make the dish. For example, the eight medicinal cuisine ingredients needed for the Black Jade Eight Delicacies that Brian Carter wanted to make are known to many chefs, but now, almost no one can actually prepare the Black Jade Eight Delicacies. Medicinal cuisine has largely become a service for ordinary people, used for health maintenance or daily care, which is also why the Medicinal Cuisine Guild has declined and been completely overshadowed by the Apothecary Guild.

Brian Carter washed everything he needed thoroughly, then took out the ingredients and began the initial preparations.

By the time all the ingredients were ready, half a day had passed. Even this stage is full of intricacies—for example, the green horse stalk must be cut into segments exactly one-third in length, no longer and no shorter; the black jade grass must be separated stalk by stalk, and any leaves that don’t meet a certain tenderness must be removed...

Any small oversight or mistake could lead to the failure of the entire dish.

If it weren’t so, with so many medicinal cuisine chefs knowing the recipe, why would none of them be able to make the Black Jade Eight Delicacies?

Igniting a roaring fire, Brian Carter took a deep breath and replayed the successful process of making the Black Jade Eight Delicacies in his mind before finally starting to work.

The first attempt—failure!

The reason: the eight-leaf blue was added too early, causing the medicinal properties to not fully develop.

Looking at the failed product, Brian Carter felt a pang of pain in his heart—these were gold coins, after all, now wasted!

The second attempt—failure!

The black jade grass was overcooked...

The third attempt—failure!

The eight-leaf blue and winter leaf flower were not mixed evenly...

Brian Carter's expression grew increasingly grave. Although he had successfully made it once in virtual space, actually doing it in reality was still fraught with difficulties.

Reflecting on his repeated failures, Brian Carter slowly exhaled, his gaze gradually becoming resolute once more.

Again!

...

By the time the sun was already leaning westward, Brian Carter finally walked out of the kitchen, his face showing a hint of delight.

Although he failed three times in a row at the start and had more failures during the process, his success rate kept improving. In total, he made sixteen attempts, failed six times, and succeeded ten times, producing ten servings of Black Jade Eight Delicacies.

He packed the Black Jade Eight Delicacies into small porcelain bottles specially designed for storing such dishes, which he had purchased from the Medicinal Cuisine Guild. These bottles are treated with special medicines, allowing the food to be stored long-term without losing its efficacy.

Carrying the packaged Black Jade Eight Delicacies, Brian Carter found a restaurant and hastily ate something.

Night had already fallen, and lanterns were lit all over Zilan City.

Brian Carter wore a hat, had a small mustache stuck under his nose and on his chin, and quietly carried the ten servings of Black Jade Eight Delicacies into the Yun family’s largest auction house in Zilan City—the Ziyun Auction House.

The auction house has a special area for consigning items for auction. As soon as Brian Carter walked in, an auction house attendant respectfully greeted him.

“Sir, how may I assist you?”

The attitude was respectful and courteous—such attention to detail from even a regular attendant was a testament to the success of the Ziyun Auction House.

Brian Carter smiled slightly and handed the package he was carrying to the attendant. “I would like to consign these items to your auction house for sale.”

The young attendant carefully took the package from Brian Carter, glanced at it, and did not rush to open it. Instead, he smiled and asked, “Sir, may I ask what items you wish to auction?”