Chapter 39 The Third Landscape Painting

"Goodbye, Brother Zhou!"

Watching Zhou Tianhao's receding figure, Qin Lang waved vigorously until the other completely disappeared into the woods, before he and Danbao exchanged a knowing smile.

Thanks to Hongdou's guidance, Danbao had successfully grasped the two in-depth development directions of Blazing Breath: clustering and spinning.

Due to innate aptitude, its mastery of the former was lower than the latter, but Danbao now understood the principles and methods.

According to Zhou Tianhao, all Danbao needed to do next was engage in more targeted training and practice, and these two deeply developed battle techniques would soon come into play in actual combat.

For Qin Lang, Zhou Tianhao's guidance meant far more than this; it had also allowed him to catch a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg of senior Spirit Chefs for the first time.

"Next, we need to find the Crimson Land Lotus." Cradling Danbao in his arms, Qin Lang looked towards the upper reaches of the mountain stream.

The location where Zhou Tianhao had spotted the Crimson Land Lotus was further up the stream.

Slinging his backpack back on, Qin Lang carried Danbao and walked upstream along the bank.

"Danbao, don't slack off on your training."

"Gurulu?"

"Take advantage of the fact that I'm holding your body and controlling your head to spin. Don't stop until I tell you to."

"Gurulu?!"

"I'll make you egg fried rice when we get home, as much as you want."

"Gurulu!!!"

Watching Danbao spin diligently under the temptation of egg fried rice, the corners of Qin Lang's mouth curled into a smile.

So easy to coax.

At this moment, he felt somewhat fortunate that his very first food spirit's origin cuisine had been egg fried rice.

If he had used a state banquet masterpiece to birth a food spirit back then, he would never dare to promise an unlimited supply of origin cuisine.

For him at the current stage, being cheap and easy to feed was a huge advantage.

Walking and conducting special training along the way, Qin Lang and Danbao soon arrived at the patch of bushes with a relatively gentle slope that Zhou Tianhao had mentioned.

Without expending much effort, Qin Lang spotted a flash of crimson at the edge of the bushes.

When they drew closer, a flower standing over a meter tall with petals in a four-color gradient of crimson, orange-red, pink, and white appeared before their eyes.

This was precisely the Crimson Land Lotus he was looking for.

However...

Looking at another Crimson Land Lotus growing in twin-bloom right beside this one, Qin Lang's brows twitched slightly.

The Crimson Land Lotus in the landscape painting existed entirely alone, whereas these were twin-bloom lotuses, which clearly did not match.

Still, since this area could grow Crimson Land Lotuses, perhaps others could be found nearby.

Standing on the ground, his field of vision was obstructed, but Danbao could fly.

Thinking of this, Qin Lang looked at Danbao in his arms and gently patted its body. "You can stop now."

Danbao's high-speed spinning head gradually decelerated, finally coming to a wobbling stop, still looking somewhat dazed.

With an amused expression, Qin Lang stood in place and waited until Danbao had fully recovered before lifting it up with both hands.

"Fly up and overlook the surroundings from above, as high as you can."

"Gurulu~"

Danbao let out a soft cry, its body rapidly soaring into the high altitude.

"Tianshu lend your strength, guard!"

Qin Lang gave a low shout, and Astral Guardian activated rapidly.

Relying on the sensory-sharing ability brought by Astral Guardian, he borrowed Danbao's perspective to look down at the ground from high above.

Soon, another flash of crimson appeared in his sight.

"Danbao, follow me!"

Qin Lang shouted aloud, breaking into a run towards the direction he had seen.

Before long, a brand-new Crimson Land Lotus appeared before him.

Upon discovering it, Qin Lang also understood why he hadn't seen it earlier.

Because this Crimson Land Lotus happened to grow in a slight depression within the gentle slope, completely blocked by the surrounding bushes.

If not for Danbao observing from high altitude, it would have been truly difficult to discover.

Taking out his hand-drawn and copied landscape painting, Qin Lang shifted his gaze from the Crimson Land Lotus to the surroundings, and after a point-by-point comparison, his eyes lit up completely.

Right here!

All the surrounding scenery matched up!

With the experience from the first time, Qin Lang quickly found the right angle and stood firm.

"Swish—"

The familiar sound of page-turning rang out, making his expression grow even more excited.

Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, Qin Lang entered the introspective state.

The familiar Traveler's Tome floated right before his eyes.

With a wave of his hand, Qin Lang turned to the first landscape painting.

Following the removal of the Starlight Gem from the back of the first page, only a blank black page remained.

Immediately after was the second landscape painting.

At this moment, the second landscape painting had been replaced by the real scenery within his field of vision, with a small green checkmark added at the bottom.

Cautiously turning the page, the back of the second painting appeared before Qin Lang's eyes.

It was likewise a purely black page, but the sole item in the center of the page was not the Starlight Gem he had anticipated, but rather a scroll-like object with the four characters "Light Sleep Fragrance" engraved on its side.

"This is..." Qin Lang couldn't help drawing a sharp breath.

"A battle technique learning prop?!"

Because he had been planning to let Danbao try learning a self-taught battle technique, Qin Lang had looked up relevant information after his sparring match with Zhao Qin that day.

Battle technique learning props took the form of scrolls, which could be temporarily absorbed into a food spirit's body to assist in learning battle techniques.

Recognizing that the reward of the second landscape painting was a battle technique learning prop, Qin Lang quickly realized another issue.

His previous understanding of the Traveler's Tome had a certain misconception.

The reward obtained by finding the corresponding location of a landscape painting was not necessarily a Starlight Gem, but could also be other items related to food spirits.

Bad news: Danbao wouldn't advance to one-star quite so quickly.

Good news: It could learn a self-taught battle technique.

Taking a deep breath, Qin Lang turned his gaze to the third landscape painting, which had unlocked accordingly.

The next instant, his expression turned blank.

Both the first and second landscape paintings in the Traveler's Tome had featured iconic objects; the former was a statue, and the latter was a plant.

These two shared a characteristic: they were immobile.

However, the third landscape painting featured a sleeping chicken.

No, calling it a chicken might not be quite appropriate.

Because its roly-poly appearance was vastly different from real chickens, and it wore half an eggshell on its backside like a pair of pants.

Anything that could grow like this was definitely not a chicken.

"A food spirit that looks somewhat like a chicken?" Qin Lang frowned deeply.

This time, things might get a bit troublesome.

Food spirits were born from dishes cooked by Spirit Chefs, and every different dish could potentially birth a completely different-looking food spirit.

The only clue was probably that the ingredient for this dish might be chicken.

Trying to find a food spirit identical to the one in the landscape painting based on this meager clue was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

The difficulty of finding it this time was by no means comparable to the previous two landscape paintings.

Find clues from outside the food spirit?

Qin Lang observed the background in the landscape painting and chose to give up.

Backgrounds of such common flowers and grasses could be found everywhere in the wilderness.

Pondering for a moment, Qin Lang exited his introspective state.

Casually, he took out the still-warm battle technique learning prop.