Dimensional Slime Rancher-Chapter 10: A combat item from a slime breeder?!

"What did you just say?!" Xiaoyi was incredibly unhappy as she yelled, glaring at Zhao Feng while fiercely pouting her lips.

"How could those ugly, smelly rhinos from the Beast Tamer Sect compare to Boss Ren’s entire shop? Is Naked Zhao an idiot? Does he really understand what the Dimensional Ranch is selling? Even though a Blood-Ape is a high-tier monster, it’s just a dumb brute that knows how to punch things. That’s not even comparable to a jar of purifying Hydro Slime!" Xiaoyi thought, her small fists clenched tightly.

"Ouyang Xiaoyi, did I say something factually wrong? How much could a lazy merchant located in a godforsaken alleyway be worth anyway?" Zhao Feng said with a sneer, ignoring the little girl’s furious, protective gaze.

"Hmph! Your words just exposed the pathetic fact that you’ve never actually managed to buy any of Boss Ren’s beasts!" Xiaoyi snorted and disdainfully turned her head away.

"If you had really felt the purity of their Qi, then you wouldn’t have said that. You can try asking my brothers, who have actually touched a slime, and see if their answer is as painfully ignorant as yours."

"Ignorance isn’t scary. What’s scary is that you’re acting like a proud peacock when you don’t know anything at all!"

Zhao Feng’s handsome, aristocratic face turned incredibly sour.

He was so exasperated by the verbal lashing that he almost vomited blood right there in the VIP section.

How did he not realize before that this supposedly ’adorable’ Ouyang Xiaoyi had such a venomous tongue?! A little girl with a mouth like that would definitely grow up to be a terrifying tyrant!

When Luo Qing, Luo Lan, and the Three Bears of Ouyang saw the utterly disgraced Zhao Feng, they could not help but burst out laughing.

This made Zhao Feng’s face turn even more sour, and he felt as if the entire noble section was laughing at his failure to secure a slime.

And exactly like he thought, Luo Qing and the rest were absolutely laughing at his arrogant ignorance.

"Esteemed guests, this is the ’Tyrant’s Brew’, a special spirit-wine gifted by the Beast Tamer Sect. Please, enjoy the spectacle." Several muscular, heavily scarred Sect disciples carrying massive iron jugs slowly approached the VIP tables, carelessly sloshing the dark, heavy wine into the nobles’ cups.

"The Tyrant’s Brew is so potent and in-demand that even the imperial city is only supplied with a hundred jugs each year at most. This time, Sect Elder Gu took out fifty jugs to celebrate their exhibition. You people should properly taste such a masculine, powerful wine that you would never be able to find in that pathetic, effeminate little slime shop!"

Zhao Feng lifted his heavy iron cup, trying to salvage his pride with a sneer.

Luo Lan and the Three Bears of Ouyang were already captivated by the aggressive, spicy aroma of the wine.

"Hmph! Who told you that Boss Ren only sells soft, bouncy things? He’s literally synthesizing a new combat item right now!" Not wanting to admit defeat or let her boss be slandered, Xiaoyi proudly declared, remembering the glowing text on the menu yesterday.

Zhao Feng’s eyes lit up with malicious glee.

"Oh? A combat item from a slime breeder? Then let’s have a wager. How about we bet whether whatever joke of an item that store produces can compare with the raw destructive power of the Savage Blood-Ape?"

"Wager? Are you trying to gamble with our Little Sister?!" Before Xiaoyi could accept the bet, the Three Bears of Ouyang were infuriated, half-standing from their seats.

The Ouyang military clan had always been paying close attention to the disciplined education of their descendants and were especially fiercely protective of Xiaoyi.

Normally, they would be urging her to practice martial arts and military strategy to develop her into a virtuous, terrifying, army-crushing young woman.

"The first thing this Naked Zhao mentioned was a gambling wager; is he trying to corrupt our precious Little Sister?!" Ouyang Zhen growled, his hand resting on his greatsword.

"I’ll accept your wager," the Three Bears of Ouyang were about to physically prevent Xiaoyi from accepting the bet, but the usually quiet, icy Luo Qing suddenly opened her delicate lips and softly spoke.

Everyone in the VIP section was shocked that the Ice Goddess, Luo Qing, would voluntarily accept a petty wager with Zhao Feng over an alleyway shop.

"Excellent! And if the great Goddess of the Luo Clan loses, you will be accompanying me for a private moon-viewing banquet aboard my pleasure boat for a night. How about it?" Zhao Feng was elated. He just realized that even the reserved and cold-hearted Luo Qing could be impulsive when her pride was provoked.

Luo Qing faintly smiled. Her beautiful, frosty face was as pretty as a painting and utterly captivated anyone who dared to look at her.

"Fine. But if you lose, you will give me that Tier-4 Spirit Gathering Pill your father recently acquired," Luo Qing indifferently said. Her voice, which was usually as beautiful as wind chimes, sounded like a cracking glacier as it resounded in Zhao Feng’s ears.

"This... A Tier-4 Spirit Gathering Pill is a little..." Zhao Feng was visibly hesitating. Honestly speaking, wagering a priceless, high-tier cultivation pill that his father had given him was not something he could casually afford to do.

"You coward! You were so full of hot air when you were trying to bully my sister into a wager. Now that the Goddess is challenging you, you’re acting like a whipped dog? Are you looking down on my sister’s shop, or are you just broke?" Ouyang Zhen shouted, pointing a massive, accusing finger at Zhao Feng.

"He’s terrified of losing," Xiaoyi said with a smug sneer as she crossed her small arms across her chest.

Lose? Would he really lose? Would the calculating, pragmatic Zhao Feng, who had studied the Art of War since childhood, really be afraid of losing to a puddle of blue jelly... No, how could he possibly lose against a Savage Blood-Ape?

"I accept! There is absolutely no way that a slime shop can produce anything capable of rivaling a true war-beast," Zhao Feng said with a heavy snort, slamming his cup on the table.

As the grand exhibition and the political wagers were ongoing in the plaza, Ren was merrily whistling a tune in the Workshop.

He took out a massive, frozen slab of meat prepared by the System from the cryo-fridge.

The reward for reaching Foundation Establishment wasn’t just the Quantum Splicer; the System had also provided a blueprint for ’Stellar-Dust Nutrient Paste’. But Ren, being a gamer at heart, decided to experiment.

He wanted to make something that wasn’t just nutritious, but actually tasted good. He was making ’Void-Spiced Ribs’ as a treat for himself.

The prime rib placed on the obsidian cutting board was not ordinary pork.

The fat and tender ribs were glowing slightly with ambient spirit energy, and the marbling was clear and intricate, like a cosmic nebula. It was obviously not an earthly ingredient.

"This meat comes from a Tier-5 spirit beast that roams the asteroid belts of the Centauri-9 Dimension, the Comet Boar. It was named for its incredible speed in a vacuum. The meat around its spine is not only fresh and tender, but is heavily saturated with raw kinetic energy. The quality is flawless."

"The meat of a Tier-5 dimensional beast... This is absurdly precious," Ren’s eyes lit up as he picked up a laser-scalpel and tried to cut the prime ribs. Surprisingly, the ribs remained completely intact, and the physical rebound force even caused Ren’s Foundation Establishment-enhanced arm to go slightly numb.

"As expected, the density of a space-faring beast is truly extraordinary..." Ren said with a sigh.

He channeled his true energy into the scalpel, the blade humming with a lethal blue light, and continued to persevere in chopping the meat...

After separating the cosmic ribs into individual pieces, he coated them in a synthesized Stardust batter.

As the pieces of meat were quickly flash-fried in the thermal synthesizer, the batter on the exterior started to rapidly turn a crispy, golden yellow, while the kinetic energy trapped inside sizzled and popped.

Very quickly, a glowing, tangerine-colored sweet and spicy glaze was prepared. Ren tossed the hot ribs in the glaze, ensuring every single piece was perfectly coated.

Placing the glowing pieces of meat onto a sleek, white polymer plate, a delicious, aromatic, and slightly dangerous-looking plate of Void-Spiced Ribs was completed.

A sweet, spicy, and heavily energized fragrance was drifting in the air, continuously rushing into Ren’s nasal cavities, making him unable to help but swallow his saliva.

Grabbing a pair of chopsticks, Ren carried the plate out to the lobby.

As he walked, the intense fragrance would constantly drift to his face, causing him to salivate and increasing his eagerness to enjoy his hard-earned lunch.

The fragrance of the Void-Spiced Ribs was incredibly rich.

Unit 02, the mechanical dog lying under the counter, was in sleep mode, but its optical sensors suddenly flared bright red.

Within an instant, the robotic dog scrambled out from under the desk.

And so, as Ren was just about to send a juicy, glowing piece of rib into his mouth, he realized that a pair of glowing mechanical eyes were intensely staring at... the piece of meat clasped between his chopsticks.