Chapter 297: Perfecting

**Night of the Celestial Witches!**

As darkness gradually enveloped the orchard sandbox, night descended once more.

Outside Xu Zhi's back window, a quaint European-style town with elegant buildings bustled with people hurrying along dust-filled streets. The air felt heavy, as if suppressed by the darkness. Fifty years of night and day cycles, symbolizing ill omens, compelled many to quickly return to their homes.

"War has begun."

"That world? Unbelievable!"

"Oh my god! Day and night every day? How is that possible!? A world like that, so beautiful, so desirable."

"They don't deserve such a beautiful world!"

Inside the Tavern of the Night Goddess, professionals, cloaked and dressed in dark brown attire, drank ale, watched seductive dancers, played Gwent, and chatted continuously. Even some white-robed church priests were drinking.

"Every time it gets dark, the ruckus outside the window is so loud, how can anyone eat?" Xu Zhi chewed his food in the living room, his expression as calm as if commenting on a downstairs couple being too noisy.

He was already a strong individual, capable of hearing too far. Due to the terrifying flow of time, their voices overlapped, sounding like a swarm of buzzing flies. He simply muted his hearing, continued dining in the house, and contemplated the present situation.

"This ultra-small gourmet world is truly a rising star. Now that their gathering places have been dispersed, these 'Gourmet Hunters'—both hunters of food and captives of its allure—can begin to be self-sufficient, explore the world, research cuisine, and advance potential gourmet species..."

Didn't they want an online game? To slay monsters and level up? Now their desires are being fulfilled.

Though incredibly real and hardcore to the point of making one's scalp tingle, after all, how is reality a game? Most people would find it difficult to survive in such a harsh jungle environment. Not everyone is Bear Grylls, crunching on anything and everything. Moreover, there are various first- and second-tier gourmet creatures that might also see them as food and hunt them in turn.

But even if they all die off, it's not a problem. Another batch will enter in the next fighting tournament. After all, due to the time flow in the Wizard community, a tournament is tentatively held every week.

For now, he just had to wait for them to quietly develop and see what changes would occur. Civilization needs time to brew and evolve. This matter had just begun, and could be set aside for now.

As he thought, he finished his dinner, an unprecedented culinary feast that brought him unspeakable happiness.

Food was a crucial part of life. The joy of savoring this pleasure, the sense of happiness, even surpassed the feeling of having opened up a new system in another supernatural world or having advanced a long-anticipated civilization.

Creating worlds and evolving civilizations was for the sake of becoming stronger, but in essence, wasn't becoming stronger ultimately for the purpose of making one's own life better?

With the gourmet world established, there were now just two words: pure ease! The novelty was immense. To have an entire world as his personal kitchen, where every meal could feature all sorts of novel, delicious, and unique dishes—it was truly a food lover's ultimate dream!

And the Phoenix Spirit Tea he had finished earlier? He now had something even better. He could finally stop harboring resentment and trying to find ways to brew Phoenix tea again.

He tossed his changed clothes into the washing machine to tumble, then went to take a shower, the water splashing down. He silently sensed what was happening within his body.

Haha!

A man was practicing martial arts in a lush forest, his body brimming with surging blood energy, completely absorbed in intense training.

At this moment, he was honing the combat abilities of the Ancestral Witch system, suppressing his cultivation level to fight against jungle beasts at the same realm.

He was expressionless, seemingly devoid of emotion or desire, merely practicing combat mechanically. Precisely because of his lack of emotion, every training movement was incredibly precise and repetitive, transforming into combat muscle memory.

But this was only a façade, the hollow shell of a technique. Next, he sought out a wild beast to fight. His close-quarters combat skills in real battle were crude, that of a novice, difficult to apply flexibly, as Xu Zhi had previously only cultivated the Wizard system, making him a mage.

One day, two days...

Life in the jungle was exceptionally monotonous: injury, recovery, injury, recovery.

Inside the massive house, a slime was kept, habitually resting on his head. "Hey! You combat maniac, can you even talk? Let me teach you!"

She tried to communicate, hoping to persuade this peculiar giant creature and even turn him into her own fighting force, so she could rampage freely.

But she had clearly misjudged. Although the mirrored clone possessed intelligence, it was merely a tool, completely immune to persuasion. A being without emotions or desires could not be swayed.

"Do you have any other kin?"

No sound.

The giant's hair had by now been intricately braided into small pigtails, then coiled into a lump. Tree branches were propped up as a frame, transforming it into a black bird's nest. The slime had made a ceiling, windows, and a doorway on top, essentially creating a tiny house.

"Hey, hey, are you looking for a woman?" The slime wiggled its body, its muddy mass struggling to form a shapely figure. It tried to twist into the form of a beautiful woman, but just as it managed to hold a human shape, it deflated with a 'plop' and became a soft blob of mud again. "Damn it! There are some things even I, Ditto, can't transform into!"

Argh!!!

She completely lost her mind, feeling utterly defeated.

"Oh right, do you want to learn how to cook tonight?" she muttered, regaining her composure.

This giant was a combat maniac, his rampant slaughter resulting in an abundance of food, which provided her with ample opportunity to practice. As a true culinary enthusiast, her skill naturally improved very quickly.

Thump, thump, thump!

The giant quickly sprinted, his towering physique luring a large, shadowy pack of wolves.

"Holy cow, you're going to get us killed! If you die, fine, but I definitely can't die!" the chef perched on his scalp yelled, "You're pulling too many monsters at once! Kite them, quick, kite them!"

Splash!

The showerhead sprayed water downwards.

"Idiot." Seeing this scene while showering, Xu Zhi smiled nonchalantly, treating it merely as entertainment. "Bringing a player in was like stirring up a hornet's nest. Sooner or later, someone would come to 'rescue the beauty'."

He emerged, shirtless, draped in a white towel. His physique was lean and robust, and his expression remained calm. "For now, the matter of the Wizard community's grand tournament, with the opening of the gourmet world, had temporarily dealt with those troublesome 'livestock' players. It was like opening up a larger, free sandbox, a complete success that had further perfected the structure of his orchard. However, matters on the other side did not cease. The Wizard World and the Ancient Barren World were now completely connected."

He lay down on the comfortable, spacious white bed, pulled up the covers, turned off the bedside lamp, and silently sensed the sandbox world on the other side. "He'd have to go in there sometime. Perhaps in the future, the two worlds—the surface and underground—might even completely merge."