Chapter 719 – Dreamweaver World 57

Chapter 719 – Dreamweaver World 57

Why bother someone else when you can handle it yourself? What could be more suitable than the kitchen tools inside her Mobile Kitchen Card?

Those old companions had followed her for many years. Long steeped in her Mana, they had developed a spiritual awareness and were deeply attached to her.

By now, even without her actively controlling them with Mana, they could independently complete the preparation of some simple dishes.

Mo Lan was also curious to see what difference there would be between taming the shadows of kitchen tools that had been infused with her Mana and developed a spiritual connection with her, versus taming the shadows of ordinary kitchen tools.

Based on the relationship between shadows and their original bodies, it should theoretically be much easier.

Driven by curiosity, she got out of bed immediately, went to the Living Room — the largest space available — cleared out all the furniture, and materialized her Mobile Kitchen Card.

The moment the kitchen tools appeared, they stirred with excitement.

The cleaver trembled lightly on the cutting board, the stew pot lid clattered with a “click-clack, click-clack,” as if complaining that their master hadn’t summoned them in so long.

Mo Lan could even sense a vague wave of emotion — a concerned feeling tinged with grievance, asking whether she had been eating properly lately.

During the day recently, she had either been making do with a gourmet card for her meals or ordering Canaan City food delivery online. After entering the dream realm at night, her eating became even simpler. On the rare occasions she cooked, she did it by hand. It had indeed been a very long time since she’d used the Mobile Kitchen Tool Card.

“Alright, alright,” she said with an amused smile, soothing them. “I’ll find something for you all to do right now.”

Mo Lan crooked her finger, and the cleaver that had accompanied her for so long obediently flew into her palm.

Under the dim lamplight, the cleaver’s shadow was clearly visible.

She had already summoned her Mana, preparing to tame the cleaver’s shadow the same way she would an ordinary inanimate object’s shadow — shaping the Power of Shadow into a blade to slice and then stitch the shadow back together.

But just as the “blade” was about to fall, she suddenly stopped — the cleaver was trembling ever so slightly. Not the trembling of fear, but an affectionate quiver, like a pet nuzzling against its owner’s palm.

A thought suddenly occurred to Mo Lan.

It was true that inanimate objects in the dream realm possessed no subjective consciousness — this was proven by the fact that their shadows could be tamed without any resistance whatsoever.

The reason for cutting an inanimate object’s shadow into pieces and then stitching it back together during taming was to imprint the shadow with one’s own mark, so it could be driven by the will of one’s Power of Shadow and in turn move the original body to perform tasks.

But her kitchen tools were different. Having been steeped in her Mana for so long, they had already developed a unique spiritual awareness and were deeply attached to her. In a sense, they were already somewhat like the shadows of low-intelligence creatures.

She gently ran her fingers along the blade, and the cleaver immediately emitted a pleased hum.

“Directly cutting and taming would certainly work…” Mo Lan murmured to herself. The Power of Shadow gathered at her fingertips gradually dissipated as she suddenly realized something: “These kitchen tools’ spiritual awareness was born from her Mana. If she crudely cut their shadows, it would very likely damage that precious spirituality. After all, many books have emphasized: when a shadow is damaged, the original body is inevitably affected.”

Her gaze swept across the kitchen. The rolling pin was gently rolling back and forth on the cutting board, and the spatula’s handle had turned eagerly toward her. These adorable kitchen tools had long been expressing their attachment to her in every way they could.

Why was it that taming a living creature’s shadow almost never preserved the original body? Because once a creature’s shadow was successfully tamed and imprinted, the original body was essentially ruined. Controlling the original body through its shadow was only temporary, but once a shadow was tamed, it changed masters permanently.

“Maybe I can try that method!” Mo Lan recalled a bold hypothesis from Mo Lan recalled a bold hypothesis from 《New Theory on Symbiotic Taming》: when a living creature’s original body willingly accepts an owner, it should theoretically be possible to skip the step of cutting the shadow and directly imprint one’s mark upon it.

Though this was still an unverified hypothesis, wasn’t this the perfect opportunity to experiment?

Simply infusing Power of Shadow to leave one’s imprint was far gentler than cutting the shadow apart.

She took a deep breath and laid the cleaver flat on the work surface.

This time, she used no forceful methods whatsoever. Instead, she let the Power of Shadow seep into the cleaver’s shadow like a gentle mist.

The previously still shadow of the cleaver surged as if boiling. Slowly, Mo Lan felt a connection form between herself and the shadow. She effortlessly controlled it to “stand” up and grasp the handle of the cleaver’s original body.

“It worked!” Mo Lan felt a surge of delight. The sensation was similar to when she controlled the shadows of white-spotted earthworms and subterranean worms — perhaps even easier.

Because the cleaver seemed to have also “discovered” its own shadow under the guidance of her Power of Shadow, forming a connection with it.

Although it didn’t understand why its master’s commands were being transmitted through a dark shadow, that didn’t stop it from obediently floating over to the cutting board and performing chopping motions to demonstrate its abilities.

With both the shadow and the cleaver’s original body working in tandem, it was naturally far more convenient than having the shadow control the original body alone.

This taming method not only fully preserved the kitchen tools’ spiritual awareness but also achieved perfect coordination between shadow and original body.

As long as the kitchen tools were careful, even if other Shadow Hunters saw them, they would simply assume her shadow taming was exceptionally good, rather than suspecting there was anything unusual about the tools themselves.

Seeing this, the rolling pin immediately rolled over to her side, and the spatula hopped about impatiently — clearly all eager to receive the same “upgrade.”

The taming process was so effortless — basically requiring nothing more than infusing some Power of Shadow to “activate” their shadows — that Mo Lan went ahead and tamed the shadows of every single kitchen tool in the mobile kitchen, including the kitchen structure itself.

Once taming was complete, she converted them back into card form and stored them in the Book of Cards. They would be ready to take out and use once she entered the dream realm.

There was still some time before evening, so Mo Lan decided to continue expanding her shadow army.

After ransacking the Shadow Grocery Shop, she had no shortage of corpse materials from the dream realm.

She largely followed the recommended taming order from 《Shadow Village Family Training Manual》, starting with small, non-intelligent creatures before gradually attempting medium and large intelligent ones.

Since these were all shadows from corpse materials, the shadows themselves no longer resisted. However, the more intelligent the creature had been in life, the more time and effort it took to cultivate a successfully tamed shadow to be as agile as the shadow of a living counterpart.

Fortunately, Mo Lan had long discovered that Power of Shadow amplified by psychic power helped these shadows become nimble much more quickly, saving her considerable time.

By the time night fell and she finished taming in preparation for entering the dream realm, she had already tamed several shadows from various insect corpse materials, assembling a shadow bug squad that was entirely her own.

At the same time, she had also developed a new type of card — the Shadow Summoning Card.

Although for now, these Shadow Summoning Cards contained only various insect shadows, as the number and variety of shadows she tamed grew, the selection would gradually become richer.