CHAPTER 598: CHAPTER 597: TIANJI STAR WU FAMILY

Xia Yu was browsing the IGO food ingredient store on his smartphone.

There are nine recipes, which are—

"Big Blast Fried Pork," "Flame Roasted Suckling Pig," "A Song of Ice and Fire," and "Xia’s Seven Kingdoms United Fried Noodles."

"Nine Feathered Phoenix," "Flame Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage," "Beef, Pork, and Poultry Blood Sausage," and "Shuangjiang Magical Mapo Tofu."

The ninth and final dish is "Simplified Gold and Jade."

Without a doubt, Xia Yu had deliberately selected some recipes with simple ingredients and easy cooking techniques.

The only one that really used Forbidden Ingredients was "Simplified Gold and Jade," which required "Gem Meat" and "Five-headed Bird Eggs," while the "Star Rice" was gloriously omitted.

In Xia Yu’s opinion, since the ’Qi’ pairing with cooking skills was not quite stable, choosing easy-to-cook recipes was always safe, and besides, who says simple dishes can’t be better than complicated ones?

Humph.

Just you wait, Xia Yu was going to show these guests what he meant by "evolved ’Luminous Cuisine’."

He ordered a batch of ingredients from the IGO store, selected to have them delivered within 30 minutes, and paid extra for transportation and labor. After scanning the assignment information again, he felt everything was more or less okay.

"That’s that," he nodded to himself.

"Hey, can I help with anything?"

A woman’s voice from behind, unfamiliar and unexpected.

Who are you?

Xia Yu turned around to see a strange woman with a cheerful smile.

His gaze swept over the paper umbrella in her arms, and his brain finally sparked with recognition. Glancing swiftly at private room number 2, he noticed that one person from the Dark World group was, indeed, missing, and the remaining six were looking over with a sort of schadenfreude.

"Oh, and you are?" Xia Yu asked with a smile on his face.

"Wu Yingying."

The woman introduced herself quite naturally, "A good friend of Aqiong... and also, I’m one of the ’Five Chinese Talents!’"

When mentioning the ’Five Chinese Talents,’ Wu Yingying emphasized her words with a hint of aggression.

Xia Yu heard this and frowned slightly.

"No need for help, are you placing an order?" He pointed to the rack in front of him, where nine signs swung slightly in the evening breeze.

Wu Yingying shook her head and looked at him, her beautiful eyes sparkling with an unusual light.

"Me? I’m a descendant of the Tianji Star of the Wu Family; I was born with the brand of the Dark Cuisine World."

She rambled on.

Tianji Star?

A flicker of realization appeared in Xia Yu’s eyes—no wonder the name Liangshan Wu Family sounded familiar. It was indeed that pitfall of the Tianji Star.

In the Chinese Dark Cooking World, there had originally been one hundred and eight top Lin Chefs. At that time, being a Lin Chef was a unique title and status within the Dark World, and was not considered a formal chef ranking.

Thus, those one hundred and eight ’pits’ were divided into the thirty-six ’Tiangang’ and seventy-two ’Evil Stars.’

And among these, the pit of the Tianji Star ranked near the front.

Simply put, the ancestors of Tianji Star’s Wu Family were the strongest chefs just below the ’Five Tiger Stars’ of the Dark World.

"And then what?"

Xia Yu watched her carefully. Although the woman was beautiful, he was unmoved. After all, he’d been surrounded by too many angelic-faced girls.

"And then... I want to challenge you!"

Wu Yingying took a deep breath and declared loudly, attracting many astonished gazes.

As she spoke, her shoulders trembled with excitement and eagerness.

"To defeat you would prove that I’m stronger than Li Han and Aqiong!" Wu Yingying clenched her fists, her eyes ablaze with intense challenge and competition.

"This is the Dark World calling out to the Light Realm—"

"The younger generation of the Dark World surpasses that of the Light Realm, and the future will see the Dark World leading the Chinese Cuisine World!"

Xia Yu looked at the woman amusingly, finding the situation funny.

This lady sure had an imagination.

"Are you sure?"

If it were any other challenge, so be it, but this time the opponent was from the Dark World and a member of the "Eight-faced Tower Team." Xia Yu guessed there might be some instructions from the two Lin Giants.

The seven individuals had stopped at Xia’s Restaurant for an entire day, their intentions unclear. Xia Yu couldn’t be bothered to think too much about it, and simply treated Wu Yingying’s challenge as a collective decision by the members of the Eight-faced Tower.

A man’s reputation is like a tree’s shadow.

By choosing to make a strong appearance in the Sapporo competition, Xia Yu was not afraid of any challenge!

"Show me your best dish..."

Without further ado, he passed his phone to Wu Yingying, "Order whatever ingredients you need yourself."

Wu Yingying took the phone without any politeness.

"You have your nine recipes, and I also have nine!" She glanced at the nine wooden plaques on the shelf, her silver teeth lightly biting her lip, a determined spark flashing in her eyes, "We’ll serve the dishes together, and tonight’s diners are all judges!"

"Oh?"

"So it’s like a nine-round duel?" Xia Yu laughed heartily, "Show your strongest cooking skills; otherwise, don’t blame me for not warning you... you might lose all nine rounds, and then don’t come crying to me!"

Wu Yingying wrinkled her cute nose, "Lose all nine rounds? Impossible!"

With a snort, she buried her head in ordering the ingredients.

"Come over—"

Zhu Qing, who had been watching the whole process, finally pulled Xia Yu into a corner of the courtyard, slapping him on the shoulder with an air of feigned seniority, "Yu, I want you to go all out on her!"

Xia Yu felt a headache coming on, "What do you mean ’go all out’? Use the words correctly, it’s ’trample!’"

"Go all out and trample... Is there a difference?"

Originally just teasing, Zhu Qing’s smile twitched at the response.

"In any case, just defeat her," Zhu Qing said, his smile fading, a hint of coldness in his eyes, "Hmph, Tianji Star’s Wu Family is now an enemy of both the Xia and Zhu Families. The old man and the Wu Family’s Mount Tai are bound to have a culinary showdown!"

"Enemy?" Xia Yu was quite surprised; this was the first time, he had heard about the Xia Family’s situation in the Chinese Cuisine World from Zhu Qing.

"It’s been a grudge for over a decade..."

Zhu Qing’s eyes were complex, and he did not plan to elaborate.

"Does she know about this?"

"She might know, she might not, who can be sure?"

Xia Yu felt choked up.

"So what does the Dark World really want by coming here?" He was very puzzled.

"That’s why, to figure out their intentions, we start with an initial show of strength, a deterrent, which is always a good idea, right?" Zhu Qing smacked his shoulder again, even attempting a hair-ruffling gesture, but withdrew hand sheepishly under Xia Yu’s stern gaze.

"An initial show of strength... a deterrent?"

A feeling called excitement suddenly burgeoned within Xia Yu’s heart.

Challenging giants like Yan Mo and the red-clothed Lin Giant seemed quite tempting.

...

The ingredients for Xia Yu and Wu Yingying were delivered within half an hour.

During that half hour, the subsidiary welcomed quite a few distinguished guests.

Shinohara, Aoki, Reiko—the trio from IGO.

Luther and his inspection team were settled on the second floor. Notably, "The Rejuvenator" Adelaide the Third also arrived. After the introduction, Xia Yu learned that the smoky-makeup girl Cecilia was actually Adelaide’s younger sister, no wonder she had such a special status and slightly arrogant personality.

"The Rejuvenator" family appeared distinguished in the eyes of IGO and the global cuisine world.

"Chef Xia, regarding the ’Fecund Seed’, let’s discuss it after the meal..."

Adelaide left a meaningful sentence before heading upstairs with his sister.

Thump thump!

There was another knock on the door.

Kobayakawa Ryodan went to open the door, and soon laughter filled the courtyard.

"Chef Xia—"

An excited shout. Far Moon graduate Qian Rixiangzi flew in, stopping in front of the open kitchen, her eyes shimmering as she gazed at Xia Yu with adoration, "You’re really amazing! In the Sapporo competition, you actually defeated so many tough opponents, Mars, Tiqie Ji... oh they’re all so strong!"

"Back off!" Shigong Xiaoci Lang’s forehead throbbed with veins; he slapped Qian Rixiangzi on the back of the head, dragging away the overenthusiastic girl who lacked the demeanor of a graduate.

The other graduates, Sekishou Hei, Mizuhara Fuyumi, Kazasaki Tatsuki, and Kikuchi Sankaku, among others, instinctively blocked Qian Rixiangzi behind them and came forward to greet Xia Yu one by one.