CHAPTER 600: CHAPTER 599: THE NINE COURSES OF THE BANQUET (PART 2)

Flames?

In VIP Room No.1, Luther and Adelaide were casually talking with Tiqie Xianzuowen. Upon hearing the exclamation from outside, they stopped talking and looked over intently.

The room was well-lit, and the visibility was crystal clear. Everyone saw Xia Yu turning around. Amid the glowing red embers, he seemed to have pulled a chain. Clang, clang, clang—accompanied by the crisp ringing, a pot glowing bright yellow from the heat broke away from the ember pile and was placed atop a stove that had been set up in advance.

It seemed like an illusion; even after the pot had left the ember pile, a faint, undying flame continued to linger around it.

"Clang!"

With a shiny silver spatula, Xia Yu aimed a casual scoop at the red pot, immediately sparking a shower of fire.

Xia Yu stood by the stove just so.

A group of assistants came forward, carrying plates with either dried red chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, and the indispensable ginger, green onions, and garlic.

"Is it starting now?"

Chatter spilled from the second and third floors as the inspection team and the graduates crowded onto the terrace.

On the first floor, in VIP Room No.2, the six people from ’Eight Faces Building’ also got up one after another.

"Get a closer look!"

The bearded monk with a twirled mustache chuckled under his breath, patted his bottom, and strode out.

Lin Miao, the leader of the Five Mysterious Snakes and a top special chef judged by Dojima Yin and Saito Chiyokuro to be a formidable rival, also stood up. As he walked, his eyes were firmly fixed on the pot in front of Xia Yu.

The Lin Giant Yan Mo and the Red-clothed woman looked at each other. With more restraint, they stood arm in arm near the paper sliding door, where they had a more open view than inside the room.

"Wu Yingying is undoubtedly defeated," the Red-clothed woman chuckled softly.

"Yes, let’s just see how much she can push him," Yan Mo said with anticipation in his eyes. "After all, the Xia Family and the Tianji Star Wu Family have old grievances. Yingying is always clever; she wouldn’t be so rash... Her choice to challenge him now, rather than on the stage of the Sapporo competition, obviously means she wants a private contest and doesn’t plan to let personal enmity spill over into the team competition."

"Whether the grudges of the older generation will continue to the younger ones depends on themselves," Yan Mo commented.

The Red-clothed woman’s gaze flickered.

"Watch!" the female giant murmured softly.

In the courtyard.

"Wow—"

Exclamations focused on the customers of Xia Yu’s He Feng Building were drawn away by another sight.

Wu Yingying brewed hot water for a pot of tea.

In the light, the black tea leaves steeped to reveal a startlingly dark yellow, translucent tea due to the heat, which caused the leaves to unfurl quickly from thin strips into broad leaves.

Next, she poured the tea out into a transparent glass vessel and placed it in a cooling basin filled with crushed ice to quickly chill the tea through water separation.

At the same time, she turned the teapot upside down with a thud to drain the leaves, spreading them out in a clump on the clean workbench.

"Whoosh—"

From her oil-paper umbrella she carried with her, she lightly twisted the handle and became like a female assassin from movies and drama series, wielding a sparkling silver dagger. In reality, it was a small and sharp kitchen knife—of course, if necessary, using it to pierce a heart and kill someone was also not a problem.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The small dagger in Wu Yingying’s hand was completely reduced to afterimages, a fleeting glow in the night, and the tea leaves on the cutting board turned into a pile of finely chopped tea dust, with specks of juice, in the blink of an eye.

"This person...feels very strong!"

Makki and Eriina were solemn.

Ichise Hui, Kobayakawa Ryodan, and the other Ten Elites glanced at the woman who was hardly a few years older than them and couldn’t help but take a deep breath:

Is this the top cream of the young generation in the Chinese Cuisine World?

The ’Five Chinese Talents’ had recently been defeating Li Han and Tang Yuqiong one after another with Xia Yu; they were often seen in the media, becoming a set of high-frequency vocabulary. Earlier, Wu Yingying introduced herself without disguising her voice.

"The Five Chinese Talents...Li Han, Tang Yuqiong, Wu Yingying... Then, who are the other two?" Eriina bit her thumb.

At that moment, a voice rang out:

"Bring me the fats sent by IGO—"

The assistants surrounding the courtyard were briefly stunned, but it was Sen Tian Makoto who reacted the quickest. She managed to find a metal barrel with an IGO label from some corner. A mini ’cow-pig-bird’ was spread out on the label, with its wings unfurled.

Noticing the detail on the label, the bearded monk who had walked up to the scene said in a muffled voice of surprise, "The animal fats from the cow-pig-bird?"

As soon as the lid was opened, Xia Yu’s spatula dove into the barrel, sweep, sweep, sweep, scooping out several large globs of semi-solid white fat in an arc into the red-hot pot on the stove.

"Boom!"

Instantly, the flames roared and rose!

The blaze turned Xia Yu into a resplendent orange, and as he stood there without moving, the watermark on his retina fluttered as system text popped up:

"Would you like to use the ’Inner Qi-Filled Card’ (Consum Item)?"

"Use it!"

"You have successfully gained the ’Inner Qi-Filled’ buff, which means for the next 12 hours, any cooking activity you undertake will not exhaust your ’Qi’."

Inner Qi-Filled?

The system issues a task and rewards a trial card.

For Xia Yu, who had just acquired ’Qi’ and would experience exhaustion with just a little practice, this item was literally a "Real Man’s" divine artifact.

Moreover, the "Real Man" state lasted a full 12 hours!

"That’s enough!"

Clutching his fist, feeling an indescribable sense of power swelling within him, Xia Yu raised his eyes to the rising flame in front of him, took a deep breath, and said, "Let’s go all out! Let’s see what an evolved, glowing dish looks like!"

"Dry red chili—"

He uttered in a low voice.

"Ah...Oh!"

Tanaka Hikari, who was holding the plate of chilies, moved forward, her face confused.

Sizz!

The whole plate of chilies went in, and immediately, the raging flames engulfed the chili peppers, and the spiciness roared out, forcing the assistants nearby to retreat from the heatwave and spicy air, covering their mouths and noses, with some unable to withstand the pungent smell and doubled over coughing.

"Hot oil, flavor the wok!"

The red-clothed female Lin Giant’s eyes were tightly focused on the flame-engulfed wok, her expression changing slightly as if she saw through the flames to the very heart of the blaze, witnessing a scene that defied belief, with her pretty face gradually showing a look of horror.

"Why...didn’t the flames directly scorch the chili peppers, as if they were manipulated by some kind of hand...the exterior of the fire, rough and violent, but inside it was extremely gentle, delicate..."

"What’s wrong?!" Yan Mo glanced at her, his thick eyebrows furrowing.

"Wait, wait!" the red-clothed voice trembled slightly, "I’m confirming something! Don’t interrupt me!"

Her eyes focused intently, not blinking.

She had clearly activated some kind of visual talent.

"Sichuan peppercorn!"

"Ginger, garlic, scallions!"

In a matter of a few seconds, Xia Yu had sequentially added a variety of ingredients for flavoring the wok into the fiery wok.

"Give me the slices of meat!"

He commanded.

"How much?" Yuchuan Ayaka stood in front of the preparation table; in front of her were two large basins of meat slices, piled up like mountains, as it was a banquet, the servings for the ’Big Blast Fried Pork’ for many people were all here.

"All of it!"

"Are you sure?!" Yuchuan Ayaka was slightly taken aback.

Upon hearing this, the spectators and assistants exchanged glances.

A dish cooked in a big pot?

This thought couldn’t help but pop up in everyone’s minds.

"Refined delicacies require processing step by step, in small portions. If you toss it all into the pot in one go, besides everything else, wouldn’t controlling the heat be extremely difficult?"

Lin Miao, the leader of the ’Five Mysterious Snakes’, said, reflecting the flames in his eyes.

The Bearded Monk took a deep breath, "Right, especially under the conditions of a hot pot...handling the heat can be the difference between success and failure by a hair’s breadth! But, this guy after all is the demon who defeated the Li cousins, his mastery over Fire Control already soaring high above the culinary pyramid, seeing the mountain small from its peak!"

"Let’s see!" Lin Miao said, staring intently at Xia Yu.

Yuchuan Ayaka and Yuchuan Meisha, each with a bite to their lips, carried a large basin, bracing against the flames as they stepped forward.

Whoosh—

The meat slices fell, the sound of sizzling fat mixing to create a rhythmic tune.

Soon, the pork fat sizzled out, and the flames grew even more intense, nearly outshining the lights and brightening the courtyard as if it were daylight, so much so that tourists who had come by reputation could faintly see the fiery glow in the direction of the courtyard from the shopping street outside.

Clang!

Suddenly, the sound of chains ringing clear.

Everyone watched the young chef burst forth like a fierce tiger, their expressions collapsing.

On the stove, the fiery red Chinese wok was now suspended in the air, two chains stretched tight from the left and right ears of the wok, extending out, with the young chef grabbing one end of both chains in his hands.

"Ha!"