CHAPTER 605: CHAPTER 604: SUPER SIMPLIFIED GOLD AND JADE (PART 2)

Fat sizzled in the flames.

Xia Yu took the rice basin passed to him by Ichise Hui and Xingping Chuangzhen and, without hesitation, dumped in all the rice.

Thump, thump, thump...

As the flames engulfed the rice balls, the crowd found themselves speechless.

With an iron spatula in each hand, Xia Yu began to swing them the moment he poured in the rice.

One shovel, one flip!

The originally moist, snow-white rice, now enveloped in flames, saw its moisture transformed into mist. As Xia Yu flipped and stirred with his spatula, each grain of rice was defined, rising and falling with the flames.

And if you looked closely, it wasn’t hard to notice a layer of distorted flame encasing each grain.

"Egg mixture—"

He called out.

"Coming!"

An assistant passed over a basin filled with egg mixture, freshly delivered by IGO.

The so-called ’Super Simplified Gold and Jade’ wasn’t a concoction of ordinary ingredients reminiscent of peasant fried rice; at the very least, both the eggs and the diced meat featured the purple aura of fantasy-grade quality.

As the egg mixture poured forth, Xia Yu’s hand gripping the spatula commenced the familiar rotation, drawing circles!

The grains of rice and egg mixture blended, gradually turning the snow-white rice into a golden hue that dazzled spectacularly in the flames.

"Thump..."

Soon, it was time for the extensively barbecued diced pork of Xia Yu.

In appearance, the diced pork from the ’Bovine-Porcine-Avian’ was far less pretty than the ’Gem Meat.’

However, after grilling, the pork reached a doneness of about eighty percent, with the meat faintly tinged with the orange of the flames.

As the diced meat thudded into the pot, Xia Yu’s arms tensed and jerked tightly, his motions of drawing circles and spinning growing more frantic. The pot in front of him boomed as if undergoing some extraordinary reaction!

Clank, clank, clank!

The assistants encircling the inner area took steps backward.

The fire-breathing pot, now observed by Makki, Eriina, and the others, appeared blurry as if a rift leading to the Fire Element Plane had opened. They inhaled a small breath of an indescribable scent, feeling as if they were bathed and melting in magma.

"Something is coming out!"

An exclamation arose from the observation team.

"Ah!"

The smoky-eyed girl, Cecilia, covered her mouth with her hands crossed. In her line of sight, a large pig with meaty wings engulfed in flames burst forth from the fiery pot.

Following that, with a crisp crowing, a multilayered-winged, egg-laying fantastical creature fluttered its wings within the flames, incredibly agile.

"Bovine-Porcine-Avian!"

"...Hmm, a Ten-winged Chicken? So he did purchase ’Ten-Yolk Eggs’!"

Many esteemed guests on-site recognized the images fleetingly revealed by the flames.

It seemed illusory yet undeniably real.

Before the audience could take a closer look or capture the phenomenon with their recording devices, the flames suddenly retreated back into the pot like a receding tide.

"Ha—"

With a low grunt, the sound of iron chains clinked.

Xia Yu once again tightened the chains holding the wok’s ears, heaved the pot, and in one fell swoop, the entire wok full of fried rice was decanted into the wooden rice basin beside him, forming a high pile at the apex.

"The Super Simplified Gold and Jade is complete!"

With a release of his hands, the pot fell back onto the stove, and the chains dropped along with it.

Taking the towel offered by Makki, Xia Yu wiped the sweat from his face and only then did he look around at the guests surrounding the courtyard.

"Wow—"

A chorus of awe, as if they had discovered a magnificent vista.

Although it was called ’Gold and Jade,’ this freshly prepared fried rice in front of them vastly differed from the classic version in everyone’s memory.

The rice, ordinary rice, naturally lacked the unapproachable brilliance of the forbidden ’Star Rice.’

The meat, having shifted from ’Gem Meat’ to ’Bovine-Porcine-Avian Meat.’

While in terms of raw appearance, the former was undoubtedly superior, what baffled the guests was that the seemingly unremarkable ’Bovine-Porcine-Avian Meat,’ after grilling and stir-frying through two phases of flame treatment, had undergone a complete transformation, emerging polished, as if gleaming amber and jade born from rock.

The golden mountain of rice, interspersed with amber cubes of meat.

Just by looking, saliva dripped from everyone’s mouths.

"I want to eat!"

The same clear desire echoed in everyone’s minds.

Xia Yu wiped his sweat, washed his hands, and held a shiny metallic rice spoon, standing beside the cooking station, with stacks of rice bowls beside him.

"One bowl per person, no more!"

As he spoke, the rice spoon carved a scoop out of the golden mountain of rice; then Xia Yu handed over a porcelain bowl filled with fried rice, meeting the heated gazes, "Who wants it?"

"I do—"

A voice answered, and it turned out to be Wu Yingying.

She washed her hands and scurried over with quick steps, taking the bowl and the spoon, then immediately lowered her head to gaze intently at the fried rice in the bowl.

"A simplified version of Gold and Jade?" Wu Yingying sniffed the scent, her face revealing a blissful expression, "Although... it’s different from the original, it’s at least personally cooked by Chef Xia!"

This fan-like statement sounded somewhat off to the guests.

Hey, hey!

The cooking contest is still on—you’re his opponent, not a fan!

The team members from the Octagon Pavilion watched Wu Yingying’s "sincere reveal" with amusement.

"I’m starting now!"

With everyone’s eyes on her, Wu Yingying wasn’t the least bit nervous; she even felt excited about taking the lead. Her bare hand moved, and the spoon hastily scooped up a heaping portion of fried rice, with visibly steaming heat wafting off it.

"This little miss from the Wu Family is going to melt for sure..." Zhu Qing gloated, recalling her own first reaction to tasting the fried rice Xia Yu made with Golden Frame Burst Flame was like swallowing a volcano.

Red lips parted, and the spoon disappeared partially into her mouth.

Mmm!

Contrary to Zhu Qing’s expectations, Wu Yingying only broke out into a sweat on her forehead, with not a trace of unanticipated pain on her face; instead, she looked even more serene, and even seemed to emanate a divine radiance.

What’s the situation?

Zhu Qing’s pretty face stiffened.

"Me next—"

Then, Zhu Qing raised her hand high, claiming the second bowl of fried rice.

But Xia Yu had already scooped several more bowls of rice, and by the time Zhu Qing raised her hand, the cooking station was already surrounded. In the end, it was Xia Yu himself who took a tray and walked up to the likes of Zhu Qing, Yan Mo, and the other giants in red.

"Please taste."

Xia Yu said with a smile to the giants.

"You’re very confident!"

Red, taking a bowl of fried rice and a porcelain spoon from the tray, glanced at Xia Yu with a meaningful look before tasting and said, "I am very certain that you’ve already mastered the fusion of ’Qi’ and Bursting Flame."

At this, Xia Yu didn’t respond.

Yan Mo’s gaze flashed, and he, along with Zhu Qing, Luther, Adelaide, and Senzoemon, shared the remaining five bowls of fried rice.

"Delicious!"

Lowering her head to smell, her eyes slightly blurred, Lin Giant in red articulated the first comment. Then, without any hesitation, she opened her mouth and devoured the rice on her spoon.

In an instant, an ancient scene reappeared.

It was the hidden bamboo forest created earlier by Wu Yingying with her tea dumplings.

Now the bamboo forest was deep, a stream like a jade belt winding through. Red stood barefoot on a moss-covered rock in the stream, the smooth stone beneath her as she washed away the fatigue of a day’s labor. Soon, she donned a thin green robe, her body half-hidden, returning to the thatched hut in the forest.

In front of the hut, poultry ran about; behind it was a pigsty, embodying a harmonious pastoral scene.

But suddenly, the world shook with a roar, and amidst the rippling water, the hut became primitive, the bamboo forest vanished, mountains loomed vaguely in the view, and looking around, there was a barren plain.

"Wait, this authentic taste..."

Red’s eyes widened.

The pigsty disappeared, and ’cattle-pigs-birds’ grazed in herds on the wilderness.

The poultry that were scampering at her feet now loomed as large as humans, and what’s more, their wings, not just one pair, stretched out. They took off from one side of the mountains, flying agilely to the other.

The pastoral scene had suddenly receded into the prehistoric era, thick with the air of wild primitiveness.

"A flaw, perhaps?"

After a while, Red came back to her senses, staring blankly at the fried rice in the bowl.