CHAPTER 656: CHAPTER 655: THE RESURGENCE OF THE SOUL SUPPRESSING BUN (PART 2)

The audience was baffled.

Why had the demeanor and speech of the red-haired judge changed so drastically, as if he was a different person?

"What’s going on!"

"Look at that expression, what exactly is..."

"How did he achieve enlightenment on the spot!"

The venue was in an uproar.

Yan Qi, Karl, and Tiqie Xianzuowen stood near the bamboo boat, equally astonished by what they witnessed.

To them, the transformation of the red-haired judge seemed from the inside out.

Internally, it was about Spirit, at the level of the soul.

The external demeanor and behavior were just a facade; the crux was the decadence inside being swept away. As a result, the red-haired judge naturally exuded the presence of an enlightened monk.

They then turned their solemn gaze back to the four-colored "Soul Suppressing Buns" on the bamboo boat.

Their eyes rippled like the undulating surface of a river.

"Whoosh—"

The bamboo boat seemed to shoot through the turbulent river in their vision.

Tiqie Xianzuowen remained calm, hummed softly, closed his eyes, and then opened them again; the boat was still the same, resting quietly atop the cooking station, with its steaming colorful buns awaiting their tasting.

Yan Qi looked uncertain, muttering, "Four colors, the four sacred beasts... sour, sweet, bitter, spicy!"

Sniffing deeply.

Lines of white, black, red, and green tangled in his mind in the four cardinal directions, merging at the center with a bang, parting the chaos and faintly forming the pattern of the Eight Trigrams.

"Let’s taste!"

Forcefully shutting off his sense of smell to stop the illusions prompted by the scent, Yan Qi spoke in a deep voice.

"Yes, it’s time to taste!"

Wise Man Karl, with eyes alight with anticipation, picked up an Azure Dragon Bun and examined it in his hands. He squeezed it gently, exhaling in amazement, "So soft! It’s like kneading a ball of cotton!"

"Although it looks simple and unimpressive, its construction is filled with mystery!"

Without the filling to support it from the inside, Karl felt he could squeeze the bun until it was thin as a hair.

Then, he tore it open with his hands, and with a slight ripping sound like silk being torn, the seafood filling inside was revealed, along with a surge of rich umami flavor that hit him with the force of a punch, catching Karl off guard and shaking his composure.

"Sea cucumber!"

He focused on the delicacy stewed within the bun, "The dried food has been fully rehydrated!"

Upon sniffing again, Karl was intrigued.

"There’s a rust-like taste, what’s happening? Could it be the dough..."

Noticing the verdant hue of the bun’s exterior, he keenly sensed a faint vegetable freshness and vaguely realized, "Is that it!"

Thus, in front of the cameras, Karl opened his mouth wide, nearly swallowing half of the bun, filling his mouth to the brim!

"Strange!"

As the bun entered his mouth, the rust-like taste vanished without a trace, replaced by an indescribable sourness that stormed his heart.

This sourness did not come from the taste buds on his tongue; it was as if imagined.

At first, Karl managed to stay lucid; after eating the "Azure Dragon Bun," he grabbed another steaming "White Tiger Bun," and a second exotic spicy flavor filled his heart...

Sour and spicy.

Bitter and salty.

After sampling the four-colored buns, the four types of "qi" inside his body grew increasingly robust.

With a snap, Karl rubbed his eyes forcefully, and surprisingly, a tear fell and shattered on the ground.

It was a tear of utter intoxication.

"Where is it! Exactly where!" Nuliang, abandoning his earlier graceful composure, now showed a face marked by hysteria, biting into the piping hot buns while shouting in a low roar, "Where’s the sourness? The saltiness? The bitterness? The spiciness? I clearly tasted them, yet they’re nowhere to be found, where are they hiding!"

"Hehehehehe..."

Delighted and mischievous laughter.

The fourth judge, a woman with long, straight black hair, licked the shark fin soup residue off her cherry lips, "They, have all vanished in the mouth!"

"It’s the wrapper!"

The third judge, a monk wearing a conical hat, grabbed a black "Xuanwu Bun," pulled out the braised abalone filling from inside the bun, and crunched down on it, "The seafood filling is just there to enhance the wrapper. In other words, it’s just the greenery complementing the bloom; the main spirit is all within the wrapper!"

As they ate, the chatter around the cooking station gradually subsided until, after a short while, it fell completely silent.

No one spoke again.

Even Tiqie Xianzuowen stood with his arms folded, without his usual "clothes bursting" theatrics, his face showing a cultivator’s tranquility.

After a moment of confusion, Kogawa Shinyiro exchanged equally puzzled looks with the female host.

With a slightly strained smile and trembling lips, Chiyoda Aichi said, "...Please continue to provide more detailed comments!"

"There’s nothing else!"

Xianzuowen opened his eyes.

"Nothing else?"

"That’s right, such buns cannot be described with words!" Wise Man Karl also opened his eyes.

"Ah?!"

The female host was flustered, and the audience was equally taken aback.

"That won’t do! Explain quickly!" Anxious, some members of the audience stood up and shouted.

"We need answers! Take our kneeling!"

"I just want to know why these four-colored buns stir up such a strong appetite in me!"

The crowd, like lost lambs, was on the verge of rolling around in desperation.

At this point, a clear laugh cut through the chaos of the competition ground.

"Let me explain it simply."

Judges, guests, and even Li Han and Lan Chuhai at station 2, as well as Tang Shan and Tang Yuqiong at station 3, all turned their attentive gazes to the young chef.

"The truth is," Xia Yu picked up a bun and squeezed it, "as the Yanluo judge said, the secret lies in the wrapper! I’ve imbued the wrappers with four flavors that bring the ’Yin Yang Five Elements’ philosophy to life. The taste reaches equilibrium within the wrapper, creating a comforting and delectable experience."

"Old dough!"

Xia Yu moved to his workspace, where the camera followed him. As the audience continued to watch, bewildered, he slapped a dark clay pot, "The four-flavored wrappers, once entering the mouth and sliding down the throat, naturally adjust the ’qi’ within the body. The so-called mastery of ’Yin Yang Five Elements’ views the human body as a composite of ’qi’; when the ’qi’ is in balance, it promotes health and well-being."

Upon hearing this, Figures like Yan Mo and Red-haired Jiu Tung nodded vigorously.

"That’s right!"

Old Master Xia Qing from the Shu Restaurant raised his thumb in agreement, "The mysterious knowledge of ’Yin Yang Five Elements’ can be seen from a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective as a kind of dialectical philosophy!"

The venue was silent for a long time.

"Stop with the grandiose talk! I understand all that!"

Red-haired Jiu Tung wore an angry face, but his fierce expression came across in the camera more like a lazy cat who had just had a meal and was stretching its paws, hardly intimidating, "I just want to ask, why, why..."

He opened his mouth, prepared to roar, but the deep, tranquil emotion in his heart seemed to form an immense palm that slammed down, suppressing any flickers of rage or malice that had begun to surface.

"Aaaahhhhhh!"

Yelling and clutching his head, "I’m going mad! This isn’t me! I want to rage; I need to be angry!"

"It’s not like that!"

"I am not some herbivorous, ascetic cultivator! I want to eat meat and drink, to drink the strongest liquors, to ride..."

Red-haired Jiu Tung, driven to the brink of madness, clutched his head and swung back and forth, his mind seemingly lost.

The audience remained puzzled.

"Soul Suppressing!"

"This is... the treasure within a treasure of the Bai Luo Family, with a history of over a thousand years, the unsurpassed secret of the pastry world from ancient times to the present!"