CHAPTER 664: CHAPTER 663: SHIFT OF FOCUS

Sapporo, Ookura Mountain Villa.

A young man, resembling a reporter, put down his camera, turned around, and walked deep into the layers of maple forest to make a phone call to a superior, "Message confirmed! The Far Moon Team has completely evacuated!"

"Can you determine the time?" a cold female voice asked.

"I need to carefully check the access records—also, the maids and guards have left too; now, this place is just an empty house."

Beep.

The call ended, and as the young man was putting his cell phone back in his pocket, his trench coat sleeve slid up, revealing a tiger head tattoo on the back of his hand.

Moreover, looking at the young man’s facial features, he was a typical East Asian, although he had just spoken in English on the phone, there was a clear element of disguise. He gave one last gaze at the villa, hands in his trench coat pockets, and muttered coldly in Mandarin, "The ’Jade Dragon Pot’ should continue to stay overseas, this pot should not return to the mainland, to join the other legendary culinary utensils... even if it’s a contaminated, useless pot!"

Clearly, this was a mysterious organization represented by the tiger head tattoo.

...

Downstairs from an octagonal building.

Yan Qi was still in a black robe, getting into a black car prepared by the team, casually placing a small suitcase in the seat next to him.

"You go back to the country; don’t stay in Japan anymore!" Yan Qi told Yan Mo and the person in red outside, "I will handle that matter myself!"

"Yes!"

Two Lin Giants watched the car drive away.

"We are going back to the country!"

Little Fairy Wu Yingying suddenly said with a reluctant expression on her face.

The flower monk with a curly beard laughed jokingly, "Yingying, don’t tell me you’ve become mesmerized by that boy like a Tang Family girl? We in the Dark Cuisine World have plenty of promising men!"

Pfft.

Wu Yingying laughed, "What are you thinking, you big monk? I’m just contemplating whether I have a chance to defeat him."

"Let’s head back to the country!" Lin Miao, the leader of the Five Mysterious Snakes, spoke calmly, "He will be returning to the country soon!"

"Looking forward to meeting him in our homeland! The competition settings in Japan can hardly be considered a home ground; when he returns, will he still be as composed cooking on our Dark World’s ’Loulin Ship’?"

The other dark cuisine chefs burst into laughter.

"Once it’s time, whether as friends or foes, I just hope to have an exhilarating culinary battle with him!"

Listening, Yan Mo and the person in red looked at each other.

They couldn’t help but shiver.

When that guy returns to the country, aligning with the Xia Family grandparent and grandchild, wouldn’t his troublesome abilities turn the Chinese cuisine world upside down?

...

At the same time.

On a bus towards Sapporo Chitose Airport.

"Yes, yes, I will be extremely careful!" Lei Zhe nodded vigorously.

"The witch breeder, Catherine, glanced over and yawned, unable to resist thinking, "By now, Desani must have taken his team back to Los Angeles, right?"

The American Continent was divided into chunks of territories by the eight giants of the gourmet association. California happened to be the stronghold of the academic faction.

’Dragon Tamer’ Sta and ’Burning Purple Rose’ Andrea had already taken a flight out of Sapporo in advance, and IGO’s Luther and Adelaide had left as well.

In the blink of an eye, Sapporo, which had been bustling with celebrities, now seemed deserted.

Outside the car window, people were cleaning up the tables and booths left over from the food festival. Catherine withdrew her gaze as Lei Zhe finished his phone call and turned to her, "The chief told us to go directly to Tokyo!"

"This could be a medium to long-term mission!"

"We must first figure out where the ’Jade Dragon Pot’ is hidden, but one thing is certain—the ’Jade Dragon Pot’ is still within Japan. Our intelligence department is constantly monitoring international ports, keeping an eye on ships and flights!" Lei Zhe snorted, sarcasm evident in his eyes, "Is this the Easterners’ tactic of sowing doubt? But such feigned tactics are a joke in the face of the gourmet association’s powerful intelligence network!"

"Additionally!"

Lei Zhe’s expression then turned grave, "According to reliable information, people from the Tiger Head Association have started to move!"

"Tiger Head Association?"

Catherine said with interest, "Isn’t that a coalition of Eastern chefs who follow the Food Dominator route? Mostly consisting of Chinese chefs and Chinese people. What, they also want to steal the ’Jade Dragon Pot’ and disgrace the Chinese Realm?"

...

Two days had passed since returning to Tokyo.

During these days, Xia Yu resumed his normal routine, but this "normal" was only from a habitual perspective, considering keeping the doors open till 4 AM was by no means healthy.

The shopping street was bustling even more. Really, the business acumen of the ’Alchemist,’ Rui Shan Zhi Jin Ye, was top-notch. He managed the shopping street splendidly, and since returning from Sapporo, nearly 90 percent of the shops in what had been a spacious district were rented out, and each chef and store manager who joined had significant renown.

There’s no need to mention Shigong Xiaoci Lang’s Shino’s, which mainly served French cuisine.

Additionally, Qian Rixiangzi’s Japanese restaurant ’Fog House,’ Mizuhara Fuyumi’s Italian eatery Ristorante F, Kazasaki Tatsuki’s Spanish restaurant Tatsuki·amarillo, Kikuchi Sankaku’s Western restaurant ’Spring Fruit Pavilion’...

Any Far Moon graduate with a reputation had opened a branch on this street and personally manned the kitchens to cope with the overwhelming customer flow, seemingly aiming to turn these branches into main stores.

After all, according to Xia Yu’s vision for his culinary empire, the food street was all-encompassing, from high-end fantasy cuisines to street snacks, nothing could be missing.

Guests attracted by the fame of the events in Sapporo were temporary; retaining customers and making a name required gathering a group of elite chefs and restaurants, which the shopping street had achieved so far. These days, Xia Yu was constantly downloading various food apps, checking the reviews and ratings for restaurants on the street, and was inexplicably happy all day long.

That evening, Xia Yu was cleaning the front of the store, wiping the wooden doors, when he spotted a pair of high school students who had been lingering near a fence not too far away.

Xia’s main store and branches were isolated by similar fences, and tourists who came for its reputation could only take photos from a distance. Without this protective barrier, Xia Yu guessed he would be watched from morning till evening upon returning to Tokyo.

He waved to the pair of high school students.

"Come on in!"

The two high school buddies, one with blue hair and the other with brown, looked at each other hesitantly before finally crossing the barrier to come in.

"Have some hot tea—" Xia Yu invited them into the store and settled them at the familiar bar, then went to the kitchen to boil water. Soon after, he handed them steaming cups of tea, "Here you go! It’s on the house!"

These two high school students, named Mashiro Takumi and Takagi Shuutoku, had been known to Xia Yu for almost a year. He witnessed them collaborate and publish three manga works.

For their third work, they even invited Xia Yu to participate, as it was a manga about culinary themes and needed guidance from a professional chef, but various reasons had crushed their plans.

Thus, their third work remained as Xia Yu remembered in his mind, with the storyline unchanged.

"Please! Chef Xia, you definitely must help us this time!"

Mashiro Takumi slammed his hot tea cup down, clasped his hands together, and gritted his teeth, "For our fourth work, we’ve decided to draw a culinary manga. We’re determined to be firm about it this time! We absolutely won’t compromise with the editors!"