Who Let Him Cultivate?!

Due to Lu Yang's appearance, the Five Star Spirit Chef Team garnered much attention, with even those originally intending to watch the Seven Star Spirit Chef Team being lured over in significant numbers.

"Who would've thought that Lu Yang is a Spirit Chef with Immortal Chef's Successor's inheritance!" Xie Qi stared intensely at Lu Yang, mimicking his every move.

So what if he has received the Immortal Chef's inheritance? I will prove to the world that not only can I imitate the dishes of the Immortal Chef's Successor, but I can even improve upon them!

Xie Qi touched the vials and jars strapped to his waist, revealing a smile filled with deep meaning.

These were his secret weapons, containing spices he had collected from his travels across the Cultivation World, especially from Buddha Country.

The Spirit Chef World overlooked Buddha Country, even excluding it from their ranks, yet Xie Qi discovered that while Buddha Country's dishes were indescribably poor, or rather unpalatable, its spices were unmatched by any other place.

With the power of these spices, he could make any dish taste even better!

An Tong also longed to compete with Lu Yang on the same stage and see who the better chef was!

The "Invincible" An Tong, as the outside world called her, had never lost since her debut. Lu Yang would not be an exception!

As the center of attention, Lu Yang felt there was no need for everyone to keep looking at him this way.

He had only practiced his knife skills for a few days, followed Fairy Eternity in recognizing some odd Spiritual Plants, which he hadn't even used yet.

As for cooking, he was a complete novice—what could he rely on to win?

He might as well casually prepare something and let Xie Qi and An Tong fight over first place.

After all, he didn't care whether Jin Tan's side would win or not. This was an internal struggle of the Spirit Chef Alliance, and he was just an observer.

Liu Xing spread his arms wide, and the outermost walls of the examination area collapsed, revealing rows upon rows of ingredients—birds, beasts, Spirit Beans, Spirit Rice, everything one could wish for.

He announced the final challenge loud and clear, "For the Five Star Spirit Chef Team, the last challenge is to make a dish using tofu!"

Lu Yang: "..."

Lu Yang, clutching his forehead in pain, first thought of his early Cultivation days, when Eldest Senior Sister made him practice Swordsmanship with tofu. He had to chop as much tofu by day as he would then have to eat at meals, and at night, even his nightmares were haunted by Tofu Heavenly Venerate, to the point where he felt nauseated at the sight of tofu.

Do you Spirit Chefs even want positive coverage anymore?

"Little Yang, go for it! My recipe includes a Yin Yang Tofu. Let them see the level of Immortal cooking!" Fairy Eternity egged on.

Lu Yang's eye twitched as he had translated the entire Complete Culinary Compendium, resulting in his ability to remember the preparation method for every single dish listed.

The Imperial edict was inviolable—what right did a subject have to resist His Majesty's decree?

Lu Yang begrudgingly started making the Yin Yang Tofu.

As the name implied, Yin Yang Tofu consisted of tofu in two colors, black and white. To achieve this, one needed hundreds of black and white ingredients to create a composite sauce to dye the tofu.

Black foods like squid ink, soy sauce, and more.

White foods like salt, sugar, and more.

"Fairy, wouldn't this make it too salty?"

"Don't worry, just add some chili pepper at the end, it will balance out the saltiness!"

"This Yin Yang Tofu embodies the Yin Yang Path, it contains endless worlds, and its wonders are infinite. If you manage to comprehend this aspect, you will have entered the threshold of the Yin Yang Path..." Fairy Eternity rambled on and on, recounting her philosophy behind creating this dish.

Xie Qi kept pace with Lu Yang's actions, pouring hundreds of vials and jars together and mixing them thoroughly.

Watching the black and white mixture unwittingly react and bubble, Xie Qi began to doubt whether Lu Yang was truly an Immortal Chef's Successor.

But recalling all the rumors about Lu Yang, he gritted his teeth, believed, and continued to follow the recipe!

Staring at the ball-shaped slices of tofu doused in the sauce, Xie Qi's index finger twitched in anticipation.

Although the cooking process was inexplicably mysterious, the finished product smelled incredibly fragrant!

"Let me taste it and see what faults this tofu has."

Xie Qi took a spoonful and incredulously clutched his throat, making "uh-uh" sounds.

Two extreme flavors collided in his mouth. His taste sense, already far superior to a normal person's, was amplified to an unbearable degree by the effect. These flavors tormented him to an extent that life seemed worse than death.

Clang—

Xie Qi collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth and lost to unconsciousness.

Without employing a single soldier, Lu Yang had forced Xie Qi out of the competition. This could truly be called a masterstroke strategy, winning without fighting!

The final matchup came down to Lu Yang and An Tong.

"Time's up!" Liu Xing declared loudly.

"Considering Xie Qi's withdrawal due to unforeseen circumstances, after discussion by the alliance's higher-ups, we've decided to adopt a different method for this competition's evaluation!"

"We will switch to each side tasting the other's dishes and giving scores!"

Lu Yang presented the Yin Yang Tofu, drenched in brilliant red chili oil, while An Tong presented tofu in the shape of an orange.

"Now, let's begin the tasting."

Lu Yang examined An Tong's orange-shaped tofu, which was coated in a shell resembling a sugar glaze. With a gentle tap of his spoon, Lu Yang cracked the sugar shell, revealing the white and bouncy tofu inside.

Taking a spoonful of both sugar coating and tofu, Lu Yang tasted it. The originally bland tofu became enriched in flavor with the addition of an orange essence, and mixing in bamboo shoots gave the tofu a particularly crisp bite.

This flavor was leaps and bounds beyond Fairy Eternity's creations!

While Lu Yang savored An Tong's orange tofu, An Tong was also studying Lu Yang's Yin Yang Tofu.

As a child, a high fever had taken her sense of taste, but it had also led to an abnormal development of her vision, touch, smell, and hearing.

"The layer of red oil on this Yin Yang Tofu is visually striking without overpowering the tofu's fragrance. The black and white tofu has not only the aroma of tofu but also combines scents from the sea, the sky, and the earth."

She didn't even need to taste it to know that it was a superb tofu that completely overshadowed her own orange tofu!

It was a true masterpiece of tofu!

Although she lacked the sense of taste, An Tong still wanted to try a bite—out of respect for Lu Yang.

Just as Lu Yang was about to advise An Tong not to eat it, ready to concede defeat, he saw An Tong take a spoonful of the Yin Yang Tofu. Gripping her neck and wide-mouthed, she shouted an evaluation, louder than she ever had in her life.

"So spicy, so salty!!"

"How can it be this spicy!"

An Tong gulped down water, which finally lowered the temperature in her mouth a bit and allowed her to calm down, contemplating more deeply.

"Wait, do I now have a sense of taste?!"

"I—I have my sense of taste back?"

An Tong devoured the Yin Yang Tofu with tears dripping onto the plate, sobbing with a smile, "Delicious, it's really delicious…"

After a while, An Tong finally calmed her inner turmoil and bowed deeply to Lu Yang. "Fellow Daoist Lu Yang, you have won, I concede defeat voluntarily."

Though she was on Jin Tan's side, she had her own principles. Lu Yang had saved her sense of taste with his tofu—how could she be qualified to judge Lu Yang's Yin Yang Tofu?

Saying so, she left the stage without awaiting Lu Yang's reaction, leaving behind a bewildered Lu Yang.

Even as Liu Xing announced the results and Lu Yang's sleeve was adorned with five golden stars, denoting his status as the strongest among the Five Star Spirit Chefs, he hadn't snapped back to reality.

Wait, how did I just win with these skills?