The massive humiliation of the Iron-Blood Empire’s alchemy representative in the first round forced Crown Prince Zhao Zhen to alter his strategy immediately.
During the short fifteen-minute interval between rounds, the tournament committee issued a surprise structural rule change:
"ATTENTION PARTICIPANTS!" the grand announcer bellowed across the buzzing arena. "By imperial order of His Highness, Crown Prince Zhao Zhen, the final round of the Three-Nation Conference shall be a DUAL COMBAT CULINARY DUEL!"
The audience gasped in surprise.
"In this round," the announcer continued, "chefs are permitted to actively deploy combat techniques, offensive domain formations, and physical martial strikes to disrupt their opponents while simultaneously preparing their dishes! The winner shall be decided by both culinary taste and combat supremacy!"
Ling Yue’s blue eyes flashed with fierce cold anger. She leaned closer to Leo, her voice dripping with venomous warning. "This is blatantly targeted against you. The Crown Prince knows your raw cultivation is only at Stage 3 of Qi Condensation. The remaining contestant from the Azure-Cloud Kingdom—Fairy Chen Lin—is a secret double-agent who possesses a Stage 8 Ice-Core realm!"
"Combat culinary duel?" Leo chuckled softly, adjusting the collar of his black chef's tunic. "In my previous life, we just called that working the dinner rush line on a Friday night in downtown Detroit. People throw kitchen knives for far less than an imperial title."
"Leo, I am serious!" Ling Yue urged. "She will use her Seven-Frost Freezing Domain to freeze your stove and paralyze your hands!"
"Then let her try," Leo winked, withdrawing his heavy [Chaos Butcher's Cleaver] from his System inventory. "Senior Sister, go secure us a good spot for the post-match victory press conference."
On the second platform, Fairy Chen Lin stepped forward. Her pristine white robes fluttered softly without any wind, and a freezing, blue aura erupted from her body, covering her entire copper cooking station in thick, jagged icicles.
"Chef Xiao," Chen Lin said coldly, her voice echoing with high-grade mental pressure that slammed into Leo’s mind. "Your little garlic tricks won't work under my domain. The moment you strike a match, my Nine-Heaven Frost Qi will extinguish your fire and freeze your blood into ice crystals."
"Is that a promise?" Leo grinned, pulling out his main ingredient for the grand final: a massive, five-foot-long Nine-Color Heaven-Soaring Duck, a legendary Grade 4 spirit beast that possessed skin as tough as dragon scales and meat infused with volatile fire energy.
"Begin!" the referee shouted, throwing a red signaling flag into the air.
SWOOSH!
Before the flag even hit the floor, Fairy Chen Lin unleashed her full Stage 8 cultivation.
A localized blizzard burst from her palms, forming dozens of razor-sharp ice spears that shot across the fifty-foot gap directly toward Leo’s head, while a freezing blue domain spread across the floor tiles, aiming to freeze Leo's stove into solid rock.
"Freeze into eternity!" Chen Lin roared.
Leo didn't even turn around to look at the incoming ice spears.
"Chaos Kitchen Domain..." Leo muttered quietly, stepping his right boot firmly onto the stone floor. "...The Red-Hot Line!"
BOOM!
A twenty-foot circle of dark-golden, ancient Chaos flames erupted from the floor around Leo’s cooking platform. The incoming ice spears didn't even reach within ten feet of Leo before they instantly vaporized into clean, white water vapor. The blue freezing domain hit the golden flame border and was instantly blasted back, causing Chen Lin to gasp and stumble backward three steps, her blood churning from the violent backlash.
"What kind of fire domain is that?!" Chen Lin gasped, her face turning pale. "It's completely immune to my Stage 8 Ice Qi?!"
"Rule number two of the commercial kitchen," Leo said, his voice dropping into a deep, authoritative tone as he hoisted the massive Nine-Color Duck into the air with one hand. "Never mess with the line cook when he's prepping high-margin protein!"
Leo tossed the huge spirit duck high into the arena sky.
He jumped twenty feet up after it, his [Chaos Butcher's Cleaver] trailing an immense, dark-gold beam of light that cut through the sky like a falling meteor.
"Chaos Blade Style—Eight-Hundred Slices of the Golden Emperor!"
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!
In less than two seconds, Leo executed eight hundred precise, microscopic cuts in mid-air. He removed every single feather, carefully separated the thick skin from the underlying fat layer without breaking the skin's integrity, and injected a dense stream of Chaos Qi directly into the duck's bone marrow to pre-cook the interior juices.
THUD!
Leo landed gracefully back onto his platform, holding the perfectly prepped, air-puffed duck in his hands.
Down in the audience, several ancient martial arts masters stood up from their chairs in sheer terror.
"T-That knife work..." an old sword-master stammered, his lips trembling. "That wasn't just slicing! That was the legendary Dao of Space Separation! He sliced the duck's skin away at the atomic level!"
Leo didn't waste a single millisecond. He pulled out a large bucket of raw maltose syrup, soy reduction, and five-spice powder from his System inventory, brushing the outer skin of the duck until it glistened like polished mahogany under the sun.
He hooked the duck onto a dark iron hanging rod and suspended it directly inside a massive, roaring cylinder of dark-gold Chaos fire that he manifested straight out of his Dantian.
"Roast..." Leo commanded, his eyes burning with intense culinary focus. "...at four hundred degrees Fahrenheit for forty-five minutes, compressed into ten seconds!"
[SYSTEM SKILL ACTIVATED: TIME-COMPRESSED CULINARY ACCELERATION!]
[Cost: 1,000 SP]
[Target: Divine Chaos Peking Duck]
FLASH!
The dark-golden fire cylinder flared with an astonishing, sun-like brightness. The intense heat didn't radiate outward to injure anyone, but inside the fiery cylinder, the duck's skin turned into a glistening, hyper-crispy golden shell, while the rich fat layer melted entirely into the inner meat, creating a glorious, dripping waterfall of divine juices.
On the other side of the stage, Fairy Chen Lin tried desperately to complete her freezing pill dish, but her mind was completely shattered by the sight of Leo’s divine roasting process. Her hands shook, her ice flames flickered out, and she fell onto her knees, staring at Leo with absolute submission and defeated terror.
Leo extinguished his fire with a wave of his sleeve.
Hanging before him was a breathtaking, flawless, dark-golden roasted duck that glowed like a freshly forged imperial crown.
A heavenly pillar of golden light shot straight up from the dish, punching a massive hole through the storm clouds above the Imperial Capital, illuminating the entire stadium in brilliant, sacred light!
[PING!]
[Legendary Accomplishment Achieved: Creation of a Tier-5 Sacred Culinary Relic!]
[Dish: Divine Chaos Peking Duck]
[Effects: Instantly purifies the soul, boosts physical strength by 300%, and grants temporary immunity to all poisons below Tier 6!]
The fragrance that exploded across the arena was so intensely delicious, so overwhelmingly addictive, that over ten thousand audience members instantly fainted from pure, unadulterated sensory overload!
"I... I give up..." Fairy Chen Lin whimpered, tears streaming down her pale cheeks as she bowed her head onto the stone floor. "I am not worthy to stand on the same stage as Chef Xiao..."
Leo took out a small paring knife, swiftly carving thin, crispy, golden slices of skin and tender duck meat, laying them neatly onto delicate flour pancakes with fresh scallions and sweet bean sauce.
He placed the first completed roll onto a silver plate, turned his head toward the royal balcony, and smiled like a devil.
"Hey, Crown Prince!" Leo called out, his voice ringing loud and clear across the silent, stunned arena. "Your duck is ready! Come down and take your judgment!"
Comments (0)