Chapter 577: Chapter 576: Claiming Isolation and Unsupportiveness

Li Han, as well as the five Qilin-level Judges, were drenched in sweat from the heat of the illusory flames.

This scene was very similar to when “Bursting Flame” first broke through the purple box, welcoming Smith and Lancelot. However, the difference was at the grand finale of the “Special Chefs Challenge” in Sapporo, where Xia Yu’s Flame Cooking Skill had broken through to the perfect gold box. Chefs of different realms were simply dragged into the illusion of flames by the steaming vapors from just the stir-fry noodles.

Qilin-level Judges could not resist.

They were lost.

When Xia Yu plated the dishes and passed out the chopsticks, he observed in silence and immediately approved the gold-framed “Bursting Flame” in his heart—

Strong in one word, no need to say more.

“It is my own recipe, my own dish!”

He picked up the microphone from the ground, tested it, and the microphone was functioning normally, so he uttered this sentence.

Upon hearing this, Li Han’s eyes bulged and he exclaimed, “Xia’s Seven Kingdoms United Fried Noodles?”

“Your recipe, a personal dish?”

Li Han wanted to laugh.

But his facial muscles were tense, and it took a hard tug at the corners of his mouth to form a very stiff smile.

He couldn’t really laugh.

“Xia’s Seven Kingdoms United Fried Noodles”?

Was there such a recipe?

The default prefix for Seven Countries United Fried Noodles could only be “Li Family” or “Ya Family.”

However, Xia Yu’s earlier performance felt like a heavy stone weighing down on Li Han’s heart.

In his sight was a plate of stir-fry noodles that, in terms of color, was not inferior to his own golden hue. Li Han looked closely and suddenly shook.

“This isn’t right!”

The five judges had already picked up their chopsticks and were reaching for the noodles on their plates.

However, strangely enough, no matter how they tried to pick, each had only “one noodle,” the chopsticks competing and clashing, creating somewhat of a chaotic scene. Finally, the Chief Judge in the center, Kogawa Shinyiro, sweating on his forehead, snapped his noodles with a forceful crunch, and the plate in his hand was also filled with a tangled bundle of noodles.

The camera timely zoomed in for a close-up of the “one noodle.”

The wide noodles were gone, replaced by noodles braided from strips of wide noodles.

The golden braids illuminated Kogawa Shinyiro’s eyes.

His appetite was clearly visible in his pupils.

No more hesitation.

“Slurp—”

He sucked in the noodles, cheeks puffing out instantly.

At that moment, his head and upper body leaned back violently, and the veins on his forehead and neck burst forth. The Chief Judge felt as though he had swallowed a tornado of flames, whoosh, his normally slicked-back hair suddenly exploding.

Chew!

Pfft, pfft!

The clear sound of liquid spreading, his lips and teeth were filled with thick, scalding juice!

“Ah—”

He couldn’t help but roar.

“Satisfied!”

The elegant and composed Executive Chairman and Chief Judge of the Sapporo event actually twisted his face and exaggeratedly altered his tone to utter the word “satisfied.”

The audience was stupefied, yet the other four judges followed suit, each of them shouting hysterically,

“Satisfied!”

“Satisfied!”

The four roaring voices overlapped, echoing back and reverberating through the eerily quiet stadium.

Huff, huff, huff.

Even “Burning Purple Rose” Andrea, who gave off a noble, elegant princess-like air, was vigorously chewing, her finely carved, sculpted face completely distorted:

“Delicious!”

Her cheeks twitched, her teeth punctured the noodles, and the bursting elasticity, the wild sensation, along with the molten lava juice that erupted when the noodle braids fell apart.

Sea bream, halibut.

Chinese cabbage, glass noodles, bamboo shoots.

The thick juices from these ingredients were scorched hot by the flames.

Sizzle.

The feeling of being seared spread from her mouth, down her esophagus, reaching her heart. Andrea’s red lips trembled as she slurped down a noodle from her plate in one breath, her mouth continuously exhaling enticing breaths, “Ahh ahh ahh, I’m going to melt!”

“Melted away!”

The Dragon Tamer, Sta, remained silent, decisively holding a pair of chopsticks in each hand.

Clang clang.

The sound of chopsticks tapping on the white plate in front of him rang out—melodious and rhythmic.

As the stars shifted in the sky.

A chef’s meticulously crafted world of culinary delights ensnared the five judges.

Grand ancient palaces, with all the officials gathered.

It seemed to be the scene of some grand ceremony.

Andrea snapped out of her trance and found that the sweat on her body had disappeared, no longer sticky.

She looked at herself and was immediately stunned.

She was wearing an outfit reminiscent of ancient Chinese female officials, and in front of her, a large and elegant set of bronze chimes, of various sizes. In her right hand was a small wooden hammer for striking the chimes, and in her left hand, a long stick.

No music score needed.

With a sense of melody blooming from within, Andrea uncontrollably struck the bronze chimes on the rack one by one with the small wooden hammer.

Ding!

The crisp sound spread through the palace.

Sensing the gazes of the civil and military officials, as well as that of the person wearing the dragon robe and Imperial Crown, Andrea’s heartstrings tightened, and suddenly, it felt like she couldn’t breathe.

“Where is this…?”

In the distance, several figures gradually became clear.

The Dragon Tamer, Sta, stood on the palace steps holding drum mallets, in front of a large drum. As he looked up, he gasped sharply, as his sight was filled with soldiers in armor, black banners fluttering in the wind, and the icy faces of Qin soldiers that seemed so real to him.

“Hmm?”

Luther opened his eyes to find himself in front of an ancient musical instrument known as the “fou.”

In the palace, Adelaide held a “sheng.”

Chief Judge Kogawa Shinyiro appeared last, kneeling on the floor, with a low table for the qin in front of him, and when he turned to look behind, he saw rows of seated zither players.

As Andrea instinctively struck the chime, the other four Qilin Judges, as if possessed, beat drums, struck the fou, blew the sheng, or led the musicians to play a harmonious melody…

The drum sounds were magnificent.

The fou’s sound was deep and thick.

The sheng and qin strings in harmony, as if a mountain and river painting scroll had been unveiled.

When the music of the ceremony reached its peak, a delegation of foreign envoys ascended the steps and stopped at the palace gate, with the leader, a man holding a map of Yan Country, looking up at the sign hanging over the gate and silently reciting—

“Xianyang Palace!”

The melody abruptly shifted to tension, soaring.

The defector presenting the map drew a dagger, and the palace descended into chaos.

The five judges were merely spectators of this historical fragment, and soon, the assassin failed, and King Qin returned before his throne with a blood-stained sword, speaking in a deep voice, “Today, my army will cross the Yishui and extinguish Yan—”

Another transition of scene.

The last of the six nations, Qi, had fallen, and the ancient land had finally completed its first great unification in history.

Lastly, there was the Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai.

Beneath the altar, the five judges witnessed Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s Fengshan ceremony.

“Reign in solitude,” he proclaimed.

Back at Xianyang Palace.

In its somber depths, the emperor sat alone on his throne, elevated and aloof, his imperial crown amidst the bead curtains and jade ornaments, revealing a pair of profound and distant eyes, as if overseeing the magnificent mountains and rivers.

“Reign in solitude?”

Hokkaido Shrine Pavilion.

The five judges awakened successively, their eyes filled uniformly with shock.

They felt that the emperor from that culinary world was truly none other than the Ancestor Emperor himself.

But was it truly so?

And moreover…