Chapter 580: Chapter 579: The Realm’s Location

Food Philosophy!

At the Shu Restaurant, the old master Xia Qing was stunned.

The White Jade Tower of the Forbidden City.

Upstairs and downstairs, the air was silent, and the chefs exchanged looks, expressing their shock without saying a word as they gazed at the unmoving Dragon Head and then at the live broadcast.

“Ha, haha, hahaha!”

Suddenly, hearty laughter echoed throughout the White Jade Tower.

“Great!”

The silver-haired elder, a leader in the Chinese Cuisine World, looked at the screen with eyes full of praise and said with conviction as the young chef exited amidst the cheers, “He has the potential to become a real Lin Chef before he turns 20!”

A Lin Chef at twenty?

The entire White Jade Tower was silent, everyone shocked.

The Dragon Head’s affirmation was far more reliable than the comments of those judges on the screen; at this point, regardless of how unbelievable the new and old chefs of the White Jade Tower found it, reality was right before their eyes!

Someone sneaked a glance at a young man sitting behind the Dragon Head.

This young man was handsome and poised; just sitting there, he was the center of attention.

Ye Feizhou, the leading name among the “Five Chinese Talents,” had long been suppressing talents like Li Han and Tang Yuqiong.

And what was impossible to ignore was that Ye Feizhou was a direct disciple of the Dragon Head and was touted as the youngest and most promising chef who might break through to Lin-level in modern Chinese culinary circles.

“This just got interesting!”

The older chefs chuckled, stroking their beards.

“A young genius has suddenly emerged; Senior Brother Ye must be feeling the pressure now, right?”

At the outer railing, a group of young men and women gathered, whispering amongst themselves.

…

Hokkaido Shrine Pavilion.

The female host announced loudly, “The results are in! Two abstention votes, and the other three all go to contestant Xia Yu!”

“Let us cheer for the winner—”

“Congratulations to contestant Xia Yu!”

Backstage corridor.

Tap tap, footsteps.

“Hey, wait up, can’t you wait a moment?”

Li Han chased after him, out of breath.

Resting his hand on the doorknob then pulling it back, Xia Yu turned around with amusement, “You’ve already lost. Shouldn’t you be licking your wounds in silence? Chasing after me so eagerly, you couldn’t be dissatisfied, could you?”

“Wow!”

Startled by the remark, Li Han took a step back.

“I’m convinced, I’m convinced!” Li Han raised his hands as if to surrender, looking different from his sharp demeanor on stage. He looked at Xia Yu’s face and suddenly asked with a neurotic tone, “Did you really grasp the Food Philosophy?”

“Food Philosophy?”

Xia Yu shook his head.

“Cut it out!”

Li Han rolled his eyes dramatically.

“Standing alone and unmatched, that kind of superior attitude, isn’t that the ‘meaning’ you imparted to your cooking?” he said resentfully, seeing the somewhat clueless look on Xia Yu’s face, anger flaring even more, “I mean, you couldn’t possibly be unsure of your own Food Philosophy, could you?”

The corner of Xia Yu’s mouth lifted slightly.

“Food Philosophy, a level above the Chef’s Heart Mark, but who says it must be fixed in form?”

Li Han was speechless.

Talking about Food Philosophy, he couldn’t respond with even a single word, after all, it was a matter of different levels.

That threshold was still vague and elusive for him.

“Alright!” Li Han gritted his teeth, “I have another question… Why do you seem more familiar with my family’s supreme recipe, the ‘Seven Countries United Fried Noodles,’ than I am?”

Xia Yu revealed a slight grimace, “Because… I’ve seen it!”

And in his heart, he added:

I’ve read the original.

“Read it?”

Veins suddenly popped on his forehead, and Li Han yelled, “That’s impossible! Only the direct bloodline of the Ya Family and the Li Family can view and learn the Supreme Recipes. You’re an outsider; how could you possibly sneak into our ancestral hall to peek at the recipes!”

Bang!

The door to the lounge was slammed shut, his yelling cut off from the inside.

It got quiet all of a sudden.

Turning around, he was met with several pairs of shining eyes. Xia Yu was startled, his gaze sweeping over Tanaka Hikari, Morioka Makki, the Yuchuan Sisters, and even Tiqie Eriina, “You all came backstage?”

“Yeah!”

Morioka Makki was taking off her victory band from her forehead, her cute face flushed and sweaty. Though the venue was air-conditioned, the tense atmosphere kept the girl practically drenched.

Yuchuan Meisha simply pointed to the door being knocked on repeatedly and giggled, “Should we show mercy to the weak and let him in?”

“Absolutely not!”

Xia Yu waved his hand dismissively and dove into the changing room, emerging in a fresh set of casual clothes free from any sweat odor.

He purposefully sat next to Tiqie Eriina.

Earlier, he had clearly seen the look of disappointment on the young girl’s face from the stage. Patting her shoulder, she trembled, looking up at him with a defiant spirit written in her eyes despite her lack of conviction.

Ha.

Xia Yu chuckled inwardly.

The little girl indeed needed psychological guidance. When a trait you pride yourself on suddenly seems less special and loses its shine, not just Eriina, but even a mature, renowned chef might crumble.

“Talent is something you shouldn’t overvalue, nor should you undervalue it,” Xia Yu said casually, “Take Mars, Tang Yuqiong, and your father for instance—do they have Li Han’s talent?”

Eriina pursed her lips and looked at him.

Pointing to the door still being pounded on, Xia Yu said, “You’ve seen his failure. Sometimes, talent can be a burden. It can even have a detrimental effect in certain high-level dishes, like gilding the lily.”

Then he pointed to his chest.

“Cooking skill, or rather, mastery, is what truly matters—”

Xia Yu didn’t go on.

He had already used a vivid teaching moment to show Eriina the direction she should head in the future.

Closing his eyes, Xia Yu tallied up the rewards from defeating Li Han.

“System: [Defeat ‘Five Chinese Talents’ Li Han] completed.”

“Item [Seed of Qi] (Gold) has been added to your inventory queue.”

“Cooking skill level lv42→lv50.”

“Received 8 Talent Points from the level-up bonus.

“Received 5 Talent Points for defeating a formidable opponent.”

A total of 13 Talent Points.

Xia Yu looked at himself. For defeating Tiqie Ji, the system had rewarded him with 10 Talent Points; after the grand battle with Tiqie Ji, he had a total of 11, and with this battle’s haul, 24 Talent Points—quite a hefty gain.

But his gaze swept over the Talent column and landed on the [Heart of Cooking].

The purple-framed Heart of Cooking required a 100 Talent Point investment to advance further.

The 24 Talent Points he had painstakingly accumulated from international competitions felt like a drop in the bucket.

“Still 76 points short!”

He couldn’t help but sigh.

Actually, judging by Xia Yu’s own assessment of his ‘Seven Countries United Fried Noodles,’ he had banked on the momentum of the Gold-Frame [Bursting Flame].

The so-called loneliness of supremacy was the grandeur that Gold-Frame [Bursting Flame] naturally bestowed upon the dish.

To some extent, Gold-Frame [Bursting Flame] had an associated culinary essence of dominance.

However, this culinary essence was limited in its application, only suitable for dishes that could be cooked with flame, or to be exact, only for recipes created in the past by Ya Kan, and those recipes could not be of a low grade; otherwise, they could not bear the heavy ‘meaning.’ Xia Yu was now on par with the former Blast Flame Chef. He needed to forge his own path.

Nevertheless.

This showdown, putting aside the system rewards, had also clued Xia Yu into the fact that Gold-Frame cooking skills inherently possessed a culinary essence—a significant revelation.

[Bursting Flame] held a culinary essence akin to King Qin’s sweeping dominance.

Then there was the Gold-Frame [Spice Empress]…

Thinking of the Spice Empress, for some reason, Xia Yu shivered with a sudden chill.