CHAPTER 695: CHAPTER 694: CHAOTIC EVIL ENTITIES

Time rewound to about an hour ago.

Xia’s Farm.

The glass room in the core area.

Xia Yu stood under the Rainbow Tree, hands on hips, looking up at the tree that had grown more than three meters tall, listening to Jintan Shun recounting a past event.

The story was melodramatic, nothing more than former hunter teammates who later turned into enemies.

As for knowing Lei Zhe, Jintan Shun understood him better than even the leaders of the Gourmet Association.

"He’s a very complex person, quiet and serious, the most prestigious research expert within the Gourmet Association. With a series of research achievements, he secured the position of head of the research department, naturally developing this faction into one of the towering forces within the Gourmet Association, externally known as the Research Faction."

"When angry, he becomes a demon driven by emotions, ruthless and cruel, fond of eating various animals’ eyeballs raw. Of course, I’ve heard that his tastes have changed in recent years; he only eats the eyeballs of fantasy species now... Hey, this food preference, it’s related to his gourmet cells; he hasn’t fully controlled the Gourmet Demon inside him, hence he carries various primitive and savage habits."

Not only was Lei Zhe analyzed in detail, through Jintan Shun’s words, Xia Yu also saw another facet of the ’Gourmet Association’.

The Gourmet Association, a vast and complex gourmet organization.

Apart from the ’Research Faction’ headed by Lei Zhe, the other seven factions were also independently powerful, with finances and personnel under the control of headquarters which firmly held the lifeline of the Gourmet Association’s chefs—

Ingredients, gourmet cells!

To this day, no outsider has managed to glimpse how all-encompassing the Gourmet Association Headquarters’ ingredient repository is, except for that high and mighty Heavenly King.

"The Research Faction, the Academic Faction, we shouldn’t discuss them; too complicated to say, personally, I prefer to divide the power of the Gourmet Association into three camps: Lawful, Neutral, and Evil."

"You’re familiar with several figures of the Lawful camp, Mars, Lin Giant Desani and his daughter."

"For the Neutral camp, the ’Breeding Witch’ Catherine, you remember her, right? You are one of her major patrons, having sourced a batch of ’Sea Glowworms’ from her. In fact, there are not many wealthy individuals qualified to breed such fantasy insects, and you are the most suitable one since you own an emerging fantasy garden—"

At this, Jintan Shun winked.

"I am grateful to have witnessed such a fantasy garden’s emergence up close!"

Xia Yu interrupted with a smile, "What about ’Dragon Tamer’ Sta and ’Burning Purple Rose’ Andrea?"

"These two belong to the Neutral camp."

At this, Jintan Shun paused, "You know what ’Neutral’ truly means, right?"

"I hope it’s Absolute Neutral, not Chaotic Neutral."

"Eh?" Jintan Shun was taken aback by Xia Yu’s response, and it took him a while to somewhat grasp the meanings of the prefixes ’Absolute’ and ’Chaotic’.

"Absolute Neutral is the Balanced Doctrine."

"Chaotic Neutral is about freethinkers, individualists."

Hearing the explanation, Jintan Shun pondered, "Then their Chaotic Neutral side is somewhat larger."

"As for the Evil camp, Lei Zhe and his Research Faction are part of it, plus, the big fish you accidentally caught a couple of days ago, oh, I should say the ’Tiger Head Association’ he belongs to. Essentially, this alliance also emerged within the Gourmet Association, its members are also part of the Gourmet Association, but if we’re to differentiate further, the Tiger Head Association and the Research Faction are quite different."

Xia Yu nodded.

In his view, Lei Zhe and his Research Faction had a slightly larget angle of ’Chaotic Evil’, while Chen Yang and the Tiger Head Association were ’Lawful Evil’.

This represents the study of factions.

In a nutshell—Since ancient times, chaos breeds fools; Chaotic Evil is the fool among fools.

Thus, regarding Lei Zhe and his Research Faction, any predicted behaviors or scheming, it’s useless to predict and judge because even they don’t understand themselves.

Labelling Lei Zhe as a fool, Xia Yu found, didn’t lower this person’s threat; it significantly increased it.

It’s the shameless hooligans one should be wary of!

Moreover, this hooligan also possesses formidable culinary and combat abilities!

"Uncle Jintian, I want to expel him directly!"

After a brief deliberation, Xia Yu declared resolutely.

"A wise decision!"

Jintan Shun gave a thumbs up, "Keeping such a guy in Far Moon is like setting yourself on fire!"

"But..."

Xia Yu expressed his concerns.

Without an equally ranked Qilin-level Gourmet Hunter to keep things in check, he truly feared Lei Zhe might go berserk.

"Do you want me to secretly assist?" Jintan Shun shook his head, pointing at the Rainbow Tree in front of him and the shelves around the glass room filled with thriving rare plants, "You don’ti plan to take care of the farm anymore?"

"I must remind you, yesterday, on the first day of the school festival, there were already many sneaky figures around the farm. Today, they will likely be bolder."

Upon hearing this, Xia Yu’s heart shivered.

"Here’s what we’ll do!"

Jintan Shun took out his phone, waved it around, "I’ll contact another Qilin-level Gourmet Hunter for you. You know her; she’s currently in Tokyo. As for the commission..."

"That’s easy to handle!"

Xia Yu finally showed a smile.

Before long, Xia Yu pushed open the glass door.

"Be careful!"

Jintan Shun looked at his retreating figure, hesitated to speak, and finally just gave this warning.

...

He returned to the central district.

"I’m going to expel you!"

A calm statement, which, when heard by everyone around, boomed like a thunderclap.

Eriina, Kobayakawa Ryodan, and Koga Shoji were stunned.

Xingping Chuangzhen also froze in mid-gesture.

Even Chen Yang on the fringes and Tang Yuqiong, who had just arrived to join the excitement and was holding a camera pole, were baffled.

Expelling a Lin Chef!

Oh my God!

It took a long while for the echoed words in their minds to be acknowledged.

The throng of onlooking reporters went wild, their faces flushed as if a single sentence induced a physiological climax. Each one lifted their devices, capturing the scene of the youth confronting Lei Zhe, and in their minds, several sensational headlines formed—

Something about a youth and a giant bear, something about a kingdom’s war, something about the first case ever.

Ultimately, the reporters found that no matter how eye-catching the words were, they could hardly encapsulate the scene they had just captured.

"Expulsion?!"

From initial shock to silence, Lei Zhe after a few seconds simply burst into laughter.

"Do you understand what the character ’Lin’ signifies?"

A cold smile formed at the corner of his mouth: "Culinary skill, status, and... a set of rules for Food Duels that are distinct from both special grades and those below!"

"So, you’re talking about a Dark Food Duel? Sorry, I don’t plan to accept any form of Food Duel. You might as well give up."

Xia Yu crossed his arms, quite composed.

Indeed!

In his mind, he again raised Lei Zhe’s danger level.

Don’t bother guessing the thoughts of a fool.

Did he still hope to drag him into a Food Duel at this time? A Qilin-level actually conceiving the idea of challenging a special grade, it was utterly insane and unreasonable.

He shrugged at the thought.

...

Tiqie Mansion.

"Head to the central district!" Tiqie Xianzuowen strode briskly, diving into the car by the entrance, clutching his phone tightly. The old butler sitting in the driver’s seat glanced at the rearview mirror, his expression grave, "We’ll get there as quickly as possible!"

After that, the car shot out like an arrow released.

Around one or two hundred meters away from the mansion complex, in the mountain woods.

A few withered yellow leaves drifted down.

Swoosh!

Someone slid down from the tree; it was three female ninjas.

The female leader named Ei glanced at the swiftly disappearing car and did not hesitate, "Go!"

From afar, they took out hidden equipment. The dense surveillance network around the mansion immediately suffered an invisible infrared laser attack. Sizzling sounds emitted, and in the underground control room, multiple screens on the display panel turned white.

"Hmm?"

Standing before the control panel, a tall, muscular man who hadn’t moved for a while now smiled, "This trip really wasn’t in vain."

He took off his suit jacket and pushed through the door.