CHAPTER 810: CHAPTER 809: XUANJING TAKING FLIGHT (PART 1)

The emcee, judges, and guests were all stunned.

The atmosphere at the venue dropped from excitement to chilling cold, only to be followed by a wave of thunderous cheers a few seconds later.

"Oh——"

"I understood that. The recipe must be ready, right?"

"No kidding! Next, let’s watch Chef Xia’s performance!"

The audience’s gaze completely changed.

"This guy!" Li Han heard the incoming cheers and could only admit admiration towards the young man at Cooking Station No. 1, "He’s the one to stir things up! I admit it!"

Tang Yuqiong and Wu Yingying exchanged glances.

"That one on stage..."

Both couldn’t help but feel sorry for the talented youths in bewilderment, "Such a terrifying Demon King should not have appeared in this preliminary!"

"Aqiong, we’ve both been defeated by him before. I think this small pond of a competition can’t contain this Demon King!" Wu Yingying complained.

"Hey, hey, hey, is it just you two?"

Though Li Han presented quite an ugly expression, he didn’t bother to hide his defeat on the Sapporo stage, frankly admitting, "I lost too, and it was in the area I’m most proud of—the mastery of heat. With our Li Family’s and Ya Family’s top-notch culinary skills, I was squarely defeated. I admit my defeat willingly!"

With this, three of the "Five Chinese Talents" acknowledged their defeat. If there’s a recording of this uploaded online, it would definitely cause a sensation.

The fourth, Zhao Zhen, sat up straight in his chair.

"Huh..." With a lollipop out of his mouth, Zhao Zhen suddenly asked, "To him, a non-essential preliminary, will he give his all?"

Zhao Zhen had long eyelashes, big eyes, hair covering his fair cheeks, and thick bangs pinned back by a black hair clip, barely showing his smooth forehead.

His attire was quite traditional, with a classic top and bottom. A white, plain linen embroidered cross-collar top, with its large sleeves tied by red messy ropes, and the bottom was a nearly floor-length black waist skirt with a red belt, altogether resembling a Japanese manga style archery outfit, but was authentic China attire.

Indeed!

Listening to Zhao Zhen, Li Han, Tang Yuqiong, and Wu Yingying were all dumbfounded, "With a bunch of kids on stage, would he go all out?"

"Ahem!"

A voice came from the guest seats.

Wei An somehow got hold of the microphone and shouted towards Cooking Station No. 1 solemnly, "Xia Yu, although this is just a preliminary, I hope you showcase all your culinary skills!"

"Showcase everything!" Wei Qiang emphasized with a serious face.

"As you wish." Xia Yu nodded lightly.

Wei An saw him agree so straightforwardly and was momentarily taken aback.

"However, I didn’t bring any ingredients this time, so I’ll need a bit more time to prepare. Please allow me to make a phone call—" As he spoke, Xia Yu took out his phone on camera without any hesitation.

This round of preliminaries had a designated theme, not designated ingredients, so young talents could bring their own tools and ingredients.

However, the previous bell indicated that the cooking phase had already begun.

Time was ticking away, limited to 2 hours, is it possible?

Wei An sat down and exchanged a greatly confused look with Kong Chun.

Next, it’s time for the fellow young talents to think and prepare their recipes and ingredients, but for Xia Yu, it’s just waiting time for rubbish. With nothing to do, he waited for a while and decided to communicate with the system space and immersed himself in it.

"Deploy ingredients—"

Swish.

On the mysterious space’s cooking platform, some oddly shaped fish appeared.

This time, Xia Yu wasn’t startled by the strange fish, standing with hands on hips for a moment of wonder, suddenly shook his hand, "Remove them!"

Then the kitchen was emptied.

Mental focus turned to the system’s item column.

"Deploy!"

A prop mapped onto the table in the space, a transparent glass vessel containing fish.

Emitting a golden glow, beautifully crystal clear, slightly larger than a palm, the odd fish quietly swam around in a kind of bizarre golden liquid.

Thump thump!

Unlike the excited heartbeat standing on stage, this time the heartbeat was the thrill of discovery.

"That’s right." Xia Yu had an indescribable joy in his eyes, "This thing... is indeed my resonant ingredient!" Even after multiple confirmations, while reviewing again, it’s still like hitting the jackpot.

Couldn’t help reaching forward, fingers brushing the water’s surface causing ripples.

Vision blurred for a moment, then popped up the ingredient data identified back in Japan:

"’Morls Oil,’ a natural edible oil discovered by Gourmet Hunters and documented by the IGO, characterized by its refreshing lightness..."

Thus, the missing pair of wings for the whale could truly take shape.

Xia Yu clenched his fist, a surge of burning passion in his eyes, "This time, the Xuanjing might just soar, right?"

"Today, we’ll conquer the Merck Star Dust!"

Indeed.

The culinary research was meant to happen smoothly, rather than picking another day, since a Dragon Chef already spoke, one must heed the courtesy. Moreover, this second preliminary is unlike before, with a grand spectator group watching, Xia Yu naturally has to show off.

So, whatever fellow young talents were there, Xia Yu completely ignored them. This was his battle with the new spice formula, a fight against Taboo Spices, and also a stage to showcase his painstakingly researched results.

Who knows if those secretly forming a blockade alliance will be infuriated to faint upon realizing they’re completely disregarded.

Half an hour later, Zhu Qing stormed onto the stage and handed a box of ingredients to Xia Yu.

"All you know is to boss people around!"

Zhu Qing realized the cameras were numerous, only muttering, "I’ve safely brought you the stuff, perform well, and don’t hold back, punch those who belittle you right in the face!"

Xia Yu smirked, enough of the wild spirit, but he liked it.

The emcee timely reminded, "Chef Xia, there is 1 hour and 15 minutes left until the cooking phase ends, please hurry!"

"Of course!"

Getting eliminated by time would be a huge embarrassment.

In fact, Xia Yu’s recipe was very simple; the ingredients were just two kinds:

Oil and powder.

The camera zoomed in on the opened ingredient box, enlarging the view. A portion of golden liquid separately stored in a glass bottle, the audience repeatedly observed, suspecting it’s fat.

As for powder, it was a strange mix of dust, in a dark color, also contained in a glass bottle, sealed tightly, seemingly preserving spices.

"Spices?"

"I guess it’s..."

Voices of whispered speculation.

Just oil and powder? Of course not, no chef could cook without the main ingredient, which hasn’t been revealed yet!

Xia Yu gestured to the emcee to come over, whispered something, immediately making the calm middle-aged emcee respond in disbelief, tremblingly, "You, are you sure you want this ingredient?"

"Absolutely sure, please hurry so we can save time!" Xia Yu kept nodding.

Seeing this, the venue went silent.

What does he want to do next?

Convinced Xia Yu was up to something, Li Han couldn’t help but feel extremely curious, "I think everyone will be tremendously surprised!"

Once also defeated miserably by Xia Yu with not a shred of resistance, Wu Yingying blushed and quietly laughed, "Let him go wild, would he tear down the stage?"

Soon, the emcee led a food delivery etiquette lady onto the stage.

Pop.

The tray gently landed on the cooking platform, the etiquette lady quickly stole a few glances at the young man before being hurried off by the emcee.

All eyes were riveted to the ingredient on the tray.

"Crack!"

What sounded like the shattering of something, perhaps a flurry of eyeballs.