Chapter 399: This is a Cursed Fish
Translator: CatatoPatch Editor: Vermillion
Prepare a kitchen?
Were you a comedian invited by that black dog?
The Serpentine Sovereign and the others were all shocked at Bu Fang’s sudden request. They stared at him speechlessly.
Wu Mu awkwardly smiled. He didn’t expect that Bu Fang would make such a strange request the moment he came back. Even he was slightly caught off guard.
“Owner Bu… We should talk about important matters first…”
A slight trace of embarrassment flashed through the Serpentine Sovereign’s beautiful face. Could it be that Bu Fang wanted to carry out their discussion in the kitchen? That would truly be weird, wouldn’t it?
“Owner Bu, if you want to have a meal, I will order my imperial chefs to prepare it. First, let’s go to the main hall of my imperial palace and have a nice chat about the matter about Yu Fu.” The Serpentine Sovereign didn’t want to delay their discussion any longer and she kept pestering Bu Fang to enter the imperial palace.
Bu Fang shot a look at the Serpentine Sovereign as the corners of his mouth curled upwards. There was a trace of disdain as he looked at the Serpentine Sovereign.
“Imperial chefs? Are the dishes made by them edible?”
The Serpentine Sovereign slightly furrowed her brows. She felt as though Bu Fang was looking down on her imperial chefs. No matter what, she was the Serpentine Sovereign. Although she was already a peak Supreme-Being expert and seldom ate, the imperial chefs in the imperial palace were the best of the best. They had been meticulously chosen from the countless serpent-men.
“Owner Bu, you can be at ease. The imperial chefs are people who were carefully chosen out of all the serpent-men. Their culinary skills won’t disappoint you in the slightest.”
“Oh? If they are as amazing as you claim them to be, can they cook this ingredient?”
Bu Fang calmly said and covered his hand with true energy. He took out a plump and big fish which was covered in countless stripes.
When Wu Mu and the others looked at the hideous fish in Bu Fang’s hand, they were astonished.
“What kind of spirit beast is that?”
“It seems like a breed of fish. However, I have never seen anything like it.”
“That fish is too ugly! I’m pretty sure it tastes nasty as well…
…
Everyone around Bu Fang started to whisper among themselves. When they were all discussing the fish in Bu Fang’s hand, the Serpentine Sovereign’s complexion became slightly ugly. That was because even she was incapable of recognizing the spirit beast in Bu Fang’s hand.
Yu Fu was also astonished. Even though she had been his apprentice for a long time and practiced the culinary arts with him for quite some time now, she was unable to identify the fish. If even Yu Fu was not able to recognize the ingredient in Bu Fang’s hand, the Serpentine Sovereign would definitely not be able to.
“The most important thing right now is to take me into the kitchen. I want to cook a dish using this ingredient. After I’m done cooking it, you can have a taste. After tasting the dish, you’ll know that the imperial chefs in your palace are nothing compared to me.” Bu Fang grabbed the Darkmoon Thorny Pufferfish and he said with barely concealed arrogance.
The golden mantis shrimp on his shoulder slightly moved and its compound eyes stole a glance at the pufferfish in Bu Fang’s hand. It felt as though it had seen it somewhere before.
Bu Fang naturally didn’t care about the golden mantis shrimp. Instead, he fixed his gaze on the Serpentine Sovereign.
In the end, the Serpentine Sovereign and the others gave in and brought him to a kitchen.
Yu Fu cheerfully followed behind them. As she was confined to her own home by the Serpentine Sovereign for a month, she wasn’t able to cook. There was no opportunity for her to come into contact with a kitchen knife. She was extremely eager to be able to cook again.
When they entered the kitchen, the Grand Serpentine City’s imperial chefs respectfully greeted the Serpentine Sovereign.
“Can anyone of you recognize what ingredient this is?”
The Serpentine Sovereign had a cold voice as she asked the imperial chefs about the ingredient in Bu Fang’s hand. She didn’t believe Bu Fang and she also didn’t believe that none of the chefs would be able to identify the fish.
However, she was bound to be disappointed. After all of the imperial chefs looked at the fish in Bu Fang’s hand, they were unable to identify it. Although some of them found it familiar, none of them were able to accurately identify the fish.
“This… This ingredient looks like it came from the northern region of the Grand Serpentine City. It looks like that demonic fish which lived in the river there.”
A young imperial chef said in a grave tone “However, that fish contains a deadly poison and there is no way to eat it without getting poisoned. It can’t be considered an ingredient.”
Bu Fang was slightly startled as he didn’t expect that there would truly be someone who recognized it. Although he was surprised that there would be someone who made a correct guess, Bu Fang didn’t reveal the name of the fish to everyone. Were there really different kinds of pufferfish living in the area?
“You are right. This ingredient contains a deadly poison. This Thorny Pufferfish has a poison which can kill even a Supreme-Being,” said Bu Fang.
When everyone heard Bu Fang, chaos broke out. He actually wanted to cook an ingredient which could poison a Supreme-Being to death?
“This… This is a cursed fish! Even if it was cooked, the dish would be poisonous. It can’t be eaten…”
That young imperial chef was trembling and shaking his head as he cried out.
“This is because all of you have no idea on how to cook a fish like this. Now, tell me where is that river.” Bu Fang looked at that young serpent-man and asked with excitement in his voice.
If there was really such a river, Bu Fang would take a trip there and capture lots of pufferfish. He would bring them back to his store and create a new dish out of them.
“That is a cursed river… All of the demonic fishes in it were killed by the experts from our serpent-men race. However, the blood of those demonic fished contaminated the water and they could only seal the place up. The experts filled the river in order to stop the poison from spreading.” That young imperial chef proudly raised his head in the air and proclaimed.
Bu Fang had an expressionless face when he looked at the young imperial chef. When he saw that the young imperial chef raised his head with pride, Bu Fang felt like smashing his face with the Black Turtle Constellation Wok.
Those demonic fishes were pufferfish! They were all excellent ingredients…
Bu Fang restrained himself and he pulled Yu Fu into the kitchen.
The Serpentine Sovereign and Wu Mu were startled by Bu Fang’s actions. The imperial chefs wanted to follow Bu Fang into the kitchen and watch him cook the demonic fish.
Before they could enter, Bu Fang who was carrying the Black Turtle Constellation Wok, blocked the kitchen. He looked at the imperial chefs calmly.
“What do you think you are doing? All of you should distance yourselves from the kitchen. Other than my apprentice, no one is allowed to take half a step into the kitchen when I’m cooking. Anyone who disobeys will be battered to death by my wok.”
After Bu Fang was done speaking, he closed the door of the kitchen with a loud “bang”.
A trace of embarrassment appeared on the Serpentine Sovereign’s face. This was really embarrassing. She snorted at Bu Fang in her mind and she swayed her tail toward the kitchen door. She really wanted to see how Bu Fang prepared his so-called exceptional delicacy.
Wu Mu warmly smiled and said, “Owner Bu is a capable and talented person. He has exceptional culinary arts. It isn’t strange for him to have a weird temper.”
The Serpentine Sovereign shot a gaze at Wu Mu before snorting coldly. She eventually turned her head sideways.
…..
The kitchen was pretty decent and it was quite magnificent. It was tidy and spotlessly clean. There were countless ingredients inside the kitchen, waiting for the chefs to cook them. There were even some spirit beasts in a cage staring at Bu Fang.
Those were spirit beast ingredients which would be butchered shortly.
Bu Fang didn’t pay attention to them. After he entered the kitchen, he started to make changes to the entire place.
He conveniently took a kitchen knife which was lying on a table and he waved it around. After some consideration, he threw the knife at Yu Fu.
“Wield this kitchen knife. Since you haven’t touched a knife for a month, you should familiarise yourself with it. Watch how I cook carefully and you should be able to learn many things.” Bu Fang advised Yu Fu.
After Yu Fu took the knife from Bu Fang, she nodded her head earnestly. She was extremely happy that she finally got the chance to cook again.
Bu Fang nodded his head at her and he replaced the wok in the kitchen. Of course, Bu Fang wanted to use his Black Turtle Constellation Wok compared to the random wok used by the imperial chefs.
Carrying Blacky who was sound asleep, Bu Fang threw it into a random corner of the kitchen. After getting rid of Blacky, he poured Heaven Alps Spirit Lake Water on the wok. Then, he took a step back and he opened his mouth. A ball of golden flames emerged from his mouth.
Yu Fu, who was observing him, stared at Bu Fang in shock. As it turned out, spitting fire had its uses.
After the Ten Thousand Bestial Flame made its way to the bottom of the wok, it started heating up the wok. In just a short while, the Heaven Alps Spirit Lake Water within the wok started boiling.
Bu Fang earnestly washed the Black Turtle Constellation Wok before putting it aside. Afterwards, he started to process the Darkmoon Thorny Pufferfish.
If Lord Dog saw that Bu Fang cleaned the wok, it would definitely slap Bu Fang till he died. This Bu Fang actually cleaned the wok because Lord Dog slept there.
It was just a nap! Why would you need to clean it with Heaven Alps Spirit Lake Water?
However, despite everything, Bu Fang’s earnest attitude affected Yu Fu. Even her hair white skin on her arm had goosebumps on it. Bu Fang could see that she was extremely nervous. It was her first time seeing Bu Fang this earnest and serious.
After taking out the Darkmoon Thorny Pufferfish, green smoke twirled around Bu Fang’s hand. He summoned the Golden Dragon Bone Knife and waved it in the air once. Afterwards, he started to cut up the Thorny Pufferfish.
Although the Thorny Pufferfish’s skin was tough and hard, it was easily sliced apart by the Dragon Bone Kitchen Knife. The knife went through the skin like it was tofu.
With a wave of his hand, a find line appeared on the Thorny Pufferfish’s body. He turned his knife over and raised the skin of the Thorny Pufferfish.
His hand slightly trembled as he pushed the knife deeper into the Thorny Pufferfish. He lightly severed the joints which were between the skin and the meat.
When Yu Fu saw how Bu Fang processed the Thorny Pufferfish, her eyes couldn’t help but widen. She felt as though there was a ray of light coming from Bu Fang which lit up the dim kitchen.
The skin on the Thorny Pufferfish was quickly opened up and Bu Fang peeled it off.
Owner Bu’s cutting skill advanced to a greater level and it was reaching perfection.
As his chef’s apprentice, Yu Fu was practicing her cutting technique daily. However, it was inferior and lacking compared to Bu Fang’s Meteor Cutting Technique.
Therefore, Yu Fu was astonished when she saw Bu Fang’s cutting skills. Every time she saw him cook. It was like he was making a piece of art. It was truly pleasing to watch Bu Fang cook.
Bu Fang slightly shook his kitchen knife and he placed the skin on a porcelain tray which was located above the kitchen stove.
After the skin was taken care of, Bu Fang focused on the rest of the fish in front of him.
Bu Fang held on firmly to his knife and he slightly squinted his eyes. In the next moment, his knife flickered like lightning as he slashed down toward the Thorny Pufferfish. His movements were so swift that it would be able to dazzle everyone.
Every time he lifted his knife, some fine poison sacs would be removed. Those sacs were capable of creating the poisonous needles which it used to attack Bu Fang. Those sacs contained deadly poison as well as a strange liquid substance. Bu Fang knew that if the liquid contaminated the meat, the entire Thorny Pufferfish would become inedible.
This was a task which required patience as well as precision. Bu Fang knew that there was no room for mistake.
Splat! Splat! Splat!
After he took out each poison sac, he would throw it in a porcelain tray. It would make a ‘splat’ sound which caused Yu Fu to hold her breath as she was becoming more and more nervous. Her face started to flush and beads of sweat flowed down her forehead.
She widened her big eyes until they become round, which made her look really adorable.
However, Bu Fang was too busy right now and didn’t have the time to admire how adorable and lovable she was.
“Process those poison sacs. Bear in mind that you can’t come into contact with them, otherwise, you’ll be infected,” Bu Fang said calmly.
After Yu Fu came back to her sense, she nodded at him. She carefully took the porcelain tray which was filled with poison sacs. She looked at the tray and found out that there was some yellow liquid flowing inside those sacs.
Bu Fang only started the next step after he inspected the Thorny Pufferfish and found out that there weren’t any others poison sacs on it.
He gouged out the Thorny Pufferfish’s eyes as even the eyes of this creature had a virulent poison.
He waved his kitchen knife and scraped off some fine spikes from the surface of the meat. Those spikes were not big nor sharp. They didn’t even contain poison. However, Bu Fang took them off as they would numb one’s mouth and affect the taste of the dish.
He opened up the Thorny Pufferfish’s and carefully gouged out its heart. He also took out its air bladder before washing them with Heaven Alps Spirit Lake Water. He carefully processed the fine membranes which were inside the Thorny Pufferfish.
It took him a long time to completely process every single part of this Thorny Pufferfish, as it was extremely poisonous.
He waved his knife and started slicing the remaining meat which had no poison in it. The meat of the Thorny Pufferfish was quite soft. Just by lightly drawing his knife across the meat, the meat opened up.
After he was done processing the meat, Bu Fang started to prepare to cook it.
He was slightly excited as in his previous world, pufferfish meat was considered the most delicious food in the world. Although it was slightly exaggerated, it was enough to prove that pufferfish meat was extremely delicious.
Since he was about to cook such a delicacy with his own hands, Bu Fang was naturally quite excited. However, he was still prudent and careful when cooking the Thorny Pufferfish.
With a wave of his hand, the Ten Thousand Bestial Flames became stronger. The temperature of the Black Turtle Constellation Wok instantly rose.
