Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Bu Fang sat in a chair, his brows furrowed.
There was something wrong with his cooking. He could not sense his spirit sea nor use his mental force. It was a great blow to him.
As his strength grew, he had begun to use his mental force when cooking. It could control the energy in the food so that the dish would be very tasty.
Perhaps he was used to using his mental force, he felt somewhat uncomfortable now that it had disappeared. But he did not spend any time pitying himself, though his condition deteriorated by day.
At first, he was able to taste his dishes, but later, he found that his sensitivity to the ingredients also had a problem. His tongue began to fail to taste anything, and his other senses, such as his sense of smell and touch, also gradually left him.
“What the hell…”
Bu Fang frowned and felt speechless. As a chef, when these senses left him, it was like sending him to hell. He did not even want to hold a kitchen knife now.
He could still summon the God of Cooking Sets, but his spirit sea seemed to have been veiled by something. Much of his stuff seemed to have disappeared, but he felt that they were still there.
“Is the System behind all these?” Bu Fang was in a daze. It all started with the System saying ‘level up’.
It was late at night. Neon lights flickered in the capital, and the smell of food, smoke from cooking, and the noise of people chatting and laughing filled the air.
Bu Fang sat in the restaurant. He could see everything, but he could also clearly feel that his sense of the outside world began to slowly disappear. All of his cooking skills were gone, including his sense of touch, smell, and mental force.
He could not even cook the simplest Egg-Fried Rice now.
‘Why is this happening to me?’
Bu Fang was still a little reluctant to accept it. It was like a student who got a perfect score on every test suddenly realized that he knew nothing at all, and then he got a zero on every test that followed.
The blow was huge. If it were another person, he might have already broken down. Bu Fang did not break down, but he was still a little reluctant to accept it.
In a trance, he thought of many things. Ever since he acquired the System, his cooking had basically revolved around it. Although he had always consciously practiced his cooking skills and cautioning himself not to rely too much on the System, it seemed that he had treated many things too simply.
The road to becoming a God of Cooking was not that easy to walk. The Artifact Spirits had told Bu Fang this a long time ago. They also told him that there were many Hosts before him, but all of them failed.
He took a deep breath, thinking that this might be his greatest test, one that many other Hosts before him had failed at.
There was something wrong with Bu Fang’s cooking—this news spread throughout the capital. Many people felt sorry for him, but many more did not bat an eye. They just moved on to another restaurant. For other restaurants, however, it was good news.
Restaurants that were almost ready to close down suddenly came back to life. Their business was booming, and the restaurant on the top floor of the Luo Family’s skyscraper had little to no customers.
After much thought, Bu Fang finally rose to his feet and closed the door of the restaurant. Foxy and Shrimpy jumped on his shoulders and looked at him with their big eyes. He smiled and rubbed their heads.
“I’ll be fine. This temporary confusion is a good thing for me. It’s like a phoenix rising from the ashes. There’s always a low point in life,” he said. He was actually quite optimistic.
Then, he turned and strode away from the restaurant.
Bu Fang walked down the street at a steady pace. Soon, he arrived at the palace.
Upon learning of his visit, the Divine Emperor hurried out of the palace to welcome him. Although Bu Fang had lost his cooking skills, his cultivation base still stood at the top of this world.
Besides, he was the savior of the Xiayi Divine Dynasty. So, even though he had lost his cooking skills, he was still the Divine Emperor’s guest of honor.
In the palace, they talked for a long time. Finally, Bu Fang borrowed a warship from the Divine Emperor and left.
As the warship slowly sailed away from the palace and headed for the boundless starry sky, Luo Sananiang, standing at the top of her family’s skyscraper, looked up at it with a complicated expression on her face.
With a rumble, a powerful jet of air shot out from the warship’s tail, propelling it deep into the starry sky.
Bu Fang left Xiayi Divine Dynasty. He wanted to solve the doubts in his mind, and he knew exactly who could solve them for him.
As he was on his way to his destination, he also tried cooking in the warship. Losing the sense of taste, touch, and smell, as well as mental force might affect his ability to cook, but it did not stop him from cooking. The art of cooking had been engraved into his bones.
He could still cook because through experiences, he could judge when to turn the temperature up or down, when to add ingredients, and many other things. Of course, the dish would not taste as good as it used to be. After all, he had lost those senses.
It was like swapping a car for a bicycle. The decline in cooking skills caused by the loss of senses and mental force was a major setback. Previously, when Bu Fang had only been distracted a little, he had cooked the Egg-Fried Rice too salty.
The warship sailed through the boundless starry sky. The journey was long and boring, but Bu Fang spent his free time admiring the colorful stars. He found them very beautiful.
There were times when he regretted his decision. None of this would have happened if he had not chosen to level up, and his cooking skills would still be as good as ever. However, if he really chose to not level up, then his cooking skills would never improve.
If he were given the chance again, he would probably still choose to level up.
The warship traveled through the starry sky at a very high speed. Finally, after a long flight, when the warship began to slow down, Bu Fang saw a familiar scene.
It was a continent floating in the starry sky. It was the Great Netherworld. He was back. He made the warship fly toward it.
Bu Fang had been away from the Great Netherworld for a long time, but he grew up here, so he would not forget it. And there was someone here who could help him.
As he entered the Great Netherworld’s territory, several small warships suddenly flew over and surrounded him. That gave him pause. “Hmm… When did they get these warships?”
He stepped out of his warship. Energy cannons began to converge on the muzzles of those warships, all aiming at him.
Glancing at the continent, Bu Fang took a deep breath.
At this moment, a young man flew out of one of the warships and said, “Who are you? Surrender now!”
This was a young man whose cultivation base was at the level of a Nine-revolution Little Saint. He was staring at Bu Fang with high spirits and an excited look on his face.
Bu Fang put his hands behind him, his face expressionless. He had not expected that he would be greeted by this kind of situation the moment he returned to the Netherworld. A faint smile brushed his lips, and he shook his head.
It seemed to him that the Netherworld had been doing very well these years. Mu Hongzi really put his heart and soul into it.
“Are you dumb or deaf? I’m talking to you!” cried the young man, frowning. There was a slight look of apprehension in his eyes. After all, Bu Fang’s warship was much more advanced than theirs.
‘This man should be an intruder from another great world. If I can capture him, the Realm King will surely double his appreciation for me and then reward me with cultivation techniques. Perhaps I can even take this opportunity to enter the Immortal Cooking Realm, cultivate there, and get a chance to break through to the Great Saint realm!’ thought the young man.
Bu Fang still shook his head. Ignoring the few warships, he shifted his gaze to the vast Great Netherworld. “Do you know where Mu Hongzi is?” he asked.
“How dare you! The name of the Realm King is not for an intruder like you to mention! Everyone, attack this intruder and take him down!” said the young man angrily.
“An intruder?” Bu Fang froze for a moment. He shook his head again helplessly. It seemed that he had been away for too long that many people had forgotten who he was.
The next moment, the warships did not hesitate to shoot their energy cannons at Bu Fang to blow him to pieces. This was the latest weapon developed by the Netherworld, which was a very powerful energy projectile.
The young man was very excited. He was only a Little Saint, but with all these warships around him, even a Great Saint would not dare to attack him.
They were the Star Guard specially selected by the Realm King, and he was proud to be part of the team. However, his pride was soon torn to shreds.
With hands behind his back, Bu Fang took a step forward. Those energy shells all stopped when they were an inch from him, and it looked as if they were frozen. Such a tactic was simply heaven-defying!
“You…” The young man was terrified.
Bu Fang just shook his head, too lazy to say anything to him. The unknowing was not guilty, so he did not feel the need to kill these people even though he could do it with just a snap of his fingers. He was not that kind of person.
With a buzzing sound, the fluctuations of the Law of Space spread from him. The next moment, he vanished from where he stood.
…
In the blink of an eye, Bu Fang came to Nether Prison. He found that it was well-governed and developing very quickly.
Without his mental force, it became somewhat troublesome for him to find Mu Hongzi. If he was still able to use it, he would just need to spread it out to find the man in a flash.
Now, he could only ask for directions like a normal person.
“The Realm King? He never stays in Nether Prison.”
This was the answer Bu Fang got after asking several people. It made him a little speechless to learn that Mu Hongzi did not stay in Nether Prison but the Immortal Cooking Realm.
According to the people he asked, the Immortal Cooking Realm was now the sacred land of the Great Netherworld. It was the cradle of talent, a place where only true geniuses could go.
Most of the people he asked looked wistful when they mentioned the Immortal Cooking Realm. “It is said that in the Immortal Cooking Realm there have been many geniuses who have broken through the bottleneck of the Great Saint and become Gods…”
The Immortal Cooking Realm’s status was radically different from what it was before Bu Fang left. This made him very interested. “This Mu Hongzi really has something…”
He tore the void and stepped into it. Soon, he came to the Immortal Cooking Realm. The moment he stepped out of the void, a divine sense enveloped him, then a person he never expected to meet here appeared in front of him.
“Huh? Summer?”
Looking at the beautiful woman before him, Bu Fang was dazed for a moment.
Summer showed no surprise at his arrival. On the contrary, her expression was somewhat complicated. “Mu Hongzi already knew you were coming and asked me to come and bring you to him,” she said.
Instead of taking Bu Fang to Mu Hongzi right away, she took him for a slow walk around the Immortal Cooking Realm.
The realm had changed dramatically since Bu Fang left. The Immortal Tree was thickly branched, and its crown thrust into the starry sky. However, he found that it was completely different from the previous one. At his level, he could see that the Immortal Tree did not get along well with the realm.
In any case, the Immortal Cooking Realm’s boom surprised him. He saw many Demigods and even a few Gods. It was worth noting that before he left, Demigods were already the strongest experts in the Netherworld.
At last, they came to the top of the Immortal Tree where a thatched hut stood.
When they arrived, a melodious song came out from the hut. Upon hearing it, Summer’s face darkened.
Soon, the song ended. The door opened, and Mu Hongzi’s face, more beautiful than a woman’s, appeared before Bu Fang. He stepped out of the hut and looked at Bu Fang with a smile.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk… Long time no see, little Bubu. You’ve no idea how much I’ve missed you!”
