Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It started to rain—the rainwater contained spiritual energy.
Although Bu Fang’s divine sense was suppressed, it still existed, so he could clearly feel the spiritual energy in the rainwater. Since when did Earth have spiritual energy? Was it always here, or did it appear because of his return?
Bu Fang was puzzled. In the past, he did not cultivate, so he had no way to know if the rainwater contained spiritual energy.
The rain did not last for too long. Soon, it stopped. Water puddled on the ground, splashing as Bu Fang stepped across it. The icy cold rainwater seeped between his toes and made him feel a slight chill.
The spiritual energy was only in the rainwater, and as the water evaporated, it rose in wisps and filled the air. In fact, the air did not contain any spiritual energy—it was only because of the rain that it had one. In other words, the weirdness was in the rain.
Suddenly, Bu Fang paused and fell in deep thought. It seemed to him that the Artifact Spirits were really sleeping on Earth. Otherwise, there would not be spiritual energy rain here.
He was somewhat helpless that he could not find Nethery. His divine sense was suppressed by a very strong force. Of course, he could break the restriction with force, but he did not know the consequences. Would it alert the unknown risks? Or would it cause a drastic change that will lead to Earth’s total destruction?
Bu Fang returned to his room in the old building. The stench of the rotting ingredients still lingered in the air. Frowning, he cleaned them up and threw them away. These ingredients were nothing to him.
Just when he was done, someone rapped at the door. He opened it and saw Liu Mu standing outside, looking at him with a horrified face as if he was looking at a ghost.
Liu Mu dared not to offend Bu Fang now. A guy who could crush a cellphone with a bare hand and almost broke his finger with a gentle slap definitely had some secrets he could not afford to know…
“The master chef wants to see you!” Liu Mu said. After that, he turned and ran away as if he was fleeing. He had not figured out how he should face Bu Fang, so he did not want to stay with the latter for too long now.
“The master chef?”
Patting Shrimpy on his shoulder, Bu Fang stepped out of the room, went down the stairs, left the old building, and came to the restaurant across the street.
Yue Mansion was the name of this restaurant. It was luxuriously decorated, but its business was bad. It had nothing to do with the chef’s skills. In fact, the dishes of this restaurant were delicious. Bu Fang had tasted them when he was an apprentice chef here. However, the restaurant’s business just did not pick up. Back then, Bu Fang could not figure out the reason.
In the restaurant, Liu Mu sat timidly in a corner. When Bu Fang glanced at him upon stepping through the door, he shivered instantly and looked away.
Twitching his lips, Bu Fang put his hands behind his back and walked toward the kitchen. He did not need anyone to tell him that the master chef was in there.
Sizzle…
As soon as he entered the kitchen, he was greeted by a rapid clanging sound and flashes of flames. Someone was tossing a wok, which kept colliding with the stove.
Bu Fang looked over and saw a middle-aged man. In his late forties or early fifties, the man—holding a ladle in one hand while clutching the edge of an iron wok with a square of cloth in the other—was deftly tossing the wok. In Bu Fang’s eyes, however, the man’s wok-tossing techniques were riddled with mistakes.
At the edge of the stove were various seasonings, including sugar, salt, MSG, soy sauce, garlic paste, and chili. It was all a bit familiar and strange to Bu Fang. He seemed to have not cooked in such a simple way for quite a long time.
Sizzle…
The tossing of the wok was over. A ladle of water was added, and a sizzling sound rang out instantly. A lid was put over the wok to let the food stew for a while. Only then did the master chef turn to look at Bu Fang.
“Oh, here you are…” Looking at Bu fang, the master chef smiled gently.
Bu Fang nodded expressionlessly, but his face softened a lot. When he was an apprentice chef in this restaurant, the master chef had taught him many things and thought highly of him.
“You’re slacking off a bit these days, Bu Fang. Being a chef is a profession where you can’t afford to slacken off because once you did, your sensitivity to food will be weakened, and it will be difficult for you to cook dishes that will satisfy people,” the master chef said. He wiped his hand with a square of cloth and leaned his back against the stove, looking at Bu Fang.
Bu Fang nodded. Naturally, he knew what the middle-aged man meant by saying that he was slacking off. But it was not his fault. He had traveled to another world.
“Business has been bad in Yue Mansion, so we might be closing down soon… I came here with the ambition to make a career, but who knew things would end up like this… Ai, forget it. Go and chop up the ingredients… We’ll eat together later.”
The master chef sighed. Then, he turned around, removed the lid, and continued cooking.
That gave Bu Fang pause, but he did not say anything. Instead, he went to another stove, picked up a few potatoes, and hefted them. ‘What a familiar ingredient…’ he thought to himself.
Cutting potatoes is a very annoying task because you have to peel them first before you can cut them into thin slices. But Bu Fang did not mind. He had a sudden desire to cook a dish now. He wondered if he still possessed the same mastery of cooking, now that he had returned to Earth.
He grabbed a kitchen knife from the rack. With a shake of his hand, the knife spun in his palm, flashing sharply. After washing the potatoes, he lightly tossed one up into the air. Even as the potato was about to fall, his eyes became extremely sharp. In his gaze, the potato was falling very, very slowly.
The kitchen knife slashed out abruptly, flashing as it drew a half-circle. Then, Bu Fang held it sideways with its flank facing upward. The potato fell and landed on the flat surface, spinning, while on the other side of the knife was a whole strip of potato peel of the same width.
Just then, Liu Mu walked into the kitchen, and he saw what happened. His jaw dropped in an instant as a stunned look came over his face. He never knew a potato could be peeled like that! “You… You…” He pointed out a finger and stammered.
Bu Fang glanced at Liu Mu and twitched the corner of his mouth.
Da da da da da da…
A burst of knocking sounds rang out next as the kitchen knife collided with the chopping board. Somehow, it sounded very pleasant to the ear. In just the blink of an eye, the oval-shaped potato was chopped into thin slices, each identical in length and width.
The sound attracted the master chef, and he turned around just in time to see Bu Fang’s knife technique. He was amazed, but that was it. If he saw how Bu Fang peeled the potato, he would be as terrified as Liu Mu.
Bu Fang did not continue after chopping the potato. The next dish the master chef would cook was stir-fried shredded potatoes.
“You continue,” the master chef said suddenly. For some reason, he felt a charm in the knife technique Bu Fang used to chop the potato, and it convinced him. He wondered if this boy had suddenly been enlightened.
“Alright.” Bu Fang nodded with an expressionless face. He then turned on the gas, ignited it, and began to heat the wok. His movements were simple and straightforward, mainly because the dish was very easy to cook.
The kitchen knife flipped and moved across the chopping board, throwing the shredded potatoes into the wok. Wisps of white steam rushed up instantly. The whole set of movements was perfectly coordinated as if it had been rehearsed countless times.
As the flame roared, Bu Fang kept a calm, emotionless face. He reached out the ladle in his hand toward the seasonings placed next to the stove and scooped out different seasonings without even looking. Then, he sprinkled them over the potatoes and began to toss the wok.
Liu Mu swallowed. “This kiddo… doesn’t even know what he’s doing, does he? He’s just acting cool! He didn’t even measure the amount of seasonings before adding them into the wok!”
He did not believe Bu Fang’s cooking skills would become so good overnight. They were on the same level not too long ago!
“Shut up! Pay attention to his cooking…” The master chef scolded Liu Mu, then turned around and watched intently.
Bu Fang’s cooking movements were flawless, and the calm look in his eyes came from his confidence in his cooking skills, which told the master chef that he was absolutely confident in the amount of seasoning in every scoop and his control of the temperature.
That was the kind of confidence that only a world-class chef could have—this was textbook cooking!
With a toss of the wok, the shredded potatoes all fell into the ladle. A splashing sound could be heard as they were poured into a bowl. The sauce was added next, and the dish seemed to flash.
Liu Mu almost thought that he had gone blind! The dish was flashing! He saw the dish flash just now!
“The spicy and sour shredded potatoes are ready.”
Bu Fang put down the cooking utensils, frowned, and wiped the water off his hands. He felt kind of awkward without the God of Cooking Sets.
“This…” The master chef’s lips were shivering as he looked at Bu Fang in disbelief.
The dish was ready to serve, and it seemed to gleam. Although it was just a simple dish of spicy and sour shredded potatoes, the aroma lingering in the air and the right amount of spiciness and sourness showed that it was not as simple as it looked.
The master chef swallowed, picked up a spoon, and scooped up a spoonful of pale golden shredded potatoes. When he looked at them carefully, he saw that every shred was identical in width and length. This was a perfect knife technique. Besides… the taste and temperature of every shred were exactly the same as well…
As soon as the spoonful of shredded potatoes entered his mouth, the master chef’s pupils constricted.
“Ahhh!”
He narrowed his eyes, his face turned red, and even his sleeves were fluttering. He felt as though he was riding on a horse, galloping across a vast expanse of grassland. The wind was blowing, the horse was neighing, and potatoes were rolling beneath his feet…
When the spicy and sour taste combined with the tender potatoes, they simply made the perfect delicacy in the world! The master chef was completely intoxicated! Holding the spoon in one hand, his legs pressed tightly together, and he was trembling all over.
He had never tasted anything so delicious. Was this really something that humans could cook? Was it not God’s masterpiece?! His eyes turned red as if he was about to burst into tears…
Liu Mu was struck dumb. When he looked at the master chef’s reaction, he felt the latter seem to have been possessed by a ghost. ‘F*ck… Do you have to be so moved? This is just spicy and sour shredded potatoes!’ he screamed in his mind.
The fragrance lingering in the air filled him with disbelief. He did not believe that Bu Fang, whose cooking skills were on the same level as him, could cook such a dish!
He grabbed a porcelain spoon, scooped up a spoonful of shredded potatoes, shoved them into his mouth, and began munching them even when they were still hot.
Liu Mu munched, then munched again. Suddenly, his movements stopped, his body froze, and his eyes seemed to lose focus. He felt as though his soul had drifted away.
The dish made him remember the dishes his old grandma had cooked for him when he was small. The taste and the feeling caused a lump to come into his throat, and he could not help but cry.
How could there be such delicious spicy and sour shredded potatoes in the world?!
Looking at the reactions of the master chef and Liu Mu, Bu Fang twitched the corners of his mouth.
Suddenly, a rumbling sound rang out. He furrowed his brows in an instant and looked through the window at the sky. There, thunderclouds began to gather. A vast amount of spiritual energy surged in them, and an invisible force seemed to have targeted him.
Bu Fang’s eyes focused. ‘Lightning punishment? There’s also lightning punishment when I cook on Earth?’ He looked straight at the sky as if to see through the thunderclouds.
However, the thunderclouds quickly dispersed. It was as if its appearance was just to give Bu Fang a warning.
He narrowed his eyes. ‘Is this a plan to stop me from cooking?’
