Translator: CatatoPatch Editor: Vermillion
A loud sound resounded as the entire stage shook.
A large object, which attracted the attention of every member of the audience, had appeared.
“What’s that?” They exclaimed in surprise. Who would have thought that Bu Fang would bring out something so huge this time…
Some of them could not tell what the object was, but those who could, immediately inhaled cold breaths before their eyes widened.
They glanced at Bu Fang before quickly turning their attention to Xiong Shi, who was further away at his own bronze platform. They were all looking at him with weird expressions.
The huge object Bu Fang had taken out was not something simple; it was an enormous bear.
For Bu Fang to take out a bear, did that mean he planned to cook bear meat in this match? However, bear meat was not at all tasty… at most, all he could cook was the bear’s paws. This was something even alchemists like them understood clearly.
Was it a good idea to cook a bear paw in front of Xiong Shi, though? Was Bu Fang not afraid that Xiong Shi would go crazy and pick a fight with him?
Everybody knew that Heavenly Shine City’s Crazy Xiong loved bears the most, seeing as he owned many bear spirit beasts.
However, to think that somebody actually planned to cook a bear paw in this Magical Hand Conference… And worse, that person was Xiong Shi’s opponent… This made the audience feel that the chef was deliberating provoking Xiong Shi.
Owner Bu deserved his reputation; he was as bullish as ever, seeing as he was able to locate his opponent’s weak point. Nevertheless, where did the bear come from? This was something a lot of people were thinking about.
Where did the bear come from?
Not Bu Fang knew, let alone the audience.
Even Lord Dog who had used its doggy paws to beat the bear to death did not know. This bear had come in the middle of the night to cause a disturbance, and it was dealt with by Lord Dog.
Lord Dog initially did not intend to kill it, but the bear looked to have been seeking death for itself, acting as though it wished to become an ingredient.
Xiong Shi’s pupils dilated, and he hurriedly pulled his face mask off. As soon as his eyes caught sight of the enormous bear, he felt as though lightning had struck him.
That… That was his big bear! It really was his bear!
That shape and outline… It was certainly his bear!
Hadn’t Big Bear gone to look for a female bear companion? Why had it suddenly appeared here? Furthermore, was it dead?
Looking at the enormous big bear lying on the floor, Xiong Shi’s eyes reddened as though they were going to explode. He gave Bu Fang a look of pure hatred, but the latter completely ignored him.
Bu Fang took out his Golden Dragon Bone Kitchen Knife. After twirling it in his grip, he walked in front of the big bear. His gaze instantly fell on the bear’s big paws, completely ignoring other parts of the creature.
For a bear, the most delicious part could only be its paw. This part also had the most medical benefit.
Bu Fang’s expression never changed as he stood in front of the big bear, holding his Golden Dragon Bone Kitchen Knife.
Suddenly, true energy surged out from his body, causing his hair to flutter.
A bright golden light shone from the Golden Dragon Bone Kitchen Knife, and a resounding dragon roar could be heard from within it. The phantom of a dragon briefly appeared, causing the audience to gasp in surprise.
Whoosh…
With only a single cut—gentle, smooth, and without any obstacles—the bear paw was sliced off.
Although the big bear was a Divine Physique Echelon spirit beast, it was already dead and no longer possessed even one-tenth of its original defense. Without that, the Golden Dragon Bone Kitchen Knife was able to cleanly slice through it with only one swing.
Bu Fang grabbed the severed bear paw and put the bear back into the system’s dimensional storage. Carrying the bear paw, he returned to his bronze platform.
When Xiong Shi saw Bu Fang swing his knife and cut the bear paw off, his heart tightened, and his eyes reddened even more. It was as though Bu Fang had sliced through his heart, instead.
Painful! It really was painful!
Oh, my Big Bear… Why have you become someone else’s ingredient? Didn’t I tell you to flatten the restaurant and run away? Didn’t you retreat successfully?
Xiong Shi found it difficult to breathe because of his pain. He threw his face mask onto the bronze platform with such a sad facial expression that made it seem as though he was contemplating suicide.
The pink smoke wafting from Xiong Shi’s furnace managed to reach his nose, causing his body to tense up before shivering in agitation.
Sadness… He really felt like crying!
“Boo hoo… Oh, my Big Bear!”
Xiong Shi was really sad, and he couldn’t control the tears dripping down his bloodshot eyes.
He covered his face, which was now smeared with snot and tears, with both his hands, for his heart was in agony. The more he cried, the sadder he became…
You should be looking for a female bear right now, not serving as an ingredient for someone… I told you to retreat after the deed was done; why didn’t you return?!
Oh, my big bear!
Xiong Shi was too sad, and the pain in his heart increased so much that he couldn’t stop crying. He crumpled to the floor, sitting on his bum, and wept non-stop.
The pink flame in his furnace crackled slowly, and the fumes in the air thickened, causing more to seep up his nostrils. The more he inhaled, the harder he wept.
Why did he have such an overwhelming feeling to cry?!
Bu Fang was surprised.
The audience was equally as surprised. What had happened to Xiong Shi? The match had barely started, yet he was already sitting on the floor, weeping. His continuous bawls were audible throughout the arena.
The audience considered this development a strange one. However, they knew that whenever this chef, the public enemy of all chemists, competed, fun events would always occur.
This time it was not an exploding furnace. The chef had changed tactics; now, he made his opponents cry.
This was too bullish! From this alone, it seemed that this dark horse had the ability to charge into the Top 10!
All his opponents either suffered furnace explosions or burst into tears; neither of them had ever fully refined their pills.
Xiong Shi was bawling without stop, and his heart felt like it had been ripped out. There was another reason why he was so sad. It wasn’t because of the death of Big Bear but because he could not stop crying.
He patted his chest, trying to stop the tears, but they kept dripping down his cheeks.
Was it because of the Sorrowful Orchid?
Xiong Shi suddenly remembered, startled, and in tears, he got back to his feet. The Sorrowful Orchid amplified one’s sadness. He originally intended to use it to deal with the chef, deepening the sorrow the latter felt for losing his restaurant.
In the end, he had only sabotaged himself, however. At that moment, the chef was not crying, but he himself could not stop crying even though he was out of breath.
He hurriedly opened the furnace and drew out a portion of the alchemy fire, which he quickly extinguished. After that, the fumes from the Sorrowful Orchid dispersed.
Despite that, the amplified feeling of sadness would take a while to dissipate totally.
With no fumes from the Sorrowful Orchid lingering in the air, Xiong Shi was able to stop bawling out loud; however, the tears dripping down his face did not stop. That was still uncontrollable.
He stared at Bu Fang with a hateful gaze as the rage within him sought to explode.
“You killed my Big Bear! You… killed my Big Bear, and you dared to bring it out on stage for me to see!” Xiong Shi said, glaring daggers at Bu Fang. He really had underestimated this chef; he never thought that this chef would be so cunning.
Xiong Shi began to bawl again.
Bu Fang gazed at him with a puzzled expression. He glanced at the bear paw before glancing at the crying Xiong Shi, and his mouth twitched. Was there an undisclosed relationship between these two?
He really did not know; this was unintentional!
“You don’t have to cry anymore. I will make an excellent dish out of this bear paw! I will bring you justice by cooking this bear paw,” Bu Fang said to Xiong Shi, with a serious expression, after remaining deliberatly silently for a while.
“You actually want to cook it… oh my Big Bear!” When Xiong Shi heard Bu Fang words, his entire body trembled. “You already killed my bear, and now you want to make a dish out of it?!”
The saddest thing in the world was watching one’s beloved bear being made into a dish by someone else.
However, after Bu Fang had said that, he proceeded to totally ignore Xiong Shi and focus completely on processing the bear paw.
He opened his mouth and spat out the golden Ten Thousand Bestial Flame. It soared to the bottom of the Black Turtle Constellation Wok and began to heat it up. The Black Turtle Constellation Wok was filled with Heaven Alps Spirit Lake water, which was rich with spirit energy. Bu Fang walked to the wok and tossed the bear paw into the water, to boil.
As the bear paw boiled, Bu Fang began to process other ingredients. For this dish, besides the bear paw, he had a whole lot of ingredients to prepare.
After chopping up many spirit herbs, spirit energy filled the air and made those who perceived it to feel refreshed.
Bu Fang also prepared some meat from other supreme beasts to support the flavor.
He took out a slab of Supreme Mantis Prawn meat and chopped it into pieces. After that, he chopped up some other supreme beasts’ meat and added it to the mix, then placed the processed meat aside.
Bu Fang then turned his attention back to the bear paw in the Black Turtle Constellation Wok
He increased the temperature of the golden Ten Thousand Bestial Flame, and the Heaven Alps Spirit Lake water began to boil even hotter, causing the bear paw to roll around within the wok.
An aroma began to waft outward.
Bu Fang knitted his eyebrow as he waited for a while, then he scooped out the bear paw and placed it in ice water to cool off. He prepared another batch of Heaven Alps Spirit Lake water and tossed the chopped spirit herbs into it, and after boiling for a while, the water turned clear.
With the flick of a thumb, the Golden Dragon Bone Kitchen Knife reappeared in Bu Fang’s hand once more, and he took the bear paw out from the iced water.
He held down the bear paw with one hand, and his eyes narrowed. There was a tough layer of skin on the bear paw, but with the Golden Dragon Bone Kitchen Knife in his possession, Bu Fang was able to slice it off cleanly with one swing.
After that, Bu Fang covered the bear paw with his true energy and pulled the fur out from it.
Then he patted the bear paw. This helped to soften the meat.
When that was done, Bu Fang began to showcase his eye-catching knife technique.
The attention of the audience was totally focused on Bu Fang. This was not so because of what he was cooking; it was because of the knife techniques he displayed, which left them speechless.
Each cut was extremely fast, and every time the knife moved, a bone was removed.
Soon, he managed to debone it completely.
The speed at which his hand moved was so fast that most of the audience was unable to see it.
Finally, with a loud thump, the bear paw landed atop the bronze platform.
The bear paw was still springy, and faint spirit energy wafted out from it.
Bu Fang took out a jar of Ice Heart Jade Urn Wine from the system dimensional storage tool. As he opened the jar’s seal, he continued to work on the bear paw.
…
…
Xiong Shi looked as though all the love he possessed had been drained completely from him. When he saw how Bu Fang tossed the paw of his Big Bear around, his heart ached.
He felt like crying again.
Finally, the judge could not bear watching this anymore. He moodily walked over to Xiong Shi with a serious expression on his face.
“You should hurry up and start refining your spirit pill. The bear being cooked is not yours, so why are you crying? This bear is not the bear you have at home, so why are you so sad? I want to remind you that, in this round of competition, Bu Fang is not your only opponent. If you lose, there would be another 30 competitors fighting for the position,” the judge warned sternly.
With great difficulty, Xiong Shi turned to face the judge, and when he saw the stern expression on the judge’s face, he felt like crying again.
But… that is the bear I had at home!
Xiong Shi’s eyes were wet with tears. He really did not want to cry, but his heart was in agony.
When he perceived the pleasant aroma of meat permeating the air, his agony increased.
