Smith and Lancelot beat a hasty retreat, but Cao Chun stayed behind.
"Flames that can burn everything!"
Cao Chun picked up the second Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage, and as he chewed, a burst of heat exploded in his mouth, coursing down his throat and assaulting his entire body.
Sweat incessantly dripped from his face.
He felt his mouth trembling in waves; with each tremor, it was as if a Bursting Flame cannon was locking onto the elusive Gate of Extremes, countless fiery cannonballs, trailing long streaks of light, bombarding the secret gate.
No key necessary—the stolid Gate of Extremes, after holding out for a moment, also ultimately declared its collapse.
Amidst the dust, countless Flame Spirits cheered and leapt, surging toward the new world behind the Gate of Extremes, a pristine world—magnificent, magical, dreamlike. Just glancing at a corner of the landscape made Cao Chun’s soul shudder.
"The taste of flames!"
"The real Ultimate Fire!"
Pupils faintly revealing two fervent flames, Cao Chun murmured in shock, giving an accurate appraisal of the dish before him.
However, after giving his assessment, an intense panic, an unbelievable notion, surged within him.
"A Special Grade Chef of high school age?!"
His blood rushed to his head in an instant. Cao Chun felt he was going mad.
This conjecture—no, it should be called a fact—that young man had already presented his cuisine, unreservedly showcasing his culinary skills. His work was more persuasive evidence than the IGO rating badge.
As unbelievable as it was for Cao Chun, he had to accept this fact.
"A Special Grade One Star dish! Moreover, it’s a personal, distinctive dish with a strong signature, the likes of which are not found in those trite cookbooks!"
After the shock, Cao Chun composed himself, continuously picking up several Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausages to taste, stripping away the hallucinatory power brought by the food, returning to the fundamental cuisine, to analyze the miraculous craftsmanship imparted to it by the chef.
"Bamboo shoots, ham, shark fin."
"The flavors of the three ingredients infused perfectly!"
Through back-and-forth analysis, Cao Chun then discovered the structural complexity of spices masked by the flames.
"So that’s how it is! No wonder the flames are so domineering, full of power, just like the assertive, illogical spiciness of Shuchuan cuisine, which directly commandeers the taste buds!" Cao Chun’s eyes twinkled, equally astonished on this realization.
With his Super Chef’s discernment, he naturally saw that the flames and spices in the ’Flame Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage’ were tightly entwined, almost forming a ’nearly-perfect’ Ultimate Key.
However, what was once a relationship of equals became sovereign and subject once the Bursting Flame evolved.
The Flame King and the Spice Empress, who had retired behind the scenes.
One ultimate flavor was enough to elevate a dish to ’Special Grade One Star’ quality, but Cao Chun realized that the spices in ’flames and spices’ could still evolve, thus becoming the Spice Empress, on equal footing with the Flame King!
Two supreme sovereigns of flavor, side by side!
Then, this dish would be ’Special Grade Two Stars’ in quality. Owing to their close-knit, interwoven relationship, it wouldn’t be strange to see it challenge and even surpass a ’Special Grade Three Stars’ dish.
Reflecting so carefully, Cao Chun became even more astounded.
Constrained and rigid Special Grade Recipes were not to be feared, for their secrets were easily divined. Super Chefs feared such recipes with room for considerable growth the most. If an enemy were to explode in potential during a cooking duel, bringing a recipe to ultimate fruition, wouldn’t that spell danger?
Cao Chun covertly imagined Xia Yu as his opponent.
He posed a hypothetical to himself—if Xia Yu were to use this very recipe in a cooking duel, what recipe should he use to respond, to nearly guarantee victory?
Nothing less than a Special Grade "killer" dish would do.
But Cao Chun was still researching his own Special Grade "killer" dish, with only a rough framework in place, still far too distant from integrating it into a recipe.
Though it was bewildering, Cao Chun had to admit he would find it difficult to defeat Xia Yu!
Unless, right from the start, he set a trap in the theme of the cooking duel!
He swallowed the food in his mouth.
Looking at the steamer, the last Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage was eaten by him. Cao Chun put down his chopsticks and let out a long sigh.
As he took out the black card from his wallet, he walked towards the cashier.
Tiqie Eriina, with her hair in a single ponytail and wearing a mask, hurried to the counter, but then she suddenly realized and said in shock, "Chef Cao, the ’Flame Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage’ was already paid for."
Cao Chun just shook his head.
"500,000 yen is too cheap!" Cao Chun said in a deep voice, "Special Grade Cuisine should not be priced . Ordinary, well-known Special Grade dishes start at 1 million yen in Neon, and this ’Flame Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage’ can only be had at your humble store, uniquely one of a kind!"
Eriina pursed her lips, not expecting such a super chef to give such high praise to something "uniquely one of a kind."
"I plan to eat the third dish!"
Cao Chun said with a smile, "Consider this also a tip for the chef."
Eriina faced the cash register’s keypad, unsure of how to proceed.
Seeing this, Cao Chun reached out himself, first typed a 1, followed by a string of 0s, and then hit confirm.
The card machine prompted, he swiped the card, and entered the PIN.
Putting the black card back into his wallet, Cao Chun moved to the bar and knocked on the window.
Hearing the knock, the focused Xia Yu looked up and saw it was Cao Chun. With Smith and Lancelot gone without a trace, he didn’t ask further but opened the window with a smile and said, "Chef Cao, are you satisfied with the food?"
"Thank you, I am very satisfied!" Cao Chun replied, "I plan to eat the third VIP exquisite dish..."
At that moment, Eriina came over and handed a receipt to Xia Yu in the kitchen.
Seeing Eriina with a serious face, Xia Yu, confused, glanced over the receipt’s figures and suddenly his hand trembled, "Ten million?"
"Just a small token of my appreciation."
Cao Chun spoke with clear and fluent Mandarin.
"Then I won’t be modest."
Xia Yu, too, was delighted. A wealthy gourmet willing to spend lavishly only meant that his cooking was of top quality—a simplistic truth!
Especially since this Chinese Chef Cao was also a Super Chef, there was nothing more gratifying than satisfying a professional gourmet’s palate with one’s culinary skills.
"Alright then, Chef Cao, for the third dish, I’ll make you my signature dish, which is also my specialty!" Xia Yu said.
"My personal signature dish?" Cao Chun’s eyes lit up, and he gladly replied, "Then I’ll be eagerly waiting!"
"Eriina, take Chef Cao to the backyard teahouse."
Xia Yu glanced at today’s temporary waitress and then pointed to the two remaining steamed grids of ’Flame Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage’ in the kitchen pot, "Also, have the Fish Fin Sausage later, otherwise when the place fills up with customers, you won’t have anywhere to eat."
Tiqie Eriina did as told, taking Cao Chun to the teahouse and then brought out the steamer.
In the dining area, Ren Xue and Shuigu Jun eagerly crowded around.
"A dish worth ten million yen?" Ren Xue’s eyes gleamed with a greedy appetite.
"What’s this, it’s the total price for the second and third dishes combined!"
Shuigu Jun spoke with a contorted face.
Ignoring the two of them, Tiqie Eriina helped herself and lifted the lid of the steamer, swiftly picked up a Fish Fin Sausage amidst the billowing steam, and took a gentle bite.
She couldn’t help but scream.