Talisman Emperor

This Black Quartz Command Token was completely crystalline and cold. It possessed a very reserved luster, and it seemed ancient and simple.

According to Master Yong, this command token was called the Nine-Profundity Token, and one could rely on it to participate in the grand event of the Culinary Dao, the Spirit Chef Gold Rankings, that would be held in Taotie City![1]

At that time, all the first rate spirit chefs in the Dark Reverie would participate and put their culinary skill on display to be judged and ranked. Spirit chefs that were capable of being ranked in the top 10 would obtain varying amounts of benefits.

Supposedly, at that time, the Taotie Clan would invite the Saint Artifact of their clan, the Nine Profundity Immortal Wok, to bestow some special gifts to the top three!

It was common knowledge that the Taotie Clan could be said to be the clan that were the most knowledgeable in delicacies within the three dimensions. Not only did they possess formidable strengths, all their disciples were great spirit chefs.

Some extraordinary powers usually showed favor and took care of the disciples of the Taotie Clan because they wanted the disciples of the Taotie Clan to cook various wonderful dishes to improve the benefits enjoyed by their disciples.

Their status was so special that they were even more welcome than some alchemists.

On the other hand, the Nine Profundity Immortal Wok was an extremely miraculous Immortal Artifact, and it was a true Saint Artifact of the Taotie Clan that had been passed down since the primeval times. According to rumor, this treasure had cooked for a god that shook the three dimensions with his might, and it was absolutely a rare and precious treasure!

It was obvious how miraculous the treasure bestowed by such an Immortal Artifact would be.

The only requirement to participate in this grand event was to possess a Nine Profundity Token. This was a form of qualification and acknowledgement of a spirit chef, and it was distributed by the Taotie Clan.

Blaze City was enormous and was filled with spirit chefs, yet only Master Yong had the qualifications to obtain a Nine Profundity Token.

So when they saw him actually intending to give this Nine Profundity Token to Chen Xi now, all the spirit chefs present were shocked and felt slight disbelief.

This wasn’t just a compensation for mistakes, this was simply the bestowing of a great fortune!

Instantly, the gazes everyone shot at Chen Xi carried deep envy because they never imagined that Chen Xi would actually obtain such recognition from Master Yong.

Not to mention them, even Chen Xi himself was greatly surprised. After all, Master Yong’s attitude towards him wasn’t courteous in the slightest, yet now, Master Yong had actually given him such a precious treasure, so how could he not be surprised?

“Master, isn’t doing this slightly…” A spirit chef braced himself and spoke in a low voice.

“What? You want to question my decision?” Master Yong replied with a question.

That spirit chef hurriedly shook his head. He was the disciple Master Yong had fostered by himself, so how could he dare go against the decision of his master?

Master Yong looked at Chen Xi while his emaciated face was covered in a solemn and serious expression. “Chen Xi, your natural talent in the Culinary Dao is so high that I’ve never seen anyone who’s your equal in my entire lifetime, and there are few in the entire world that can compare to you.”

Master Yong paused for a while before he sighed. “I’m old, and all the disciples I’ve taken are worthless. My only wish is you’re able to obtain a ranking in the Spirit Chef Gold Rankings, and I only hope that you’ll be able to fulfil this wish of mine. I’m eternally in your debt.”

All those spirit chefs lowered their heads in shame. If they asked themselves, they indeed felt that they were greatly inferior to Chen Xi in the Culinary Dao. Especially after they witnessed Chen Xi cooking the Rainbow Spindrift, this feeling grew even stronger.

Chen Xi went silent, and as he looked at Master Yong who stood before him, he recalled something Old Man Ma had once instructed him with. If you have the chance, go participate in the spirit chef ranking competition that’s held in the Darchu Dynasty once every 10 years. Take is as fulfilling a wish of mine, how about it?

Chen Xi had never realized this wish of Old Man Ma’s, and he actually felt extremely guilty in his heart. There were too many reasons for this, and he was unable to resist them.

Now, Master Yong who he’d only met once had put forward a similar requirement, and besides causing Chen Xi to be dazed, he’d already accepted this request in his heart.

Exactly, regardless of if it was for the sake of Old Man Ma’s wish or Master Yong’s wish, he didn’t have any reason to refuse at this moment.

After he saw Chen Xi put away the Nine Profundity Token, even though Chen Xi hadn’t said a word nor make any sort of guarantee, Master Yong still started smiling with extreme delight.

Manager Huang had known Master Yong for so many years, yet it was the first time he’d seen Master Yong smiling so happily.

…

At the top floor of the Immortal Indulgence Inn, tray after tray of ‘Let Ability Shine’ were brought up and placed on the tables before the youths from the Ninth Hell tribe.

This was the kind intentions of Master Yong, and he made an exception to cook for Chen Xi and the others.

All of the customers in the hall were extremely shocked when they saw this because they never expected that Chen Xi would actually be able to deal with the extremely stubborn Master Yong just by making a short trip to the kitchen!

Chen Xi couldn’t help but smile as he looked at the astounded gazes of all the youths, and he didn’t explain but instructed instead. “Eat first, and we’ll leave this place after that.”

As he spoke, he opened the Dark Reverie Manual and started to carefully study the map between Blaze City and the Nine Radiance Sword Sect.

Blaze City was situated at the south of the Dark Reverie, whereas the Nine Radiance Sword Sect was situated in the north. It was countless of kilometers apart, and it was probably impossible for an ordinary person to even traverse a tenth of the distance.

But Chen Xi didn’t care about all this, and he was studying Taotie City instead.

This city was the residence of the Taotie Clan and was called the capital of delicacies, and it was renowned throughout the entire Dark Reverie.

Moreover, this city was situated between the Nine Radiance Sword Sect and Blaze City, and it was a wondrous city that was built amidst a sea of clouds!

…

Recently, due to the Heavenly Insight Palace opening its doors to recruit disciples, the entire Blaze City was filled with people. Beauties converged here like the clouds in the sky while the outstanding disciples from all over rushed over out of admiration.

The hottest topic on the streets was women!

Some busy bodies had compiled together a ‘Hundred Flower Guide’ based on all the beautiful young women that had come to Blaze City from all over, and they were ranked according to their appearance, talent, origins, bearing, and so on and so forth.

Obviously, this was an arduous but fruitless matter. After all, there were countless beautiful young women that were like an expanse of bloomed flowers and each possessed an advantage of her own. So it was utterly impossible to find a consistent standard to differentiate their rankings.

Waves of intense argument frequently resounded out on the streets, and they were divided into different groups as they turned red with anger and almost fought for the sake of the most beautiful goddess in their hearts.

After that, amidst this bustling atmosphere that surrounded the entire city, a shocking piece of news spread throughout the city as if it had grown wings — The peerless genius Chen Xi who’d vanished for numerous months appeared out of thin air and furiously slaughtered Yan Shisan in the Immortal Indulgence Pavilion!

Such explosively news swept out like a tempest, and the bustling atmosphere ceased to exist wherever it passed and was replaced by a strange and perfect silence.

In next to no time, this silence spread throughout the city, and the entirety of Blaze City fell into speechless shock in a short period of time.

Everyone stopped discussing the delicate, beautiful, and cute young women, and it was even to the extent that those young women revealed shocked expression and were similarly shocked speechless.

This piece of news was too shocking. During the recent period of time, the news related to Chen Xi had given rise to a great deal of discussion in the cultivation world, and practically everyone knew that such a peerless genius had come from the Nine Radiance Sword Sect.

Moreover, those shocking incidents that had occurred in the Dark Parasol’s Abyss had even caused Chen Xi’s name to seem like the sun in the midday sky, and it simply cast a shadow upon the numerous Earthly Immortal Realm experts!

Besides that, the matter of his disappearance in the Dark Parasol’s Abyss had become the center of the attention of the entire cultivation world because everyone was curious if such an outstanding and shocking genius was still alive.

Now, a dazzling expert like this had actually made an appearance in Blaze City and killed the renowned madman of the Heavenflow Dao Sect, Yan Shisan, with a single blow. This was simply like a thunderclap that exploded by their ears, and it caused everyone to be deeply shocked.

After a short period of silence, everyone started to be unable to restrain the excitement in their hearts, and they seethed with excitement as they started to madly discuss this explosive piece of news on all the streets.

In an instant, even those young women that were delicate and beautiful like jade weren’t paid attention to by anyone, and some had even started charging towards the Immortal Indulgence Inn with the intention of witnessing Chen Xi’s elegant demeanor.

Unfortunately, Chen Xi had already left.

In this way, it caused everyone to be even more curious. The entire Immortal Indulgence Inn was completely surrounded by the stream of people to the point even a drop of water couldn’t escape, whereas that attendant that had served Chen Xi and the others earlier had become the center of everyone’s attention instead.

It was even to the extent some people had offered heavy remuneration of a heaven-rank magic treasure for that attendant to reveal everything that had occurred in the Immortal Indulgence Inn!

That attendant had never imagined that such a scene would occur, and this farce was only calmed when Manager Huang stood out to manage it.

All in all, everyone firmly believed that from today onward, the news of Chen Xi’s reappearance in the world would surely spread throughout every corner of the Dark Reverie with an exceedingly swift speed, and it would cause a mighty uproar.

…

Chen Xi didn’t know that all this had occurred.

At this moment, he’d already left Blaze City with Meng Wei and the others, and they were heading towards Taotie City.

They didn’t fly but chose to ride wagons pulled by beasts instead because doing this would allow those youths from the Ninth Hell to gain an even deeper understanding of this world.

As the saying goes, reading a thousand books is inferior to travelling a thousand miles. Instead of him explaining too much, it would be better for the youths to experience it themselves because this was the most efficient method.

Beneath the setting sun, 10 wagons that were pulled by white hooved Deerhorses dashed towards the distance under the blood red sun.

Within the wagon, Chen Xi held a beast skin and was studying the Ninth Hell Dao Origin Scripture that was written in the writing of Fiendgods. This body refinement cultivation technique that was inherited from the primeval Fiendgod Clan was extremely profound and obscure, and its origins were even more ancient than his Universe Starslayer Bodyforging Technique.

After all, body refinement techniques were created by the true Fiendgods, and the Ninth Hell Dao Origin Scripture came from the inheritance of the Fiendgods, so it could be considered to be the most legitimate body refinement cultivation technique.

On the other hand, the Universe Starslayer Bodyforging Technique was deduced by the Owner of the Mansion, Fuxi, according to the profundities of the workings of the heavens, and it could be called one of the greatest body refinement cultivation techniques in the three dimensions.

One of these two body refinement cultivation techniques came from the source, whereas the other was created on the basis of the work of predecessors, so Chen Xi really did obtain great benefits from cross referencing both of them, and it broadened his horizons.

The thing that delighted him the most was that he’d already found a path to allow his body refinement cultivation to advance to the Nether Transformation Realm from this Ninth Hell Dao Origin Scripture!

This path came from the ‘Dao Origin’ described within this cultivation technique!

1. Taotie is a mythical beast in ancient Chinese mythology that was known for being a gluttonous and evil beast.