Gourmet of Another World

‘Am I going to die?’

Bu Fang asked himself. He had never been so confused before. The scenes in the restaurants of one hundred Hosts flashed in his eyes; all kinds of faces that were charmed or intoxicated by delicious food kept provoking him.

He panted. He had come a long way to bring his cooking skill to the current height, but perhaps he had really abandoned something during the journey. What was the meaning of cooking? Was it only to achieve more advanced cooking skills? Was it to become the number one chef in the universe?

Bu Fang’s body seemed to be disintegrating. He could not think. At this moment, his spirit sea already turned into a mess. The Artifact Spirits were leaving him. It seemed to him that the spiritual connection between them had vanished. It was a bad feeling, which made him breathless.

‘Whitey was the God of Cooking’s will…’ Bu Fang had never expected that he would see Whitey in every Host’s restaurant. No wonder Mu Hongzi was giving it that strange look when they first met.

He sighed. He was very tired. Sitting on the ground, his back was bent, for he had nothing to lean on. Behind him was a vast, empty space, and in front of him was a boundless void that was filled with nothing. Sitting alone there, Bu Fang appeared like someone who was abandoned by the world. The only sound he could hear was the sound of his own breathing.

The perfect cooking skills, the perfect food ingredients, the perfect knife techniques, the perfect strength… Was it wrong for him to pursue these things?

Since the Light Wind Empire, Bu Fang had been on a constant journey to become a God of Cooking. He feared that if he fell behind, he would be wiped out. Perhaps… it was this emotion that left a grudge in him.

He looked up, his face expressionless and his hair waving around him. His clothes had disappeared and so did the God of Cooking Sets. He had nothing now as he sat there in an empty world.

“The God of Cooking’s test…”

Bu Fang twitched the corner of his mouth. Mu Hongzi had warned him that this was a tough journey and that almost all those who embarked on it had perished. The previous Host had abruptly ended his journey and attached himself to the bronze palace before he was released by Bu Fang and returned to the world.

Back then, Bu Fang was not bothered. He was confident, fearless, and determined, just like his Heart of Cooking Path. But now… he began to waver. His strength was at the top of the universe, and he had the best ingredients, but he had fallen into such a wretched situation and seemed to be staring death in the face.

The giant hand of the God of Cooking’s will was already hanging over his head. Once his will collapsed, he would be wiped out in an instant. And from then on, there would be no more Bu Fang in this world, and the God of Cooking’s will would choose a new Host…

Had he not escaped the fate of the former Hosts after all?

Bu Fang closed his eyes. The sound of a beating heart echoed through the boundless wilderness. Even then, a flower emerged before him. It bloomed like a white lotus flower, emitting a gentle fragrance and wrapping him up.

‘The Senseless Lotus? The flower that can get me through the calamity?’ Bu Fang paused, staring at the white flower with a complicated look on his face. Then, he slowly closed his eyes again. The world around him turned black as ink.

All of a sudden, Bu Fang flicked open his eyes. His sharp gaze tore the vault of heaven.

Tongtian coughed up a mouthful of blood and flew backward. His body smashed into a star and shattered it.

Foxy, on the other hand, was panting for breath. She had already reached her limit. Even though she was Heavengod Destruction, she was only as strong as a duke. Her strength fell short in the face of the Heavenly Demon Array.

She turned her big eyes to Bu Fang with a nervous look in them. She had no idea what happened to him. There, a hazy mist had obscured Bu Fang, preventing her from seeing anything.

Whitey was hovering behind him, its purple eyes flashing. When Foxy turned her gaze to it, it suddenly raised its head. The deep purple in its eyes made her bristle and burp a few times in a row. The puppet lifted a hand and scratched its bald head.

Rumble!

Tongtian’s sword array was so badly beaten that it could not regroup, and the purple aura of the Qingping Sword grew fainter as well. “Fellow Daoist Bu… What are you doing? Is your bottleneck… really so terrifying?” He gritted his teeth.

The starry sky rumbled as a horrible aura pervaded the air. The Sect Leader’s heart skipped a beat. It was as though a scary expert was about to descend. The aura seemed a little bit stronger than that of a perfected expert.

He turned to the seven rotating hourglasses. There, a vague figure was about to rush out of the thin film. An arm had already stretched out of the portal, and the power of the Great Sins swirling around it filled him with dread. He had only sensed this kind of aura in his teacher and the Primitive Universe’s Great Path.

He was despairing. They might not be able to stop the almighty expert from coming into this universe even if Bu Fang woke up now and cooked the dish!

BOOM!

The Sect Leader flew backward again and smashed into a star. Lying on the ground, he looked up at the sky and sighed. “The great tribulation will come eventually…”

In space, the Heavenly Demon swung his great axe and walked step by step toward Bu Fang. Shrouded by the mist, Bu Fang’s aura was so weak that it was almost indiscernible, and it seemed ready to fade away and vanish completely. However, the giant demon did not intend to spare him.

As his eyes turned crimson, he raised the axe. The sinful power on it seemed to be turning into the power of the Great Sins, shattering the void.

Inside the array, Envy’s eyes were filled with madness, and Pride was hissing. Greed, Gluttony, and the others all hated Bu Fang to the bone. Many of them had their bodies taken away by him and turned into food ingredients. Now, their hatred for him had converged in this blow!

“Die!”

The six Great Soul Overlords roared in unison, their voices shattering the starry sky. In the distance, Sloth watched indifferently as the axe fell, moving closer and closer toward Bu Fang.

Foxy was anxious. She wanted to block the attack, but she was too weak to do that!

A brutal wind came blowing over as if to scatter everything. Suddenly, the mist that surrounded Bu Fang dispersed. The next moment, shafts of golden light thrust out of his body…

A kitchen knife, a striped red-and-white chef’s robe, a black wok, a stove, and a ladle… The five God of Cooking Sets emerged and hovered in the sky, emanating powerful energy waves. Then, the power of the five supreme Laws—Time, Destruction, Space, Life, and Transmigration—surged and merged with them, turning into extremely terrifying energy in an instant!

As a humming sound rang out, a divine dragon emerged and transformed into a golden humanoid figure with a kitchen knife in hand. Then came the others: A hot-tempered woman with a curvy body, a white-haired youth who looked arrogant, an old man with cloudy eyes, and a purple figure with a mighty aura.

The five Artifact Spirits appeared at the same time, gathered in one place. The look in their eyes was complicated as they faced the falling axe. “It has come to this after all…” They glanced at Bu Fang, sighed, then struck out together.

Beams of light shot out of their hands and hit the axe, breaking it in a flash. The Heavenly Demon Array cracked and crumbled, and the six Great Soul Overlords were separated from it. They all looked shocked, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

Even Tongtian was struck dumb, but he became excited the next moment. “These beings came out of Fellow Daoist Bu’s body… Looks like he’s going to break his bottleneck soon!” Without hesitation, he soared into the sky again, full of spirits, and began to fight.

A scrimmage between the five Artifact Spirits, Sect Leader Tongtian, and the six Great Soul Overlords broke out in space.

“A bunch of trash!” Sloth scowled in the distance.

After glancing at the Soul God, who had half of his body pushed through the portal, Sloth stood up. Heaven and earth seemed to rumble at this moment. Suddenly, he turned and squinted at Bu Fang, his eyes flickering. Then, he changed his target, thrusting his palm toward Bu Fang in the distance.

A great palm crushed through the void with a terrifying aura. Beneath it, Bu Fang swayed as if he was about to die. The next moment, he flicked open his eyes, his gaze tearing the vault of heaven!

Sloth squinted, but he did not stop. The palm continued to fall.

The mist scattered and faded away, revealing everything in front of Bu Fang. Food ingredients gleaming goldenly floated in midair. There were thousands of them, just like there were thousands of worlds. However, these worlds were now broken and on the verge of falling apart. It was clear that the dish was not ready to serve yet.

Sloth burst out laughing, his fat belly jiggling. “It seems that you damned chef… is not strong enough! The higher the cultivation base, the more cautious you have to be, for a slight mistake will get you killed… You are digging your own grave and killing yourself!”

Sloth’s laughter shook the starry sky. Bu Fang’s eyes were somewhat vacant. Behind him, Whitey’s purple eyes flashed, and it looked like it was going to make a move, but in the next moment, the purple light in its eyes grew dimmer.

Shrimpy, perching on Whitey’s shoulder and spitting bubbles, shook its head, its eyes darting from side to side. As it crawled with its many legs, a bubble grew larger and larger in front of its mouth. Bu Fang seemed to be sitting inside the bubble as his reflection appeared on the bubble’s surface.

The next moment, the bubble burst, twisting and breaking like space. With a humming sound, Shrimpy turned into a beam of golden light and disappeared… It was rushing toward Bu Fang and the dish in front of him!

As Whitey, Foxy, and Sloth watched, the mantis shrimp approached the dish at great speed and plunged into it. Its body grew smaller as if it was being pulled into another world, then the dish rippled like someone had thrown a stone into a lake.

The next moment, a small dot of golden light appeared, spreading like a drop of golden ink on the water and gradually covering all the ingredients. Shrimpy swam among them, moving back and forth effortlessly as if nothing could stop it.

The ingredients, which were repelling each other and breaking apart, began to gradually heal. It was as if they were being pulled together by strings, which bound them into one whole thing. Just like that, the failing dish was rescued.

Sitting cross-legged in midair, Bu Fang’s vacant eyes finally flickered with life. He seemed to have figured it out, and he watched with a complicated look on his face. Over his head, a white lotus flower emerged, spinning quietly.

He took the Senseless Lotus with one hand, sent it into the Heaven and Earth Farmland, and put it over the Chaotic Tree. He did not use it. The calamity was, in fact, a spiritual interrogation—a trial of the soul.

The scenes of a hundred Hosts filled Bu Fang with complicated emotions and brought him close to being obliterated on the path of questioning himself. However, he finally figured it out the moment before he was obliterated.

“In me, the tiger sniffs the rose.”

Even though he was treading on the endless journey of becoming a God of Cooking, he could not lose himself and his Heart of Cooking Path. He must have ambition, but… he should also appreciate the beautiful and delicate parts of the world. A chef’s dishes should bring laughter and peace, and that was the motivation that made him want to become a God of Cooking.

Bu Fang took a deep breath, rose to his feet, turned, and gave Whitey a big hug. The puppet scratched its bald head, confused. Perhaps he had strayed a little on the path, but he had found his conscience now. He would continue to move forward.

In the dish, Shrimpy was swimming leisurely among the ingredients, glowing goldenly. Bu Fang gave it a complicated gaze. “Now, everyone has returned…”