Chapter 490: Extremely Satisfied

“The competition is nearing its end, let’s see how our contestants are preparing.” The Spirit Chef Sect Leader wandered among the various cooking stations.

“Chef Ma, as an experienced spirit chef, what have you prepared this time?”

“Dragon and Phoenix Presenting Auspiciousness.” Chef Ma, a Spirit Transformation stage spirit chef with exceptional culinary skills, ranked among the very top chefs in the spirit chef world.

Chef Ma lifted the lid, releasing dazzling golden rays that shot up dramatically.

In any other setting, this might have made people exclaim: “Heaven and earth show extraordinary phenomena, surely a celestial treasure is emerging!”

But in this competition, Chef Ma’s golden light was merely one among several spectacular golden displays.

As the golden light faded, Chef Ma’s finished dish was revealed,

Using vast quantities of spirit rice to form the bodies of the dragon and phoenix, with various precious ingredients like Eight Treasure Chicken, Cotton Cotton Shellfish, and Tree Pork serving as dragon scales and phoenix feathers.

“With ordinary people’s income, they could never afford these precious ingredients in their lifetime. After tasting this, they’re certain to be satisfied.”

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader offered some flattering comments before moving to interview the next person.

Chef Ma silently recited the Golden Light Mantra and covered the pot again, ensuring that when he lifted the lid once more, golden light would still emerge.

“Contestant, what have you prepared?”

“Steamed buns.” Yu Yin lifted the steamer basket to reveal an enormous steamed bun. Not being skilled at cooking, she found making individual buns too troublesome—with her success rate, she might not have finished making them by the competition’s end.

So she simply made one giant bun instead, saving herself trouble while ensuring the ordinary people would be fully satisfied.

Several pigs, cows, and sheep were all contained within the single giant bun.

Yu Yin controlled a type of immortal flame, making her skilled at fire control, and ensuring the bun was thoroughly cooked inside and out was effortless for her.

Such purely meat-filled buns weren’t expensive for ordinary people. Taking Elder Five of the Dharmakaya Sect, nicknamed “Hog King,” as an example—he controlled thirty percent of the Nine Provinces’ pig farming industry, having established a systematic pig farming supply chain that reduced costs. As a Unity Stage expert, he had no interest in earning ordinary people’s copper coins or silver.

This resulted in even ordinary people being able to afford meat.

The same applied to livestock like cattle and sheep.

In the Nine Provinces, cattle weren’t used for plowing—after all, they were ordinary cattle whose strength didn’t exceed that of ordinary people. Cattle’s purpose was to be eaten.

Of course, these pigs, cattle, and sheep were all ordinary livestock containing trace amounts of spiritual energy—ordinary people still couldn’t afford livestock with high spiritual energy content.

“What have these two prepared?”

“Large pot stew and steamed bread.”

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader took a small spoonful of the soup and showed an appreciative expression. He noticed the siblings’ dish was saltier than usual, but just right for ordinary people who had just finished farm work.

During his ten years in the apocalyptic world, Luo Ying had frequently cooked various ingredients together to make large mixed stews.

“These three… seem to have some tension in their relationship. May I ask what you’ve prepared?” The Spirit Chef Sect Leader noticed Qin Luan and Seven Kill Daozi regarding each other with hostility, as if they shared some life-and-death enmity.

Yuan Wuxing showed no surprise at their relationship: “It’s nothing, they’re just debating whether zongzi taste better sweet or savory.”

“We made zongzi. Considering that zongzi can have a monotonous flavor, we’ve introduced some innovations.”

“Such as?”

“For example, this batch has tomatoes and eggs in the zongzi, this one has red-braised pork with dried beans, and this one has fried deboned chicken legs…”

“We’ve also prepared vegetable soup to quench thirst and cut through richness.”

“So are your zongzi sweet or savory then?”

Yuan Wuxing pointed to two side dishes: “One plate has white sugar, the other has fermented bean paste—people can choose whichever flavor they prefer.”

Seven Kill Daozi handled chopping vegetables and meat, Qin Luan was responsible for wrapping the zongzi, while everything else from creative ideas to the vegetable soup was handled by Yuan Wuxing.

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader nodded slightly—this group showed promise.

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader then came to Xia Chao and Little Green’s station.

Xia Chao proactively explained: “This is seafood claypot rice, prepared in the morning and stored in wooden buckets—it will still be warm by noon.”

“Contestant, what are you making?” The Spirit Chef Sect Leader noticed Yu Youxian was preparing something he had never seen before.

“Add appropriate amounts of salt and alkaline water to the dough, then form the noodles into long strips. Steam the noodle cakes, then finally deep-fry them in oil. In the Mingzhong World, this is called instant noodles.”

Aside from takeout, instant noodles were what Yu Youxian ate most frequently.

Ordinary people could use simple spells like Water Gathering Technique and Fire Control Technique, so boiling water to cook instant noodles wasn’t particularly difficult.

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader was about to say something when he noticed soft yet attention-grabbing golden light emanating from not far away. Those illuminated by this golden light gradually felt their physical strength recovering.

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader was astonished—even having cultivated the Golden Light Mantra to great completion, he couldn’t achieve this effect.

“Young master, this is…”

“Amitabha, this is vegetarian cuisine.”

“Then what explains this golden light?”

Wuzhi shook his head: “This humble monk merely recited scriptures silently while cooking. When I came to my senses, the vegetarian food had uncontrollably begun emitting golden light.”

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader looked up at the Buddha apparition formed by the condensed golden light, thinking to himself just how profoundly this young monk must understand Buddhist teachings.

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader felt the time was about right—he had interviewed representative contestants and could announce that time was up, calling the ordinary people over.

“Why is this cooking station empty with no food?” The Spirit Chef Sect Leader looked at Jiang Li and Bai Hongtu’s station with confusion, remembering that two people had been there at the beginning.

“Reporting to Sect Leader, these two took their finished food away using storage rings.”

“Why didn’t you stop them?”

“I initially intended to stop them, but they said the rules didn’t prohibit them from leaving—they weren’t violating competition rules. I found their reasoning sound and didn’t stop them further.”

“What are those two planning to do?”

With some puzzlement, the Spirit Chef Sect Leader flew toward the farmland two li away.

The Spirit Chef Sect’s farmland covered an enormous area—calculated per person, each individual was responsible for over ten mu of farmland.

Since the ordinary people were all at the third level of Qi Refining, farming over ten mu of land was within their capabilities.

When the Spirit Chef Sect Leader reached the farmland, he discovered that over a thousand ordinary people had almost finished eating.

Jiang Li and Bai Hongtu were loudly calling out: “Everyone eat freely! There’s plenty of food, no charge! This is all provided by the Spirit Chef Sect as a welfare benefit for everyone!”

“What are you two doing?” The Spirit Chef Sect Leader asked with a frown.

The two explained: “The ordinary people are hungry and tired after finishing farm work, and would still have to go to the venue to eat. We couldn’t bear to see this, so we brought the food directly to them.”

“Look how satisfied the ordinary people are with the food.” They pointed at the ordinary people whose faces gleamed with satisfaction from their meal.

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader’s mouth twitched. With the ordinary people already full, even if other contestants prepared the most delicious food, the ordinary people couldn’t possibly be satisfied.

What comparison could even be made now?

Moreover, this was indeed an oversight on his part—the ordinary people were tired and hungry, yet he had tried to build anticipation by making them go to the venue, neglecting the issue of their round trip.