Chapter 492: Crashing the Venue

Yu Feng used magic to make spirit beef jerky and spirit pork jerky, and both found a decent audience.

Ji Kongkong called on the cultivators to train in the Great Zhou wilderness. Great Zhou had no law-free zones; even outdoors there were vendors selling boxed meals, so cultivators didn’t need to cook for themselves—safe and healthy.

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader was tallying which group had attracted the most cultivators.

He had expected to compare carefully; in past contests, participant numbers were often close, and the winner couldn’t be determined until the last moment.

This time there was no need. He noticed Feng Li’s group had drawn the most cultivators.

Then he saw a sight that nearly made him faint with anger—Jiang Li and Bai Hongtu were handing out fasting pills to the cultivators.

Indeed, compared to cooking outdoors, cultivators preferred fasting pills; one pill could sustain someone for three days without eating.

And after the Spirit Herb Sect improved them, fasting pills were cheap and came in many flavors—from fruit to barbecue to stir-fry—everything imaginable.

But the problem was that this was the Spirit Chef competition, not the Alchemy Peak, nor the Spirit Herb Sect’s territory.

These two were there to sabotage the event.

All along, the Spirit Chef Sect had been squeezed out of the outdoor food market by the Spirit Herb Sect, and the reason was the fasting pill.

Don’t be fooled by the Spirit Herb Sect’s constant claims of poverty and inability to match Alchemy Peak; in truth, the Spirit Herb Sect was overflowing with wealth but had lofty standards and constantly competed with Alchemy Peak, which made them appear less influential.

The Spirit Herb Sect was far richer than the Spirit Chef Sect.

Cultivators could skip dishes cooked by the Spirit Chefs, but they couldn’t skip pills refined by the Spirit Herb Sect.

Cooking focused on flavor; alchemy focused on how much it helped cultivation.

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader had hoped to use this competition to find inspiration to outdo the Spirit Herb Sect, but after all the twists and turns he’d come back to the same truth: cultivators loved fasting pills the most.

“This is a Spirit Chef competition, not an alchemy contest.” The Spirit Chef Sect Leader wanted to accuse Jiang Li and the others of breaking the rules.

“We know. These aren’t pills for cultivation—they’re food,” Jiang Li said earnestly. How could he possibly be breaking the rules?

“Look—this is steamed fasting pill, this is poached fasting pill, this is braised fasting pill…”

“Just as some people use spirit herbs as ingredients, we use pills as raw materials. After processing they’re still a type of food.”

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader had lived more than a thousand years and considered himself well experienced, but faced with this genius who combined alchemy and cooking, he was left speechless.

He felt his life had been wasted.

Jiang Li’s argument was so logical that the Spirit Chef Sect Leader couldn’t find a counter.

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader silently ate a steamed fasting pill.

Damn it—there was no difference from the plain fasting pill. The steamed and braised labels were just gimmicks.

Whoever refined the fasting pills had top-level skill; the pills were perfectly formed with no flaws, so no flavor could penetrate the pill itself.

The pill refiner was naturally Bai Hongtu; Jiang Li couldn’t have mass-produced pill varieties.

Unlike Jiang Li, a so-called shabby grandmaster at pill refineries, Bai Hongtu’s alchemy wasn’t as skillful as Su Wei’s, but he was still a top-ten alchemist.

With Alchemy Peak around, Bai Hongtu had no need to learn alchemy; he studied it only to have one more thing to mock Jiang Li with.

Trash Jiang Li, he can’t even refine pills; trash Jiang Li, he can’t even refine pills… Bai Hongtu kept repeating this in his head, never finding the nerve to say it out loud.

Mainly because he dared not.

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader and a few elders discussed the matter and found that Jiang Li and Bai Hongtu’s actions fully fit the Spirit Chef definition.

The Spirit Chef Sect Leader had no choice but to declare Jiang Li the winner.

The competition had two rounds. Normally the winner would be chosen by scoring, but because Jiang Li and Bai Hongtu were so outstanding they left the others far behind, and the final championship fell to these two who basically couldn’t cook.

Jiang Li and Bai Hongtu were not surprised by the result.

Yu Yin probably now understood how Jiang Li had become first in the alchemy contest and earned the Grandmaster of Alchemy title: just like this competition, he probably hadn’t used any real alchemy tricks in the alchemy conference.

Jiang Li didn’t care much for such vanity; he generously handed the trophy to Yu Yin.

Yu Yin declined.

He then offered it to Bai Hongtu. Bai Hongtu was not as strong as Jiang Li and couldn’t hold onto the trophy, so it returned to Jiang Li’s hands.

No one wanted it. Jiang Li reluctantly accepted the trophy.

The Human Sovereign candidates gathered again in the consciousness space, their spirits low—this time the winner was a person named Feng Li; the Human Sovereign candidates had been completely wiped out.

They were supposed to be the finest of the younger generation—how had they lost so badly?

Jiang Li paced and slowly took the stage.

“Human Sovereign.”

“Mr. Jiang.”

“Uncle Jiang.”

“This competition didn’t test your culinary skills. I know few of you are good cooks.”

Except for Li Nian’er, everyone hung their heads in shame.

“This time a prodigy named Feng Li won. Don’t blame yourselves, and there’s no need for self-reproach. What matters is what you gained from the contest, not which place you took.”

“You should all have learned to think from others’ perspectives in the first round. So tell me—what should you learn from the second round?”

Everyone hesitated. Qin Luan spoke first: “Does Mr. Jiang mean we should reduce conflicts between Spirit Chefs and alchemists and make them cooperate?”

Jiang Li shook his head.

Luo Ying said: “Does he mean we should think from the position of lower-tier cultivators?”

Jiang Li shook his head again.

They argued for a long time, and finally Ji Kongkong said: “Uncle Jiang means you shouldn’t compare where you’re weaker to where someone else is stronger. Don’t compare your weaknesses with another’s strengths. In the outdoor food market, the Spirit Herb Sect has a natural advantage—Spirit Chefs can’t beat them. Instead of stubbornly clinging to that field, better to put your energy elsewhere.”

“Kongkong is right.”

“You each have your own strengths and merits. For strengths, expand and amplify them; for weaknesses, overcome and compensate. But don’t assume that by overcoming a weakness you’ll match someone else’s strength.”

“For example, Seven Kill Daozi, your advantage is in the swordpath and you’re not good at close-quarters brawling. What you must do is temper your body so that in close combat you won’t quickly fall behind—seek the ability to protect yourself, but don’t spend too much effort trying to match those who specialize in it.”

“Don’t think that after training some body-cultivator techniques for a while you can match someone who’s cultivated close-combat their whole life.”

“Following the Human Sovereign’s teaching.” Being singled out by Jiang Li, Seven Kill Daozi was not worried but delighted.

The other Human Sovereign candidates began reflecting on their own strengths and weaknesses.

Jiang Li nodded slightly. Training and combat ability could be developed slowly; there was no rush. What mattered now, while they were still young, was shaping their values—letting them know what was right and what was wrong.

“By the way, Kongkong, how did you come up with that?” Jiang Li had thought Ji Kongkong might have used time techniques to see the future and reveal the answer.

“Because Uncle Jiang doesn’t use the timepath and never wastes time on the timepath.”

Jiang Li nodded—good, plainly a member of the Ji family.