Translator: AL_Squad Editor: Chrissy

This was a competition of unprecedented intensity.

The audience standing outside the Full Mountain Red Restaurant was also filled with emotion.

Since the opening of the Grand Competition, they had seen death and even rivers of blood, but when it came to tragic and shocking, none could compare to this dark cuisine competition.

Initially, there were tens of thousands of spectators, but after the competition had gone for two hours, more than half of them had left.

It was not that Wang Lu’s popularity was not enough, nor that the importance of the competition had declined. It was just that the scene was so tragic that people couldn’t bear to look straight at it.

Even the Mysterious Sky Mansion reporter who insisted to stay on the frontline, a handsome and young looking cultivator but was already used to winds and rains, felt that he could not hold on.

He wrote in his note, “This match, in my opinion, seems like two individuals competing to massacre each other. Then two simultaneous death-of-a-thousand-cut tortures are carried out. I watch them step by step go into the abyss, but I actually enjoy watching it. I never thought that a food competition could be this fierce. No wonder people often say that you should never underestimate Wang Lu to bring you a pleasant surprise.”

In fact, as a cultural contest, the atmosphere of this dark cuisine competition was harmonious. After the game began, the two sides occupied their respective round table and ate their food without interfering each other and even ignored each other. Wang Lu also stood between the two tables, and only occasionally opened his mouth when necessary to explain the origin and eating methods of the dishes for the contestants and spectators.

However, it was hard to connect the contestants who honor the food with the dishes that they ate. The pitch-black white insect soup was just an appetizer, while the real feast was still behind.

Meat pies made with rotten meat and blood, hot dishes cooked with rotten guts, and a cold salad that looked very suspicious… Every one of them was more poisonous than the others. After seeing it with their own eyes, people could not help but feel repulsive and even fearful.

According to the results of the interview with the reporter, many people would rather take poisons than to try to taste those dishes.

“Even if taking poison… as long as we know what the poison is, we could at least get rid of it. But those dishes, I don’t know what would happen when I eat them.”

However, they were such terrible dishes that the contestant swept them down one after another with amazing speed.

“I guess they have to be fast.” The reporter wrote solemnly on the paper. “It would be such great torture if that kind of thing stays in the mouth even for an extra moment. While eating, the two contestants would show painful expressions from time to time. But I think, compared with the pain that they really suffered, what they showed on the surface is only a thousandth of it. In fact, I really want to try the taste of those dark cuisines now, but considering that there’s no substitute reporter behind me, once I fell down, it would be difficult to record this wonderful competition. So, I could only hold back my curiosity and would only try it after the match is over… please wish me well!”

—

On the other hand, the situation on the arena was subtly changing.

“… S-Still not over yet?”

The obese Food Immortal, resisting the disgust in his heart, jammed an unknown piece of meat into his mouth.

The strong stimulating taste suddenly bloomed on the tip of his tongue. It seemed as if a dead skunk who had already turned into ghost curled up in his mouth and fiercely fart. It tasted like a wave of tides that impacted his mind. The pain was like cutting his fat with a sharp sword, which was not only painful to his body but also to his heart.

This dark cuisine contest was really too vicious, completely aimed at the Food Immortal. The design was extremely cunning!

It was actually not difficult to digest endure things that entered his mouth with his eating power as a Food Immortal. Even a cultivator of Foundation Establishment could eat a dish of poison without changing his face, and then digest it completely using his physical and magical power, unless the poison was no longer the poison of the world of mortals. As for the Food Immortal, there were not many poisons in the world that could not be digested by him.

However, this was an eating contest. It was food, not poison, that was on the table in front of him—at least in name. Thus, it required both sides to treat each dish in a way they treat food. Simply put, it was not feasible to just simply swallow it. They must taste the taste of each dish, and chew it carefully before they swallow it. Of course, any means to block the taste were prohibited.

As a cultivator who stood at the apex of the dao of food, the Food Immortal also possessed the highest taste sensitivity in the world. The same dark cuisine, if the damage to Liu Li was ten, then the damage to him was a hundred or even a thousand.

In a sense, there was nothing wrong with Wang Lu’s theory of food diversification. It was also right to open the taste buds and welcomed the diversified food. However, the idea of bottom line insisted on by the Food Immortal was also not wrong.

Not everything could be called a delicacy. For example, a stone, a piece of excrement could, strictly speaking, be digested by many cultivators. And also, strictly speaking, things that could be digested could, of course, be categorized as food.

Since there was the word ‘beautiful’ in the word delicacy, then it should be loved and yearned by people. Normal people, however, would not yearn for stone and feces.

Human preference for food was an accumulated experience over tens of millions of years, such as the preference for sweets and meat because sweets and meat were rich in nutrients that human need. On the other hand, what nutrients could be found in stones and excrements?

However, there was also no absolute thing in the world. Nine Regions was so vast that not everyone could grow up in a normal environment. For example, the indigenous people who lived poorly in the barren mountains and untamed rivers for hundreds of thousands of years had long adapted to their local environment. Sweet food and meat were rare luxuries for them. They relied more on substances that ordinary people could not digest for food. Gradually, they became fond and even dependent on that ‘ food.’

With food ingredients, there would be delicacies, and with it the food culture. These ingredients, which seemed unreasonable to ordinary people, would then become art-filled treasures.

It was just that, these things, which were delicious to the local people, were actually dark cuisines for the others.

For example, the porridge currently served in front of the Food Immortal was not made of rice or other grains, but of a lot of pebbles, each one was fine and smooth, and with only the size of soybeans. Compared with normal porridge, the volume would not exceed one-tenth. The water used was turbid lime water which was thick and creamy. This was the delicacy of the Rock people, who lived in the mountains, which there was nothing except rock and soil, and had evolved the ability to eat rocks for tens of thousands of years. The stones were divided into high and low according to the degree of deliciousness. This bowl of lime round pebblestone porridge was a treasure eligible only to the patriarch of the rock people. However, placed in front of the Food Immortal, it was really difficult for him to swallow.

Especially after eating a piece of stinky meat, the Food Immortal needed a really silky drink instead of burning the throat and blocking the esophagus with lime round pebblestone porridge.

“What’s the matter, does Senior Food Immortal could not eat anymore? Or is the meal not appetizing? Although the ingredients might be unique, I think that for a master foodie like you, just by tasting the dish, you could appreciate how precious the enthusiasm of the chef was.”

The Food Immortal sneered and said, “A kid who wastes natural resources recklessly like you don’t need to teach me about which delicacies are delicious!”

The real foodies, especially those in the realm of Food Immortal, tasted more than just the taste of food, but also the emotions of the chef. Lime round pebble porridge was not a food in the orthodox sense, but the seriousness of the Rock people chef when cooking this porridge was not false.

The only problem was that, it was not a food in the orthodox sense after all.

When the Food Immortal thought of it, he could not help but sigh with slight regret.

Wang Lu was right, he was an Orthodox authority in terms of delicacy and his taste buds had long been the attribute of orthodoxy. He could not taste the evil way of delicacy eighteen thousand years ago. This was the choice that he had to make to cultivate the dao of food in the right way. He abandoned the evil way and made great strides in the right way… In this regard, as a revered Food Immortal, he was indeed not better than a simple girl like Liu Li.

He was like a painting with high artistic conception. Each stroke contained infinite mysteries. While Liu Li was like a blank piece of paper. Naturally, the value of a blank piece of paper was far less than a masterpiece painting, but in terms of plasticity, the blank piece of paper was actually the one that was far ahead.

This lime round pebble porridge, the Food Immortal could not betray his heart to say that it was delicious, his foodie taste buds were constantly protesting. If they weren’t being forcefully suppressed by his high cultivation base, perhaps his tongue would’ve long self-destructed. Moreover, suppressing a tongue which belonged to that of Earth Immortal was also more laborious.

On the other hand, after the initial difficult period, Liu Li gradually adapted to the rhythm of these dark cuisines and began to eat in an orderly manner, not feeling bitter at all. Moreover, she even gradually realized the way to taste the food according to their environmental background.

Thus, the situation was becoming more and more unfavorable.

At present, in terms of score, the Food Immortal was still far ahead. According to the number of dishes, he had accumulated more than three hundred points, while Liu Li was just two hundred. However, Liu Li’s speed was getting faster and faster, the girl had been able to send rock, metal, poisonous liquid, wood chips and so on to her mouth without hesitation. On the other hand, the energy used by the Food Immortal to suppress his rebellious tongue was getting bigger and bigger, which inevitably slowed down his speed.

However, the Food Immortal was not worried that he would lose.

Because this competition was not limited by time. It was like in the previous match where the first who reached five hundred points win. As long as he persevered, he would be able to reach five hundred points faster than his opponent. Liu Li’s speed was very fast, but it was negligible compared to the Food Immortal.

If someone were to be blamed, that would be Wang Lu, who misestimated his tolerance. It was true that every time he ate it would be like if he committed suicide by burning himself. However, his fat and oil were many and thus could not be burned in a short time!

And just at this time, the chefs from the kitchen suddenly stopped serving food.

The Food Immortal, who still had dishes on the table not finished by him, could not help but frown. Wang Lu would not openly use this rogue trick of cutting the dishes off so that the Food Immortal could not get more points right?

If Wang Lu was really that naive, then that would be exactly what he wanted. Because as a Food Immortal, how could he not bring his own food with him? Since Wang Lu’s dishes would not come, then he would eat his own dishes! And it would be more comfortable for him to eat!

However, while he was in doubt, a door that had been closed in the distance opened.

From the inside, a blonde girl slowly came out. She was of average height, and dressed in a white colored chef’s outfit and tall chef’s hat, her hands were holding a silver plate.

“Knight King!” The Food Immortal was shocked. Unexpectedly, his opponent not that long ago would actually appear as a chef today!

What was even more unexpected was the dishes served by her.

Aya walked to the table of Food Immortal, put down the plate, and then said stiffly, “This is the traditional food of my hometown, Look Up at the Starry Sky, please enjoy it.”

Looking at the dozens of dead dried fishes in front of him, for a long time, the Food Immortal was unable to speak.

After a long time, the Food Immortal carefully picked up a piece of fish with chopsticks and sent it into his mouth…

The next moment, his face changed.

“Bah!”

The fish was dropped on the table along with a mouthful of blood. The thin eyebrows of the Food Immortal twisted, his broad palms slapped the table, and his body stood upright.

“Is this even a **ing human food?”

As the host, Wang Lu seemed to have been waiting for this moment for a long time. He quickly stepped forward and pointed at the bloody fish on the table. “Wasting food, one point deduction!”