The Phoenix Eight Immortals and The Big Four were monsters in the world of Chuuka Ichiban!. Among The Big Four, Master Yuxian was over a hundred and fifty years old.
As for the Phoenix Eight Immortals, Song Wan had lived for several centuries. The others weren't quite that ancient, but none of them could be called young.
Before the events of Kiwami, the Taiji Cuisine Realm had once gathered the eight legendary cooking utensils to create a dish of eternal life—and that same "immortality dish" ended up being the source of Song Wan's tragedy.
That had happened decades before the events of Kiwami. Meaning, even back then, the Phoenix Eight Immortals already had their current forms. Not everyone had eaten the immortal dish, of course—but Qigong could extend one's lifespan.
Between that and their sheer mastery, both the Phoenix Eight Immortals and The Big Four were, quite literally, old monsters.
Kaiyu had come from the Taiji Cuisine Realm as well, but he wasn't nearly as ancient. Given enough time, though, his achievements would have been terrifying.
Too bad he was too restless for his own good—and ended up as the final boss who got taken down by the protagonist.
After inheriting Kaiyu's legacy, Kael noticed a new progress bar appear beside the Kaiyu Character Inheritance on his system panel. It was completely empty for now.
That bar represented how much of Kaiyu's knowledge and skills he had mastered. Once it filled, he'd be on par with Kaiyu himself.
"Good thing this is an Inheritance System and not some kind of imitation system. Otherwise, there's no way I'd ever max that out."
He remembered the "imitation systems" from the novels he used to read—systems that also gave the host a template to copy, but with one huge problem: you had to fully become the person you were copying.
And if you reached one hundred percent… well, would you even still be yourself?
That thought was terrifying—especially when the template in question was someone like Kaiyu. Imitating him would probably leave a mountain of corpses.
Kaiyu wasn't some misunderstood villain; he was pure evil, through and through.
His methods were merciless, his cruelty unmatched. The number of people who had died directly or indirectly because of him was beyond counting.
In the original story, when Liu Maoxing and the others infiltrated the Dark Cooking Society, every village around Liangshanpo was already desolate. Not because the residents had left—but because they'd been captured.
The "death soldiers" of the Dark Cooking Society didn't appear from nowhere. With that kind of hellish training regimen, it was a miracle if even one out of hundreds survived.
"Next up… the Faction Inheritance."
The Character Inheritance had already exceeded Kael's expectations. Now he couldn't wait to see what kind of power the Faction Inheritance would grant.
As he activated it, a new holographic window appeared, displaying detailed information about the faction.
"Seriously? You've gotta be kidding me. I just got the Dark Cooking Society's leader as a Character Inheritance, and now you're giving me the actual Dark Cooking Society too?"
Kael stared at the screen, half speechless, half impressed. Still, this was definitely not a bad thing. In fact, it was a perfect match.
Most of Kaiyu's theories and techniques were developed after he founded the Dark Cooking Society. Whether it was their brutal training methods or their organizational structure, the faction suited his inheritance like a glove.
But Faction Inheritance worked differently from Character Inheritance. The Character Inheritance had directly given Kael Kaiyu's innate talents and abilities, leaving him to learn the skills himself.
Faction Inheritance, on the other hand, was divided into sections. Right now, only the most basic area of the Dark Cooking Society—the training grounds—was unlocked.
To access new areas, Kael would have to meet certain standards within each one.
The current training zone was where the Dark Cooking Society trained its captives and volunteers alike. In the original story, even Rēn of the Seven-Star Knives had trained there once. Few ever made it out alive. The majority died long before graduation.
Each zone came fully equipped with every tool, ingredient, and facility needed for training, but none of it could be taken out of the Dark Cooking Society.
Only when a faction was fully unlocked could Kael start bringing things out into the real world.
On top of that, every time he unlocked a new section, the system would reward him with a random item from within that faction. What kind of item it would be, he wouldn't know until the time came.
Satisfied for now, Kael closed the system interface. He needed to regroup before diving into training.
The first step was practical—find his place, get some food, and stock up on supplies.
After leaving the abandoned factory, Kael quickly realized he didn't even have a phone. So he resorted to the oldest navigation method in history—asking for directions.
"At least the system dropped me somewhere nearby," he muttered.
Half an hour later, after asking around a few times, he finally found his apartment. Inside, the place was modest but complete—furniture, basic appliances, and enough essentials to get by.
There was, however, one problem: no food. Not a crumb.
With a sigh, Kael headed out to grab a bite at a small local restaurant, then picked up a phone on his way back.
By the time he returned home, the sky had already darkened. Training could wait. He still had more preparations to make.
The first thing that came to mind was the medicated bath formula from Kaiyu's medical knowledge.
The Dark Cooking Society's training regimen was all about pushing one's body past its limits—a method that produced results fast, but at the cost of long-term damage.
Rēn had survived only because he had the foundation and resilience for it. As for prodigies like Zhu Qi, Kaiyu had trained them personally. He never sent them into that hellish place.
If Kael wanted to endure that kind of regimen without wrecking his body, a medicated bath was essential.
Luckily, Kaiyu's inheritance contained plenty of such recipes. While Kael wasn't proficient in medicine yet, he knew enough to follow a formula and prepare one himself.
With the right herbs, the bath wouldn't just protect his body—it would accelerate his physical development, letting him handle the Dark Cooking Society's brutal training far more effectively.
"Great stuff… if I can afford it."
That was his only concern now. The system had given him a decent sum of money, but it was meant for daily living expenses, not rare medicinal herbs.
Who knew how much this would cost in the modern world—and that didn't even include what he'd need later.