Hearing the loud explanations from the two chefs, the three in combat paused briefly, and Zebra couldn't help but turn his head and ask loudly.
"You two, can you be sure about the preparation method for the rich cola?!"
"This..."
Komatsu was still a bit hesitant, but Zombie Xia Yu wasn't so polite. Having read the manga, he knew how to prepare the rich cola even without looking at the recipe!
"If you want to drink cola, then listen to our instructions. We are the chefs; we are the ones in charge of the cooking!"
Zombie Xia Yu suddenly stepped forward and shouted. Hearing this, veins popped on Zebra's forehead, but he looked toward the Sphinx.
"Hmph! How dare you get so carried away. If I don't get to drink that cola, you're dead!"
Seeing Zombie Xia Yu suddenly being so blunt with Zebra, Komatsu said tremulously, "Mr. Zombie, you just..."
Before Komatsu could finish, Zombie Xia Yu suddenly slapped him on the back and smiled. "Komatsu, you're far too insecure. You need to have some confidence in yourself."
"Since you can understand the recipe, don't hesitate. Do what you can, and leave the rest to your companions."
Feeling the encouragement in Zombie Xia Yu's tone, Komatsu's eyes gradually moistened. He wiped his eyes and smiled broadly. "I understand, Mr. Zombie! We are the chefs; we are the ones in charge of the cooking!"
Toriko, who had been watching Komatsu, smiled at the scene. "Then we're counting on you. Give us the instructions!"
"Understood, Mr. Toriko!"
After greeting Toriko and the others, Komatsu hurried to flip through the pages. Zombie Xia Yu stood by, ready to relay instructions to the three fighters while protecting Komatsu from the crossfire.
On the battlefield, the enraged Sphinx launched a frenzied assault on the trio, each strike causing massive destruction to the terrain.
Every swipe of its claws left deep gashes in the floor and the surrounding walls. Under such a relentless onslaught, the three were soon injured.
Toriko and Zebra in particular were covered in wounds, with a large amount of blood splattering onto the ground.
However, due to their gourmet cells, their wounds healed rapidly, though the blood they shed remained where it fell.
Gourmet Xia Yu, fighting alongside them, saw this and his eyes flickered. It seemed he wouldn't even need to ask to collect the protagonist's blood.
This time, he could collect not only Toriko's blood but Zebra's as well. Hmm... he'd just collect it in the heat of the moment.
Action followed thought, but Gourmet Xia Yu wasn't foolish enough to run over specifically to touch the blood. Instead, while dodging the Sphinx's attacks, he took the opportunity to roll near the bloodstains.
As long as he touched it, he could store it in a Red Envelope. Rolling across the blood-stained ground counted as contact.
He wasn't worried about the demons residing in the gourmet cells. It was more accurate to say the demons resided within the collective whole of the gourmet cells rather than individual cells.
There was a significant difference between the whole and the individual. Furthermore, entering the Red Envelope effectively purified the blood, as sentient life cannot be stored in them.
Even if there were sleeping demons remaining in the blood, they would have been squeezed out.
After collecting the blood of the two from the ground, Gourmet Xia Yu stood up as if nothing had happened and charged at the Sphinx again.
He might as well collect this monster's blood too, since he was already here.
Next, the three fighters followed the instructions of the two cooks, beginning a special culinary process on the Sphinx.
Only by applying the appropriate stimulation to each part of the Sphinx's body could they make the massive beast cry.
To put it simply, it involved a full-body massage, striking the chest, scraping the back, poking the soles of the feet, plucking feathers, and smashing the tail. Following these steps would make the Sphinx cry.
Once the three fighters finished stimulating the Sphinx according to the steps, the monster's eyes welled up with tears of grievance.
The next moment—
"Gawaaaaah!!"
Accompanying its cry, a large volume of black, bubbling liquid erupted from the Sphinx's eyes. The liquid spraying into the air was as beautiful as a night sky dotted with starlight.
"It's out!"
Everyone present was overjoyed, but suddenly, an anomaly occurred.
As if history were repeating itself, a sturdy black shadow silently appeared behind Komatsu again. Only this time, Komatsu no longer had his Ultrasonic Armor.
Snap—!
"Do you think I'm invisible?"
Zombie Xia Yu spun around and grabbed the Nitro that was about to ambush Komatsu. By now, the previously mummified Nitro had regained some vitality after preying on some monsters; it no longer looked like a dried corpse.
Hearing Zombie Xia Yu's words, Komatsu belatedly turned around and saw the bird-headed man that had attacked him before.
"Waaaaah!!"
The shadow in his heart resurfaced, and Komatsu screamed in terror. Hearing his cry, Toriko and the others also looked over.
Under the gaze of so many people, the Nitro tried to pull its arm away, but no matter how much force it used, the arm wouldn't budge.
Swoosh—!
Realizing it couldn't pull its arm free, the Nitro launched a sudden spinning kick toward Xia Yu's head. Just as Xia Yu moved to catch the leg, the Nitro suddenly changed its move.
The kicking leg retracted instantly. Taking advantage of Xia Yu's vision being momentarily blocked by the leg, the Nitro suddenly opened its gaping maw and bit down hard on its own trapped arm.
It didn't try to attack Xia Yu again, but instead bit off its own restrained arm. Blood erupted instantly, but the Nitro simply sucked it all into its mouth.
The severed arm's bleeding was stopped in the blink of an eye as muscles compressed the wound.
Having escaped restraint, before anyone could react, the Nitro's figure suddenly appeared before the cola the Sphinx had sprayed out.
In less than a second, the small amount of cola the Sphinx had sprayed was sucked dry by the Nitro in one gulp.
The next moment, the previously scrawny Nitro's muscles bulged violently, transforming it from a twig into a muscular monster.
This scene stunned everyone. Of course, regarding everything that had just happened, one could only say someone was acting, and the others hadn't noticed yet.
Seeing the cola they had worked so hard for suddenly drunk by an unknown monster, a terrifying aura radiated from Zebra.
Anger gave him energy. With a face like a demon, he snarled, "What an arrogant lizard. Now, allow me to punish you for getting so carried away!"
As soon as he finished speaking, sound waves that shattered the air surged toward the Nitro. But the Nitro, having recovered some energy, showed no sign of fear.
It charged toward Zebra at a speed that left afterimages, leaving the sound waves behind. But there were three people on the scene.
Toriko, who had long noticed the Nitro's path, clenched his right fist to charge power. Noticing this, Gourmet Xia Yu quietly circled behind.
Once the Nitro entered attack range, Toriko lunged forward and smashed a fist toward it. The Nitro intended to strike back with its own fist, but Gourmet Xia Yu had already reached its back.
While the Nitro's attention was focused entirely on Toriko, Gourmet Xia Yu rose and delivered a kick to its kidney, instantly breaking the Nitro's momentum.
Boom!!!
Under the pincer attack, the heavy blows exploded within the Nitro's body. After the simultaneous attack, while the residual force was still detonating inside the Nitro, the two instantly backed away.
This was because Zebra's sound wave skill was already blasting toward the Nitro.
"Meteor Noise—!!"
Noise like thunder descended from the sky and exploded, blasting a huge crater into the ground. The Nitro, hit dead center, lay twitching at the bottom of the pit, its entire body charred as if struck by lightning.
Even so, it had not yet lost its life.
"This guy is way too tough."
Toriko walked to the edge of the crater and peered inside, unable to help but mutter.
The Nitro at the bottom was still twitching. Zebra didn't hesitate, firing more sound blasts into the pit. Various sonic waves hammered down until he was somewhat exhausted and finally stopped.
"This is the end." Zebra took a breath and looked at the twitching Nitro at the bottom, saying calmly, "This guy is beyond saving. He might twitch in pain like this for several days, but he's dead."
"Let me put it out of its misery." Gourmet Xia Yu jumped down into the pit and reached out to cover the Nitro's eyes. The next moment, the twitching Nitro's body slowly stopped shaking.
Toriko and Zebra watched this with some surprise; they couldn't tell at all what method Gourmet Xia Yu had used.
So this is what it feels like to crush a soul, Xia Yu thought to himself as he crouched by the Nitro.
Having dealt with the Nitro, he leaped back up. The two chefs, who had been watching from a safe corner, also walked over.
"Sorry. We finally got the cola out, only for that guy to steal it," Toriko sighed as he looked at the approaching Komatsu.
"Don't worry, what just came out wasn't the real rich cola." Zombie Xia Yu pointed to the Sphinx still lying nearby. "The cola that's about to emerge is the truly mature one."
"Really? Komatsu!" Toriko looked at Komatsu in surprise, and Komatsu nodded happily.
"Mr. Zombie is right. What came out first was acidified alkaline water accumulated on the surface of the tear glands. While that is undoubtedly high-quality cola, the cola that follows is the truly mature rich cola!"
"Furthermore, the amount of truly mature cola is dozens or even hundreds of times that of the alkaline water. It's enough to turn this place into a cola swimming pool!"
Just as Komatsu finished speaking, the Sphinx, which had been lying in the corner, began to wail again. This time, the volume of cola erupting far exceeded the first burst of alkaline water.
"Ohhh!!!"
Seeing this, everyone ran forward excitedly. Feeling the spray of the cola rain, Toriko took a deep breath, pressed his hands together, and said seriously.
"I give thanks to Komatsu, Zebra, and Xia Yu and Zombie who joined us mid-journey, as well as the provider of the cola, the Salamander Sphinx. And so... I gratefully dig in!"
After the customary pre-meal thanks, Toriko, with a heart full of gratitude, opened his mouth to welcome the erupting cola. The moment the cola entered his mouth, his eyes widened, and then he swallowed it all.
"Delicious!!!"
At this moment, everyone who tasted the rich cola had only this one word in their hearts.
The nutrients accumulated by the Salamander Sphinx had transformed into luscious sugar in its tear glands. This sweetness, fully matured over an entire year, produced a sugar content hundreds of times that of maple syrup.
Added to that was carbonation in an amount incomparable to that of champagne or soda. If the cola were poured into a glass, the bubbles would continue to rise elegantly and incessantly for an entire year.
The moment they drank the cola, the intense battle from before instantly seemed trivial. The strong stimulation of the carbonation hammered relentlessly against every cell in their bodies, and the lusciousness of the thick sugar permeated every corner of their beings like a submission hold.
Undoubtedly, this was a bounty from the Salamander Sphinx, which reigned at the summit of the Gourmet Pyramid, and from all the organisms that made up its ecosystem.
"Is this the world's number one cola?! What an intense presence!!" Toriko couldn't help but cheer, raising his arms in the cola rain.
"My cells... they really have evolved." After drinking the cola, Gourmet Xia Yu felt the overflowing and steadily increasing power, and he couldn't help but marvel.
This was power from deep within his body—specifically, the power of the gourmet cells inside him. Although he didn't host a demon, the evolution of the cells themselves provided significant power.
However, he wasn't the only one evolving. Toriko and Zebra, who also possessed gourmet cells, both felt their cells evolving.
"Mr. Toriko, let me collect the cola."
Looking at the cola covering the ground, Komatsu spoke as he pulled a Gourmet Satchel from his backpack. This was a gourmet container made of special natural rubber, specifically for carrying back liquid ingredients; the rubber would expand and contract freely according to the volume of the liquid.
"Alright, we've had enough to drink," Toriko replied after scooping up another handful of cola to drink.
However, as the cola was being collected, the expressions of Toriko and the others grew increasingly puzzled.
"Does the rich cola evaporate that quickly? I feel like half of the sprayed cola is missing," Toriko muttered, scratching his head in confusion.
"It's not just a feeling; half of it is indeed gone." Gourmet Xia Yu suddenly stepped forward and said with a smile, "We did fight side-by-side, after all, so it's not too much for us to take half, right?"
"Oh, so Mr. Xia Yu took it," Komatsu said, clapping a fist into his palm in realization.
"Hey, you bastard, you dare take half? Aren't you getting a bit too carried away!" Zebra immediately roared, glaring fiercely at Gourmet Xia Yu.
"That's right, I'm carried away. So what? You want to fight!" Gourmet Xia Yu didn't back down. His cells had just evolved, and he was worried he had nowhere to vent all this power.
Watching Gourmet Xia Yu and Zebra bicker, Zombie Xia Yu sighed and walked silently to Komatsu's side.
"Komatsu, can I study that ancient recipe with you? It's very likely a culinary legacy left behind by the ancients, and I'm very interested. Of course, we can also exchange culinary skills and learn from each other to progress together!"
Feeling the sincerity in Zombie Xia Yu's words, Komatsu's face lit up with joy. "Thank you so much for your recognition, Mr. Zombie. As expected, you are also someone who loves the culinary arts. Let's progress together!"
"Haha." Zombie Xia Yu smiled and waved his hand. "No need to use honorifics with me. I'm just an apprentice on the great path of being a chef."
"I understand, Mr. Zombie!" The light in Komatsu's eyes grew brighter. Although it was just intuition, he already felt that Mr. Zombie was an extraordinary chef.
"Zombie, where did you hide the cola you collected? I didn't even notice you collecting it," Toriko walked over and asked at that moment.
Hearing this, Komatsu also nodded vigorously. If the cola hadn't actually been halved and Mr. Xia Yu hadn't admitted it, he really wouldn't have known the cola had been taken.
In response to the question, Zombie Xia Yu placed his index finger to his lips and gave a mysterious smile.
"That's a secret."