"Are you finished?"
Lin Qingyue blew a melon seed shell from her palm.
She tossed the kernel into her mouth, chewing unhurriedly.
Her voice was very soft, yet it acted like a needle, instantly piercing through the courtyard's clamor.
Pan Yue was completely enraged by her posture, a flush of red spreading over his grim, ashen face.
"What, are you speechless because I struck your weak spot?"
"No, I just want to ask you."
Lin Qingyue shifted into a more comfortable position, nearly sinking into the small stool, her eyelids not even bothering to lift.
"By your rules, what counts as 'cooking' when you make a dish?"
Seeing her actually dare to ask back, Pan Yue's arrogance reached its peak, his chest puffing out even further as if he were reciting a divine oracle.
"Cooking is the crystallization of heart and soul! It is the display of skill! Ingredient selection, knife work, heat control, seasoning, and plating! These five elements are like the Five Phases, generating and overcoming one another, with not a single one dispensable!"
"Every step must follow the rules of a thousand years of heritage to bring out the ingredients' original flavors to the absolute extreme!"
He pointed at that copper pot with profound grief and indignation, his voice even trembling.
"Not acting like you, wasting heaven's treasures!"
"Do you understand the Monarch, Minister, Assistant, and Courier principle? Do you understand the harmony of the five flavors? You've just boiled a bunch of divine ingredients into pig feed!"
His voice was sharp and piercing.
Thud!
A loud crash rang out, and spiderweb-like cracks exploded across the ground.
Lin Xiyue slammed [ Blackstone's Protection ] heavily onto the earth. The Runic Plate Armor clashed with the sound of striking iron, and a crushing aura, like a collapsing mountain, surged downward.
The followers behind Pan Yue instantly turned pale, their legs going weak.
"Watch your mouth!" Lin Xiyue's gaze was icy. "Do you think you're qualified to judge my sister's cooking?"
Su Wan and Xia Lian advanced silently without a word.
An invisible current of magical chill and the sharp aura of a Ranger intertwined, causing the courtyard's temperature to plummet.
"What? Can't win with words, so you want to fight?"
Pan Yue was intimidated by the aura, yet he still sneered stubbornly. "This is the Valley of the Four Winds! Here, culinary skill is what matters!"
"That's precisely my intention."
Lin Qingyue finally stood up straight.
The lazy expression on her face slowly faded, replaced by a calm that pierced through the human heart.
"Chef Pan Yue, let me ask you one more question."
"What do you cook for?"
Pan Yue paused, then lifted his head, his eyes filled with fanaticism and self-conceit: "Of course, it is to pursue the pinnacle of the Culinary Way! To create a perfect work of art!"
"A work of art?"
Lin Qingyue smiled.
That smile held a trace of pity.
"Are works of art meant to be looked at, or eaten?"
"You..." Pan Yue was momentarily speechless.
"My cooking has only one purpose."
Lin Qingyue took two steps forward, her calm gaze sweeping over the faces of all the chefs present.
"To make the eater happy, to make them feel blessed, and to reignite their love for life."
"This pot of soup of mine made a man who had lost all hope stand up once again."
She looked at Pan Wenhuo, who immediately straightened his back and nodded emphatically, his eyes filled with the gaze of a near-fanatic.
"You call it pig feed, yet he sees it as a Divine Revelation."
"And what about your so-called 'work of art'?"
Lin Qingyue's voice turned cold, each word cutting like a knife.
"Aside from satisfying your own pitiful vanity in pursuing so-called 'perfection,' what can it possibly bring to others?"
"Does the food you make have a soul?"
"It cannot fill a hungry stomach, it cannot comfort a weary soul, it cannot even arouse the most primal appetite..."
"What is the point of such food, even if it's carved with dragons and phoenixes, and presented with the utmost refinement?"
"In the end, it is nothing more than a pretty ornament that is useless to eat."
The last sentence was delivered lightly, yet it struck more cruelly than any shout.
Pan Yue's face instantly turned the color of pig's liver. He opened his mouth to retort, only to find he couldn't even utter a single word.
Lin Qingyue's words struck at his very core.
"That's nothing but sophistry!"
In the end, all he could force out was that single, bluffing remark.
"Whether it is sophistry or not, the mouth and stomach are far more honest than the brain."
Just as Lin Qingyue's words fell:
"Well said!"
Lin Xiyue had already lost her patience. She grabbed the big ladle from Pan Big-Ladle's hand, took a large bowl, and scooped a full serving of the soup.
The golden, shimmering, rich soup wafted towards her. She squinted her eyes in bliss, ignoring the heat as she scooped a spoonful directly into her mouth.
"Mmm!"
A muffled whimper of utter contentment escaped from deep in her throat.
In that instant, Lin Xiyue felt her soul be seized by a warm yet domineering hand, then directly crushed and melted into this bowl of soup.
All boundaries between the ingredients vanished completely in her mouth, transforming into a pure, ultimate essence of "umami" and "fragrance," like a bursting river of stars, washing over every cell of her body.
She slumped in her chair, her face wearing a look of almost foolish bliss, her mouth chewing nonstop, unable to stop.
"Is it really that exaggerated?"
Su Wan said, but her body betrayed her as she leaned in and served herself a bowl.
Her movements remained elegant, tasting it in small sips.
But after just one sip, a crack appeared on her serene, iceberg-like face, and the knuckles holding the soup spoon turned white from excessive force.
Immediately after, the speed of her scooping the soup became so fast it left afterimages.
Xia Lian's cheeks flushed red as she softly said, "I... I'll try it too," and then joined the ranks of the hearty eaters, burying her small head almost completely in the bowl.
The three young women ate with immense relish, completely oblivious to everyone else.
The unfeigned, pure, and ultimate enjoyment and happiness on their faces were like three deafeningly loud slaps, one after another, striking Pan Yue and all the skeptics across their faces.
Silent, yet making their cheeks sting with a burning heat.
"Gulp..."
The chefs present swallowed hard, their Adam's apples bobbing uncontrollably as the sound of gulping echoed in a continuous wave.
They were already half-mad with desire, tortured by that domineeringly seductive aroma, and now, seeing this scene, a "Celestial Mukbang," their psychological defenses instantly crumbled.
What culinary path!
What rules!
What a waste of heaven's gifts!
In the face of absolute deliciousness, it was all bullshit!
"Um... Boss Pan."
A chef finally couldn't hold out any longer, rubbing his hands together as he looked at Pan Big-Ladle with a face full of longing, "This... this soup, is it for sale? How much for a bowl? I'll buy one!"
"Right, right, right! I want a bowl too! No, two bowls!"
"Pan Big-Ladle, let's be friends. Give me a taste!"
Pan Yue's accusations had become pale, powerless, and even ridiculous at this moment.
Pan Big-Ladle snapped out of his stupor and glanced at Lin Qingyue. Seeing she had no objection, he straightened his back and cupped his fists to the crowd:
"I appreciate your enthusiasm, everyone. But this Divine Grade dish was not prepared by my hand, but by this honored guest. This old man... has no say in the matter."
Whoosh!
Everyone's gazes focused on Lin Qingyue again.
Only this time, their eyes held no doubt, but a scorching expectation and longing that seemed ready to melt her whole.
Lin Qingyue felt a bit creeped out by the stares, waving her hand: "The pot is right there, Boss Pan, you oversee the distribution."
With authorization granted, Pan Big-Ladle burst with energy, grabbed his big ladle, and roared with boundless spirit: "Those who want a taste, line up! One bowl per person, pay cash or exchange for equivalent ingredients!"
Boom!The chefs erupted in a frenzy, scrambling to form a long line.
A moment later, the backyard echoed with successive gasps of astonishment and sighs of soul-out-of-body satisfaction.
"H... Heaven! What... what is this taste?"
"My Dao! My culinary Dao of decades! So... so it was all wrong all along!"
An old chef held his bowl, tears streaming down his face as he sobbed like a 300-pound child.
"The 'Fusion' I've pursued my entire life was actually achieved in this mixed stew... What have I been researching all this time!"
Slap.
A chef renowned for his exquisite knife skills dropped the bowl in his hand, shattering it completely on the ground after taking the first sip of the soup.
His eyes went blank, his face turned ashen, and he slumped to the ground, muttering to himself:
"No knife skills needed... no knife skills needed at all..."
"Just simple chunks, yet they achieve the most perfect harmony..."
"So, ultimate skill... is to need no skill..."
He fell into a daze, then into folly, endlessly repeating these words.
This terrifying scene, which could be called the "Dao Heart Shattering Technique," unfolded frame by frame in the courtyard.
Some chefs immediately sat cross-legged on the spot, their auras fluctuating, appearing as if they had gained some profound enlightenment.
Other chefs hugged their bowls, laughing and crying, looking utterly mad.
Pan Yue stood outside the crowd, his face turning from red to blue, then to white, until all blood drained from it as he watched this eerie scene that resembled a mass cult preaching session.
He dared not utter another word.
And he dared not step forward to taste a single sip.
He was afraid.
He feared that the culinary faith he had upheld his entire life would also be utterly shattered, like a rotting tree in a storm, before this soup that defied all reason, leaving him a laughingstock.
In the end, he quietly, along with several of his own followers who were equally terrified, crept out of the crowd in disgrace, fleeing miserably from this place that threatened to bring his Dao Heart to ruin.