Volume One, Chapter 16: A Spoonful of Mapo Tofu, Collapsing the Chaos for Three Thousand Miles

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“Excellent.” Uncle Fu nodded, informing the God of Cooking of both dish names, along with his own “epiphany.”

When the God of Cooking heard him, his entire body began to tremble. It was not fear, but the ultimate excitement of a chef who had just heard the supreme recipes he had pursued all his life.

“Numbing spicy tofu… tomato scrambled eggs…” he murmured repeatedly, the flames in his eyes burning ever brighter. “So that is how it is! So that is how it is! This is the ultimate form of cooking! This is the origin of flavor! I understand! I understand completely!”

He suddenly raised his head and looked toward Uncle Fu. His voice rang out with the force of clashing metal and stone.

“Please convey this message to the First Ancestor! Today, I, Chef Ding, am willing to use my path and my life to prepare these ‘Twin Wonders of Creation’ for the honored lord!”

Ye Qingxian and Ji Ruxue stood to one side, watching this utterly astonishing scene and listening to a conversation that sounded like a heavenly scripture. They felt as though their very existence had become unreal.

So… this was the Gu family kitchen?

So… this was what the Young Master called “home cooking”?

Ji Ruxue suddenly recalled how, back when she was still in the Jade Lake Sacred Land, she had once gone to war with another sacred land over a ten-thousand-year-old holy medicine. Several elders had perished in the conflict. Yet here, a ten-thousand-year-old holy medicine probably did not even qualify to serve as a scallion.

How pitiful—and how utterly… laughable.

The corner of her mouth curled involuntarily into a smile of the utmost bitterness.

Chef Ding, the God of Cooking.

That name had long since vanished from the river of memory spanning the myriad heavens and worlds. Yet in an incomparably ancient era, he had been the Gu family’s exclusive chef. His path was the “Way of Cuisine.” He had once used galaxies as soup, worlds as cauldrons, and prepared a “Feast of the Myriad Worlds” for the ancestors of the Gu family.

But after the First Ancestor fell into slumber and the Gu family entered guardian mode, he too had faded into silence. Within this “Kitchen of Creation,” he had slept for countless ages.

Now, he had been awakened.

Not for some grand feast, but for a serving of “home cooking.”

And yet this filled him with an honor and trembling unlike anything he had ever known.

“Uncle Fu, fetch me the ‘ingredients’!” Chef Ding’s voice boomed, carrying the grim resolve of one about to march onto a battlefield.

Uncle Fu nodded solemnly. He knew that the “ingredients” Chef Ding spoke of were the forbidden materials sealed away in the deepest reaches of the “Kitchen of Creation.”

He extended his withered hand and lightly slashed through the void.

Rrrip!

Space split open like a scroll, revealing an even deeper and more chaotic region of primordial chaos beyond. Countless beings radiating terrifying auras were imprisoned there.

“For the First Ancestor’s ‘tofu,’ we require something square in form, soft in substance, and containing laws within,” Uncle Fu said slowly. His gaze swept across the chaotic region before finally settling on a cube floating in silence, glowing with a ghastly pale light.

The cube was roughly ten feet on each side. Its surface was smooth as a mirror, yet it radiated an annihilating aura that froze the souls of Ji Ruxue and Ye Qingxian. At its core, it seemed as though an supreme demon god lay sleeping. Every breath it took caused the surrounding currents of chaos to vanish.

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“That… that is… the Origin Dao Bone of the Annihilation Demon Lord, ranked third on the Chaos Demon God List!” Ye Qingxian cried out involuntarily, then hurriedly covered her mouth.

She had once encountered a few scattered words about this object in an ancient sword cultivation scripture. Legend held that it was the essence formed from all the laws and principles of a demon god who had governed the Great Dao of Annihilation and perished at the dawn of primordial chaos. It was indestructible and impervious to every technique. Even an existence at the level of an Dao Ancestor could not damage it in the slightest.

And now… it was going to be used as tofu?

“Indeed. This is the one.” Uncle Fu nodded and reached through the air toward the Dao Bone.

Bzzz—

The Dao Bone of the Annihilation Demon Lord shook violently, erupting with terrifying annihilation light as though resisting. The will contained within it refused to let itself become an ingredient.

Chef Ding gave a cold snort. His black iron wok abruptly soared into the air, turned upside down, and descended over the Dao Bone with crushing force.

Clang!

The tremendous impact sounded as though billions upon billions of universes had collided at once. The annihilation light was swallowed whole by the iron wok, and the proud, unyielding Dao Bone instantly became docile beneath its suppression, slowly settling onto the chopping board before Chef Ding.

“With the ‘tofu’ secured, we still need the ‘spicy seasoning.’” Chef Ding turned his gaze toward the rift Uncle Fu had torn through space.

Understanding at once, Uncle Fu reached in again. This time, he fished a beating heart from a roiling sea of blood-red magma.

The heart was a deep crimson, covered in countless twisted runes. With every beat, it seemed as though an entire age were crying out in anguish.

“This is the ‘Source of Chaos,’ formed from the heart of an evil god who called herself the Mother of Grievances three thousand ages ago,” Uncle Fu explained. “Its nature is the fiercest, and its flavor the most numbing.”

“Excellent!” A brilliant light surged into Chef Ding’s eyes. He extended a finger and lightly tapped the heart.

Pfft.

The heart shattered at once, transforming into billions of dark-red points of light. Like chili powder, they scattered evenly over the slab of “tofu.”

But that was not all.

“Oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar—none may be omitted.”

Chef Ding’s voice was deep and commanding.

Uncle Fu raised his hand, and four drops of differently colored liquid flew out from the River of Time.

One drop was golden: the essence of fire refined from the True Solar Flame, serving as the “oil.”

One drop was white: ten-thousand-year frost crystal condensed within the Lunar Star Core, serving as the “salt.”

One drop was black: a strand of primordial ink-qi drawn from the Eye of the Ruins, serving as the “sauce.”

One drop was azure: a dewdrop that had fallen when the World Tree was first born, serving as the “vinegar.”

Every one of these ingredients was enough to make supreme beings and Dao Ancestors throughout the outside world fight until their heads bled. Yet here, they were merely the most basic seasonings.

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“Heat the wok and add the oil!”

Chef Ding shouted.

He set the black iron wok over the “Flame of Creation” and poured in the oil of “True Solar Flame.” In an instant, the temperature throughout the entire “Kitchen of Creation” universe soared, as though ten thousand suns had risen into the heavens.

Wielding a spatula forged from the “Marks of the Great Dao,” he placed the tofu made from the Annihilation Demon Lord’s Dao Bone, together with the “spicy seasoning” made from the Mother of Grievances’ heart, into the wok.

Sizzle—

The collision between spatula and iron wok produced not the sound of metal, but the thunderous roar of laws.

Chef Ding began tossing the wok.

His movements were as fluid as flowing clouds and running water, imbued with an indescribable Dao rhythm.

At the first toss, it seemed as though primordial chaos had just opened, with earth, fire, water, and wind surging together.

At the second, yin and yang divided, while the pure and turbid energies began to circulate.

At the third, the five elements arose, and the myriad things first took shape.

…

Ye Qingxian and Ji Ruxue were already completely spellbound.

This was no mere cooking. It was clearly the evolution of an entire universe!

The indestructible “tofu” was tossed into countless evenly sized pieces within the wok. Each one was crystalline, flawless, and perfect. The “spicy seasoning” melted flawlessly into every piece, creating a striking contrast of red and white.

With Chef Ding’s final toss—

Bzzz!

An indescribable fragrance exploded from the wok.

The fragrance was overwhelmingly powerful. It burst directly out of the “Kitchen of Creation,” out of the Gu family estate, and instantly spread across the entire Mortal Domain. At an astonishing speed, it continued expanding toward the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, spreading throughout the myriad heavens and worlds.

Across the Mortal Domain, countless mortals caught the scent and immediately felt refreshed and invigorated. Every illness vanished, and they gained a hundred years of life out of nowhere.

Throughout the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, countless cultivators in secluded meditation smelled the fragrance, and their bottlenecks loosened of their own accord. Their cultivation broke through on the spot. Some ancient monsters who had been trapped in the Sage Realm for countless years stepped directly into the Supreme Realm, summoning rolling tribulations from the heavens.

Yet the moment those heavenly tribulations had gathered, they caught the fragrance and quietly dispersed on their own, as though they dared not act recklessly before such a flavor.

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