Multiverse Gourmet Hunter

Haruto turned and headed out of the square. The outcome had already been decided, so there was no reason for him to stay any longer.

After leaving the competition grounds, he followed the shade beneath the arcades and turned into a narrow alley.

Bougainvillea vines climbed the weathered walls on both sides, while the faint clink of bamboo ladles against porcelain bowls drifted from a nearby herbal tea shop.

After walking for a while, Haruto suddenly stopped.

He turned around and calmly looked toward the seemingly empty end of the alley.

"You’ve been following me for quite a while."

"Aren’t you going to come out?"

The moment his voice fell, three figures emerged from the shadows.

Xiang En walked in front.

Her fitted top and short skirt accentuated her graceful figure, and there was a seductive curve to her eyes, though a trace of caution remained hidden beneath them.

Beside her stood Luo Ke. The mechanical steel claws attached to his right hand gleamed coldly beneath the sunlight, the joints making faint clicking sounds whenever his fingers moved. His face showed his usual undisguised arrogance.

Shao An stood at the back, silent as ever, his single visible eye carrying a gloomy, vicious edge.

"Looks like you’ve made your decision."

Haruto regarded the three of them calmly.

He had already expected the Dark Cooking Society would not simply forget about their previous conversation.

Sure enough, they had come looking for him again.

"That’s right."

Xiang En smiled.

"The three of us will face you in cooking matches, one after another."

"I only hope the Traveling Chef Haruto will show us a little mercy."

As she spoke, Xiang En leaned forward slightly. Her neckline dipped just enough to reveal a hint of cleavage, while her alluring eyes remained fixed on Haruto as though she were flirting with him—or perhaps testing how he would react.

Naturally, she knew about his performance at the Dumpling Contest.

Combined with the long list of famous chefs Haruto had already defeated, Xiang En understood perfectly well that he would not be an easy opponent.

Even so, the higher-ups of the Dark Cooking Society had chosen to accept Haruto’s terms.

And if they could not beat him through cooking alone, they still had other options prepared.

Haruto ignored the look she was giving him.

"If you’ve already decided, then I assume you’ve prepared the venue and an equivalent wager."

"Take me there."

"I don’t have time to waste."

Haruto had considerable confidence in his own strength.

As far as he was concerned, the Dark Cooking Society posed no real threat to him.

A flicker of surprise crossed Xiang En’s eyes, apparently because she had not expected him to agree so readily.

She quickly concealed it and nodded.

"Of course. Everything is ready."

"Please follow us."

With that, Xiang En turned and led the way deeper into the alley.

Luo Ke and Shao An followed on either side behind her.

Haruto did not hesitate for even a moment before going with them.

They crossed street after street and passed through countless alleys. After roughly half an hour, the four finally arrived before a secluded estate.

Its main gate was painted vermilion, with two stone guardian lions standing on either side. Intricate wooden carvings decorated the eaves, making it obvious that this was no ordinary residence.

Beyond the gate was a traditional garden courtyard, complete with artificial rock formations, flowing water, and winding covered walkways.

However, the front courtyard—where stone tables and benches would normally have stood—had been completely transformed into an enormous open-air kitchen.

Cooking stations lined both sides, equipped for firewood and charcoal alike.

Nearby shelves were packed with every imaginable kitchen tool, from ordinary cleavers and woks to unusually shaped specialty knives, clay pots for simmering stock, bamboo steamers, and countless other implements.

Long ingredient racks had also been erected along both sides of the courtyard.

They were overflowing with fresh produce and premium ingredients.

There were local Lingnan specialties such as Qingyuan chicken, coral trout, and Taishan oysters, along with extravagant mountain delicacies including bear paw, deer tendon, and lion’s mane mushrooms.

Everything had been carefully sorted and arranged.

At the center of the courtyard stood a long table made from rosewood.

Three middle-aged men dressed in luxurious brocade robes sat behind it. Every one of them carried himself with the bearing of someone accustomed to power.

Xiang En smiled as she introduced them.

"These three gentlemen are the judges we specially invited for today. They are among the most influential gourmets in Guangzhou."

"This is Lord Xu, who oversees the city’s carriage and transport trade."

"This is Lord Zhao of Fenghe Bank."

"And this is Lord Ma, who controls much of the commercial shipping along the Pearl River."

The three men gave Haruto slight nods, studying him closely.

Each of them wielded considerable influence throughout Guangzhou. A single word from any one of them could affect the direction of major trade routes, and all three had long since grown accustomed to eating the finest delicacies money could buy.

They had agreed to serve as judges mainly because they knew the Dark Cooking Society possessed many extraordinary chefs and hoped to taste dishes capable of surprising even them.

Of course, the recent rise of the name Traveling Chef Haruto throughout Guangzhou had also played a significant part in persuading them to attend.

Haruto glanced at the judges before turning back toward Xiang En.

"Before we begin, I want to inspect the wager."

With a casual turn of his hand, a piece of Jewel Meat appeared in his palm.

Under the sunlight, the meat glowed with a clear, lustrous sheen.

Its evenly distributed marbling sparkled like fragments of crushed diamond.

Then its aroma spread through the courtyard.

Merely smelling it seemed to open every pore in the body, and saliva began gathering uncontrollably in everyone’s mouth.

Every person present immediately locked their eyes onto it.

Luo Ke’s mechanical claws tightened instinctively, producing a harsh series of metallic clicks.

In all his years, he had never seen—nor even heard of—an ingredient like this.

Xiang En finally understood why some people had described the meat as a treasure beyond compare.

Even the usually silent Shao An took half a step forward, naked greed appearing in his eye.

The three well-traveled judges could not remain seated either.

They rose and leaned closer, staring at the Jewel Meat as exclamations escaped their mouths one after another.

"This is my wager."

Haruto’s voice finally pulled everyone back to reality.

"Jewel Meat."

"Now show me yours."

Xiang En forced herself to tear her gaze away and suppress the greed rising inside her.

She reached into a nearby chest and removed four scrolls wrapped in embroidered silk.

One by one, she opened them in front of Haruto.

The first scroll bore four bold characters:

Mighty Bull Blue Dragon Slash.

It was one of the Dark Cooking Society’s legendary supreme knife techniques, capable of perfectly breaking down an entire ox, separating flesh from bone with extraordinary precision while leaving no meat clinging to the skeleton.

Countless chefs dreamed of mastering such a skill.

The second scroll read:

Arhat Crystal Slash.

This technique required the use of the Northern Star Heavenly Wolf Blade. It could slice ingredients so thin and translucent that they resembled crystal, making it an extraordinary technique for sashimi and cold dishes.

The third scroll contained the manufacturing method and usage techniques for the Hundred-Hole Cleaver.

The Hundred-Hole Cleaver was a special kitchen knife developed by the Dark Cooking Society, its blade pierced by more than a hundred tiny openings. Those holes guided airflow while cutting, preventing ingredients from sticking to the metal and allowing the wielder to push knife work to extraordinary levels.

Haruto had heard of all three techniques before, so his expression remained unchanged.

Then Xiang En opened the fourth scroll.

The title written across it made his eyes shift slightly.

Heaven-Reversing Five Elements.

Haruto quickly skimmed the portion of the technique that had been revealed, and understanding flashed through his eyes.

This secret art used specialized cooking methods to reverse the Five Element properties of ingredients.

Ingredients that would normally nourish and complement one another without causing harm could be transformed into combinations whose Five Element properties clashed violently, producing deadly poison.

Haruto immediately thought of one of the Dark Cooking Society’s most infamous forbidden techniques—

Kai Yu’s Demon-Sealing Eight Formations.

The Demon-Sealing Eight Formations manipulated the Five Element properties of food in the opposite direction.

It forcibly combined ingredients that should have been incompatible, using their conflicting properties to produce an extraordinary flavor.

However, the poison created by that incompatibility remained inside the finished dish.

Anyone who ate it could have their mind controlled by the toxins, eventually becoming little more than a puppet.

This Heaven-Reversing Five Elements technique was obviously derived from the same foundation.

It was almost certainly nowhere near as terrifying as the Demon-Sealing Eight Formations, but the ability to manipulate the Five Elements of ingredients and turn harmless combinations poisonous was already sinister enough.

And valuable enough.

More importantly, if Haruto learned the underlying method of manipulating Five Element properties, perhaps he could eventually work backward and deduce the principles behind the Demon-Sealing Eight Formations itself.

That finally sparked genuine interest in him.

Xiang En noticed the change in Haruto’s expression and smiled seductively.

"These four secret techniques are our wager."

"If you can win three matches in a row, all four will belong to you."

She paused.

"However, we have conditions of our own."

"You must face the three of us one after another."

"If you lose even a single match, you lose the entire wager, and that Jewel Meat becomes ours."

"And we will decide the theme of every match."

The expressions of the three judges changed immediately.

One against three.

One loss meant total defeat.

And the opposing side even controlled every competition theme.

The conditions were outrageously unfair.

Luo Ke stood nearby with a disdainful expression.

Truthfully, he had never liked these conditions from the beginning.

As far as he was concerned, he alone was more than enough to defeat Haruto.

There was no need for Xiang En to arrange so many tricks.

If her standing within the Dark Cooking Society had not been far above his own, he would never have agreed to follow her plan.

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