With the second match decided, Xiang En slowly descended from the judges’ area and stopped directly in front of Haruto, leaving barely three steps between them.
"You won the second round."
"For the third match, I’ll face you personally."
"And the theme for this round will be—seafood."
As she spoke, Xiang En picked up an ebony knife case from beside her.
With a soft click, the lock sprang open.
She lifted the lid, revealing seven kitchen knives resting neatly against a dark-red velvet lining, each blade gleaming with a cold metallic sheen.
Every knife was different in shape, length, thickness, and curvature.
Aside from the legendary kitchen tools, these seven knives could rightfully be considered the pinnacle of ordinary culinary blades—
The Seven-Star Knives.
Xiang En fitted all seven into a specially designed set of sheaths around her body, and her entire presence immediately sharpened.
Haruto’s gaze lingered on the knives for quite some time.
His eyes passed over each blade, taking in the carefully designed curves and precisely honed edges. He found himself feeling both curious about and somewhat regretful for the blacksmith who had forged them, Luo Xie.
Each of the Seven-Star Knives served a specific purpose. Whether breaking bones, carving intricate shapes, slicing meat, or preserving the freshness of delicate ingredients, each blade had been designed to draw out the maximum potential of whatever it touched.
Unfortunately, Luo Xie, the craftsman capable of forging such an extraordinary set, had already met an untimely death.
Still, as remarkable as the Seven-Star Knives were, they remained several levels below Haruto’s Melk Knife.
Putting the thought aside, Haruto turned his attention toward the ingredients.
Fresh seafood hauled in from the South China Sea still carried the salty scent of seawater.
Large spiny lobsters waved their powerful legs, coral trout flicked their tails inside water tanks, while plump sea urchins, full-bodied abalones, and enormous mud crabs were arranged neatly across beds of ice.
Merely looking at them was enough to imagine the exquisite freshness and sweetness they would deliver.
Xiang En clearly knew exactly what she intended to make.
She barely hesitated before sweeping her eyes across the ingredients and selecting everything she needed within seconds.
Spiny lobster.
Coral trout.
Sea urchin.
Abalone.
Dried scallops.
And several other seafood ingredients meant to deepen the overall umami.
She gathered everything quickly and efficiently, without wasting a single movement.
Haruto, meanwhile, clasped his hands behind his back and leisurely wandered through the ingredient area.
His gaze passed over king crab, snow crab, and large lobsters before finally settling on a basket of sardines tucked into one corner of the ice display.
Their silvery scales gleamed brightly.
Though small, every fish was exceptionally fresh, with vivid red gills and clear eyes, obviously caught only recently.
Looking at the sardines lying neatly in the basket, Haruto suddenly smiled.
An extremely interesting dish had just come to mind.
With his idea settled, he picked up the basket of sardines, then selected some live prawns, a fat mud crab heavy with roe, and several additional ingredients before returning to his cooking station.
By the time Haruto finished choosing his ingredients, Xiang En had already begun displaying the astonishing knife skills for which she was famous.
The first blade she drew was the shortest of the Seven-Star Knives, yet also one of the sharpest—
Tianji · Lucun Knife.
The blade was barely longer than a palm and almost as thin as a cicada wing, its edge sharp enough to seem capable of slicing a falling hair.
Holding a sea urchin in one hand, Xiang En lightly rotated her wrist and removed the top of the shell.
Then the short blade slid precisely along the inner wall.
In the blink of an eye, an entire lobe of plump sea urchin roe came free without the slightest damage and landed intact on a spotless porcelain plate.
Then came the next.
And the next.
Before long, dozens of sea urchins had been completely cleaned.
Xiang En seasoned the roe with soy sauce, a small amount of mirin and white chrysanthemum vinegar, along with a touch of freshly squeezed lime juice, then gently mixed everything together and set it aside to marinate.
This preserved the sea urchin’s creamy natural sweetness while removing any unpleasant oceanic odor, all without using seasonings strong enough to overwhelm its original flavor.
While the sea urchin rested, Xiang En reached into a tank and hauled out a live spiny lobster nearly as long as her arm.
The lobster thrashed violently against the cutting board.
Xiang En’s expression never changed.
With her free hand, she drew the thickest and heaviest of the Seven-Star Knives—
Tianxuan · Jumen Knife.
Her wrist dropped.
The blade came down.
A dull crack sounded.
The lobster’s hard shell split apart instantly.
Yet the flesh beneath remained completely intact and plump, without even the slightest cut. The nerves in the tail had not even finished reacting before it twitched faintly.
Such precise control of force immediately drew exclamations from all three judges.
Before they could fully process what they had seen, Xiang En had already changed knives.
She drew the long, narrow blade with the delicate tip—
Tianshu · Tanlang Knife.
Among the Seven-Star Knives, it was the best suited for intricate carving.
Pinching the blade lightly between her fingers, Xiang En set it against the freshly shelled lobster meat.
Her wrist blurred.
Silver flashes danced across the surface as one translucent slice after another was lifted from the flesh.
Within only a few dozen seconds, she had carved the lobster meat into an exquisitely lifelike flower blooming over a jade-blue sea.
Every petal was thin enough for light to pass through, its edges naturally curved, while the lobster’s own muscle fibers formed delicate veins across the petals.
Resting on the cutting board, it looked as though it might bloom in the wind at any moment.
The craftsmanship was so extraordinary that several people forgot to breathe.
Xiang En carefully transferred the completed lobster flower into a bamboo steamer.
Next, she brought over a coral trout weighing roughly a kilogram.
This time, she selected a long blade with an elegant flowing curve—
Yuheng · Lianzhen Knife.
She held the fish firmly in place and slid the blade precisely into the narrow layer between flesh and skin.
With only a few smooth pushes and pulls of her wrist, the entire skin came away together with the dark membrane beneath it.
The exposed fish flesh left on the cutting board was white as jade and perfectly smooth.
Xiang En immediately switched blades again.
This time, she chose the lightest and thinnest of the seven—
Tianquan · Wenqu Knife.
Her wrist dropped almost parallel to the cutting board.
The blade glided through the fish at a perfectly even pace, without the slightest hesitation.
Slice after slice of coral trout fell neatly onto the plate.
Every piece was exactly the same thickness.
Each was as thin as a cicada wing, translucent enough that the pattern painted beneath the fish on the porcelain plate could be seen clearly through the flesh.
Once the fillets had been removed, Xiang En looked at the remaining fish head and bones.
Then she reached for the largest and most imposing blade of the Seven-Star Knives—
Yaoguang · Pojun Knife.
Nearly two feet long, with a broad back and thick edge, the knife carried an overwhelming sense of raw power.
Xiang En gripped the handle.
Her arm rose and fell.
The hard fish bones split beneath the blade as easily as tofu, chopped into perfectly even sections while exposing the marrow deep inside.
The chopped bones went straight into a pot of boiling water along with ginger slices, scallion sections, and a small amount of white pepper.
She kept the fire high.
Before long, the broth transformed from clear to a rich milky white as a deep seafood aroma gradually filled the courtyard.
Finally, Xiang En drew a balanced, medium-sized knife neither too heavy nor too light—
Kaiyang · Wuqu Knife.
This blade was ideal for slicing.
Within moments, she had cut the abalone and dried scallops into perfectly uniform thin pieces and added them to the simmering fish-bone broth.
Only then did Xiang En lower the heat and allow everything to simmer gently, letting the flavors of the seafood slowly melt into the soup.
Throughout the entire process, all seven Seven-Star Knives had appeared one after another in Xiang En’s hands.
She switched between them with effortless fluency, never pausing or fumbling even once.
Silver blade light flickered across the cutting board so quickly that only afterimages remained.
Every crisp, rhythmic sound of steel meeting ingredient seemed to strike directly against the hearts of those watching.
Even the three judges, all men accustomed to grand displays and rare talents, leaned forward in their seats with expressions of complete astonishment.
Haruto had already returned to his cooking station with his ingredients, but even he stopped what he was doing.
He folded his arms and watched Xiang En’s performance with genuine interest.
He had to admit it.
For Xiang En to establish herself in the Dark Cooking Society, where talented chefs were everywhere, and even earn the reputation of being its finest female knife specialist, her actual ability was unquestionably the real thing.
Her mastery of the Seven-Star Knives, her understanding of every blade’s individual characteristics, and the sheer depth of her knife technique were all at the very highest level of the culinary world.
It was simply a shame that instead of relying on her cooking skills to win fairly, Xiang En preferred resorting to underhanded tricks and schemes.
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