Time flew by. With everyone pitching in, the three-headed python Kael had brought back was finally fully processed.
Thankfully, the place Master Yuxian had chosen to stay included a cave that functioned like a natural cold storage.
On top of that, the meat of these mutant beasts spoiled extremely slowly, so by the time they were done, nothing had gone bad.
For this stretch of time, Kael's diet consisted almost entirely of python meat—and his appetite left everyone completely speechless.
In the world of Cooking Master Boy, there was nothing that could truly threaten him anymore, so Kael didn't bother hiding anything. The result was a group of people staring at him in shock, because his food intake was simply absurd.
A three-headed python that massive—aside from the small portion distributed to the others—was almost entirely eaten by Kael in a single meal.
"Are you really human?" Master Yuxian stared wide-eyed. "I've lived over a hundred years, and I've never seen a human like you."
Even he hadn't expected Kael's appetite to be this terrifying. This was no longer within the bounds of humanity. Who had ever seen someone devour a creature dozens of times heavier than their own body in the time it took to eat a meal?
It wasn't just Master Yuxian. Everyone else felt the same way.
Kael, however, couldn't be bothered to care what they thought. His appetite was simply like this. If he felt like it, he could easily eat several more of these beasts in one sitting.
"No wonder it's a mutant beast," Kael muttered after checking his condition. "The boost to my Gourmet Cells is huge. One more like this, and my cell level should hit Level 8."
Outside the Toriko world, raising Gourmet Cells was incredibly difficult. That was why Kael had become extremely interested in the mutant beasts of Mt. Qingzhao.
From this point on, every mutant beast in the mountain became his prey.
Large-scale capture. Then consumption.
"I'm obviously human," Kael said calmly when he noticed everyone still staring. "I just eat a bit more than normal. You've seen my physical strength—without enough food, this body couldn't function."
Even so, the others kept complaining.
"A bit more? This is way beyond 'a bit'!"
Kael didn't bother explaining further. They'd get used to it eventually.
From then on, aside from studying, Kael went out every day to "hunt."
Though calling it hunting wasn't quite accurate. He was really just collecting ingredients.
After all, he had a GT Robot.
The GT Robot could be manually controlled or run autonomously. Kael set it loose to roam freely, capturing mutant beasts that were worth generations of ordinary ingredients.
With the GT Robot handling the work, Kael didn't need to scour Mt. Qingzhao himself. The robot would capture everything and deposit the prey in a designated area, clearing out all nearby beasts in the process.
Kael simply showed up each day to collect the haul.
Mutant beasts were rare even in Mt. Qingzhao, so capturing them wasn't easy—but at the GT Robot's speed, catching one or two per day was no problem.
The second mutant beast was a gigantic leopard, four to five times the size of a normal one.
It was blindingly fast, extremely aggressive, though its defense was somewhat lacking.
The day the GT Robot captured it, Kael ate the entire beast without hesitation.
After consuming the whole mutant leopard, his Gourmet Cell level finally rose again.
A level-up meant comprehensive improvement—especially to his five senses. Among them, his sense of smell improved the most. Every increase in cell level boosted his smell hundreds, even thousands of times more than his other senses.
Thankfully, this heightened sense of smell could be controlled. Otherwise, Kael would've gone insane from sensory overload.
The reason his smell improved so dramatically was simple: his inheritance came from Toriko. The Red Oni within Toriko possessed a special ability—
The Devil's Sense of Smell.
At advanced stages, this sense could detect scents from a year—or even several years—ago.
More terrifying still, it could extract a person's soul through scent alone, or read memories and information directly from their smell.
Once fully developed, the Devil's Sense of Smell was utterly monstrous.
At this point, aside from smell, Kael's other senses already far surpassed standard Super Senses due to Gourmet Cell reinforcement.
That was why Kael dared say he feared none of the Dark Cooking Society's underhanded tricks. No matter what scheme they tried to pull, there was no way it would escape his Devil's Sense of Smell.
Unfortunately, cell level increases weren't the same as cell activation. Activation brought far greater growth—but in this world, even finding food that could raise Gourmet Cells at all was already a blessing.
In the blink of an eye, Kael had spent over half a month on Mt. Qingzhao. Counting everything, he'd been in this world for nearly a full month.
The gains during this period were enormous.
With Master Yuxian's guidance, Kael successfully fused the Explosive Flame attribute into his qi.
Now, even without actively using Explosive Flame, he could freely manipulate fire. When combined with it, the ability went far beyond releasing high-temperature steam—he could generate flames out of thin air.
The fire in Kael's hands behaved like a tamed pet, obedient and docile.
After merging with qi, the Explosive Flame ability became perfectly refined, allowing effortless control.
That was the true wonder of qi.
Kael could now precisely regulate flame temperature. If not for insufficient qi reserves, he might've even burned ice itself.
"Excellent," Master Yuxian said, watching the flames constantly shifting shape in Kael's palm. "Your talent is terrifying. When I first learned qi, it took me several years just to add the attribute of an egg. You managed it in less than ten days."
Kael's aptitude was absurd—but it made sense.
He wasn't just stacking Kaiyu's talent; he was also stacking Toriko's.
Toriko's cooking talent might've been average, but his combat talent was monstrous—and qi could be used for combat as well. In that regard, Kael had zero doubts.
"Master Yuxian," Kael said after a moment, "I'll be leaving for a while. I'll be back in a month."
He planned to return to the Food Wars world. The one-month cooldown had ended.
He could've stayed longer, but he'd already told everyone he would leave for a month. Since the time was up, he needed to go back—especially since there were people he cared about over there.
As for the lifespan stored in the Garuda Knife, it had already been completely drained. As Kael's qi improved, extracting lifespan became easier and easier.
He'd even begun to glimpse a second attribute: lifespan.
If he could convert qi into a lifespan attribute, the chances of creating Immortal Cuisine would rise significantly.
A few days earlier, Arman had already left. He still needed to serve as a guide elsewhere.
After returning to his post, Arman spread the news that Kael was studying under Master Yuxian.
The reaction was total shock.
Kael had entered Mt. Qingzhao almost immediately—and the legend that entering meant certain death had now been shattered.
Over in the Dark Cooking Society, Kaiyu was furious. He'd sacrificed countless lives just to probe the mountain, only to be told Kael was not only alive, but safely learning under Master Yuxian.
It made him look like a complete fool.
Still, there was nothing he could do. Part of him even felt relieved—Kael still held the legendary kitchenware. As long as Kael lived, there was still a chance to obtain it.
At least it beat blindly throwing lives into Mt. Qingzhao to search for it.
Both the Dark and Light Culinary Worlds came to the same conclusion:
Kael was not someone to provoke lightly.
Anyone who could survive Mt. Qingzhao had to be terrifyingly capable.
And Kael's influence didn't stop there.
With the legend broken, more and more people grew restless, eager to enter Mt. Qingzhao themselves.
Arman saw their expressions and knew exactly what they were thinking. He warned them once—then ignored them.
If they entered the mountain, they'd just be feeding the beasts.
Kael survived because his methods were horrifying. What did these people have?
As expected, over the next few days, several people attempted to enter Mt. Qingzhao from other routes.
None of them came back.
Once again, everyone witnessed how terrifying Mt. Qingzhao truly was. After that, no one dared to try again.
"So?" Arman said with a chuckle when they returned. "Weren't you all eager to go find Master Yuxian? Why are you back?"
"Mr. Arman, you were right," someone said bitterly. "Those paths are impossible. Can you tell us how that Kael managed to enter Mt. Qingzhao and survive?"
Arman shook his head.
"Don't even think about it. What he does can't be copied. That man's strength is more terrifying than the heroes in legends. He suppresses the beasts single-handedly and forces them to flee."
To Kael, beasts that others feared were nothing more than oversized kittens.
Arman himself had eaten plenty of the meat Kael brought back. It was undeniably delicious.
If not for Master Yuxian sending him away to guard the entrance, he wouldn't have wanted to leave at all.
"What? Suppressing the beasts alone? That's impossible."
They shook their heads in disbelief.
Mt. Qingzhao's terrain was too complex. Even an army would be helpless there.
"That's the truth," Arman replied flatly. "Believe it or not—it has nothing to do with me."
Some still doubted. Others began to believe.
After all, anyone who'd been around long enough knew Arman's character. He was warm to those he acknowledged and completely indifferent to those he didn't.
And above all—
Arman never lied.
Soon, both the Light and Dark Culinary Worlds rushed the news back to their headquarters.
And the name Kael spread even further.