"He's actually still alive?!"
At the Dark Cooking Society's headquarters, Kaiyu was furious—so furious his teeth ached. In less than a month, the Dark Cooking Society had suffered setback after setback because of Kael.
The incident with the Chen siblings was the first. Everything had been going smoothly, yet no one knew how Kael pulled it off—overnight, the three of them reconciled.
That alone would've been bad enough, but Kael had also taken the Garuda Knife from them, the very object the Dark Cooking Society had been fixated on.
After that, Kaiyu ordered people to move against Kael. Before the command even reached its destination, Kael had already entered Mt. Qingzhao.
Left with no choice, Kaiyu sent people into Mt. Qingzhao to search for the legendary kitchenware. Very few came back alive. To avoid total losses, he sent in large groups at once.
Sending them in one by one was suicide—none would make it out. Groups at least had a chance, even if they were easy targets for the mountain's ferocious beasts. Some would die holding the line so others could escape.
Even then, the Dark Cooking Society lost a significant number of expendables and still failed to find any trace of the Garuda Knife.
In the end, Kaiyu had to call off the search. The losses were simply too great. Even though the Dark Cooking Society could train expendables, it took time. Creating a single one often cost the lives of dozens of candidates—most people simply weren't suitable.
Some were raised from childhood. Others were abducted from nearby villages, brainwashed, and molded into tools.
Now, the villages around Liangshanpo had already been wiped clean. Under those conditions, large-scale training was impossible.
Kaiyu's heart ached over the losses—and now Arman had sent word like this. Meaning all that effort had been pointless from the start.
What chilled him even more was Kael's strength. Word had spread. Facing someone like that head-on was simply impossible.
So many expendables had died in Mt. Qingzhao, yet Kael walked in alone and came out unscathed. There was no way to deal with him through force.
"This is a headache… brute strength won't work at all."
Kaiyu suddenly turned to the woman beside him.
"Shan. Kael is yours to handle. Find a way to get the Garuda Knife from him."
Shan wasn't one of the Five Tiger Stars, but she was easily Kaiyu's greatest asset.
She was selfish to the extreme—but she would never betray him. In the original story, even after Kaiyu's death at the end of the first arc, she still chose to leave with his remains.
The two who stayed by his side until the end were Ensei and Shan.
A woman who would stop at nothing to achieve her goals—her loyalty to Kaiyu was unquestionable.
"Don't worry," Shan said calmly. "Since the Garuda Knife has appeared, it will end up in your hands."
She was brimming with confidence. If brute force didn't work, then she'd use other means.
There were countless ways to control a person.
Blackmail. Assassination. Seduction.
Shan had done it all before.
As long as someone was human, they had desires. They had weaknesses. Find them—and the rest was easy.
After receiving her orders, Shan left. Her loyalty to Kaiyu was absolute. She would carry out his command and do everything possible to see it through.
That was precisely why, even when she failed in the future, Kaiyu would only punish her lightly and say nothing more.
Both the Dark Cooking Society and the Light Culinary World made the same move. Everyone was waiting near Mt. Qingzhao. No one knew how long Kael would stay inside, but the moment he emerged, they'd know.
What they didn't know was that Kael had already returned to the World of Food Wars—and had stayed there for a full month.
After that month, Kael said his goodbyes again, telling Alice and the others that he might be gone for several months.
Alice Nakiri and the rest were reluctant, but they understood. Keeping Kael by their side forever would only hold him back. They wanted him to go further.
So after a month in the World of Food Wars, Kael returned once more to the Cooking Master Boy world, heading back to Master Yuxian's residence to continue training and add new Qi attributes.
According to Master Yuxian, Qi had a carrying limit. Even a Dragon Chef couldn't stack attributes endlessly. Once Kael reached that limit, there'd be no need to keep suppressing his Chef's Heart.
Kael's fundamentals were already flawless. The only reason he hadn't reached the Supreme Dragon Chef level was because he was deliberately holding back the growth of his Chef's Heart.
He needed to remain at the Dragon Chef stage until his Qi attributes were fully saturated.
Kael had no objections. Delaying the growth of his cooking skill for a while didn't matter. What he truly cared about were his Gourmet Cells.
As for cooking itself, adding attributes was growth in its own way. He had plenty of patience.
Two months later, Kael had learned everything Master Yuxian could teach him. The attributes were still increasing, but there was nothing more to be taught.
"Your talent is terrifying," Master Yuxian said. "And you have so many different abilities. Any single one of them could create a top-tier chef. Yet they're all concentrated in you."
Over time, Master Yuxian had learned quite a bit about Kael's abilities. Kael never bothered to hide them—there was no need. He was already unrivaled in this world.
Besides, Master Yuxian rarely left seclusion. Even when he did, he never spoke to others about Kael. Kael had nothing to worry about.
"By the way, Master Yuxian," Kael said, "there's something I've been curious about. Why are there so many ferocious beasts on Mt. Qingzhao? And why is the chance of mutated beasts appearing here so ridiculously high?"
Mt. Qingzhao was abnormal to an extreme degree. Not only were powerful beasts clustered together, but mutated beasts were everywhere.
Outside Mt. Qingzhao, you'd be lucky to find one mutated beast among hundreds of mountains. Here, you could find one every short distance.
"That…" Master Yuxian stroked his beard. "I do know a little. When I first came here, I noticed it as well. The number of mutated beasts was far too high."
"Because I can fly, I explored the mountain thoroughly. At the core of Mt. Qingzhao, I found a cave—but it was extremely dangerous."
"I can move freely on the mountain because I can fly. Inside that cave, that advantage disappears."
"After thinking it over, I chose not to enter. The feeling it gave me was… extreme danger."
"If nothing else, the reason Mt. Qingzhao is so unusual should lie in that cave."
"If you're interested, you could take a look. You might even clear up an old mystery for me."
Kael's interest was piqued.
"So there's a place like that here? Now that's interesting."
The GT Robot's AI captured beasts automatically, but there were likely few beasts near the cave itself. Still, to be safe, Kael chose to scout remotely first.
He'd already practiced remote control before, so the sensation wasn't new.
With his current Gourmet Cell level, he could only bring out part of the GT Robot's power—but it was enough.
Piloting the GT Robot, Kael arrived at the cave Master Yuxian had mentioned.
"No wonder it was missed before. With terrain like this, it's hard to spot."
After a brief look around, Kael entered the cave.
The entrance was extremely narrow. It was obvious why Master Yuxian hadn't dared to go in—an ambush there would've meant instant death.
But that wasn't a problem for Kael.
He passed through the narrow passage quickly. The interior widened, and eventually opened into an enormous cavern.
Despite the pitch darkness, Kael could see everything clearly.
On the ceiling hung massive bats—each at least a meter tall, some over five meters. If an ordinary person entered and made noise, the result was easy to imagine.
Further in, Kael found a swarm of enormous rats. The largest were over three meters long.
Either a unique ecosystem had formed here—or there were other exits to the outside. The entrance he came through certainly wasn't large enough for creatures like these.
Kael wasn't interested in bats or rats. He wanted the source.
As he went deeper, the space widened even more—and he sensed an overwhelming surge of Qi.
It dwarfed even Master Yuxian's Qi, yet it was confined to a limited area. Otherwise, Master Yuxian would've sensed it long ago.
Kael pressed on. The deeper he went, the fewer living creatures there were. They'd all been pushed away by this Qi.
The Qi didn't affect Kael at all. He walked straight through it.
At the deepest part of the cave lay a massive skeleton, half embedded in the rock wall. It stood over ten meters tall.
It looked… familiar.
Since it was only a skeleton—and partially buried—Kael didn't recognize it right away.
Curious, he dug it out. What would've been a massive undertaking for anyone else was trivial for him.
Before long, the skeleton was fully uncovered and reassembled.
"This thing… is this a qilin?"
Kael stared at it in disbelief.
"Does this world really have something like that?"
After a moment's thought, it didn't seem so strange. Qi already pushed this world toward the fantastical. A qilin—or even dragons—wouldn't be that shocking.
Residual Qi still clung to the bones, steadily dispersing outward.
Kael was certain now—this was the source of Mt. Qingzhao's changes.
As he studied the Qi more closely, he sensed its attribute.
Auspiciousness.
Kael froze—then broke into a grin.
Qilin were sacred beasts of good fortune across countless legends.
He didn't expect to become some kind of living auspicious beast himself, but an auspicious Qi attribute? That was bound to be useful.
And he'd been wondering what attribute to add next.
Perfect timing.