Once Upon A Time, There Was A Spirit Sword Mountain - Chapter 651

Chapter 651: The Competition Has Entered the Metaphysical Field

Translator: AL_Squad  Editor: Chrissy

“H-How is this supposed to work?”
It was only a tea time after the food competition began that Aya already fell into confusion.
She had never heard of this kind of competition. She had to find some deliberate flaws left by
the chefs from the dishes and win the competition by accumulating five hundred points.
The rules were not hard to understand. The difficult thing was about, what role could she play in
this kind of competition?
When it came to culinary judgment, she already had quite an extensive experience. In his stay
in Nine Regions for many years, out of hobbies, she had tasted a lot of food… thus, it was not
wrong to say that she was a food expert.
However, the opponent was the ‘Food Immortal’.
In a cup of tea’s time, the other side had already got eight points in succession. Most of the
food, as long as they passed through his mouth, he could immediately tell even their slightest
defect accurately.
“Well, previously, this shiitake mushroom hasn’t been soaked enough. Though it doesn’t affect
the taste much, it is ultimately defective. In addition, the water quality of this soup is not up to
standard, is it deliberately mixed with well water? It’s not actually that much, just a spoonful.”
Wang Lu nodded. “Food Immortal, you get another point.”
Hearing Wang Lu’s score announcement, Aya was even more at a loss.
Could such defects be picked out? He was indeed worthy to be an ancient Food Immortal! If it’s
me…
Aya looked down at the char-fried meat on the plate. A third of the dish had been eaten, but she
still couldn’t tell where the flaw was.
The taste seemed to be a bit heavier and the meat seemed to be fried a bit longer, but to say
conclusively without a doubt that these were the defects, Aya actually didn’t dare to say it.
Because it was the best char-fried meat that she had ever tasted. Better than any experience
she’d ever had in Nine Regions. By rougher standards, it was perfect, so how could there be
flaws.
While he was hesitating, the Food Immortal had completed the tenth appraisal. And after
reporting the defect, the Food Immortal turned to look at Aya and then asked, “Are you really
sure you want to choose her as my opponent? She doesn’t even know how to judge food, this
kind of useless person would only reduce this old man’s appetite.”
Then, ignoring Aya, whose cheeks were already flushed with anger, Food Immortal said to
Wang Lu, “I think it’s better for you to personally come out and compete with me.”
Wang Lu laughed and said, “Me?”
The Food Immortal pointed at Wang Lu with his greasy finger. “I heard that you are a person
with versatile talent, you have good attainment in anything. Moreover, in the past month, we
have won many battles and took many victories. As the Chief Planner of the Union of Ten
Thousand Immortals, you have always been silent all the time. Yet, today you suddenly appear,
so presumably, you want to win a game to reverse the unfavorable situation of the Union of Ten
Thousand Immortals. Thus, in this battle, you have to win and must not lose, and therefore, you
ought to have an assurance to win! And this assurance couldn’t possibly be her, right?”
With that, he took a sip of tea and laughed again. “Moreover, how could you let a beautiful
young girl lose face on the field while you just watch by the side?”
When Wang Lu heard this, he could not help but sigh. “Senior Food Immortal, it seems that your
big mouth is not only good at eating, but also good at provoking. Yes, if possible, of course, I
want to personally come forward to grasp the victory myself, pinning the hope of everyone as
well as mine on myself. And I did have a lot of experience in food tasting. Unfortunately,
because of not enough effort, I realized that I could never compete with the expert in this. Food
tasting requires talent, to love the food from the soul, not just the taste and the smell. If it’s a
competition in theory, especially after training, I am confident that I could compete with anyone.
But what is the use of pure theory? True masters could surpass my learning just by intuition, not
to mention the world-class masters who interpret the dining table as a battlefield.”
The Food Immortal merely let out a laugh. Wang Lu’s unwillingness to fight was as expected.
His invitation to Wang Lu a moment ago was just to shake Aya’s confidence.
However, very quickly the Food Immortal frowned.
Because on the opposite table, Aya revealed a look of someone who suddenly had an
enlightenment. She said, “The meat is added a bit more salt, and the beef type is deliberately
chosen wrong, which results in a slight deviation of the meat quality!”
Wang Lu nodded. “One point for Aya.”
At this time, the Food Immortal suddenly realized what happened and scolded himself for being
muddled. Why would he want to provoke Wang Lu if everything was going well for him?
Wang Lu’s remark just now sounded like an excuse for not coming forward, but in fact, he was
signaling Aya, telling her the correct way to judge food!
Although he didn’t know why they didn’t make this preparation before the match, one the match
started, Wang Lu could not interfere with the match for any reason. And it was also forbidden for
Wang Lu to warn… However, just now, he took the initiative to talk to Wang Lu, so Wang Lu
immediately took the opportunity of talking, to tell Aya the key to the match!
However… that Western Continent girl did indeed have some abilities. It could be seen that she
had no experience in tasting food and was only interested in food itself. She was very young in
both knowledge and means. But… it was not easy to recognize the flaws of the Chared-Fried
Meat. The salt was just a cover, the real difficulty lied in the meat quality identification! The extra
salt was just to obscure some of the meat’s taste, making it difficult to tell if the chef actually
chose another kind of beef.
It could be said that this was a trap carefully designed by the chef. Even he, the Food Immortal
took a bit of time to find the details of the dish, after smelling the scent and then restored the full
flavor of the dish with the common sense of immortal method. For an average foodie, this was
already a very difficult problem
And was Aya’s ability to successfully advance through such difficulties a talent? Or…
While he was still astonished, Aya had successfully told the flaws of two dishes in succession.
“That was fast!”
After Wang Lu’s instruction, Aya seemed to have been awakened and quickly completed the
tasting of all kinds of delicacies in a completely incomprehensible way. It was as fast and as
accurate as the Food Immortal. Any food only needed to be touched by the tip of the tongue and
the pros and cons of the food became clear and plain. The Food Immortal cast a glance at it
and immediately became dazed.
Because it was totally unreasonable! She did touch them with her tongue, but it was in the
wrong place! For example, just now that Fire Turtle dish, whose flavor essence was at the
bottom tip of the center. Once they tasted that point, they could have a comprehensive
understanding of the whole dish. However, what Aya tasted was in its opposite direction!
And then she gave the right answer: A negligible seasoning was deliberately misplaced during
the seasoning.
Someone cheated!
This was the first reaction of the Food Immortal because such a scene was beyond his
understanding… Of course, instead of using the opposite direction, he could see the problem
without even using his tongue, but he was the Food Immortal, what of Aya then?
Nevertheless, the cheating accusation did not come out because he was the Food Immortal.
Not only he was the number one foodie in the world, but his cultivation base was also
world-shaking. From the beginning until the end, he could not see where the two people could
have cheated at and thus could not open his mouth to criticize them.
However, a moment later, a more horrific scene appeared.
In order to make up for the nearly ten points gap in the previous period, Aya began to speed up
her food tasting. She reached out with chopsticks and picked up a fried eggplant, and then…
shook it in front of her mouth and before her tongue could reach out to taste it, she threw it
aside and eagerly said the answer, “The oil used is wrong!”
Wang Lu immediately nodded. “A score for Aya.”
The Food Immortal slapped the table and stood up in anger.
However, the moment he stood up, he suddenly found something.
Aya’s concentration was extraordinary.
Although her action seemed a bit hasty, but from the beginning until the end, the girl’s eyes
shone, her breathing was steady, and her focused stance was similar to as if she was facing an
opponent worthy of her vigorous effort.
If this was cheating, her acting skill was a bit too realistic. However, after all, the Dao of good
food ultimately needed skill and experience, so how could she possibly do it just by relying on
concentration alone? Except…
Suddenly, the Earth Immortal thought of a possibility.
Could it be that she was just guessing?
A talented warrior could see the future direction of the fight from the complex environment in
battle, almost as if it was a foreknowledge. And Aya’s posture at this time was more like a
warrior than a foodie!
Thus, she could tell a good dish from a bad one without using her tongue? In theory, it seemed
to make sense, but, was there really such a thing?
While he was still in shocked, the Food Immortal found out that the gap between him and the
other side was only five points.
Ah well, now is not the time to pay attention to the other side. Since she has the ability to
compete with me, then… I need to be a bit more serious.
When the Food Immortal got serious, his food tasting speed was incredibly fast, which
immediately threw off Aya again.
Soon, the first batch of thirty dishes in front of the Food Immortal had already been tasted by
him. At this time, from the nearby kitchen, a dozen chefs brought out thirty new dishes. Food
Immortal smoothly identified the flaws of the first fifteen dishes. However, when it came to the
sixteenth dish, sliced fish with vinegar, Wang Lu shook his head. “Unfortunately, you could not
score a point.”
The Food Immortal was stunned, could not score?
According to the rules, there were many flaws in a dish. If one could not mention all the flaws,
one would not get the score. This meant that the Food Immortal had yet to find all the flaws.
Was it because after tasting more than forty dishes in succession, his taste bud became numb?
Or…
Did the difficulty began to imperceptibly rise?
As the Food Immortal, the resilience of his Earth Immortal’s body was far from that of a normal
human being. Even the most stimulating dishes could not numb his foodie’s tongue. The only
problem was that the difficulty had been raised, and it was no longer possible to identify the
flaws easily.
Thereupon, the Food Immortal immediately picked another piece of fish and tasted it. Suddenly,
there was something else in his heart.
In terms of taste, he did not intend to change his own answer. But, outside the taste…
“The chef who cooked this dish was in a gloomy mood and thus contaminated the dish with it.”
Wang Lu laughed. “You are indeed the Food Immortal, that is indeed correct. The wife of the
chef who cooked the dish had just died a few days ago. Unfortunately, you could no longer get
the score for this dish. Please start tasting the next dish.”
The Food Immortal nodded and then sighed internally.
My goodness, this foodie’s challenge was indeed interesting. The difficulty kept increasing and
gradually entered an unthinkable situation. After tasting more than forty dishes, he was asked to
guess the psychological health of the chef! If this thing continued, when it came to the four
hundredth dish, would it involve the failure of the eighteenth generation ancestor of the chef?
However, the more of that happened, the more interesting the competition would be.
The Food Immortal looked at Aya on the opposite table and his competitive spirit was furiously
ignited.