Chapter 87: Chapter 87: The Secret Object
Translator: 549690339
“Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Dongxia Arena!”
“Today is the final day of the Dongxia City Cooking Competition. After two ranking competitions, the final ranking of the top four in this competition will be determined.”
“Will contestant Tang Xie or Zhu Ming become the third place?”
“Will contestant Qin Lang or Lei Ke become the champion?”
“Let’s wait and see!”
“The first competition to be held is between Tang Xie and Zhu Ming. Their competition involves a limited ingredient value of two thousand yuan!”
“Let’s welcome the two contestants to the stage with a round of applause!”
Already poised to set forth from the players’ spectator stands, Tang Xie and Zhu Ming rose and, amidst roaring applause and cheers, walked through the player passage to the stage.
Lei Ke crossed his arms and watched the departing figures, then turned his gaze to Qin Lang at his side with a slight lift of his brows.
What’s up with this guy…?
Sitting on the other side of the spectator seats, Qin Lang’s expression bore an aura of desolation.
If one looked closely, they could spot the dark circles under his eyes, and his eyes were somewhat bloodshot.
Even Dan Bao, his spirit, was unlike its usual, full of vigor – instead lounging on Qin Lang’s head with his tail drooping, a tiny, confused yolk-filled head.
Master and spirit, both were puzzled by one question.
Why hadn’t the second Food Spirit been born after trying tens of dishes last night?
This is unscientific!
After becoming a Spirit Chef, Qin Lang had learned quite a bit of knowledge through various channels.
There were three prerequisites for a Spirit Chef to birth a Food Spirit.
First, the Spirit Chef needs an unoccupied Star Vein.
Second, the Flavor Value of the Spirit Chef’s cooked dishes must reach 60 points.
Third, the Spirit Chef needs to invest Consciousness and Spirit into the cooking process.
For the first condition, he, who had just opened the Tianxuan Star Vein, naturally met the requirement.
For the second condition, 60 points was not a problem for him, considering his knowledge of Flavor Value.
So, the only reason he could not birth a Food Spirit was because he didn’t invest enough Consciousness and Spirit.
However, this was even harder for him to understand.
Last night, in cooking every dish, Qin Lang was fully engaged and even maintained strict focus on the stove during the waiting time, leading to his lack of energy today.
If such focus does not count as investing Consciousness and Spirit, what does?
He also tried recalling the process of Dan Bao’s birth.
At that time, he was frying egg fried rice, and due to the repetitive nature of the task, his mind wandered a bit.
That was when Dan Bao was born.
Could it be that too much focus actually prevents a Food Spirit from forming, and that he should let his mind wander a bit?
Thoughts floating in his head, he played out one scenario after another— but all ended in failure.
If dedication yielded nothing, distraction was even less likely to succeed.
By the end of the night, Qin Lang was completely deflated.
It was said that for other Spirit Chefs, the difficulty lies in the Flavor Value when it comes to birthing a Food Spirit.
Why was it different for him?
“Snap out of it, Qin Lang!”
A shout jerked him back to his senses.
Looking in the direction of the call, he saw it came from a stranger seated nearby.
Seeing Qin Lang turn toward him, the man enthusiastically waved an arm, “You must become the champion!”
A supporter of mine?
Qin Lang nodded in gratitude to the man and sat up straight.
He shook off his fatigue to regain focus.
He couldn’t birth a Food Spirit in one night? No matter, he could figure out that problem later.
But the city-level cooking competition had gone this far and it had not been easy at all.
He needed to come to his senses and face the coming competition in the best state possible.
“Dan Bao, let’s win this final round together!”
“Gulu!”
Softly voicing his resolve, Qin Lang rekindled his fighting spirit, his words rousing a spark in Dan Bao as well. Dan Bao rubbed against his hair, and nodded repeatedly with her small head.
As this was the final day of the competition, the organizers had arranged even more lavish pre-game performances than before. After a series of performances, Tang Xie and Zhu Ming stepped out of the kitchen one after another.
Clearly, both participants were pulling out all the stops for this final competition.
Tang Xie presented his Golden Silk Mockingbird dish once again.
There was no rule against presenting the same dish twice, and the price of the Purple Crown Chicken met the criteria for the limited ingredient value, so Tang Xie didn’t need to put in a lot of preparation to present this dish. After all, he had prepared it in the previous round against Qin Lang.
This was his specialty dish after all.
Zhu Ming, on the other hand, showed no signs of backing down either.
As if anticipating that Tang Xie would present the Golden Silk Mockingbird, Zhu Ming presented a dish which was no less amazing: “Brocade Cloud Embroidery”. Its exquisite appearance elicited constant gasps of astonishment from the audience.
When it came to the vote by the Food Recommenders, there was a close tie in votes for both of them, and neither could pull ahead.
This time, Ms. Zhang Ting cast the decisive vote in favor of Tang Xie.
Zhu Ming was narrowly defeated and placed fourth.
Tang Xie narrowly won, securing third place.
When the two competitors returned to their seats, the audience erupted again, filling the entire arena with applause and cheers.
This roar of applause was crystal clear, the names “Qin Lang” and “Lei Ke” could be distinctly heard. It was from the tens of thousands of their supporters in the audience.
“The next event to be held is the final round of the Dongxia City Cooking Competition!” the host said in his loudest voice, “Yesterday, both contestants drew a Rare Theme: On-the-spot performance!”
“In accordance with the rules of the theme, both contestants will draw a secondary theme from a fixed pool!”
“Once the drawing is complete, the competition will start immediately.”
“Please note that because this theme is special, the time contestants use to choose and collect ingredients will be included in the three-hour cooking time!”
“There is an Association Certified Ingredient Market next to the arena, and contestants can leave the arena to choose ingredients, but if you need ingredients that are not for sale or other items necessary for cooking, you will need to figure that out on your own.”
“And now…”
“Let’s welcome contestants Qin Lang and Lei Ke to the stage with our warmest applause!”
Upon hearing the host’s words, Qin Lang, who had adjusted his state to its peak, picked up a backpack, put it on, and walked onto the player passage.
Yesterday, Qin Lang did not prepare much for today’s competition.
But he did not come empty-handed either.
During his attempts to birth the second Food Spirit, he took the time to study the corresponding rules of the Rare Theme: On-the-spot performance, and briefly looked through the accompanying fixed theme pool.
In his backpack were various homemade sauces.
Other than these, all other cooking necessities could be bought. He would leave it to the ingredient market.
Hmm?
Lei Ke’s gaze fixed on the backpack behind Qin Lang. Hearing the faint sound of jars and bottles clinking within, he narrowed his eyes.
Secret condiments or something?
No wonder you’re a contender worthy of my acknowledgement, Lei Ke, you’ve got such a secret weapon.
It’s a coincidence, I have one too!
Rummaging underneath his chair, he pulled out a suitcase and, with a long stride, trailed after Qin Lang towards the player passage.
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