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Part 1: Entry Into the Forbidden Menu
Wei Yun stood before a celestial rift shaped like a giant cookbook, bound in dragonhide and seasoned with time. The golden letters across its cover shimmered with divine authority:
> "Divine Cookbook Realm: Contents May Cause Instant Enlightenment or Indigestion."
Pan-Pan peeked inside. "Smells like heaven… and curry."
System chimed in:
> [Warning: The Divine Cookbook Realm is a sentient plane created by the Heavenly Chef Dao itself. Recipes may hunt intruders. Survival rate: 1.3%.]
Mu Yao cracked her knuckles. "So… just another Tuesday, then?"
With a synchronized leap—and a slap of courage—our culinary cultivators plunged into the rift.
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Part 2: The First Trial – Appetizers of Annihilation
They landed in a gigantic floating kitchen where the utensils were as tall as buildings and the ovens burned with sunfire.
Immediately, they were ambushed by…
Sentient Spring Rolls.
Dozens of crispy demons launched themselves at the party like tasty torpedoes.
"Dodge!" Wei Yun shouted, slicing one mid-air.
CRUNCH.
Tang Zhi examined it. "These are made from… cursed shrimp?"
Pan-Pan: "MY PEOPLE!"
System popped up:
> [Sub-Quest Activated: Defeat the Seven Courses of Cataclysm.]
Trial 1: Appetizers of Annihilation
Trial 2: Salad of Secrets
Trial 3: Main Course Mayhem
Trial 4: The Soup of Sorrows
Trial 5: Dessert of the Damned
Trial 6: Forbidden Tasting Menu
Trial 7: The Final Bill (No One Escapes the Tip)
Wei Yun: "Alright team. Let's fight our way through this menu before it eats us."
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Part 3: The Salad of Secrets – Lettuce Not Speak of This Again
After surviving the spring roll siege, the team entered a mystical glade made entirely of leafy greens.
A giant floating Kale Wyrm slithered before them.
"You must face… your most shameful culinary memory," it hissed, coiled in a Caesar dressing whirlpool.
One by one, illusions formed:
Tang Zhi relived the time she mistook sugar for salt in her dad's birthday noodles.
Mu Yao accidentally cooked her master's prized spiritual pheasant—twice.
Pan-Pan… confessed to eating his own cultivation partner in a hotpot dream.
Wei Yun's illusion showed a humble scene: him, back on Earth, burning instant noodles and crying.
He stepped forward.
"I own that shame. But now I burn dragons instead of pots."
He slashed the Kale Wyrm with a cleaver infused with culinary pride.
The glade dissolved, revealing an ancient stove bearing a single word: COURAGE.
System:
> [Trial 2 Complete – Moral Fiber Strengthened.]
Pan-Pan: "I'm still haunted by the tofu incident…"
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Part 4: Main Course Mayhem – The Entree That Fights Back
They entered a realm that looked like a battlefield made of sizzling griddles and sauce volcanoes.
Suddenly, the Main Course Golem emerged—a monstrous fusion of steak, noodles, roasted beasts, and ambition.
It roared:
"WHO DARES ATTEMPT THE DIVINE ENTREE WITHOUT MARINATING THEIR SOUL?!"
Mu Yao charged, slicing through meat tendons with her dual chopsticks of destruction.
Tang Zhi launched Herbal Bombs that exploded with fragrant blasts of phoenix pepper.
Pan-Pan… bit the golem. "Needs more cumin."
Wei Yun activated a forbidden seasoning scroll:
> "Salt of the Eternal Flame" – extracted from a fire elemental's tears.
He tossed it into the beast's gullet.
BOOM.
The Main Course Golem exploded into a rain of delicious debris. Victory sauce fell from the sky.
System:
> [Trial 3 Complete – Culinary Carnage Registered.]
[You've gained: Entree Badge of Mastery +5 Spoon Points.]
Pan-Pan caught a falling meatball and declared, "This is my heaven."
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Part 5: Soup of Sorrows – Where Broth Reveals Truth
The team waded through a lake of shimmering consommé.
Each sip revealed a hidden sorrow.
Tang Zhi saw herself abandoned by her sect for using "uncultured" street spices.
Mu Yao remembered her father's last words: "Never burn garlic, child."
Pan-Pan saw… nothing. "I have no regrets. Only cravings."
Wei Yun approached the central cauldron, The Broth of Infinite Truth.
He drank.
Images flooded in—his Earth life, cold apartments, instant meals, forgotten birthdays. A life of emptiness.
He knelt, eyes shut.
Then he stood up.
"I didn't have flavor back then. Now, I have it in excess."
The broth accepted him.
From the soup emerged a ladle—The Stirring Staff of the Soup Sage.
System:
> [Trial 4 Complete. Emotional Ingredients Acquired.]
Mu Yao wiped a tear. "Let's move on before I get soggy."
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To Be Continued in Chapter 24: