Having obtained the fourth dish, Mu Yanxi was still quite motivated.
Furthermore, she now had at least three dishes and was certain she wasn’t too far from her goal.
But the opponents behind her would only get stronger. However, Mu Yanxi had successfully won the second round and advanced to the top sixteen, feeling that hope was right before her eyes.
When the other judges had already moved on to the next stall, Mo Lao’s telepathy suddenly rang in Mu Yanxi’s mind.
“Mu girl, are you imitating the opponent’s cooking?”
Mu Yanxi was startled and looked at Mo Lao. He was tasting another contestant’s dish, and then his voice rang in her mind again.
“Don’t look. I’m just asking whether you are or not.”
“How did you know?” Mu Yanxi’s counter-question was already an admission. She had no choice—her Heart of Dao didn’t allow her to lie.
“The crispy skin sauce for roast duck you used has exactly the same ingredients as the opponent’s. It contains some very obscure spices that should be Du kid’s personal recipe, not at all conventional roast duck seasoning,” Mo Lao said.
“Then there’s the duck blood soup. Du kid made it to cut the grease—his eight treasures duck really does have too many mixed flavors and needs that. But your medicinal herb duck is already on the lighter side.”
“If you drink the duck blood soup first, you won’t be able to taste the duck, only the medicine. So you shouldn’t have made that soup. What’s more, even the method and ingredients of the duck blood soup are exactly the same.”
Mu Yanxi had no reply.
Later, while roasting the duck, she had been quite idle and casually made a portion of the duck blood soup she had learned through simulated learning, without changing the ingredients. She hadn’t expected Mo Lao to notice it like this.
“Actually, in the first round, the wonton you made was already a modification based on direct copying. But the changes were so many that I thought it was just a coincidence in thinking.”
“However, with the roast duck in the second round, the similarities in these details made me basically certain. You’re modifying based on copying,” Mo Lao transmitted again.
“You discovered I was copying and still chose to let me win?” Mu Yanxi asked in confusion through telepathy.
Du Dacchu had two judges supporting him. If Mo Lao had also supported him, maybe another judge would have thought Du Dacchu’s dish was good. Then she would have been eliminated three to four.
“I can’t go against my conscience in scoring. It’s a fact that Du kid’s dish had no primary or secondary flavors and was a mess of tastes.”
“It’s also truly impressive that you changed the eight treasures into medicinal eight treasures. So I gave a fair evaluation. But I hope you won’t use this plagiarize-and-modify approach in the following rounds,” Mo Lao advised.
“It really is like that, but I’m actually not skilled at cooking. I can only follow along using this method. I’m sorry to disappoint you,” Mu Yanxi apologized via telepathy.
“Why would I be disappointed? You’re not my disciple. Saying you’re not skilled at cooking is being too modest. Your talent is absolutely unparalleled—just by watching, you can learn the opponent’s recipe and even improve it.”
“This is an unparalleled talent for the Culinary Dao. I’ve only seen it in a few culinary cultivators who possess a culinary heart.”
“But if you only use it to compete for fame and profit in contests, blindly imitating opponents and improving recipes, that’s a waste of this talent. In the future, it will be hard for you to reach a higher realm,” Mo Lao advised.
Mu Yanxi felt ashamed. This so-called talent was entirely a gift from the immortal brain. She herself had no cooking talent at all.
She could only honestly say, “I actually have no talent. Without this method, I can’t even do ordinary cooking. If you think I’m violating the rules, you can report me to the organizers and have my participation revoked.”
“Hah, stubborn and unenlightened. Forget it. The Immortal Chef Competition really doesn’t have a rule against imitating opponents. Use it if you want.”
“But remember: if the opponent sees through this method or has a higher cultivation level than you, you won’t have a single chance of winning. Take care of yourself.”
After saying that last sentence, Mo Lao stopped transmitting.
Although he had said he wouldn’t be disappointed, Mu Yanxi still felt a strong sense of disappointment in his words—the regret of watching a talented youth go down the wrong path.
Mu Yanxi shook her head and reaffirmed her mindset. She wasn’t an Immortal Chef and didn’t plan to walk the Culinary Dao.
This competition was just an accident, with the goal of recharging the immortal brain. Her actions weren’t against the rules. All she had to do was take the Runner-up and carry away the prize!
Third round, top sixteen to top eight. Mu Yanxi flew to the cooking station again.
Now there were only eight stations left on the square. Every match was the focus of ten thousand eyes.
Her opponent was a middle-aged man in a tight outfit, who also seemed to be a professional culinary cultivator.
They both exuded the same kind of aura. In fact, among the remaining sixteen contestants, most had that aura—except for Mu Yanxi.
Standing there, she was like a crane among chickens.
But others didn’t seem to think so. Quite a few culinary cultivators looked at Mu Yanxi with serious expressions, as if regarding her as a very formidable competitor, including her current opponent, Liu Dacchu.
As for Mu Yanxi not having that special aura of a culinary cultivator, they took it as a sign of a master—return to simplicity and truth.
Just like when a true sword immortal stands before you, you feel he’s just an ordinary person, without any sharp Sword Qi. Only with such effortless control is it the highest realm.
But the theme was “Three Rams Bringing Prosperity.”
The theme was announced. This round’s exam was special—the ingredient was a single sheep.
The audience immediately buzzed with discussion: “What does that mean? Use one sheep to make three rams bringing prosperity?”
“Isn’t that simple? One sheep, three ways. Make three dishes from one sheep.”
“It’s not that simple. Three Rams Bringing Prosperity itself requires three dishes to be combined into one dish.”
“Huh? Then how? Sheep bone soup, boiled mutton, and then a lamb offal soup?”
“Wouldn’t the soup be redundant? Is it sheep bone soup, mutton soup, or lamb offal soup? Still, that is one idea. But only one can be soup. The other two have to complement the soup without being soup themselves.”
Listening to the audience’s chatter, Mu Yanxi had already given up completely.
She could barely manage a single lamb dish, let alone three? And on top of that, three dishes had to be combined into one? Don’t make things hard on herself.
The immortal brain’s way of thinking was right. What mattered in the competition wasn’t how well she cooked, but that she cooked better than her opponent.
Mu Yanxi stopped trying to simulate learning how to cook lamb. There were countless methods for cooking lamb in the world; she couldn’t learn them all. She only needed to learn the opponent’s method.
Liu Dacchu had no idea what Mu Yanxi was thinking.
After pondering for a while, he first went down to the square to pick a Demon-horned Black Goat, then easily grabbed it, hung it upside down, and slit its throat with one cut, killing the Demon-horned Black Goat.
But on the other side, Mu Yanxi was in trouble.
Although this Demon-horned Black Goat was tied in the pen with leather ropes, its strength was far greater than the sea-plundering duck from before.
She might not even be able to break its defense. How to kill it was a problem in itself.