Ten minutes later, Guo ShouQue angrily kicked him out the door.
Other than the pickled vegetable jar in his hand, he also filled the package with cured meat, returning full-handed.
The decision was settled at that time.
Kua Fu went to the Abyss delivering parcels, Guo ShouQue went to Yingzhou as Chef Demon, Xuan Niao went home to enjoy pickled vegetables.
Everyone had a bright future.
.
Now, thunder descends from the sky.
Guo ShouQue finally lifts his eyes from the rocking chair, staring quietly at the brilliant light falling from the heavens with his pitch-black pupils, absent of any vibrant white.
Casually, he kicks the bamboo basket beside him.
The lid of the basket abruptly flips open, darkness surges, and strange shadows emerge from within, cast upon the blood-red glass sky.
It's like a large invisible mouth, casually swallowing the ten-thousand-foot lightning into its belly, slowly retracting, then the lid of the bamboo basket gently closes.
"Enter the basket willingly."
"Yingzhou is truly a land blessed with good fortune."
Guo ShouQue lowers his head, gazing at the trembling bamboo basket as his eyebrows slowly rise: "Even lying down, ingredients are delivered to your door? How interesting… Kanda Soramakoto?"
"Who's calling me?"
Now, as that old face emerges from behind the shattered sky dome, Kanda sniffs the ominous scent in the air, swiftly discerning the familiar smell with wide eyes.
"You are from the Dongxia Genealogy! Attacking members of Deer's Sing Hall on Yingzhou's territory, is it your intention to stir conflict between the two nations? Undo this mystic ritual immediately!"
"You think too much. You might represent Deer's Sing Hall, but I, the old man, do not represent Dongxia Genealogy… At most, I'm just a passing chef."
Guo ShouQue chuckles bizarrely, raising his hand to increase the fire under the bamboo basket slightly, telling him: "In other words, it's not Dongxia Genealogy you've angered, but me."
That strange smile and pitch-black eyes brought an ominous foreboding.
Surveying the eerie surroundings, Kanda Soramakoto's eyes widen as he unleashes all his power to emit lightning, yet he cannot tear the sticky Sea of Darkness nor escape from this mystic ritual.
Instead, he feels the heat germinating inside his body.
The lightning, inherently a plasma phenomenon… is trembling from the burn!
"What does this even mean!"
He roars in anger: "Wasn't it you who initiated the attack and stirred trouble first!"
"You can't say it like that."
Guo ShouQue raises his hand, sprinkling a handful of salt.
Fine grains of salt fall from his fingertips, enlarging swiftly, transforming into enormous mountains in the roar, and pouring into the sea.
Below, the boiling sticky dark sea becomes increasingly bizarre.
Behind numerous bubbles, things resembling eyes rise, coldly gazing at the God of Thunder's position.
The Heaven Drum resounds swiftly, thunder expands, but this time the immense gravity cannot disperse it; countless sticky limbs brandishing teeth stretch endlessly towards the lightning in the sky…
Bit by bit, intending to drag him into the deepest darkness!
Hoarse and deep laughter emerges from there, filled with malice from the Abyss and indescribable horror.
Mocking his resistance.
"So, Deer's Sing Hall, have you not… overestimated yourselves? Aside from smashing his stove, what else could possibly anger a chef?"
Guo ShouQue rubs garlic in his hand, leisurely peeling off the thin layer, telling him calmly: "Since my birth over 190 years ago, the one thing I think about day and night without pause is only one thing — culinary arts.
To achieve culinary mastery, I'd sacrifice anything, even my life itself… In the end, now I am without a wife, without heirs, betrayed by my disciple, losing a third of my taste, all my sense of smell, with chronic illness that's hard to heal, a life so dismal it's hard to speak of."
"The few joys I have left are merely bullying young ones—"
Sighing as such, he crushed the garlic into paste, casually tossing it into the bamboo basket, causing the spicy scent to spread like an iceberg-sized giant, stirring the boiling Sea of Darkness.
As the Dark Ocean boils, Guo ShouQue lowers his head, gazing down at his face: "Now that you've taken this little pleasure from me, do you blame me for stirring trouble?"
"Isn't this simply unreasonable?"
He smiles, asking, "Isn't this too self-centered?"
In that instant, after decades of absence, Kanda Soramakoto feels his heart clench again. That smile is even more unsettling than any cold word or horrifying expression.
Just like… looking at fish on the cutting board.
Serene and tranquil, full of expectation.
"What… what are you trying to do!"
Kanda Soramakoto asks in a low voice, as the Heaven Drum roars behind him, the Hammer of Lament breaks in response, nearly self-destructing as it crashes onto the drum.
The explosive lightning rushes into the sky, transforming into a sea of thunder spanning thousands of miles.
The God of Thunder descends.
In an instant, the bamboo basket becomes riddled with cracks, as countless dark fog rises.
A scorching beam of lightning, like a spear, bursts from within, piercing Guo ShouQue's face and skull, extending backward, tearing through his self-sufficient fetal membrane, shooting out into the sky.
Yet, emerging from the shattered skull is a form more sinister than disastrous fragments.
Fused and entangled souls open countless eyes from the crack, gazing down upon Kanda Soramakoto's astonished look, still smiling.
"Don't be afraid. I am merely a chef; how could I be violent?"
The cacophony of countless screeches overlaps, gradually morphing into Guo ShouQue's aged voice: "I just want to simmer a bowl of Old Soup to nourish the body…"
He raises his hand, covering the bamboo basket with its lid.
The time to simmer soup has come.
"But, be very careful."
Guo ShouQue's shattered skull slowly regenerates, merging his features as his lips part, emitting a sincere voice.
This is the final warning.
"This pot of Old Soup brewed for tens of thousands of years in Hell, is truly devouring—"