Chapter 1008: Descending God Jin Wu, Dark Culinary Dao

The Shaman Sect Leader held a golden hairpin in his hand. He suddenly tossed it into mid-air, then caught it with his left hand in a reverse grip. Under the moonlight, the golden hairpin traced an arc, like a new moon piercing the sky.

It slashed toward the belly of the large green donkey.

The green donkey kicked its hooves, rearing up on its hind legs, but the new moon had already sliced open its belly.

"A mere E-wood spirit, and you dare to show off before this Sect Leader?"

"Only unranked shamans use the art of restraining spirits and sending generals to worship immortals. True Great Shamans use gods as their faces, inviting them to possess their spirits!"

The Shaman Sect Leader brushed his hand across his face. In an instant, a mask appeared on his face, hammered from royal paper offered by Goryeo. Carved upon it was the image of a bird-monster's face, with a ferocious expression. This was "Mahu," which in the barbarian tongue meant mask.

The Shaman Sect Leader was not wrong; true shamanic wizards collected a certain spirit from between heaven and earth, personified it in the form of a carved mask, and then worshipped it through faith to communicate with the spirit.

To wear the mask is to be the god.

It is not the unranked practice of inviting spirits to possess the body!

That bird-faced deity resembled both a phoenix and a crow, with a base of red and gold. It was majestic yet ferocious, carrying a naked, fierce, and wild aura.

But the moment the golden hairpin pierced the donkey's skin, scorching flames suddenly surged from beneath it.

Those flames were not crimson, but a deep-sea, ghostly blue. Where the tongues of fire licked, even the air twisted into a vortex.

The flames were like maggots on a bone, burning with the golden hairpin the Shaman Sect Leader had stabbed in as their center. They swirled like water, forming a deep vortex beneath the donkey's skin, intending to swallow the Shaman Sect Leader whole.

He brought his right hand together into a blade and swung down, severing his own left arm at the elbow.

The ghostly blue flames were as quiet as a deep-sea abyss, instantly devouring the Shaman Sect Leader's arm...

At this moment, Dou Dabiebao puffed out his cheeks violently. Accompanied by blood from the tip of his tongue, a sharp weapon like a nail was spat out by him, shooting straight at the Shaman Sect Leader's face. However, the Shaman Sect Leader raised two fingers and caught the black, foul-smelling claw-nail before his forehead with lightning speed.

"Fire from the Dragon Abyss of the seabed!"

"Using a zombie's fingernail as a nail, and condensing the gloomy, evil qi of the earth veins you've accumulated over these years of treasure hunting with your tongue-tip blood—this Poison Dragon Nail is specifically designed to break all kinds of spells. It is indeed sinister!"

The Shaman Sect Leader was finally enraged. He sneered, "E-wood generates Ding-fire. Using an E-wood spirit to wrap a mass of seabed dragon fire is like paper wrapping fire—good skill, good scheming! No, even you, Dou Dabiebao, couldn't wrap that mass of fire. Therefore, this seabed dragon fire must have originally been a fire seed sealed within the Taiyin Treasure Mirror. You only ignited it secretly when you sensed something was wrong, then lured me into using Geng-metal to break the E-wood, only to be countered by the Ding-fire."

"The mutual generation and restriction of the Five Elements is the bread and butter of treasure hunting and sheep-leading. To be able to use it to this extent—in the Dao of sheep-leading, I am not your match!"

"But..." The Shaman Sect Leader opened his eyes. Beneath the bird-beak mask, his eyes were like a mass of burning golden flames: "In the end, you are only at the Fourth Realm!"

"Now, don't blame me for bullying you with my cultivation!"

His body spun, causing the white fur on his body to dance. Strips of colorful ribbons swirled along with his wild dance. The white fur all over his body transformed into a shaman's five-colored robe, the waist bells jingled, and the hand-drum he held was struck rapidly in rhythm.

It was as if the entire world was spinning along with him.

The Shaman Sect Leader's whole body trembled, as if a sacred deity from heaven and earth had descended upon his body. Accompanied by him puffing out his chest and emitting a 'he-he' sound from his mouth, his two hands retracted to his chest like wings. Then, they slowly opened. His empty left hand emitted the strange sound of twisting bones, and immediately after, an arm like a bird's claw with four hooked fingers reached out from beneath the shaman's colorful robe!

The East Sea Falcon flew to the top of his head, accompanied by a phoenix cry...

Facing the Shaman's dance of divine descent, the Quanrong Great Shaman that Seeing Yan Shu had once faced was a Great Priest at the Primordial Spirit level. He had faced the descent of the Fruit of Destruction, performed a desperate dance of destruction at the end of his life, transformed himself and his clansmen into omens, wore the Nuo mask of the Tiger God Qiangliang, drove the plague of the Eleven Ghostly Plagues, and used his own gaze to pull Seeing Yan Shu into the moment when the Supreme Tian Mo danced wildly and annihilated the Ten Thousand Demon Divine Court.

He was still slain by Seeing Yan Shu with a single sword strike.

But the Shaman Sect Leader had merely put on a bird-god mask and performed a dance of divine descent. By borrowing the Nuo mask on his face, he briefly entered the Sacred Realm of Longevity through the union of man and god, and with a single glance, he crushed Dou Dabiebao.

The bird claw passed through the ghostly blue dragon fire and grabbed the broken mirror shard within the fire.

"No..."

Dou Dabiebao also reached for the mirror shard in the fire. That was the remnant body of the Mirror Master he had found after abandoning everything and exhausting his Three Treasures—the mirror shard dropped by the Taiyin.

The Shaman Sect Leader's bird claw nimbly flipped the broken mirror shard between its toes. It was sparkling, a piece of broken glaze, but the glimmer of light it flashed under the moonlight was exceptionally sharp. The Shaman Sect Leader's bird toe paused, and a wound appeared on the flesh-scale that was like metal, though no one knew when it had been cut.

The bird-beak mask he wore lowered slightly: "It is worthy of being the mirror created by the Mirror Master to create the sun, moon, and stars. But do you know what this incarnation of mine is?"

"Legend has it that when the Mirror Master created the sun, moon, and stars, he originally intended to use the mirror to reflect the light of the Bright Venerable, to benefit all living beings."

"But the Beast among the Six Venerables of the True Realm, who was also a Venerable of Time, was dissatisfied with the Bright Venerable's status as the Lord of Light. So, after the sun and moon were created, he took the Fire of Destruction from the True Realm and threw it into the sun and moon, gestating a divine bird whose whole body burned with terrifying flames!"

"The divine bird flew within the sun mirror, and its flames and light were reflected by the mirror, casting ten suns in the sky."

"The hero of the human world, under the guidance of the Cauldron Mother, shot divine arrows at the ten suns."

"But the divine bird's body was hidden within endless light, making it impossible for him to see clearly. The divine arrows ultimately only shattered the Sun and Moon Treasure Mirror that reflected the Mirror Master's light, which is why fragments of the Taiyin and Sun Treasure Mirrors fell into the present world."

"In the end, the hero's wife ascended to the gentle Taiyin Star and turned the mirror, letting it reflect the shadow of the divine bird within, and only then did the hero seize the opportunity to shoot and kill the divine bird."

"The divine bird's corpse fell into the present world and was ultimately resurrected by the Beast of Time, becoming an evil phoenix burning with solar flames... of course, that is another story!"

The Shaman Sect Leader raised his head, and the five-colored shaman robe burned with golden flames, draping over his body like feathers.

He still pinched that mirror shard between his toes.

"I am the sun, I am—the Jin Wu!"

The bird mask on the Shaman's face burned. A scorching, brilliant, and unbearable divine light trembled within his body, gathered by the mirror shard in his hand, and transformed into a ray of light carrying an aura of destruction and terrifying heat.

Sun God-Slaying Ray!

The divine light instantly swept across, and heaven and earth were split in two by that terrifying ray. Dou Dabiebao's body trembled as he stood there.

The aura of death rushed toward him!

A line of fire extended from in front of the Shaman Sect Leader to the opposite bank of the Haihe.

The Haihe, over several dozen zhang wide, was cut in half at the waist by the light. The river water in the middle was evaporated in an instant, the land on the bank melted into glaze, and even the bottom of the river was cut open with a deep fissure.

This glazed trace swept between Dou Dabiebao's legs, splitting him in two.

Dou Dabiebao's legs trembled slightly, but his whole body was not split in two.

A wriggling mass of flesh, burned with deep scorch marks, blocked in front of him. An indescribable fragrance that filled heaven and earth drilled into his nasal cavity.

The mass of flesh wriggled constantly, repairing itself rapidly. Its surface was a wonderful golden-brown, carrying an alluring hue like brown sugar.

That was a piece of—braised pork!

Feng Xianzi Bei held the Jade Dragon Pot and blocked in front of Dou Dabiebao. Just now, she had lifted the pot lid, and the braised pork in the pot leaped up, blocking the Sun God-Slaying Ray that had split heaven and earth.

"Hurry, go!"

"People from the Xuanzhen Sect suddenly found me just now, saying I was some kind of Culinary God, and handed me a piece of rotten meat called the 'Boundless Myriad Deaths Blood Sea Filth'. They said it was a divine talisman written by their Sect Leader himself."

"I tried for a long time before I realized that piece of rotten meat was almost a collection of all life in the world. Because it was too fresh, it rotted into that state."

"As a chef, this is the first time I've seen ingredients where such freshness and rot are fused into one. As a chef's instinct, I could only process it as an ingredient, but my culinary skills still have limits. Only by using the Xuanzhen Sect's method of making Immortal Meat can it be prepared."

"That piece of meat is almost connected to all life, and because of this, I saw you in danger, so I rushed over."

"But to block that terrifying flame, I could only take it out of the pot early. Now, the heat of that meat is a bit overdone..."

Feng Xianzi Bei quickly explained everything. Dou Dabiebao said with a trembling voice: "What happens if the heat is overdone?"

"The essence of my using that 'talisman' is cooking!"

"Cooking is the art of giving ingredients a new life. It is another sublimation of a corpse beyond rot. It is a molding and refining. A successful dish, when it comes out of the pot, should glow. The spirit of the dish will condense into a deity and manifest in the sky!"

"And a failed dish, if it fails to give it a new life, will restore it to the essence of its corpse..."

Feng Xianzi Bei's expression was solemn, but Dou Dabiebao had already tasted the flavor of these words.

"It will turn into a corpse?"

Feng Xianzi Bei nodded: "It will transform into dark cuisine!"

The Shaman Sect Leader retracted the divine fire on his body and held the mirror shard in his hand: "What nonsense are you talking about?"

But the braised pork blocking in front of the two was truly trembling and wriggling, and the meat was rapidly returning to life.

The alluring meat juices on its body rapidly rotted, turning into blood water, pus, rot, and countless tiny lives rapidly multiplied and flooded. In two breaths, a piece of braised pork transformed into countless lives intertwined, a prosperous mass of rotten meat.

And the wound that had almost pierced its body shrank smaller and smaller.

But the evolution it brought to the countless lives on the rotten meat did not disappear; instead, it gave that countless chaotic flesh and blood a converging direction.

The immortal essence of the Immortal Meat, the life level close to an immortal, combined with the evolution to adapt to the Sun God-Slaying Ray.

A ferocious dog head, with most of its skin peeled off, messy teeth exposed, and flesh and blood turned inside out, struggled out from the flesh and blood.

Then a second, a third, more and more ferocious dog heads drilled out from the flesh and blood, bringing a near-suffocating pressure to the Shaman Sect Leader...

The divine fire on the Shaman Sect Leader's body faded rapidly, shrinking back into a mass, condensing on the mask.

The gaze burning with golden flames behind the mask also gradually cooled, revealing the Shaman Sect Leader's trembling pupils...

"Jin Wu... the Jin Wu is afraid of it!"

"That... what is that? An evil dog that devours the sun?"

Feng Xianzi Bei patted her chest and whispered luckily: "Fortunately, this dark cuisine doesn't seem to be interested in us!"

The evil dog took one step, two steps, and stepped out. The countless germs and plagues rotting and multiplying on its body infected everything around it...

It stared fixedly at the Shaman Sect Leader, or rather, the sun was reflected in its eyes.

Evil dog preying!

The fierce dog leaped up, and a gap suddenly appeared in the sun in the sky. Darkness, indescribable darkness, shrouded over.

In the darkness, the Shaman Sect Leader let out an inhuman scream.

Feng Xianzi Bei's expression was solemn, and she said to Dou Dabiebao beside her: "Look, this is the end of failed cooking. That piece of meat is 'alive', it is a 'collection' of all living ingredients. I must use all known techniques to cook it."

"Once it fails, this ingredient will go out of control."

"The end of going out of control is either devouring the diner or devouring the chef..."

Dou Dabiebao still hadn't reacted: "The... ingredient hit someone?"

"The Xuanzhen Sect Leader is worthy of being an existence who has walked dark cuisine to the extreme!"

"His 'Immortal Meat' is essentially a flying ascension ritual of the esophagus. 'Freshness'—using supreme culinary dao to make ingredients restore life and reverse life and death."

"'Fragrance'—using unparalleled fragrance to communicate with heaven and earth, sacrifice to ghosts and gods, and achieve sublimation together with heaven and earth."

"'Heat'—using incomparably precise firepower to drive the ingredients that have restored life to devour and evolve each other, ultimately fusing the essence of all ingredients to evolve a piece of meat whose essence is comparable to 'immortal'."

"Finally, using absolute 'spiciness' to destroy the spiritual essence of the Immortal Meat, allowing the diner to devour it."

"The essence of spiciness is pain. Through the stimulation of extreme pain, the Immortal Meat and the diner's flesh and spirit are fused into one, achieving the result of flying ascension to become an immortal."

"But that is dark cuisine that conquers the diner with cooking, devours the diner with cooking, and twists the diner's life with endless appetite and endless deliciousness."

"That is not my culinary dao!"

"Only by creating a bright ascension dish that fuses my philosophy and my culinary dao can I truly cook that piece of meat and make a—ultimate dish that condenses all my paths!"

Feng Xianzi Bei's words revealed incomparably firm determination.

The Jade Dragon Pot in her hand flew out, and Feng Xianzi Bei stepped forward and leaped into mid-air: "Make your move! I will never allow my dish to eat the diner!"

Dou Dabiebao had no choice but to make his move.

He lifted the large green donkey's skin, wrapped it around himself, transformed into a green dragon, and flew up, closely following Feng Xianzi Bei as they killed toward the darkness...

Not far away, a deacon of the Xuanzhen Sect stared at everything.

He wrote furiously: "The Culinary God has returned to her position!"

"The 'Boundless Myriad Deaths Blood Sea Filth Tianfu Tianfu Zhenfu' is out of control, but Feng Xianzi Bei is worthy of being an existence whose culinary dao was personally enlightened by the Sect Leader. Her way of controlling the Tianfu Tianfu Zhenfu is essentially different from us comprehending the 'Blood God Scripture' and condensing the true water of the blood sea. It shouldn't be difficult for her to re-subdue the 'Boundless Myriad Deaths Blood Sea Filth Tianfu Tianfu Zhenfu'."

"Two of the Three Gods have returned to their positions, only the Play God has yet to return..."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1009 =====