Chapter 1091: Nine-Star Spirit Chef

Just as Yun Mengmeng had surmised, Lu Yang found himself utterly consumed by busyness over the ensuing days.

As the old adage goes, to enter a trade is to love it; since he was to participate in the Central Plains Spiritual Chef Competition, relying solely on connections to secure a berth would never suffice—he required at least a rudimentary understanding of the craft.

For instance, one of the foundational skills of a spiritual chef was the art of deboning and carving meat, a technique that demanded slicing clean through without ever nicking the bone.

The culinary world maintained its own internal hierarchy of nine stars, each level corresponding precisely to a stage of cultivation: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation, Void Refinement, Body Integration, Tribulation Transcension, and Immortal.

Among these, the Qi Refining stage merited a single star, while an Immortal attained the grand height of nine stars.

A six-star spiritual chef of the Void Refinement stage was largely a titular honor; whenever a five-star chef of the Soul Transformation stage broke through to Void Refinement, the Spiritual Chef Alliance would invariably bestow the six-star title upon them.

As for the elusive nine-star chefs, history recorded but a single figure: the legendary progenitor of the culinary arts, the Immortal Ying Tian!

Yet Lu Yang enjoyed an unparalleled advantage in his studies, for it was none other than a true nine-star spiritual chef of ancient lore, the Immortal Fairy, who personally oversaw his instruction.

"Look closely, Little Yangzi, the anatomical structure of a Kui ox is precisely like this; this white line denotes the boundary between bone and flesh, so if you wish to carve it clean, you must begin right along this seam."

Within the vast expanse of his mental landscape, the Immortal Fairy squatted upon the ground, tracing a rudimentary sketch with a fallen twig; had she not specified it to be a Kui ox, Lu Yang would have mistaken the drawing for a stick of candied haws holding a mere two fruits—the first being the head, and the second the torso.

"Fairy, perhaps we ought to procure a real specimen for practice instead," Lu Yang suggested with utmost sincerity, fearing that if he continued learning in this fashion, he would soon forget what a genuine Kui ox actually looked like, let alone master the art of deboning.

Yet he could hardly tell her that her artistry left much to be desired, nor could he ask to change tutors, lest he wound the delicate pride of the Immortal Fairy.

"To find a physical specimen? Yes, that is indeed a way forward."

What Lu Yang required was not merely a single carcass of a Kui ox, but rather an abundance of diverse demonic beast remains.

To acquire such a vast quantity of beast carcasses by his own individual efforts would be exceedingly tedious; the simplest recourse was to enlist someone else to make the purchases on his behalf.

"Is Patriarch Jin within?" Lu Yang did not deign to trouble Zhu Tian, choosing instead to seek out the Qiongqi Clan.

Zhu Tian was, after all, the sovereign of an entire nation and perpetually besieged by state affairs; that he could find the time to grant Lu Yang an audience was already no small feat, so there was no need to vex him with such trivial matters.

Ever since Zhu Tian founded the nation, apart from the Dragon and Phoenix clans, every demonic race guarded by a Tribulation-stage Demonic Emperor had relocated to the Demon City, and the Qiongqi Clan was no exception.

"Who goes there?"

Lu Yang could not afford to associate openly with the Qiongqi Clan under his true identity, and thus he had assumed a false countenance.

He produced a small wooden sword, within which resided a sliver of his own profound sword intent: "Deliver this token to Patriarch Jin, and he will naturally come out to receive me."

Upon hearing these words, the Qiongqi guards dared not underestimate the visitor and respectfully accepted the wooden sword.

Before long, Patriarch Jin hurried out from the estate in great haste, personally welcoming Lu Yang and ushering him into the privacy of his personal grotto, where Lu Yang finally cast off his disguise.

"Virtuous Nephew Lu... Daoist... Senior?"

Patriarch Jin cycled through three different forms of address in rapid succession, utterly at a loss as to how he should properly greet the youth.

As the Young Master of the Heavenly Court Sect, even the clan's own ancient ancestor counted as Lu Yang's subordinate.

And yet, Lu Yang was also the junior brother of the Daoist Buyu, meaning his generational seniority ought to be higher than Lu Yang's.

"Patriarch Jin is far too polite; how could a junior like myself ever merit the titles of Daoist or Senior?"

"Young Master, please, take a seat quickly." Patriarch Jin finally abandoned his existential struggle over etiquette and played the warm, attentive host.

Ever since their Qiongqi Clan had dipped their paws into the lucrative business of the Phantasmagoria Orbs, their fortunes had taken a turn for the brilliant, more than compensating for the losses incurred when their candle monopoly was shattered; from that perspective, Lu Yang was practically the savior of their entire lineage.

"I have come here today wishing to purchase a collection of demonic beast carcasses, in order to hone my culinary skills."

"Demonic beast carcasses? A simple request indeed. What manner of beasts does the Young Master require?" Ever since Jin Caiwei had revealed herself during the Battle of the Imperial City, the prestige of the Qiongqi Clan had soared to new heights; among the demonic races, second only to the Dragon, Phoenix, and Dijiang clans, the Qiongqi possessed immense authority and endless supply lines.

"The greater the variety, the better."

"Very well, grant me a short moment." Patriarch Jin hastily took his leave of Lu Yang, rushing out to command his subordinates to gather every variety of demonic beast carcass available.

Moments later, the heavy doors swung open once more, yet it was not Patriarch Jin who crossed the threshold.

"Young Master, you have arrived at the Demon City, so why did you not inform me?" The young Qiongqi, Jin Caiwei, having caught wind of the report from Patriarch Jin, had tossed aside her duties and sprinted straight over.

Lu Yang rose with a smile, clasping his hands in greeting: "Knowing that Senior Jin is always occupied with great matters, I did not dare disturb you."

"What nonsense is that? You are our Young Master, and the benefactor of our Qiongqi Clan; when you come to seek me out, how could it ever be deemed a disturbance?"

"Tell me, did you receive all the spirit stones I forwarded to you?"

"I did, though it was far too much; I merely offered a casual suggestion, and it could hardly be worth such an astronomical sum of spirit stones." With Lu Yang's current wealth, let alone Soul Transformation cultivators, even certain Tribulation-stage paragons were impoverished by comparison.

The Daoist Buyu, for instance, paled in wealth next to him.

Presently, Patriarch Jin began delivering an endless, roaring stream of demonic beast carcasses—creatures that swam in the deep, crawled upon the earth, and soared through the heavens, no two alike, until the grotto could no longer physically contain them.

Lu Yang simply swept them all into the miniature world within his Azure Peak Sword.

Jin Caiwei, having never before visited the interior of the Azure Peak Sword world and burning with curiosity regarding Lu Yang's intentions, followed him inside.

"Little Tiger, we haven't crossed paths in quite some time." Upon entering the miniature world of the sword, the Immortal Fairy manifested, grinning merrily as she reached out to pat Jin Caiwei's small head, thoroughly mussing her hair.

"Immortal Sister!"

"Such a good girl."

"Little Yangzi, haul this Kui ox out from the pile." The Immortal Fairy pointed toward a single-legged bovine demon nestled deep within the mountain of carcasses.

"Understood."

The moment Lu Yang dragged the Kui ox free, the towering mountain of demonic remains collapsed with a thunderous roar; fortunately, Lu Yang moved with swift agility, avoiding the falling debris entirely.

"The flesh of a demonic beast yields vastly different textures depending entirely upon the cut." The nine-star spiritual chef began to impart her ancient wisdom.

"Explaining it in words is rather tedious; ah, Little Tiger, use the embryonic form of your Dao Fruit to flatten this ox a bit."

Jin Caiwei immediately invoked the embryonic form of her Planar Dao Fruit, compressing the massive Kui ox until it was thin as a sheet of parchment.

"Now this makes things much simpler." The Immortal Fairy began tracing circles across the flattened surface. "This section here is known as the hanging dragon, this part is the three-flower tendon, over here is the five-flower tendon, and this is the chuck flap..."

Lu Yang nodded, committing each term to memory as he studied with absolute focus.

Jin Caiwei stood by his side, learning along with him; it was her very first time encountering such refined culinary lore, making her realize just how terribly unrefined her past dining habits had been.

"Have you memorized it all?"

"Perfectly."

"Now, carve these cuts of meat out."

Gripping the Chengying Sword in his hand, Lu Yang faced the corpse of the Kui ox as though confronting a mortal foe; under the scrutiny of his formidable divine sense, the inner framework of the beast lay entirely exposed down to the finest hair. A flash of sword light erupted, the skeletal frame collapsed into a scattered heap, and the various cuts of meat were neatly arranged upon the platters.

"Haha, so it turns out to be quite simple after all."

Within the vast and boundless miniature world of the Azure Peak Sword, the carcasses of demonic beasts were piled high as mountains, exuding an ominous and baleful aura. A blood-cloaked swordsman walked amidst the dead; with every strike of his blade, a beast would fall to the earth, torn into fragments so absolute that their original species could no longer be discerned. Surveying the carpet of white bones beneath his feet, the blood-cloaked swordsman laughed with wild abandonment...

According to the official historical text, *The Chronicles of Emperor Dou*, the miniature world of the Azure Peak Sword possessed by Emperor Dou Ling, Lu Yang, was a wasteland littered with a myriad of corpses and a harrowing accumulation of bleached bones.