Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The moment Bu Fang finished speaking, the atmosphere at the table changed.
The ten participants were essentially the ten contenders—they were competing against each other to pass the challenge. The Chaotic Energy reward was so tempting to them that they could not extricate themselves.
So, as soon as Bu Fang announced the start of the challenge, they grabbed the spoons with lightning speed, clutched them tightly in their hands, and thrust them into the rice.
‘This dish doesn’t stink!’ Master Zhen Yong’s eyes sparkled with excitement. Although the divine pill was useless, he was confident in his strength. ‘Since that’s the case, I’ll complete this challenge with my strength!’
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Viscount Ash and Viscount Dao Lun held the same thought.
In front of each of them was a bowl of rice topped with crimson curry, which still had bits of chili in it, giving off an enticing smell. Compared to yesterday’s Stargazy Pie, the curry looked more tempting.
“It looks like most of them should be able to complete the challenge today…”
Many people thought so.
The projection array zoomed in to show the curry rice more clearly. The flowing red curry made many people drool.
One of the participants roughly scooped up a spoonful of rice. The sticky curry dripped and fell on the table. He intended to finish the dish as fast as he could. He opened his mouth wide and stuffed the curry rice into it without smelling it.
The spoon clinked against his teeth, and the rice rolled in his mouth. The sticky curry sauce covered his tongue and coated the walls of his mouth. As he began to chew, however, the participant’s body froze!
He was a Saint of the Great Path with hair streaming down around his face. At that moment, he froze. In fact, everyone around him froze, including Master Zhen Yong.
Bu Fang put his hands behind his back. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly as he squinted at the participants. The onlookers’ eyes were wide open. Foxy, sitting on Bu Fang’s shoulder, drooled again while Xiao Ai, Nethery, and the noblewoman craned their necks and watched in curiosity.
The expressions of the participants seemed a little odd.
“Why aren’t they moving?!”
“Go on… You’ve only had your first spoonful of rice. There are ninety-nine more to go!”
“Is it not tasty? I bet it must be very awful… This chef never plays by the rules!”
The nobles were talking noisily.
Suddenly, the projection array caught the expert with disheveled hair. His mouth twitched, then his eyes widened and his hair stood up, pointing straight at the sky. The next moment, tears gushed out of his eyes, rolled down his cheeks, and dripped onto the table. He opened his mouth wide and gasped violently while clutching his throat with both hands. His eyes seemed to be spitting fire.
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“Water!”
He gave a hoarse growl, then grabbed the glass of icy water that was sitting next to his bowl and took a large gulp. The water ran down his throat and entered his stomach along with the rice. Snot, tears, and sweat were all over the man’s face. He finished the water in one gulp, but the glass was filled up once again.
“That’s your first sip of water…” Bu Fang said faintly, glancing at the man.
Some people could eat spicy food, and some could not—it depended on each person’s constitution. For those who could not eat spicy food, this was probably a dish from hell. However, even if you could eat spicy food, it might be hell as well.
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“You…” The expert sniffled and closed his eyes. Tears were streaming down his face. His sad appearance seemed to move many people.
“Is this dish really so horrible?! He’s a f*cking Saint of the Great Path… But he choked on the spiciness and cried after eating just one spoonful of rice?!”
In fact, the other participants around him experienced the same thing. One participant even turned purple from the heat and flopped on the table, motionless. Obviously, he had fainted. Perhaps the only way to get relief from the spicy pain was to lose consciousness.
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“A participant is knocked out by the spiciness?! He’s a Saint of the Great Path! Yesterday’s Stargazy Pie isn’t even this horrible! At best, it only made people run away with its stench!”
Not everyone could handle the spicy taste. The heat crept into the participants’ cells, making them feel like their bodies were on fire. The sizzling and boiling sensation, the numbness of the tongue, the excruciating pain of the mouth…
“Mama!”
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One expert covered his mouth and burst into tears. Crying could ease the excruciating pain. Tears and snot flowed down his face together. He wiped the residue of the curry from the corners of his mouth, then took a sip of water. After that, he wiped the tears from his eyes and…
“AHHHH! I can’t take it anymore!”
The peak God Emperor rushed out from his seat and tore his clothes. His skin was red from top to bottom. Like a madman, he fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face. After a while, he stood up and ran wildly toward the distance.
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The nobles fell silent, transfixed. They did not know what to say anymore. Was the dish really so scary? These participants were not actors hired by Bu Fang. They knew them all very well. But their expressions were just too… exaggerated!
Master Zhen Yong thought that with his strength, he should be able to get through the challenge. But he found that he was wrong. It was a spiciness that went right to the bone. Compared with it, the stench of the Stargazy Pie was a blessing.
He ate two spoonfuls of curry rice. When the second spoonful entered his mouth, the spiciness skyrocketed. With a mouth full of rice, his face turned red, and his eyes were wide and bloodshot.
He reached for the glass with a trembling hand. The cold touch exuded a deadly allure. Finally, he could not resist taking a sip. The icy water slid down his throat, dousing the heat in an instant. It made him feel very comfortable. He had never imagined that a gulp of water could be so soothing.
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However, Master Zhen Yong soon awoke from this intoxicating feeling. ‘I can only have… two sips of water! If I take another, I’ll be eliminated! Hold it! I must hold it!’
His eyes were fixed on the rice and the crimson curry in the bowl. It looked as though the curry, which he had thought was nothing special, was laughing like the devil at this moment.
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This was the Eighteen Hell Curry!
Viscount Ash’s pretty face was red, and her sexy red lips had long since become swollen. She was too sensitive to spiciness. She even noticed that she could not feel her lips.
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Viscount Dao Lun had been trying to maintain his image. After his first spoonful of curry rice, however, he gave up and burst into tears.
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The spicy taste of the curry rice was overwhelming, but these participants persevered. The first spoonful had eliminated half of the participants; five of them had given up, and five were still struggling. Among them, three took their first sips of water. The only ones who did not drink water were Viscount Ash and Viscount Dao Lun.
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The nobles swallowed. This was too scary. Many of them did not see yesterday’s challenge, and today they finally witnessed the challenge of Eighteen Hell Curry. They were all shocked.
Master Zhen Yong felt a little dizzy, and his stomach was burning. He was old, so his ability to withstand the spiciness was not as good as the younger ones. However, he still persevered. He scooped up another spoonful of the curry rice. Looking at it, he felt as if he saw three spoons.
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He opened his mouth wide and put the spoon in. As he began to chew the rice, the spiciness burst out. His ears seemed to be spewing hot steam. Sitting in his chair, he straightened his back and looked as if he was about to leave the world at any moment.
Master Zhen Yong refrained from drinking water. With tears in his eyes, he took out the divine pill, stared at it, then clenched his fist and crushed it into powder. He began to have hallucinations. For a moment, he thought he saw a beautiful naked woman dancing in front of him.
Suddenly, his eyes rolled, and he fell to the ground, lying there motionlessly with a red face. He was knocked out by the spiciness.
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An uproar resounded through the crowd. Many alchemists held their heads in disbelief. How did that happen? Even a powerful man like Master Zhen Yong could not resist two spoonfuls of curry rice?
With Master Zhen Yong’s collapse, only three participants remained.
“It’s so spicy! It’s really too spicy!”
One participant took the fourth spoonful and began to shake violently. Finally, he could not bear it anymore. He picked up the glass and downed the water in one gulp. This was his second sip, which meant that he was eliminated.
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However, before Bu Fang could announce his elimination, the participant fell forward and dunked his face into the curry rice. The corner of Bu Fang’s mouth twitched, and his heart skipped a beat.
‘Ouch! My face hurts just from looking at it. This guy is going to heaven…’
Sure enough, accompanied by a ghostly howl, the Saint of the Great Path fled the scene, crawling and rolling. ‘This is not a challenge! This is murder!’ he screamed in his mind.
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The table was a mess, but two participants remained. Bu Fang was slightly surprised that the two participants were able to withstand the heat of the Eighteen Hell Curry.
Viscount Dao Lun’s face was twisted, his lips swollen like a sausage. Viscount Ash looked a little better than him, but she too was disheveled, and her pretty face had long since become twisted.
“Owner Bu… can we try it too?” asked several nobles who were keen to try new things.
Bu Fang paused. He nodded, filled a bowl with the curry rice, and handed it to them. “Feel free to taste it,” he said.
The nobles’ eyes lit up. They each grabbed a spoon. Many people gathered around them, staring at the curry rice with wide eyes. The flowing crimson curry made these people swallow. It did not really smell very spicy, but…
The nobles looked at each other, then scooped up some rice and put the spoons in their mouths. The projection array zoomed in to capture their expressions.
Like the participants, they stiffened. The next moment, their expressions changed a dozen times before they all crouched on the ground with their heads in their hands, weeping bitterly. There was despair in their howling voices that brought tears and sadness to the others.
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They regretted it instantly. What they did was no different from courting death! They should not be so curious!
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The scene made all the experts who gathered before the projection arrays in other districts sucked in cold air.
“What a terrifying dark cuisine!”
Viscount Dao Lun had gone mad! After downing a second gulp of icy water, he tore off his clothes and ran away naked. In that instant, many noblewomen screamed!
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Now that Viscount Dao Lun had run away, there was only one participant left. Viscount Ash was still holding on. Her cheeks were flushed, and her red lips were swollen, looking sexy. Countless people were attracted by her look now. She stuffed the curry rice into her mouth spoon after spoon and even stuck out her tongue to lick the rice grains from her lips.
Bu Fang gasped. ‘This woman is so… strong!’
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As the curry rice gradually dwindled, Viscount Ash’s aura began to climb rapidly, and rings of air kept erupting out of her body. She was breaking through!
This scene was even more shocking! A dish could help someone break through? Something that no amount of divine pills could achieve was actually done by a dish?!
“Oh!”
Viscount Ash’s eyes were misty. She ate another spoonful of curry rice and then squeezed her legs together. Sweat beaded her forehead. ‘The soothing feeling in the spiciness might be the essence of this curry rice…’ she thought to herself.
Rumble!
Suddenly, her aura seemed to break through a shackle. The eyes of many people went wide as they found only three spoonfuls of curry rice were left in her bowl! At this point, she began to gasp violently. There were beads of sweat hanging from her neck, chin, and nose. All the nobles were watching her.
Could Viscount Ash survive this super spicy Eighteen Curry Hell challenge?!