656 Open Your Taste Buds!

After the entrance of the Full Mountain Red Restaurant was opened, the banners hanging in the hall also fell into view of the audience, prompting a lot of discussions.

"Dark Cuisine Competition? What is that? Was there any mention of it in the schedule?"

A senior cultivator, who was relatively familiar with the situation, shook his head. "There's no detailed explanation of the rules of each match in the schedule. But I remember that one of the items in the food contest seems to test the tolerance of the contestants.

At this point, the strange smell from the hall waffled into the nose and the face of the senior cultivator suddenly changed and he could not speak anymore.

Fortunately, he was a cultivator. He quickly activated the magical power in his body and swept away the feeling of disgust and then stiffly said, "Now I begin to doubt the rumor that says Wang Lu and Liu Li have a good relationship. I'm afraid it might not be accurate. I think by cruelly letting her Junior Sister participate in this match as a contestant, they are more like enemies."

At the same time, a considerable amount of audience closest to the hall had retreated to the back with a pale complexion, willingly handover the ten thousand spirit stones worth spot!

The smell from inside the restaurant was really weird! It was not a foul smell, but something weird and difficult to describe with words. At the same time, intense resistance of the smell appeared from every inch of their body.

"It feels like all the things that couldn't be eaten from all over the world are put into a pot."

However, although the smell could force the audience to retreat, it could not stop the determined Wang Lu and Liu Li.

The two of them walked into the restaurant together. Wang Lu, as the host of the match, stood in the middle of the hall. Liu Li consciously sat in front of a round table and waited.

The next moment, in front of the opposite round table, an obese figure emerged out of thin air. It was the Food Immortal that came directly through teleportation spell. The loss a few days ago seemed to have been completely ignored by him. The obese Food Immortal appeared in front of Wang Lu with a smile, but the next moment, that smile was stuck on his face.

"What-what kind of smell is this?"

Wang Lu shrugged his shoulders. "Of course it's the aroma of wine, meat, and rice."

The Food Immortal shouted, "When you want to say something, take off the mask that covers your mouth and nose first!"

Wang Lu coughed and said, "Sorry, I have a cold, I don't want to infect you."

"Just now you were laughing and talking with your fans without that mask!" The Food Immortal unmercifully exposed.

"Yes, that was when I was infected by their enthusiasm." Wang Lu chose to insist on being shameless.

"... Forget it, I have no time to waste arguing with you. I remember you said before that the theme of today's competition is to compete for the amount of food that the contestant could eat, why it's now the dark cuisine competition?"

Wang Lu said, "The purpose of the competition has not changed. It's still to compete for the amount of food. However, the amount of food could be explained in many ways. If it's just simply the quantity, then it would be a waste regardless of the foodie or the food itself. Because everyone would surely not care about the taste of the food itself, as lacking in sense of beauty as force-feeding a duck. Therefore this amount of food is more like in spirit than in quantity."

The Food Immortal said, "There's some truth in what you just said, but what's the explanation for the two words 'dark cuisine'? What's that disgusting smell from the kitchen? What does it have to do with your amount of food in spirit?"

Wang Lu explained unhurriedly, "The so-called dark cuisine, in general, refers to those dishes that have failed to cook, have strange colors and fragrance, and even disgusting. However, this banner is actually a misunderstanding of the boss of Full Mountain Red Restaurant. He blindly categorizes the food that he could not understand and appreciate as dark cuisine, which is the manifestation of his ignorance, and not my intention. In fact, the title of this competition is actually: to promote the value of food diversification and enhance the tolerance of food."

Upon hearing this, the Food Immortal was startled. "What diversification?"

Wang Lu said, "Food is ever changing and endless. At the same time, it also varies from person to person and from place to place. For example, in my home village, Wang Family Village, there are many people who could not adapt to spicy food. Delicious for me, poisonous for the others, I believe Senior Food Immortal must certainly have a profound understanding of this. And what I mean by to promote the value of food diversification is being able to relax one's spirit so that one could embrace all kinds of food from all over the world."

With that, the chef brought a steaming pot of soup from the kitchen. The strange smell was nothing to the chef because he also wore a thick mask. After he put the pot of soup down, he immediately turned around and ran away, not stopping even for a second.

The Food Immortal stared at the dish and said, "Even the cook is afraid of this dish, what kind of food is this?"

Wang Lu, on the other hand, lifted the lid of the pot of soup without changing his face. Suddenly, the smell that was a hundred times stronger assaulted his face, which made the audience outside the hall collectively withdrew a few steps back. And when they saw what was inside the pot, many wanted to throw up.

In the pot, amidst the black soup, large white larvae stacked with each other, constantly wriggling and struggling as if they were tormented souls in purgatory.

"... Is this food?"

Wang Lu nodded. "This is the delicacy of the aboriginal tribe in the border area of Blue River Region. Although the appearance is unsatisfactory, it has high nutritional value. These white larvae are carefully cultivated in a very clean environment, rich in various nutrients, and more valuable than the meat we usually eat. This soup is also made from herbs, which has the effect of reducing and removing heat. Locals regard this kind of insect soup as the most precious delicacy. Only when they receive the noblest guests would they bring it out to be served."

The Food Immortal tightly pursed his lips and said nothing.

Wang Lu said, "There's no basis just by saying it, so I'll try it first."

With that, he reached out and directly a white larva in the pot of soup. The fat larva struggled in mid-air, shaking its head back and forth, and spilling black soup on the table. Wang Lu shook his hand for a moment, and then sent it into his mouth and then bit off half of the larva's body in one bite!

Pff!

Like biting a juicy fruit, the larva's colorful body fluid splash out as if it was a rainbow… Wang Lu chewed a bit, swallowed it down, and then grinned. "Delicious."

However, at the same time, many of the audience turned deathly pale.

The face of the Food Immortal also slightly changed. Although insects were not regular ingredients in the food of the Food Immortal, they were not really rare either. When he first practiced in the tropical forest, he ate no fewer than ten thousand species of insects, and he mastered thousands of ways to cook them.

However, in those ten thousand species of insects, none were like this.

These larvae came from a kind of corpse-eating insect, all its colorful body fluid was all rotten and poisonous, and moreover, the taste was extremely bitter. Although the herbal concoction could dissolve the toxins, it could not change the taste. Such soup was really hard to swallow!

Especially for the Food Immortal who was super-sensitive to the taste of food! The joy and pain of tasting delicious food were a hundred times stronger than that of ordinary people. Wang Lu's 'wooden' tongue could resist the discomfort and say delicious, but to him, it would be painful.

Thinking of this, the Food Immortal turned his gaze to Liu Li.

This young girl who often followed Wang Lu, he had also heard a bit. In addition to her astonishing brilliant heart physique, her enthusiasm for food was also quite well-known. It was said that some time ago, a person had eaten the entire food stock of a large restaurant. After witnessing it himself, the Food Immortal realized that the girl had the same kind of breath.

This one was also a glutton...

This kind of person must be nitpicky, could she endure this kind of rotten larva soup?

However, while the Food Immortal was feeling suspicious, he saw Wang Lu handed over the remaining half of the larva to Liu Li's mouth. The girl then completely swallowed the larva and then burst into a dazzling smile.

"Delicious!"

The Food Immortal really wanted to turn the table upside down: What fucking delicious? There are tears on the corner of your eyes!

However, Liu Li did not stop. After eating the larva, she picked up a spoon and scooped up a spoonful of black soup and directly drank it. "Good soup!"

"Your voice trembles when you speak!"

Wang Lu nodded. "That's the tremble of the opening of Liu Li's taste buds."

"That's the tremble of the opening of the taste bud?" The Food Immortal could no longer tolerate. "You said that you want to promote the value of food diversification, I agree with that very much. In the past, the culinary world of Nine Regions argued over whether the salty tofu or sweet tofu that was the orthodox one. It was a big dispute such that many cultivators even died, and that was the evil consequence of just one system of value. However, no matter how diversified the food should be, there has to be a bottom line! Even the rotten insects have become a delicacy, this is an insult to the good food out there! I would never admit this kind of heretical way!"

"I'm not surprised by this." Wang Lu shrugged. "Senior Food Immortal was the top expert in food sixteen thousand years ago. Your position in the food industry was also highly respected. And your authority was the orthodox one… But in other words, the so-called orthodox authority is often the resistance to the development of new things. You said that diversity should have a bottom line, but who is going to draw the bottom line? You said that eating rotten insect is an insult to good food, but in my opinion, isn't the sweet tofu insulting to the salty tofu? Isn't that insulting to the good food? Who is going to judge this?"

After some questioning, the Food Immortal could hardly speak. His mouth and tongue were used to appreciate food, not to argue with others. Although his tongue was not clumsy, to quarrel with Wang Lu, he was obviously not qualified.

After a long silence, the Food Immortal looked at Wang Lu, who obviously had cards up his sleeve, and Liu Li who, under the influence of the aftertaste of the rotten insect soup, gently stuck out her tongue...

"Fine, if you want to compete in this, then so be it."

The Food Immortal's eyes then gradually turned cold. "But, don't blame me for not reminding you that you are far from qualified to compete with me in terms of tasting novelty food. When I was desperately looking for food in the mountain, I have tasted everything!"

With that, he stretched out his long arm, lifted the steaming pot of soup in front of Wang Lu, put it on his mouth and then drank the entire soup in one gulp!

"Hahaha, it's indeed delicious."

The Food Immortal looked cold and his voice was as cold as ice. However, at the same time, a cloud of blue smoke rose out from his throat.