Chapter 1095: Knife Skills
"A bunch of Foundation Establishment Little Demons kneeling before you, what's the point?" Immortal Fairy disdainfully said, finding Second-in-command truly lacking in ambition.
"Wait, wait for the day we find Qilin Immortal, then I shall let him kowtow to you, as you are the Eldest Senior Brother of Xiao Ling and Lianyi..."
"No no no, Fairy, what I meant was that Song Tianjing is less fortunate, how can he compare with me?"
"Is that what you meant?"
"Exactly!"
Lu Yang, in a bid to save his life, vigorously nodded.
"Then all right, it seems I misunderstood."
Lu Yang took a deep breath twice, discarded distracting thoughts, paid no attention to the activities on Song Tianjing's side, and stopped thinking about his doom. What he needed to do now was to focus on displaying his knife skills.
Other stages he could just experience lightly, but the first stage required his full effort.
As they say, there's no difference between knife and sword, often a Sword Cultivator's use of a knife is not inferior either; he, with his Sword Spirit Root and renowned as the premier Sword Cultivator of his level, could not lose face in this challenge!
The Five Star Spirit Chef Team was also in the Beast Fighting Arena where Divine Transformation Stage Demon Beasts broke free from their cages, wantonly unleashing their oppressive might.
Merely the oppressive force was enough to scare away some Spirit Chefs, preventing them from acting and causing their hands holding the knives to tremble.
But Lu Yang was certainly not among them!
Other Five Star Spirit Chefs had their own unique equipment; Lu Yang was different, as a simple kitchen knife was enough for him.
The competition for the Five Star Spirit Chef Team was slightly different from that of the Two Star Spirit Chef Team, as there was an additional requirement in the topic.
"Vice Alliance Hierarch Liu Xing just said that in knife skills, 'benevolence' must be reflected."
Lu Yang was still pondering what "Knife Skills" meant, while other Spirit Chefs had already formed their ideas and began slicing.
"Look quick, there's a small sun!" The audience noticed something unusual about the Five Star Spirit Chef Team.
"No, no, that's not a small sun, it's Golden Blade Master, it's his golden knife shaving so rapidly!"
Golden Blade Master took the lead, choosing a Fei Yi, which was a kind of snake from the Snake Clan, with six legs and four wings, ranking fifth among the Divine Transformation Demon Beasts!
Repeating his old trick, Golden Blade Master stomped his feet down, muscles bulging, suddenly throwing the Fei Yi into the sky.
"Bone Stripping Blade Technique!"
Two golden knives flew swiftly, resembling a great sun, leaving clean snake bones and falling white snake meat wherever the sunlight touched.
"The goodness in knife skills lies in not letting the Demon Beast feel pain, yielding matters," Golden Blade Master hung his golden knives in front of his chest and indifferently spoke, he landed first, followed by the white snake meat falling like rain into the plates.
In fact, Golden Blade Master also had the capability to defeat the first four ranked Demon Beasts; however, not being able to kill instantaneously, inducing pain in the Demon Beast, would not count as benevolent knife skills.
"Why is there such a dense mist over there?"
"Amidst the mist, there's a figure dancing beautifully, is it a fairy dancing?" The audience became excited again.
After the mist dissipated, it turned out not to be a fairy but Poisonous Granny dissecting a poisoned Nine-headed Lion.
Yun Mengmeng looked at the audience with a strange gaze; did these people have something wrong with their eyes, seeing both a small sun and a fairy dancing?
During the competition, Poisonous Granny temporarily didn't need to wear handcuffs and shackles, feeling much lighter.
She gave a sinister smile, choosing the Nine-headed Lion, which was one of the top three formidable beings.
Poisonous Granny let the Nine-headed Lion bite into her, tearing off a piece of flesh; poisonous blood flowed out, turning into a toxic mist upon contact with air, sending the Nine-headed Lion into a wonderful slumber.
"The goodness in knife skills is having the Demon Beast die in bliss!"
Apart from Lu Yang, there was one more person who did nothing from the beginning to the end, and that was Ma Bin.
"The goodness in knife skills, so that's what it means."
Ma Bin raised his hand and summoned Vice Alliance Hierarch Liu Xing.
"Do you need something?"
"I forfeit."
Liu Xing looked surprised, "You're giving up?"
"Yes, the essence of knife skills lies in not killing, only by forfeiting can I avoid killing!"
"Have you truly thought this through, is that your final answer?"
"Yes!" Ma Bin nodded.
"Alright, you may leave then."
"Have I passed the test?"
Liu Xing rolled his eyes, pointing at the spectator seats, "You've forfeited and still think you can pass the test, go sit in the spectator seats."
"…"
This wasn't right, wouldn't Vice Alliance Leader Liu reveal a meaningful smile, acknowledging that I had understood the purpose of the test and let me pass on my own?
How could my Imperial Kitchen's knife fame end like this?
Ma Bin was sent to the spectator seats, but the competition continued.
Finally, Lu Yang made a move; he slowly stood up, holding an ordinary kitchen knife, and strolled towards the Beast King Kui Niu.
The Kui Niu, sensing danger, knew instinctively from its bloodline that this enemy could kill it!
Lu Yang raised his knife and then lowered it, while the Kui Niu stood still, completely unharmed.
"What happened, what's going on?" The audience was extremely puzzled. Was he just intimidating the Kui Niu?
Is this the level of the Immortal Chef's successor?
"No, look what he's holding in his hand!" Ma Bin, possessing genuine skill, quickly noticed something unusual.
At some unknown point, Lu Yang held in his hand an extremely thin piece of paper, nearly transparent under the sunlight.
"Let me see." Liu Xing instantly moved closer, took the paper which felt weightless.
He unfolded it, and to his surprise, it was in the shape of the Kui Niu!
"You did this…"
"I split the Kui Niu down the middle, made another cut along the cross-section, and obtained this piece of beef paper."
"And the Kui Niu didn't even realize it had been cut, the wounds healed immediately."
Lu Yang tore off a small piece of the beef paper and chewed it, the flavor of Kui Niu meat filling his mouth.
"I think Ma Bin is right, the essence of knife skills truly lies in not killing. Vice Alliance Hierarch, would you like to try?"
The beef paper was so thin that a bit of sunlight was enough to cook it!
"No, your knife skills are superb, but the beef paper is too thin, not even enough for one dish. Despite demonstrating the essence of knife skills, you are not a qualified Spirit Chef." Liu Xing was very strict in terms of Spirit Chef standards.
"Why would that be difficult?" Lu Yang chuckled, knocked the Kui Niu out with the back of his knife, raised his knife again, and then had a piece of meat with a marbled pattern in his hand!
Liu Xing's pupils dilated, showing a disbelief expression.
Now he saw it clearly; to an untrained eye, it seemed like just one cut, but he saw Lu Yang make eighty-one cuts!
After knocking out the Kui Niu, Lu Yang made one cut to open its skin, extracted the beef shank, and after removing the beef shank, the Kui Niu's skin had just healed!
The Kui Niu, a Divinity Transformation Stage Demon Beast, had extremely strong healing abilities. By the time it awoke, the missing part had already regrown!
And the Kui Niu had no idea!
"If Vice Alliance Hierarch still thinks it's not enough food, I can find a few more Kui Nius. I can cut parts from them, and that should add up to a whole Kui Niu."
"You, you've passed." Vice Alliance Hierarch Liu said dazedly, this was more than just passing, it was a record-setting, an unprecedented knife technique in the sixty thousand year history of the Spirit Chef competition within the Five Star Spirit Chef Team!
"By the way, how many cuts did you make just now?" Vice Alliance Leader Liu suddenly asked before leaving.
Lu Yang smiled lightly, clasping his fists:
"A hundred and eight cuts, I am gratified."