243: I hereby declare war on the first culinary war!

Beams of light lit up, and one hundred dishes instantly appeared before everyone's eyes.

This scene left the entire audience dumbfounded, their gazes locked firmly onto those hundred dishes, unable to look away.

"Th-this is impossible!"

"How could you make a hundred dishes in an instant? You cheated, you must have cheated!"

The one-eyed man stared at the hundred dishes, his expression verging on madness.

He had long since bribed the judges, changing the competition format from deciding the winner with a few dishes to a hundred.

At the same time, he had schemed to ruin his opponent's reputation, causing his wife and children to leave him and everyone to turn against him.

Under such immense mental and competitive pressure, it was absolutely impossible for his opponent to win this match.

That was why he had stopped after making only one dish, confident that it was enough to crush his opponent's Dao Heart.

But what on earth was happening before his eyes?

Where did those dishes come from?

How could they be made so quickly?

"Right!"

The one-eyed man suddenly caught a fleeting thought.

"What kind of quality could dishes made in such a rush have? These dishes must be inedible!"

"Hahahaha, Zhou Yan, have you finally fallen too? To think you'd try to beat me with such methods!"

Feeling he had grasped the key, he continued cooking, though his speed was significantly slower than the first dish, seemingly intending to win by quality.

Zhou Yan watched the other man busy himself calmly, not worried that the dishes would lose their luster from sitting out; after all, they were spiritual food, so it wouldn't matter even if they were left for dozens of days.

At the same time, he understood the reason for everything before him.

When comprehending the Law of Consumption, the greatest culinary expert Zhou Yan saw was the very chef whose position he was occupying now.

Although his skills were superb, his Dao Heart eventually shattered, and he died, unable to continue on this path.

The one-eyed man before him had once been his partner.

The two of them had initially run a small shop together, studying gourmet food, but later, as the shop grew, the one-eyed man gradually strayed from his original intention, beginning to concoct so-called "high-end cuisine," desperate to sell half a stick of celery for an exorbitant price.

He was ashamed of this, and the two parted ways.

Losing a like-minded friend was only the beginning of his tragic life.

Subsequently, his incompetent younger brother was abandoned by his Dao Companion, who took all his money, forcing him to move into his brother's home.

At first, things were peaceful, until he discovered that his wife was having an affair with his brother, and the two of them absconded with all his savings and the recipes he had created.

And all of this had been orchestrated by his "good brother," the one-eyed man; his brother had also been sent intentionally.

After the two sold the recipes to him and obtained a huge sum of money, he sent them out of the country.

His elderly mother learned of this and, overcome with shame, broke down and committed suicide, for it was she who had originally used moral blackmail to force her eldest son to take in his brother, and now that this had happened, she had no face left to continue living.

But she did not know that this act became the final straw that broke him.

The one-eyed man faked his mother's death as a murder, causing him to be wrongly imprisoned.

Even though the miscarriage of justice was eventually cleared, he had already spent five years in prison, during which time his arm was broken by prisoners bribed by the one-eyed man.

When he was released from prison, he was mentally withered and physically broken; he had not only lost his ability to innovate, but his culinary standards were also far inferior to before.

Afterward, he ran a street stall, making a living by selling fried rice and fried skewers, until he was awakened by a young man, resolving to face his Heart Demon and participate in the Culinary God Competition.

But reality was not a satisfying "counter-attack" web novel.

During the years he had been silent, the one-eyed man had come to dominate the catering industry, with all sorts of "technology and ruthless tricks" emerging one after another.

He had won with great difficulty, especially since the competition organizers were also manipulated; reaching the finals was already his limit.

Yet just when he wanted to retrieve his family's secret sauce for the finals, the young man who went to get it for him was killed by an assassin sent by the one-eyed man, and the sauce was lost as well.

Having lost his last emotional anchor and trump card for a comeback, and facing rules that were nakedly targeted against him, he vomited blood and died on the final stage.

This was the tragic ending Zhou Yan rarely witnessed when comprehending the Law of Consumption.

However, it was the other party who was miserable; what did it have to do with him?

After sorting out the situation, Zhou Yan started cooking without a word.

Once he started, he couldn't help but laugh, because although his way of cooking seemed to rely on the System, it was actually the external manifestation of the abilities bestowed by the System.

Therefore, this was truly how Zhou Yan cooked.

Possessing such a nearly cheating ability, combined with a massive database that, while not surpassing this person's Peak, gathered the strengths of hundreds of schools, Zhou Yan's strength at this moment was not inferior to the chef's prime.

Moreover, after completing that legendary banquet, Zhou Yan was completely confident in winning this match and truly resolving this Heart Demon.

Before long, the one-eyed man's hundred dishes were also completed.

One had to admit that he did have some skill; the dishes were complete in color, fragrance, shape, and taste, and although they leaned towards a high-end, flashy style, it was quite an achievement.

At this moment, the one-eyed man had consumed quite a bit of magic power, breathing slightly, standing with his arms crossed, his eyes full of confidence.

In fact, he was already panicking inside, because what he had just said about Zhou Yan's dishes being of poor quality was only to be heard by the audience, just to deceive them once more.

He had been cooking for so many years, after all; he could tell the other person's standard at a glance.

But the reason he dared to say that was because he still had a trump card.

Those bribed judges would definitely speak for him!

At worst, he would add some more money and have them insist that the opponent's dishes were unpalatable.

Even if there were audience members who knew their stuff and gave the opponent a chance to make a comeback... it was impossible.

Once the competition ended, he would send the opponent to accompany that young man.

Just as the hundred dishes were about to be submitted for review, Zhou Yan suddenly raised his hand.

The judge originally didn't want to pay attention, but seeing the entire audience looking this way, he had to ask helplessly.

Zhou Yan waved his hand again.

This time, it wasn't a hundred dishes that appeared. It was over a thousand.

The whole venue boiled over again.

The audience below the stage defected one after another, shouting Zhou Yan's name.

The one-eyed man was sweating profusely, his voice trembling slightly.

"Y-you... what's the use of making so many! We're only, only comparing a hundred dishes; making more doesn't necessarily mean you'll win!"

Zhou Yan ignored his words and looked at the judge.

"Gourmet food should be shared with the public."

"The hundred dishes are for the judges to taste and grade, but it's boring for the audience to just sit there, so I made some more for everyone to taste."

"But this is not meant to coerce public opinion or threaten you all; it is purely a display of skill. After all, waiting was boring, so I made some extra; it would be a waste not to use them."

The judges and reviewers were speechless for a moment.

They looked at the confident Zhou Yan, then at the sweating, sinister-looking one-eyed man, and then at the eyes of the audience below the stage.

They had to admit that this move did not break the rules, and if it provoked public anger, the consequences would be unpredictable.

In the end, with the tacit approval of the judges and organizers, the thousands of dishes were divided into small portions and distributed to the entire audience.

The one-eyed man knew that after this, his opponent would surely rise again, but he couldn't stop it; he could only calculate adding more money after the match to send more men to silence him.

The most important thing right now was still to win the championship!

So the judges tasted the one-eyed man's dishes first, even though Zhou Yan had finished earlier.

After tasting, they all gave a score of ten.

Removing the highest score of ten and the lowest score of ten, the total score was ten.

The one-eyed man received a ten.

With such undisguised favoritism, victory could actually already be declared.

But under Zhou Yan's cold gaze, the one-eyed man felt an inexplicable fear.

He looked at the judges who were tasting Zhou Yan's dishes and preparing to give low scores, but was horrified to discover...

They had already started devouring the food, fighting over the dishes while drenched in sweat, even going so far as to bite each other's necks!

If not for the fact that they were all Cultivators with tough Physiques, they might have already caused deaths.

At the same time, the audience below the stage also let out manic roars, surging onto the stage like zombies released from cages, begging for food like lost lambs, imploring Zhou Yan to bestow delicious food once again.

The one-eyed man was completely stunned.

"Wh-what on earth is this! Is this still cooking?"

Zhou Yan kept smiling and stepped onto the table.

"The First Culinary World War, I declare it here!"

As his words fell, the entire audience and judges shouted in unison.

As Zhou Yan pointed his finger, those people grabbed some food like madmen and rushed toward the one-eyed man.

He couldn't fight back, nor could he escape; eventually, he was submerged by the crowd and had mouthfuls of food stuffed into him.

In that instant, his emotions completely collapsed.

He finally tasted the supreme flavor of the world and from then on became Zhou Yan's prisoner.

The crowd did not stop; Zhou Yan's goal was to destroy the current chef System.

He turned into a ruthless dish-making machine, frantically producing all kinds of delicacies.

The crowd was clearly divided in their tasks, spontaneously spreading Zhou Yan's delicacies and providing ingredients.

Soon, the entire city's dietary System was completely broken.

Those chefs who relied on technology and ruthless tricks were powerless to resist the onslaught of pre-prepared meals mixed with Xuanhuan and ruthless tricks, and were quickly annexed and assimilated.

When Zhou Yan's delicacies occupied the whole city and reconstructed the entire dietary System, this city began to collapse, once again turning into the Void Realm.

"Just as I thought."

Facing the Void Realm before him, Zhou Yan verified his guess.

Although he didn't know who this person was, he could at least confirm that he was a tragic character who loved food his whole life, yet had everything shattered by conspiracies outside of food.

Perhaps he had never hated food, but only resented the people and things that made him unable to continue creating and that tarnished food.

So Zhou Yan chose an extreme method.

Adding dark cuisine elements to the food, letting the people already eroded by technology and ruthless tricks sink deeper.

Then, after using them to break everything, he introduced a new, healthy System to bring everything back on track.

Although the process was a bit extreme, thinking of the other person's state at the time—he had been angered to death, after all—he probably wouldn't mind.

And being able to succeed so quickly was perhaps also because he had simultaneously taken revenge on those people, which better met the conditions for eliminating the Heart Demon.

After ending all this, Zhou Yan slapped himself hard.

"Ouch, damn, the Heart Demon is truly terrifying... even knowing it's fake, I acted even more recklessly."

"If I indulge my Heart-Nature and use unscrupulous means just because I am in a false world, I will definitely sink deeper and deeper in such an environment."

"It really is; I almost fell for it!"

He rubbed his cheeks vigorously, trying to make himself more alert.

He was very clear that he had already fallen deep enough into the Heart Demon, and at this time, all kinds of emotions needed to be guarded against; this was also a lesson he had summarized from Li Wenbo.

When Zhou Yan completely calmed down, a new world was constructed again.

What appeared before him was a giant maggot.

Compared to the Q-version Demon Sovereign Zhou Yan had seen before, it had no Dragon Transformation features at this moment and was even more disgusting.

It twisted its body and came before Zhou Yan, seemingly squeezing out an expression that looked like a smile.

Only to hear it speak.

"Want to pass? Actually, it's very simple; as long as you promise me that from now on, you will never eat your favorite... urgh!"

Zhou Yan trembled all over, using twelve percent of his strength to kick it out of his field of vision.

Because in that instant, he caught a glimpse of that giant maggot using its greasy, disgusting little stubby hands to pull a blob of mosaic from behind its back.

So, before witnessing that terrible thing and hearing those disgusting words, Zhou Yan struck first, ending the other party with one kick.

The world that had just condensed collapsed again in an instant.

"Hoo—ha—hoo—ha—"

Zhou Yan kept taking deep breaths, trying to suppress his surging anger.

Although he didn't let the other party finish speaking, didn't see that terrible thing clearly, and it was fortunate that he had easily passed a layer of the Heart Demon... he still saw some pixels.

In the Heart Demon world, in the eyes of a Cultivator possessing Divine Sense, this was enough to cause mental shock.