Chapter 1079: Excellence in Knife Skills

"What's the point of a bunch of Foundation Establishment little demons kneeling before you?" Immortal Fairy scoffed disdainfully, finding the Second Boss truly lacking ambition.

"Just wait. One day, when I find the Qilin Immortal, I'll make him kowtow to you. As Xiao Ling and Lianyin's senior brother..."

"No, no, no, Immortal Fairy, what I meant just now was that Song Tianjing is simply unlucky. How could he compare to me?"

"Is that what you mean?"

"Exactly!" Lu Yang nodded vigorously, desperate to stay alive.

"Alright then, it seems I misunderstood."

Lu Yang took two deep breaths, clearing his mind. He ignored the commotion around Song Tianjing and stopped thinking about his impending death. What he needed to do now was focus entirely on demonstrating his knife skills.

Other challenges he could just casually experience, but this first one required him to fight with all his might.

As the saying goes, swords and knives are not separate disciplines. Often, a sword cultivator's knife skills are quite good. As a dignified Sword Spirit Root and the top sword cultivator of his rank, he couldn't afford to lose face in this challenge!

The Five-Star Spirit Chef group was also in the beast arena, where Transformation Stage demonic beasts had broken free from their cages, unleashing their oppressive aura.

The sheer pressure alone was enough to intimidate some spirit chefs, making them hesitant to act, their hands trembling on their knives.

But Lu Yang was certainly not among them!

Other Five-Star Spirit Chefs had their unique equipment, but Lu Yang was different; a common kitchen knife was enough for him.

The Five-Star Spirit Chef competition differed slightly from the Two-Star Spirit Chef one: it had an additional requirement.

"Just now, Vice Alliance Leader Liu Xing mentioned that knife skills should embody 'goodness'."

While Lu Yang was still pondering what "goodness in knife skills" meant, other spirit chefs already had their ideas and began to wield their knives.

"Look quickly, there's a small sun over there!" The audience noticed something unusual about the Five-Star Spirit Chef group.

"No, wait, that's not a small sun! It's Master Jin Dao; his golden knives are simply too fast!"

Master Jin Dao took the lead, choosing a Feiyi, a type of snake with six legs and four wings, ranked fifth among the Transformation Stage demonic beasts present!

Master Jin Dao resorted to his old trick: he stomped his feet, flexed his muscles, and with a mighty heave, tossed the Feiyi into the air.

"Bone-stripping knife technique!"

His two golden knives spun rapidly, like a great sun. Wherever the "sun" shone, only clean snake bones remained, and pure white snake meat rained down.

"The goodness of knife skills lies in not letting the demonic beast feel pain. I yield the stage." Master Jin Dao said faintly, hanging his two golden knives on his chest. He landed first, and then the pristine white snake meat fell like rain into the plates.

In fact, Master Jin Dao also had the strength to defeat the top four demonic beasts, but he couldn't kill them instantly. And if he couldn't kill them instantly, the beasts would feel pain, which wouldn't count as "goodness in knife skills."

"Why is there such thick mist over there?"

"There's a figure in the mist, and the dance is so beautiful! Is an immortal maiden dancing?" The audience grew excited again.

When the mist dispersed, they realized it wasn't an immortal maiden at all. It was clearly Granny Poison dismembering a poisoned Nine-Headed Lion.

Yun Mengmeng looked at the audience with a strange expression. Were these people's eyes alright? First, they saw a small sun, then an immortal maiden dancing.

During the competition, Granny Poison didn't have to wear handcuffs and ankle chains temporarily, feeling much lighter.

She let out a sinister chuckle and chose the Nine-Headed Lion, a powerful entity ranked among the top three.

Granny Poison allowed the Nine-Headed Lion to bite her, tearing off a piece of flesh. Her poisonous blood flowed out, turning into a toxic mist upon contact with the air, sending the Nine-Headed Lion into a beautiful dream.

"The goodness of knife skills lies in letting the demonic beast die in bliss!"

Besides Lu Yang, one other person had not made a move from beginning to end: Ma Bin.

"So, 'goodness in knife skills' means this."

Ma Bin raised his hand and called out to Vice Alliance Leader Liu Xing.

"What is it?"

"I forfeit."

Liu Xing showed a surprised expression: "You forfeit?"

"Yes, the goodness of knife skills lies in not killing. Only by forfeiting can one avoid killing!"

"Are you sure you've thought this through? This is your answer?"

"Yes!" Ma Bin nodded.

"Alright then, you may leave."

"I've passed the test?"

Liu Xing rolled his eyes and pointed to the audience stands, saying, "You forfeited, and you still want to pass the test? Go sit in the audience."

This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Shouldn't Vice Alliance Leader Liu have smiled meaningfully and said that only he understood the purpose of this test, then let him pass?

How could the renown of my Imperial Kitchen Knife end before it even began?

Ma Bin was sent to the audience stands, and the competition continued.

Lu Yang finally made a move. He slowly rose, carrying an ordinary kitchen knife, and leisurely walked towards the Beast King Kui Niu.

The Kui Niu reacted as if facing a formidable enemy, its instincts telling it that this was a foe capable of killing it!

Lu Yang raised his knife and brought it down again. The Kui Niu stood dumbfounded, completely unharmed.

"What happened? What's going on?" The audience was utterly confused. Was he just trying to scare the Kui Niu?

Is this the level of an Immortal Chef's successor?

"No, look at what he's holding in his hand!" Ma Bin, truly skilled, quickly noticed something unusual.

At some point, Lu Yang held an extremely thin piece of paper in his hand, almost transparent in the sunlight.

"Let me see." Liu Xing instantly teleported over, picked up the paper, and felt absolutely no weight.

He unfolded the paper and discovered it was unmistakably the shape of the Kui Niu!

"You... this is..."

"I sliced the Kui Niu in half, then made another cut along the cross-section to get this beef paper."

"The Kui Niu didn't even realize what happened, and its wound healed instantly."

Lu Yang tore off a small piece from the beef paper, put it in his mouth, and chewed. The aroma of Kui Niu beef filled his mouth.

"I think fellow Daoist Ma Bin was right. The goodness of knife skills truly lies in not killing. Vice Alliance Leader Liu, would you like to try some?"

This beef paper was so thin that it cooked merely by being exposed to sunlight!

"No, you have exquisite knife skills, but the beef paper is too thin to even make a single dish. Although you demonstrated the goodness of knife skills, you are not a qualified spirit chef." In matters of spirit cooking, Liu Xing was extremely strict.

"What's difficult about that?" Lu Yang chuckled, used the back of his knife to knock out the Kui Niu, raised his knife, and lowered it again. In his hand was a piece of meat with a snowflake-like marbling!

Liu Xing's pupils contracted sharply, an impossible expression on his face.

This time, he saw it clearly. To an uninitiated outsider, it looked like just one strike, but he distinctly saw Lu Yang make eighty-one cuts!

After Lu Yang knocked out the Kui Niu, he sliced open its skin with one stroke, extracted the "Three-Flower Toe" part. As soon as the "Three-Flower Toe" was removed, the Kui Niu's skin healed perfectly!

The Kui Niu was a Transformation Stage demonic beast with incredibly strong healing abilities. By the time it woke up, the missing part would have already grown back!

And the Kui Niu was completely unaware of it!

"If Vice Alliance Leader Liu thinks it's still not enough to eat, I can find a few more Kui Niu. I'll carve out parts from them, and piece them together until there's enough for one whole Kui Niu."

"You... you passed." Vice Alliance Leader Liu said, dumbfounded. This was more than just passing; it was a record-breaking achievement. In the sixty-thousand-year history of the Spirit Chef Competition, such knife skills had never been seen in the Five-Star Spirit Chef group!

"Oh, by the way, how many cuts did you make in total just now?" Vice Alliance Leader Liu suddenly asked before leaving.

Lu Yang calmly clasped his hands and smiled:

"One hundred and eight cuts. You've been gracious."