The Exclusive Cook, Advanced Edition

Pope Palace, bedroom.

Bibi Dong stood by the window, her chest rising and falling unevenly.

Qian Renxue's meek, "green tea" act from last night was like a thorn lodged in her heart. She couldn't pull it out, and it ached faintly.

Her heart was restless. She was just about to circulate her Rakshasa Soul Power to force her emotions under control.

[Ding!]

[Exclusive Cook: Advanced Edition mission triggered: Spirit Meal Fish Soup!]

[Mission requirements: Prepare a bowl of fish soup for the Lord of Creation. The fish must remain intact, and the heat must be precisely controlled. You are strictly forbidden from relying entirely on Soul Power to do the work!]

[Failure penalty: The target's favorability will be forcibly reduced, and four hundred hours of Soul-Devouring Pain will be inflicted immediately (doubled)!]

Bibi Dong's breath abruptly caught.

She stared at the blood-red words "Soul-Devouring doubled." Her stunning face instantly turned ashen, and her teeth ground together with a harsh grating sound.

Make fish soup?

And the fish had to stay intact?

She wasn't allowed to use Soul Power?!

She was the mighty Ninety-ninth Level Limit Douluo, the supreme Pope of the Spirit Hall. She had slain Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts and cut down countless Titled Douluo.

And now this damned system actually wanted her to wait on a fish?!

The failure countdown hung over her head like a blood-red executioner's blade.

Bibi Dong's chest heaved violently several times. She was so furious she wanted to beat the system to a pulp.

In the end, she said nothing. She walked behind the screen, roughly tore off her luxurious papal nightgown, and changed into an extremely inconspicuous black outfit.

Late at night.

The Imperial Kitchen in Spirit City.

"Everyone, get out of the courtyard. Without my order, anyone who dares come within ten paces will be executed without mercy."

Bibi Dong stood before the stove, her voice so cold it could freeze boiling water.

Only Bibi Dong and a large wooden tub full of water remained in the Imperial Kitchen.

In the tub, a Black-Backed Carp weighing a good three pounds swam around happily.

Bibi Dong stepped forward and looked down at the fish, her gaze cold, the deathly stillness of a predator studying its prey.

As if sensing danger, the carp suddenly flicked its tail.

"Plap!"

A spray of fishy water splashed precisely across Bibi Dong's fair cheek.

Silence.

A terrifying, murderous chill flashed through Bibi Dong's eyes, instinctively unleashed by her peak-strength power.

She abruptly raised her right hand, treating the clueless carp as a mortal enemy, and brought her palm straight down! She meant to stun it.

"Smack! Boom!"

A muffled explosion rang out.

The strength of a Limit Douluo was terrifying. Even though she had deliberately held back, the sturdy steel-reinforced wooden chopping board split apart on the spot, spiderwebbed with cracks.

As for the poor Black-Backed Carp... it didn't even have time to cry out before turning into a pulp, crushed into the grain of the wood.

Scales, bones, and flesh were jumbled together, utterly ruined.

Bibi Dong stared at the unrecognizable mush on the chopping board. The corners of her eyes twitched sharply twice.

On the system panel, the words "fish must remain intact" were taunting her wildly.

Suppressing the urge to uproot the entire Imperial Kitchen, she took a deep breath and turned toward the tub.

She scooped out a second fish.

This time, she changed her strategy.

No palm. She needed a knife.

Bibi Dong picked up a sharp kitchen knife.

That hand had been accustomed to holding the highest scepter, and the Demon Scythe that reaped lives. Now she had to use it for delicate work: scraping scales and removing bones.

She had been cooking for a few days already, but she still wasn't used to it.

The blade came down.

Too much force again.

"Rrrip."

The blade cut straight through the fish bone. Bibi Dong furrowed her brow and forced her wrist to turn aside.

One cut, two cuts, three cuts.

After several grating scrapes, the fish fillets that should have been evenly thick and translucent had been clumsily scraped into a pile of tiny bits of flesh by a Limit Douluo's impossible-to-control "fine motor skills."

The second fish had failed once again.

Time passed, one minute and one second at a time.

After a full two hours of struggling, six carp lay on the Imperial Kitchen floor, each with a gruesome end.

Only when the sky began to brighten did Bibi Dong, drenched in sweat, manage to leave the seventh fish "whole." She tossed it into the large black iron pot beside her.

Now came the simmering.

The firewood was horribly uneven, the flames flickering on and off. The soup in the pot showed no sign of boiling.

In her mind, the mission countdown had reached its final red warning.

Impatience, exhaustion, and the fishy stench she just couldn't wash off finally exhausted Bibi Dong's patience.

She looked at the lifeless bottom of the pot and steeled herself.

To hell with the rule against relying on Soul Power!

Bibi Dong slightly bent her right index finger and discreetly sent out a thread of faint purple-black Rakshasa Soul Power, directing it straight at the firewood beneath the stove.

She meant to force the heat along.

Rakshasa Death Qi was one of the most extreme destructive forces in the world.

The instant that wisp of Soul Power touched the ordinary iron pot—

"Boom!"

A deafening blast, ten times louder than before, erupted!

The steel pot's bottom couldn't withstand the extreme heat of Rakshasa Divine Power. A hole the size of a human head burned through it in an instant.

The boiling soup poured down like a waterfall, straight onto the burning fire.

"Hissss—"

Thick white smoke billowed up, swallowing the entire stove in an instant.

Outside the courtyard gate.

Angela could hold back no longer. The loud blast and the smoke spilling through the cracks in the door had completely shattered her composure.

"Clang!"

Her sword came free of its sheath. Angela rushed to the gate, sword in hand, and cried out in a shrill voice, "Your Holiness! Are you under attack?!"

Before she could finish—

From inside came Bibi Dong's furious, utterly flustered roar:

"Get out!"

Her voice carried the oppressive force of Rakshasa Soul Power. Angela's blood and energy churned, and she stumbled back three steps before falling heavily onto the ground.

Trembling, she stared at the Imperial Kitchen as smoke continued to pour out. She didn't dare ask another question.

Angela's imagination ran wild: His Holiness had cleared everyone out in the dead of night and made such a commotion. She must be secretly concocting some peerless poison capable of wiping out an entire city!

Mm, it had to be!

Inside.

Bibi Dong stood in the smoke, covered in soot, staring at the pot with its bottom burned out.

Her last line had been crossed.

The sky was just beginning to brighten.

A pale gray shimmer appeared over Spirit City.

Outside the Library Pavilion, Bibi Dong held a food box and stood before the rickety wooden door, its planks nailed across it.

She was in a terrible state. Her eyes were bloodshot, and the cold, delicate fragrance that usually clung to her had been completely overwhelmed by the stink of fish and smoke.

The bandage on her left index finger was wrinkled from getting wet.

Her shame and guilty conscience had reached a peak unlike anything she had ever felt.

Inside the food box was half a bowl of leftover soup that she had painstakingly salvaged from the edge of the ruined pot.

Finally, with only ten seconds left before the system countdown hit zero and its "death summons" sounded, Bibi Dong braced herself and pushed open the wooden door.

"Creak."

Su Chen was already seated beside the tea table.

Bibi Dong strode over, her movements stiff.

She opened the food box and took out the rough porcelain bowl.

"Thump."

She set the bowl down hard on the tea table in front of Su Chen, with enough force to nearly splash the liquid inside.

Bibi Dong turned her head aside, staring fixedly at the cracks between the floor tiles. She didn't dare look at how the dish appeared.

It was a bowl of "fish soup" with a strangely murky color. The fish had been reduced to a rice-like mush, and several suspicious flecks of black ash floated on top.

It looked like deadly poison.

"Drink it." Bibi Dong's voice was cold and hurried, betraying the guilt of someone who had given up trying to save face.

Su Chen lowered his eyes to the bowl.

On the Eye of Omniscience's Light Screen, he had seen every mishap that had just occurred, clear as day.

This soup was filled with the collapse and compromise of that Limit Douluo.

Without the slightest hesitation—

Su Chen didn't even pick up a spoon. He reached out with both hands and lifted the rough porcelain bowl directly.

Bibi Dong noticed his movement out of the corner of her eye. Her fingers clenched tight, and her heart missed a beat.

He wasn't even going to ask? Wasn't he afraid it was poisoned?

Su Chen tipped his head back.

"Gulp, gulp."

The sound of him swallowing in big mouthfuls echoed through the quiet Library Pavilion. He showed not a trace of disgust and didn't furrow his brow once.

That completely unguarded acceptance struck Bibi Dong's taut heartstrings like a heavy hammer.

Su Chen drank every last drop of murky liquid in one go.

He even stuck out his tongue and licked up the little bits of fish left at the bottom of the bowl.

Bibi Dong turned her head and stared at the empty bowl. A wave of almost unbelievable bitterness and shock rose in her eyes.

Her throat tightened. She couldn't say a word.

Su Chen gently set down the empty bowl.

He didn't immediately roll off his chair and kowtow in gratitude as he usually did. Nor did he put on that timid, cringing act of anxious deference.

He simply raised his head and looked straight into Bibi Dong's eyes across the tea table.

His gaze was calm and earnest.

There wasn't a trace of pretense in it.

"Your Holiness." Su Chen's voice was soft, but each word rang clear in the air. "This is the freshest soup I've ever had in my life."

That utterly unfeigned, sincere praise was like an arrow aimed with perfect precision, piercing straight through the last layer of cold pretense Bibi Dong had used to shield her heart.

She couldn't hear the system's mission-complete notification in her mind anymore.

All Bibi Dong felt was a sudden warmth in her chest.

The heat climbed up her neck, and a striking blush visibly spread across her fair earlobes.

For the first time, she felt so flustered and at a loss in front of a man.

She said nothing.

She abruptly snatched the empty bowl off the tea table and clumsily shoved it back into the food box.

Then she turned.

Her steps were unsteady, almost stumbling.

Holding the food box, Bibi Dong practically fled from the Library Pavilion.