Satisfaction Battle (2)

Early morning.

Inside the Library Pavilion, Su Chen sat up from his bamboo chair, rubbing his still-bloated stomach.

The moment he opened his eyes, the Light Screen of the Eye of Omniscience in his Sea of Divine Consciousness popped up automatically.

At the top of the screen, three data curves were flashing bright red, glaringly intense.

The less than 0.01 point difference from last night had completely poked a hornet's nest, detonating the competitive spirit of the three giants.

Su Chen leaned against the window, watching the red dots representing the three women on the screen dash off in different directions toward various resource sites, moving so fast they left afterimages behind.

He took a deep breath.

It seemed today's "feeding hell" was about to escalate.

Deep within the Pope Palace.

Bibi Dong sat upright behind a purple-gold desk, her long hair disheveled, her phoenix eyes bloodshot from exhaustion, and her expression so grim it could drip water.

On the desk, the mountain of official documents she had been reviewing was shoved aside without mercy. In their place were over a dozen yellowed, ancient books.

These were all top-secret culinary recipes she had once disdained, used only to prop up the uneven legs of old tables in the Library Pavilion.

Half an hour ago, Angela had received a death order and, despite breaking out in a cold sweat, had managed to dig them out.

Bibi Dong scrutinized the records in the ancient books word by word.

"The monarch, the minister, the assistant, and the envoy; the timing of the fire, both gentle and fierce... a hair's breadth of difference leads to a thousand miles of error."

She muttered under her breath, extending a fair fingertip as a strand of terrifying Rakshasa Death Qi was forcibly compressed into a purple flame as thin as a hair.

The purple flame danced in the air, simulating the trajectory and temperature changes required for the soup.

On the Eye of Omniscience's Light Screen, the "Unwillingness Value" above Bibi Dong's head turned into a straight red line, breaking through the ninety-point threshold.

At the same time, in a secret room in Heaven Dou Imperial City.

A Dark Web death soldier knelt on one knee, throwing a middle-aged man bound in ropes and dressed in imperial chef robes onto the stone floor like a sack of grain. This fellow was the Chief Imperial Chef of the Heaven Dou Empire.

Qian Renxue had changed into a crisp, practical outfit, holding a spatula in her hand, her eyes as cold as ice.

The imperial chef knelt on the ground, trembling like chaff, stuttering as he recited the secret to pan-searing the top-tier Dragon Fish.

Qian Renxue followed his instructions. But the moment she flipped the fish, the holy Angel Soul Power within her surged out of control, a tiny sliver grazing the bottom of the pan.

"Sizzle!"

With a sharp crack, the once crystal-clear Dragon Fish meat instantly carbonized, curling into a lump of charred black matter that emitted a burnt stench.

Qian Renxue's face darkened on the spot. She raised her long right leg and kicked the imperial chef sprawling to the floor.

She gritted her teeth, a blinding golden divine light erupting from her body. On the screen, the "Must-Win Value" on Qian Renxue's panel shattered the safety red line.

Noon.

The silence of the Library Pavilion was forcibly torn apart.

Qian Renxue was the first to step through the door. She held a white jade tray in both hands, upon which sat a barely intact "Holy Light Dragon Fish."

The fish tail was still slightly charred, but she had masked it with the highest-grade ice-snow spices of the empire, emitting an elegant, fragrant aroma.

She lifted her delicate chin, her eyes filled with arrogance.

She walked to the tea table and, with a "bang," slammed the white jade tray down heavily.

"Eat." Qian Renxue's voice was cold. "A flavor unique to Heaven Dou. Those other messy things aren't worthy of your status."

Before the words had even faded, an icy, overbearing purple-black aura surged in from outside the door.

Bibi Dong carried a sandalwood food box, entering with a cold face and ignoring Qian Renxue's provocation entirely.

With a flick of her wrist, she opened the box. A steaming bowl of "Yin Yang Harmony Soup" was brought out. Not a single trace of aroma escaped; all the essence had been locked tightly within the soup according to the most rigorous ratios from the ancient texts.

"The heat was precise to the millimeter, not off by even half a fraction." Bibi Dong pushed the soup bowl toward Su Chen, her tone icy and filled with an irresistible sense of control. "Drink."

Two auras belonging to successors of gods collided wildly within the small Library Pavilion. The crackling sound of soul power explosions was incessant, and the tea table shook as if it were about to fall apart.

Su Chen sat in the middle, looking at the two works of art before him—one extremely haughty, the other driven by obsessive-compulsive perfectionism.

His scalp tingled and his back tightened, yet he wore a humble smile, his hands frozen in mid-air, not knowing which one to reach for first.

The atmosphere dropped to freezing point.

"Boom!"

The already dilapidated wooden door of the Library Pavilion was kicked into splinters! Wood chips flew everywhere.

Liu Erlong strode in, carrying a massive black iron platter in both hands.

There was no plating, no spices, and not even the color one would expect from a dish on that iron tray. That thing wasn't a dish at all; it was a lump of meat from a Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast, compressed to the extreme and flashing with frantic, crimson light!

Liu Erlong didn't care about heat ratios or proportions; she had used the most brutal method possible to force violent Fire Dragon Soul Power directly into the muscle of the beast.

The entire dish was a red ball of energy that could explode at any moment.

"I don't have time for all that fancy nonsense!" Liu Erlong slammed the black iron tray onto the tea table with a heavy thud. "Just eat it!"

The blinding red light illuminated the entire room.

Bibi Dong furrowed her brows, her eyes filled with disdain. "Such a crude, explosive thing—how is one supposed to eat this?"

Qian Renxue took a half-step back, sneering, "A barbarian's way of eating. Aren't you afraid of blowing yourself up?"

Su Chen did not hesitate in the slightest.

Facing the mockery of the two powerhouses, he reached out with both hands, grabbed the glowing red piece of roasted meat, tore off a large chunk, and shoved it straight into his mouth.

"BOOM!"

The scorching Fire Dragon Soul Power detonated instantly inside his mouth.

Su Chen's face flushed crimson in an instant, and the corners of his eyes twitched violently.

The sensation was akin to detonating a Soul Power Grenade in his mouth; had it been any other low-level soul master, their esophagus would have been blown to shreds.

But Su Chen gritted his teeth and endured it! The vitality of his World Tree martial soul surged wildly within him, rapidly repairing his scorched mouth.

He chewed fiercely, swallowed a large gulp, and gave Liu Erlong a thumbs-up.

"Refreshing! This is what a real man should eat!" Su Chen roared at the top of his lungs.

Bibi Dong and Qian Renxue were stunned on the spot.

The two stared blankly at Su Chen's beet-red face, a single thought surfacing in their minds simultaneously:

He actually ate something that could kill a person?

Over the next five days, the Library Pavilion completely devolved into a hellish, competitive culinary Asura field.

Su Chen performed the role of a "master of balancing acts" to the absolute extreme.

Every noon, he held Bibi Dong's medicated diet—prepared with perverted precision—in his left hand, clutched Qian Renxue's barely-formed, luxurious pastries in his right, and chewed on the radiant, explosive roasted meat from Liu Erlong.

He remained expressionless, accepting everything that came his way without refusal.

His consciousness moved so fast it left afterimages as he punctually tampered with the system ratings every day.

He kept the total scores of the three women locked in a stalemate. No matter what heaven-defying treasures anyone threw into the mix, the final score gap always hovered within a 0.01 margin.

Today Bibi Dong would be ahead by 0.01, tomorrow Qian Renxue would overtake her by 0.02, and the day after, Liu Erlong would charge back into the fray.

This agonizing tension, where no one could suppress the others, became the most brutal form of torture.

The mental states of the three women were repeatedly fried in oil by Su Chen's invisible hand. Their desire for victory and their pride—which forbade them from losing—were pushed to the limit.

Outside the Library Pavilion, the area became the most terrifying restricted zone in Martial Soul City.

Every noon, the air was a mixture of the aroma of top-tier ingredients and violent killing intent. The Judgment Knights responsible for the blockade felt as though they were undergoing a tribulation every single day.

Angela gripped her heavy sword, the cold sweat on her forehead never drying.

Every day, she smelled dishes that could prolong life, yet she was constantly buffeted by the extreme killing intent radiating from the Pope and the Young Master, causing her blood to churn.

The worldview of the entire knight order teetered on the edge of shattering and reforming every day.

Late on the sixth night.

Bibi Dong, Qian Renxue, and Liu Erlong returned to their respective territories, exhausted from the drain on their energy but possessed by an extremely agitated spirit.

Almost simultaneously, the three sat down at their desks, opened new recipes, and prepared to study their ultimate trump cards for the next day.

Just then.

A cold, grand, mechanical system voice exploded in the minds of all three women without warning:

[Ding! Final Day special rule triggered!]

[The satisfaction rating of the seventh day will account for 50% of the seven-day total!]

[The outcome will be decided by a single meal!]

The moment the prompt faded.

Inside the Pope Palace, Bibi Dong's fingers, which were turning the pages, froze abruptly, and the purple flames at her fingertips flared out of control.

Inside the Young Master Palace, Qian Renxue crushed the teacup in her hand, her golden pupils shrinking to pinpricks!

At the manor outside the city, Liu Erlong punched through her desk and slowly stood up straight.

Three waves of absolute, resolute soul power surged into the sky from three different directions in Martial Soul City.

For the sake of this final, decisive meal, the three women had no room for anything else in their eyes; they turned abruptly and charged toward their respective stoves!