Volume Four: Buddha Saves No One; Only I, the Devil, Deliver Them - Opportunity (Part One-Part Two)

The cooking contest held no suspense. Food should never be too finely prepared, nor cooking too meticulous—how could the head of the Immortal Realm Culinary Household lose to a Demon Realm Chef whose people still lived half on raw flesh and blood? Demon Realm cuisine resembled its architecture: all dizzying peaks and plunging valleys. Zhang Zhao packed a hundred flavors into a single dish, each part of the tongue tasting something different. The Demon Realm Chef could not have caught up even on horseback.

Sophia had originally looked down on the pretty-boy leader of forty thick-necked, broad-faced fellows. Only when he stepped up to the stove did she discover that, with a kitchen knife in hand, even a pretty boy could exude an air of looking down upon the world. She could not help thinking a little more highly of him. But the distance between that and Zhang Zhao's unmentionable goal was as long as the road to revolution in the Western Divine Realm.

Zhang Zhao won with ease. With a casual toss, his kitchen knife landed in the wooden knife rack with a swish, looking rather dashing. Then he wiped his hands on his white apron, every inch the househusband, and promptly knocked a good thirty percent off that dashing image.

Zhang Zhao won all three rounds. The Demon Realm Chef was so ashamed that he resigned on the spot, sparing Sophia the trouble of dismissing him. The victor gazed at her with shining eyes. Sophia bit her lip, lifted her chin, and said, "Don't worry. I'll keep my word." Then she left, somewhat vexed. She had thought she had an eighty-percent chance of winning a thirty-percent stake. Instead, she had lost completely.

Zhang Zhao wavered between hope and dread. Luo Qian chuckled, came over, and threw an arm