Corrosion erupted in a sizzling hiss.
The stone floor and walls melted like wax, swelling with countless bubbles and giving off acrid smoke.
"Passable."
An arm reached out of the churning poisonous mist and swept casually aside, tearing an opening in the thick black fumes.
"About twenty percent as potent as Magellan's venom."
Deadly poison capable of instantly killing Sea Kings wreathed the blond boy, yet his expression remained as calm as if he were judging a cup of weak tea.
A cold snort came from the stove.
Poison was merely the embers of cooking.
The true creation was still in the wok-
"Plate up."
Kaiyu flicked his wrist. The mass of pure white leaped into the air and landed on the porcelain plate prepared beforehand.
His fingertips brushed the edge of his specially made cookware, the metal gleaming in a cold arc beneath the firelight.
The poisons permeated one another as he stir-fried, the power of the five elements cycling through creation and destruction within the wok.
The creation about to take shape was his proudest forbidden masterpiece.
"Up."
The spatula swept diagonally, and four entirely different dishes left the wok at once, landing precisely on their plates.
The first held fish slices soaked in chili oil layered with dark brown organs; the second had dark chunks of meat floating in thick porridge; the third contained a golden-brown flatbread wrapped around a swollen sheep's stomach; the fourth featured a fish steaming with the scent of liquor, covered in clearly marbled pork.
Four flavors from one wok-prepared by anyone else, they would have been a disaster to eat.
Yet these dishes born from his hands now gave off a soul-stealing fragrance, and even a hazy halo rippled across their plates.
The six captains waiting nearby stared wide-eyed, their Adam's apples