Chapter 582: First Qualification Round 2

Shen Xu and Zhen Yuan exchanged a glance but didn’t say anything.

After all, it was reasonable for others to speculate because his performance was too superior to his competitors.

"Do you want to go to the courtyard or walk around the city?" Zhen Yuan asked.

"Walk around." Shen Xu said.

On one hand, he wanted to eavesdrop on gossip and on the other, he was hoping to find leaks.

Unfortunately, they didn’t find leaks but eavesdropped on a lot of similar gossip.

Overall, most people believed that Shen Xu neglected preservation and that’s why he was able to get such a high score in the preliminary test.

After walking around for a few hours, the two returned to their courtyard and waited for the second test.

Time passed and the day came.

On this day, the two left their courtyard and went to the city lord’s residence.

"The testing is about to begin." They heard someone say.

"My soup is in hall three. It will be awhile before It’s my turn." Another said.

"My senior brother has just returned from Suzhou city and guess what..." A female cultivator said and the surrounding people couldn’t help but be curious.

"Hurry up and tell us." Someone urged.

"The qualification rounds are unified in both the test questions and timing." The female cultivator started and quickly continued.

"My senior brother saw the preliminary results of Suzhou city’s qualification rounds. The top master has a score of twenty six."

"Twenty six..., isn’t that lower than Shen Xu?"

The female cultivator excitedly nodded when she heard this.

"The top master is the Peach Immortal Chef." She revealed and the surrounding people gasped in surprise.

Peach immortal was a famous chef in the lower heaven.

She was not only a great immortal realm cultivator, but also one of few level thirteen spiritual chefs in the lower heaven.

Additionally, she liked using Peach ingredients, flavours, and colours which led to her ’Peach immortal’ title.

"I can’t believe the Peach Immortal lost in the first round. Who is this Shen Xu?"

"The Peach Immortal hasn’t lost yet. Maybe she will take the lead after the second test."

"You..." A male cultivator started but suddenly stopped.

Simultaneously, everyone including Shen Xu and Zhen Yuan turned to look in yhr direction of hall one.

"The test has started." Someone said and everyone used their spiritual sense to see the situation in hall one.

"Open the barrier." One of the judges instructed and a male cultivator nodded before injecting his soul power into the isolation barrier.

A moment later, the barrier opened and three judges began examining the soup.

"Effectivess has decreased from sixty percent to twenty percent. Two points." Chef Fang said, and one of the other judges recorded in the person’s competition token.

"The soup is edible but barely so. Five points." He continued and narrowed his eyes before scooping some soup and bringing it to his mouth.

Seeing this, the other judges also spooned some soup and drank.

"Taste is..." A female judge started and frowned before continuing.

"Three points." She said and the other judges agreed.

The judges spent three hours judging the soups in hall one. As a result, most of the soups scored less than ten points out of a possible thirty points.

Most importantly, half the soups were disqualified for being inedible, and the chefs were eliminated from the competition.

Seeing this, Shen Xu narrowed his eyes with a thoughtful expression.

"What’s on your mind?" Zhen Yuan asked.

"I didn’t expect the second test to be so devastating." He said and sighed.

Spiritual chefs were used to relying on storage equipment and special utensils to preserve food and ingredients.

Because of this, mist were unable to adapt when forced to give up the storage equipment and special utensils.

Two days passed and the judges finally arrived in hall five.

"Are you nervous?" Zhen Yuan asked with a teasing smile.

However, Shen Xu wasn’t nervous!

Although he hadn’t had time to confirm that his soup could last one month, he was confident in his research and preparations.

"Not really." He said and Zhen Yuan raised his hand to rub the double’s hair.

"You will do well." He said.

Shen Xu’s soup was near the middle of the hall so he waited one hour until it was his turn.

"Young lad." Chef Fang greeted and a trace of anticipation flashed in his eyes.

"Chef Fang." Shen Xu nodded and injected a strand of soul power into his isolation barrier.

Soon after, the barrier opened and an appetising fragrance diffused into the surroundings.

"Good." Chef Fang said and inserted a measuring jade into the soup.

Half a breath later, the white jade turned green, but the green was a little flawed compared to the previous test.

"Nine points for effectiveness." He said and a chorus of shocked gasps filled the surroundings.

"How is that possible..." Someone muttered.

"He only lost one point in effectiveness? How did he cook his soup?"

"Could he have used some kind of treasure ingredient?" Someone speculated and the surrounding cultivators nodded in understanding.

"He probably did." A female cultivator said and narrowed her eyes before continuing.

"Let’s wait for the freshness and Taste tests." She said but she was destined to be disappointed.

"Both Freshness and taste are nine points each." Chef Fang declared with a complicated expression.

"Shen Xu has a total of fifty-six points." He said and everyone turned to look at Shen Xu.

"I didn’t expect Fellow immortal Shen to not only be talented, but to also be good looking." A female cultivator said and her cheeks flushed with unconcealable shyness.

"Why do I feel that his fire aura is a bit..."

"You too? His fire aura is not normal. It’s too pure, too powerful, and too..., enticing."

"Could he have a fire element physique?" Someone speculated and the surrounding people couldn’t help but take a closer look at Shen Xu.

’Annoying.’ The double thought but what could he do?

Fortunately, everyone could guess that he had a fire element physique but they couldn’t see through his body’s true nature. Otherwise, he and Zhen Yuan wouldn’t have a moment of peace.