"It looks like only the two of us can enter the next round." Bai Ling looked at Lu Ran.
She had anticipated this situation. Infinite City would definitely not allow all six people to break through successfully. A breakthrough rate of one and a half out of six was already considered good.
"Yeah." Lu Ran nodded and said, "Do you still want to watch it?"
"I plan to leave first." Lu Ran was not very interested in the upcoming fire-working test. He had seen many chefs show off their skills in Frost Moon Tower.
"Forget it." Shepi and the others also shook their heads. While it was still early, they might as well go to the antique street. Maybe they could use the Data Eye to find some epic or legendary equipment...
By then, it would be wonderful to directly rise from the humble fourth generation to become a big boss who is on par with the first generation.
Next, the knife skills assessment will continue for a while. Several people have already finished the assessment and are naturally too lazy to wait any longer. They packed up and prepared to leave.
There were not many examinees who passed or failed the test. When Lu Ran and others left, the fat examiner and the female examiner looked at Lu Ran's back...
"Let's see what kind of food he can make tomorrow!"
…
The second assessment will be conducted in the wild. In this stage, those without strong abilities will have difficulty making any progress. If they want to pass the assessment, they can only find some ordinary ingredients in a relatively safe area, and then use their superb cooking skills to cook them into top-notch dishes.
For capable examinees, there is an additional option. They can go deep into the wild to look for some rare ingredients. Even if their cooking skills are not so good, they can still make top-notch dishes based on the quality of the ingredients.
For Zhizheweima and others, this breakthrough mission was considered a complete failure, and naturally they did not think about the assessment the next day. The four of them began to arrange their next itinerary, thinking about how to make the trip worthwhile.
"Brother Snake Skin, Brother Red Deer, I heard there is a 'Drunk Flower House' in the city. The music is quite good. It's a rare escape. Should we go and explore the ancient culture???"
After returning to the inn, the explorer came to invite him. As a natural explorer, it would be a pity not to explore such a dangerous place.
"Then they..." Shepi was moved.
"Sister Baihu and the shop owner's sister are both girls, they won't like that kind of place. The passerby is obviously underage, the future pillar of the motherland, so don't call him. Let him concentrate on preparing for tomorrow's test. The three of us brothers will go by ourselves."
"How wonderful!" Zhiszeweima thinks that it is indeed necessary to explore ancient culture.
With that, the three of them walked away arm in arm, leaving Lu Ran alone in the inn room to review the exam map...
The next day.
The seventy-two examinees who passed the preliminary selection yesterday arrived early at the designated location, a forest entrance outside Canglan City.
This place has also been transformed by the Hunter Association and has hundreds of open-air stoves, making it a special venue.
This time, the pets of each examinee have been released. Entering the wild forest without the assistance of the pets would definitely be an act of seeking death.
"Congratulations on being here. You have already passed half of the test." The female examiner grinned and said, "Although this is a commonplace question, please do not try to cheat in this part."
“Don’t try to pass off the ingredients you brought from other places as your own hunting ingredients. If I find out, the restaurant and family behind you will suffer as well. The consequences will be serious.”
"If you cheat in the Hunter Association's assessment, you will also be locked in the fire prison and experience the pleasure of being a roasted pig!" she said bluntly.
There were indeed cheaters in the early years of assessment, but when discovered by the examiners, they first demolished the restaurant behind the cheater, and then destroyed the examinee's cooking skills, broke his hands and feet, and made him a disabled person. After countless unlucky people experienced the consequences themselves, no one dared to cheat anymore.
If you want to cheat under the nose of the Hunter Association, the difficulty may be higher than passing the special chef assessment...
"Okay, this assessment will be limited to 12 hours. Within the specified time, you must hunt for the ingredients you need and use them to make a delicious dish to satisfy the taste buds of our three examiners."
"Now, the countdown begins!"
Crash.
As soon as the female examiner finished speaking, the 72 examinees left the stove and ran towards the forest.
Bai Ling was followed by Bai Hu. She glanced at Lu Ran, turned around and quickly entered the forest.
With such a ferocious pet partner, her chances of hunting rare ingredients are quite high.
Lu Ran originally wanted to go in directly, but before leaving, a voice sounded in his heart.
"Please stay." This voice seemed to be from the fat examiner, so Lu Ran did not take Mr. Ha in immediately. Instead, he waited until most of the people had left, then slowly turned around and looked at the three special examiners who were staring at him with interest.
"Is there something wrong?" Lu Ran asked.
The white-haired examiner smiled and said, "But I see that your pet is not at a high level. There is still some danger in this forest."
"For safety reasons, I would like to remind you not to go too deep. With your cooking skills, it would be easy to pass the test by just picking any ingredient."
Depend on.
Lu Ran didn't expect that these three examiners were actually very nice people. They even specifically reminded him to be careful.
"Got it. Thank you." Lu Ran nodded, then took Mr. Ha, who stuck out his tongue at the three examiners, into the forest.
The three examiners looked at each other.
"This King of Sudden Death has great cooking skills, but I didn't expect that the level of his pet is not high. It should be only around level 10. Even in the outskirts of this forest, there are often 10~20 hunting level creatures appearing."
"Shuangyue Tower must have provided him with a map of the test sites, so don't worry." said the female examiner.
“You can’t say that. Most geniuses like to strive for perfection and have their own pride. It’s okay if something happens to other people, but it would be a pity if a rare genius who has mastered the art of cooking encounters any accident during the assessment.” The white-haired old man laughed, and then, at the surprised expressions of the other two, summoned a pearl shell.
A huge shell appeared on the table, and the white pearls inside it reflected the figures of Lu Ran and Mr. Ha entering the forest.
"Master Gao, this is..." The fat chef was shocked.
"Yes, it's the Domain Shell. As long as the Domain Shell has been to a place, it can monitor everything within the range nearby, and the results will be reflected on this pearl."
"Before coming to Canglan Province to serve as an examiner, I deliberately took a tour of this Canglan Forest."
"It really is the divine beast that can peek at widows bathing!" he exclaimed in surprise. The next moment, he was kicked several meters away by the female examiner next to him.
"It seems that this time, I can save a lot of trouble in supervising the exam. Master Gao, where did you find the domain master?" The female examiner envied.
………
"Woof!" After taking Mr. Ha into the forest, Lu Ran thought for a moment.
“This way!”
According to the map in his memory, Lu Ran planned to find a lake and catch a fish as Manager Long said.
If Lu Ran wants to perfectly display the cooking skills and ingredients at the same time, sashimi is definitely the least likely to go wrong for someone who has no foundation in firework and only knows how to use a knife.
However, fishing is a technical job, and if possible, Lu Ran still wants to hunt fish of rare quality.
Although the breakthrough mission only requires making top-grade food and passing the top-grade assessment, it is completed, but the breakthrough mission will also have a score. The better the performance in the process, the higher the score will be.
Lu Ran was guessed right, and he wanted to keep improving.
Lu Ran didn't expect to get world-class ingredients, as they were definitely not available in such a place, but in that case, he might as well get some rare ingredients.
Dragon Fish Lake! This is a place deep inside the Canglan Forest. It is said that there are dragon fish that are about to transform into dragons in the lake. The quality of dragon fish meat can be ordinary or high-quality. If it is a dragon fish with a higher degree of evolution, the meat quality can definitely be rare.
But this journey is destined to be turbulent.
"This guy, why doesn't he listen to advice?" Through Pearl TV, the three examiners saw Lu Ran walking straight into the depths of the forest without even looking at the ordinary food around him, and their brows immediately frowned.
If this continues, this young genius who has mastered the art of cooking will definitely be in danger...
As soon as the three of them finished their thoughts, Lu Ran mistakenly entered a habitat of tusk pigs. Four tusk pigs were gnawing on thorns, with red eyes flashing with ferocity as they looked at the intruders.
"The hunting levels of these four tusk pigs are all around level 15," said the white-haired old man.
One against four!
This is bad!
But the next moment, they saw that Lu Ran ignored them and continued to move forward, and a sword appeared in his hand as he moved forward.
He did not use the sword himself, but threw the ice-blue sword into the sky.
The next moment, the dog beast that had been following Lu Ran grabbed the Ice Sky Greatsword and landed lightly. Then, like a gust of wind, it attacked the four charging wild boars! Boom!!! The gust of wind swept past, and the sword energy raged.
Countless leaves were flying everywhere, and four wild boars were blown into the air by the violent airflow. Then, the three examiners saw a scene that shocked their lives.
The skin of the four wild boars also showed the marks of yesterday's rock cattle, and then... the whole body was dismembered in mid-air, turning into countless exquisite animal meats that fell from the sky.
"What! What!" The fat chef widened his eyes and looked at Mr. Ha who was putting away his sword in a graceful manner.
At this time, the fallen animal meat, before it even hit the ground, was calmly put into the space backpack by Lu Ran who was passing by.
“This…” As the assessment had been going on all day last night, the three examiners did not have time to learn about Lu Ran’s deeds. When they saw President Ha dismembering four wild boars in an instant, their brains were buzzing.
They just felt that the dog's dismemberment method was even more violent and faster than Lu Ran's that amazed them yesterday.
What is this? What’s going on?
They were stunned.
Also, why can a dog of around level 10 instantly kill four tusk pigs with a hunting level of around level 15?
"Is that dog beast the leader of the race?" asked the female examiner.
"No, it should only be the extraordinary race!" The white-haired old man said, "But that sword should be very powerful, reaching a rare quality, and the forging method I have never seen before. I don't know which master made it."
The three of them were silent and continued to watch. Now they knew why Lu Ran had the confidence to go deep into the forest.
"He doesn't seem to want to cook with the tusk pork he just hunted..."
Lu Ran and Mr. Ha were moving very fast. If they encountered a blind beast, Mr. Ha would simply dismember the beast on the spot and then eat it as food.
After a while, Lu Ran and Mr. Ha arrived at Longyu Lake.
At this moment, the three examiners finally understood Lu Ran's intention.
"Pork and the like don't match the ice-based cooking idea. He wants to make sashimi." As he spoke, the fat chef drooled in anticipation. Just thinking about it made him salivate. He was curious about to what extent the ice-based cooking idea could stimulate the deliciousness of sashimi.
"But that dog beast is a wind-type pet, right? It should not be good at water. Dragon fish are as ferocious as sharks and live at the bottom of the water, so it is relatively difficult to hunt them." The female examiner expressed doubts.
How does he want to catch fish?
Fishing? Could it be that this King of Sudden Death is also good at fishing? This is also a must-do for gourmet hunters...
But then she fell silent again.
Because it's not fishing...
It's a spearfish! "Sword control!" With just one command from Lu Ran, Ha finally demonstrated his sword control skills after practicing for a month.
The Ice Sky Sword flew out of Mr. Ha's mouth and soared up to ninety thousand miles, as if the Milky Way was falling from the sky. Under the control of the strong wind, it plunged into the lake.
After a moment, water splashed everywhere, and the flying sword flew upstream with a large piece of ice stuck in it. In the ice, there was a half-meter-long dragon fish frozen.
At this time, there was a strange light in the dragon fish's eyes, and the light revealed confusion.
"Woof woof!" Seeing this, Mr. Ha shouted in dissatisfaction beside him. He felt so silly using the initial skills of external energy control he had learned to spear fish. It did not match his handsome temperament.
Cooking with sword intent, spearing fish with a sword, such cool skills are used to do this kind of thing, Mr. Ha understands why old man Jiang Dou hates Lu Ran so much.
(End of this chapter)