Chapter 43: Please, Judges, Have a Taste!

“This…”

The demonic overlords stared at the pill… ball in Chef Zhao’s wok, utterly stunned, shock written all over their faces.

“How did it end up like this?”

“The vision just now was world-shaking divine light, with waves of dragon roars. By all rights that should’ve been a peerless holy pill. How did it turn into this? It’s not even in pill form.”

“And why is it so big? It’s about the size of a human head!”

They were completely baffled, reacting strongly.

The five righteous-path infiltrators, however, were all desperately holding back their laughter.

Xu Gu chuckled and shook his head. Just from the Heavenly Demon Elders’ reaction, he could tell that these demonic bigshots really had never lived a good life.

Same as him—they’d never eaten food cooked by a proper head chef.

He explained, “It’s glowing because there’s a light formation on the wok. The dragon roars are from a dragon-roar formation on the spatula. Famous chefs always cook like this.”

“Huh?”

The demonic overlords stared wide-eyed as if a new world had opened before them.

So… you could fake the mystique of cooking like this? Dress it up with flashy tricks and pretend to be profound?

Truly worthy of being the promising seedlings Xu Gu had personally selected for demon cultivation!

Then, as they looked again at the pill-ball in Chef Zhao’s wok, their attitude did a complete 180.

Brows furrowed, eyes started to dodge; some even subconsciously took half a step back, muttering nonsense under their breath as they looked away.

Their faces were full of resistance.

“Is this pill really edible?”

“Not only does it fail to hold pill form, it feels like it’s giving off some indescribably terrifying aura. Is that my illusion?”

“We won’t die if we eat it, right?”

The demonic overlords were terrified and torn.

The problem was, whenever pills were refined, they—the elders—had to test them.

Otherwise, how were they supposed to be judges?

This was the pain of being a judge: if you didn’t eat it, you had no right to say the pill was no good.

But if you did eat it and the pill turned out to be truly no good… then you’d suffer for it.

No, not “if.” If they ate this pill, they were definitely going to suffer!

Logically, with their Nascent Soul cultivation, eating some low-level poison shouldn’t cause them any harm.

But for some reason, looking at these two pills, they just weren’t confident.

The demonic overlords were confused—no matter how you looked at it, even if these chefs were crossing over to pill refining, they shouldn’t be giving off this kind of feeling.

Maybe it was because these master chefs had been recruited by Xu Gu.

“Relatively speaking, that chubby loudmouth’s pill looks a little more reliable. At least it looks like a pill.”

Their gazes shifted toward Zhao Big Mouth, but the suspicion on their faces didn’t decrease at all.

Saying it was “more reliable” was only in comparison to Chef Zhao’s creation.

“Judges, please taste the pill!”

Chef Zhao placed the pill-ball on a plate and, out of professional habit, even decorated the edge of the plate with an intricate garnish.

“Judges, please taste the pill,” Zhao Big Mouth echoed, copying his movements.

All the demonic overlords jumped in fright, leaning their bodies back, desperately wanting to shake their heads—

But then they remembered they had to maintain their composure in public and uphold their “expert senior” persona.

So they could only force a smile and pretend nothing was wrong.

What they heard wasn’t “Judges, please taste the pill,” but more like, “Honored elders, please proceed to your execution.”

In the dark, their secret voice-transmission channel had already exploded into chaos as they argued over who should be the one to taste them.

“What’s with all the noise? Obviously Blueflame and Redflame should eat them!”

“They’re the Pill Refining Peak masters!”

“This is for selecting personnel for Pill Refining Peak!”

“And anyway, they’re the ones who asked Xu Demon Child to handle this task. If they don’t eat, who will?”

The overlords quickly reached a consensus.

“Huh?”

Elder Redflame and Elder Blueflame stared wide-eyed.

They hadn’t expected to be sold out by everyone in the blink of an eye.

They could only walk over to Xu Gu with tears in their hearts and say solemnly,

“Xu Demon Child, the two of us have absolute faith in you at any time!”

Since they were going to suffer anyway, they might as well use this chance to brush some favorability in front of Xu Gu and chip away a little of his resentment.

“Please don’t worry, Elders.”

Xu Gu nodded slightly.

The two elders smiled in relief, then marched toward Chef Zhao and Zhao Big Mouth like men going to their deaths, heroic aura surging.

“Snatch whichever you get to first,” Elder Redflame sent a hurried voice transmission as he suddenly sped up—

And in the blink of an eye, he was already standing in front of Zhao Big Mouth.

Compared to the wok-ball, his gut told him Zhao Big Mouth’s pill was slightly more reliable.

“…”

Elder Blueflame was speechless.

In a situation like this, was there even a point in picking?

He took a deep breath, picked up Chef Zhao’s head-sized pill-ball, and began to wolf it down, not daring to chew properly.

He didn’t dare use a spell to swallow it whole either, in case there was a problem; at least this way he had a moment to react.

“Hiss… I have to say, it tastes pretty good.”

Elder Blueflame’s eyes were filled with surprise.

He was visibly moved, almost on the verge of tears.

In all his life, he had never eaten something like this.

It was too delicious.

The others all cast appreciative looks at Chef Zhao.

Worthy of the title “cooking god” indeed. His craft truly was first-rate.

Seeing this, Elder Redflame relaxed a bit as well.

Whatever the effects, the taste definitely wouldn’t be bad.

With that thought, he tossed Zhao Big Mouth’s pill straight into his mouth.

One moment, he was smiling.

The next—

Boom!

The pill exploded in his throat.

Elder Redflame’s expression changed drastically. His face turned pale, then flushed red.

His breathing grew heavy; his mouth gaped, but nothing came out.

His whole body spasmed, clutching at his throat as he struggled to shout.

The demonic overlords panicked.

What pill? Was this a pill or a bomb?

How did it explode?

Just as they were fumbling around in a fluster, Elder Redflame finally squeezed out a hoarse shout:

“Water!”

“Too… salty…!”

“Huh?”

Hearing that, the overlords were stunned.

Then they all showed looks of surprise and disappointment.

So it was just too salty, and nothing else.

What a pity.

Zhao Big Mouth scratched his head and gave them a sheepish grin, looking simple, honest, and utterly harmless.

Ping Wuqi flicked his hand and sent out a spell, condensing a dragon of water that hovered beside Elder Redflame.

“Gulp gulp gulp…”

Elder Redflame didn’t care what anyone thought.

He grabbed the water and chugged it like his life depended on it.

Only after more than ten breaths did he finally recover, soaked in cold sweat as if he’d just taken a walk through the underworld.

“It is a Qi-Nurturing Pill, same effect… just… a bit too salty.”

Elder Redflame’s voice trembled.

Now he knew why he’d had such a bad feeling about the pill.

His cultivation was high, he could easily resist poison—

But he couldn’t resist that level of saltiness.

“Looks like mine’s a bit better after all. Worthy of being the work of a cooking god.”

Elder Blueflame let out a breath of relief and sped up his chewing.

After finally swallowing the entire pill-ball, he felt a warm current rise from his stomach and surge through his body.

“Although the size is a bit much, it’s still a proper Qi-Nurturing Pill.

“The effect is even better than the ones we buy at high prices from the Not-For-Profit Chamber of Commerce.”

Elder Blueflame’s eyes lit up with surprise.

The demonic overlords’ eyes lit up as well.

“It really works!”

In an instant, everyone was wild with joy.

They were excited, thrilled, utterly shaken.

Their worldview felt like it had just been turned upside down.

So master chefs really could refine pills!

If that was the case, Pill Refining Peak in the Demon Grotto could truly be built.

Soon, all demon cultivators would be eating pills… or pill-rice… made by their own people!

The Demon Path really was destined to rise!

However—

Right at that moment, a sharp, embarrassing noise echoed.

Pffft.

Elder Blueflame’s expression changed slightly.

He had a bad feeling.

Then—two more “pffft” sounds in a row.

A foul smell drifted through the hall.

Everyone’s expressions turned a little strange.

So, the side effect of Chef Zhao’s pill-ball… was gas.

No wonder everyone had felt uneasy.

Farting wasn’t exactly “poison,” so there was no way to resist it.

“This…”

Elder Blueflame’s expression grew a bit awkward.

But to cover up the sound, he burst out laughing loudly.

“Just a minor side effect, nothing to worry about!”

“Indeed,” Ping Wuqi and the other demonic overlords said, still brimming with excitement.

This kind of side effect was nothing at all.

It wasn’t them eating the pills anyway—these were going to be produced for the lower-level demon cultivators.

Their gazes toward Xu Gu were now filled with awe and admiration.

Like they were looking at a living immortal.

The same went for the five righteous-path infiltrators.

“Chefs refining pills really wasn’t a joke. It actually works!

“Senior Brother Xu Gu is incredible. This literally rewrites history!”

Everyone was amazed, itching to toss Xu Gu into the air in celebration.

But then they remembered: not long ago, he’d also casually buried the entire path of martial arts with a single sentence and sent an ancient Tribulation-crossing body cultivator into prison.

So they held back.

For Xu Gu, these world-shaking feats weren’t even special anymore.

They were just normal operations.

As expected, Xu Gu wasn’t surprised at all by the result.

He simply said calmly, “Elders, I’ve completed the task. Now, about my reward?”

New “projects” were already on the way. He definitely wouldn’t let everyone down…

(End of this chapter)