"Brace yourselves!" Jianheng shouted, raising Autumn Frost. "We must hold the line!"
But before anyone could move, Ji’an let out a loud, delighted, maniacal shriek of joy.
"LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THOSE RIBS!" Ji’an yelled, completely bypassing the defensive line and sprinting directly toward the fifteen-foot-tall, acid-dripping apex predator with nothing but two cleavers and a white apron.
"Wangchen! Zechuan!" Ji’an ordered over her shoulder as she ran. "I want the flanks! Don’t bruise the belly meat! I’m going to slow-braise those ribs in a dark soy and venom reduction until they fall off the bone!"
The Rank 7 Shadow-Stalker Bear roared, raising its massive, acid-dripping claws to swat the annoying red insect into a bloody pulp.
But the bear’s paws never fell.
Because the moment the Chef placed her order, the two most terrifying, overpowered anomalies in the entire orthodox world engaged.
CRACK!
The ambient temperature of the entire valley plummeted to absolute zero. A perfectly targeted glacier of black ice erupted from the ground, instantly encasing the bear’s massive, swinging arms, freezing the acid mid-drip, entirely arresting its movement.
Xie Wangchen glided past the terrified disciples, his ruby eyes glowing with dark, devoted obedience. "The flanks shall remain pristine, Chef," Wangchen promised softly.
And from the other side, Shen Zechuan didn’t even run. He simply folded space, materializing directly above the paralyzed bear’s head.
"I will secure the ribs, Ji’an!" Zechuan cheered happily.
He tapped the top of the bear’s skull with two pale fingers. A singularity of the Void-Devouring Mantra detonated, instantly shutting down the beast’s entire nervous system without shedding a single drop of blood or bruising a single ounce of meat.
The massive, terrifying Rank 7 apex predator slumped to the ground, completely dead in less than two seconds.
The other thirteen prodigies stood in the clearing, their swords raised, completely paralyzed.
They watched as Lin Ji’an enthusiastically jogged up to the colossal corpse, slapping the thick hide with the flat of her cleaver like a seasoned butcher evaluating a prime cut of beef.
"Beautiful," Ji’an praised, her eyes shining. "Absolutely gorgeous marbling. Zechuan, void the internal organs, we don’t need the digestion track. Wangchen, give me a clean, ice-blade slice down the sternum. We are eating like emperors tonight, boys!"
Elder Viper, leaning on his staff, let out a long, raspy, amused hiss.
"I believe," the old poison master murmured to the stunned, useless ring of prodigies, "that you boys can put your swords away. The kitchen is fully staffed."
Lu Jianheng slowly, defeatedly lowered Autumn Shine.
He looked at the terrifying Shadow-Bear being meticulously, enthusiastically butchered by a lunatic chef, an Ice Demon, and the Sect Leader’s airheaded apprentice.
"I have trained my entire life for combat," Jianheng whispered brokenly into the silent valley. "And I have been rendered entirely obsolete by a catering service."
"Just accept it, Jianheng," Gu Zhiwei patted the Sword Lord’s shoulder, a bright, deeply relieved smile breaking across his face. "We don’t have to fight! And we are getting ribs! Brother Lin truly is the greatest Vanguard Leader!"
As the fires of the Black Iron Wok roared to life, casting a warm, orange glow across the terrifying Labyrinth of the Beasts, the Vanguard Tour officially realized the true dynamic of their journey.
They were not a diplomatic envoy or a martial strike force.
They were simply the heavily armed, highly traumatized useless entourage of a Chef who was currently using the most dangerous environments on the continent as her personal, Michelin-star pantry. And as the smell of slow-braised, venom-infused bear ribs filled the air, none of them were complaining.
The first rule of surviving a high-stakes cultivation world was to never trust a free meal.
But when the ambient temperature of a toxic, death-filled valley was rapidly dropping, and the scent of slow-braised, heavily spiced Rank 7 apex predator began to waft through the petrified trees, even the most disciplined orthodox prodigies were reduced to slaves of their own biological hardwiring.
Lin Ji’an stood before the roaring spirit-fire, her white chef’s apron glowing warmly against her Szechuan Red combat silk.
In front of her, the massive, four-hundred-pound Black Iron Wok was currently functioning as a colossal braising pot.
The culinary masterpiece bubbling within it was nothing short of an alchemical miracle.
She had taken the colossal, heavily marbled ribs of the Shadow-Stalker Bear and seared them in wild boar fat until a thick, caramelized crust formed on the meat.
Then, utilizing a technique that had nearly given Elder Viper a heart attack, she had carefully extracted a dose of the bear’s own corrosive green acid gland.
By introducing the acid to a alkaline broth made from crushed lotus root and aged rice wine, she had neutralized the lethal toxicity, transmuting the deadly neurotoxin into an incredibly complex, high-voltage enzymatic tenderizer.
The result was a dark, glossy, bubbling reduction of soy, crushed wild mountain garlic, toasted star anise, and venom-derived spice.
The meat was literally falling off the bone, vibrating with an immense, hyper-concentrated density of pure spiritual energy.
"Order up, you miserable, sunburned peacocks," Ji’an announced, her voice ringing out across the damp, mossy clearing of the Labyrinth of the Beasts.
She didn’t portion out meager, survival-ration scoops, but grabbed heavy porcelain bowls from her spatial ring and began loading them with mountain-sized portions of the steaming, glossy ribs, ladling generous pools of the dark, spicy gravy over the top, and finishing each bowl with a handful of freshly chopped, wild mountain leeks.
The sixteen exhausted disciples, thirteen male prodigies and three terrified maidens, were huddled around the perimeter of the fire, watching her with the wide, desperate, hollow eyes of starving wolves.
They had spent the entire day flying under a blistering sun, running from a psychotic chef in the colosseum, and surviving the creeping dread of the miasma valley. Their stomachs were actively waging war against their spines.
"Come and get it," Ji’an smiled.
It was a beautiful smile, radiant, warm, and positively dripping with innocent, benevolent, maternal affection.