Night of the Broken Gliph

“Your humble servant can’t identify the green layer in the middle. May I ask what that is?”

Recipes were every g-chef’s top secret as they were equivalent to a g-chef’s weapon. However, Lam Ming Sum couldn’t bear to disappoint On Pak Hin, who awaited the answer eagerly, and thus she disclosed it. “I call it emerald jade. I made it by boiling mashed focus grass and then freezing it.

“Focus grass is a type of gliphic plant mostly used by alchemists to make elixirs, but I realised that its bitterness could be removed after processing. It goes well with all types of meat and helps distinguish the flavours. Therefore, you can taste the individual flavours of the different types of meat as well as the mixed flavours of this Four Jade Celebration. After adding a unique sauce I’ve learned to make from a Northern friend, this savoury cold dish is completed.”

Lam Ming Sum’s words reminded Kam Chin Kee of the time she got him to try her failure dish, Deep Fried Focus Grass. The strong flavour… gave him nothing but goosebumps.

“Is this perhaps… Your Highness’s creation!?” On Pak Hin squealed.

“Yes. What’s wrong with that?” Weirded out, Lam Ming Sum answered.

In great shock, On Pak Hin was at a loss for words.

Regarding success, there was a saying that “different routes lead to the same destination.” G-chef was seen as an unpopular career with a low success rate, but times were changing. The world started to attach importance to g-food, and the idea of g-food being superior to elixirs as supplements for cultivators also saw a rise.

In fact, the requirements for being a g-chef and an alchemist were highly similar. Putting it simply, both careers handled consumables for humans, and the need to be extremely careful was inescapable, especially for g-chefs; all ingredients used in g-food had natural gliphs, thus there would most likely be negative impacts on health if one were to eat improperly processed g-food ingredients.

This explained why all elixir recipes were very precious to clans, and why many cultivators were willing to do anything even if it cost them their lives to get the Poorest Elixir’s recipe that mysteriously ended up with Ping Chi.

Amateur g-chefs rarely created dishes of their own. As a passionate fan of food, he was aware that others lacked knowledge about the different states of g-chefs.

Beginner g-chefs learnt to distinguish between the flavours like sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy until they knew them like the back of their hands. At the same time, they needed a deep understanding of the world’s ingredients. Thus, most beginners would follow recipes and learn the subject as they practiced. This was known as the four flavours state that most g-chefs spent half of their lives in to gain a total grasp of these four flavours.

Once they succeeded, they could cook confidently without following any recipes. G-chefs who reached the advanced state rarely used recipes left behind by pioneers and preferred to innovate or improvise according to their own skills.

It was rare to find a g-chef who reached the advanced state, but those that did were treated like VIPs by large organisations as their ability to produce g-food that was delicious yet beneficial to health and cultivation assisted the organisations to a large extent, even more so than an alchemist of the great or grandmaster state.

However, that was not all. The final state was known as the culinary god state. G-chefs of the culinary god state not only prepared one or two dishes, but an entire banquet, consisting of dozens of dishes, alone. The flavours of each and every dish not only didn’t conflict, the effects complemented each other. Such a banquet was known as a Culinary God Banquet.

There was no organisation capable of roping in g-chefs of the culinary god state. Legend had it that culinary god state g-chefs only appeared in the South, and the most well-known g-chefs in that state were Sit Ting who had passed on and Cloud Palace’s third teacher Hui Sai Cheong. In the North, it was said that Four Season Heaven’s Spring Peak leader was a step away from reaching this state.

Back then, the Blazing Skies Mountain sect leader Yim Yung put forward the condition of exchanging three grade four gliph weapons for a banquet from the third teacher but was rejected. It was a hefty price but considered affordable for a Culinary God Banquet.

For cultivators like Yim Yung, ordinary g-food had negligible effects on them; only a Culinary God Banquet that consisted of dozens of g-food dishes would have a visible effect on them. Such a banquet was priceless to powerful elites!

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Because of his high understanding, On Pak Hin was extremely shocked.

Normally, it took dozens of years for g-chefs to reach the advanced state, yet thirteen year old Lam Ming Sum had succeeded? A thirteen year old advanced state g-chef?

On Pak Hin was stunned. But when he remembered the ingredients used for this dish, everything made sense to On Pak Hin. The most precious ingredient used was a common gliphic plant, focus grass. This g-food only helped cultivators focus, and that was about it. Such a common g-food could be made by g-chefs in the four flavours state, yet were they able to make it so tasty?

The taste of this dish conquered On Pak Hin successfully, but everything made sense the moment he remembered His Majesty and Sit Ting’s relationship.

As expected of Sit Ting’s daughter!

Just as On Pak Hin was deep in thought, clan leaders and officials who had their curiosity ignited by On Pak Hin’s exaggerated expressions came to have a taste. The saying “true gold fears no fire” applied to food as well; delicious food would never be wrongly tasted.

The Four Jade Celebration was inspired by the Five Coloured Jewel she made to thank Old Ngai for tattooing her gliph. Adding emerald jade to her self-created dish, the Four Jade Celebration was able to capture the taste buds of meat haters as they could no longer taste the oiliness or feel nauseous from the overly rich taste. With the unique Northern sauce she learnt from Yeung Chun, she successfully created a dish new to Southerners’ taste buds.

Everyone was praising Lam Ming Sum’s cooking all of a sudden. “Your Majesty is blessed to have such a talented daughter.”

Pink crept up Lam Ming Sum’s cheeks as she smiled shyly hearing all the praise for her while the same went for Lam Chun. He was laughing so happily, which was a first for his subordinates.

To Lam Chun, he would rather hear praise for his daughter than for himself. The pride of being a father had him smiling from ear to ear, lighting up the vibe of the entire place.

“I praise you for noticing the princess’s talent and putting it to use bravely. I’ll reward you with gold.” Lam Chun turned to Qiu Jin with a smile.

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