Chapter Seventeen: Assessment

  Qingxi Wine House, second floor of the back kitchen.

  When Chen Yao and Bai Yuqing walked in, Ma Lao, Qiao Nan, and Pei Su were all there. Seeing Bai Yuqing, Qiao Nan's lips curled up, and he let out a loud whistle, "Bai beauty, ten days apart feels like ten years, I've been missing you terribly, how have you been lately?"

  Pei Su held her delicate face with both hands, gazing at Chen Yao in a daze and murmured: "Hmmm, Young Master Chen Yao seems to have become even more handsome, so masculine."

  Old Ma slammed the iron spoon in his hand, his voice like thunder, jumping and shouting: "As a junior brother or sister of Laozi's master, you actually have no shame at all, shut up for Laozi!"

  Qiao Nan and Pei Zhen both pouted, still discontented.

  Chen Xiao had already seen such a scene and didn't feel surprised, but he couldn't help feeling a bit overwhelmed by Pei Su's charming and seductive demeanor. He thought to himself: "Once Old Man Ma becomes my master, you'll become my junior aunt, can't you speak more reservedly and elegantly?"

  "In ten days, you must have already mastered the 'Wanxiang Food Material Atlas' and the 'Linghuo Collection'. I'll give you a question. If you can answer it, I'll take you as my apprentice. If not, then you'd better leave quickly, so we don't waste each other's time." Old Master Ma's expression turned serious as he began to test Chen Yu's ten days of learning.

  Chen Ting nodded slightly, her expression calm and composed.

  In these ten days, through meditation on the image of Fuxi, his spiritual consciousness had become several times stronger than before. It was precisely because of this that he could memorize the vast knowledge contained in the "Wanxiang Food Material Atlas" and "Linghuo Collection" in a short period of time.

  Chen Xuan believed that as long as the questions came from these two books, he would definitely not make a single mistake!

  Old Ma's dish had only four words - Lang Chong Hong Qiao, which was the name of a dish. It couldn't be cooked by any chef other than Wu Ye Ling, because the ingredients and spiritual fire used in it had extremely high requirements, making it very difficult to cook. This dish was also specially prepared for cultivators at the Two Instruments Golden Elixir Realm.

  However, in the "Universal Food Atlas", the ranking of Lang Die Hong Qiao among tens of thousands of dishes is not high. Compared with other dishes that can be eaten by two-yuan golden elixir cultivators, Lang Die Hong Qiao is undoubtedly the most troublesome dish to cook. The number of different attribute ingredients used is no less than one hundred, and the cooking steps have reached over a thousand. Unless absolutely necessary, even the five-leaf spirit chef would not want to cook this dish. Naturally, the name "Lang Die Hong Qiao" is rarely inquired about.

  In Old Ma's view, if Chen Yao had truly mastered the "Wanxiang Food Material Atlas", then testing her with the dish "Rongchui Hongqiao" would be most appropriate.

  "In those days, among the three of us, only I remembered this dish. No matter how smart he is, he can't surpass me. At most, he can barely keep up with you and Shifu's sister. Eldest brother, isn't this making things difficult for people?"

  Qiao Nan was being overly polite to Chen Tang, but between the lines, he was actually praising himself. Apparently, this guy was always so full of himself no matter what he did.

  "Is that so, senior brother? You won't be jealous that Chen Xiao's appearance is more handsome than yours and try to drive him away in a different way? I won't agree to it."

  Pei Su rolled her eyes and began to speak out for Chen Xiao in her own way.

  The old man's forehead bulged with rage, his eyes wide with fury as he bellowed: "Shut up! You two are a self-absorbed lunatic and a big fool, what qualifications do you have to argue with me? I am the great elder brother, my word is law!"

  Qiao Nan and Pei Zhen fell silent once again, their faces a picture of helpless resignation in the face of tyranny.

  "Is it okay?"

  Bai Weiqing didn't know the difficulty of Lang Die Hongqiao, but judging from Qiao Nan and Pei Su's performance, she roughly guessed the difficulty and couldn't help but look at Chen Tai with a worried face, also extremely suspicious in her heart - was this old man really making things difficult for Chen Tai?

  Chen Xiao nodded calmly and replied almost without thinking, "Lang Die Hong Qiao with Qing Luo Gen, Mo Nan Hua, Zi Man Jiu Ye Guo, Long Xu Fu Ling Zhi..."

  The sound is melodious, with a hint of unique quiet power, echoing neatly in everyone's ears.

  "These hundreds of ingredients, with properties including the five elements and yin-yang, must be cut into fine threads, reaching a fineness like cotton floss. Only then is the first step complete. The second step involves soaking and nurturing these ingredients in a pool of Thousand-Year Stone Milk Spirit Liquid, categorizing them by type, until they are smooth as water and supple as tendons. Next, using Green Wood Spirit Fire, Sunflower Water Spirit Fire, Red Fusion Spirit Fire..."

  In a short while, Chen Tang had reported nearly a hundred kinds of ingredients with various properties and began to explain the operation of the ingredients. Bai Weiqing couldn't understand these, but she clearly saw that as one by one ingredient names floated out of Chen Tang's mouth, the expressions of the three old men gradually became serious, and their eyes revealed a hint of astonishment.

  She couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and a thread of pride rose quietly in her heart, making her look forward to Chen's performance even more.

  "Hey, this kid's got a good memory, almost as good as mine was back in the day." Qiao Nan said, his voice laced with a hint of unnaturalness.

  "Unbelievable, at this point you're still arrogant? I remember back then when you memorized all the steps of Langtian Rainbow Bridge, but you also made over a dozen mistakes. Chen Xiao, on the other hand, hasn't made a single mistake until now." Pei Suo ruthlessly exposed him.

  Qiao Nan's face flashed with embarrassment, then immediately turned solemn: "Actually, back then I could have done it perfectly, but I was too kind and couldn't bear to make you and Shifu lose face, so I intentionally..."

  "Shut up!" Old Master Ma suppressed his voice and interrupted, "I'm here to recruit a disciple, not to listen to your boasting!"

  Qiao Nan let out a soft sigh, gently stroking his chin with a look of being misunderstood and desolate, but in his heart he was anxious and flustered, muttering to himself: "Kid, hurry up and make some mistakes already, otherwise my majestic and heroic image will be completely ruined, how can I still hit on beauties in the future..."

  However, what made Joe desperate was that after a minute had passed, Chen Xiao still hadn't shown any signs of weakness, on the contrary, his thinking became clearer and clearer, his speech faster and faster, it could be said that he was eloquent and unstoppable.

  Qiao Nan's spirit was crushed: "It's over, the record of this genius from back then has been broken..."

  "Confident men are the most handsome. Mmm, I've fallen for him, I'm trapped in a web of love and can't escape."

  Bai Wei's face was radiant and her eyes sparkled as she repeatedly muttered: "Not bad, not bad..."

  Old Horse's dry and taut cheeks had also burst into bloom, like a chrysanthemum bursting forth after autumn.

  ……

  "In short, these different ingredients can be formed into a unique appearance of surging waves and rainbow-colored bridges under the baking of the gathering spirit's dark fire, as long as they are carefully operated according to the above steps."

  After a stick of incense, Chen Yu finally finished explaining all the steps of Langdie Rainbow Bridge. He looked up and saw that the people around him had dull expressions, looking dazed and distracted. He couldn't help but feel a slight pause, wondering if he had made a mistake?

  He may not know that this flawless explanation brought great shock to others, but he was very clear that today was the day he spoke the most, almost equal to what he said in a year.

  "Cough, um, ten days of work can reach this level, talent is okay." Half a beat later, Old Man Ma coughed twice, breaking the silence.

  Chen Tuan finally let out a sigh of relief. As long as he passed the assessment, he didn't care about his natural talent.

  "What's with 'talent is just okay'?" Qiao Nan, as if stimulated, lost all composure and wildly waved his arms, shouting: "A guy more talented than this genius can be called 'talent is just okay'? Then what am I? A mediocre good-for-nothing?"

  Pei Su couldn't bear Ma Lao's evaluation, her words were sharp: "Senior brother, when you told Master about the Rainbow Bridge back then, your face was red with embarrassment, and you stuttered for half a day, getting more than half of it wrong. You..."

  When someone exposed his old scars, Ma Lao was so embarrassed and angry that he immediately roared to interrupt Pei Suo: "Can't I just admit that he's a genius?! Will you all die if you shut your mouths for a moment?!!"

  He paused for a moment and Old Man Ma said weakly: "Actually, I'm also afraid he'll become arrogant, so I just knocked him down a peg or two."

  Qiao Nan and Pei Zhen rolled their eyes simultaneously.

  Chen Xiao was completely bewildered and didn't have the slightest awareness of being a genius, but instead muttered to himself in his heart: These three guys are really weird...

  Bai Wei Qing tugged at Chen Tai's sleeve and asked in a low voice, "Did you know beforehand that Old Man Ma was going to test the Rainbow Bridge?"

  Chen Xiao was taken aback and shook his head, saying: "I've never known."

  Bai Wei Qing exclaimed in surprise: "That's to say, you've completely mastered both the 'Wanxiang Food Material Spectrum' and the 'Linghuo Collection'?"

  Chen Xiao asked in confusion: "What's wrong?" He was indeed very confused, as far as he was concerned, wasn't it just memorizing some words, what was there to be surprised about?

  From Chen Tai's tone, Bai Weiqing finally confirmed that this guy had indeed thoroughly memorized the two books, and couldn't help but feel a sense of unspeakable shock.

  She had flipped through the "Million Species Food Spectrum", which had tens of thousands of species, and wanting to memorize the names, properties, appearances, growth environments, effects, etc. of these tens of thousands of species was not something that could be done in a short period of time. Yet Chen Xiao managed to remember them all within ten days, how could it not shock people?

  But that's not the point, other people with amazing memory can also do it if they put in the effort. What's important is that Chen Xiao not only remembered all these ingredients but also mastered every dish that can be cooked with them and every step of the cooking process, which is what's truly astonishing.

  Of course, if Chen Xiao was a Zifu realm cultivator who could condense his willpower, he would naturally be able to remember everything within ten days. However, the fact is that Chen Xiao only has a cultivation base of three layers of Xiantian, and had already been seen through by Old Man Ma and the other two, so it's impossible for them to treat him as a Zifu realm cultivator.

  It was for this reason that Ma Lao San felt extremely shocked and regarded Chen Tang as a brilliant and extraordinary genius.

  Bai Wei Qing suddenly understood everything at this moment. After being shocked, she couldn't help but feel proud and happy for Chen Tang.

  She knew that the young man in front of her had suffered how much hardship since childhood, what kind of hardships and hardships he had experienced, and now he was like a phoenix from the ashes, beginning to radiate his own light, how could it not be exhilarating?

  "Old Master Ma, since you've accepted me as your disciple, let's sign a contract."

  Just then, a clear and icy voice echoed from outside, accompanied by the sound, the door was pushed open, and a stunningly beautiful young woman walked in, with an isolated and cold expression.