Once Upon A Time, There Was A Spirit Sword Mountain
chapter-145

Chapter 145: Man Who Relies on Face to Eat

Translator: AL_Squad Editor: Chrissy

In this world, how could there be a fair competition?

On the surface, Wang Lu’s rules seemed slightly advantageous to the Ten Thousand Arts Sect—after all, their academic talent in calculation and arrangement was far higher than that of the Spirit Sword Sect, especially the de jure leader of the Spirit Sword Sect team, Liu Li.

However, since this competition was held on their own turf, how could Wang Lu be biased towards the Ten Thousand Arts Sect? Now, it was Spirit Sword Sect’s turn to receive the home base benefit—in the form of the competition’s chef, Aya. Except for the Spirit Sword Sect disciples, no one has ever endured the test of the Misty Peak cafeteria; the average person did not have the qualification to test Aya’s craftsmanship.

And sure enough, just as Zhao Jiangyuan of Ten Thousand Arts Sect ate that bowl of beef noodles, his countenance immediately changed; he opened his mouth as if he wanted to vomit it out. However, after shaking for a bit, he barely held it back, and his spirit of forestalling the opponent by a show of strength has been lost.

“What the heck is this thing!?”

Zhao Jiangyuan angrily asked with a hoarse voice.

Wang Lu put down his playing card and chuckled as he answered, “Braised beef noodles.”

“Braised beef noodles could never have this kind of f*cking taste!? You clearly are cheating!”

Wang Lu continued to chuckle. “Could never have that taste means we cheated? I’ve never heard in my entire life that the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals expressed that the braised beef noodles had to have a certain kind of taste, let alone the bowl of noodles that you just ate clearly has the corresponding nutrition. As a cultivator, is the taste of food more important than the nutrition it contains? I remember your Ten Thousand Arts Sect has clearly expressed your view about this.”

Zhao Jiangyuan’s jaw dropped. Although the taste of noodles was indeed strange, it has the corresponding matching nutrition. The truly inconceivable issue here was how the heck the chef could butcher the taste of the food so bad while still retaining its nutrition content!

Wang Lu continued, “If you still aren’t convinced yet, then I’ll match your bowl.” With that, he pulled out the braised beef noodles card out and summoned out a bowl of the same noodles. As with Zhao Jiangyuan, he picked up his chopsticks and ate the whole bowl of noodles in one gulp; the whole time, his complexion remained the same.

Knowing the tasted of the noodles, Zhao Jiangyuan, who watched the whole scene, had his countenance turned slightly pale. Noticing Wang Lu’s calm and composed look, he immediately knew that this was probably a disciple with powerful stomach… “Sure enough, there really was a trick! I knew they would not be this generous!”

However, so what? If they thought they could stop the Ten Thousand Arts Sect with this trick, that would be too naive for them.

Zhao Jiangyuan forcefully pressed his gag reflex to keep the food in his stomach. He then took out and swallowed something from his mustard seed bag; he immediately felt refreshed.

Ten Thousand Arts Sect’s special elixir, Healthy Stomach Digestion Pill, effectively alleviated digestion problem caused by a variety of reason. For example, if someone with poor appetite consumed this pill, even if the “food” were just kaolin, that person would eat it with relish.

Zhao Jiangyuan then turned to look at Wang Lu in the eye, sneered and pulled out a card. “Clay pot pickled vegetable noodles!”

Like the other basic card, the clay pot pickled vegetable noodles card had a score of 50, with nutrition points red 2, green 4, and yellow 3. However, after Zhao Jiangyuan had eaten it, the nutrition points that he got were actually higher than the value printed on the card; he got red 3, green 6, and yellow 5!

All of the Spirit Sword Sect disciples who watched this were startled and subsequently, they were at a buzz amongst them. However, the Ten Thousand Arts Sect cultivators were not the least bit surprised with this result.

What exactly was the so-called a cultivator who could eat? It was a cultivator that could digest more nutrition and produce less waste out of the same food! Zhao Jiangyuan not only has a big appetite, his ability to digest was extremely strong and could even be said to be absolute top! On this point, Zhan Ziye couldn’t even compare to him, and the only thing the Spirit Sword Sect could do to prevent him was nothing more than a chef with an appalling cooking skill. However, with the powerful Healthy Stomach Digestion Pill, would he care enough about the strange taste of the food to stop him?

After eating that clay pot pickled vegetable noodles, Zhao Jiangyuan has made a persistent effort by eating four more bowls of noodles in succession, accumulating 300 points and dozens of points of each element. Afterwards, he traded his points with two new cards, pork stir fried with fish and mapo tofu, which gradually enriched the food variety. At the same time, Zhan Ziye, Lu Qiancai, and the others were not slow either, each of them eating three bowls of noodles. Afterwards, Zhan Ziye defied expectation by redeeming the non-mainstream card, West Lake beef soup. Although its points and nutrition were not high, he clearly has his own plan. At the same time, Ye Feifei, Lu Qiancai, and Hai Yunfan each gave an astonishing performance. The disciples of the Ten Thousand Arts Sect truly had superhuman digestion; each of them obtained higher nutritional values than what was printed on the cards.

In contrast, the Spirit Sword Sect disciples had a normal performance and normal eating speed. Even the one who tried the hardest, Yue Yun, couldn’t even overcome the only woman in the Ten Thousand Arts team, Ye Feifei’s eating speed. Moreover, because they had no special digestion method, they had a slower nutrition accumulation. This eating competition has a time limit, and based on the current tempo, at the end of the time limit, the nutrition points of the Ten Thousand Art Sect team would probably be several times higher than that of the Spirit Sword Sect!

As the competition carried on for some time, the gap between the two sides gradually turned wider and wider. The Ten Thousand Arts Sect Elders remained unmoved. Inwardly, they thought that if the other side didn’t have an unexpected card, they could declare the outcome right away, however…

When they were thinking about how the other side prepared this unexpected card in advance under the existing rules, they heard a voice from afar.

“Very good, right now, we can clearly see the contestants from Ten Thousand Arts Sect have occupied the absolute advantage. The contestant with the fastest progress, Zhao Jiangyuan, has already gotten three level-three cards and nutrition points far ahead of the other contestants. In contrast, the Spirit Sword Sect here has yet to achieve something worth mentioning; they haven’t even opened enough level-two cards. As the home team, one wonders what are their thoughts on the kind of trick that they need to resort to, to reverse the situation?”

The audience immediately turned their eyes to the direction of that voice and saw a white-clad woman had placed a table on one side of the cafeteria and began voicing her report.

The several Elders of the Spirit Sword Sect laughed despite trying not to, but they also didn’t bother with her. Because this time’s protagonist was not an outsider.

“Want to reverse the situation? Then watch this.” On the competition table, Wang Lu, who has been quiet this whole time, smiled and put down his bowl. Currently, he had eaten twenty-six bowl of noodles; if compared to the average person, his appetite would surely be counted as ‘against the heaven’. However, on this table of ten people, he actually occupied the last place. What was more surprising was that his accumulated 1300 points had never been used by him.

Did he want to directly redeem the premium card? However, according to the rules, to exchange a high-level card, he had to hold a certain number of the intermediate cards as well as the corresponding nutrition point. Right now, in his hand, there were only first level cards; even if he continued to save indefinitely, all he could exchange for was the second level card…

However, people soon learned of Wang Lu’s plan.

“1280 point, I want to draw lottery eleven times in a row.”

Wang Lu held up his hand high. The next moment, the points on top of his head rapidly changed, shrinking to 20 points. At the same time, a fast spinning ball with golden brilliance appeared before him.

“Lottery!?”

The other nine contestants on the table were startled, especially the five people from the Ten Thousand Arts Sect. They looked at Wang Lu in disbelief.

The provision about the lottery was not written in details in the rules. However, this was the only way a contestant could directly get advance cards by spending the points. It was 130 points for one draw, but 1280 for eleven draws in a row. However, the lottery chance was actually very unreasonable. For a high-level card, the chance was only one in a thousand; in terms of cost, it cost more than a hundred thousand points to get two high-level cards, which was much higher than the card’s actual value. Therefore, in the eyes of academically talented people, this kind of lottery was just a futile effort for a desperado; wasting the precious points on lottery was really unreasonable to them!

As for the several Ten Thousand Arts Sect Elders, their eyes were glued to that fast spinning ball, trying to ensure that it wasn’t rigged by the Spirit Sword Sect…Then, under the gaze of everyone, the spinning ball began to emit playing cards.

Level one card “Sweet bean curd”. Level one card “Meat dumplings”, level one card “Meat rice ball”…

Zhao Jiangyuan laughed out loud, nearly spurting out the streaky pork he was currently eating—sure enough, it was the standard trash card!

Although they were counted as level one, they might as well be level zero! Not only their points were insufficient, but their nutrition points were also mainly of dark colors—i.e. Poison! This would greatly affect the accumulated nutrition points; they deserved to be thrown into the trash!

However, on the fourth card, Zhao Jiangyuan could not smile anymore.

Level three card “Crab meat tofu”.

This fourth card was actually the same exact card that he had just redeemed, a card with very balanced points and nutritions—a high-quality level three card. For this card, he had to spend a considerable amount of effort in the second level card stage, yet Wang Lu had actually acquired this card directly!

Moreover, this was not the end. On the fifth card, Zhao Jiangyuan was outraged. “Impossible!”

Level six card “Lady Boss’s sliced white meat”.

Followed by the sixth card, level five card “Lady Boss’s plain noodles”. Seventh card, level five card “Lady Boss’s onion cake”. Eighth card, level four card “Fish and chips”. Ninth card, trash level card “Look up at the starry sky”. Tenth card, trash level card “Five benevolent moon cake”; and eleventh card, level six card “A bottle of golden seasoning”!

Under the shocked eyes of the onlookers, Wang Lu calmly received the cards and directly destroyed the several trash cards to reclaim dozens of points. At the same time, he fused the two level six cards “A bottle of golden seasoning” and “Lady Boss’ sliced white meat”, into an upgraded level six card “Lady Boss’ refined sliced white meat”!

One small bowl of sliced white meat, which was extremely rich with immortal spiritual energy aura, could provide the contestant with six hundred points and ten nutrition points; compared to the level one braised beef noodles, it’s quality to price ratio was more than ten times!

All of the Ten Thousand Arts Sect contestants looked silly. Lu Qiancai even had to repeatedly cough after he directly swallowed his noodles through his nostrils.

However, a certain commentator was ecstatic. “Level six card! Level six card! The legendary level six card! Unexpectedly, just when the competition enters its middle stage, a contestant already got a level six card, which completely reversed their previous adverse situation! He is really worthy to be the most excellent contestant from the Spirit Sword Sect, and the one with the brightest future, Wang Lu! The Ten Thousand Arts Sect contestants rely on their academic and technical prowess, but our Spirit Sword Sect disciples rely on the face! I think in light of this development, the sect should increase the food budget for his Non-Phase Peak! Specifically, it’s to…”

Then the commentator was directly expelled out of the cafeteria by Spirit Sword Sect Elders.

However, this temporary interlude couldn’t affect the dead silence atmosphere. The Ten Thousand Arts Sect disciples have been unable to eat; they just stared at the upgraded level six card in Wang Lu’s hand like they were somehow in a dream.

“Is this how your Spirit Sword Sect compete?” As the Eldest Brother, Zhan Ziye took the responsibility to protest first. However, before he could continue, his Master Yuan Chaonian sighed and said, “Ziye, don’t say anymore, this is not cheating.”

Zhan Ziye’s eyes sprang wide. “Not cheating!?”

“Some people were born with enormous luck, you shouldn’t envy them.”

“T-that’s just pure luck!?”

Yuan Chaonian nodded but didn’t explain further. The concept of luck was still too early to be taught to Zhan Ziye… What was beyond his expectation was this enormous luck had unexpectedly landed on that Wang Lu.

Since the Elder has spoken, the competition went on. However, the atmosphere had obviously turned for the worst. The Ten Thousand Arts Sect disciples no longer have their previous leisure-as-if-the-winner-was-already-decided mentality. Because a certain person with enormous luck had gotten several level five cards and a level six card; in a short time, the other side would catch up to their total nutrition points. If this trend continued, it wouldn’t be too long before they were to be overtaken!

“Damn, I don’t believe it!” Finally, Lu Qiancai couldn’t hold back anymore; he raised his hand. “1280 points, eleven draws!”

“Junior Brother, don’t be impulsive!”

Unfortunately, that warning came too late. Lu Qiancai’s points had already been deducted and, before long, the eleven cards belched out.

Lu Qiancai only took a single glance, and his face immediately turned pale. Before him, all of the cards were trash level cards!

The next moment, to add insult to injury, Lu Qiancai felt his stomach was about to burst; he couldn’t help but want to vomit. However, he promptly suppressed his body’s physical reaction with his magical power and managed to swallow it back. Nevertheless, his appetite had been greatly reduced; he couldn’t even eat more than a bite.

Zhan Ziye gave him a puzzled glance. “Junior Brother?”

Lu Qiancai reluctantly turned his head. “Senior Brother, it seems like the effect of the Healthy Stomach Digestion Pill has been canceled out. M-My nausea is really overwhelming!”

Zhan Ziye was startled, what exactly is wrong with the chef here that even the Healthy Stomach Digestion Pill couldn’t stop her!?

He then turned around and looked at these Spirit Sword Sect disciples who had been maintaining unpleasant expression yet constant eating speed; a trace of admiration flashed through his eyes.

This group of barbarians… is actually really strong!