Chapter 151: Super Chef
The middle aged man laughed: “You should be thanking these people…… anyways, I don’t need the grat.i.tude of a little kid, I hate little kids with innocent looks like you the most.” As he said this, he began walking towards Su Yu and the others.
The little girl did not listen to the words of the middled aged man, she knew that the mouth of the middle aged man was stubborn, although he said he hated little kids, he had risked his life to save her.
“Many thanks everyone, my name is Fang Jiong, 32, I’m a Super chef, before coming to this forest I was one, even now I’m still one.” The middle aged man smiled as he looked at Su Yu, introducing himself. As he spoke of his super chef status, this Fang Jiong had an expression of pride on his face.
Fang Jiong’s eyes were sharp, he could already tell that Su Yu was the strongest within the group, he immediately surmised that he was the leader, thus speaking directly to him.
This Fang Jiong was also an expert of the fourth tier, Su Yu did not dare to be discourteous as he respectfully replied: “My name is Su Yu, I’m a student, these people are my comrades.” Thereafter, Qin Jiagui and the others began to introduce themselves.
At the back, the little girl walked forward as she said in a sweet voice: “My name is Kou Xiaowei, everyone can call me Xiao Wei, thank you big brothers and sisters.” As she said this, she also bowed down before the group, thereafter, she smiled affectionately at Zhou Birong.
Back then, it was Zhou Birong who had rushed forward to save her.
Zhou Birong stretched her hand forward as she gently tousled Xiao Wei’s silky hair, her face filled with a motherly affection that was once again released, the blow of Ding Shan’s death was very immense, when faced with Xiao Wei who was roughly Ding Shan’s age, all the regret and feelings she had towards Ding Shan were slowly being transferred to Xiao Wei.
Zhang Zhongmou was by the side searching the headless corpse of the black clothed male. This black clothed male was an expert of the fourth tier, his background was mysterious and had mentioned something about a White Tiger, Zhang Zhongmou wanted to see if there was anything on his body that was of use, something like a precious treasure would be great.
Having searched his entire body, he did not manage to find anything exception six to seven smooth little stones, these stones were exceptionally smooth, four sided and flat, like four sided coins with a strange small ‘Time’ carved on their surface.
Zhang Zhongmou curiously asked: “What is this thing?” Inspecting them piece by piece, they had all been carved with the ‘Time’ word.
The others frowned, they were unsure what it was when the little girl Xiao Wei suddenly spoke up: “This is a ‘Time Coin’, this fellow is really pathetic, so poor.”
“Time Coin?” The group were dazed for a moment, even Fang Jiong reacted in the same manner, it was clear that he had no idea as well.
Xiao Wei strangely asked: “Don’t you guys know? This is time money, each piece represents an hour of time, they can be used to buy various items.”
“Buy stuff? What stuff can be bought with this?” The group were very curious, Xiao Wei seemed to understand something as she covered her mouth, hurriedly shaking her head: “There’s actually nothing…….” before curiously measuring Su Yu and the others, thereafter she seemed to understand something else as she continued: “Xiao Wei understand, you guys are like uncle, you were chosen and sent in here……. That means you guys will be required to buy time, Xiao Wei won’t need them.”
The group were befuddled as Su Yu interjected: “Xiao Wei, why was the black clothed fellow trying to kill you? What is the White Tiger he spoke of?”
His question had just been asked when Xiao Wei suddenly covered her ears as she shrilly cried: “Don’t…….. Don’t talk about it…….” Her entire body was trembling as she suddenly fell to the ground, her face was filled with terror.
Su Yu immediately stopped talking.
Zhou Birong hurried forward to support Xiao Wei, gently patting her back as she whispered: “Don’t be scared, it’s alright, everything’s alright.”
Xiao Wei continued to sob spasmodically as she stood up, her entire body was still trembling and her initially clear eyes currently held fear in them.
Su Yu and the others began to exchange glances, they did not understand what the White Tiger represented, how could it incite such fear in Xiao Wei?
The group certainly knew that in ancient times, the White Tiger represented one of the four sacred beasts, however, this was a different world and they were unsure what the black clothed male meant by White Tiger, or was he merely indicating something? Was it a form to signalling?
Fang Jiong suddenly said in a solemn voice: “Let’s bury him.” as he pointed at the corpse of the black clothed male.
After Xiao Wei’s strange performance, the mysterious time money and the White Tiger left a strange feeling within them, there were even hints of fear. Fang Jiong’s words resounded with the group as they swiftly buried the corpse before breathing a sigh of relief.
Qin Jiagui began to ask about Fang Jiong’s journey, Fang Jiong briefly explained his story and the group finally got a rough understanding of him.
He was actually from a seven star hotel’s super restaurant, his culinary skills were superb but his character was rather strange, especially his attachment to the culinary arts, it was simply unfathomable, after earning sufficient money, he had left his job as a chef to travel the world. His goal was to learn all the different unique methods of cooking within the world, it could be said that he was a person who lived for the culinary arts.
He was in the Sichuan province taking part in a gourmet food compet.i.tion when a Sky Hole had suddenly appeared, Fang Jiong together with his half prepared food and kitchen utensils had been dropped into this forest, thereafter he had been a.s.saulted by the Lesser Goblins.
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Due to long years of toil, Fang Jiong’s knife skills were exceptionally, he was bear waisted and tiger backed, his strength was immense and coupled with his butcher’s knife, he was actualyl stronger than a Lesser Goblin. After killing the first Lesser Goblin, he had gained strength and steadily grew stronger, he began to explore the forest alone, he wanted to find an exit and came into contact with Xiao Wei who was lost.
Although he constantly said that he hated little kids, Xiao Wei had constantly followed him without being rejected, he had instead saved Xiao Wei several times, the two had been travelling within the forest for several days, when Fang Jiong was bored, he would take the meat of the Lesser Goblins and Gnomes to test, using his culinary prowess, the taste was actually quite decent.
Fang Jiong had never asked about the background of Xiao Wei, in his words, she was merely a little kid, who cared what her background was, since she wanted to follow him, he would just let it be.
Their short exchange together with Fang Jiong’s selflessness in using his life to protect Xiao Wei had caused him to secretly accept him, they knew that this was a man worth befriending, most importantly, he was also an expert of the fourth tier and an impressive chef, adding such a person to the group was full of benefits.
Qin Jiagui wanted to befriend him and also began to simply explain their backgrounds, explaining how their school had fallen into a Sky Hole, their group had explored the forest, finding a map which indicated a location which could possibly be the exit.
Elation could be seen on Fang Jiong’s face, this news made him grin from ear to ear, over the past few days of exploring the forest, it was simply without any purpose and he finally heard the hope of leaving this place, causing him to feel excited.
The other girls surrounded Xiao Wei, wanting to ask about her background. However, when they spoke of anything related to this, her face would fill with terror as she shook her head, not saying anything more. Finally, everyone could only helplessly give up, they had a feeling that the girl was definitely not simple and clearly had many secrets.
Fang Jiong and Xiao Wei were willing to join their group, forming a group of sixteen as they proceeded on.
Su Yu had become extremely powerful, he could not help but think of Ning Yan, wondering how she fared and whether he had the ability to help her, with the exit so near, he would find the exit before deciding on the next course of action.
Nothing peculiar occurred this afternoon, they met with a small pack of Lesser Goblins which ran at the sight of them, these monsters could sense that their group was not easily trifled with.
An hour later, the group came to a sheer cliff that was seemed to be bottomless, Qin Jiagui looked at the map as he frowned, the map did not indicate any sheer cliff and the road ahead was blocked off. Qin jiagui could only rely on estimation to point the group in a direction to bypa.s.s it, the forest around them was on undulating ground and the road became harder to traverse, the speed of the group greatly fell as a result.
By the time the sky turned dark, the group had not managed to bypa.s.s the cliffs, Qin Jiagui unfurled the map as he began to search for a suitable place to spend the night.
In no time, he found an area that was empty and littered to rubble: “How about this area? We can rest the night there and continue tomorrow to look for the exit.”
Su Yu nodded, Zhang Zhongmou also agreed with Su Yu as he raised his voice: “Then let’s rest here, your grandnanny, why is it that the closer we are to the exit, the more restless I feel.” as he said this, he began to place the large bags of food on the ground.
The others swiftly began to place the bags of food on the ground before looking in all directions, checking if there were any hidden dangers.
Fang Jiong began to remove the kitchen utensils from his back as Xiao Wei curiously asked: “Uncle, what do they mean by the exit of the forest?”
Fang Jiong replied: “Why’s a little kid like you asking so much? Really naggy.”
Xiao Wei pouted as Zhou Birong smiled: “That is the exit to this forest, by then we won’t have to be afraid of all these frightening monsters.”
Xiao Wei was stunned for a moment before answering: “Leave the forest? This…… that’s impossible.”
Zhou Birong pointed at Qin Jiagui before whispering: “We inadvertently found a map, the map indicates where the exit of the forest is. Don’t ask too much, you will understand tomorrow.”
Xiao Wei had an indescribable expression on her face as she obediently kept quiet, no longer asking.