"Typo?"
Upon hearing this answer, the Food Immortal turned his gaze back to the plate and carefully observed the third character on the second line and finally found out that in an unusually complicated character structure, for some unknown reason, there was an extra horizontal line.
It was a bit exaggerated to say that it was for some unknown reason. With his Earth Immortal"s eyesight, even the smallest detail would not escape his eyes. However, who would carefully look at the decorative poem when one was wholeheartedly tasting the food to see if there was any typo!
Nevertheless, it was not far-fetched to say that this poem, as part of the decoration, did have the effect of setting off the atmosphere of the whole dish. If there was an omission in the character, it would make the perfect dish unfortunate...
As the Food Immortal, he shouldn"t have such an oversight, but w.a.n.g Lu"s design was too clever because it aimed right at his weakness.
He couldn"t help but recall the words that the Master who led him into the Dao said when he just entered the Dao of food eighteen thousand years ago.
"Although the Dao of food takes a different path, almost like an outer path, but if you wanted to be successful in this path, you have to learn many other paths, a comprehensive study of surrounding areas to master a subject… you are lively and full of spirit, but you hate reading and learning to read. In the future, I"m afraid you could eat, but have no culture."
Two thousand years later, with his great achievements, he became an Earth Immortal, his Dao of food nearly brought him to immortality, and his Master"s words had long been forgotten. At that time, to him, his Master, the old man, was just a Yuanying Stage cultivator and thus possessed vision far inferior to his own. What value could his Mater"s insights and messages have? Culture? How much spirit stones does it worth? How much fat?
At this time, remembering those things, the Food Immortal could not help but remain silent.
Master, unexpectedly, a mere Yuanying Stage cultivator like you were actually able to see the future in more than ten thousand years. I… have been living most of my life as the Food Immortal, but unexpectedly, I lost due to culture!
"Fine, you"re tough."
The Food Immortal gritted his teeth and finally admitted his loss. At the same time, there was a loud cheer from the outside.
Because at this time, Aya had successfully won two hundred and fifty points, two points higher than that of the Food Immortal!
The same type of dish, Aya only took a moment to see the flaws. Moreover, it from that quiet look, it was not difficult to see. w.a.n.g Lu did not leak the question in advance. In fact, w.a.n.g Lu did not tell Aya that she would compete in the food tasting compet.i.tion, right until before it begun!
But Aya was undoubtedly an outstanding food connoisseur. With her wicked intuition in the battlefield and the necessary knowledge as a foodie, her performance was only slightly inferior to that of the Food Immortal.
In an open and aboveboard first half of the compet.i.tion, although she did not have the upper hand, she kept up with him very closely. And in the second half, where w.a.n.g Lu had begun to employ dirty tactics, Aya"s advantage was obvious.
As an erudite person from the Western Continent, her educational level was such, that she was relatively on par with that of w.a.n.g Lu, the number one student. Moreover, she also had the meticulous characteristic of a woman. Thus, she was able to see at a glance the flaw in the poem on the dish, which was in sharp contrast with that of the Food Immortal.
"But, you could only apply this kind of meager skill once."
The Food Immortal could be fooled once, but not twice. He just didn"t like reading, but that didn"t mean he was illiterate, so he could always look for the typo. What"s more, in the food tasting, the decoration was only a part of it. As long as his basic skills were still solid, he would still be the winner of this compet.i.tion.
His confidence returned until he s.h.i.+fted his attention to the next dish.
It was a similarly styled dish, with a delicate plate, printed with an equally delicate ancient poem. The Food Immortal wrinkled his eyebrows as he found out that he simply didn"t know many of the characters!
"d.a.m.n, aren"t you too cruel?"
That ancient poem was truly prehistoric, which could be traced back to the time of the Earth Immortal eighteen thousand years ago. Many characters were simply ancient characters, which had long been abandoned…
Nevertheless, it didn"t matter whether he knew the characters or not, the compet.i.tion didn"t require him to pick out which character was wrong. It was enough for him to look for the typo in the poem.
However, at this moment, the Food Immortal"s heart turned cold and then he immediately shouted, "w.a.n.g Lu, you really are a cheap person!"
w.a.n.g Lu replied, still with a smile on his face, "Senior, why do you say such a thing?"
The Food Immortal angrily spat out a grain of sand from his mouth. "There is sand in this Mountain Gra.s.s!"
w.a.n.g Lu said, "Oh, congratulations on finding the flaw, Senior. Do you want to confirm the answer then?"
Confirm the answer? The Food Immortal really wanted to punch him in the face!
If there was no such sand, of course, he could confirm that the only flaw was in the poem! Because the Mountain Gra.s.s itself was perfect, the sauce was fresh and simple, and the aftertaste was endless. The decoration of the plate was just right, and the only thing that might be problematic was the presence of typos in the poem.
But now with this grain of sand, he couldn"t confirm it! Because there might be two, or even just one flaw!
A food tasting compet.i.tion could actually play this kind of shrewd scheme, the Food Immortal simply professed in admiration! However, as a contestant, he was furious!
This was not a food tasting compet.i.tion at all, but rather a vicious game of conspiracy and trickery!
"So, what is your answer?" w.a.n.g Lu asked slowly and then turned around to look at Aya...
Faced with the same type of question, Aya pondered for a moment and then gave out the answer, "There"s a typo on the third line of the ancient poem."
The Food Immortal gritted his teeth: She was just a Western Continent person, how could her attainment of ancient Nine Regions characters be deeper than him?
w.a.n.g Lu let out a slight smile. When Aya first came to Nine Regions, she was not familiar with the people and the place… to search for the way to win every war in this land, she had to learn how to read ancient books.
At this time, the gap between Aya and the Food Immortal had reached three points. Finally, the Food Immortal opened his mouth. "...My answer is there are grains of sand in the Mountain Gra.s.s, that"s all."
w.a.n.g Lu nodded and said, "A wise choice, unfortunately, not enough to obtain a score."
"Humph!"
Choosing to answer a flaw correctly, at worst the contestant would not get a point. But, if the answer was wrong, then the point would be deducted… w.a.n.g Lu was indeed a master of psychological warfare!
However, it was still the same words, the Food Immortal would not suffer this loss for the second time.
After tasting that Mountain Gra.s.s, the Food Immortal simply stopped and took out a book from his sleeve, a dictionary of ancient characters handed down to him from his Master eighteen thousand years!
"Alas, I should"ve listened to Master"s words and read the book…" The Food Immortal said, swept his eyes at the book, pondered for a moment, and then put the book away.
With the might of an Earth Immortal, memorizing a dictionary happened just in a twinkling of an eye.
And then, after spending a cup of tea"s time, he memorized two dictionaries and a dozen or so anthologies of ancient poems. Although he was still lacking in deep understanding, he could remember all the famous poems and would be able to recognize any typo in the poems.
At this point, Aya already had almost ten points lead, but the Food Immortal could still catch up very fast. And since there was still the second part of the match, he still had a lot of chances!
And what else could w.a.n.g Lu do except for this meager skill?
Thinking of this, his gaze s.h.i.+fted to the next dish, "Dead Leaves Searching For The Root." It was a cold dish made of the root of an ancient tree spirit, which was also a high-value dish, no less valuable than the Mountain Gra.s.s. Moreover, this dish also contained a special artistic conception, which was very high in standard.
The Food Immortal"s tiny"s eyes narrowed slightly, secretly thinking that it probably contained a verse that described the homesickness of a person who lived far from home. However, all the poems related to that were already very familiar to him, so he was not afraid even if w.a.n.g Lu came up with more tricks!
However, after he looked at it very closely, the Food Immortal found that there was no poem on the plate, there was only a string of strange looking characters.
x=[-b±(b^2-4ac)^(1/2)]/2a
"What the h.e.l.l was this?"
The Food Immortal thought for a long time but could not determine the meaning behind those string of characters. He felt that this seemingly simple string of characters contained an awesome magical ability. After a long time, he became a bit dizzy.
The Food Immortal then turned his attention back to the dish itself. He used chopsticks to pick up the plump roots that were soaked in the mountain spring… Sure enough, a flaw was found.
The next question then came, "How many flaws were there in the dish? What exactly were those d.a.m.n string of characters? Was there any flaw in it?"
Nevertheless, after searching from his memory, the Food Immortal did not remember having seen such things before!
However, it was impossible for w.a.n.g Lu to deliberately create obstacles for him with some new things that appeared during his sixteen thousand years slumber. At this time, there were not only cultivators from the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals on the outside watching but also his Earth Immortals companion. If w.a.n.g Lu openly cheated, someone would definitely jump out and interfere, but obviously, there was not.
Thereupon, the question then was exactly the same as the last dish, could he only rely on guessing?
The Food Immortal could not help but sigh with emotion. He knew that he had far less intuition to predict the future, so he could not do the same thing as the girl from the Western Continent who could guarantee a ninety-nine percent accuracy by guessing.
"There were two problems with this dish, one is the wrong handling of the root, and the other is… there"s a mistake in this d.a.m.n string of characters."
w.a.n.g Lu smiled again. "Unfortunately, I have to deduct you by one point. The formula for finding the root is correct. Isn"t the beauty of mathematics very touching?"
"Hehe." The Food Immortal gently smiled, but his right hand squeezed broken the chopsticks that had followed him for many years!
Mathematics! Unexpectedly, it was a mathematical formula!
"D*mn you, I hate math the most! Is it not enough to just know the four basic operations (+, -, :, x) well? Where else do you need such a complicated mathematical tool?"
At the same time, looking at the remaining dozens of dishes on the table, as well as the various plate designs, the heart of the Food Immortal gradually began to shake, and his confidence for victory simply vanished!
Strictly speaking, by constantly making a big fuss of the plate, w.a.n.g Lu had put him into an inferior position, but… this was a compet.i.tion, where the contestants competed on scores and not the attainment of the food appraisal!
w.a.n.g Lu"s means were mean and shameless, but as long as they were still within the framework of the rules, he was beyond reproach! The Food Immortal had to endure this patiently! Who told him to be confident and accepted this challenge on his own initiative?
His mood turned chaotic and his appet.i.te also disappeared. The Food Immortal was silent for a moment. Then, seeing that Aya"s score lead was already more than twenty...
"Enough, I concede!"
The Food Immortal stood up from the stone block and, with a pale complexion, left the arena in a huff.
Outside the arena, the cheer was absolutely deafening.