Virtual World: Peerless White Emperor

Carefully, Old Li took out the crab meat and sliced them into slices as thick as paper at his incredible speed. He then brushed a thin layer of crab mustard, put a quail-egg sized roe on it, and wrapped it up. Without any tools at all, those elegant hands of his tied a perfect knot. The yellowness of the crab mustard and the glittering roe could be seen from the transparent slice of crab meat. He made a lot of them in one go. Shortly after, he brought Ye Cang to the Jade Scallop and again, he used his bare hands to open the shell. What everyone was eyeing on was the soft scallop inside the shell. “Lil’White, listen carefully. Slice it into multiple boxes, 8cm each. Open a small hole in the middle of the box and don’t slice it completely. Leave a space of at least 1cm from the bottom to ensure it still survives. You can only cut from left to right but you can’t be faster than my hands, alright?! I need to stuff the fillings inside it! Now, let’s start!”

Ye Cang was at the point where he was too lazy to use his knife. He directed a surge of qi energy at his finger to form a scalpel-like blade as he moved his finger to cut out a square box with a hole in the middle. Old Li placed the crab roe wrapped with crab meat slices into the hole and drizzled some soy sauce on it. Their cooperation was perfect as they cut the meat, folded in the stuffings and poured in the sauce. Within 10 seconds, they completed the job on an 8 metre-long scallop and the entire scallop was mysteriously healing. From the first box, it started to heal up those cuts and cover the roes to the extent that it looked like there was never a slit. The roes were like many tiny red hearts in the scallop. They witnessed a beautiful sight to behold.

“What’s next?”

“Put it in the fire,” Old Li took out a bunch of woods and started making wood charcoal. Wanting to have a more accurate gauge, he repeatedly calculated the time needed to burn the wood. After cooling the charcoal down, he dug a hole, put them in and asked the others to place the scallop on top. He left a small tunnel for him to ignite the charcoal. “By using this way of burning, the flame will not be too strong. The charcoal is only there to heat up the shell with a slow fire and shorten the time needed to transfer heat to the scallop. Once its juice is excreted, the remaining heat will preserve the taste of the juice and meat. Also, this shell must be closed tightly. Can’t afford to let a single bit of the freshness leak out.”

“Next, it’s the sauce. We can either mash the Jade Carrot or the Snowy Mountain Sunflower to spice it up, but the Snowy Sunflower is too rare and we don’t have anything to replace it with temporarily. For saltiness, we can use the salt from the heavenly heart flower whereas for sweetness, well, I don’t recommend fruits. Garlic itself will do the trick but it has to be wine garlic. Similarly, we’ll mash it. This type of garlic doesn’t only have the aroma of the wine but also the taste of spice. But it’s not the season for wine garlic yet. Using a secondary item will only pollute such a great main ingredient we have.”

“Well, I do have something that might be able to replace it.” From the basket of fruits, Ye Cang took out a red dick-shaped fruit. Old Wang tasted a little, “Hmm…spicy and sweet at the same time. It also has a tinge of the taste of Mountain Sunflower. Oh, it has a great effect on enhancing one’s reproductive organs too. Its taste is unique, way better than Jade Carrot and wine garlic. But we can’t put too much of it or the taste will be too strong. We can use Jade Carrot to balance it out…”

Old Li sliced a bit of crab meat and dipped it in the mashed substance. He was stunned as soon as it entered his mouth. “This is absolutely a great fruit! Its spice has the right balance and the aftertaste doesn’t affect any other tastes. It’s a great appetizer. I’ll take two home when I leave. What’s the name of this fruit?”

“How about we name it D*ck Fruit?” Ye Cang named it according to its appearance and Old Li smiled bitterly, “I think Red D Horseradish is better.”

“Alright,” Ye Cang nodded.

“Marilyn, Old Wang, come and taste this!” Old Li asked them to taste the Red D Horseradish for themselves. New and creative ideas flashed through their minds all in an instance. I can combine this with a lot of stuff! Seeing the Jade Scallop, Lin Liang let out a faint smile. This is surely out of my expectations. He then saw that Marilyn was done with the dough and the pot was full of oil. Is she going to fry it? Usually, the buns for burgers are grilled. Fried Golden Wholewheat Bun?! Wow, she must have something up her sleeves. Let’s go have a look. She must have added something into the dough. After a round of observation, he found out that Marilyn had gotten some purple heart onions, bloody red tomatoes, Marilyn’s secret cheese, crunchy vegetables, and crab meat with mustard ready. When the oil was starting to boil, she added the sky peacock’s oil and some watery flower’s seed to mix it up. She turned off the fire and waited for it to be served last.

Meanwhile, everyone was excited for the Black-Beak Phoenix’s complicated grilling process to be done. The sweet aroma of the honey and meat filled the air as the people were ready with their forks and knives. All they needed was a green light from the three great chefs and a biologist.

Time was ticking and they were never bored of staring at the bird on the grill. Every flip signafied that they were a step closer to eating it. As the brownish-yellow sun sank below the horizon to make way for the darkness of the night, Old Li ignited the fire for the scallop and Marilyn got the oil boiling. The entire beach was engulfed with the strong appetite-stimulating aroma. Knowing that everyone was waiting, Old Li divided the crab meat from the legs into three parts and placed them on a big plate together with the pincers’ meat. He put the mashed Red D Horseradish and Jade Carrot on the side of the plate. “Let’s have some appetizer!”

As they picked the meat up, they felt it was smooth like a jade and soft like a cloud popped it into their mouths after a dip of the mashed condiments. Fresh and spicy! My tastebuds are exploding! The meat started to dissolve after a few chews. The meat is so chewy that I almost ate my own tongue! The meat from the pincers must be even chewy but… I’m reluctant to eat it….

Sizzling sounds were heard from Marilyn’s pot. The smell of the fried bun started a fire in their souls and made their saliva drool.

Marilyn placed the golden bun aside, waited for the crab meat to boil for a second before tossing it out to the bun together with the crab mustard, crab roe, tomatoes, onions, cheese, a few slices of Red D Horseradish and last but not least, the crunchy vegetables. She made a few dozens of burgers all in once. Though still indulging in the delicious taste of the crab meat, Lin Liang reached out to grab a burger as soon as he knew they were served. A crunchy sound came at every bite. So crunchy! So crunchy! A variety of flavor stimulated his taste buds which included the sweetness and sourness of the tomatoes! The spice combination from the onions and the Red D Horseradish! Three roes exploded in the middle of crab mustard. Juices overflowed his mouth. Shit! It’s gonna leak out! He lifted his head up to prevent the juices from escaping from his mouth while chewing to extract the wonderful taste. This fried burger is so good! So this is the legendary Golden Krabby Patty?! As he ate his last bite, Lin Liang pondered. What’s that thing?! The crab shell powder is inside for sure but there’s still something else! I just can’t figure it out! He stared at Marilyn, “There’s still one more ingredient that I can’t think of. The ingredient that made the bun so crispy, sweet and fresh…”

“Heh. If you figure it out, do you think it is still my signature?” Marilyn wiped her hands and joined them for the meal.

“Damn it. It’s so exhausting. Grilling this thing is really a test of patience. You can’t lose focus at all. A slight burnt will reduce the taste of the end product as the charred smell will be transferred into the food,” Old Wang wiped off the sweat on his forehead.