Another work day came and passed. At the end of the day, Hao Peng called Yulong to his office.
This worried Yulong, as he was cooking decent meals the whole day- at least by the standards of Heaven's Table.
Yulong opened the door to see Hao Peng sitting at his desk, frowning. He didn't even look up when Yulong approached.
After Yulong took a seat, Hao Peng started. "Yulong. We have a problem."
Yulong said nothing, only merely nodding to show that he was listening.
After seeing that Yulong said nothing, Hao Peng continued. "A competitor that has been irritating me for a while now has started to take bolder steps. I'm sure you have heard of them; the Divine Dishes Restaurant."
Yulong nodded. "Yes." The Divine Dishes Restaurant was a restaurant that, in his original life, was competing with Heaven's Table. Although in the higher worlds they would be considered nothing, down here in the First World they were considered Prominent.
"They have started to take down- no, destroy my other small restaurants."
"I see. So you need me to step up?"
"I need you to do more than that. Meet me at the plains surrounding the city- about midday. There, you will receive your training." Without waiting for a reply, Hao Peng dismissed Yulong with a flick of his wrist.
As Yulong left, he mused over what Hao Peng said. 'What sort of special training is it going to be? Am I simply going to cook? Or fight?'
In the end, Yulong decided to increase his cultivation base if anything. So until midday, he sat in the lotus position in his room.
Yulong breathed out, finalizing his cultivation. After wrapping up his cultivation, he immediately ran out of the city.
...
After a few miles, Yulong could see two figures. As he got closer, he could identify their features.
One of them was Hao Peng. The handsome man had a large knife strapped across his back- almost like a claymore. But what was even odder was that he had five Storage Rings on his finger, so they were either full or something was wrong with the arrays.
The other hourglass figure was a woman he had never seen before. She had long white hair and cold blue eyes that matched the rest of her stone-cold face, and she wore white robes. Although a beauty- she was not nation-toppling.
Yulong was not fazed, nor was he affected by the desires of the flesh. He had seen much more beautiful women. As cultivation made one's features more good-looking, essentially staying truer to their inner self, beauties in the cultivation world was as common as flies. Once he arrived, he could asses the woman's cultivation.
'A Soul Gatherer?'
"Ah, Yulong, you arrived." Hao Peng said, clasping his hands together. "This is Zhao Zhelan." He gestured towards the beauty, who was paying no attention to Yulong.
"Now then, right into business. Since the Divine Dishes restaurant will no doubt come here to my headquarters, I have to make sure you are all ready. Improve in your cultivation, but especially improve in your combat and cooking ability. This is why you all will need to learn a special cooking technique- so you aren't left behind."
Yulong raised an eyebrow. How come he had never seen Zhao Zhelan before? Was she from another restaurant? And why was the Divine Dishes restaurant out to kill Heaven's Table, other than just competitiveness?
Hao Peng gestured to the black mountains in the background, that clawed at the sky. He then pointed to a specific one, the tallest of them all.
"No objections? Great. Now, for the first task, I want you all to run up that mountain. Once you do, you must find a Heavenly Cooking technique. If you can, then you are worth being a part of Heaven's Table. If not..."
Hao Peng left the last part unsaid. Yulong sighed, he was going to be up there for quite some time. A Heaven Grade technique up in the mountains of the First World? Impossible. Almost.
Yulong turned to Zhao Zhelan. "It is a pleasure to meet you..."
"Hmph, do not-"
"However, do not hold me back on this. I want to get this done as quickly as possible..." Yulong interrupted her.
Zhao Zhelan looked angrily at Yulong. 'This bastard, only at the Ninth Level True Martial Realm, dare look down on me like that? Simply courting death!'
She opened her mouth to say something, but Yulong was already dashing away. Sighing, she soon followed.
Once they were out of sight, Hao Peng breathed. Suddenly, a figure materialized beside him. The figure wore red robes- similar to that of the man that insulted Yulong and looked to be in his mid-thirties.
"How is the experiment?"
Hao Peng pursed his lips. "It's going just fine. I found two promising subjects. Perhaps they could find that technique for your daughter, Xia Gang." Although Hao Peng's tone was respectful, the look on his face was cold.
Xia Gang stared at Hao Peng in silence for a few minutes and sighed. "Good. Don't disappoint me. I'm sure you have no other... Motives." After adding his two coins, Xia Gang's figure blurred as he disappeared.
Hao Peng watched the spot Xia Gang had just been in and, for a moment, let his built-up killing intent disperse.
"Oh, yes Xia Gang."
...
Miles away, Yulong could feel it. Killing intent.
He abruptly stopped, causing Zhao Zhelan to look at him irritatedly. "What's wrong? Tired already?"
"Obviously you wouldn't feel it," Yulong said. This caused Zhao Zhelan to quiet down a bit as she tried to sense what Yulong sensed. However, the killing intent was only released for a second before being suppressed again.
But it came from the direction Hao Peng was at. Usually, one would think that he was probably fighting some bandits or something else.
'That type of killing intent can only be created after killing many people and surviving many near-death experiences. Who is Hao Peng, really?'