Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 1020

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1020
The housekeeper deliberately spun the kitchen knife rapidly in his hand, tossed it into the air, and caught it.
Snap!
In terms of martial artists, this was the blade work of one who had reached the Hwagyeong stage. In terms of culinary masters in Gangho, it meant achieving a level where one could slice radish so transparently it could be held up to the moon.
It wasn’t an exaggeration.
All the vegetables that went into the cold noodles were so transparent you could see through them.
Especially the vegetables that accompanied my bowl were at a level where you couldn’t even distinguish whether they were noodles or vegetables.
‘Excellent. I accept your challenge!’
I began slurping the cold noodles deliberately.
The head chef seemed pleased with me and poured a bottle of sweet rice wine.
He was arrogant, but his personality was good.
The next dish.
A restaurant called Buddha Immortal Tower.
Buddha Jumps Over the Wall was the signature dish!
The name came about because a certain poet who first tasted this dish said, “Even a nun would smell the fragrance from beyond the wall and leap over it,” and thus it earned this name.
“This is hot.”
“Right, it doesn’t seem like they serve iced versions. The head chef believes cold dishes aren’t really cooking.”
“Not iced… the original name is… never mind. Anyway, it’s delicious.”
Honest flavors.
I enjoyed every place Sama Hyeon brought me to with genuine delight.
“How do you know all of this?”
“Running an inn is harder than it seems. The inns we operate through the Golden Blood Hall don’t aim to create such grand master-level dishes, but rather maintain the level just below that.”
“So you have to taste the master-level cooking first to maintain that standard?”
“Right. For example, these cold noodles taste great this way, but when I sell them, I’d need to lower the cost.”
“True. There probably aren’t many people at the Golden Blood Hall inns who’ve reached that level of knife work.”
“Exactly. Hyeong, those would be paired with thicker vegetables instead. As for noodles, we could source dried noodles from the workshop at the other Baekrin inn. The seasonings would work too. By training people that way, we’d get exactly the level below that.”
“So you’re never doing Zhong Hua Yi Wei even if it kills you. What about you?”
“The money doesn’t match the effort, Hyeong. There’s only one housekeeper of that caliber in Baekrin County. Maybe if we searched all of Gangso Province, there’d be only this person. Or maybe if we searched all of the Central Plains, only this person would emerge.”
“Hmm, that so?”
I nodded in agreement.
Sama Hyeon, excited, bought candied hawthorn from a street vendor and handed it to me.
I took it and bit down with a crisp sound. Delicious.
Sama Hyeon continued speaking.
“How many bowls do you think that housekeeper could sell in a day?”
“Around… a hundred bowls?”
“Right. If that person did it alone, that’s about what we’d get. Cold noodles look simple to make, but achieving that person’s level of flavor requires surprisingly much work. However, at the level below that, we could employ multiple people and operate multiple inns. Then a thousand bowls a day would be entirely possible.”
“Ohhh…”
“That’s business, Hyeong. It’s different from cooking.”
Saying so, he burst into laughter.
‘So there’s a reason Sama Hyeon makes so much money.’
I pondered for a moment.
“Right. Now I remember.”
“Hmm?”
I tapped my belly.
“To create something truly delicious, the input is what matters most.”
I said this while giving a thumbs up.
What kind of dish could possibly emerge from this?
‘It doesn’t seem like it’ll be an ordinary dish, at least…’
Sama Hyeon grew curious.
* * *
Time passed, and then more time passed.
“Oh! Finally. The Yoo Ho Refrigerator Cold Cuisine Competition is beginning!”
“…?”
When Sim Haksa spoke thus among the Three Scholars, the other two couldn’t understand what he meant.
Sim Haksa spoke again.
“The Bing Ho Festival is commencing!”
“Ooooooh! The Bing Ho Festival!”
Boom, bang bang!
Celebratory fireworks announcing the Bing Ho Festival erupted across the sky.
The Three Scholars’ hearts swelled with anticipation.
And rightfully so.
The fierce battle of the cooks was about to begin in a permanent arena that had been reinforced by grinding through countless people and even employing formation techniques!
“So today is the first day.”
“It’s the preliminary round. What we did in Bunta was the preliminary of the preliminaries.”
If battling hundreds of regional housekeepers from various areas was the preliminary of the preliminaries to earn participation rights, then this was the preliminary round proper.
Ten housekeepers gathered in each group to compete!
All of them were renowned master chefs from their respective regions, and among them…
“Oh! Is that the Great Cooking Master of the Yellow Dragon? Am I seeing correctly?”
“That’s unmistakably the emblem of the Great Cooking Master of the Yellow Dragon!”
“Even cooks recognized by the Emperor are participating in this competition!”
The golden badge gleaming brilliantly on the arm was undoubtedly the credential of the Great Cooking Master of the Yellow Dragon bestowed by the Emperor!
It signified one who had ascended to the pinnacle of culinary excellence across all lands.
What flavor would the cold dishes prepared by such masters bring forth?
“Where is Ilgwang? He’s not in the judges’ seats.”
“…He’s probably in the preliminary competition section. Since it’s not his turn yet, he might be elsewhere.”
“Huh?”
Ilgwang was participating in the preliminaries despite being the organizer!
However, it was not yet my turn.
The preliminary round would be held over four days.
Four groups in total.
Every day, forty cooks participate in genuine duels, with four advancing each time.
After four days, the sixteen cooks selected this way advance to the main tournament and compete!
“No matter how important honor is, do we really need to fight like this?”
“The winner will be appointed as an advisor to the Golden Blood Hall, and the dishes he creates will be prepared at every Golden Blood Hall branch throughout Gangho, with him receiving a portion of the sales revenue.”
“No… that’s insane! With that money, he could live off it for generations!”
Man Haksa shook his head in disbelief.
Of course, contrary to what the scholars expected, the winner’s dishes won’t actually be prepared exactly as made at every Bunta branch across the nation. After all, their opponent is none other than the greatest master chef under heaven.
How complicated would the cooking methods of the greatest master chef under heaven be, and how many rare ingredients would they require?
…Many. Very many adjustments downward are planned.
Until the cost aligns.
“Everyone will be curious and flock to the Golden Blood Hall branches to taste that cold dish!”
“Exactly. To think we can eat a dish made by the greatest master chef under heaven at our local Bunta!”
Even if that taste is significantly compromised, humans possess something called ki-bun.
With merely the uniqueness of a cold dish and the expectation of tasting food made by the greatest master chef under heaven, humans deceive their own palates.
This is the blind spot Sama Hyeon is targeting!
Though the winner receives a share, most of the profits gained will flow into Sama Hyeon’s pockets—truly a cunning scheme.
“We’ll select preliminary judges from the general public! Everyone, draw lots!”
At those words, people swarmed forward like clouds.
“Oh, it seems the preliminary judges are being selected from ordinary people!”
Then they too had a chance.
The Three Scholars’ hearts raced with excitement.
As they went to draw lots, the tournament manager spoke in surprise.
“My goodness, aren’t you the Three Scholars? You’ve come here!”
Now many in Gangho recognized their faces.
This meant.
‘The flow, we’ve caught the flow.’
‘We will continue to ride the flow.’
‘Is the answer the flow?’
The Three Scholars’ eyes met one another.
* * *
I observe the cooking competition from a distance.
Of course, since many here would recognize me, I made sure to alter my appearance and change my clothes.
My current form is that of an ordinary warrior from Baekrin Uiseon.
The stadium stands were already packed with spectators, despite this being only the preliminaries.
Then someone from one side shouted.
“What?! What is that? A brain? Did he really take out a brain?”
“He’s using a brain?!”
A master chef retrieved a brain from the cooler.
An animal’s brain.
Someone mentioned it was a deer’s brain.
The brilliant crimson hooves being removed confirmed it beyond doubt.
“A Crimson Beast? Isn’t that the kind of creature that devours people? At that size, it would have already consumed an entire village, yet someone actually captured and butchered it!”
“Wait, isn’t that top-tier spirit beast material? They’re using that for preliminary rounds?”
“Evil creatures are still spirit creatures. Though it’s called precious spirit beast material, if you win this competition, you’ll accumulate wealth so vast that three generations could live in luxury without depleting it. Three generations? You could acquire several shops in Nanjing with that money and live comfortably for generations to come!”
“Heavens… even so, to bring spirit beast material here!”
I was equally astonished.
‘No… I merely created this competition to showcase the refrigerator. Why is spirit beast material appearing in the preliminaries?!’
The other preliminary chefs were intimidated by the display.
‘This madman brought a spirit creature as food ingredient?’
‘Why… why is the standard of this competition so incredibly high?!’
The Unnamed Master Chef who brought the evil creature material snorted loudly with pride, then began lightly blanching the Crimson Beast’s brain and mixing it with eggs.
“What?!”
I let out a small gasp without thinking.
Then a voice reached my ears.
“Hmm… brain cuisine. That’s difficult to handle, you know. You know about monkey brain being one of the Eight Delicacies of Gangho, right, hyeong?”
It was Sama Hyeon. I responded.
“I’ve heard of it.”
I’ve never eaten it.
People here call it a delicacy you can’t eat even with money, but as someone from Earth who’d never even wrung a chicken’s neck, eating an animal that somewhat resembled humans was… quite difficult.
So I don’t eat it.
“But Hyeon-a, I’m in disguise. How did you recognize me and find me here? And with so many people gathered like this.”
“I’ve eaten that dish before, hyeong.”
“What, what?!”
Sama Hyeon changed the subject instead of answering. But the topic shift was so shocking that I found myself stammering.
“A Crimson Beast?”
“No, no, not spirit beast grade. Sheep brain. An acquaintance from the Heterodox Faction, their leader, served me that dish when they were alive.”
Served me when they were ‘alive’?
That implied they were dead now… yet Sama Hyeon continued speaking matter-of-factly.
“Ah, hyeong. When lending me money, that person treated me to a grand feast, but when coming to collect, they tried to treat me with a blade~ I had no choice.”
“I, I see… If you died, the debt would be erased too… There must be quite a few Heterodox leaders trying to kill you.”
“Strictly speaking, my master, the Golden King, received the debt transfer in my stead, but that still buys me considerable time. So most of the people trying to kill me are those who borrowed money from me~”
‘So they kill people just over debt.’
Well, in Gangho, which is riddled with silver debts, killing someone to avoid repayment is quite a common murder motive.
Sama Hyeon continued.
“Anyway, sheep brain turned out to be quite palatable. Originally, in pastoral regions, when you butcher a sheep, the custom is to use everything from head to hoof without waste, and that became a luxury dish in the Central Plains.”
Indeed, in this era, sheep are valuable assets.
You can survive just by selling wool without slaughtering them. Why butcher at all?
The principle is to utilize not just meat and hide, but also the sheep’s intestines, liver, bladder, and everything as food ingredients.
That’s the local traditional belief, they say.
‘So now they’re doing that with the Crimson Beast….’
At that moment, the housekeeper preparing the enemy’s brain wiped away a bead of sweat.
Then something covered by cloth gleamed.
It was the emblem of the Great Cooking Master of the Yellow Dragon!
Upon seeing that emblem, someone cried out.
“I know that person! That person is Myeon Geom-sik Do Dugwak!”
“…!”
At those words, I widened my eyes in shock.
Myeon Geom-sik Do Dugwak!
I knew of this person.
One of the Ten Greatest Master Chefs under Heaven!
Yet now that I saw him, he was no ordinary housekeeper.
‘He is undoubtedly a supreme master of the highest caliber!’
And that enemy beast he had brought was almost certainly captured by his own hands.
For today’s supreme cold cuisine competition!
I spoke.
“Ooooh! Truly a magnificent warrior! I shall give my all to compete against such formidable opponents!”
As I burned with such fervor, Sama Hyeon beside me spoke.
“…Hyeong, but you’re a doctor, aren’t you?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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