Reborn in Japan as a Chef God-Chapter 998 - 997: The Giant Kingpin (Part 2)

A manor in Villagurus is hosting a three-day food festival.

This food festival has been held for nearly twenty sessions, but in the past two years, its fame suddenly spread, attracting tourists and food enthusiasts from various countries, filling the streets and neighborhoods with people, almost overwhelming the port city.

The reason for this is inseparable from the ’soup’ specially provided at the festival.

Lei Aoxue followed the clues of the ’soup’ and, after more than a year of field investigation, finally confirmed the whereabouts of the legendary cookware ’Magic Copper Holy Artifact’.

The manor is owned by the Guzman Family, which is also known as the uncrowned royal family in the Mexican culinary world. The current head of the Guzman Family is one of Mexico’s top chefs and a magnate whose wealth rivals nations.

As they got closer to the Guzman Manor, the chaos and congestion in the streets made it impossible for vehicles to pass. People of white, yellow, and black skin were everywhere. As Xia Yu and his group got out of the car, they were met with a cacophony of voices, mostly in English with various accents, but also some familiar sounds of Chinese and Japanese.

The young driver hired by Lei Aoxue, after parking the car, ran over to them slightly out of breath, pointing to a brightly lit, palace-like, enormous manor in the distance, "That’s the central area of the food festival."

"Let’s just walk around the periphery."

The young man named Carlos was visibly excited, "Even at the outermost area, there’s a chance to taste Guzman’s supreme soup."

Mentioning the ’Guzman Soup’, Carlos practically had sparks in his eyes.

A bit of drool even slipped from the corner of his mouth.

He was oblivious to this, continuing to loudly narrate to everyone.

Xia Yu, Morioka Makoto, and Tiqie Eriina saw the expressions of "obsession" and "infatuation" flashing across Carlos’ face from time to time, his reason intact but his appetite seemingly possessed by a demon, leaving them secretly awed.

"Come over here."

Lei Aoxue glanced at Carlos without being surprised by the young man’s abnormality and pulled Xia Yu to a street corner, whispering, "You saw it, last year Carlos was my guide, and both he and I tasted the ’Guzman Soup’ for the first time, but he has been utterly captivated by that sacred taste ever since."

Xia Yu was slightly startled.

"Is this... being enchanted?"

Lei Aoxue stared at his flickering eyes, "It’s enchantment, and it’s also deep obsession, similar to how the Dark Cuisine World’s dishes used to captivate people’s hearts, isn’t it?"

Xia Yu shook his head, "Not necessarily."

"Actually, top-tier dishes, or shall we say, luminous creations, often have similar captivating effects. But..." he paused mid-sentence.

"Let’s taste it first and then talk!"

"Indeed!" Lei Aoxue nodded.

...

As night descended, at the Guzman Manor, in the hall.

It could be said that most North American elites gathered here, and just looking at a few moguls from the ’gourmet gathering’ would be enough to see how impressive the Guzman Family’s reputation was.

Aside from Lin Qingfeng, who was still active on the Chinese Continent, and Lei Zhe, who was delisted, six of the eight moguls of the gourmet gathering were present.

’Burning Purple Rose’ Andrea was chatting with a dignified-looking elder on the second floor of the hall, the atmosphere quite relaxed.

"The food festival in your name, Guzman, is getting more and more renowned." Andrea’s fiery red lips and delicate face showed a faint charming smile, as she took a slight sip of red wine.

Detecting the sarcasm in Andrea’s words, the old man in a suit with neatly combed hair frowned.

Andrea didn’t care about Guzman’s reaction.

For the ’gourmet gathering’ that dominates North and Latin America, Guzman, this local tyrant, could at most be on par with a mogul, let alone the leader of the gourmet gathering is above him, and this local tyrant won’t make great waves after all.

"Don’t you know a young Dragon Chef emerged from the ancient Chinese Land?"

Hmm?

Guzman’s face slightly stiffened.

He averted his gaze, not daring to meet Andrea’s challenging eyes, and lowered his voice, "He is in China, I am in Mexico, with an ocean between us... even if he is unmatched, what does it have to do with me?"

Andrea, however, sighed lightly, "Hand it over."

Hearing this, Guzman’s eyebrows twitched, a murderous aura condensed in his eyes, "What are you referring to?!"

A thump sounded in his heart, his fierceness a facade.

"Actually, years ago, the ’gourmet gathering’ secret agency already targeted you, Guzman. According to the clues, it was roughly speculated that your family has a legendary cookware." Andrea narrowed her eyes slightly, releasing a hint of dangerous aura, "You should never have, by any means, after breaking the seal of the legendary cookware, tried to use the food cooked from it to seduce people’s hearts and increase your influence in the North American circle!"

If Guzman could still maintain his composure after this sentence, Andrea’s next words made his hair stand on end.

"You are also targeted by the Chinese Realm people."

Andrea’s eyes looked at him as if he were a dead man in a grave.

Guzman’s back was covered in cold sweat, but he said in a deep voice, "The cookware, it’s impossible to give it to you, and even more impossible to give it to the Chinese Realm people!"

"Hmph!"

He stood up to leave.

"Have you thought about it, we can give you time to think, but the people from the Chinese Realm are coming on strong... against that newly acclaimed Dragon Chef, what are your odds?" Andrea let out a mocking laugh.

"With the aid of the legendary cookware, I’m not afraid of anyone!" Guzman’s steps paused for a moment.

Once Guzman left, Sta and Catherine came over to sit down.

"What an old fool!"

Sta shook his head, "Does he think he can swallow a legendary cookware?"

Catherine lifted her hood, her eyes slightly narrowed, and said, "This incident happened suddenly, we only knew he went abroad through the secret agency’s intelligence, heading for Mexico. The leader is in Greece and will catch up by tomorrow."

More than just the ’gourmet gathering’ acted upon hearing the news, among the crowd at the Guzman Food Festival, there were quite a few lurking figures.

The eight legendary cookwares of the Chinese Realm are rare ’Divine Artifacts’ worldwide.

Even though organizations like the gourmet gathering and IGO are massive, the global culinary situation is so complex that such organizations can’t completely monopolize it. Beneath them, there are some unobtrusive but small and elite groups.

The ’Southeast Asia Federation’ is an underground culinary organization not to be underestimated.

"Position 1 confirmed!"

"Position 2 confirmed!"

"Position 3 is on standby..."

Under the food festival’s crowd spread across several blocks, someone was conducting some unknown deployment using encrypted radio signals.

"Await my orders!"

At the corner of a street, a beautiful woman with a ponytail and wearing a plaid shirt was deploying with a strange, hoarse voice that sounded like a man’s.

Beep.

The implant device in the ear became silent. Li Ying Song looked around intentionally or unintentionally, his eyes containing a hint of vigilance.

He was the head of the ’Southeast Asia Federation’s’ treasure hunt operation this time.

Despite having a Chinese name, Li Ying Song was actually a Thai with Chinese ancestry, growing up in Thailand, his culinary skills originating from the Thai culinary world. He also made his name in Thailand before being recruited by the ’Southeast Asia Federation’.

Li Ying Song turned towards a stall at the food festival, silently thinking about the operation.

"Our federation still has too few high-level chefs. That Wei Zhong was defeated too quickly, even his culinary heart broke, otherwise, with an additional top Lin Chef, this operation wouldn’t have had to turn from overt to covert, relying on assault and force."

He sighed lightly, pausing to gaze toward the palace-like manor.

Hmm?

At that moment, a group of people happened to walk past him.

Li Ying Song caught a glimpse of a boy’s profile, and he was instantly struck as if by lightning, his expression frozen with a tinge of terror, "It’s him!"