Chapter 189: Entering the Eternal Maze once more!

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"He fainted? Hah! Should I represent everyone here and kick him while he is down?" Shen Murong turned his head around with a wide grin and both his arms folded on his chest.

"That.. would not be convenient for us.. haha.." said Fei Liquan's personal bodyguard, Lei.

While we pretty much would want to do that ourselves too, by the end of it all, he is still our young master, so we can't possibly do such a disloyal and unfilial act.. at least not in front of everyone else here anyway..

"The shock on him must've been pretty great, but this is good for him as well. After all, under the Heavens, if one wanted to step above all, one must first face Mount.Tai itself! Only after one could stood at its peak, will they be truly be the one!" the First Elder said with his archaic voice, and his hands behind his back.

The rest nodded at this, but inwardly, they were thinking, 'To stood above Mount.Tai? Isn't that impossible?'

Fei Liquan's servants carried their fainted young master and after his bodyguard Lei bid their farewell, the third floor was now open only to themselves as the First Elder instructed Heng Wu to close and lock down the door.

"Now that they are gone.. the seven of us here have a proposal to make.." the First elder turned towards Duan Li.

Ahem!

"Culinary Overlord, will you inherit this restaurant?" he said, the excitement in his voice could hardly be contained.

BAM!

"Huh?" everyone became so flabbergasted that their expression turned into that of a puffer fish.

Heng Wu's countenance turned pale when he heard this, "F-First Elder, don't be so rash! We must first held a meeting between the manager.."

"Enough!" the First Elder interjected him.

He then continued, "This Seven Saints Culinary restaurant was first founded by our founding fathers whom were the chefs at that time, and when we inherit their mantle, we are the ones whom are actually in power, not those greedy managers!"

Another saints chefs stepped forward, "The First elder is right, look.. we are already so old, and we have mastered so much in the art of cooking. But do you not see that we had only cooked a few times per month because hardly anyone could ever step on the third floor?"

"I agree with the Second elder.."

"Me too." the rest of the saints chefs nodded.

All of them had trained very hard to reach the current level they were in right now, for the very purpose of serving people with the best food people could eat.

But if there was only a few whom could actually bought, eat and taste them, then what's the purpose?

Wouldn't that meant that their extravagant skills that they had honed for countless years was wasted?

Heng Wu sighed, "I understand, but the matter is not that simple.. to procure rare ingredients had required us to hire powerful cultivators.. especially the kind of food that you elders here cooked."

"In addition, all those ingredients used on this third floor were from the danger zones! If we did not put an expensive price for the cost of procurement, who would even want to risk their life going to all those places?" he added.

Originally, the Seven Saints Culinary restaurant was started by only seven Saints Chefs during its earliest days, but overtime as their popularity grew, their customers increased exponentially causing them to hire other chefs to cook all the simple meals.

Eventually, they had to hire more to track all their financial expenses and income, and thus they hired managers to sort all those complicated tasks for them so that they could focus only on cooking the best dish.

Over time, these managers began to change the layout of their restaurant in order to keep up with the public demands and was thus divided into three floors until today.

However, the managers soon began to found out that they were raking in quite a lot of money, so they changed the business model and make everything much more expensive, turning it into a luxury restaurant. As a result, only the well-offs could dine in at their restaurant.

"So you say that, but the overall income we have per year exceeded our expenses by a wide margin! Even when recovering our loses from the tyr- I mean lady Meng Yue, we have already profitted so much in recent years, so why is this nonsense system still standing? We need to change it and that is why we need the Culinary Overlord!" the First elder said.

According to tradition, a Culinary Overlord could over-rule changes made by anyone below them, or even change them entirely! And since hierarchy was strictly adhered to, no one would be able to go against Duan Li should he inherit the restaurant as its Culinary Overlord!

"Again, I understand First elder, but even if he is a Culinary Overlord, inheriting the restaurant is just not possible! Remember, the blood rite requires 10 person to agree, and all seven of you holds that power, while the other three belongs to the managers." Heng Wu explained.

This blood rite system was created in order for any major overhauls to the current system in the restaurant to be agreed first by everyone in the absence of a Culinary Overlord. Thus, in order for Duan Li to become their Culinary Overlord, he must first be acknowledged by all those 10 people, and only then could he make any sorts of changes he wished!

However, it was downright impossible because what the seven Saints Chefs wanted, was to lower the prices down for each food so that they could cook for more people, and the managers would never agree upon this!

"H-Hold up! Since when did I agree to inherit this restaurant? I'm a busy person!" Duan Li interjected them.

"Eh? Perhaps you are still not clear on the benefits of being the Culinary Overlord of our restaurant?" the First Elder said in surprise.

Surely, since the other party possessed such a heaven-sent talent in food decryption, he would at least know a thing or two about the privilege of being a Culinary Overlord?

Yet, why does it seemed like he is a complete newbie at this?

Seeing that completely blank look on the other party, the First elder sighed and started to explain, "Other than being able to command all the other chefs in this restaurant, and change its system structure into anything you want, you could practically have the finest dish to help you cultivate!"

The Second elder nodded and continued where the First elder left off, "Indeed! As cultivators, one would benefit greatly by consuming the finest dish cooked by us! Take for example ourselves, although we are quite talented in the field of cooking, our innate potential in cultivation was severely lacking before!"

The other Saints Chefs began to chimed in excitedly as well, "That's right! In fact, our realm should not have been able to reach the Golden Core realm, yet, not only did we managed to achieve that, our lifespan has increased by a few hundreds of years too!"

"True! It's all because we have eaten many nutritious food of the highest quality before! However, there are more high quality food and ingredients that we had procured but was not able to eat!"

"Strictly speaking, we could actually cook them into the perfect dish, but we can't eat them since the price for its procurement is extremely high!"

"However, there is one person who could eat it.. and that is the Culinary Overlord!"

"Also-.."

...

They continued to talk on and on about the perks of being their Culinary Overlord.

Hearing all these benefits laid out in front of him, it dawned onto Duan Li something that he had never thought of before!

"Hang on.. if I really become their Culinary Overlord and could do all I want.. added with my status of the Imperial Overseer.."

Duan Li clenched his fists tightly.

He could usher an era of gourmet, inducing power-ups for the people to quickly become stronger!

Now that's exciting!

"Alright alright! I get it! I'll be this Culinary Overlord then! Hais!" Duan Li said, trying to look like he was actually reluctant to accept it.

After all, he had already shown his disinterest in the role before, thus, if he were to become giddy just because of all those perks, it might came out as a little bit pathetic.

And that would be equal to losing face as the Imperial Overseer!

"See? He agreed to become the Culinary Overlord of our restaurant!" said the First elder, contentment was written all over his face.

In contrast to this, Heng Wu was still deeply concerned, "But.. even if he agrees, how would you elders convinced the three managers? As the guardian for this restaurant, I don't want the relationship between you ten to be distant because of this.."

Duan Li then waved his hand casually, as he replied to this in place of the elders, "Give me a week, and they will definitely agree."

A week?

Where did he suddenly get this confident of his from?

Heng Wu frowned.

"Hey, where is my food? My son has already won so I should be getting my food now!" Meng Yue whom was low profile all these while suddenly spoke out loudly.

Ah!

Ssuu!!

Heng Wu disappeared in a flash and returned back with the dish - Dominion King Lobster!

"We almost forgot about this dish.. please, enjoy your meal lady Meng Yue!" Heng Wu said with a polite bow befitting of a butler.

"Hmph!" Meng Yue snorted before she start to dig in her food.

Nomnomnom!

Heng Wu then scurried away with the seven elders to the corner of the room, glancing towards Duan Li's direction once in a while, appearing to be discussing something important.

Duan Li wasn't bothered by it though.

Not too long after, Meng Yue finally finished eating. With a loud belch, she wiped off her mouth with a handkerchief and then said, "Its time for us to leave and return back to the academy, its getting late now!" she reminded.

...

After Duan Li's party left the restaurant, a man with an all-black uniform suddenly appeared behind Heng Wu.

"How was it? Did you managed to find out anything about that student named Duan Li?" he asked.

The man replied, "His background is quite normal and wasn't exactly hidden. His kin is only his mother, the well known tyrant Meng Yue, and they have a home back in the Xuan village. Furthermore, this student Duan Li is a junior that just got enrolled into the academy very recently."

He then continued giving his reports, "If anything about him is noteworthy, its that I managed to piece out his recent locations.. and it turns out.. that he had been invited to the Royal Palace for at least two times!"

Hearing all these, Heng Wu pondered for a moment as he cupped his chin, "Hmm.. I see, that's all. You may go!"

Ssuu!!

The black-uniformed man disappeared into thin air as Heng Wu walked towards the balcony. Staring at the full moon, he couldn't help but to wonder;

'Who exactly are you?'

...

The morning swiftly came the following day, and after talking to his party, instructing them to condition themselves and reach the pinnacle stage of the Foundation establishment realm for as soon as they can, he departed with his mother to meet the Principal in the latter's office.

Knock! Knock!

"Principal, send me back to the entrance of the Eternal maze.. I'm ready to enter again!" Duan Li said, his eyes full of confidence.

The Principal turned to Meng Yue, a little bit concerned about the safety of Duan Li.

"Are you sure that you are willing to let him venture again? For disclaimer purposes, let me tell you that the only cultivators on the Foundation establishment realm that we had sent to enter and managed to return was only at the level 1, and the difficulty was already so terrible that he came back with grievous wounds after that!" he said.

Meng Yue waved her hand, "It's fine! Now that I have witnessed myself on what he could do, I'm confident that the difficulty shouldn't exceed the level of a Nascent Soul realm!"

'For even one of the Dark Sect member was done in by my son, a mere Eternal Maze designed to test the limits of a Foundation establishment realm cultivator was not worth a mention!' she snorted proudly as she thought of this.

The Principal sighed and then nodded.

"Very well!"

With a series of complex hand incantation gestures, their surrounding space began to distort before they disappeared from the Principal's office.

Wengg!!

When they reappeared, the location was already changed into that of a huge underground cave filled with countless stalactites and stalagmites, while the air feels damp and cold.

"So this is the cave where the Eternal Maze resides.." said Meng Yue as she looked around. This was her first time ever being inside here.

In front of them stood a vast coiling vortex. This vortex alternated between the shades of blue and violet in color. Spiralling towards the center, they became darker until it formed a void that was pitch black and seemed to be the entrance into the abyss!

Meng Yue narrowed her eyes as she saw this vortex.

'What an aura!' she said inwardly in surprise. This was because she could detect that the vortex itself emitted a fearsome power that was impossible to gauge!

Between the vortex and where they are standing right now, stood that mighty and gigantic red temple gate, withered from the countless passings of time.

"Beyond that gate is already the zone that will start to suck you in to the vortex once you step in." said the principal as he pointed out towards the red gate to Meng Yue.

"I see.. well, are you ready?" she turned to her son.

"Yes mother! Next time when I return back, I will be at the pinnacle stage of the Core realm!" Duan Li replied to his mother excitedly.

Hais!

Never before in my life have I ever heard someone mentioning that they could ascend one whole realm as easily as drinking water!

The Principal shook his head before he realized something and widened his eyes.

"Eh wait! Are you not bringing in any supplies with you? Where is the rucksack backpack that I gave you before? You know that your spatial ring would not work inside the Eternal Maze!" he said towards Duan Li.

"Don't worry, I found a work around for that!" Duan Li answered with a thumbs up.

"Alright, it's time for me to go! Mother, I'll see you again in a few days!" he said as he ran off and entered the portal.

Wengg!!

And just like that, his figure distorted and turned into a small dot, disappearing from their sight.

...