"A tactic to attack the opponent's mind."

Huai Shi explained, "Once you stand on the competition stage, both sides should be equal, and both should give their all to ensure the opponent loses without regrets. Not only did that guy look down on his opponents by challenging them all at once, but now he's putting forth such humiliating conditions... Besides saving energy for later, it's more important to unsettle the opponent's mindset."

"Oh, like in those basketball games on TV where they trash talk?" Zhenxi clapped her hands, suddenly realizing, "That's so despicable!"

"Even tactics outside the game count as moves, Zhenxi. That old guy doesn't care what others say. At his age, he's fought all sorts of battles and has way too much experience. If he can unsettle his opponent's mentality with just a few words, he doesn't mind wasting a bit of spit. If someone storms off in anger, he's won big."

While speaking, Huai Shi didn't hide his voice.

With the hearing of Sublimators, it felt just like having someone talk bad about you right behind during a study session, impossible not to hear.

He did it on purpose.

To hassle the old man a bit.

The stronger the opponent, the more skill he'd reveal, wanting to gauge just how deep he was.

The old man remained indifferent, glancing at Huai Shi with full appreciation, nodding like he was educable.

"...Using such despicable tactics shows that Elder Guo has no confidence in his skills at all."

Finally calm, Chaichuang said coldly, "Too bad, I won't let you get your way. Even in a certain defeat, I will give it my all... But be careful not to capsize before this impudent youngster."

After speaking, he closed his eyes, calmed his mind, and quickly returned to a state of composure.

Waiting for the competition to begin.

As usual, after a pile of pointless chatter, the copper bell finally tolled, and the moment the high-pitched sound burst forth, Chaichuang's hands moved fluidly, creating his dish like art.

Kaiseki cuisine, it originates from the Zen sect's banquet.

The most important aspect is a calm and peaceful mind.

As the head chef, mastering Zen is naturally crucial.

As Chaichuang entered the state, he automatically shut out all irrelevant things and focused entirely on his creation.

And Guo ShouQue finally moved.

He took out a hair scraper and calmly began shaving the pig's head beside him.

Like a barber, he carefully and meticulously removed every inch of hair, while the water beside was already boiling. Casually grabbing the pig's ear, he dunked the pig's head into the scalding water to blanch it.

Ignoring the boiling water that reached his elbows, he soon pulled it up and casually tossed the pig's head onto the chopping board.

Finally... he rolled up the other sleeve of his gray coat.

Huai Shi couldn't help but frown.

It wasn't just him; other Chef Demons also sensed something amiss.

Zhenxi, always keeping an eye on Miss Huaizhi, immediately noticed her change in expression and asked curiously, "What's strange about it?"

"Zhenxi, you Yingzhou people don't usually eat this part, so you're not familiar. You don't handle pig heads this way."

Huai Shi voiced his biggest doubt.

He actually had little experience and hadn't researched this obscure way of processing pig head meat.

But he had helped Uncle Fang before, who sometimes braised pig heads to serve as snacks with wine for Huai Shi and visiting friends. Huai Shi had seen the process multiple times.

The whole thing must be disassembled, lymph nodes, eye corners—inedible parts—must be removed, and then separately braised or otherwise prepared...

Even roasting or other processes required additional steps.

That pig head seemed fresh, recently cut from the neck.

It wasn't a special breed, just an ordinary meat pig.

Guo ShouQue's rough handling would leave blood uncleared, making it incredibly gamy and foul-tasting.

Was that old fellow intentionally trying to make something so unappetizing that it drove his opponents to puke? That'd be laughable. Now those seven Chef Demons were already so fuming, their eyes were like zombies. Drop a raw pig head or even Guo ShouQue himself in front of them, and they'd devour it clean without a second thought.

What's the point?

Then, he saw the old man casually lifting the large cauldron full of boiling water from the stove, tossing it aside. Then, he placed the bamboo basket he'd been lugging on the stove.

Huai Shi squinted to take a closer look.

It indeed was a bamboo basket. Yet inside, woven from countless fine strips, was pitch black, obscuring whatever it held.

Only a faintly disturbing aura emanated from it.

It was undoubtedly a Border Relic.

But certainly not something meant for the fire… not even a cooking tool! 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

As if just grabbing something random to make do, he poured one ladle of cold water after another into it. The water, impossibly, didn't seep through; instead, it churned in the darkness between the bamboo strips, quickly staining gray-black.

What on earth was that thing for storing?

Huai Shi felt a tingling on his scalp.

It was like confronting a huge Abyss radiation source, feeling the pervasive radiation emanating. Even through the game's Depth Balance Instrument, Huai Shi's overly sensitive perception still felt waves of discomfort and shivers.

This old bastard, is he roasting some nuclear bomb?

Then, he saw, that old fellow Guo ShouQue, grabbing the pig's head with one hand, tossing it into the grid above the bamboo basket, finally covering it with the lid.

Then, he began to watch leisurely from the side.

Don't even mention things like scallion sections, star anise, or fennel. Not even a pinch of salt was added!

Boiled pig's head in plain water?

Is this another variant of boiled cabbage?

Huai Shi doesn't need a mirror to know his expression looks terrible.

What the hell is this old bastard up to!

Almost as if he sensed Huai Shi's gaze, the old man turned back with a half-smile, casually lamenting as if in conversation.

"Actually, using a cauldron would be better, but alas, in this Barbaric Kingdom, ceremonial bronze cauldrons are hard to find... There's one in the museum, but Little Hu's daughter won't let me take it." Helplessly, he claps his hands, his old face smiling: "We'll just have to wing it with some makeshift methods."

"...Cauldron?"

Huai Shi felt a chill at the back of his head.

This old man is just steaming a pig's head, why does he need something as big as a cauldron?

Wait a minute...

His eye twitched, wondering if there was something wrong with his thought process.

"Huh? Judging by the look on your face, seems like you've figured it out? Hehe, Miss Huaizhi sure knows quite a bit about Dongxia culture, rare, rare!"

Guo ShouQue claps and smiles: "Yingzhou People seem to care about ancestry and bloodlines, right? The old man comes from an extraordinary background too, what do you think? Interested?"

Under those mocking yet icy eyes, Huai Shi felt like facing a formidable enemy.

Even if at that moment he wasn't an enemy.

But the fierce aura from the Abyss crossed the depth barrier with his gaze, falling onto Huai Shi, lingering around his ears, turning into bizarre whispers: "Do you want to hear it? You do, don't you? I bet you do!"

Involuntarily, yet from his heart.

Huai Shi nodded.

"Ha, I knew it!"

Guo ShouQue laughed triumphantly, yet his demeanor was far from serious, acting as if it meant nothing, "To say it bluntly, the Guo surname originally inherits from the Guo Nation, tracing further up, stemming from the authentic Ji Clan of the King of Zhou. If Emperor Mu meeting the Queen Mother of the West wasn't just a boast, even my bloodline has a touch of divine nature..."

In Huai Shi's pocket, his fingers slightly moved on the phone,

just feeling that flash of inspiration in his mind becoming clearer and clearer.

Only one step away from the final answer!

"Ah haha, no need to check, though this ancestor honor has nothing to do with me, there's no need to hide it—"

Guo ShouQue glanced at him teasingly, directly giving the answer: "Before Guo Clan migrated and settled, they were highly valued and entrusted with great responsibility by the Demigod King of Zhou.

——The position inherited was called 'Zong Bo.'

Huai Shi's fingers froze in place on his phone.

It felt like a flash of lightning struck through his mind, illuminating the darkness, straightly pointing to the one and only answer.

Zong Bo.

Tracing back even to the Dongxia ancient emperor Zhu Xu Clan period, this position managed state rituals, including calendars, music management, and historical narration.

But these are just trifles.

Among all its authorities, the most important... was sacrificial rituals!

To conduct rituals for heavens, spirits, and people for the Current Circumstances of four seasons, managing gods of state building, human spirits, and land showing protocols, assisting the king in building and safeguarding the nation.

Using a more familiar modern term, it would be called the 'State Preceptor'!

The so-called Zong Bo represents the emperor in offering sacrifices to heavens and spirits, the ultimate High Priest in the Chaos Era where mortals coexist with gods, the highest divine post mortals can reach!

Huai Shi's fingers twitched uncontrollably.

Finally understanding how difficult it was for Amber to keep him from crushing his phone...

Suddenly enlightened.

No wonder he's using a pig's head.

No wonder he's so confident... indeed, if it's the case, no matter how many there are, even if they're double in number, without skills strong enough to rival him, it's insignificant!

This is not cooking, it's simply crafting a sacrifice to gods!

"Oh, don't be too shocked, it's not that scary, just exaggerated in words." Guo ShouQue casually waved, "Passed down to now, it's just some small tricks that are out of fashion, moreover, I'm not the direct heir."

FNMDP!

Huai Shi remained expressionless, not responding in any way.

Just coldly laughed in his heart.

Since Duke Zhou established rites, severed blood sacrifice heritance, replaced beast rites with human ones, and abolished all non-human gods and spirits, laying a new order.

Dongxia bid farewell to brutal and bloody blood sacrifice, shifted to another path.

As the miracle of inheritance, the Zong Bo who resets star operation with calendars, frames the order of all things, deeming just a tiny fraction passed down can let this old man swim effortlessly within Dongxia Genealogy.

"Tai Lao? Or Small Sacrifice?"

He didn't bother concealing it, straightforwardly asking.