If this were the Culinary Competition, even if contestants had slight flaws, the judges would show understanding.

For example, the dish Ma Tiancheng made could have gotten at least 90 points, but at the God of Cooking Competition, he only got 79 points. Although it was only 1 point short, he could only helplessly be eliminated.

The ten judges invited by the organizers were all extremely picky. They couldn’t tolerate any grain of sand in their eyes and were extremely particular about the color, aroma, and taste of food.

“I don’t accept this!”

“I don’t accept…”

Ma Tiancheng was carried away by two powerhouses, still shouting loudly, tears flashing in his eyes.

After winning the Culinary Competition championship, he had been working hard and diligently studying culinary arts, only hoping to achieve good results at the God of Cooking Competition. Yet because of negligible flaws, his years of effort were completely negated. Of course, he couldn’t bear it!

The other contestants watched Ma Tiancheng being taken away. Their hearts held no schadenfreude, only unease and tension. After all, in the next second, they might be eliminated just like him.

The ten judges rinsed their mouths with clear water, then began to evaluate the others in turn. As a result, the first few works got a maximum of only 76 points.

“This is a bit excessive.” Jun Changxiao said.

He could smell the contestants’ cuisine through his spiritual sense. The flavors were quite good, yet none reached the passing standard. At this pace, many of the hundred-plus people would be eliminated.

To err is human?

Because of a tiny flaw, or deliberately pursuing pickiness for the sake of being picky, seemed rather inhumane.

Tang Ren said, “Sect Master Jun didn’t see the previous God of Cooking Competition. Chief Judge Qian Buduo, after evaluating the first round, only had a handful of people advance.”

“No way?”

Jun Changxiao’s eyes widened.

If this session also only had a few people advance, that would be equivalent to directly entering the finals.

System: “The author can’t pad the word count either.”

“The flavor is a bit too salty, failure.”

“This radish flower carving is quite poor, lowering the dish’s overall aesthetics, failure.”

“The flavor is good, the blade work is passable, but you look older than me. Failure among failures.”

“…”

Martial artists across the entire continent’s mouths twitched.

Wrong flavor, elimination was normal.

Poor blade work, elimination was also normal.

But eliminating someone because they looked old—was cooking also judged by appearance?!

Absolutely.

Under equal culinary skills, one is a dish made by a devastatingly beautiful woman, the second is a dish made by a muscular bro—which would you all choose?

Anyway, I choose the second, just because of appearance.

“Eliminated!”

“Eliminated!”

Among the first twenty contestants, not one person got 80 points. All were eliminated. They naturally couldn’t accept it. When being dragged away, they all shouted, “There’s corruption, definitely corruption!”

“I thought in the first round with 120 people, half could advance. Now it seems even 20 advancing would be quite good!”

“Twenty is too many. I think it might be single digits!”

“Are these judges from heaven, not eating mortal food?”

What the audience found most unbearable was that after the judges determined a dish wasn’t qualified, they would directly throw it into the trash bin.

Culinary experts carefully selected through the Culinary Competition—even if the dishes had tiny flaws, you couldn’t waste food like this!

“Too deserving of a beating.”

Jun Changxiao, sitting in the spectator seats, almost couldn’t help but fly over and pin these ten guys who wasted food to the ground for a good rubbing.

My goodness.

An advertising maniac actually saying others deserve a beating—is there any law? Any justice?

…

During the successive evaluations, a contestant finally got 81 points and smoothly entered the second round. The number eliminated before him had already reached forty.

Such a terrifying elimination rate was simply outrageous, but it also showed that the God of Cooking Competition was very strict, and lived up to being the continent’s strongest culinary event.

“Not bad, not bad.”

When it was Lin Yao’s turn, the ten judges nodded in praise and ultimately gave the current highest score of 91 points.

Next, several more contestants entered the second round.

The audience also realized that those who smoothly advanced all had the identity of disciples of some session’s God of Cooking Competition champion!

People without backgrounds really were just used as stepping stones.

This wasn’t questioning corruption in the competition, but rather that champion winners all had real strength, so the disciples they trained naturally also had real ability.

The evaluation continued.

After 100 contestants’ works were tasted, only 8 people advanced to the next round.

“The God of Cooking’s disciple definitely has no problem. If other contestants get eliminated, those who advance really won’t break double digits!”

“The girl called Liu Wanshi should be fine, right?”

Everyone watched with bated breath.

“Failure, failure, failure…”

The ten judges continued evaluating, and another ten-plus contestants were eliminated.

“Little one.”

An elderly man with an immortal bearing walked in front of Qian Song Bao and smiled, “The dish you made should be Flavorful Beef Brisket, right? The God of Cooking once made this. This old man was fortunate to taste it. I wonder how much of his true transmission you have?”

The other judges also walked over.

They didn’t taste it immediately, but first evaluated the dish’s color, all nodding in approval.

“Everyone, please.”

The old man picked up chopsticks and lifted a piece of beef, then put it in his mouth. His heart immediately blossomed with joy, “This is exactly that flavor!”

“Worthy of being the God of Cooking’s successor!”

After the other judges tasted it, they all praised with rich expressions. When they held up their score cards, they were all uniform 10 points!

“Qian Song Bao’s Flavorful Beef Brisket receives a perfect score!” Huang Jinduan loudly announced.

“My heavens! Such picky judges actually gave a perfect score—simply unbelievable!”

The audience in front of their screens all widened their eyes.

“He really has ability.” Jun Changxiao said.

From the moment Qian Song Bao’s eyes changed when he touched the cooking utensils, he realized this kid definitely had real skill. Being able to get a perfect score in the first round proved his own vision was very sharp!

System: “…”

Was this guy praising others or praising himself?

“Sect members are getting more and more numerous. Dudu’s workload has also increased quite a bit. If we pull this kid over to be a second gold medal chef, that would be pretty good.”

Jun Changxiao’s eyes gradually brightened.

A chill suddenly ran down Qian Song Bao’s back as he thought, “An ominous premonition!”

“Little girl.”

After rinsing their mouths, the ten judges stopped in front of Liu Wanshi and smiled, “What is your dish?”

“Mapo Tofu.” Liu Wanshi said.

“Oh?”

Everyone looked at each other, clearly having never heard of a dish with this name on the Xingyun Continent.

“What are its special characteristics?” The elderly man with an immortal bearing smiled.

Aside from Qian Song Bao, he had a stern face with all other contestants, but facing Liu Wanshi, he was so kind and amiable, also because he was quite optimistic about this girl.

“This…”

Liu Wanshi scratched her head and said, “It’s mainly spicy and numbing.”

“May we remove the lid?”

“You may.”

The old man gently waved his hand. Natural and seamless spiritual energy diffused out, the lid flew up on its own, then landed on the tabletop.

Right at this moment, the projection formation above also gave a close-up shot. A plate of Mapo Tofu from Sichuan cuisine appeared on the screen—red and white in color, with some scallion garnish.

“The special characteristics of Mapo Tofu are numbing, spicy, hot, and salty.” Jun Changxiao crossed his arms and said, “The girl used a clay pot to hold it, also fearing it would cool down over time.”

“The dish’s color is good.”

The ten judges all nodded.

“Everyone, please.”

The old man was about to pick up his chopsticks when Liu Wanshi reminded, “Better prepare more water, because it’s quite spicy.”

“Hehe.”

A judge laughed and said, “This old man has always loved spicy food when it comes to eating.”

Picking up a piece of tofu with chopsticks, upon contact, he clearly felt it was very elastic, so he praised, “Preserved until now and still having such elasticity—truly surprising.”

Into the mouth, chewing.

The other judges used either chopsticks or spoons to begin their evaluation.

Everyone stared without blinking. Soon through the camera, they saw their entire faces turn uniformly red, beads of sweat seeping from their foreheads.

The judge who loved spicy food had already closed his eyes, as if standing at a volcano’s mouth, his entire body from head to toe and even his internal organs experiencing scorching heat.

“So spicy, so numbing!”

“Ha—”

“Ha—”

“Swish!”

Unable to care about anything else, they picked up the clear water beside them for rinsing mouths and drank it. They even felt that if they didn’t quickly remove the numbing spicy flavor, their entire bodies would burn up!

The other judges also frantically grabbed water bottles to drink. Even after drinking an entire bottle dry, they still felt unbearably spicy!

“Water water water!”