The Bodhidharma projection stared at Kael without blinking. As for everyone else, they were already numb. They'd seen Kael's extraordinary power—and they'd witnessed the wonders of the Eight Spirit Tower firsthand.
Now that the Eight Spirit Tower had fully unfolded, a vast amount of ingredients was revealed inside. Most striking of all was the sheer quantity of meat.
That alone was bizarre.
After all, the person who built this place was supposed to be a monk. Yet there was so much meat stored here. The presence of so much meat made one thing clear—the builder was hardly a "proper" monk.
Seeing the way the Bodhidharma projection glared at him, Kael couldn't help but smile.
In the next instant, he vanished from where he stood.
He wasn't the type of villain who wasted time talking. Since blades couldn't damage the projection's foundation, he'd just use his fists.
The penetrating power of the Nail Palm was more than enough to pulverize these stone bricks—not merely slice them apart. And Kael had already locked onto the core.
All of the qi had been fully concentrated into a single stone slab. In other words, Bodhidharma's will had condensed itself into that lotus-patterned wall. Destroy the wall completely, and the projection would vanish with it.
Without a vessel to anchor it, the only way for that will to survive would be to flee into Kael's body—which would be nothing short of suicide.
So this thing was already finished.
Kael had no intention of holding back. The Eight Extremes Lightning had been used against him first. He'd only insulted it verbally, and it responded with lethal force. If it liked being domineering so much, Kael would show it what true domination looked like.
"Triple Nail Palm!"
He opened with a Triple Nail Palm. At its core, the Nail Palm was internal force—each strike triggered an internal explosion. Three strikes meant three consecutive detonations.
That was more than enough.
The first time Toriko used Triple Nail Palm, he blasted a massive hole straight through the outer wall of the Eighth Biome.
Those walls were built with Toriko-world technology—far superior in both hardness and thickness to this one.
Dying to Kael's Triple Nail Palm was honestly a stroke of luck for the projection.
Boom!
Kael's fist struck the wall. Before the internal force even detonated, the wall shattered into chunks.
In the next moment, the hidden force exploded. The stone bricks suspended in midair burst apart instantly, crumbling into fine powder. When the dust settled, only a white mass of qi remained, floating silently in the air.
"Huh. Guess I overestimated it," Kael muttered, shaking his head. "A normal Nail Palm would've been enough. Using Triple was a waste."
The problem had been solved with a single internal burst. He'd hit too hard.
That white mass was Bodhidharma's will—and it was completely stunned.
Originally, it planned to preside over the cooking duel. Even though it was extremely displeased with Kael, it knew there was nothing it could do to him. It had intended to meddle during the duel instead.
But before it could act, it had barely leaked a hint of malice—and Kael had already punched through its vessel.
The terrifying force instantly reduced the wall carrying its will and qi to dust.
After the initial shock, the will quickly locked onto a target.
The closest one was Kael.
If it could seize Kael's body, that wouldn't be a bad outcome at all.
The odds were low—but it had no other choice.
Yet the instant Bodhidharma's will entered Kael's consciousness, it realized just how wrong it was.
Inside, a massive crimson demon loomed—the same one Kael had manifested earlier.
The demon opened its mouth.
There was no resistance.
The will was swallowed whole.
Along with it, the purest qi it carried was absorbed directly into Kael's body.
Kael could clearly feel it—his qi had grown stronger again. It now surpassed everyone present except Song Wan.
"So that's how it works?" Kael frowned slightly. "No… Bodhidharma's qi must be special. Otherwise, when I devoured Xu Ling's will before, there should've been qi gains too."
He'd consumed Xu Ling's will eight times. If qi had been included, his growth would've been explosive long ago.
This sudden leap could only mean one thing—Bodhidharma was different.
Kael didn't dwell on it. There was only one Bodhidharma here, after all.
But soon, he sensed something else—something wrong.
After Bodhidharma's qi vanished, a vast surge of qi rose from beneath his feet.
It immediately reminded him of the qilin remains at Mt. Qingzhao—and the azure dragon remains beneath West Lake.
"…Don't tell me," Kael muttered. "There's something down there too?"
"So the reason it didn't surface before was because it was suppressed by the Bodhidharma projection?"
He almost laughed in disbelief. Every special location had something buried beneath it now? At this rate, would the Taiji Cuisine Realm's headquarters have something too?
Still, he didn't dig into the ground right away.
The Eight Spirit Tower had lost its animating will.
Though it could still maintain its lotus-platform form, that state would only last until its remaining qi ran out.
Most of the tower's qi had been bound to Bodhidharma's will—and Kael had absorbed it.
What remained would last, at most, another ten years.
"So… what do we do now?"
Everyone was stunned.
Not just the Taiji Cuisine Realm—Churin Temple was the same. No one knew what to do anymore.
A being that could freely wield Eight Extremes Lightning had been erased just like that.
And Kael showed no sign of being affected in the slightest.
If the projection were still here, the answer would be simple—follow its guidance and begin the cooking duel.
But now even the referee was gone.
How were they supposed to proceed?
No one dared make a sound.
Kael's display of power was simply too terrifying.
That slash alone was enough—but the final punch, reducing stone bricks to powder, was on another level entirely.
"What do you think?" Kael asked, looking at the Phoenix Eight Immortals.
These were chefs who stood above the Supreme Dragon Chef.
That realm had no formal classification—just like in the Food Wars world—because such chefs were exceedingly rare.
Across the entire culinary world, only the Phoenix Eight Immortals, the Big Four, and the Jade Qilin, Malyu, had reached it.
Barely anyone else.
At that level, no one cared about naming ranks. Everyone was chasing something higher.
What defined them was qi—and each possessed a unique attribute of their own. That was why they stood above Supreme Dragon Chefs.
Yet even they didn't know where the road ahead led.
Xu Ling and Bodhidharma hadn't broken through either. They'd only gone much farther than the Big Four and the Phoenix Eight Immortals.
"Our original plan," Ramon said bitterly, "was to challenge you in a cooking duel and seize the Legendary Kitchenware."
"But now… we don't have the courage."
Even if someone forced him, he wouldn't dare fight anymore.
He didn't believe his bones were tougher than the Eight Spirit Tower's bricks.
The three of them felt a deep sense of despair.
If Kael kept the Legendary Kitchenware, how were they supposed to complete Immortality Cuisine?
There were only two paths left.
One was to follow Song Wan's old route—create flawed Immortality Cuisine without the utensils, accepting terrible side effects.
They refused.
They were the Phoenix Eight Immortals—proud to the core. Perfecting Immortality Cuisine was their obsession. That obsession was exactly why Song Wan had ended up like this.
The second path…
Leave it to their descendants.
Since their generation couldn't obtain the Legendary Kitchenware, they'd just have to wait.
Wait until Kael died.
"Cooking duel?" Kael shook his head. "If we really did that, you'd probably win. I'm still only a Dragon Chef."
"I don't fear Supreme Dragon Chefs—but you're all beyond that. I can't compete with you in pure cooking yet."
Kael was confident in suppressing Supreme Dragon Chefs—but the Phoenix Eight Immortals were different.
Liu Maoxing had defeated Song Wan in the original story, but Kael wasn't Liu Maoxing.
He'd deliberately remained at the Dragon Chef level to refine his qi further.
Otherwise, with his abilities, he would've reached Supreme Dragon Chef long ago—and wouldn't fear the Phoenix Eight Immortals at all.
As long as the Strategist Wu and the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King Tai didn't intervene, he wouldn't lose.
But he'd chosen to halt himself.
"Dragon Chef?" the three exclaimed in unison. "You're still a Dragon Chef?!"
They'd thought they were done being shocked today.
Apparently not.
"Why do they look so stunned?" Zhou Meili asked softly. "Is it because Mr. Kael is already a Dragon Chef at his age?"
Zhou Yu was equally puzzled. In the Light Culinary World, that would be shocking—but these were the Phoenix Eight Immortals. Monsters like them should've reached Dragon Chef at that age, or beyond.
"It's not his age," the abbot said calmly. "It's the fact that he's still a Dragon Chef."
"Why?" Zhou Meili asked.
"Because of qi," the abbot explained. "You've noticed it, haven't you? The Phoenix Eight Immortals all possess extraordinary abilities. That's because of qi."
"Qi is incredibly difficult to master. In theory, only Dragon Chefs can grasp it—but history proves otherwise."
"Throughout history, only two people mastered qi at the Dragon Chef stage."
"All other chefs only grasped qi after reaching Supreme Dragon Chef."
"It's said that anyone who masters qi at the Dragon Chef level is destined to become the strongest chef in history."
"Mr. Kael already possesses qi—qi no weaker than the Phoenix Eight Immortals—yet he's still a Dragon Chef."
"That means his future will inevitably reach the level of Xu Ling and Bodhidharma."
Only then did Zhou Meili and Zhou Yu truly understand how terrifying Kael was.
Not just in combat—but in cooking.
He was destined to stand at the pinnacle of the culinary world.
The Phoenix Eight Immortals stared at him like they were looking at a monster.
Xu Ling and Bodhidharma had each left behind vast factions—the Taiji Cuisine Realm, Churin Temple, and Tai Forest Temple.
If those temples hadn't split, the Taiji Cuisine Realm would've been in real trouble.
Instead, part of them had joined the Taiji Cuisine Realm, strengthening it further.
Kael's future was even more frightening.
His qi was immense.
And his combat power was absurd.
Whatever organization he built would inevitably become overwhelmingly dominant.
And with that realization, the Phoenix Eight Immortals understood something else.
Their generation had been crushed by Kael.
And their descendants would be crushed by Kael's.
The future suddenly looked very, very dark.