Reborn in Japan as a Chef God-Chapter 990 - 989: Mother Sun Sphere

The woman’s question came suddenly. Xia Yu, thinking this was some dream, was momentarily stunned.

"The sun, a thing?" he instinctively responded, "You mean sunlight, right? No matter how you look at it, sunlight is a source of energy, power."

"Yes indeed, without sunlight, the growth of everything would likely wither and not thrive well."

The woman spoke softly.

"I believe ’sunlight’ has a flavor, what do you think?"

"Uh..."

Xia Yu was taken aback.

The thought that ’sunlight’ has a flavor, based on real-life experience, how could he dare to answer "yes" to such a notion.

This was a challenge to his worldview.

"I mean, in cooking, ’sunlight’ can also be a flavorful seasoning." The woman, as if reading the shock and bewilderment on Xia Yu’s face, pointed at the bamboo baskets of various levels in front of her, "These dried goods are imbued with ’sunlight’, giving them a golden hue, called golden ingredients."

As she spoke, the woman grabbed a mushroom from one of the baskets and extended her hand to Xia Yu.

She finally showed her face directly.

Her fine, thin eyebrows, a face that maintained a sense of line beauty despite its roundness, with slightly parted lips now shimmering with sunlight’s gold.

Though she wore simple clothes and skirts, and her black hair was neatly coiled up without any extra adornments, at first glance, no matter how you looked, she was an extremely ordinary woman, yet under the rays of the sun, she glowed, exuding a sacredness that one dared not profane.

Even though her voice and expression remained gentle.

Xia Yu’s heart skipped a little, the woman smilingly approached him, making him suddenly tense up like a big boy awkward as a shy old bachelor. He felt an extraordinarily warm and soft hand grasping his own.

Then, in his hand, there was the mushroom.

"Go try exploring the ’sunlight’ stored inside this ingredient, and remember it..." A soft voice carried an indescribable charm, Xia Yu took a small bite out of the sun-dried, seemingly shriveled mushroom.

Hmm?!

His eyes widened instantly.

Strangely, the evidently ’shrivelled’, ’dry’ ingredient had a finely textured mouthfeel when chewed.

Now Xia Yu was not merely tongue-tied or having a convulsive mouth; his entire brain was under a blitz.

A tangled mess.

Seeing his expression, the woman’s lips curved into a slight smile: "Sure enough, since you can already handle my ’Juxia Sauce’, you can taste the flavor of sunlight."

"Remember this taste..."

Suddenly.

The dream shattered.

Who knows how long it was before Xia Yu threw off the covers and jumped out of bed.

It was probably around noon outside; his biological clock had been fixed for a long time and didn’t allow for sleeping till midday.

Ugh, he opened the window to let the sunlight fall on his face, Xia Yu, sniffing like a dog looking for a scent, made clear inhaling noises, tried repeatedly over a dozen times, and finally rubbed his forehead in frustration: "No smell at all!"

Was it after all just a self-imagined dream?

No way!

Recalling the ’Juxia Sauce’ mentioned before the dream faded, Xia Yu’s gaze shifted dramatically.

A dream, non-dream?

Speaking of it, his inspiration for mastering ’Juxia Sauce’ also came from a dream. But thinking back now... Xia Yu was startled to find that perhaps his memory had problems—past dreams, almost forcibly erased, even the woman he saw then, her face replaced by the one from this second dream.

Xia Yu patted his face to perk up, "Sunlight has a taste?"

While heading into the bathroom to wash, he looked at himself in the mirror, muttering to himself.

Suddenly, his thoughts stalled, and the hand holding the toothbrush froze mid-air, in the mirror, a face flushed with inexplicable excitement.

An idea flashed in Xia Yu’s mind.

The taste of... the sun?

Aroma?

Just like...

The other hand rose, vigorously rubbed his nose, though the dream was gone, how come he still felt there was this strange aroma lingering around his nose, like the feeling of laying in bed under a sun-dried quilt that his mother had hung in the courtyard.

Inhaling a deep breath, the warm and fragrant sunlight aroma!

It’s all over my face!

Xia Yu laughed: "...This kind of sentimental memory, unforgettable taste, everyone has it. It’s actually a natural ’food spirit’, a return to simplicity."

"And to master such a ’food spirit’, there’s nothing else but that ultimate source recipe from the Bright Food World!"

Thinking of this, Xia Yu stood dazed in the bathroom for a long time, forgetting to wash, with a mouth full of toothpaste foam, thoughtfully savoring the dream, letting the memory of ’sunlight taste’ stay a while longer.

He knew such memories, like an epiphany to a practitioner, came hard, and if he didn’t seize this chance, he feared he’d struggle to grasp the ’food spirit of sunlight’.

And sunlight is an essential part of the ’Mother’s Solar Sphere’ recipe!

...

The airplane engines roared, climbing from the runway into the sky.

On this trip to the Imperial City, Xia Yu’s group had four people. Thanks to the expansion of the main kitchen team, Zhu Qing, Makki, and Eriina weren’t as overwhelmed with work as before, so Xia Yu thought a bit and brought them along.

In the cabin, however, Xia Yu was checking the treasure chest drop from Huang He, which was quite a delayed reaction.

Besides the golden ’Divine Hand’ skill card, there was something Xia Yu could in no way ignore—

A golden recipe fragment.

Opening the system’s storage space, two different recipe fragments occupied the first and second slots respectively, this default arrangement clearly showed the system’s recognition of the recipe’s grade.

’Demon-breaking Eight Formation’ Fragment*1.

’Mother’s Solar Sphere’ Fragment*1.

The Demon-breaking Eight Formation fragment, from the task of charging at the young tournament king in the Chinese Realm under the name ’Demon King’.

And the Mother’s Solar Sphere fragment was naturally the surprise reward from defeating Huang He.

Recipes, a combination of two!

"Damn it!" Xia Yu couldn’t help but rub his face frantically, "How come at crucial times, my lucky face doesn’t work? If I had found a Bright source recipe fragment last time, this time I’d have collected all fragments, achieving the grand feat of synthesizing the ’Mother’s Solar Sphere’ recipe!"

He had watched ’Cooking Master Boy’, but comics are comics, reality is reality.

In the world of comics, the cooking details weren’t rich enough, and in reality, if you want to recreate the final dish from the Bright Food World based on some vague memory, it’s practically suicidal.

However.

Clues about recipe drops could be gleaned from these two harvests.

Ascending to be the young tournament king.

Defeating the Dragon Chef, transforming into a dragon henceforth.

No doubt these were two major events, if someone were to write a personal biography of Xia Yu, these two things would certainly be highlighted in his biography.

So.

Where to wager for the remaining recipe fragments of ’Mother’s Solar Sphere’?

Xia Yu wholly discarded the ’Demon-breaking Eight Formation’ aside, ignoring it.

The reason is simple.

Because he had indeed grasped the ’food spirit of sunlight’, he needed to seize the moment before the memory faded, quickly synthesize the recipe, try his hand while it’s still hot, and through practice, transform a vague trace of food spirit into his own.

"Ding..."

Then the system prompted the task.