Chapter 66: The Sinister Plot

Lei Ren had his eyes covered with a strip of linen cloth, and he was still "roasting the knife." However, his method of roasting the knife could be described as utterly bizarre—something I had never seen nor even heard of before.

At that moment, Lei Ren looked as though he were dancing, shaking the knife in his hands back and forth over the flame with a wide amplitude, and seemingly spinning in circles.

What I could not understand was, shaking the knife was one thing, but why was his backside swaying along with it? It looked as ludicrous as someone dancing the cha-cha.

Yet, looking at his comical appearance, I could not manage even the slightest smile.

Although the knife in his hand was swinging from side to side, the block of lard on the blade showed no intention of falling off whatsoever. Amidst the steady equilibrium, it was obvious that a subtle, ingenious force was being exerted from Lei Ren’s wrist, dictating the direction in which the block of lard moved.

Watching his movements, I suddenly realized that he was employing the technique of "tossing the wok"—using "the knife as a wok" to apply "kinetic heating" to the block of lard.

Tossing the wok is also one of a chef’s most fundamental skills. According to the classifications of the Five Organs Temple, this belonged to a type of "fire-manipulating hand skill." Tossing the wok was what people in the South called it; in the Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei regions, this technique was mostly referred to as "tossing the ladle" or "stir-fry ladle," while down in Jiangnan, it seemed to be called "engaging the fire."

We often see on television a chef hefting a wok, tossing it until flames erupt, spraying oil amidst a stir-fry, looking extremely energetic. This was an extreme manifestation of the "tossing the wok" technique.

Heating ingredients using the wok-tossing method allowed the heat source to avoid being confined to a single point or a single line—the so-called "kinetic heating" method. Dishes made this way were evenly heated and cooking times could be shortened.

The most terrifying thing was that Lei Ren was actually able to use a knife as a wok, a candle as a fire, and lard as meat, which could truly be called a supreme masterpiece!

Compared to him, I was using "the heart as fire," while he was using "skill to heat the oil." I used "immobility to counter all changes," while he used "subtle force to neutralize a thousand pounds." It seemed we were evenly matched.

Yet, despite being evenly matched, I knew in my heart that Lei Ren was truly worthy of being the abbot of the Five Wutong Temple. His set of wok-tossing skills, combined with the ingenious strength of his Heaven-Facing Hands, was used with such supernatural perfection that, purely in terms of technique, his seasoned mastery seemed to surpass my own.

This old bastard harbored crooked intentions, but his culinary prowess... was terrifyingly profound.

It was just a pity that what we were competing in was not "skill," but "fire." Otherwise, seeing Lei Ren's dragon-and-snake-like movements, I really would have been shaken to the core, and I would have had to cast a huge question mark over the outcome of this duel.

At this moment, I watched as Lei Ren rolled his hands, causing the block of lard on the cleaver to slide back and forth continuously. With his shaking, the square white block of lard acted like a brush, coating the blade evenly and delicately.

Whenever the block of oil was about to approach the edge of the blade, Lei Ren would once again employ the power of the "Tan Family Heaven-Facing Hands" from his wrist, instantly flicking the block of oil back.

The entire process was truly like performing acrobatics—hairy by a hair's breadth, yet safe and wonderfully pleasing to the eye!

As the block of oil grew smaller and smaller, I discovered that he had actually coated the entire blade with a thin layer of oil as well. Surprisingly, just like me, he had managed to get one hundred percent of one side of the blade stained with an oil immersion.

In this way, he could be considered tied with me.

Afterward, Lei Ren removed the knife from the candle flame.

I originally thought that, just like me, he would place the cleaver still and wait for the lard to cool down, but... I was wrong.

Not only was I wrong... but I had lost!

Right at that moment, Lei Ren unleashed his signature "Heaven-Facing Hands" and abruptly hurled the knife forward! He threw the blade steadily toward the table where the candlestick stood!

The knife was made of pure steel, and the tabletop was made of compressed board. Two hard objects collided!

However, I swear that the instant Lei Ren's knife landed on the table, I heard virtually none of the clatter that a metal collision ought to produce.

This meant that the subtle force of his Heaven-Facing Hands had been calculated with exquisite precision—so exquisite that not a single shred of excess force remained to produce an excessive sound, let alone shake the lard off the blade.

At first, I didn't understand what he meant by throwing the knife like that.

But then... it dawned on me in a flash!

Along with that sudden realization, I despairingly understood that this fellow was far too cunning.

As it turned out, taking advantage of the momentum from Lei Ren throwing the knife, I was shocked to see that the square block of lard on the back of the blade—which had still been solid a moment before—instantly slid to the area of the knife handle, and stopped precisely as the knife stopped. It then solidified and turned white, without a single drop of lard falling anywhere outside the knife handle.

Lei Ren's method of throwing the knife hadn't just coated one side of the blade with lard; it had also stained a patch of lard onto the knife handle as well.

My knife handle had been held firmly in my hand the entire time, making it utterly impossible for even the tiniest speck of lard to stain it...

Immediately, I understood his intention.

After throwing his knife out with a single toss, Lei Ren burst into laughter as he removed his linen blindfold. Pointing at his knife, which was smeared with lard all the way to the handle, he said to me, "Youngster! The knife handle is also considered part of the cleaver's side. Even if your fire-control skills from the Confucian Temple are matchless under heaven, how can they possibly rival the swimming-dragon ingenuity of my Five Organs Temple's Heaven-Facing Hands? Ha ha! Ha哈哈哈!"

Amidst Lei Ren's arrogant laughter, I was completely stunned, and at the same time, I conceded defeat with heartfelt conviction. Although I was unwilling to let the former squad leader's cleaver fall into the hands of such a treacherous scoundrel... I really had lost.

Fairly speaking, Lei Ren was taking shortcuts and looking for loopholes in the rules of the duel. Yet he wasn't wrong, and what we had written and signed in black and white was quite clear: "Whichever side of the cleaver has a larger area coated with grease shall win." Since it was a side of the "cleaver," the knife handle naturally counted.

In that case, my defeat was thorough and disastrous.

Could it be that... I had thrown good money after bad?

In despair, I looked desolately at Lei Ren's arrogant expression and shook my head unwillingly.

At that moment, I had a sudden urge to slap myself across the face.

Why did I have to show off so much? Why... did I have to act alone?

The fruits of victory, which had clearly been within arm's reach, were handed over to someone else on a silver platter. A problem that could have been resolved simply was completely botched by my own hand.

Afterward, Lei Ren stood smiling to one side and began having Lei Wangcai count the money.

Lei Wangcai was an even more interesting character. While counting the money, he didn't forget to walk over and mock me, saying, "'Tian family lad'! Senior brother is like 'carrying a bamboo pole down a narrow alley'—hard to get through. Let me tell you a few things: you are just like a broadsword in a privy—no civil ability, and no military capability. Next time you want to show off, weigh yourself first! How many years have you spent in the Five Organs Temple? And you still dare to play the dead man's lantern? I fuck your lung..."

As he spoke, his words shifted into pure Cantonese, sprinkled with a few phrases of Minnan dialect. I couldn't understand a single word, but I understood the meaning completely: he was purely cursing me for overestimating my capability, daring to swing a big broadsword in front of Lei Ren, seeking my own death!

Yet there was nothing I could do. Who told me to lose? Once you lose, you lose your backbone. Although I hated it, I could only hate my own lack of skill...

Right at this moment, someone could no longer stand watching. Not only could they not bear to watch, but they also stood up to champion justice on my behalf.

Just as Lei Wangcai was cursing me while counting out twenty thousand yuan, Xian Hongye, who had been watching coldly from the sidelines, suddenly stood up.

She grabbed Gui Yuxiu's arm and said to Zhao Haikun, "Big brother, sister-in-law, I like this cleaver. I want to buy it."

"You want to buy it?" Gui Yuxiu asked in surprise, reacting with a conditioned reflex, "How much are you offering?"

Without even thinking, Xian Hongye held up two slender fingers and said, "Two hundred thousand! Ten times what the two of them offered!"