Chapter 553, Hellish Torture
“Ladies and sisters, beloved friends.”
“We’ve finally reached the most exciting part of the competition—the tasting segment!”
Standing on the stage, Long Huan stood on a little stool, looking like someone who just wanted to enjoy the show, and said, “Next, your host will join the two judges and our two sponsors to score the dishes of the ten contestants!”
“To spice up the competition, we’ve specially arranged for a blindfolded taster.”
“That’s right, he is—”
Long Huan stepped aside to reveal the blindfolded and tied-up Sang Zhe, with a gag in his mouth: “Our great official, Sang!”
“Wow!” A chorus of gasps erupted from the audience.
Sang Zhe was desperately struggling and whimpering, while Long Huan continued, seemingly oblivious: “In this selection, the dishes submitted to the judges will first be tasted by our great official Sang, who’s blindfolded.”
“Then, great official Sang will give a one-sentence evaluation based on the taste of the dishes and attempt to guess who made them.”
“Don’t worry, great official Sang is completely blindfolded and prohibited from using any skills; he must rely solely on his taste buds to identify the authors of each dish.”
“Contestants who are guessed correctly by great official Sang will receive extra rewards, while those guessed incorrectly will receive extra punishments!”
“Oh, and by the way, why not only blindfolded but also tied up and gagged…”
Long Huan said with a serious face: “That’s right. I’m deliberately being biased. Sisters, don’t you think I’m right?”
“So right!”
“Tie him up! It’s so exciting!”
“Add leather clothes! We need leather clothes!”
Sang Zhe’s protesting whimpers grew louder from behind, but they were completely drowned out by the cheers from the audience.
“Alright! Now, let’s see our first dish—”
Long Huan looked at the platter of black charcoal that was served and paused.
“…Uh. Looks like our great official Sang is in for a treat.”
Once the gag was removed, Sang Zhe grumpily exclaimed, “What did I do in my past life to deserve this torture?”
“How can this be called torture~”
Long Huan smiled and said, “Husband, this is all food cooked with love by the sisters for you.”
“Husband must not let down the sisters’ earnest intentions~”
“Come on, great official, it’s time to eat.”
Sang Zhe, unsure what the first dish would be, felt an instinctive urge to survive and desperately attempted to keep his mouth shut.
However, when it came to physical strength, human cultivators couldn’t compare to the Ancestor Dragon tribe, so Long Huan rolled up her sleeves and forcibly pried open Sang Zhe’s mouth, stuffing the lump of black charcoal inside.
As anguished and hoarse screams echoed in the air, Sang Zhe painfully swallowed the first bite.
And then.
Silence.
Long Huan: “…Uh. According to our taster’s inspection, there’s no need to serve this dish that’s a threat to the judges and sponsors.”
Zhang Xiaoying and Aunt Yu quickly covered Little Ying You and Little Lonely’s eyes, then raised their hands to give a row of zero points.
“Ahhh!”
Meng Qiyan dejectedly lowered her head, choked with grievance: “I told you not to serve that dish…”
“Do I really need to taste my own dish to know it’s inedible…”
With this disaster of an opening, the other contestants began to feel nervous.
Although their dishes weren’t as outrageous as Meng Qiyan’s.
Who could guarantee they wouldn’t also receive such a devastating zero score?
Sang Zhe, barely recovering from the shock, was tugged up by Long Huan, who declared cheerfully, “Next up is the second dish. Taster, open up~”
“I—I won’t eat, I won’t—uh—”
The second dish was stuffed into Sang Zhe’s mouth.
The moment it entered, a familiar stab of pain enveloped his whole body.
Before he could regain his senses, Sang Zhe fainted again.
Hua Jianglian shivered and turned her head: “Wait, how much hair did you throw into my dish?”
“…Cough. Just kidding.”
Si Jingzhu coughed awkwardly, turning her head: “Actually, I just tossed in three fingers.”
Hua Jianglian: “?”
Sure enough, another row of zero scores was awarded, and even before Sang Zhe could slowly wake up, the spicy smell hit him, causing him to cough uncontrollably.
“Here comes the third dish!”
“Wow, judging by the taster’s expression, this dish certainly must have a whole bottle of mustard in it,” Long Huan couldn’t help but pat Sang Zhe’s back out of sympathy.
Si Jingzhu also glanced meaningfully at Hua Jianglian.
Hua Jianglian coughed lightly and muttered, “Just a bit of mustard… Doesn’t someone love mustard?”
“Fourth dish!”
After another row of zero scores, finally, a dish that looked somewhat like food was served.
Sang Zhe was almost on the verge of death when he caught a whiff of a familiar aroma and couldn’t help but tear up:
“Finally, a dish made by a normal person? I’m not asking for much; as long as it’s not toxic, I can handle a bad taste—”
After taking a bite, he suddenly fell silent.
“…Sorry, I take that back.”
“Too bad tasting isn’t okay either. Sister Gu, please don’t serve half-cooked dishes next time; the meat is raw, woohoo.”
Gu Yingmian lowered her beautiful eyes, apologetic yet wronged as she quietly murmured, “I—I’m sorry! I’ll make something delicious for you next time.”
“Ha, turns out Sister Gu is all show and no substance, a total half-baked cook.”
Huo Ningxue couldn’t help but gloat beside them: “I really thought Sister Gu’s cooking was extraordinary.”
However, before Huo Ningxue could finish laughing.
“Fifth dish… Wait, aren’t we supposed to be cooking?!”
Long Huan stared at the plate with a live fish still flopping around, momentarily confused: “Whose commander is this fish?”
Hearing ‘live fish,’ Sang Zhe started sighing.
“Uh. Your Majesty, I need to explain something.”
“Fish-flavored shredded pork… it’s not made from fish.”
“…Huh?” Huo Ningxue froze.
Nearby, snickers began to ripple through the crowd.
Especially Gu Yingmian was laughing the loudest.
Only Huo Ningxue was perplexed, scratching her head in confusion: “But… how can fish-flavored shredded pork not be made from fish?”
Sang Zhe couldn’t figure out how to explain this, and he felt that with Huo Ningxue’s intelligence, even if he managed to explain, she’d probably just retort with, “Even if the King of Heaven came today, fish-flavored shredded pork is made from fish.”
With a long sigh, Sang Zhe had already accepted that today he would have to endure this torment.
Every day at the Punishment Department, he tortures others; he never imagined he would one day be subjected to such a hellish experience.
…Oh well.
Dying at the dining table is better than dying in bed.
To leave himself a way out for the night, he resolved to just go for it.
“Come on! Next dish!” he shouted.
And so, fueled by a desire to face death head-on, he took a bite of the sixth dish.
However, the next moment.
“…Huh?”
Sang Zhe chewed a couple of bites, puzzled: “Surprisingly, it’s actually not bad?”
“Whose is this?”
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