Chapter 202
The humanoid light figure of Heavenly Dao sat cross-legged on the little stool, tilted its head back, and took another swig of liquor.
Then, looking at the expectant Jian Yunlan and the indifferent Taotie, it began telling its story…
Legend says that when Pangu split heaven and earth, the primordial chaos was broken open.
At the very moment this world was born, the Heavenly Dao came into existence as well.
—”I am not a specific creature, but rather the will of this world. I am the world itself.”
The very first world was the Mountain and Sea Plane.
At that time, the Mountain and Sea Plane was extremely young. There were no signs of life, not even mountains or seas, no continents—everything was a blank slate. Only the solitary Platform of Silence stood in the center.
The Heavenly Dao was also very young.
In human terms, it was like an infant just learning to babble. And like all infants, it craved more toys, more beams of light, more companions to help pass the endless time.
So this infant looked at the empty Mountain and Sea Plane, pouted in boredom, clenched its tiny fists, and made a decision:
“Only one world? That’s so boring. I wish this world was like a book, with each page holding a brand new story, brand new scenery,” said the Heavenly Dao, now sitting on the stool. “So, the baby tore open the blank world with its hands, and the original world began to split. More and more small worlds and planes were born.”
“…” Taotie commented sharply, “Looking for trouble, huh.”
“How many planes are there in total?” Jian Yunlan asked curiously.
Heavenly Dao smiled faintly, a bit proud: “Countless.”
But soon, as if recalling something, that smile faded.
At first, the baby was beyond delighted to observe the countless small worlds it had created:
Some worlds held rare treasures, heavenly beasts, and people who practiced immortality and revered the Heavenly Dao; others championed science, experiencing wave after wave of industrial revolutions until they entered modern society; and still others had their civilizations utterly destroyed, regressing to a post-apocalyptic wilderness…
Watching all these worlds, the Heavenly Dao flitted from one to another, enjoying itself immensely.
What made it happiest was:
People in all these worlds foolishly believed their world was the only one. Like frogs at the bottom of a well, they stared at a narrow sky, thinking they had grasped all the sun, moon, and stars.
Heavenly Dao felt true joy watching such ignorant worlds.
“These small planes should have always remained independent, never aware of each other’s existence,” Heavenly Dao said. “Because if every world became aware of the others… wouldn’t that cause chaos?”
According to Heavenly Dao, each plane was like a fish tank, filled with beautiful goldfish of different colors. If the tanks were connected and the goldfish could talk to each other, imagine how messy and dull that would become.
So, while still in its infant stage, the Heavenly Dao severed the connections between planes, turning each one into an independent microcosm. And thus, many years passed peacefully.
It was assumed things would continue on like this, calm and uneventful.
Until that day…
Even now, thinking back on that day, the Heavenly Dao still trembles all over.
The humanoid ball of light covered its face, fear mixed with complete breakdown:
“That day, I only took a short nap—just a simple afternoon nap—but when I woke up… many of the connections between planes had been restored!”
“Not only that, the residents of these planes began communicating, and then—then they formed the Multiverse Realms Network! They even created a Multiverse Realms Livestream Platform!”
The communication between planes grew more and more frequent, and even became a form of entertainment. The birth of the Multiverse Realms Network brought even more planes into the fold. Eventually, residents of these realms began figuring out how to create new planes. The novels, movies, and other creative works they made would actually split off into new planes, ready for others to traverse and challenge.
And with this expansion, various hidden dangers and problems began to surface.
Plane erosion was one of them.
What had once been a private playground for the Heavenly Dao had now become a chaotic melting pot, open for anyone to mess with—even to create entire new universes.
You could imagine how devastated Heavenly Dao was.
—It was like carefully raising bowls of goldfish, each in their own tank, well-behaved and beautiful—red, blue, green—clearly divided and aesthetically pleasing.
Then one day… the tanks shattered. The fish all spilled out, mixing into one murky mess. Not only that, they teamed up to create all kinds of strange new things—book-transmigration, live streaming—completely turning the house upside down!
The Heavenly Dao took another swig of liquor and started sobbing:
“Ever since the plane connections were restored, everything’s gone out of control… and it’s all because of that system…”
Taotie, finding the story way too long and boring, started dozing off: “Zzzzzzzzzz…”
But Jian Yunlan was still focused.
He listened carefully, picked up on a key term, and raised his hand to ask: “You said it was all because of that ‘system’? What system?”
On the otherwise blank face of the Heavenly Dao, there actually appeared a subtle expression—one that seemed to say “finally asking the right question.”
“What system… Jian Yunlan, do you really not know?”
Jian Yunlan: “…”
He asked tentatively, “The… the Culinary God System??!”
The Heavenly Dao nodded.
So it was the Culinary God System all along!
Sweat beaded on Jian Yunlan’s forehead. He tried to distance himself: “Lord Heavenly Dao, that system latched onto me on its own! I had nothing to do with it!”
In his mind, a sobbing mechanical voice echoed:
[Host… how could you be so heartless, so unreasonable… have you forgotten our ten thousand years of love and time spent together?]
Jian Yunlan ignored the voice and kept arguing: “If you want to destroy something, destroy it! Don’t come after me and Taotie! We’re innocent!”
But Heavenly Dao remained silent.
After a long pause, the Heavenly Dao’s hand trembled as it pointed at Jian Yunlan:
“That excuse again! Three thousand years ago, your previous incarnation used the same line to trick me. Had me completely wrapped around your finger!”
Jian Yunlan blinked innocently: “……”
Then the Heavenly Dao began to cry. Its sobs overlapped with the crying of the Culinary God System in Jian Yunlan’s mind, giving him a pounding headache. The Heavenly Dao wailed:
“The Culinary God System didn’t just appear out of nowhere… The one who nurtured it—the true culprit—is you, Jian Yunlan!”
Jian Yunlan: “???”
Audience of the Multiverse Realms Livestream: “?????”
The mechanical voice in Jian Yunlan’s head stopped crying. It began to speak in a deep, storytelling tone:
[Host, Lord Heavenly Dao isn’t wrong.]
[Over 20,000 years ago, your great-great-great-great… previous incarnation was a famous chef in the Mountain and Sea Plane. You started off as a simple street vendor, selling odds and ends along with snacks. But your cooking talent grew with divine brilliance, becoming almost supernatural.]
[Your food was so delicious that it shook the entire Mountain and Sea Plane. Even people from other planes could smell it across space and time. Their desire for your cuisine—their powerful yearning—broke the boundaries between realms and completely restored the plane-to-plane connections!]
[And later… you used your life’s cooking skills to nurture me—the cutest, most powerful, and most perfect Culinary God System~]
The words spoken by the Culinary God System inside Jian Yunlan’s mind were also displayed as subtitles in the Multiverse Realms Livestream.
And just like that, the viewers across the Mutliverse Realms were abruptly and unexpectedly made aware of the true nature of the world.
…For the first time ever, the inhabitants of the entire Multiverse Realms and countless minor planes collectively exploded in reaction!
[Holy crap, holy crap, did we just accidentally overhear something world-shattering?!]
[(shocked) The reason the Multiverse Realms are what they are—the reason different planes can communicate—all of it actually originated from…]
[Boss Jian’s cooking!]
[Boss Jian’s cooking was the catalyst for the birth of the Multiverse Realms… doesn’t that make him the Creator?!]
[I always thought Mashu and their crew chanting ‘The God Jian has a plan’ sounded a bit cultish, but now… turns out they were right =?=]
[Boss Jian, the one true deity]
[So powerful, no further explanation needed…]
“That’s right,”
The Heavenly Dao nodded.
Its tone was calm, but Jian Yunlan could already detect something off beneath that placid voice.
Jian Yunlan discreetly scanned his surroundings.
The small stool was still there, the Heavenly Dao was still holding that jug of wine, and the small fire stove before them was still burning.
Taotie.
Taotie was dozing off…
How long has he been without sleep?! Ahhhh, youth really is magical—he can just knock out anytime, anywhere! But… after being imprisoned for so long and traveling across the Nine Provinces to be executed, it’s only natural he’d be exhausted.
No time to complain.
Jian Yunlan’s mind kicked into overdrive, searching for a plan to deal with the Heavenly Dao, who could go hostile at any moment.
“All of this… everything… it’s all because of the Culinary God System.” The Heavenly Dao murmured, strange light flickering in its eyes. “As long as I can destroy the Culinary God System, the connections between planes will collapse again. The world will return to being the paradise that belongs to me alone.”
“And how can I destroy the Culinary God System?”
“There’s only one way: by killing you, Jian Yunlan.”
“But simply killing you isn’t enough. As you said, erasing you—your soul—is something I could do with a flick of my finger,” the Heavenly Dao ground its teeth slightly, speaking with a strange tone, “and yet I’ve always found it odd—how could there be a mere mortal in this world that even I, the Heavenly Dao, cannot erase?!”
“Eventually, I found the reason.”
“For some unknown cause, you and Taotie have a linked fate. As long as he lives, your soul can never be extinguished. And the same goes for him—as long as you live, he cannot be erased!”
“There is only one way—bring both of you to the Annihilation Platform, and end you together.”
The Heavenly Dao’s voice was still calm, but at this point, a thread of killing intent finally slipped through.
…Suddenly, the fire on the table’s stove went out.
A wild wind blew across the land.
The once-calm sky was swallowed again by thick clouds, low thunder rolled in, and fierce gales howled. The world lost its color, and all the surrounding light surged toward the Heavenly Dao, weaving itself once again into a massive net!
The Heavenly Dao finally dropped all pretense, erupting into manic laughter:
“Now that both of you are here—die together!”
“And then, the world will return to my hands. I will become the true, sole sovereign of everything—!”
Suddenly, a soft voice interrupted from the side.
“Um… Lord Heavenly Dao, you’ve been talking for quite a while… Aren’t you tired?”
The Heavenly Dao was stunned.
—This had to be some kind of joke.
As an embodiment of will without senses, at this moment…
It actually smelled a savory braised aroma wafting through the air!
And over there, Jian Yunlan was speaking gently while slowly unwrapping an oil paper bundle—instantly, the rich fragrance of braised pig trotters burst into the air.
The trotters had been simmered in aged marinade over a low flame until fully infused with flavor, their glossy, deep-red skin almost jewel-like in appearance, glistening like amber. The tender skin shimmered, soft and translucent, releasing steam infused with the scent of star anise and cinnamon. Just looking at it made one imagine how flavorful and rich it would taste, how the skin and meat would melt in the mouth…
Jian Yunlan carefully held up the pig trotter and offered it sincerely: “Would you… like to try it?”
“……”
The Heavenly Dao fell into silence.
