Beast Taming: I Can Bestow Entries-Chapter 194: The Junior Gourmet List

Regarding the schedule, due to a slightly higher number of Spirit Chefs registering, this Young Chef God Invitation Competition is divided into three stages: regional qualifiers, regional finals, and the grand finals.

Thousands of Spirit Chefs participating in the competition will be divided into three regions based on their geographic location—Southeast Region, Northwest Region, and Central Region.

Chen Mo, naturally, was assigned to the Southeast Region, with a total of 1280 competing Spirit Chefs.

The regional qualifiers will cut from 1280 to 50, the finals will go from 50 to 10, then the winners will join the other regions’ victors for the final showdown.

After looking at the competition format, Chen Mo immediately started to review the rules for the Southeast Region’s qualifiers.

The theme of this year’s qualifiers is—Self-reliance brings ample food and clothing.

As the name implies, contestants need to gather their own ingredients.

The venue for the qualifiers is one of the culinary islands of Taoyuan.

On this small island, there are precious ingredients like gugu chicken, Thunder Teeth Long-haired Pig (clone), black truffle, stream bamboo shoots, as well as slightly less rare ingredients like Black Feathered Chicken, spotted cows, silly geese, and common livestock such as cows, sheep, and geese.

Spirit Chefs will need to collaborate with their Food Spirits to gather these ingredients within 4 hours and then prepare a dish.

Furthermore, this Chef God Invitation Competition only permits Spirit Masters and food-related Spiritual Beasts to participate, and all other types of Spiritual Beasts are strictly forbidden from competing.

This not only tests the combat abilities of Spirit Chefs and their Food Spirits but more so their expertise in pairing and selecting ingredients.

After all, if one wants to make a dish they are familiar with, it is very possible that some spiritual ingredients will be missing on the island; even if they exist, one might not be able to find them, necessitating the use of substitutes.

"Stable!"

Upon seeing the competition content, a smile emerged on Chen Mo’s face.

For other contestants, finding and collecting ingredients might be a major hassle.

But for Chen Mo, who is equipped as a Food Hunter, it’s a piece of cake!

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Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, another two days passed, with only two days left until the official start of the Young Chef God Invitation Competition.

"Master Yu, have you set off?"

Before heading to the competition venue, Taoyuan, Chen Mo made a phone call to Yu Tao.

"Haha, the place where I have been training is right in Taoyuan. Hurry over! Otherwise, you might not be able to book a hotel."

"No problem, I can just stay inside the Heart of the Sea."

Chen Mo laughed.

Heart of the Sea + Isolated Island Spirit = a flying RV.

Regrettably, Xinghai is currently still digesting the energy contained in the Dragon Blood Delight, so this time Chen Mo could only travel on the "Ice Phoenix."

Bing Lan, the little blue bird, at first refused to let Chen Mo ride, but after he showered it with extravagant praises, it sleepily agreed.

The Snow Sea Spirit Bing Lan clearly has a personality that prefers persuasion over force.

After roughly half a day’s journey, Chen Mo arrived at an archipelago in the southeastern sea.

Looking down from above, these islands have a ’stars surrounding the moon’ layout.

Numerous small islands are clustered around a large central island.

This central island is circular, resembling a giant doughnut, with its terra-cotta-colored land and helter-skelter houses which look like bits of chocolate cookies strewn about.

This place is Taoyuan, also known as the Homeland of Chef Gods.

It is a renowned culinary sanctuary, where more than one Chef God has been born. The current Island Master of the island is a Master-level Spirit Chef, and the former Island Master is a Crown Spirit Chef.

"Ying!"

As Ice Phoenix slowly approached, Chen Mo, seeing the densely populated island, instantly gasped in astonishment.

"How can there be so many people!?"

It seems that the enthusiasm for the culinary competition is no less than the National Daoist School Competition, and perhaps even greater.

After landing, Chen Mo found that the island was filled with food plazas and food streets, with Spirit Chefs at every stall preparing all sorts of delicious foods.

The air was filled with the aroma of different foods, intoxicating the senses.

"Wu~"

"Ji!"

"Meow!"

Chen Mo’s three Spiritual Beasts let out exclamations of admiration, even the little blue bird set aside its phone that was playing an action-packed anime.

This place is simply paradise!

"Go have a look around yourselves! Just buy anything you fancy, and we’ll meet up at the Worry-free Bar later."

Seeing the longing in the eyes of the little ones, Chen Mo said with a smile. Xiao Jiu and the others had several hundred thousand in pocket money on their phones, which should be more than enough to buy these delicacies.

"Woof!" (Hooray!)

"Meow!" (Yay!)

"Chirp!" (Lord Bing Feng, you should go have a look with them too!)

While the three little ones were out enjoying Food Street, Chen Mo followed the signs to the bar where he had agreed to meet with Yu Tao.

"Hey, kid, over here!"

Yu Tao, with his pot-lid hairstyle, waved Chen Mo over to an empty booth.

"Master Yu, there are so many people from Taoyuan! Are they all contestants?"

"Don’t get me started. Most of them are just spectators or tourists. Originally, tickets for 10000 are now being scalped for 100000 each by ticket touts, and even at that price, they are hard to come by. Nearby hotels and lodges are fully booked too. My wife wanted to bring the kids to watch my competition, but she balked at the ticket prices."

Yu Tao said somewhat helplessly.

"Isn’t ticket purchasing supposed to be real-name now? How come there are still scalpers?"

Chen Mo was surprised.

"Only a small portion of the total tickets are released online for purchase; most are internal tickets. The organizers sell them at high prices directly to scalpers, who then jack up the prices when reselling."

"Good grief, it seems every place has its underground economy."

Chen Mo couldn’t help but comment.

"Thank goodness I’m a contestant."

"How are your preparations coming along?"

Yu Tao asked.

"I’ve been preparing for two weeks; it should be sufficient, I think!"

Chen Mo confidently replied.

"Two weeks is considered sufficient?"

Yu Tao couldn’t help but mock. frёeωebɳovel.com

Many Spirit Chefs had been preparing for this competition for years in advance.

Chen Mo was clearly cramming last minute.

"But that’s okay, you’re here to experience the atmosphere of the food competition; no need to go all out."

Yu Tao remarked.

"Master Yu, since you’ve been here for so long, have you collected any information on the favorites to win the crown?"

Chen Mo inquired.

Know yourself, know your enemy; Chen Mo’s main purpose today was to gather intelligence.

"I’ve already sent the Mini Food God List to your WeChat. This is insider information, so remember not to disclose it. It’s from a good friend of mine from Taoyuan. He told me not to show it to outsiders. How’s that for taking care of you, huh?"

The Mini Food God List, modeled after the Chef God List by the hosts from Taoyuan, ranked over a thousand contestants based on various factors like Food Spirit level, culinary skills, commercial value, and the number of Food Spirits. It had not yet been publicly released.

"Much appreciated!"

Chen Mo gave a thumbs up and then opened the file.

At the top of the list was a contestant named Liu Yang, a Quasi-Master Spirit Chef, a graduate of New Oriental Food Spirit University, with 3 Commander Stage Food Spirits. Two of them possessed almost Lord level strength.

"He’s a formidable opponent!"

"Meow!"

Chen Mo continued to read through the list until a certain name made him pause suddenly.

"Huh? How come my name is on here?"