The crowd still roared as Lin Feng, Jia Yun, and their duck stood on the golden winner's pedestal. Confetti sizzled in the air, the spicy scent of celebration clinging to the wind. Jia Yun raised their championship ladle high, while the duck gnawed on a ceremonial chili.
But even as cheers echoed across the heavens, Lin Feng felt… uneasy.
Not fear. Not doubt.
Something old. Something burnt.
---
A Whisper from the Ashes
That night, while the victors dined at the Jade Soup Hall, a silent envoy approached—cloaked in flickering orange robes, smelling faintly of charred cinnamon bark.
He bowed low before Lin Feng and Jia Yun, placing a scroll on the table.
> "By decree of the Hidden Ember Council, you are summoned to the Flame Pavilion."
Jia Yun choked on a dumpling. "That place exists?! I thought it was just a myth—chefs who protect the balance of flavor and fight the hunger demons of the Nine Starving Realms!"
The envoy nodded.
"Your soup stirred memories not only in the judges, but in… other places. Old doors have opened. Old enemies stir."
Lin Feng took the scroll. The seal shimmered like dragon fire, shaped into a blazing spoon.
The duck licked it.
---
Arrival at the Flame Pavilion
The next morning, they followed the envoy across the Ember Bridges, past boiling waterfalls and spice-wind canyons. At the edge of the world stood the Flame Pavilion: a towering pagoda carved from dragonbone chilies and lotus-ember bricks.
Flame-chefs trained on open-air platforms—some flipping entire boars midair, others battling ghosts made of expired tofu.
An elderly woman descended from the top tier. Her beard was woven with saffron threads.
> "I am Grandmaster Soot-Pan. You are the new flamebearers?"
Lin Feng bowed. "Yes, Grandmaster."
She eyed the duck. "That your assistant?"
The duck slapped a tofu ghost into next week.
"Good," she said.
---
The Hall of Forgotten Ingredients
Soot-Pan led them to the inner sanctum—a chamber where the walls were shelves stacked with forgotten spices, sealed soul-jars of ancient seasonings, and cursed recipe scrolls.
She gestured toward a dusty, locked box.
> "Something responded to your soup. Something we sealed away three hundred years ago: the Crimson Phantom Pepper."
Lin Feng's eyes widened. He remembered the name. A forbidden ingredient. Too powerful. Too emotional. It didn't just flavor food—it flavored fate.
> "The Phantom Pepper was lost... until someone used it again."
She handed him a blackened note, scrawled with spice marks only he could read.
His breath caught.
> "Still chasing flavor like a fool, Lin Feng? You'll never stir deeper than I have. You left me behind in the Ash Kitchens. But I never stopped burning.
— Yao Shen."
---
The Return of the Pepper Phantom
Lin Feng's heart tightened.
Yao Shen.
Once his closest friend. Now a culinary renegade who'd disappeared into the spice-shadow arts. They trained together, laughed together—until Yao Shen cooked a dish so powerful it shattered a spirit beast's soul.
He was exiled.
Lin Feng thought he was gone.
Until now.
---
A New Flame, A New Mission
Grandmaster Soot-Pan placed a heavy spoon into Lin Feng's hand.
"Flamebearers do more than stir pots. We stir destiny. You must track Yao Shen. He seeks the Nine Forbidden Flavors, and if he succeeds…"
She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't have to.
The duck saluted.
Jia Yun cracked her knuckles.
Lin Feng clenched the flame spoon, eyes burning.
> "Then we'll stop him. One flavor at a time."
---