"This technique is called Erasing Presence. As the name suggests, it hides even your life force. With this, there's nothing to worry about."
With that, Kael leaped straight into the water.
Breathing underwater wasn't an issue at all. The GT Robot had already mapped out the exact route earlier—this distance was short enough that he could make it in one breath if he wanted.
Not to mention, he also possessed qi, a special energy capable of altering matter itself. Creating oxygen was hardly difficult.
On top of that, Kael had his storage space. Storing large amounts of air inside it was trivial.
All things considered, the underwater world posed almost no inconvenience to him.
After descending, Kael harvested quite a few variant fish along the way. With so many variant species, it should be enough to push his Gourmet Cell level up a bit more.
That said, Kael was feeling somewhat helpless. The rate at which his Gourmet Cells leveled up had slowed down significantly.
That wasn't surprising—after all, the higher the Gourmet Cell level, the higher the quality of ingredients required.
Only extremely special ingredients could directly activate Gourmet Cells. Those were ingredients suited for Gourmet Demons—like the ultra-poisonous potato eaten by Neo Acacia, or the ingredients used in his Communion Cuisine.
Kael's Gourmet Cells originated from Toriko, so anything suitable for Toriko was naturally suitable for him as well. Once Gourmet Cells awakened, one's appetite was effectively replaced by the Gourmet Demon's instincts.
What you liked to eat became what the Gourmet Demon liked to eat.
Without those special ingredients, the only way to raise Gourmet Cell levels was through sheer quantity.
But the variant ingredients of the Cooking Master Boy world couldn't sustain that for long. Every level increase caused the required amount and variety of variant ingredients to grow exponentially.
Kael was honestly at a loss. Even if he flipped the entire Cooking Master Boy world upside down, he estimated his Gourmet Cells would only reach the low teens at best.
Going any higher was impossible—the gap between worlds was simply too large.
Of course, if he somehow encountered a living qilin, an Azure Dragon, or something similar, his Gourmet Cells might soar much higher.
Unfortunately, all he'd encountered so far were bones.
After collecting a large number of variant beasts, Kael finally reached the cavern where the dragon bones were stored.
The remains here were similar to the qilin skeleton at Mt. Qingzhao—both were close to completely dissipating. Still, they were extremely useful to Kael.
From the dragon bones, Kael sensed the same auspicious energy he'd felt from the qilin. But beyond that, there was another attribute.
"Wood attribute… no, there's also a life attribute. This is the Tree of Life!"
After sensing it carefully, Kael confirmed it. The other attribute was indeed the Tree of Life.
The Azure Dragon governed wood and life to begin with, so the presence of the Tree of Life made perfect sense.
Kael discovered that his own lifespan attribute was gradually resonating with the Tree of Life.
"If that's the case… I might be able to strengthen my lifespan attribute. I could even push my lifespan toward infinity, on par with others!"
Kael's eyes lit up.
He immediately decided not to leave. There was no rush—his storage space had plenty of food and water.
Although his Gourmet Cells gave him an enormous appetite, they also made him extremely resistant to hunger. As long as he didn't fight, even a month without eating wouldn't affect him much.
Still, to prevent people outside from thinking he'd died, Kael sent the GT Robot up to deliver a message.
The moment the GT Robot appeared, Master Suikyou and the others were startled. The robot's appearance—modeled after Nitro—made it look like some kind of strange living creature.
"Don't panic. It's me. This is one of my puppets. I can control it remotely. I came up to let you know that I'll be staying down there for a while."
Kael's voice came from the GT Robot. He deliberately called it a puppet—after all, in this era, no one would understand what a robot was.
"A puppet? Like Shokatsu Kōmei's wooden ox and flowing horse? But this puppet is far more impressive. It can even transmit messages remotely. Incredible."
Master Suikyou stared at the GT Robot in fascination. This was the first time he'd seen such a creation. It looked alive—hard to believe it was a puppet.
"You can think of it that way. It's just much more advanced than traditional puppets. It also has strong combat capabilities. I'll leave it here for now."
Kael continued.
"I understand. But what exactly is down there that requires you to stay so long?"
Master Suikyou had already guessed part of the answer. He'd heard about Mt. Qingzhao before—he just needed confirmation.
"You're right. Mt. Qingzhao contains qilin remains. Down here, it's dragon bones. And these dragon bones have something I need."
The GT Robot nodded.
Master Suikyou remained calm—he'd mentally prepared himself. The others, however, reacted completely differently.
"Qilin remains? Dragon bones? Do qilin and divine dragons really exist in this world?!"
Arkan, Ensei, and Riko all looked utterly stunned.
"It sounds unbelievable, but it's true. That said, what we've found so far are only remains. We haven't encountered any living divine beasts."
"All right, I need to focus on my work now. It shouldn't take more than a month. Master Suikyou, I'll trouble you to look after them."
"As for compensation, this puppet will help you deal with variant ingredients."
"If you need ingredients, just order the puppet to capture them. I've given you temporary access."
With that, Kael's voice disappeared. The GT Robot stood still, unmoving.
Kael had granted everyone temporary authority. They could command the GT Robot to capture ingredients—but not to fight. The robot only had protection protocols for them.
This was Kael's precaution. Master Suikyou's place was probably safe, but surprises happened. Leaving the GT Robot behind to protect them was necessary.
After all, these were people he intended to recruit. Kael was already considering bringing people from the Food Wars world over in the future—having Ensei and the others act as instructors would be ideal.
As for himself, he had other things to deal with. Naturally, he couldn't stay aboveground.
"This material is incredible. It looks like fur on the surface, but it's actually metal."
After Kael disconnected, the group began examining the GT Robot.
Unfortunately for them, they were destined to learn nothing. This technology came from the Gourmet World—even the IGO couldn't reverse-engineer it without someone like Komatsu, let alone people of this era.
That wasn't because the IGO was weak. Their focus was different.
The IGO prioritized civilian life. Most food in the Human World was supplied through them. They had neither the time nor the resources to focus on weapon research.
The Gourmet Corps, on the other hand, only cared about violently seizing ingredients. That was why even the IGO couldn't crack GT Robot technology quickly.
People of this era stood no chance at all.
Kael wasn't worried they'd dismantle the robot either. This particular GT Robot belonged to Starjun.
In terms of combat power, even Kael himself couldn't dismantle it by brute force—let alone anyone else.
Fully immersed, Kael focused on fusing his lifespan with the Tree of Life. He had a strong premonition—once the two attributes fully merged, he would gain a brand-new power: dominion over life itself.
While Kael devoted himself to cultivation, Arkan and the others settled down at West Lake.
Meanwhile, outside, the Dark Cooking Society continued its search for the Legendary Kitchenware.
The Spirit Storehouse was easy to locate. After obtaining the map, Mora quickly found it.
The real problem was the White Tiger Pot.
Its guardian had vanished long ago, and no one knew who had taken the pot. The map had become useless.
Juchi was forced to mobilize the full power of the Dark Cooking Society to search for it.
Fortunately, their influence was vast. After some time, they finally tracked the White Tiger Pot down—it had been taken by ten small merchants.
When Juchi arrived, those merchants were about to sell it as scrap metal. If that had happened, it might have been melted down.
Juchi was terrified.
In truth, his worry was unnecessary. Even without him, the White Tiger Pot couldn't have been destroyed. Heaven's Will wouldn't allow a Legendary Kitchenware to be destroyed—at least, not yet.
After all, the chosen protagonist of this world was Mao. The mystery of the cauldron atop the mortal spirit tower referred precisely to him.
Although Kael had disrupted part of Heaven's Will, the Legendary Kitchenware would never be destroyed at this stage.
Even if Juchi hadn't arrived, the pot would have eventually fallen into Ensei's hands.
With two Legendary Kitchenware secured, the Dark Cooking Society now possessed three in total: the Spirit Storehouse, the Voracious Wolf Pot, and the White Tiger Pot.
At the same time, news came from the imperial palace—the Jade Dragon Pots were missing.
"This might also be Heaven's Will'," Juchi thought bitterly.
Otherwise, why would the emperor suddenly inspect the cookware beneath his throne?
"Legendary Kitchenware—three are in our hands. The outside world believes Kael holds three: the Garuda Knife, Ever-Soul Knife, and Turning Dragon Pot."
"But they have no idea that the two Jade Dragon Pots are also in Kael's possession."
Kaiyu was certain of it. There was no other explanation for where the pots had gone.
Yet everyone believed the Dark Cooking Society had stolen them.
After all, their influence was enormous. Who knew what kind of expert they might have sent?
As for why no Dark Cooking Society markings were left behind, people assumed Kaiyu didn't dare openly challenge the imperial court.
Once the rumor spread, it was no longer something Kaiyu could control.
So even without Kael deliberately framing them, the Dark Cooking Society still ended up taking the blame.
Kaiyu was furious. He didn't know what kind of cursed luck he'd been having lately—they'd been getting screwed nonstop.
They'd suffered repeated losses at Kael's hands, and now this.
When they learned Kael had gone to West Lake and was staying with Master Suikyou, Kaiyu's teeth practically ground themselves to dust.
The Big Four of the Light Culinary World were not people he could provoke. If they wanted to, dealing with the Dark Cooking Society would be effortless.
So he didn't dare act rashly.
For now, he could only have people wait outside West Lake.
Wasn't Kael using him to gather Legendary Kitchenware?
Fine. The kitchenware had been gathered.
Now it was his turn to make a move.
This time, he would definitely seize the Legendary Kitchenware and see what this so-called Immortality Cuisine truly looked like.
As for the imperial court, he would deal with it slowly.
There was no denying it—Kaiyu's ambition was immense.
About a month passed.
Kael successfully completed the fusion with the Tree of Life. Using that massive life energy, combined with variant ingredients, he pushed his Gourmet Cell level up by another stage.
At first, Kael was surprised that life energy itself could raise Gourmet Cell levels. But after thinking about the Gourmet World, it no longer seemed strange.
In the Gourmet World, the concept of "ingredients" was extremely broad.
There, everything could be an ingredient.
Stone, soil—even corpses.
Humans simply couldn't taste them, nor eat them directly.
But once a new sense of taste awakened and Gourmet Cells were strengthened, truly anything could be consumed.
Even souls.
Under that logic, the terrifying life energy within Kael's body could naturally be treated as an ingredient. The power of life thus became a major catalyst for raising Gourmet Cell levels.
This harvest was immensely valuable.
More importantly, Kael discovered that after fusing the Tree of Life with his lifespan attribute, he could directly manipulate lifespan stored within the Legendary Kitchenware.
The amount was small—but it was possible.
That meant he could inject lifespan into others, or extract lifespan directly from them—without using Legendary Kitchenware, and without relying on Immortality Cuisine recipes.
And under his control, there would never be cases like Shan An's overcorrection. His precision was absolute.
That—was Kael's greatest gain from this journey.