Alternative Ingredients

"What did you say?! You… you dare…"

Etsuya Eizan glared furiously at Xu Yue, his pointing finger trembling nonstop. Blondie and Glasses stood guard by the office door like Heng Ha Er Jiang, showing no reaction whatsoever.

"Nothing much. It’s just that Senior Eizan seems to lack confidence in his own abilities. In that case, please give it some careful thought. I still need to attend the finals of the Autumn Election."

Xu Yue’s expression did not change in the slightest. Still smiling, he bid farewell before turning and leaving Etsuya Eizan’s office.

The current ninth seat of the Elite Ten, known as the Alchemist, was left with an extremely ugly expression.

Only after a long while did he clench his fist and slam it onto the desk before him. Damn it! That bastard!

Yet amid his rage, when he thought of what Xu Yue had said and what he had accomplished in such a short time, a deep fear rose from the bottom of his heart.

Etsuya Eizan had always preferred using his brain to solve problems. Even when he was perfectly capable of doing something himself, he disliked direct methods and instead resorted to little tricks.

But now, he realized that his little tricks were utterly pathetic before this guy. He had been completely played!

At least half of the many food companies he currently held positions in had been turned against him in such a short time, while the rest had entered negotiations and were wavering!

And he had not noticed a thing!

That guy had clearly been living at the academy, with every move under his control. How had he remotely manipulated companies outside to achieve this?!

Damn it.

The foundation he had painstakingly built had been destroyed overnight.

He had always been the one to drive others into a corner, but this time…

There was no other choice…

"Alright, now that student Xu Yue has entered the arena, the finals of our Autumn Election are about to begin!"

As Xu Yue made his belated entrance, the announcer immediately declared that the competition was about to start.

Upon entering the venue and seeing the people at the judges’ table, Xu Yue fully understood the requirements of this final round.

Dojima Gin and Mizuhara Fuyumi, both Elite Ten graduates, were among the judges.

Without a doubt, they had been placed there specifically to target him.

For these head chefs, the passion in a dish and a chef’s heart carried more weight than they did for ordinary people.

The Autumn Election was also organized by the Elite Ten Council, which was why Erina was not participating. As the organizer, she naturally could not be a contestant.

The brainy Etsuya Eizan and the steady Satoshi Isshiki had contributed the most to this event.

The slightly unfavorable lineup of judges before him had been deliberately arranged by Etsuya Eizan.

It had to be said that although he loved petty cleverness and underhanded schemes, his culinary talent itself was beyond doubt.

Even after spending so much energy on other matters, he had still firmly held the ninth seat.

At the same time, through some of the dishes Xu Yue had displayed during his matches, as well as discreet inquiries with the judges afterward, he had thoroughly identified Xu Yue’s greatest weakness and flaw.

This arrangement could be said to be the result of Etsuya Eizan exhausting every ounce of thought and effort.

Unfortunately.

Petty tricks were still just petty tricks. They would never amount to anything.

While he had still been smug over those little schemes, Xu Yue had used that time to wipe out his entire foundation…

"You three standing here are undoubtedly the best among the best, but only one person can ever reach the summit of Totsuki Academy!"

Senzaemon Nakiri rose to his feet and spoke to Xu Yue and the other two in his deep, booming voice.

The Culinary Will around them seemed to boil in response to his words.

"Now, it is time for you to display your greatest talents and give it everything you have. The finals… begin!"

Xu Yue, Hayama Akira, and Yukihira Soma turned at the same time and headed for their cooking stations.

The array of spice jars and bottles in Hayama Akira’s hands made it clear that he intended to challenge Xu Yue head-on in that area.

If nothing unexpected happened, he would probably still prepare grilled saury, though the stimulation to the palate would likely be even stronger than in the original work.

Yukihira Soma’s available methods were limited as well.

Because he was inherently at a disadvantage compared to Xu Yue and Hayama Akira when it came to ingredients, he could not select the handful of finest saury from the fish market. He could only choose ordinarily first-rate saury.

So he could only take a different path and completely avoid competing in terms of freshness and flavor.

Pickling was his best tool and method!

Rice Bran-Pickled Saury.

This was the trump card Yukihira Soma had come up with after several days of intense thought.

Finding a problem and then solving it—Yukihira Soma possessed precisely that talent for overcoming difficulties.

Strictly speaking, he did not have a God Nose or a God Tongue, but no one could match the firmness of his heart.

Still, he remained beneath his father’s shadow. Once he escaped the flavor of Yukihira Seiichiro, he would surely soar into the sky.

As for Xu Yue’s choice of dish…

Saury completely coated in olive oil was placed into the oven to preheat, sealing all the essence of the fish within!

After taking it out, his knife flashed down, and he completely deboned the fish. Yet beneath the magnified camera lens, amid the horrified and incomprehensible stares of all the students, Xu Yue actually discarded the flesh as though it were worthless scraps, leaving only the fish bones behind!

The announcer quickly seized upon this point and stirred up the atmosphere.

"What are we seeing? Student Xu Yue has thrown away the fish meat and kept only the bones! Was that a mistake?"

Prompted by the announcer’s words, the entire venue erupted.

"No way, what is he doing?"

"Wasn’t that an operational mistake?"

"I remember once throwing away the money and keeping the trash in my hand."

"A major blunder?"

"…"

Even Dojima Gin, who understood Xu Yue’s abilities very well, was quite surprised.

In a Food Wars! showdown based purely on skill, he believed Xu Yue was unquestionably among the very best in the academy.

Even if he learned something on the spot and immediately put it to use, it would possess formidable competitiveness after Xu Yue’s refinement.

The only thing he lacked was a chef’s heart.

As for that, the other two, who had only just become first-year students, probably possessed no more than a rudimentary form of it. They absolutely could not erase Xu Yue’s advantage in that regard.

Yet this time, he had not chosen that approach. Instead, he had simply brought out another dish!

Dojima Gin had initially thought that Hayama Akira’s greater skill with spices had made Xu Yue uncertain of copying his way to victory, forcing him to use an unconventional move.

But seeing Xu Yue’s bold action now, he realized he had been overthinking it!

Would someone daring enough to discard the fish meat and keep only the bones be afraid of facing others head-on?

How interesting!

For a moment, Dojima Gin’s expression turned into a broad, manly grin.

After deboning the fish, Xu Yue did not pause for even a second. He crushed all the bones, passed them through a starch slurry, coating the fragments in a layer of batter, then tossed them into the fryer to sizzle and tumble in the oil…

Yet the people whose attention had been completely drawn to Xu Yue frying fish bones failed to notice that the saury flesh he had discarded had become dry and withered, utterly devoid of life. Though it had only been processed moments ago, it carried the dead stillness of something completely burnt.

Even spoiled fish would not look like this, let alone the finest saury that had been carefully selected.

Meanwhile, the fish bones hidden beneath their coating as they tumbled through the oil seemed to circulate with an unknown radiance…