Douluo Continent, Huo Yuhao who returned from Sekiro

Chapter 12 Traitor, you've been laughing the whole time, you haven't stopped!

He broke off a branch and used the White Tiger Dagger to slice down the tip of the fork. The blade, emitting a faint green light, cut through the fork as easily as slicing through tofu. In just a few strokes, the tip of the fork was sharpened to a point.

Huo Yuhao sheathed the White Tiger Dagger and tucked it back into his waistband. He then took a tree branch and went to the stream.

He took a deep breath, and his eyes immediately lit up. Instantly, every detail in the clear stream was magnified in his eyes. The subtle changes in the ripples, even the tiny shrimp in the crevices of the rocks at the bottom of the river, could not escape the gaze of his spiritual eyes. Moreover, everything seemed to slow down in his eyes.

Suddenly, Huo Yuhao moved with lightning speed, swiftly thrusting the tree branch in his hand into the stream.

"Pfft—" He raised his hand, flipped his wrist, and stabbed a half-foot-long bluefish into the hole.

Although the bluefish was pierced by the tree branch, its vitality remained tenacious, and its powerful tail lashed back and forth. However, Huo Yuhao held the tree branch tightly, feeling the intense heat released by the fish before its life withered away.

After taking the bluefish off the tree branch, Huo Yuhao pinched its head with his index finger and thumb and exerted force together. The poor bluefish stopped moving completely in the next moment. After doing this a few times, Huo Yuhao pulled more than a dozen bluefish, each half a foot to a foot long, out of the river in just a short while. This made Huo Yuhao's lips curl into a genuine smile.

After checking the area again to make sure no soul beasts were coming to harass him, Huo Yuhao squatted down by the river and gutted the bluefish.

He skillfully removed the internal organs from the belly of the grass carp and tossed them aside. He then easily scraped off the scales with his extremely sharp White Tiger Dagger. Soon, all of the dozen or so fish were processed.

He gathered some dry, large leaves from the woods, washed them in the stream, placed the cleaned fish on them, gathered some dry branches for firewood, and picked a few shriveled pine cones from a few pine trees nearby that were almost falling to the ground.

These oily pine cones were perfect natural kindling. I took out a fire tinder from my storage soul tool, opened the fire tinder cap, and blew on it gently. A small flame jumped out, and in no time, a small campfire was lit by the stream.

Huo Yuhao glanced at the pile of bluefish entrails he had left by the river out of the corner of his eye. There were no signs that the entrails were missing or had been eaten, and there were no claw marks near them, which reassured Huo Yuhao a lot.

Animals often gather beside the stream, some simply to drink, others to replenish their fluids and prepare their meal for the day. So don't be fooled by the stream's clear, ethereal appearance, seemingly untouched by the elements; perhaps in the next moment, a torrent of blood will instantly stain this seemingly crystal-clear stream red.

Huo Yuhao made incisions on both sides of the bluefish, separating it along the fish bones while leaving the back intact. He rubbed some salt on the fish, tore off a few pieces of perilla leaves and stuffed them into the fish's belly, then took out the secret sauce he had just developed from his storage soul tool and gently brushed a layer onto it.

Huo Yuhao's entire set of movements was smooth and seamless, for no other reason than that this grilled fish was the capital he used to make a living in Shrek Academy. Its taste had been unanimously praised by the Ashina people, and even the usually stern sculptor "Only the Gorilla" couldn't help but say a lot more at once.

"It's been so long since I've had such delicious grilled fish! The last time I had grilled fish like this was from Chuanchan."

"Next time you bring wine, remember to grill a fish too, kid."

And this was just the grilled fish that Huo Yuhao made with only salt and perilla. With Huo Yun'er's help, Huo Yuhao used the spices he had collected over the past three years to make several secret sauces with different focuses. The taste of these sauces made Huo Yun'er nod in approval.

Before long, a unique aroma began to waft from above the fire, a rich and alluring fragrance. As Huo Yuhao slowly turned the fish, it gradually turned golden yellow, and combined with the strong aroma, it became incredibly tempting.

Huo Yuhao only grilled two fish, preparing the rest first. Grilling too many at once would easily cause problems with the heat control. The wealthy people of Shrek City value style and don't care about the scarcity of food. On the contrary, the rarer the food, the more it reflects the nobility of their social class. Therefore, when Huo Yuhao trained himself to make food, he always strived for perfection.

"Hiss, Aotian, is my nose broken? Can you smell a very special fragrance? It's a very unique fragrance, completely different from the one we eat in our sect."

Not far from Huo Yuhao, in the dense forest, an old man and a young man were walking side by side. Suddenly, the old man sniffed hard and said to the young man beside him in a serious tone.

The young man, known as Aotian, showed a helpless expression, and could only force a hint of approval on his rugged face.

"Yes, Master, this is the fourth time you've said something like this today. I've said before that I can hunt soul beasts on my own, so it would be better for you to stay in the sect and enjoy your retirement."

The young man had barely finished speaking when the old man gave him a sharp rap on the head.

"What do you mean by 'enjoying one's old age'? I'm only a little over a hundred years old. Compared to those old fogies, I'm still young. Even if I stay in the sect, I'll be there to oversee it. What kind of bullshit is this 'enjoying one's old age'? Besides, I'm not kidding you this time. I really did smell a very special fragrance."

"Yes, yes, Master, you're right. If you want to eat something good, just turn left and go to the nearby gathering point thirty miles away. There must be people doing business where those junior soul masters rest and recuperate. I can go and hunt soul beasts myself."

Ao Tian's tone was serious, but the perfunctory attitude in his words was already overflowing.

"You rebellious disciple, I really didn't lie to you this time. It truly has a very fragrant and unique aroma, the kind of aroma that is unique in heaven and absolutely not found on earth, an aroma that should not exist in the human world."

"Pfft."

An untimely laugh broke the silence between the two, and the old man's previously animated face darkened instantly. However, when he looked up, he saw that the young man's expression remained serious, as if he were listening intently to his explanation, and he would nod thoughtfully from time to time.

"Let me reiterate, I'm not joking, that smell is really wonderful, it's truly a very unique kind of fragrance!"

"Yes, yes, yes, pfft!"

Long Aotian tried his best to listen attentively to the explanation, but in the end he couldn't help but burst out laughing. He lowered his head, his shoulders twitching as if he was trying his best to suppress something.

The old man was completely enraged and started jumping up and down, brandishing his claws.

"You traitor, you've been laughing the whole time, you haven't stopped!"

(End of this chapter)