Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 143: 64 to 32, all randomly selected, Xia Ming's match theme is (3K First Update)
After Xia Ming was attacked, two staff members came to his room in the afternoon.

After verifying their identities using the bracelets, Xia Ming let the two in.

The staff member was very polite when he came in. After asking about his basic situation, he advised Xia Ming not to leave the hotel for the time being.

"The suspicious person has been apprehended. We will also strengthen security measures. If any further problems occur, the wristband will sound an alarm, and we will arrive within two minutes to save time!"

Xia Ming nodded. After the staff left, he sat back down in his chair and stretched his shoulders.

The term "food cleaner" originated from a casual conversation between Qiao Ruoning and Qian Youdao.

It is said that there is a group of bounty hunters around the world who target "chefs" and "food". After receiving orders from their employers, they will launch targeted attacks on the dishes and chefs.

The methods include, but are not limited to, "manipulating public opinion," "inciting public disturbances," and "offline sneak attacks."
This group is extremely secretive, and they all have a main occupation, making them difficult to detect in everyday life.

According to Qiao Ruoning's supplementary information, some people may only be "cleaners" once in their lives, and then quit after getting the money.

Therefore, the gang is very well concealed. The higher authorities have sent undercover agents to crack down on it, but it seems that the core of "The Cleaners" is overseas. Every time they are swept clean, they will resurface without anyone noticing.

It is said that they also have private collaborations with illegal organizations such as "rare food smuggling gangs" and "overseas gambling dens".

Qiao Ruoning summarized it as follows.

Beware of rats hiding in the sewers.

When Xia Ming saw this information, he immediately thought of what had happened to Miao Zeyang before and roughly matched the two together.

"Who benefits most from finding and dealing with me so quickly, or is it just a coincidence?"

Xia Ming leaned towards the former, but lacked substantial evidence. After some thought, he decided to put it aside for the time being.

In his opinion, given the distribution of combat power in the city, as long as he could enter the initial stage, he could easily take on 10 people on the spot.

If there are no surveillance cameras, then one can use the "Blood Fusion Demon Cultivation Method" to absorb blood souls.
It's hard to say who the hunter and who the prey are.
"With the Eight Treasures Pig, my cultivation speed will increase. If these people don't know what's good for them, they might save me a lot of effort in my cultivation."

"The next day, inside the competition venue."

Following the competition organizers' rules, the 64 contestants arrived at Section E of the venue.

Here, they need to draw the topic for each group's participation today.

After entering the arena, Xia Ming did not rush to find his position, but instead stood and watched the game.

This was his first time in Zone E. This area looked about the same size as Zone D, and there were eight stoves standing brightly on each side.

Judging from the size of the stove, it's bigger than the ones Xia Ming used in previous competitions.

It's even a size bigger than the ones in "One Meal to Fame," which clearly shows that the organizers have done an excellent job in terms of infrastructure.

After nodding, Xia Ming quickly adjusted his gaze back to the front.

The first thing you see is a huge, eye-catching screen that is currently playing event information on a loop.

[Rules for the New Chef Competition: 64 to 32]

[Eight matches will be held each day to narrow down the field from 64 to 32, for a total of four days.]

[Among the 32 groups present, those marked with "A" will draw lots to determine their participation each day. Those who draw the winning number will be able to participate in the competition today.]

[Today's contestants will take the stage in the order of their draw, numbered 1-8, with a one-hour interval between each group. The maximum cooking time is four hours.]

[The cooking theme will be randomly selected on-site and will be divided into three categories: main theme, sub-theme, and number of side dishes. These three categories will be drawn by contestant B from the participating team.]

[After contestant B draws their theme, it will be used in the groups that follow them.]

【即1号出战抽取是2号出战的主题，2号出战抽取的为3号出战的主题最终8号出战队伍抽取的是1号出战队伍的主题。】

The remaining teams that did not participate will be placed in the same room to watch the other teams compete.

Even if a winner is determined on the first day, the victor is still required to attend the following days' matches as a spectator. The eliminated player can decide whether or not to attend as a spectator based on the actual situation.

After the final 32 contestants were selected, the remaining 32 contestants were ranked according to their scores, determining their order from 33rd to 64th.

Looking at the rules above, Xia Ming nodded.

Compared to the previous rules that always concealed information, this time the rules are clearly much more detailed.

It's possible that Fang Xu used some underhanded tactics in the previous round.

Therefore, in order to prevent pre-planned collusion, the competition organizers changed the order of appearance to a random mode.

Similarly, it's also possible that the competition organizers know him well and understand that he can use the order of the themes in front and behind to make adaptive strategies.

Therefore, the themes were also made randomized, with the previous group drawing the next group, perfectly staggered.

Of course, with the rules changed like this, if Xia Ming can still make adjustments on the spot, the competition organizers will assume it's part of his skill.
The other contestants also quickly read and understood the rules.

Just as everyone turned their attention away, a female host walked onto the stage on the other side of the big screen.

She first greeted everyone in front of the camera, and then began to explain the rules in detail, although everyone felt that there was actually not much to explain about the rules. After about 2 to 3 minutes, she finished explaining the rules, and the staff behind her had set up the judges' seats on site.

"Starting from this round, all contestants will have their dishes tasted by the 'Grand Judging Panel,' who will score them based on multiple dimensions, including the dish's relevance to the theme, difficulty, and presentation (color, aroma, and flavor)."

"The average score calculated after removing the highest and lowest scores from the contestants' scores in this round is the final score for this round."

"Next, we will introduce the seven judges present on the 'Grand Jury'."

"First, please welcome our honorary chief judge, competition organizer, and National Honorary Chef (Level 8 in Chinese Chefing) Mr. Yin Shengjiang."

"Next, please welcome our chief judge, Mr. Tan Zhifeng, a National First-Class Special Chef (Level 7 in China)."

"Please welcome our chief judge, Mr. You Zhangwen, a National First-Class Master Chef (Level 7 in Chinese Chefs' Rank)."

"Please welcome Mr. Sui Wubai, a National First-Class Special Chef (Level 7 in China)."

"Please welcome Mr. Wei Yan, a National First-Class Special Chef (Level 7 in China)."

"Please welcome Ms. Yu Fangmei, a National First-Class Special Chef (Level 7 in China)."

"Please welcome Mr. Mao Xianzheng, a National First-Class Special Chef (Level 7 in China)."

"Please, judges, take your seats."

Compared to the fancy titles introduced in variety shows...

The national competition was obviously much more formalized, and only a basic introduction to chef levels was given.

However, the fact that all the contestants were at least Level 1 Chefs (Level 7 in China) still caused some of the other contestants to gasp in surprise.

After all, not everyone has good parents or grandparents. Without family support, it is quite difficult to meet a top-level chef by relying solely on one's own abilities.

After all, most chefs only reach this level.
Moreover, the seven chefs can be roughly divided into the following categories based on their age and choices.

Chefs like Yu Fangmei and Mao Xianzheng, who are a bit older, are now mostly "academic chefs." They don't work at the front lines very hard, but instead focus on expanding the culinary repertoire or restoring ancient recipes.

The other five are slightly younger.
Tan Zhifeng follows the traditional "celebrity chef" model. He has his own agent and also engages in other businesses, making him a semi-businessman. His main goal is to enhance the reputation of Chinese chefs overseas.

Sui Wubai is following a new "internet celebrity chef" model. He has a team, partners, and assistants, but no private agent (he used to have one). He accepts advertisements but does not create his own brand yet. His main task is to expand his online network in China.

The other three are standard "management chefs," mainly responsible for competitions of all sizes, internal management of the culinary association, allocation of certain resources, and recording of outstanding chefs nationwide.
Therefore, Tan Zhifeng and Sui Wubai are more well-known to the public than others.
Of course, these are just personal choices for chefs, and it's not to say that a chef can only take one path. But people's energy is limited, and most people are more comfortable doing what suits them best.

Furthermore, the choice doesn't actually affect the chef's skill level.

After all, once you reach the "Hua 7 level", unless you have a "master chef" as your master, most people will be integrating the characteristics of others and moving in a direction that suits them best.

In the crowd, Xia Ming saw Sui Wubai raise an eyebrow slightly.

He really didn't expect that he would run so diligently in the race. He guessed it was because of the live broadcast, and the organizers had to consider the audience's acceptance, so they specially brought him over.

After the judges took their seats, all the contestants with the letter A went up on stage.

They drew lots to determine who would play based on the group order they were assigned to. Xia Ming was number 14, which was considered a middle position.

After the person in front of him drew a card, he randomly picked one from the transparent box. Upon opening it, he was shocked to find...
[Number 1]
The camera gave the note a super close-up, and the live stream chat instantly went wild when they saw it.

Holy crap, they're throwing out a royal flush right from the start?!

I thought Xia Ming probably wouldn't be able to play today, but I didn't expect him to get such a big win!

[Brothers, wait a minute, I'm going to go to the food group and shout, it's the weekend, and a lot of people are still asleep!]

[6666, first Xia Ming, the Great Demon King, beat the seeded players, then he directly drew first place. This time I believe it's truly random.]

While netizens were enthusiastically discussing the competition, the contestants had different expressions. Some thought the first day went very well, while others wanted to save their performance for the last day to do something cunning.

But none of them expected that Xia Ming would draw a [1] directly, not even Zhu Wuneng in the audience.

At this moment, looking at the screen, his brows were furrowed deeply.

After Xia Ming and his Group A finished drawing their lots, the final group and order of the contestants were determined, and the contestants from Group B followed suit and went on stage to draw their themes.

The theme was randomly drawn using a tablet button. Zhu Wuneng drew the theme [Goose] [Roast] [≤3].

In other words, the question for the second group of contestants is...

[Prepare a dish featuring goose as the main ingredient and roasting as the cooking method, using no more than three side dishes.]

Upon seeing the question, the two contestants in the second group reacted differently. After Zhu Wuneng drew his answer, he ignored the others and quietly stood aside to wait for the result.

As the contestants drew their themes one by one, the results for the 8th group of contestants were finally announced.

[Pig][Kung Fu][1]

Upon seeing this topic, everyone present was in an uproar. After all, asking a monk to cook meat dishes was practically a death sentence!

What they didn't know was that, unnoticed by anyone, Zhu Wuneng's tightly furrowed brows suddenly relaxed.
(End of this chapter)