A cook, vice-captain of the Rocks Pirates?

[Cooking suggestion: Not edible, but its core resonance is a mythical ingredient for creating top-tier spiritual cuisine. The only way to defeat it is... to neutralize or persuade it with stronger, more positive emotional energy.]

"This guy... seems impossible to beat?"

Gatz, carrying the anchor, asked uncertainly. His beastly intuition told him that this seemingly weak fellow was more dangerous than any tough opponent he had ever encountered.

"Good timing!"

Newgate burst into laughter, unleashing the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's power to its fullest extent, and blasted a powerful air tremor towards the guardian beast.

However, a strange scene happened.

The terrifying shockwave, powerful enough to tear space apart, was absorbed and neutralized by the guardian beast the moment it touched its body, like a mud ox sinking into the sea, without causing any damage.

Instead, it made the wailing phantoms of souls on the guardian beast even more solid.

"It can absorb the negative emotions contained in an attack!"

Raine's voice came just in time: "The more destructive and furious our attacks are, the stronger they become."

This discovery has put everyone in a difficult position.

If we can't use violence, how can we fight?

Just when everyone was at a loss, Renn calmly walked to the front.

He didn't take out a kitchen knife or set up a pot.

He simply turned around and calmly looked at his companions.

"Captain, men."

Raine's voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly: "Next, I need your help."

"I need you to... recall the happiest, most joyful, and proudest moment of your life."

This request stunned everyone.

"Recalling happy moments? Head Chef, what time is it now!"

Gatz was sweating profusely with anxiety.

"Believe me."

Ryan's tone remained calm, yet carried an undeniable confidence.

Although the others were puzzled, they did as instructed because of their absolute trust in Renn.

Newgate closed his eyes, recalling the warmth of protectiveness and pride he felt when he first brought homeless Marco and Jozu aboard the ship, determined to build a home that truly belonged to them.

Gatz recalled the time when he was a child, the first time he secretly stole a whole roasted pig from the richest man in the village, and hid in a cave to eat it with his mouth full of oil, a scene of guilt yet immense satisfaction.

Dorum saw the joy he felt when he was young, building his first small wooden boat that could be launched into the sea and setting sail in the sunset.

Marco, Joz, Vista... the solemnity and grimness gradually faded from everyone's faces, replaced by a genuine and pure smile of happiness.

Teach, however, had no happy memories whatsoever. He could only minimize his presence, hiding in the back of the kitchen, watching everything with incredibly bright eyes.

Raine naturally sensed everything, but he merely glanced in Teach's direction and then ignored him.

"very good."

One less person has no impact whatsoever, so Renn nodded in satisfaction.

He took a deep breath and brought his sense of the meaning of food to its fullest extent.

This time, his concept of food is no longer a sharp knife or a warm fire, but an invisible, enormous stage.

"Food Techniques: A Symphony of the Soul"

He stretched out his hands, like a top conductor, and began to direct the notes of happiness and warmth in everyone's hearts.

He transformed Newgate's protective spirit into the deepest bass drum in the symphony, steady and powerful.

Gatz's pure appetite was transformed into the most cheerful trumpet, full of vitality.

Dorum's passion for ships was transformed into a melodious violin, filled with the joy of creation.

He perfectly wove and blended together everyone's positive emotions and these top-quality, life-filled ingredients with his superb cooking skills.

Finally, a silent yet magnificent symphony of the soul, filled with happiness and hope, centered on Renn, like a golden tide, slowly and gently covered the guardian beast composed of endless sorrow!

The guardian beast's massive body stiffened abruptly, and the wailing phantoms on its body gradually stopped howling after coming into contact with the warm music.

The pained and distorted expression on his face gradually faded, replaced by a sense of relief and peace.

Its body, made of black crystal, began to become increasingly transparent under the purification of this power, and finally, like ice and snow exposed to sunlight, it slowly and silently melted away.

It did not resist because what it felt was not an attack, but a kind of... healing.

Chapter 268 The Main Course is in Hand

The deck was deathly silent; you could hear a pin drop.

The sea breeze carried a faint, cool fragrance unique to crystal shards, but it could not dispel the awe-inspiring, turbulent feeling in everyone's hearts.

Using happy memories... to create a symphony that can purify sadness?

Is this still considered a dish?

Is it a battle?

Newgate watched the young man calmly walk forward and carefully pluck the Heart of Resonance from the flower's stamen, his usually domineering hawk-like eyes now filled with shock.

He knew that his head chef had already embarked on a path leading to the highest realm that none of them, or even anyone on this vast ocean, could comprehend.

"Wow……"

After what seemed like an eternity, Gatz finally snapped out of his daze, his enormous mouth agape as he uttered a dreamlike exclamation.

"Head Chef... was that... a new dish? It smelled... delicious."

His simple thought process ultimately led him to attribute this miraculous scene to the most basic aspect: eating.

"Shut up, Gatz!"

Dorum's voice trembled slightly. He adjusted his glasses, trying to analyze what had just happened using scientific logic, only to find his mind blank.

That thick maintenance manual, filled with all sorts of data, seemed so pale and powerless at that moment.

“Structural emotional resonance… triggering the benign disintegration of conceptual aggregates through fluctuations of will at specific frequencies… No, this does not conform to the law of conservation of energy!”

He clutched his head, feeling his worldview being ruthlessly overturned and reshaped.

Ryan ignored his family members behind him, who were already in a state of self-doubt.

With calm steps, he carefully plucked the heart of resonance, as clear and translucent as a teardrop, from the stamen of the crystal flower.

Touching the heart, I felt a cool yet warm sensation, as if I were holding a living, gently beating heart.

He could clearly sense that it contained an incredibly pure yet vast spiritual energy that could instantly overwhelm an ordinary person.

It is the purest crystallization formed by countless souls who, after experiencing endless sorrow, were finally healed and sublimated by happiness.

"Alright, the main course is ready."

Looking at the perfect ingredient in his hand, Renn smiled with satisfaction.

He turned around, meeting the complex gazes of the crowd filled with shock, confusion, and admiration, and calmly announced, "Now, we can go back and add a touch of new flavor to our home."

"go home?"

"A new flavor?"

The group looked at each other, clearly still reeling from the shock they had just witnessed.

Raine didn't explain much. He knew that for these simple-minded monsters, no amount of fancy words could compare to the most direct feelings.

He simply snapped his fingers.

hum-

A soft hum, as if from another dimension, rang out.

The crystal flower, which had once bloomed brilliantly and resembled an eternal work of art, was now like a weathered sand sculpture before everyone's eyes. Starting from the edges of the petals, it gradually turned into countless shimmering, multicolored powders that danced in the air before silently merging into the atmosphere.

It was as if it had never existed.

Only the faint, complex scent in the air, a mixture of sadness and happiness, proved that what had just happened was not an illusion.

"Let's go."

Raine started walking towards the direction of the Primordial Giant Tortoise.

The group then seemed to snap out of their daze and hurriedly followed.

The ancestral giant tortoise seemed to sense their return, letting out a long, joyful cry. Its massive body slowly turned around, carrying the monsters who had just witnessed the miracle, and left this gloomy sea full of stories.

On the return journey, the atmosphere on the ship was eerily quiet.

Gatz didn't clamor for food as usual; he just sat cross-legged on the deck, touching his chest and scratching his huge head, his face showing an unprecedented expression of philosophical confusion.

"I...I think I just saw the biggest chicken leg that was taken from me when I was a kid...it was smiling at me..."

Dorrum gave up on thinking altogether. He flipped to the last page of his repair manual and wrote a line on it with trembling hands.

[Account Assessment Report on Head Chef Ryan (Final Revised Version): Incomprehensible, unanalyzable, and inexplicable. It is recommended to abandon all forms of scientific inquiry and categorize it as…theological.]

Even the usually cynical Marco, for once, abandoned his lazy demeanor.

He transformed into a phoenix, circling on the branches of the Twin Divine Trees, feeling the pure life energy, seemingly digesting the impact of the soul symphony he had just witnessed.

Only Teach remained seated in that most inconspicuous corner, diligently wiping the railing with a rag.

He kept his head down, and no one could see his expression at that moment.

But in his small eyes, hidden in the shadows, a flame burned brighter and deeper than ever before.

Can happy memories... also become weapons?

It turns out that human emotions can actually be used as ingredients in cooking...

This chef... what kind of monster is he?

The oppressive and eerie atmosphere on the ship was finally broken when the massive figure of the ancestral giant tortoise was once again bathed in the familiar, azure sunlight.

"Wow! The air outside smells so much better!"

Gatz was the first to break free from that philosophical reverie. He stood up abruptly, spread his arms, and let out a roar full of energy, as if he wanted to unleash all the gloom that had accumulated over the past few days.

"Head Chef! I'm hungry! I want meat! The kind of super roasted meat that can make you forget all your troubles!"

"it is good."

Ryan responded calmly, as if he had expected him to say that.

A grand homecoming banquet, filled with sunshine and lively atmosphere, quickly unfolded on the deck.

Renn didn't make any more complicated conceptual dishes.

He simply used the most basic and brutal method to take out all the giant beast roast meat and sea king fish fillets brimming with life energy from the storage room, put them on a huge grill, and brushed them with a secret sauce mixed with explosive chili powder.

The overwhelming aroma of meat mixed with spiciness acted like the most effective wake-up call, instantly pulling everyone back to reality from their ethereal philosophical reverie.

"Oh my gosh! It smells like meat!"

"This one smells better!"

The monsters reverted to their true nature, crowding around the grill and eagerly waiting for their meal.

Newgate leaned back on his throne, a satisfied smile spreading across his face as he looked at his family, now full of life again.

He knew that although the experience on Mingqi Reed Island was strange, it was also like a special kind of spiritual practice, giving everyone's mind an unprecedented baptism.

And at this moment, this barbecue in Renn is the most perfect reward to bring this training to a close.

Chapter 269 Cooking a Pot of Soup for Our Home

After the banquet, everyone lay contentedly on the deck, basking in the sun and enjoying the rare tranquility after the great battle.

Raine, alone, walked to the Twin Trees with the Heart of Resonance still radiating a soft light.

He looked at the miraculous tree before him, nurtured by the Heart of the World and the Fruit of Origin, a tree brimming with infinite possibilities, and then at the crystallized soul in his hand, a crystal woven from endless sorrow and happiness.

A bold idea, one that would drive any top chef crazy, slowly took shape in his mind.