The Cooking Master

five years ago revealed

This time let's get the fire burn... 

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Chapter 8 

Lian at 6 years old really trying his best. No one knows how high his power level is at but he clearly should be at least regular rank now. Absorbing Chi of mythical beast has been natural for him. But right now he's having a battle in his mind. Right now it has been a week after Shao visit the village. 

"What is actually happened five years ago? How can I absorb chi?" 

He is thinking while his hand without any disturbance skinned clean a brown armadillo. 

Usually a child of his age didn't even dare to set out of their village. Even a grown up man without atleast 7th rank in unranked power level did not dare to go out. The jungle surrounding the village is full of mythical beast but they all already on Dong Lian menu. He didn't even know their real mythical beast rank and only give them assesement based on their "it" which called chi absorbption score by Lian. 

"I guess I'll cook it later at home to maintain the freshness for father and mother." 

Lian then packed his stuff and bring the brown armadillo meat back with him. The skin could be used to make simple protective gear. 

"Father, mother, I'm back." 

"Dong Lian.. Wandering in the forest again? How many times I have tell you that it was dangerous." 

His mother Cheng Yue comes and pretended to be angry at him. She knows by now that her son is totally capable of hunting mythical beast in the area. She knows that Lian even probably more powerful than his father, Dong Xie. 

"Hahaha.. Don't worry ma. Here, let me cook this for you." 

"Is that a brown armadillo? You should immediatelly skin them after killing it to preserve the meat if not their scale will make the meat rotten." 

Dong Xie comes out while teaching his knowledge to Dong Lian, but by now there's nothing left for him to teach Lian. 

"Don't worry father I've done as you told me." 

Lian shows his work then his father expression darken. 

"Cook it then!" 

Dong Xie then sulken and get back to his room. 

"Father..." 

Dong Lian don't know wether he has do something to offend his father because his father has been acting strange. 

"Don't think too hard Lian. Your father must have his own reason. Quick. You better cook the brown armadillo, eat, then take a shower." 

Cheng Yue tried to console him and putting her arm on Dong Lian shoulder. 

Dong Lian look at her mother and nod. 

"Alright mama." 

Lian then cook the brown armadillo then eat with her mother before finally cleaned himself. 

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"My husband. You shouldn't give cold shoulder to Lian." 

When Lian is taking a shower, his mother has come to his father to have a serious talk. 

Dong Xie just show a sad expression and muttered. 

"How can I? It's all my fault." 

He blamed himself and succumbed on the ground. 

"Because of me.. Lian... He..." 

Dong Xie started to cry then Cheng Yue hugged his muscular body. 

"Don't say it like that.. It is not your fault and deep down you know it too. I'm sure even Lian will forgive you." 

Cheng Yue words only forces Dong Xie to let out a cry. 

"No he wouldn't forgive me! I have done something terrible!" 

Then he punched hard the ground with his fist, causing some blood to appear. 

"Husband, please stop it! It's better if we tell Lian the truth and hear the answer from him." 

Cheng Yue throw herself to her husband to stop him doing something even more dangerous. 

"Don't worry.. If it's Lian, he will understand." 

Silence fill the place until Lian comes knocking on the door of their room. 

*knock* 

"Father, mother, are we going to open the restaurant?" 

Dong Xie and Cheng Yue looked in each other eyes. Cheng Yue knows what she has to do. 

"Lian.. Please come in first.. Your father have something to say." 

"Excuse me then." 

Dong Lian entered the room and he know the atmosphere is heavy and different. 

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"Dong Lian. Aren't you curious of what happened five years ago?" 

Dong Lian makes a quick thinking. 

(Is this the reason father has been cold to me lately after brother Shao comes?) 

Because since the day Shao comes to the village Dong Xie attitude towards his son completely changed. 

"If it is something I have to know then please tell me." 

Dong Lian realized his father recent sepressed state so he wouldn't force his father to tell him. 

"Alright I will tell you." 

With a big sigh Dong Xie was about to explain before Cheng Yue interrupted. 

"Dong Lian. No matter what will you heard, we are your parents and always hope for the best for you." 

Lian smiled at them. 

"Even if the heaven crumble and the earth shatter I am your son." 

Dong Xie kind of relieved then tell him a story. 

"Five years ago, hundred of flaming boulder fall down from the sky. At that time we don't know what to do so we just hide in our house and after one night everything returned to normal." 

Lian keep on listening to Dong Xie words. 

"In the next day everything went like as usual. It was also the first time I secretly give you a spoonful of my cooking." 

Lian couldn't clearly remembered because he is still small but if it was mentioned something important must havr occured. 

"the vegetable on the morning was watered from the river however we don't know that one of the blazing rock falls to the river." 

"What that have anything to do with me then father?" 

Lian is curious but his mother reprimanded him. 

"Just listen first." 

"That day after eating my cooking you suddenly caught a fever. Everyone else in the village didn't show that reaction but you're sick. We called our village doctor to check up on you but he didn't find anything wierd, so we concluded that it has something to do with me giving you that food." 

"If you don't know anything about that then it wasn't your mistake father. Please don't feel sorry." 

Lian try to end this because he couldn't see his father fall down any further. He also make a conclusion that it was just a simple sickness. Dong Xie naturally shook his head then continue. 

"It's not that simple Lian. After that you fell ill for almost a month without eating anything. Everytime your mother try to feed you, you vomit the milk again. After that you recovered and returned to normal but I knew that something has changed." 

"I didn't see the connection of all this father." 

"You know Shao said thay starting five years ago the mythical beast started to change and attacked the human right? Also he mentioned that we could absorb the chi from mythical beast." 

Lian gets more and more confused. 

"Let me tell you about our village first. Our village is located in one of the mythical beast and human border. That's a good place to hide because human will rarely come here. Only powerful people may come to the border and we choose the most north area to make the probability even lower. At first, when we first trying to find a good place to settled, this village area is surrounded by thousands mythical beast when we come and lucky enough to stumbled into a reppeling stone protectiona area." 

Lian didn't see any connection in all of this. 

"The day after the flaming boulder falls, actually all of the mythical beast in the area have the same illness as you. After a month, they are all gone and only small number from the original remains. Shao said the mythical beast grow stronger then attacked the human? Now we can be sure that it all have a relation to that flaming boulder." 

"But father, what does it have to do with you and me?" 

Dong Xie looked at Lian. 

"You still don't know? Basicly that flaming boulder is the cause of the mythical beast to do the so called apocalypse on the human side and killing great number. That flaming boulder causing changes on the mythical beast body. That being said, there must have been something wrong with your body too. It was my fault for feeding you that day." 

Now Lian could connect the dots. 

"Father.. It is all not your fault. If you said that the other villager eat it and there's no problem then it must be because of my weak body. Please don't blame yourself." 

Lian tried to console his father but it is not working. 

"YOU DIDN'T UNDERSTAND!" 

Lian startled hearing his father shouting at him. His mother then hugged his father than stroke his back. 

"Calm down. Let me explain the rest to Lian." 

His mother than look at him. 

"Lian.. There's nothing wrong with the other villager but you on the other hand has the same sympthom as the mythical beast. Your father affraid that he is turning you into a monster. Afterall the effect is already showing. You're clearly already become stronger than anyone on this village." 

Now Lian could see the big picture. His bidy trembles a little by thinking of what could have been possibly happened to his body that time. 

"B-but father, I'm fine now.. There's nothing wrong with me! I'm healthy and alive and kicking." 

Lian jump on the spot trying to convince his father but the next soft words coming from his mother completely leave him stunned. 

"That's not the real problem Lian. Right now, the villager has asked to kick you out of the village. They don't want people to found out about this and the easiest way is by kicking you out of the village." 

"The villager want to kick me out? Why? We are living secluded from outsider, why did they suddenly care about this?" 

His father couldn't say anything and just fell silent with face full of regret. His mother replied but stuttered a bit. 

"B-b-because they think of you as a monster." 

The last part was said in a really small volume but Lian can still heard it. The six years boy couldn't take it and he fell silent. Slowly tears coming out from his eyes. 

(Why..? It wasn't father fault.. It is also not my fault... So why? Why they want to kick me out until my father feeling is hurt.? Are they affraid that I'm going to turn into a monster? Is that the reason that lately there's no people coming to their restaurant? I never do anything wrong to the villager. Just why?) 

The villager at first doesn't even really care about this since Lian is only helping at the kitchen. But since Lian was mentored by Pan, he clearly show his monstrous side. Right now his stamina is better than regular grown man, his eye ability to see weak point on the enemy, his reflex to finish Pan third training course which Pan himself couldn't cleared. Who in the village doesn't think of him as a monster? 

"If that's what they want, then I'll leave the village." 

In the midst of sobbing that word coming out from Lian mouth and bring tears to his parent eyes. 

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Yuhuuu.. Did anyone foresee this development? I was reading an old masterpiece of jane sylphid justin and rwx to increase my knowledge and skill. Hahahaa. 

Do you enjoy it? Please review, follow, favourites, rate and comments on the series.. See you at the next chapter..