Across the wasteland, the old civilization lies in ruins.
Mutated creatures roam freely, and corrosive energy poisons the land. Ordinary people can't afford even a bite of meat that can purge toxins, while nobles entertain guests with pure ingredients and monopolize the secret of “safety.”
Du Yan, a sous-chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant, transmigrates to the wasteland after refusing to use illegal additives. At death's door, he activates the [Corrosive Energy Cooking System]. Lesson one: prepare a graytooth rat.
From then on, the knife in his hand cuts through more than ingredients. It cuts through the lies of this world.
He makes bombs from explosive spore mushrooms, heals mental trauma with soup brewed from memory moss, and uses the extract of singing jellyfish to calm people's hearts. Starting with a skewer stall in the slums, he lets the downtrodden taste “warmth” for the first time.
But the nobles won't sit still.
“A cook has no right to touch the truth.”
When Lin Jin discovers documents for the old civilization's “Falling Heart Project” aboard a sunken ship, when Ah Hui forms a symbiotic bond with the Primordial Mother Insect, and when the thousand-year secrets of the Five Domains (Panshi City, Cloudtop Floating Islands, Earthvein Clans, Oasis Federation, and the Falling Heart Abyss) gradually come to light, a culinary showdown for the truth begins in front of the entire city.
But the true mastermind is still waiting in the depths of the abyss.
Five dishes, linked to the power of the Five Domains. One Myriad-Corrosion Dragon Lizard, containing a thousand years of corrosive energy.
Du Yan's final battle won't be fought with a knife, but with a spatula.
His goal isn't to kill the dragon lizard, but to make it finish the meal and willingly hand over the future of the world.
Good book, humane protagonist