The Three Realms Fusion Restaurant

A prickly, food-averse director of the Culinary Bureau as the top x a sunny, angelic, resilient bottom with incredible cooking skills

Li Xia was just an underachiever in his sect, but the sect assigned him to run a run-down restaurant at the crossroads of the three realms.

The place was dilapidated, with no human, immortal, or demon customers.

Even its rating was below zero, and he wasn't allowed to use high-grade ingredients.

Facing an empty kitchen, Li Xia rolled up his sleeves.

Real cooking doesn't require fancy ingredients!

Even one little dried fish can make a delicious rice dish!

Even a handful of bitter dandelions can be made into golden pancakes!

What? He can travel through the human realm and look for lost recipes from ancient times?

Then off he goes! There's no way this restaurant won't succeed!

Before long, the run-down restaurant's signature dishes began to change.

Wild greens gave way to exquisite immortal herbs.

Jade dew and peaches from the Jade Pool could be made into sweet peach blossom wine.

Black lotus roots from the demon realm and wild boar could be simmered into pork rib soup.

The customers kept coming. "Boss, with all these ingredients, can you make a dish that combines all three realms?"

Li Xia: "I'm working on it."

Another blurb:

Li Xia was tricked by his sect into running a dilapidated restaurant with a terrible reputation.

Located where the three realms met, it was an important pilot restaurant for the Culinary Bureau's effort to create fusion cuisine from all three realms.

Just as Li Xia was overwhelmed by the previous owner's unpaid customer claims, an almost-empty pantry, and his inability to cook anything...

He stumbled upon a fluffy little cat spirit beast!

It could go in a dish, right? He could stew it, right? It could solve all his problems, right?

But... why could the fluffy thing talk? Why was it helping him?

And why did it turn into a handsome man six feet tall?

Waaah, his adorable little kitty had even offered him all its dried fish when he couldn't cook anything!

This world really couldn't do without cats!

With the dried fish, the restaurant managed to stay open, albeit with a few bumps along the way.

The customers were still the same strange bunch.

But gradually... they seemed to get along better and better with him. He had no idea why they seemed so afraid of his little kitty, though.

Why?

My cat is obviously adorable!

From Chu Nanfeng's perspective:

Chu Nanfeng, an ancient divine beast and director of the Office of Food, was aloof and hard to approach.

His true form was terrifying, and even his subordinates were afraid of him.

He also hated human chefs.

If it weren't for a human chef, he wouldn't have developed an eating disorder and ended up miserably stranded in the human realm.

But he had a secret.

In the human realm, he looked like a fluffy, soft little cat with its fur standing on end.

He had chosen the form with great care, following the advice of the person he had loved a thousand years ago. It was meant to be an appearance that wouldn't scare humans.

He'd thought he could peacefully get along with the humans and demons he met.

But then...

A human chef caught him and was going to stew him!?

How could a dignified ancient divine beast stand for that?

What could a run-down restaurant and a lousy chef possibly accomplish?

But Chu Nanfeng had to admit that Li Xia was quite capable.

He could make even dishes that ordinary people disliked look, smell, and taste delicious.

He could even raise the rating of a hopeless restaurant with a score below zero.

Chu Nanfeng thought, since he had nothing better to do, he might as well keep him company for a few decades.

Until Li Xia earnestly laid out all sorts of plans before him and said:

"Boss, I like you. I'm going to cure your eating disorder, so you can eat the food I make every day!"

Reader's guide:

1. Past and present lives, one-on-one, extremely strong mutual devotion, plot-focused.

2. The food system is the author's own invention.

3. Volume One: The Restaurant

Volume Two: The Human Realm

Volume Three: The Immortal Realm

Volume Four: The Demon Realm, and so on. Later, they'll search for ingredients and cook.

Updated daily!

Theme: No ingredient deserves to be thrown away, and no person is truly useless.